The Escape from Abyss Asylum

[Anonymous]

[center:1shntpji]Hell, 2nd Layer
Earth Year 1904 A.D.
Abyss Asylum, 186 miles from the city of Malignity[/center:1shntpji]


The screams of the insane and the tormented echoed throughout the red stone and brick halls of the Asylum, reverberating against the black steel bars of the cells. The everpresent discordant, ambient music of the Asylum played a sinister serenade above the asynchronous screams, torturing what little bits of sanity remained in the minds of its damned inmates.
But despite the maddening conditions, Anima sat in the shadowy back corner of her small cell, dressed in nothing but a few dirty scraps and rags, with a satisfied smile on her face.
Today was the day of the prison break.


The Abyss Asylum was a terrible estate, even when judging by Hell's dubious standards. Usually run by a breed of evil more of the lawful and principaled persuasion, and presided over by a demon Lord of just such a 'sophisticated' kind of evil, the Abyss Asylum was mainly used to imprison, degrade, and torment other more chaotic and unscrupulous demons. In some cases, it was even used to breed insanity among demons and Petitioners alike, and then release its products back out into the wilds of Hell.
The Asylum was built like a fortress into a mighty stalagmite in the 2nd Layer of Hell, with six levels above ground in the stalagmite and six levels buried beneath the surface. The hideously spiked walls encircling the Asylum were nearly as tall as the giant stalagmite itself, but no less imposing. The Gates of the Asylum were close to one hundred feet high, and it took the coordinated effort of many sorcerers to even budge them.
The current Lord of the Asylum was Overdemon Murkhaladros, whose reign over it had been long but had slowly deteriorated over the ages. Other Lords were beginning to eye the Asylum covetously, and wished to hang their banners from its behemoth walls as a symbol of their power and dominance. To that end, Murkhaladros' rule was constantly being undermined, infiltrated, and sometimes outright attacked in recent times. In direct defiance of his many challengers, Murkhaladros' forces managed to detect and repel these acts of espionage and war.
Unbeknownst to Lord Murkhaladros, however, his challengers secretly banded together to launch one large, coordinated, and decisive strike against him and his rule of the Abyss Asylum.


The cloaked-and-hooded drudges were coming through the hallways then, carrying supper for all the prisoners on Anima's row. The Asylum provided its inmates sustenance infrequently, and when they did, it would most often be laced with some kind of horrible, degenerative drug. Burning chest pain, haunting hallucinations, disembodied voices, loss of motor functions, insomnia... what was on the menu this special day, Anima wondered.
When the drudge approached her cell, Anima didn't move. She simply sat crosslegged in her corner, still smiling wryly. When he quietly called out her name and lifted his head so that she could see who it was, Anima did move.
She crawled quickly over to the bars, taking a seat expectantly at the edge of the cell. "...it's been quite a while Neseraph, hasn't it...?" she spoke hoarsely, her throat extremely parched from dehydration.
Neseraph lifted a finger to his lips and silently 'Sshh'ed her. "Pretend like you're eatin' your food. Here's some water, too," he whispered as he covertly snuck a small bottle of water through the bars.
Anima picked up a loaf of bread that felt like a brick for show, knowing better than to eat it. She snuck a few big gulps of the water when the other drudges trudging through the hall of cells weren't looking her way. She exhaled in a very refreshed way, then allowed her smirk to return.
"So, when is it going to happen?" she asked quietly, making a few motions to pretend like she was eating.
"Any second now," briefed Neseraph in a low whisper, nonchalantly checking to his left and right. "I'm here to make sure you get outta here."
"How thoughtful of you," she cooed back at him. "Is there any reason for your convenient generousity that I should know of, hmm?"
Neseraph glanced back at her curtly, and replied in the same manner, "You know what it's for, babe."
Anima leaned her face a bit closer to the bars that separated them. "Awfully coy, aren't we? You know as well as I do that it could be for several different reasons. Perhaps you feel guilty that I ended up in here while you roamed free? Maybe you feel that you owe me for everything I have done for you; taking you under my care, sheltering you, protecting you; everything I did to shape you into who you are? Or maybe you've finally realized the error of your ways, and have come to embrace mine? By chance, you might even just be looking for a familiar breast to suck on. Or..." she reached her hand between the bars and touched his chin briefly, "maybe... just maybe... you still love me. You're quiet, Neseraph. Is that it? Hmm? Strike a chord, did I?"
The distant and dull THUMP sounded from six floors above them, on the ground level, and the whole Asylum rumbled slightly.

