"Let there be light." An amiable voice called out and divine brilliance flooded the shadow-enshrouded firmament. The darkness retreated into the crevices of the earth leaving nascent shadows behind. Scurrying along the ground like ants, demons of all shapes and sizes screeched out in pain. Some pallid and others furred felt their superficial layers begin to bubble and sizzle from the blinding white light. Arachnoids crawled down the cracks with their eight limbs and humanoid appendages, fowls tried to descend but hot blood oozed from their blisters followed by painful disintegration. Stepping onto the edge of a cliff overlooking the hordes of hellspawn, a man in linen white robes exuded the holy light. His fair skin glistened in the ivory glow coupled with golden eyes that were accentuated by soft blonde wavy locks that hung down leveling with the contours of his jaw whilst the front draped down into curtain bangs.
Beside him donned in heavy silver armor was a towering man of seven feet whose features were hidden behind the visor of his cylindrical helmet. Two great swords sheathed on his back in the shape of an X, resting beneath his two hands stood a double-sided great axe that threatened to pierce the cliff with ease. "Wretched fiends, the lot of them." A deep voice rumbled from behind reverberated steel. Raising the war axe with a downward grip, he turned it upright. The right blade adopted a sunset glow emitting heat that appeared more hostile than the blonde man's brilliance. Raising the axe into the air he swung diagonally with one hand unleashing a cleave of bleeding dawn that eviscerated the earth beneath erasing any trace of the demons that lay underneath. "Here they come."
The illuminated man on the edge of the cliff raised a hand. "How bothersome. It's always the same. Nothing more than a means to an end." Swinging down a forest of golden light networked through the blackened sky beyond the self-emitted light. Arising from the void below oil-slicked demons resistant to the light ascended to the cliff. Reaching out their sharp-clawed hands, they aimed to swipe the linen-clothed man only to be met by the barrage of a hundred light construct spears tearing their flesh and piercing their bones driving them back into the abyss below. He released a soft sigh and extended his hand in a proceeding gesture creating a staircase into the dark. The two descended in silence, the towering knight behind him looming like a great shadow. Upon reaching the bottom, the light-bearer meandered through a valley of illuminated golden spears pinning the oil dripping demonic corpses to the seabed of everlasting darkness. "This Circle of Hell is mundane. A ceaseless war that sweeps this accursed realm."
"It's like all the others. Push forward until the end." The knight gripped his axe tightly prepared to strike at any moment. "Even though it is only the two of us now the burden of progression has not weighed any heavier."
"The trials of this circle are only beginning. I foresee trouble in our distant future. Keep on your guard, Bleeding Dawn." Slowly coming to a halt he raised his hand. Sensing imminent danger, the linen-robed man stretched out his hand creating a bright golden light that turned ivory at the palm. A black-skinned demon with large bat wings flew towards them. His flesh was a part of the void and swallowed all light displacing the effect. A shadow obscuring any hideous facial features its two jagged horns was its only distinction. Thrusting the spiraled spear forward, it passed through the linen-robed man as if he were a ghost and he embraced the demon gently. "Peace me still." He whispered into its ear causing it to lose all animosity and hostility. "Return to light." He sang in a low pitch and lulled the creature off to sleep causing it to dissipate into rising droplets of golden water leaving a billow of smoke in its place.
Bleeding Dawn watched silently with a solemn expression hidden behind cold steel. After a brief moment, he gave a self-approving nod. "Your benedictions never cease to amaze me. You truly live up to the sobriquet Demon of Light."
He turned to look up at the man with an amiable smile. "It would seem so. I have never been a fan of being associated with the very evil we aim to destroy. However, a man who refuses to come to terms with his own darkness lies to himself, and a man who lies to himself will never be able to discern the truth of others. Liars truly are the most detestable thing of all."
Bleeding Dawn nodded in agreeance. "Anytime you open your mouth it feels like I am being lectured to by a philosopher."
He chuckled and turned back to the path ahead. "I am no philosopher, merely a man with many questions." An awkward silence lingered between them momentarily. "It's different with the two of us. Without Malachi around we lack completion."
"He was our closest ally and the mutual friend that brought us all together. He has only been gone for a short while but it feels like ages. I wonder how he is faring in this trial."
The linen-robed man shook his head indiscriminately. "Not too well from what I foresee. No man can complete trials beyond the third circle alone." Reaching the end of the void a black tower awaited encircled by large bat-like creatures.
Bleeding Dawn looked up at the adversaries that awaited them. Attaching the axe to his waist he reached up grabbing the handles of the two great swords on his back. "God be with us, Hierophant."
The linen-robed man, Hierophant, lent his ears to the divine. After a moment a smile slid across his lips. "It seems fortune finds us once again. Let us begin the trial of this Circle of Hell."