Drummer Boy - Back Into Hell Ch. 08

Granny gave him an exasperated look, but before she could reply, Electra sat up, accompanied by the clatter of a great many diaboli clinking to the floor. She stretched languidly, arms and wings over her head, and gave a great sighing yawn.

"Thank you, Garanetta," Electra said. "Your information is most enlightening."

Granny nodded. The two Wings on vagina duty wandered away to join the rest of the herd. Along the way, the one with the freshly-minted diabolus tossed it carelessly aside, where it soon became indistinguishable from the other thousands of diaboli strewn about.

"And seeing my daughter," Electra said, gesturing with one hand at the portal, still displaying the ongoing carnage, "her prowess, her valor, it pleases me greatly."

"I had hoped it would, My Great Lady," Granny said.

"Still... this Purleen," Electra said, "it is clear she was not intended to be a warrior."

"Nay, my Lady," Granny said, "but she-"

"You know our laws, Wing Mother," Electra said. "She should have been sent to me, as tribute. Or at the very least, consigned to the fire."

"Aye, Regent," Granny agreed. But she said it with an edge in her voice. There was a note of contempt, a sharpness that Jason suddenly realized had been there for some time now.

"Very good," Electra said. "I'm glad we understand each other."

There was an edge in Electra's voice too, Jason realized. What was going on? Were they mad at each other or something?

Electra changed position. With what seemed like too much ease for someone her size, she swung her legs around behind her so that she now lay on her belly. She propped herself up by her elbows and rested her head breezily on her linked fingers.

This had the effect of presenting Jason with an unobstructed view of Electra's cleavage. Framed between her forearms and the floor, it presented a tantalizing vista. It would be so easy. Just a few steps, and he'd be in marshmallow heaven.

Electra noticed. "You are filled with desire, human," she said.

"Oh, yeah!" Jason said. "Hell yeah! I love you, Ellie, you know that. You're my heaven. But now, you're like, super gorgeous. All big and pretty and sexy... You're the most beautiful woman in the whole world. And soon as we lose the square..." he rolled his eyes in Granny's direction, "...I'm gonna fill you with desire."

Electra laughed. The sight of her breasts, jostling and jiggling so monumentally right before Jason's eyes, stupefied him into silence.

"I have dearly missed the praisings of the Earthborn," Electra said. "Clumsy, but so effusive. Your gift pleases me, Garanetta."

Jason's brain snagged on the word "gift". Like he was supposed to feel something about it, but something else was still in the way.

"You humble me again, my Lady," Granny said.

"Indeed, you have brought several gifts," Electra said. "I have heard of your 'miracle' in the stables."

"Aye, my Lady!" Granny said urgently. "With such power at our command, the Wings could end this generations-long conflict, and become the dominant force on Tarterus. Victory is within our grasp! All I ask is that you assist Purleen. With your might added to theirs, Palladia is sure to fall!"

"Hmm..." Electra said, pressing her lips together in thought. Then she rose to her feet, towering above them once more.

"I have heard those boastful words, of course," Electra said, "upon the lips of some here, in the Darkling Antipode."

Electra beckoned again. The Maidens that had been hovering patiently with their long banners of leather sprang into action. This time, darting around her thighs, they completed Electra's outfit, fashioning panties that they now joined to her makeshift halter.

"They were brought to us by this one," Electra said, "who, not long before you, arrived at the Great Hall."

Another pair of Maidens now descended from somewhere outside the amphitheater. Between them they carried the limp body of another Wing. This one was naked, and bound with strips of leather around her arms, legs and wings. Jason didn't recognize her, but that might have been because she was in pretty rough shape. Her face was badly battered, and her body was burned, bruised and bleeding. Most of her hair was gone; by the looks of it, it had simply been ripped from her scalp.

"Sergeant Taline..." Granny said softly, her voice tinged with sorrow.

"Aye," Electra said. "She is swift, and strong. Possessed of great stamina, this one. Say again, little warrior, the message you have brought to my Darkling Antipode."

Taline slowly opened her swollen eyes, and looked around dazedly. When she spotted Granny, a crooked smile creased her bruised lips, and she spoke.

"I bring to you the great tidings of my Grand Wing Mother Garanetta of Fist-of-Dark!" Taline said. "The Brilliant Antipode falls! Palladia will soon be no more! Rejoice, and join your sisters in glorious-!"