[Anonymous]

The rumble caused several of the drudges to glance about in a confused way, while several other 'drudges' held their ground as if they expected the sudden quake to happen.
Neseraph glanced back at Anima then and answered her in a dodgy manner, "When we get outta here, I'll tell ya my reason. Maybe that'll keep you focused."
Anima smiled malignly, lowering her head but keeping her eyes on Neseraph's own, and replied, "I was focused the moment I saw your face again. Believe me..."
The maddening mind music of the Asylum died down quickly and was replaced by the high-pitched wail of the 'Under Attack' alarm. The same drudges that were confused earlier began to scatter away frantically, while a few deformed, red-skinned guard-demons ran into the hallway from both ends.
The insurgent drudges, Neseraph included, all whipped off the heavy brown robes of the drudgery, revealing their identities and intentions. Neseraph wore black jeans and boots, a short black jacket, and a faded black shirt -- the very first set of clothes Anima gave him right after she found him, she noted with an air of amusement.
Many demons under many different creeds and clans and with many different agendas had all banded together to overthrow Lord Murkhaladros' rule of the Abyss Asylum this night. Some, like Neseraph, were solitary additions, and mainly sought to free someone that they knew inside of the Asylum during the chaos. This one night though, they were united through combat against a common enemy.
The six guard-demons had their hands full already with the warband usupers that charged them, but one had slipped through and made a dash for Neseraph, who held his position by Anima's cell. He pulled out a long-barreled six-shooter from Earth and blasted all six rounds into the guards-demon, who was caught by surprise and ate all of the shots. The demon toppled backward, gargling and twitching for a second before expiring.
Anima, who looked very disappointed, said in a chastising voice, "Neseraph... what have I told you about using guns?"
"Now's not the time for all that shit, babe. It's no-holds-barred tonight," he answered flatly as he slid six more bullets into the firearm.
The sharp shriek of the warning bell rang out then, and the bars of all the cells in the row slid down into the floor. It was part of the warband's plan to have the Asylum infiltrated and the prisoners released during the attack to further reduce the capacity of Murkhaladros' forces to defend against both the attackers and the inmates.
"That's our cue! Let's go!" Neseraph exclaimed urgently as he held his hand out to Anima.
She accepted his help to get onto her feet, and she groaned as she stood up. Her muscles were agonizingly sore from the Asylum's endless punishments, and burned intensely when she wasn't at rest. She began to stretch out her limbs as best she could, which definitely helped, and smiled happily and luxuriously as she did so.
And Neseraph, growing impatient as he watched the other warband usurpers run by, spoke irritatedly, "We don't have all the time in Hell for this."
As Anima rotated her neck around, she gave him a coy look and said, "And what have I told you about being so serious all of the time? Lighten up. Have fun. Enjoy yourself. Indulge from time to time."
Neseraph slammed his right hand against the side of his head. "Okay, whenever you're done with your aerobics class, we can jet. How's that?" he spoke a little more playfully, punctuating it with a grin a second afterward.
"Better. But keep working on it," said Anima as she stretched out her thighs. Then, completely at random, she mentioned, "We need to make a stop on subfloor two."
"And why's that?"
"So we can free someone that I know."
"This train only has room for one person, babe."
"His name is Stiphos."
"I don't care. What happened to that focus you had?"
"We need to get him."
Neseraph exhaled in a defeated manner, then resigned himself to ask, "And why do 'we' need to get him?"
Finishing up her stretches, Anima shrugged and then grinned at him. "I'm hungry."
Exasperated now, Neseraph exclaimed loudly, "I'll buy you dinner when we get outta here! Whatever you want! Now let's go!"
Without giving her the opportunity to protest, Neseraph grabbed her by the wrist and jerked her out of the cell. He let go then and bolted for the end of the hallway, so they could get back out onto the main cell block and thus to the stairs. Anima's movements were sluggish at first, but she quickly warmed up and kept pace with him.
Another massive jolt rocked the structure, much more traumatic than the first one.
The attack on the Abyss Asylum was well underway.

