he story follows Dante, a crusader who, despite his faith, has committed numerous atrocities during

the Third Crusade. At the city ofAcre, Dante is entrusted to keep a group of Saracen prisoners safe
so King Richard I could obtain a holy relic from Saladin. But once he brutally slaughters them, Dante
is ordered to take the holy relic. During the attack, Dante is stabbed in the back by an assassin,
whereupon Death appears and condemns to "everlasting damnation for [his] sins," despite being
promised by a Bishop that his sins would be absolved. Dante refuses to accept his fate, vows to
redeem himself, and defeats Death, taking his scythe. Dante leaves the Crusade, stitching a red holy
cross-shaped tapestry onto his torso, depicting every sin he has committed in the past. He returns
to Florence, only to find his lover Beatrice Portinari and father Alighiero brutally murdered. Beatrice's
soul appears before Dante, telling him that she knew he would come after her before a shadowy
manifestation ofLucifer drags her into darkness. After making it to a chapel, Dante blesses the holy
cross that Beatrice gave him upon making their vows to be true to each other, to protect him against
the evils that await. Upon doing so, a crack in the earth opens up, allowing Dante to descend to the
Gates of Hell.
At the Gates, he encounters Virgil, who knows of Dante's past sins, yet agrees to guide him through
the Nine Circles of Hell in exchange for Beatrice putting in a word for him in Heaven. Dante begins
his descent at the shores of Hell where the newly damned souls are forced aboard the great ferry
of Charon. Dante forces Charon to sail him across. After this, Charon is destroyed when Dante tears
his head off using a beast-mount. After arriving at Limbo, Dante confronts the serpentine Judge of
the Damned, King Minos. After Minos denies Dante passage deeper into Hell, Dante fights the
Judge and kills him. Dante then enters the second circle, Lust, where he enters the Carnal Tower to
find Beatrice, whose soul is slowly being corrupted into a succubus by Lucifer, who also reveals to
her that Dante broke his vows to Beatrice with a captive woman back in Acre, in exchange for
sparing the life of her "brother". Reaching the top of the tower, Dante confronts and slays the
gigantic Queen Cleopatra and her lover Mark Antony. Entering the third circleGluttony, Dante slays
its guardian the "Great Worm" Cerberus. It is here where Lucifer shows Dante how Beatrice and his
father Alighiero met their demise, both being slain by the assassin from Acre, revealed to be the
husband of the captive Dante slept with.
In the fourth circle; Greed, Dante encounters the greatly deformed soul of his father Alighiero
promised a millennium free of torment and a hoard of gold from Lucifer if he kills his own son. After
overcoming the puzzles of the fallen God of Wealth Plutus, Dante defeats Alighiero and absolves
him. In the fifth circle, Anger, Dante begins to float across the vileRiver Styx on what appears to be a
floating platform. Upon reaching the other side, however, the platform is in fact the top of the head of
the gigantic fiery demon Phlegyas who attacks Dante. Overcoming this, Lucifer appears before
Dante with Beatrice who, broken-hearted by Dante's betrayals, willingly gives herself to Lucifer by
eating the forbidden fruit. Dante rides atop Phlegyas who he controls to smash down the walls of

the City of Dis and into the sixth circle, Heresy. Beyond lies the seventh circle, Violence,
includingPhlegethon and the Wood of Suicides. Within the woods Dante encounters his mother
Bella. He becomes deeply saddened and enraged, having been told as a child that she died of an
illness but in fact hanged herself because of his father's cruelty. Absolving her of her sin, he
continues beyond the woods to the Abominable Sands for those violent against God, where Dante
also encounters his former comrade Crusader and future brother-in-law Francesco, who is now a
horribly disfigured version of his former self and desires revenge against Dante for his state of being.
Upon defeating Francesco, Dante absolves him and descends into the eighth circle, Fraud.
Before Dante can reach Lucifer, Beatrice puts him through the challenges of ten stages of
the Malebolge, each depicting the fraudsters throughout history from simple thieves to the
false Popes. At the entrance of the ninth and last circle, Treachery, where Dante insists to Beatrice
that he has faced all of his sins. Beatrice reminds him that he slaughtered the Saracen prisoners out
of anger and that Francesco died taking the blame for it. Realizing that he has sinned beyond
redemption, Dante admits that his place is in Hell and asks Beatrice to forgive him. This act of
supreme sacrifice undoes Beatrice's transformation and restores her to her former self. As Dante
watches, the Archangel Gabrieldescends from Heaven and carries Beatrice's soul away, promising
Dante that he will see Beatrice again and that his redemption is close at hand.
Journeying through the icy realm of Treachery and fighting his way to Lake Cocytus, Dante finally
confronts Lucifer himself, an enormous three-faced demon chained within the frozen lake. After
defeating the giant demon, Lucifer reveals that several enormous chains Dante had destroyed to
proceed were the Chains of Judecca, which kept him imprisoned in Lake Cocytus and inside the
body of the giant three headed demon. Lucifer reveales that he merely used Beatrice as bait to get
Dante to break the chains and free him. Lucifer emerges from the giant monster in his true form, a
horned, satyr-like monster, and battles Dante. Through great struggle, Dante is able to defeat Lucifer
and impales him on Death's Scythe. Lucifer then summons the vision of the assassin stabbing Dante
in Acre; Dante is horrified to realize he died in Acre and thus cannot leave Hell, which is forbidden by
God. Lucifer gleefully reveals that, now free, he will rise from Hell, overthrow God and seize Heaven,
eliminating all that is good from the universe forever. But Dante, with the many souls he gained
through his trials, absolves himself and re-imprisons Lucifer deeper in the ice once again.
Dante is then taken to Purgatory, where Dante sees Beatrice's soul awaiting him in Paradise. The
final scene shows Dante at the step of Mount Purgatory, ripping the tapestry off of his chest before it
disintegrates revealing a snake that slithers away as Lucifer's laugh rings out.