There was roaring in Jim’s ears now as he neared the floor of Hell, the roaring of countless tortured souls trapped in endless agony. He did not shut it out. The pity for these people was there in his mind, but God had strengthened him and it did not overwhelm his vigilance. As for horror, Jim had been possessed by the Corruptor and had temporarily corrupted two women; he knew firsthand the worst kind of horror. He still recognized it, and hoped he always would, but it no longer shocked him. He merely accepted the gruesome and mind-shattering scene as what it was, and strengthened his resolve to destroy the demon that had nearly sent his and the Sisters’ souls to this place.
A new sound came now; it had the same tone as the nightmarish screaming, but lower volume and a different timbre - the crackle of stone and the rush of wind.
"Hell cannot be dealt with in normal ways", Jim thought, and leapt backwards from his black disc without a look.
As he fell, he saw a pillar of rock surge like liquid into the black disc, piercing it in a blistering gale. The elevator-thing had been a trap, he saw; a target to aim at and allow Jim’s destruction before the warrior could do anything. The disc itself was not even destroyed by the rock; it allowed the liquid-stone to slide through it as if was made of black smoke.
"Hell cannot be dealt with in normal ways", Jim’s mind sounded again, and this time he recognized it as God. Immediately afterwards a searing pain drove him violently sideways, and his eyes lost focus. Wind whipped past, hotter and more fetid than before, and the stench clogged Jim’s nostrils. He looked at where he was going, and spotted the jagged wall just before he slammed into it. When he did, Jim became light, and his body exploded outwards in a supernova which shook the foundations of Hell.
Demons howled in agony and tortured souls sighed with relief as the light swept through the cavern, annihilated everything in it’s path. The stone spar that had speared Jim and sent him hurtling into the cavern wall stiffened and crumbled, alive no more, and all over the vast expanse stone fell to the ground. The malevolent life within them had died along with everything else, and now there was only stone and hot, stale air. Hell would re-take this room, it was true, but not until Jim had either returned to the living or been vanquished.
For Jim was not dead. After it had done it’s job, the light coalesced in the middle of the cavern. Slowly it became solid, and even more slowly it took on the features of the young man who one week ago had wandered curiously into a forgotten forest barrow to find the remains of the Corruptor. Finally Jim stood again, but it was not the same Jim that had died. This Jim had lost the mildly glowing eyes, flaring white hair and perfect body of a chosen warrior, and become the twenty-something young man he had been once again.
The sword in his hand, too, was different. Where the shining metal of Araphael, etched with golden patterns of heaven, had been was now a blade of pure white light which licked at the lifeless air around it like a torch. Where the perfect steel-and-leather handle had been, with scroll hilt and the sign of the trinity at it’s base, was now a wooden handle and crossbar, unstained but astonishingly well-made all the same. Almost as if a carpenter had spent long hours perfecting it.
Jim held the sword loosely at his side. His mind was at peace, though he knew not what he could do stripped as he was. He had no power but his blade. The Corruptor, waiting within the infinite bowels of Hell, was waiting to destroy him. Maybe he was not even waiting; maybe some fresh weapon was hurtling forward. Jim was going to try to destroy the Corruptor.
The facts skimmed around Jim’s mind; inside, he was scared and perplexed. He knew he was going to try, and not stop trying until he succeeded, or was destroyed. He knew that his fate was not fixed; that God had His tricks but so did the Devil, and that God would not unleash his full might because it would destroy his most beloved creation in the process. So it was up to Jim.
He did not feel inadequate. A son of God who had met his Parent never felt inadequate. He was not certain, but he knew that his task could be done. Now to see how things would play out.