[Anonymous]

The newly freed inmates of sublevel six were scattering every which way in the main block, left to run rampant on their own after the warband usurpers dispatched the guards. Some of the inmates actually had the presence of mind to make a break for one of the stairways, but most of the them were too lost, confused, crazed, frantic, or just plain aloof to do anything but either mill or run about.
Neseraph and Anima pushed and shoved their way through the crowd. As the muffled sounds of battle on the ground floor above them intensified, they found the spiral staircase leading up. The stairs were wide and slick with blood, mucus, and grime, and ascended very gradually, making the head space in the stairwell very limited.
Debris and small pieces of rubble fell downward in the center of the shaft that the stairs encircled, a testament to the full-scale attack being waged on the Asylum. The high-pitched whine of the attack siren got louder and louder as the two got closer to the ground level.
The building went under another massive concussion then.
Both Neseraph and Anima nearly lost their balance, and their fortunes got worse. The stairs ahead of them were broken off of the wall as a giant rock went crashing down the stairwell, taking more sections of the stairs with it.
With that stairway in shambles, they both had to duck into the doorway to the nearest sublevel.
Sublevel Two.
"Did you plan that??" Neseraph asked accusingly as they passed the floor sign.
Anima snickered and remarked, "You're giving me too much credit."
BOOM!!!
Before they rounded the corner that lead into one of the small cell blocks on the sublevel, they heard the unmistakable bellow of a sawed-off shotgun being fired from around that corner, followed by a sickening splatter.
Peeking around the corner, Neseraph and Anima could see the tall and muscular man reloading his shotgun, line of inmates with severely glazed over eyes in front of him, and the incredible mess of gore and body parts scattered throughout the cell block. They could also hear the Asylum's mind music being played loudly in here, and it took all of the restraint Anima could muster to keep her mind from being lost in its maddening melody.
Neseraph recognized the man with the gun: Gormin. He worked for Lord Murkhaladros, and recently started moonlighting at the Hellsend organization in Malignity -- the same place that Neseraph was currently 'employed'.
BOOM!!!
Now though, he was slaying as many of the inmates that were brainwashed by the Asylum's music as he could. Gormin cracked his shotgun open and shoved two more shells into it.
"Stiphos," Anima said quickly of the next man on the chopping block.
"I got it," said Neseraph as he pulled his six-shooter back out-
Gormin slapped his shotgun back together and aimed at Stiphos-
BANG!!!
The bullet hit Gormin in the wrist, and his arm fell as his finger squeezed the trigger-
BOOM!!!
Stiphos' legs were blown off of his body and bounced back across the cell block, another great splatter of blood staining the ground the legless man now fell onto. He squirmed some, his eyes no longer glazed over.
Gormin's seven-foot-two-inches form turned slowly and methodically to face Neseraph and Anima. He grabbed his injured wrist with his good hand and yanked the bullet out of his wound, speaking in a low rumble when he did, "Neseraph."
"Hello, gargantuan," said the same as he unsheathed the katana at his hip and put his pistol back in his jacket. "I don't suppose you're gonna give us a free pass on this, huh?"
Gormin shook his head menacingly, discarding his own gun and cracking his own cloth-wrapped knuckles a few times.
Anima, still straining for control versus the mind music, nonetheless grin maniacally and addressed the servant/Hellsend with an intense glee. "You want to play, do you? I'll take a bite out of your beating heart before your own eyes!"
Gormin tightened his fists, his facial expression turning to stone.
Neseraph clutched his sword firmly, sneering slightly at the big man.
Anima snickered excitedly, still baring her teeth through her wide grin.

[Anonymous]

