The portal spat Adonis Kingsbane out not onto a battlefield of rotting bones, but onto a perfectly manicured lawn of silver grass. The screaming of the billion lost souls abruptly ceased the moment the portal snapped shut behind him.
He stood in the center of a sprawling, magnificent courtyard that looked like it belonged to a celestial palace rather than the underworld. The sky above was not a ceiling of rock, but an endless, swirling ocean of glowing white streams. Those streams were the raw, unfiltered rivers of human souls waiting for their next cycle.
"Right this way, Emperor," the Supreme Reaper stated. The giant skeletal entity seemed to shrink slightly in this realm, adopting a posture of extreme subservience.
Adonis kept his hand resting lightly on the hilt of his great sword. "This is not the wasteland of suffering I was expecting to see."
