Drip, drip...
Alagathoo, the forty-fifth layer of the Abyss.
The ruins of a city stood amid the yellow, sand-laden winds. Corpses of demons and undead littered its collapsed walls and buildings. An extraordinarily fierce battle had taken place here, reducing the city to rubble and leaving behind only thousands upon thousands of undead creatures.
Alagathoo had once been a secret city on the forty-fifth layer of the Abyss. Six-Fingers had stationed a large army here and conducted secret biological experiments, hoping to create powerful mutant demons that would give him an advantage in his wars against Demogorgon or Malcanthet.
Undead King Orcus had discovered Six-Fingers' secret and immediately summoned a vast invading demon army to destroy Alagathoo. The two sides had fought a horrifically brutal battle in the city. In the end, despite Six-Fingers deploying his finest Blood War troops, Alagathoo had been destroyed.
Orcus had killed every monster Six-Fingers created, then resurrected them as undead to continue roaming the city's ruins. He had withdrawn from Alagathoo, satisfied with his work. When Six-Fingers' children proposed retaking the city, however, Graz'zt had ordered Alagathoo abandoned forever.
The waters of the River Styx surged through the channel beneath the ruined city. As always, the river was murky and foul-smelling. The demon grease floating on its surface was at least thirty centimeters thicker than in Avernus, the First Layer of Hell. Vast numbers of monster corpses floated in the half-meter-thick layer covering the Styx. Some were demons. Others were not even that.
Deep horn blasts sounded outside the city. The utterly chaotic Daemon Army was closing in.
At the docks inside the city, near the abandoned cargo crates, collapsed lighthouse, and former Styx ferry landing, lay a place the undead refused to approach.
"You really are full of surprises, Chosen of Selûne. Aaron