And then her head exploded. Blood, bone and brains splattered onto the bodies of the Maidens carrying her now headless corpse.

"I'm sure you know the rest," Electra said. "Rather presumptuous of her, wouldn't you say?"

Jason looked at Electra. Electric flames crackled around her black eyes, then promptly vanished.

"Oh, Taline..." Granny whispered. It sounded like she was on the verge of sobbing.

The Maidens let Taline's body drop, and it fell to the floor with a sickening thud. Then the Maidens began making out with each other, kissing and licking the gore from each other's faces.

"Girls, remember your manners," Electra cautioned them. "Remove this broken thing from my sight, and you may enjoy her remains in private."

The two Maidens eagerly complied, swooping down to retrieve Taline's corpse, and then darting away over the top of the stadium walls again.

"Purleen shall receive no aid from me," Electra said. "Palladia shall prevail, destroying Purleen, and completing the task that should have been accomplished by you, Garanetta. The war shall continue, as it must."

"But it need not!" Granny said. "We have power now, power enough to-"

"To fell a Regent, yes," Electra said. "Today, that Regent would be Palladia. And should Aurica pose a threat, perhaps she would be next, no?"

Electra narrowed her eyes, fixing her gaze squarely on Granny. For once, Granny said nothing.

"And suppose," Electra said, "just suppose, that at some point in the future, a group of clever, enterprising Wings should come to the conclusion that their dear, loving Electra has outlasted her usefulness?"

"Perhaps," Granny said defiantly, "she already has."

Electra widened her eyes in mock surprise. "You think me a villain, little Wing Mother?" Electra said. "Is that why, from the moment you arrived, you have resisted my love? Is that why, even now, you resist the Presence?"

Jason looked at Granny, and for the first time, he noticed that she was sweating. Little tics jumped across her body, making her twitch, even as she continued to stare into Electra's eyes.

"Do you see...Jason?" Granny said, fighting to get the words out. "Her 'love'... is not love. Her 'love'... is a weapon... that makes slaves of us all!"

Electra tsk'd at Granny. "Such ugly words," she said. "I am Electra, first and greatest of all Wings. Your forms were created in my image. Carnal, sensual, and strong. Darling, you are the very embodiment of pleasure. You were made for love. And above all, you were made to love me!"

Granny was really struggling now, sweating, twitching like mad, and barely able to speak.

"We are..." she said through gritted teeth, "made for... more!"

"Dear child," Electra said, her voice patronizing, "I will show you what you are made for."

Electra snapped her fingers. Granny made a sound like "Ut!", and then abruptly went stiff as a board.

"You have become soft, Wing Mother," Electra said. "Your time on Earth has made you weak."

Electra twirled a finger in the air. Maidens began to walk toward them from all sides.

"We Wings do have our appetites," Electra said, "and without our laws to keep such appetites in check, we might devolve, becoming lust-driven, ravenous, creatures of pleasure. Little better than the beasts in our stables."

Half a dozen Maidens now surrounded the immobile Granny. A similar number stood around Jason. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with all these naked Pearl-clones, but he had some really awesome suggestions.

"Yet there is always that seed of desire, isn't there?" Electra said. "A deeply-buried, unquenchable flame of lust. For human males. For human females. Even for your own Sisters."

Electra lifted a finger, and let it drop. Granny gasped. Then, grabbing the face of the Maiden nearest to her, she kissed her deeply on the mouth.

The other Maidens moved in closer, and began kissing, touching, and rubbing their bodies against each other. In the center of it all was Granny, receiving the lion's share of the attention. And judging by the look of passion on her face, she was loving every second.

"What did you do to her?" Jason said. "A minute ago she was all 'grr grr'. Now she's all 'girl-girl'."

"I merely fanned the flame inside her," Electra said. "I dislike inhibitions here in my Great Hall, so I removed them. Revealed now is the truest aspect of Garanetta's nature. So much desire, so long repressed... Can't you feel her excitement?"

Granny pushed one of the Maidens to the ground and straddled her head. As she began grinding her pussy into the Maiden's face, the other Maidens closed in around her. It was an instant orgy: breasts and wings, legs and hands, mouths and fingers, exploring and pleasuring in a mass of writhing sexual activity.

"Oh yeah," Jason said. "I'm gettin' pretty excited myself."

He reached down to grab hold of his stiff cock, only to be intercepted by one of the Maidens near to him. At her touch, Jason gasped. Her grip on his rod was firm, and the warm, sensuous heat of her demonic flesh thrilled him so much that his legs gave way.

