Timelines: What if Spain Failed to Control the World?

Haha , Mammal-sense XD I don't even know where that's from .

Good news ! update is 15% complete ! Expect it today/early tomorrow (for you europeans !)

AlexanderPrimus said:

Excellent! I await it eagerly.
<<Alexander rubs his hands with glee.>>

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had a been of a slow down since we went out for in n out burger XD Gosh i'm totally going to get a coronary from those ! Working on it again now ! XD

General_BT said:

Burgers don't hurt you, unless you're a couch potato like me...

*finds a couch, and sits and waits*

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ROFL I was with friends , dangit !

ForzaA: I'm always notoriously late for my dear Europeans XD I should really try to overestimate time next time XD

Eber: ROFL , God forbid ! It's about done actually ! 90% done !

comagoosie: they made a 100 patty burger once at some las vegas in n out I think . World record or something like that XD update coming in a few minutes . Just adding the finishing touches .

7 April 1610

Madeleine could barely take in short breaths without feeling the oppressive combination of air and water dampen her lungs and percolate her tongue with a sensation of tastes as the humid air passed inward. Her eyes were locked with the other two who were staring back at her in the same vein of panic: their boat was not moving.

“We're only halfway through,” Riku stated after peering his head above the rim of the moderately sized vessel. The boat itself was almost as fantastic as the scene around them. Made with a kind of stony material, it weighed heavily against the water but was cavernous enough within not only to remain buoyant but also to keep the steam far enough away from the center to provide immediate relief from the boiling river below. Its ceramic nature also resisted the boiling heat underneath. The bow of the vessel was dominated by a monolithic representation of a human torso, arms, and head-- a Centaur if, instead of a horse, a ship were the second half of that mythical creature.

It had already been three minutes and all three faces flushed at each other. All three had already gone through half of their cool water attempting to avoid being scalded to death. “Why have we stopped?” Raul asked with a pant, “I thought this was supposed to be how we get across...” He was already half wincing from the overbearing heat.

“We're missing something...” Madeleine said with grit teeth as she stood up carefully on the boat. “It shouldn't have been this easy anyway... we're in Lower Hell now... it's not just endurance that we have to deal with but there's a trick to this... a part that involves the intellect.”

“The heat below is probably causing the water to flow in different patterns in different places,” Riku proposed. “We only thought the current was going to take us to the other side when it was probably only a section of the water moving to the other bank.”

“Then we might have gotten stuck in a place where the colder water is sinking below and the hotter water is pushing all around us...” Madeleine finished the thought.

“Your Uncle agreed that this was the right course of action,” Raul half shouted his frustration, “He wouldn't have let us walk into a trap!”

“No, there has to be something more than this...” Riku replied similarly standing to look around them. Nothing but the rising veils of steam greeted his sight even when he held his torch high enough to half soak it in the vapour.

“Riku!” Madeleine suddenly yelled. Riku looked at her quickly and regarded the sudden realization on her face.

“What is it?” He asked anxiously.

“You're taller than I am!” Madeleine announced with a smile.

Riku gave her a concerned look and brought his torch lower slightly, “I've always been taller...”

“Don't you see?” Madeleine grinned, “If I'm at the back of the boat, and you, Raul, and that bowpiece are on the front, the boat should displace more on your side but it's barely leaning forward!”

Even Raul now stood at the stated fact. All three looked to the bare back and shoulders of the stylized man. “Both of you hold onto the rear,” Raul said as he took out a hammer from his pack. The other two stabilized the vessel as instructed and Raul gave a strategic strike against the spine of the representation. Like fish's scales being torn away, jagged segments of the torso fell into the river and the head made a splash into the water. The boat rocked back and forth for a moment before being stabilized once more.

Kicking the rest of the debris away from the bow, Raul could now see the exposed front as a round portion like some caldera of a volcano. At the center was what seemed to be the end of a marble cylinder passing through a hole. “Pull the cylinder up!” Madeleine shouted from over his shoulder. Raul didn't question the command but obliged and pulled the rod upward with his gloved hands.

Like a tempered sword being freshly taken out of the water, the marble was slid upward and let off an aura of steam around its shaft. Water spurted a little from the still plugged hole. “Don't pull it up all the way,” Riku commented, but his eyes were not on the spectacle, he could plainly see that they were now moving forward.

“What--?” Raul could barely ask as he sat back from the heat. He satisfied himself with the notion that the bank was now coming closer and closer.

