The Pleasures of Hell 01.005

Mia stood beside Hannah, and the two women stared on and down, the only thing they could do. Jumping down meant breaking bones, or doing exactly what Scilra said, getting trampled and eaten by a bunch of big horses with ram horns and -- probably -- sharp teeth.

The basilisk's rolling came to a stop, and the creature turned its gaze back to Adron. Animals from the surface, from Earth, didn't usually suicide for a meal unless they were starving to death. But the basilisk didn't look emaciated. It looked like a well-fed, short-limbed, wingless snake-faced dragon, stomach almost hitting the ground as it threw its weight at Adron.

Adron tried to get his sword up in time, but it wasn't there. It'd been hooked on his back, but rolling down a hillside had tossed it. He ducked instead, and the creature's head slipped past Adron's by inches. It'd struck out first, like a snake, before the rest of its body caught up and it collided with Adron straight on.

Down they went, on their backs, and again the battle turned into a wrestling match.

"Shit. Shit shit shit." Mia snapped her eyes around. Find something, find anything.

Hannah didn't so much as move. Her eyes were wide, and her hands froze together in front of her. It almost looked like she was praying.

A noise vibrated through the valley. Quiet at first, a gentle rumble that almost wasn't there. But as Adron wrestled with the lizard, it grew louder, and louder. The hundreds of black horns in the valley each turned, and hooves gently patted the stone ground. The herd didn't move, yet, but slowly the distant creatures stomped the ground with their hooves more and more, until the rumbling grew loud enough it couldn't be ignored. It only got louder, as some of the horses reared and slammed their hooves down, hard, while some of the smaller ones hopped in place from side to side.

Slowly, they moved. Almost in perfect unison like a school of fish, the huge horses walked in Adron's direction. They didn't charge, not yet, like they weren't in a hurry to catch prey. Maybe they thought it better to let the fight play out? A level of intelligence more than a little unsettling. But either way, they were marching straight toward Adron.

Adron was the only demon around that Mia sorta kinda almost trusted. Fuck just standing there and watching him die. She leaned forward, and stuck a foot out over the edge--

Only for Scilra to yank her back, against the mountain wall. At least this time she caught herself before her skull cracked against the stone.

"Diogo will have my hide if you I let you go down there," she said.

"We have to help him!"

Scilra stared at her, blinking.

"You'd risk your life for him? You barely know him."

"I didn't plan to die for him, but I'm not just going to watch him die, either!"

The tiger continued to stare at her, as if Mia spoke some alien language. A weird stand-off, but it gave Mia a second to notice a decent rock beside her. She grabbed it, groaning as her fingers struggled to get a good grip. Must have been as heavy as one of her heavier kettlebells.

"Fine. I won't go down there." Mia got up, lifted the rock up to her shoulders with both hands, and marched back up to the edge, beside Scilra. The tregeera got ready to grab her, but Mia didn't give her a reason to.

She threw the rock straight down at Adron.

"Incoming!"

Again, everyone still on the path looked at Mia like she was insane. Even Adron, on his back with one hand out holding the creature by the neck, looked Mia's way. More importantly, the rock caught enough velocity and bounced enough it made a racket, enough to grab the giant lizard's attention.

And, because life -- or the afterlife -- was a fucking bitch, the rock didn't roll straight. So much for it crashing into the lizard. It bounced around, hitting uneven surfaces as it rolled, chips flying off as its harsh sound echoed through the valley, almost as loud as the rumbling herd. The goorts weren't walking anymore. They'd started their charge.

Adron got his huge raptor feet under the distracted lizard, and kicked him off. Demons were damn strong, and the giant creature, bigger than Adron, flew back maybe ten feet. Mia's rock crashed into the lizard's back left leg, and the creature shrieked. It hadn't made much noise before, but when its leg bent sideways at the knee, the creature made up for its silence with a banshee scream.

Adron didn't hesitate. He got back up, and ran. Not a glance back or a look to the basilisk, Adron full-on sprinted back up the hill, and soon had to use his hands as the slope tilted underneath him.

The basilisk tried to chase, but one step on its broken leg and it fell to its stomach, shrieking and hissing. The rumble grew louder, until it was thunder. But no matter how loud the sound grew, it wasn't enough to drown out the cries of the wounded lizard as it stared up at Adron with big, red and black snake eyes.

They weren't demon eyes. Instead of black outsides with a red ring inside and a black pupil like a demon's, the lizard's eyes were red on the outside, with black slits in the middle. Red snake eyes.