He fell, but not too far. His ass landed on the back of a Maiden who was on all fours behind him. Another, standing behind her, held her soft melon-sized breasts together to catch his head. Two more Maidens appeared at his side, caressing his chest with their fingers, their tongues licking his earlobes.

Meanwhile, the Maiden who had initially grasped his dick dropped to her knees between his legs. There she knelt, slowly stroking her hand up and down his cock, the previously blank look on her face now replaced by a loving stare as she gazed at his thick shaft in her grasp.

"You see?" Electra said. "Love is so much better than all that petty bickering."

"You said it, babe!" Jason said.

He reached out with both hands, placing them on the asses of the Maidens at his sides. He gave them a really hard squeeze, finding those ass cheeks firm and supple, and his cock surged in the grip of his handjob Maiden. She giggled, and then kissed the tip of his cock lightly, lingering just long enough for Jason to feel the barest hint of tongue.

"Man," Jason said, "Hugh Hefner never had it so good." He relaxed his head into the fleshy breast cushion behind him, and the Maiden massaged his temples with her fingers. "I could get used to this."

"I am glad for you, human," Electra said. "Now, you two enjoy yourselves. I have some minor business to attend to."

"Mmm..." Jason said, "What kinda business?"

Electra smiled. "Family business," she said.

Electra began to wave her hands around. To Jason, it seemed as if every delicate sweep of her fingers traced musical notes in the air, every bend of her elbow a new scale, each rising and falling of her forearm a new timbre. The overall result of which produced a sound that was surprisingly similar to the riff from Warrant's "Cherry Pie".

I guess hair metal's still a thing in Tarterus, Jason thought.

After a few bars, the air before Electra became another portal. Inside that portal, a figure shimmered into view. Female, with red skin. Her ridiculously muscular figure, looking like she was carved out of stone rather than mere flesh, was clad in what looked like a leather sports bra and boy shorts.

Her head, though, was crowned with a spectacular pair of ridged, black horns, which were themselves wreathed with crackling blue flames.

She stood in her own great hall, surrounded by stone and glowing points of light set into the stone. She was in the process of strapping some sort of metallic wristband to her forearm.

Without looking up, the Spine growled out, "Kinda busy right now, sister!"

"Hello, Palladia," Electra said, a playful smile on her lips. "Have I caught you at a bad time?"

-

"Even with all that other stuff going on," Jason said, "that just about blew my mind, right there."

"What?" Leanne said. "Palladia?"

"Shit yeah Palladia!" Jason said. "Nobody said anything about them being sisters!"

"I thought you'd figured it out already," Leanne said. "It even came up in your little fantasy life."

"How was I supposed to know?" Jason said. "I thought all that jazz came from inside my own head."

Leanne shrugged. "There's always some thought overlap," she said. "But yeah, everybody knows the Three are the daughters of the Bright Lady. Just like everybody knows they've been at each other's throats for millennia."

"Huh," Jason said, "coulda fooled me."

Leanne raised an eyebrow. "'Scuse me?" she said.

Jason shook his head, and gave a mirthless chuckle. "They played us, Leanne," he said. "They played us all."

-

"What do you want?" Palladia said. "I got myself a pest control situation. As if you didn't fuckin' know."

"I won't keep you," Electra said. "I just wanted to let you know that I have things under control at my end."

Palladia peered through the window, staring at Jason. The look on her face was that of a tiger: outwardly calm, maliciously beautiful, but there was a look of barely-restrained crazy in those black orbs.

"Huh," Palladia grunted. "One of mine?"

"By heritage, aye," Electra said. "But I like it, and wish to claim it as my own."

"Aw, thanks, babe!" Jason said, his cock swelling along with his pride. The demons ignored him.

Palladia grunted again and looked away, focusing on the metal brace she was strapping to her other forearm. "Gonna cost you," Palladia said. "What do I get outta this?"

"Perhaps," a third voice said, "you would like to 'ave one of your own as well?"

Jason turned toward the voice. Yet another hazy window had appeared in the air. This window also showed the craggy orange desert and pink-hued sky of Tarterus, but there was only one figure here, a woman dressed in white.

This one also had red skin, as well as straight, black hair that cascaded down to her waist. The only clothing she wore was a voluminous toga, which hid the shape of her body underneath it. The only parts of her that remained uncovered were her face, and the long, barbed, diamond-tipped tail that trailed along the ground beside her.

