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]