Despite wanting to watch Adron, Mia couldn't tear her eyes away from the giant lizard, as a dozen goorts surrounded it. It was bigger than them, and it snapped at them, hissing between snake strikes. But being bigger than them also made it a big target, and one of the goorts charged it from the back, head aimed down at its prostrated body. The goort drove its inertia and weight down at an angle into the lizard, and judging from the shriek that followed, it broke something in the creature.

They charged again and again, and only when the lizard stopped striking at them with its snake head did they close the distance, and stomp it to death. Dozens of hooves, crashing down on the leathery, scaly skin of the big lizard, heavy enough to break but not heavy enough to pierce. The lizard twitched and hissed, gurgled, and died. And the goorts dug in.

So, that was nightmare fuel. Mia couldn't have nightmares anymore, thank god, but the way the moose...goorts, opened their mouths and ripped the lizard's thick skin open, spilling its guts, was disgusting. It was like a school of giant piranha, tearing and shredding, somehow managing to avoid biting each other as they pressed side to side to fit in close and take a piece.

Adron climbed up the slope, swordless and probably bruised, but alive. Despite how steep the slope got under the lip of the path the rest of them stood on, Adron climbed without issue. Claws were useful climbing tools, almost like an ice axe, especially when they were that thick and strong.

He pulled himself up onto the ledge. For just a second, it looked like Hannah was going to hug the demon, but instead she came up to him, and poked him in his side against the armor.

"Adron you fucking idiot!"

The tall demon smiled down at his slave.

"You missed me."

"You nearly died! You... fucking idiot. I can't kill you if you die."

Mia raised a brow, looking between the demon and woman. That sounded less like a master slave relationship, and more like romance with a side dish of intent to murder, which was all sorts of fucked up. Then again, it was Hell.

Ignoring the need to squirm at the strange, socially awkward situation, Mia came up to Adron and gave him a quiet smile.

"Thanks, for pushing me out of the way."

"Hey, don't thank me. If we didn't get you to Zel, the boss would have my hide." Adron gestured to the juggernaut standing at the head of the group, down the path.

The juggernaut snorted, and resumed the march. Not a word.

"Wait," Mia said, loud enough to be heard over the noise of everyone shuffling, "we're not--"

"No, we're not," Diogo said. And he said nothing else as he continued the march.

"Thanks for waiting for me, boss," Adron said, grinning at Diogo's back. "Half expected everyone to just move on without me."

Diogo looked back long enough to glare at Adron, before continuing on.

Mia stared at the brute's giant back, but no matter how hard she tried, for some reason she couldn't make the bastard explode into a million pieces with the power of her mind. So she did the only thing she could do. She fell in step with everyone else as they resumed the trek toward the spire. Eventually it was Mia with Hannah and Adron and Scilra, with Loria and the other vrat behind them, the two human men and the two sex demons in front of them, and Diogo and his two brutes leading. As if nothing had happened. As if Adron hadn't just almost died.

"I didn't expect a big rock to come my way," Adron said, grinning down at her.

"I didn't expect everyone to just stand there, watching." Or for it to piss her off so much, either.

"Wouldn't really make sense for Diogo to risk more demons dying for me."

"So everyone just stands there, and waits?"

"Waiting is more than demons would in the Red Pits, or Navameere Fields," he said. The places Diogo had described as militant.

"You're telling me Death's Grip is nice by comparison?"

"Ha. No, just different. Demons in those places wouldn't hesitate to fight for you, as long as you made no mistakes. The moment you did, they'd let you die to whatever mistake you made, and they'd laugh, too."

"Mean."

He laughed. Hannah laughed too. She stood between Mia and Adron, Adron walking on the outer edge of the path, and she poked Mia in the shoulder.

"You really are too nice for Hell."

"I... guess."

"She's right," Adron said. "It was just a short encounter with a basilisk, anyway. In and out in a jiffy. Happens all the time."

Hearing a tall, sexy demon with big horns, a long tail, and a demon-skull face, say 'jiffy', was just too damn much. Mia burst into laughter, until even the tiger demon beside her was chuckling, too.

"I'm glad it worked out," Mia said. "The rock didn't exactly go where I aimed."

"Yeah well, neither did the basilisk. I aimed the kick to push him into the rock's path, so it'd hit his gut, not his leg." He shrugged, and poked Mia's side with his tail. "The rock could have hit me, too, ya know."

"It was either that or watch you die."

"Not much faith in me?"

