Through Hell and... well... Hell. (Solo)

[Shell]

This takes place directly after Shell died at the hands of Witchblade.

Shell awoke and looked around. There appeared to be fire everywhere she looked, her wings were burning to a crisp, her wounds had burned themselves shut, and there was no sign of anyone anywhere. She knew that she was dead, but something told her there was a loophole somewhere. After all, Shell was a demoness and this was like a second home to her.

She knew that hell was supposed to be a place of torture, but she couldn't help smiling at the new challenge presented to her. Escaping from hell.

Whoever was running the place seemed to notice her smile and spoke with a loud booming voice.

"Shellobrawnparagenfem Galactigoszargonire Fenelitissimedifortuna, you are a disgrace to demons everywhere. You claim to be the best there is and yet you lost your life in a 1 on 1 battle. If the guard hadn't interfered, you would have never even gotten a hit in."

Shell looked around to find where the voice was coming from, but saw nothing.

"That was a fluke and you know it. I bet I'd be able to beat you in battle any day of the week."

Shell felt the ground beneath her feet rumble as she watched a tower pop out of the ground.

"I've filled this tower with my best soldiers. If you get to the top I'll acknowledge your skill with a duel against me. If you win, I'll give you one more chance to live. If you lose, or you don't even make it to me, your soul will be stuck in here for eternity. If your skill is anything like what I've seen, though, you won't even make it past the second floor."

Shell looked at the stone tower and laughed.

"Bring it!" Shell said as she walked through the door ready to take on anything that stood in her way... Or so she thought...

[Shell]

As Shell entered the tower, she was surprised to see her own ugly mug staring back at her. Sure, she was expecting something tough right off the bat, but this was not quite the kind of thing she thought she'd end up fighting by a longshot.

She swung at her twin horizontally with her bladed tail, only to have it instantly blocked, and before she could react, her twin had already spun her tail around in the opposite direction, striking her in her left arm. The twin went on to cast a fireball spell at point blank range on Shell's body. As shell fell to the ground, surprised, the booming voice of the devil spoke up again.

"This opponent is known as an advanced shadow. It represents a stronger version of yourself, everything you could be and more."

Shell got up and stared at her foe, wondering what other tricks her twin had in store for her. As she started to wonder about this, her foe went into motion again. Once again her foe got close enough to try a point blank magic attack. Shell saw the attack coming this time, but didn't bother to move out of the way. Instead, she swung her tailblade at her foe's tail and cut it off 3/4ths of the way down, before recieving a second fiery blast to the chest.

Shell held her chest in pain as she got up slowly. when she looked back at her foe, it was as if no damage had been dealt. The foe's tail had grown back almost instantly. If this was what she was to become, she liked it, but something was wrong. Her foe was looking a little pale. Shell went in for the first atack, a vertical swing to the head, and though blocked, her foe seemed to be slower and weaker on the draw than before. Shell went in for a horizontal slash on the neck and nearly connected, but her clone's blade blocked it just in time.

Her other self decided to take to the air at this point, but Shell, seeing this was quick to slice off her foe's left wing. She watched as it grew back, and the twin grew ever more pale. This time even going so far as to cough up blood. Only at this point did Shell realize what was going on. Her other self was sacrificing the health of the rest of her body to heal any major wounds. Shell looked down at her foe and slashed the clone's head off as it was busy coughing up blood.

A staircase opened in front of her. As she climbed up the stairs, she began to realize why the Devil was so confident that she would never make it past the second floor. Her next foe was an Iron golem.

[Shell]

Shell looked up at the massive creature, unsure of how to best defeat this foe. Usually, she just plowed right through her enemies, but her tailblade wouldn't even make a dent in this creature. Before she could even think, the creature already had made it's first move. It threw a strong punch at Shell, and before she knew it, she got through the stone wall by a fist the size of her body.

Shell heard the devil laugh at her in his loud, booming voice.

"As I suspected, you never made it past the second floor! That is pathetic, even for lesser demons." He mocked

Shell picked herself up and flew towards the hole that was now in the tower's wall. She had a plan.