Neseraph was the first to move, and he glided straight for Gormin, who stood his ground. With a battlecry, Neseraph swung his katana horizontally at the big man's abdomen, seeking to spill his guts-
But his katana hit a brick wall, or the closest fleshy equivalent to it -- Gormin's hand. The Hellsend had caught the sharp edge of the blade with his right hand and wrapped his fist around it. Though he bled a little, the cut wasn't nearly as deep as Neseraph had hoped, much less enough to slice any body parts off.
*SNAP*
With a quick forward and downward motion, Gormin snapped the sword in half, and discarded the broken blade in his hand carelessly.
Neseraph, bewildered above all else, nonetheless channeled some of that sense of humor that Anima had instilled in him in response. "Well, you're a healthy boy, huh?"
He had flatten himself to the ground in the next second, however, as a giant, roundhouse kick from Gormin flew at and over him once his back hit the bloody floor.
Once his foot meet with the ground again though, Gormin felt something leap onto his back. Soon, Anima sunk her teeth into the Hellsend's neck, twisting and turning her head in an attempt to rip the extremely rough and stout flesh off.
Gormin growled slightly, but reached a huge hand over his shoulder and got a good grip on Anima, tearing her off of his shoulder and slamming her down onto the ground hard enough to fracture it.
Apparently undetered, Anima maniacally scrambled back onto her feet and leaped back onto Gormin, biting into his right bicep this time and sawing away with her teeth.
At the same time, Neseraph took hold of his halved-katana and shoved the crooked blade as hard as he could into the Hellsend's left shin. The bone, being so close to the skin, cracked some as the blade managed to penetrate Gormin's tough skin.
Growling more ferociously now, Gormin once again ripped Anima off of himself with one hand while kicking Neseraph away with one foot. He threw her across the cell block this time, and she slammed into the brick wall at the same time Neseraph collided with and bent the metal bars of one of the cells.
A baleful horn sounded from above then, and it immediately caught Gormin's attention. "I must go," his voice rumbled, glancing in Neseraph's direction. "My Lord calls."
And just like that, just like he didn't have a fight to finish, Gormin simply turned around and started walking leisurely for the other stairway up to the ground floor, favoring his wounded leg slightly but not letting it hinder him much.
"Huh, some people. Loyalty can be a bitch," commented Neseraph as he got back onto his feet.
Anima, after recovering from the concave crater she left in the wall, strolled over to the heavily injured Stiphos. The Asylum's mind music was no longer play, and thus lifted any distraction as she stared down at him without pity or guilt, only slight disappointment. "You're in a spot of trouble, Stiphos. What will you do now, hmm?"
He chuckled meekly to himself, then addressed her as Neseraph came up to the two of them then, "Leave me here, my dear -- I'll only slow you down. Above all else, you must escape this accursed place. I'll find my own way. And if not... then it was pleasure to study you, Anima."
She snickered softly at his distress, saying in a way that could be both encouraging and condescending, "We're so very confident, aren't we?"
"Come on. We have to go," Neseraph urged, pulling out his six-shooter again, minding the time as well as what lied ahead.
Getting out of the actual Asylum was the easy part; scaling the colossal walls around it was going to be the true test.

[Anonymous]

