When he opened his eyes he was facing the sky. A bleak and oppressive sky full of rocky mountains. The mountains hung there ominously, pointing downwards like spears, poised and ready to crush anything beneath them.

Although he would have liked to run out from under the drop zone of these towering mountains, he couldn't.

Surrounding him on all sides were enormous volcanos that spewed fire and magma into the air. The air was thick with smoke and sulfur due to these unimaginable large mountains of fire and magma.

The volcanos surrounded him in a circular formation. Trapping him between their enormous peaks like a rat in a cage. He couldn't escape out from under the mountains in the sky even if he wanted to.

Raging rivers of magma flowed like thick honey down the sides of the volcanos, slowly bubbling and hissing. The magma pooled and flowed down into streams and rivers of fire that all flowed down and into the basin formed by the volcanos.

All of the magma was flowing towards one place, the centre of the basin.

Taking in this ridiculous sight he began to panic. He tried to move his body, but couldn't. His limbs were unresponsive no matter how many times he told them to move.

His mind was murky and clouded, as though he was walking through a waking dream. In this dreaming state of both consciousness and unconsciousness. He was able to think clearly but unable to act on any of his thoughts.

He had become a passenger in his own body and was beginning taken along for the ride. It was like some twisted theme park ride but combined with sleep paralysis.

The body he was in... well it wasn't normal. 'Or at least I think so. Although I can't seem to remember anything before I woke up.' He thought. Even his name was a mystery to him.

When he searched his mind for any memories of his life or who he was, he drew up a complete blank. It wasn't the same thing as not being able to remember something. The memories simply weren't there. As though they had never existed at all.

'But, I still seem to possess knowledge. I just can't seem to recall how or why I learned it,'

That was why he knew his body was strange. It certainly wasn't human anyway.

Standing at 5 foot 8, he had long curly black hair and had the slender build of a young man that didn't associate much with food or exercise. He had two arms, two legs, two brilliant green eyes, two hands... all the usual pairs of things you might associate with humans and their ilk.

This was par for the course, what really stood out were the two pointed horns that poked up from beneath his long black hair. They were rather unassuming but were most definitely inhuman.

What stood out, even more, was his tail. It was silver metallic colour and was separated into serrated ridges like a spinal cord that had been flattened. This brand new appendage glittered in the red glow of the magma. It had a lethal glint to it, one that would strike first, ask questions later.

And, perhaps the most outstanding thing about him was that his whole body was wreathed in fire. A green flame covered him from head to toe, within the green, hints of bloody red flickered and danced.

Despite being on fire, he remained eerily calm, as if he hadn't registered that this was in fact a bad thing.' As far as I know, Humans don't have horns or tails, thus... I am not a human.' He reasoned. This stunning piece of detective work was truly impressive.

While he became lost in his thoughts, his body began to move. Unable to interfere, he could only come along for the ride, 'I guess I'll have to see where this new body takes me'

His body trudged sluggishly through the volcanic wastelands that stretched out into the horizon. Each step was laboured and instead of walking, his body shuffled towards... something. He wasn't sure where he was going, but it was definitely somewhere.

While he shuffled like a zombie along the top of black volcanic rock, his tail dragged along behind him. Its tip was like an anchor that pulled him back.

He tried to lift up the tail but got no response, 'Why won't this stupid body listen to me?' He bemoaned. Internally of course. It was currently beyond his abilities to open his mouth.

Time in this strange place felt disjointed. One second, he was walking up a hill, the next his body was standing at the mouth of a river of magma. As he drifted in and out of consciousness he wondered if this was all a dream.

Around his lonely figure, great volcanos belched out torrents of fire and magma. 'I should be afraid of all this, and yet, why do I feel nothing?' He wondered. 'Perhaps it is because I am only spectating within this body.'

Through all of this, he continued to walk the empty volcanic planes. The closer he got to the centre of the basin surrounded by volcanos, the hotter it got. Not only that, he finally saw a change of scenery.

In the distance, a massive stone tablet came into view. It was fashioned out of ancient volcanic rock that had been smoothed out by aeons of erosion. Covering one face of the tablet was strange, indecipherable demonic hieroglyphs.

As his body shuffled by the stone tablet, it didn't slow down for even a second. Clearly, this was not what he had been looking for... he supposed.

'Even though I got a good look at the tablet, I couldn't make heads or tails of it. Whatever alien language that was written in, I don't speak' Thought the demon.

Onwards, he shuffled and more stone tablets came into view. Each one was as confusing and unintelligible as the last.

He could feel his grasp on reality slipping. He was unsure of how long he had been travelling, but the gaps in his awareness were increasing. Each time he lost consciousness and slipped back into the waking dreams, he would travel even further than before.

'Am I, going to completely lose consciousness?' He wondered, although he simply couldn't find it within himself to be scared. 'Ah so be it, It was a short and strange existence to have lived.' With this cavalier attitude, he continued to spectate his zombie-like bodies aimless travels.