"Hey, I'm still alive and kicking, aren't I? I don't see how you can possibly say that I've lost." Shell snidely remarked as she reentered the tower Via the hole in the wall.

Once again, the golem attempted to punch her, only to miss and punch another hole in the wall. Shell was about to mock the predictability of the golem only having one attack, when it occured to her that she was no better. Shell made a mental note to fix that flaw in her fighting style as a second fist flew her way. Once again,Shell dodged this attack, forcing yet another hole in the wall to be made. The walls started making odd creaking sounds as they struggled to keep the ceiling up.
Shell waited for the Iron Golem to punch at her again, this time, she planned on being hit, so she wouldn't be stuck in the building when it collapsed, but the golem had different plans.

The huge fists hit the wall next to Shell, sending the rest of the tower down on both of them. Shell hadn't planned on it catching on to her scheme so quickly, and attempted to fly out of there in a panic, but her left wing got ripped in two by a falling stone as she fled the building.

"I'm impressed you made it past the second floor, but do you really think you have the strength to continue after that fluke of a win?" The devil mocked in an annoyed tone of voice.

[Shell]

Shell got up and dusted herself off. She was never too smart, and was always one to tempt fate, a fact that got her into this mess in the first place. She charged back into the tower, not realizing yet that something was different. Rushing up the stairs, she came to the third floor. So focused she was on reaching the top that she didn't even notice that the tower had repaired itself.

The third floor had absolutely nothing on it but a single creature, no bigger than a foot high. It was a cute white furry little thing that Shell hated the looks of. Was this Satan's Idea of a joke? No matter. She wanted to defeat Satan, and nothing would stand in her way.

Swinging her tailblade at the doll-like figure resulted as Shell thought it would... Sort of.

The doll was sliced evenly in two, but as she started to walk away from the fight, something grabbed her head and slammed it into the wall. It was a huge hairy hand, no, not hairy... furry. Shell looked back as best she could, which, since her head was pressed against the wall by a giant hand, wasn't very well, to realize that the doll had not only repaired itself, but grown to an immense size. It was now two feet taller than her and it's fur color had changed to a bright red. It looked almost like a giant, fat, red, sasquatch, not that she had a chance to look too well before it repeatedly slammed her face against the wall without mercy until her tailblade reacted by slashing at his arm.

The thing was too fast for her, though, as it grabbed her by the tail with it's other arm and tossed her around like a ragdoll, eventually tossing her out of the tower yet again. Shell was blind in her right eye, due to the blood running over it, she was bruised up big time and was majorly pissed off. She attempted to get back up and slipped back down to the ground. After two or three more tries she finally got back to her feet. Not willing to admit defeat ever, she headed back into the tower, stumbling constantly as she went.

[Shell]

"Why do you still fight? Can't you see it's hopeless?" The booming voice of Satan yelled down at her.

Shell looked up at the tower, then headed inside. The huge doll-like creature was there to greet her at the door, and just like before, it wasn't friendly. It immediately tossed Shell against the wall, once again.

"You want to know why I still fight? It's because I still live, and as long as I still life, I refuse to stop fighting." Shell replied as she made a swipe at the arm of the furry beast yet again, but Shell was already in the process of changing her target to it's leg by the time it attempted this. Her tail hit it's mark and cut straight through the leg of the giant doll. Stuffing seemed to come out of it's leg as it stumbled to the ground. Shell made an attempt at slicing off the doll's head as it fell to the ground, but once again her tail was caught, and this time, the creature decided to use it's strength and Shell's tailblade to it's advantage. It attempted to remove the blade from the tail, but with little success, so instead, it took her tail and tossed her into a wall.

"You know, in this world, you can't get any more dead, you are already in hell, you expect to die in hell, too? You really most be stupid." Shell looked around to try to figure out where the high pitched voice was coming from, and eventually realized it was the doll that had spoken.

"Fuck off!" Shell yelled, just before realizing the creature was right. Shell was beginning to question her own motives. What was the point of fighting if there was no risk of death?