This was it.
The final push.
When Neseraph and Anima made it up to the ground floor, in the Asylum's gigantic Main Hall, they saw that much of the front wall was in ruin. Inmates and warband usurpers alike were flooding out into the treacherous, red-dirt courtyard of the Asylum, whose distance was the only thing that separated them from the great outer wall, that was now a battlefield.
Outside, by the Gates of the Asylum, was Lord Murkhaladros and some of his remaining ground forces, fighting off attackers of the warband and slaying any inmates that strayed too near.
Sorcerous fireballs, screaming bullets, hissing arrows, and howling cannonfire split apart the air and sundered the ground, all of which being fired from both sides at their opposing force. Mangled bodies, numerous craters, and flaming debris decorated the courtyard as a dread warning to any who would try to run for the outer wall of the Asylum.
The air smelt heavily of sulfer, fire, and blood, almost as if agony and death were scents made overpoweringly palpable. The shouts of battle and the yowling of the dying were the sounds that pierced the ear almost as much as the actual instruments of death themselves.
Above all else was the constant, baleful siren, that blared ceaselessly in an attempt to demoralize the attacking warband.
"Alright! This is it! Can you keep up!?" Neseraph had to holler at the top of his lungs just to be heard over the incredibly loud siren and sounds of battle.
"You needn't worry about me!!" Anima yelled back, keeping her eyes transfixed on Neseraph in order to stay focused on actually escaping.
"Good!!" he shouted back.
They were on the edge of the rubble that separated the inside of the Asylum and the courtyard. He waited and waited, holding Anima back so she wouldn't start off on her own.
The next wave of warband attackers began to cross over the apex of the outer wall and slide down the ropes that led to the Asylum's courtyard. And, with their arrival, came the next huge volley of covering fire -- cannonballs, fireballs, lightning bolts, catapult rocks -- at the Asylum's towers and hornet's nests of sorcerers.
"NOW!" Neseraph hollered as he bolted at top speed, with Anima close behind him in tow.
Not only did the sounds of battle seem to double in volume once outside, but Neseraph could feel the intense heat and violent air of the fighting. More than anything else in Hell, it was this moment that made his chest burn with pain as he ran, as truly terrified as he would ever be for the rest of his life.
Fireballs screamed by and seemed to singe his hair.
Bullets hissed by his face and body, stealing the air he was trying so desperately to breathe.
Explosions rocked the very ground from all around, spraying blood-speckled dirt and debris all over him.
Half-way to the outer wall, he heard Anima yelp in pain from close behind him.
The bullet-line of the machine gun nearly grazed him too, but two of the bullets struck Anima in her left calf, forcing her to stumble.
"COME ON!" Neseraph yelled, wiping dirt and grime out of his eyes. "JUST A LITTLE MORE!" he reassured her, taking her wrist to help her run as she began to laugh at the misfortune of her own wounds. She was saying something, but he couldn't hear her at all-
A cannonball impacted near the two, and Neseraph could feel the blast of it searing the right side of his face slightly while it momentarily threw them both off balance.
He and Anima weaved their way through the pack of warband attackers that just touched ground in front of them, nearing the base of the outer wall, and hence, the ropes.
A dead body slammed down to the ground once they reached one of the ropes, and Neseraph turned around to check on the state of Anima. Her left calf was wounded of course; she was covered head-to-toe in red dirt and the blood of other demons, and maybe some of her own; her whole right side was burnt, but not badly; and lastly, her right arm from the elbow up was pelted with shrapnel. All of which made her grin and laugh continuously.
But she was in no condition to scale the wall of her own volition.
"HOLD ONTO ME! I'LL DO THE CLIMBING! LET'S GO!!" he leaned into her ear and yelled the plan so she could hear. She simply nodded her head, acknowledging him.
Neseraph took hold of the rope, while Anima wrapped her arms over his shoulders, hooking her hands onto his shirt and jacket.
Now, all that needed to be done was climb a rope that was almost one hundred feet long, straight up, while being fired at like targets in a shooting gallery.
Neseraph felt the combined weight of himself and Anima once both of their feet were off the sundered ground, and he was hanging onto the rope with only his two bare hands.
One over the other.
One over the other.
Teeth clenched, he nevertheless felt himself going up the rope. The dash across the courtyard warzone alone stole most of the energy out of his body, and all he could rely on now was his second wind.
Bullets slammed against the wall, dangerously close to them.
The air on the nape of his neck heated up as more fleeting fireballs roared past.
One unfortunate inmate below them on the ropes was caught by several arrows and bullets, losing his grip and tumbling downward perilously, screaming the whole way.
"We close!?" He yelled once the torrential sounds of battle became slightly more remote below them.
"Almost there," Anima spoke into his ear, causing him to nearly miss her words.
Neseraph glanced up; it was true, they were maybe fifteen feet from the top of the wall.
"Almost there... almost there..." Neseraph kept repeating to himself as he heaved his burning, aching arms over one another, pulling himself and Anima up closer to freedom-
Another hail of bullets slammed into the wall around him, and Anima's body convulsed violently. Her grip loosened, and she fell down around his waist.
"Anima!? Anima!!"
Looking down under his shoulder, he noticed that Anima's back had been pelted several times by gunfire, perhaps even more than he could initially see. The Asylum tower housing the machine gun nest that fired on them managed to get off some more shots before a fireball slammed into it, setting it ablaze before blowing it up completely.
"Incoming!" Neseraph shouted, but there was nothing that could be done.
Anima's body shook violently again, and he could feel her grip loose again just before she started falling-
"Got ya!!" exclaimed Neseraph as he grabbed hold of her right hand with his own, teetering precariously from the rope now with only one hand to support the two of them.
The first thing he noticed was that Anima's right wrist had been shot and was slowly tearing apart under the weight of the rest of her body. The second thing, was that she was looking straight up at him, smiling wryly as if there were no danger at all.
Then she spoke. Neseraph didn't know how he heard her so clearly and vividly, whether it was through intense focus or other means, but her voice seemed to drown out everything else to his ears.
Anima said to him: "Thank you, Neseraph. You've done enough for me now."
She grinned widely. She planted her feet against the wall and kicked away, her right hand snapping off then, and she was free falling back down the great heights of the wall.
As she fell, she never once broke eye contact with Neseraph.
He called out her name several times, loudly and frantically, but it was of no use now.
Her body disappeared once it neared the ground, blending in seamlessly with the chaos below.
"You've done enough for me now..." Neseraph repeated to himself.



[center:38dqnc3h]The Escape from Abyss Asylum.[/center:38dqnc3h]