Prologue, a few days before the main story
The Shade's Suicide
A man known only as the Shade flees through Florence, pursued by unknown assailants. He climbs the Badia tower and, after a brief confrontation, leaps to his death. Before jumping, he speaks of his creation, Inferno, which he describes as a gift to the future, a salvation for mankind. He believes his sacrifice will protect his masterpiece from those who would stop it.