“The ceramic statue was just a thin hollow veneer,” Madeleine explained, “Inside of it was this long column the whole time and as we drifted, it caught the bottom and stalled us.”

“I didn't see this stone column sticking out of the bottom of the boat when we flipped it onto the water,” Raul protested.

“Of course not, it only released when we were well into the river,” Madeleine replied coolly, “and here's the proof,” she added pointing to a point on the rod a few inches from the top. A faded halo of white surrounded that portion of the stick. “Remnants of the wax that was at the hole in the bottom. Once we set the boat on the water, the wax began to melt from the boiling heat until the force of the stone column pressing down broke it away and slid the stone to the bottom of the channel. The wax ensured that the poor fools would be in the middle of the river before the rod stopped the boat from going any further.”

Madeleine's explanation coincided with their landing on solid ground. All three hopped off and took a moment to lay on the relatively neutral solid dirt to cool off. Already, a film of dust was attaching itself to their recently moistened skin. “Let's go find that corridor and take a rest...” Riku suggested as he panted for air. The atmosphere was still filling his throat with the heaviness of moisture, but it was a welcome reprieve from the steadily rising heat on the channel.

“I'm afraid we can't do that yet,” Madeleine delivered the bad news with a grunt as she took to her feet. “As you can see... this isn't the end of this circle. Riku turned his head upward and he could see, through his up-side-down vision, an army of charred monuments. Black parodies of trees populated his vision and brooded in the dark recesses of the circle like a school of jellyfish opening their ebony tentacles into the dark ocean venomously.

“What is that?” Raul asked as he too got to his feet.

“The Wood of the Suicides,” Madeleine explained, “Another part of the seventh circle. We just passed through the river of blood-- those who were violent against others, but here we find the violent against themselves. Here are damned the people who forsook their bodies. Thus, their punishment is to be eternally robbed of proper bodies and instead inhabit disfigured trees that are continually damaged and corrupted by harpies. They also cannot speak unless someone breaks off a branch or a twig. This is because Dante believed that suicide was an attention-grabbing sin. He was so disdainful of people using suicide as a means to deliver a message that he inverted that very method into a punishment: only by suffering bodily harm can any of these damned spirits talk and are otherwise robbed of speech except only through the most painful torture.”

“And what kind of trap should we expect in there?” Raul asked. Madeleine gave him a tired look and found the energy to shrug her shoulders.


“Father Valerio, move to that wall over there. Behind the stone block with the omega letter on it, you will find a wheel. Begin turning it clockwise,” Renault explained as they made their way to the beginning room of the Circle of the Heretics.

“Understood,” Father Valerio acknowledged while running towards that portion of the room. Renault himself was rushing towards where he had last closed the Gates of Dis.

“Already reached this circle in only a few hours,” Renault said to himself as he checked the locking mechanism which was now beginning to be reinforced thanks to Father Valerio's diligent work at the wheel. “How are they moving through all of my traps so quickly...”

A sudden thud was heard against the gate itself and Renault started in surprise. He looked towards Father Valerio who was already struggling with the device. Renault was about to speed over to help his Jesuit friend when he heard a muffled voice from the other side. “Please open the door, Dr. de Fronsac,” someone with a German accent requested of him.

Renault was intrigued at the calm tenor of the voice on the other end, but he resisted the urge to answer the call. “What's going on?” Father Valerio asked from the side as he continued to crank the wheel. Renault gave him a signal as if to stay quiet.

“I know you're in there, Dr. de Fronsac,” the voice said again, “Only someone who knows about the emergency lock your priest friend is using could have stopped me from opening this door so easily with the key I made.”

Again another thud. Renault could no longer stay quiet. “Who are you?” he asked from across the heavy set of doors. The heat in the room was pervasive even with the ventilation at the top. Renault's head swelled with sweat.

“A fellow scientist such as yourself,” the voice responded almost playfully with its whiny yet efficient version of Spanish seeping through the cracks of the gateway like a slice of freezing air.

“Is that how you've been speeding through my traps?” Renault felt like asking although he was hoping to simply buy more time for Father Valerio to complete the emergency lock.

“No no,” the voice said back with another laugh, “you see, I had a little help coming down here.” Renault squeezed his brow which prompted a few reservoirs of sweat to trickle down in front of his eyes. “What I mean is,” the voice spoke to him again, “I'm afraid you overlooked a crucial element in your design, Dr. de Fronsac. I don't think this setup of yours will stay closed off for the hundreds of years it might remain in existance. I've already seen this place inside and out; it was one of the most interesting archaeological digs in history.”

