DPIP
wants you
to survive
The rings click into place and the door slides open, heat flushing out in billows of hot air against your face. The Aerobic royals hiss disagreeably and retreat towards the cool air of the surface behind you, fleeing to great heights and beyond. Perhaps they will meet with you in the future, but for now you pocket the rings and continue into the hall.
It grows hotter and hotter the further you walk, the smell of sulfur clogging your nose and making you wish that you had sent your drones on ahead. The ground is cracked and the air is thick with ash. The Inferno is a place of fire and brimstone, and you can feel the heat searing your skin as you walk. A deep rumble grows until the Inferno opens before you, a vast room that has been stripped of everything useful. The walls are bare stone, though this stone is not dead: you feel the heavy heartbeat of the earth below radiating throughout your body.
The creatures here are not as welcoming as you would hope, instead watching you with eyes that seem to glow with an inner fire.
At their heart is a massive half-metallic beast, chains holding her to the stone below. Her golden eye watches you and strange sounds emanate from her ducts, her twitching club of a tail pulling against the chains and yet, unable to break them. The mortal beasts around her turn towards you—
