Lost Mages: A Progression Fantasy

The fires of hell sear the soul. And yet it is a miracle of human senses that even this is something to which they can grow accustomed. 

They had been wandering the underworld for over ten days since their audience with A’tiniti to restore their allegiance to him as their patron demon. 

At least, it seemed like ten days. 

There were no days and nights in the underworld, just the unending flickering of the flames. Finally, more painful than the soul-burning heat of the lava flows became the endless monotony of the landscape. 

For days on end, they never seemed to move forward. Nor backward. Nor sideways. Nothing changed, and the only way that they knew they were going anywhere was the exhaustion that finally overtook them and told them to sleep. 

They had seen the occasional palace or ancient temple in the far-off distance, across unpassable lakes of molten. It offered them no physical relief but at least kept them from going mad. 

They also discovered that creatures lived in the lava and that they could be captured and even eaten to stave off hunger. Though, the taste and texture almost made it not worth it.