Renault did not really understand the nonsense being spoken to him, but so long as he could get the man talking, he was satisfied. “If you know so much about my little project already, then you should also know that there are ways I can block you from going any further,” Renault said back to the door.

“That is very true,” the voice admitted. “However,” and here, there was a short pause enough for another droplet of sweat to pass down Renault's cheek, “I'll be getting a little help with that as well. From you, Dr. de Fronsac.”

“Whoever you are,” Renault responded, “you could stand to learn a few more lessons in intimidation. I won't let you through these gates.”

At first, there was no response. A kind of quiet gripped the closed doorway except for the frantic speed by which Father Valerio swiveled the wheel. A minute passed and Renault thought that perhaps the pursuers had decided to turn around, but that's when the noise came. It was small at first; almost like a whisper-- or a whimper.

“Renault,” a voice said quietly. Renault dared to take a step forward at the strange noise that came from the doorway. “Renault,” it said again, more clearly this time.

“What is...?”

“Renault...” it came a third time.

Renault gasped in the acrid air. He sucked in just enough of the atmosphere to yell back through the door: “Carmen!”


The begun their walk through the ring of burnt trees with careful footing. Each time they took a step, the three pairs of eyes wandered towards the apparition around them as if expecting the trees to move on their own at any moment and expose some kind of danger. Halfway into the wood, Madeleine could already see that the trees were being packed more densely the further one walked into it.

“Are you sensing another trap?” Riku asked to the other two as he kept his torch as close to them as possible lest something might ignite the wood around them.

Neither of the others responded to the question but Madeleine could already see the dark tendrils of each tree represent some entangling web of danger that could pounce at them at any moment. The further she progressed into the wood the more it felt as if she was watching the demonic sight of a black octopus spreading itself open in front of her preparing to envelope her in a death grip.

“This is too easy...” Madeleine thought to herself. Nonetheless, all three kept going through the last leg of the wood although the trees themselves crowded around them. Closer and closer to the end, they could see what appeared to be moving lights on the other side of the treeline but were continually veiled by the thickening set of wood.

“We're almost to the end,” Raul noted as they progressed in a single file now. The branches which spread out from the trunks like up side down spiders began to hem all of them in. Madeleine was the first to bring her hand up to push one of the branches away as the thickness of the wood grew. The moment her hand touched the tree however, she recoiled it in pain.

What felt like a searing sensation dominated her fingers, but she immediately took some water out of her pack and poured it onto the portion where she touched the branch. “What happened?” Riku was the first to ask as the two boys looked at the reaction occurring on her palm.

“It could be acid or some other material... it nearly burnt through my skin... the trees... I think they're lined with it.”

“What?” Raul asked incredulously.

“This is the trick of this section... the Suicides disdained their bodies and so this entire area is harmful to make contact with...”

“Couldn't we use our gloves?” Raul asked in return.

“It's in a kind of tar-like form... it's highly concentrated. I was only lucky I grazed the branch before I put water on it. It would probably burn through our clothes or whatever else we'd try to use to make contact with it. It would probably eat through our swords if we used them on the branches...

“Then that means,” Riku said while looking up at the thicker and thicker 'vegetation' ahead of them, “that it would be impossible to pass through...”


“I thought it was impossible,” the voice said to Pablo, “but you did it. You really did it.”

“It's time for you to hold up your end of the bargain,” Pablo replied callously.

“Now now... Tom is still being delivered... it will take a little while for him to get to Siberia... we have some time,” the voice replied while a hand reached Pablo's hand.

“That wasn't part of the deal... you told me--”

“I told you that you will see her again, Pablo. She's already on her way... but before that, it doesn't mean we can't have a little fun. For old time's sake, hm?”

That hand moved up Pablo's arm and dug its way underneath the sleeve on the shoulder. Teeth compressed Pablo's bare skin along the base of his neck. “Stop,” Pablo said although it was a pathetic command. “I only did this for--”

“I know...” the voice soothed. “Don't you understand, Pablo? I let you tease me all those years before and I never let go of you... Even in those dangerous times when I was almost gone, you always popped up for me and reminded me of the important things...”

“But Raul...”

“Shh... Right now it's just you and me. Not even God can see us in here. You let me have your body once... it's time for you to get some interest back.”

Chapter CV: The Violent Against God, Nature, and Art [Blasphemers, Sodomites, and Usurers] (coming soon)