The plan all along

Maria was excited.

To be able to finally meet the goddess of death, and put an end to this crap!

Except there were some problems.

Number one being- how the hell were they going to get to the castle again?

Groans, moans, screams, cries- everywhere

People were suffering.

Technically this was the top most layer and with the least punishment, right?

Sure, didn’t look like that.

The fire was less hot, and the monsters were smaller, that was about it. The actual punishment was pretty much the same as the rest of hell if not more brutal.

As for why she couldn’t get to the castle?

Well-

Rivers of blood and pus and other stuff. Normally, she’d have floated over all this crap.

But there was a problem.

She couldn’t float here. she couldn’t even jump up, as though something invisible had been keeping her pinned to the ground.

There was no sky here.

Just a hole of darkness.

“Even we devils aren’t permitted to flap our wings on this floor,” said the devil.