And just like the Tail he'd run into before, that face was captivating. Perfect, in any way one could measure perfection. Flawless, in that it seemed less like skin, and more like crimson porcelain. Even more so than Electra's face, Jason felt like he could stare at this woman's features forever. It wasn't like the love that he felt from Electra, but more a sense of fascination, or awe.

"Forgive ze interruption," the woman said, "but my sources alerted me to zis little summit. You know ze rules, sisters."

"Aye, Aurica," Electra said. "Our negotiations had only just begun. I was just about to call you."

"And as I was saying," Palladia said, tightening an arm strap, "if Electra wishes to retain the cambion, I'm okay with it. But I'm entitled to compensation."

"And you shall 'ave it," Aurica said. "Zat and more. Sisters, do you realize zat we are on ze cusp of a new beginning. Our renewal is at hand!"

Aurica, had a ... weird accent. There was something about her voice, the way she sounded her words out, that was at once precise, buzzy and vaguely European. To Jason, it sounded like a French computer that had learned how to speak praying mantis.

"What are you going on about, shadowy one?" Electra said.

Aurica showed Palladia a dazzling, if patronizing, smile. "While you focus on brute strength and perfect your physical combat..."

Aurica turned the smile on Electra, "And you fill your subjects with love, loyalty and blind fervor..."

She briefly closed her eyes in mock humility, "I and mine remain, as ever, observant." She opened her eyes again and gave a brief nod. "Much information 'as been gathered by my mediators."

"Your spies, you mean," Palladia said. "Filthy business."

Aurica cocked a flawless eyebrow at her. "Perhaps," she said, "yet zis is a business patronized by both of my beloved sisters, no?"

Palladia rolled her black eyes. "Whatever," she said. "Okay, sneakypants, what do you got?"

"Sisters," Aurica said, "ze ways between ze worlds 'ave been rediscovered!"

Electra sniffed. "Pish," she said. "I knew as much. I have an Earthborn right here."

"And I'm about to go eat one," Palladia said, shrugging her shoulders into a massive metallic chestplate.

"Oh, Kristin loves it when you go down on her," Jason said. The demons ignored him.

Aurica shook her head slowly in faux sadness. "My dear sisters," she said, "you are so set on ze present, you cannot appreciate ze long view as I do."

"Quit fuckin' around, Aurica," Palladia said. She pulled on more leather straps, tightening her breastplate. "Just get to the point."

"Our research into ze Golden Avenger 'as revealed much," Aurica said. "We 'ave discovered ze areas on Tarterus where ze ways between ze worlds are weak. I, and a few of my more talented agents, can now sense them. Further, by mimicking ze energies of ze Golden Avenger, we 'ave been successful in conjuring scrying portals to Earth."

"Interesting," Electra said. "And what have you seen in your little windows?"

"In our long absence, sisters," Aurica said, "ze humans 'ave become much more numerous."

"So?" Palladia said. "There were plenty before the ways were blocked off. What's a few more?"

"Not merely a few, belligerent one," Aurica said. "Billions more."

Palladia's jaw dropped open. Electra gasped.

"Indeed," Aurica continued. "Their population unchecked, zey 'ave spread to nearly every part of their sphere."

"Alright," Palladia said, "now I'm interested."

"What is even better," Aurica said, "is zat they 'ave all but forgotten our kind. They think us myths, if they think about us at all. We are but an amusing fantasy to them."

"Nonetheless," Electra said, "more humans means more wizards. And they are quite inconvenient."

"There are some," Aurica admitted, "but they are ignorant, and largely self-taught. In ze intervening centuries, 'umans have discarded ze arcanic paths, and now place their efforts, their very faith, in machines."

"Machines?!" Palladia said, and laughed, so hard and loud that the diaboli in the room rattled. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

"But it is ze truth! Think of it," Aurica said, "billions of 'umans, ignorant of our existence, and lacking any significant magical defenders to resist us."

"Our herds are nearly exhausted," Electra said, "and those that remain are severely attenuated. Each generation proves less potent than the last."

"We shall be able to replenish our dwindling stocks. Aye, zat and more," Aurica said. "Sisters, Earth is primed for ze taking!"

Electra moaned aloud, practically purring at the prospect. "I must confess, Sisters," she said, "the very idea makes me positively wet."