A Lament of Gods and Monsters by Crisyah

Humanity set out to dethrone God and failed.

Their attempt left a ruined world behind, one touched by magic for the first time, but blighted by Heaven and Hell seeping into it. The ones who were left behind hide in great walled cities, caught in the throes of a timeless undeath, and almost completely decimated by the monsters set loose from the deepest abyss of their collective unconscious.

In the wake of this apocalypse, seven companions walked into Hell to contract with its Archons. Six crawled back up from their graves, their lives restored and the powers they sought granted to them. One did not.

The Scions are now kept locked and isolated, their sole purpose being to protect the city of Lothurst and its inhabitants. And, one day, to undertake the Pilgrimage, the mythical heroic journey through Heaven and Hell that will finally open the doors to Eden and grant humanity what it once sought and couldn’t grasp: eternal peace.

But, in their hearts and minds, rebellion is brewing. Kayla, Joshua, Sarah, Matthew, Vivien and Darren tire of their captivity and plot to gain back their freedom and find answers to the mysteries of their dying world, the one bleeding into it and the truth about the loss of their friend.