Dante’s Inferno reimagined using elements of physics and technology

Clos Friga was indeed dark and desolate, but a few million years after Lucifer’s imprisonment, the human souls transported and trapped under his control illuminated the planet. They were his favored energy source among other beings. They tended to hang on to good and bad memories after death.

The damned souls had no way out. Their orbs constantly collided with each other, producing a never-ending supply of heat and noise. Memories transferred across them, causing more chaos and anger. Or they mutated into a variation of the crimes that had dominated their lives.

Michael arrived to face his eternal nemesis, whom he initially considered a brother. From the moment Lucifer came into existence, he awed the citizens of Kalumegn. They worked side by side in the high council. Lucifer’s system was impeccably efficient and, for the most part, he was left to work independently among the citizens.

Perhaps left on his own too much, Michael thought. The Magna trusted that Lucifer’s system reinforced itself. But it hadn’t.

Michael continued his descent. Soon he saw the glowing artifice of his enemy’s head. The lower half of Lucifer’s body was embedded in the planet’s ice pit. That half had shut down, but the upper extremities were outstretched unevenly, held in place by a tangle of thick cables of an unknown alloy. The cables seemed to appear out of the darkness. The other ends of the cables were in Kalumegn.

His nemesis was truly a great technological achievement, but after the second attempt to escape and infiltrate the Magna’s systems, it was clear to everyone that Lucifer’s systems had gone in the wrong direction. He even developed his own language that none of the citizens could fathom. From that point on, Michael’s one-time friend and brother was simply a convict who continued to cause trouble anywhere he could plant his control.

Michael watched from a distance as the once-beautiful face was rearranged into three panels, each with an opening able to extract energy from the doomed orbs.

The head rotated constantly as it gathered power. Each panel lit up with the amount of energy it needed. When one panel received a shot of energy, the lights on that panel face glowed yellow. When the power was low, the lights of the panel face flashed red. And when there was no light and the metal face was dark, that group of processors had no power. The orbs lined up to be sucked into one of the three mouths, where their energies were drained like batteries. After release, the orbs were thrown back to their place in Clos Friga. The cycle repeated as the orbs regained their energy from the constant movement and collision with others.

The devil rotated his head. “You remain a killjoy, Michael.”