All of sudden, his body came to a stop. When this happened, he was yanked out of the waking dreams and regained consciousness for a split second. And that split second was all he needed.

In front of him towered a stone tablet. It was even larger than most of the others he had seen and was covered in demonic carvings and hieroglyphs. Strangely, the hieroglyphs began to glow as he stood nearby.

One of the glowing hieroglyphs projected out of the tablet and flew into his forehead. He was too surprised to even try to dodge, not that his body would have listened even if he wanted to.

The hieroglyphs that covered the tablet warped and twisted in front of his confused gaze until... he could completely understand them. He wasn't sure exactly when it happened, but the words had become legible and he could understand their meaning completely.

Sluggishly, he began to read the words that covered the tablet out loud. Yes! out loud. He could finally speak.

"Welcome to Hell fellow demon. Since you have found this tablet and awakened, that means you are one of us. The Scorpion race. The journey through Hell will be both arduous and dangerous and I wish you the best of luck. Some things to keep in mind as those of the Scorpion race are:

Try not to fight hand to hand. We have fragile bodies, our strength lies within our tails.

Below are the three generally known methods to strengthen your tail:

Stealing the essence and life force of Scorpion type beasts and monsters.

Eating the fruit of the underworld and other similar precious tools of evolution.

Absorbing the strength and essence of precious minerals and weapons.

When evolving as a Scorpion demon, it is important to use the strengths of your tail to your advantage. Please make sure to take inspiration from some of your predecessors."

After he finally finished reading all of that, he took a deep breath. 'That was a mouthful.' He thought.

Next, he turned his head to the carvings of mighty demons that covered the rest of the tablet. Each one of them looked vicious and intimidating in their own right. But, what linked them all together was their monstrous tails. All of them were unique and terrifying.

His gaze was drawn to one of the demons who had a tail that expanded outwards at the end and was covered in serrated teeth. "Huh? is that a chainsaw tail?"

Beside the chainsaw demon, a demon with a tail that had a massive wrecking ball attached to the end stood imposingly. He looked like he would be capable of tearing down mountains by himself.

Looking down at his own tail, it suddenly seemed a lot less impressive. It just hung there limply. Sure, it was sharp and looked cool. But could it shoot a cannonball? If not then was it really that impressive?

Realising that he could talk and control his body now, the demon rejoiced. "But now what?" He wondered.

As if to answer his question, something moved in the distance. So far, he had been alone for his whole time in the lava fields so this was a first.

Zeroing in on the sound, he gasped when he saw a hulking monster shuffling in the distance. It had the head of a rhinoceros and stood at 9 feet tall. The wickedly sharp horn that adorned the Rhinoceros head looked like it could be used to cut diamond.

While under any normal circumstance, this demon would most definitely have been very intimidating, right now it looked very strange. It shuffled aimlessly with glazed eyes. Each of its steps was mechanical and followed and monotonous rhythm.

The arms of the Rhino hung limply at the monster's sides, like a puppet with its strings cut. Its huge body trudged slowly through the volcanic basin like a zombie. Much the same as he had been doing until just recently.

"Hello!" He shouted, but the rhino demon paid him no heed. It simply continued its shuffling steps onwards.

Out of curiosity, He decided to follow the Rhino demon to where it was headed. 'It's better than standing around with my thumb up my ass,' He reasoned.

Quickly, he figured out where the Rhino demon was headed. They had begun to follow a particularly large magma river... Towards the centre of the basin.

As you grew closer to the basin, all of the individual streams of magma grew closer together and merged into enormous flowing rivers of fire.

Along the banks of one of these huge rivers, he continued to walk. Having long left behind the Rhino demon after figuring out its destination.

The longer he walked down the river, the hotter it got and the more demons there were. Most of them, like him, walked with purpose and had clear eyes, but there were a few like the rhino demon he had seen previously. Those that hadn't managed to find their tablets.

However, there was one thing that worried him, 'None of the other demons seem to be on fire,' In fact, he hadn't seen a single one that was.

None of the demons he walked with tried to approach him or went to start up a conversation. They all seemed wary of the translucent green and red flames that flickered ghostly around him.

Paying them no heed, he continued walking alone along the river. Not long after, the river widened out and stretched out almost a mile wide.

Furthermore, the volcanic plains that had originally been covered by stone monoliths and tablets were stripped bare for miles around.

This allowed him to see what was up ahead and frankly, he didn't like the look of it. In the distance, the river widened out some more and then completely dropped off into a gaping abyss.

An enormous black steel barge was perched precariously at the mouth of this terrifying mile wide abyss. The barge was big enough to play a football match on its decks and Had two enormous water wheels coming out from its sides. Crowding around its gangplank was hundreds of demons.

Their sinister silhouettes flickered and stretched in the distance as they milled about something.

All he could think when he saw all of this was... 'I don't like the look of this.'