"I uh, I mean, you dropped your sword, and--sword! Your sword--"

"I'll get a new one. It's just a slab of meera metal. There's thousands of them everywhere, since... whenever. Ask Caera where they came from, if you ever see her again."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~David~~

"It was during the Nine Spires War," Caera said, "must have been maybe ten thousand years ago. That's when all the meera weapons were made. Most, anyway."

David, Caera, Daoka, and Jeskura walked along the path, and at this point, it was all starting to blur together. Rocks. More rocks, lots and lots of dark rocks, many solid black, many dark red, and a lot of gradients between, with the occasional burning bush. The warm breeze was relentless, and the occasional bead of sweat dripped down his body. The air smelled like it always smelled, like rocks, and blood. But somehow, the demon women knew where to go, and recognized the paths like he recognized the icons on his PC desktop.

This high up, he could feel the heat of the burning sky press down on him. It sucked.

"Long time," he said. "A... very long time, by human standards. Like, so long ago historians are just grasping at straws trying to explain shit from back then."

"Hell isn't the surface, so if you get lucky, you find some runes in Estian, and if you're familiar with them like I am, you can adjust for the old style of talking. And I've managed to find a few places talking about that war. Belor, last child of the Old Ones, was trying to take over Hell. All the spire rulers were at war that time, a big free-for-all frenzy that had Hell swimming in demon blood. Belor controlled False Gate, and the anvil beneath the vortex. He used it to make thousands of weapons and suits of armor. Mostly meera, like you see us wearing." Caera lifted her front leg-arm, long enough to gesture to her, Jes, and Daoka. "He made some aera metal too, but mostly meera."

"Aera. Meera?"

She shrugged. "I've never seen aera metal up close, but I know his generals and strongest soldiers wore it." She hit his butt with the broadside of her big tail. Thankfully the spikes ran along its spine, not its sides. "Don't distract me. So, Belor thought if he gave every demon in his horde a weapon and armor, he'd win."

"Did he?"

"The war between the spires went on for thousands of years until the angels killed Belor, around two thousand years ago, which pretty much stopped the spires from fighting each other. Fighting so directly, at least. Whatever advantage the weapons and armor Belor thought the arms he produced would give him, it didn't work out, in the end. They're not as useful to demons as you'd think. They're heavy, get in the way, and claws cut almost as well as swords and axes."

They were damn heavy, that was true. Demons were strong enough to wield them, but being strong wouldn't be enough when trying to wield a fifty-pound sword, and the sword David had tried was probably a small one. Combating the balance, while also wearing even more weight in armor, would be the problem. One swing and you'd spin around or fall over or get thrown to the side, anything.

"The Old Ones--"

"Very old demons," Caera said. "Supposedly created by Lucifer themselves. Or at least they worked directly for Lucifer. So goes the legends."

"Wow. And there's an anvil at the bottom of the vortex?"

"A big one, supposedly."

"You haven't seen it?"

"No. False Gate is too far, and too dangerous, ever since Belor died."

"Really?" he asked. "You'd think it'd be less dangerous."

"You'd think. It's not."

He was tempted to ask for more information, especially about Belor and the anvil, but Caera dropped it so fast he knew better than to pick it up. Look at him, picking up on social cues.

They walked on, and on, and on. Endless paths, each step a pain in the ass, no path worn smooth. Thankfully the demons didn't move faster than him, and on more than one occasion, he had to slow down for them to catch up. They didn't like cardio. Good, because he fucking hated cardio. Going for long walks and listening to audiobooks and podcasts was how he did his cardio when he was alive, and without something to listen to, it was torture. For the demons though, they genuinely seemed to struggle with it.

"Break?" he asked. They'd stepped down into another ditch crevice in the rocks, and it went deep enough he felt slightly safer than usual inside it.

Daoka clicked a few times, came up beside him, kissed his cheek, and sat down against the wall of the mountain. She was panting.

"I get that you want to find your sister," Jeskura said, "but holy fuck dude, slow down."

Watching the gargoyle, also panting, slump against the wall beside Daoka, was satisfying. For all the times Jeskura had teased him, she couldn't keep pace with him, not after six hours of non-stop walking at least.

"You can all easily beat me in a race," he said. "But a long hike is where you draw the line?"

Grumbling deep in her chest, Caera pushed against his back hard enough he stumbled forward, straight onto Dao and Jes's legs. Dao clicked between some giggles, picked him up and set him between her legs, facing away. He tried to sit up, but she wrapped her arms around him, pinned his back to her chest armor, and rubbed her cheek against the top of his head. He wasn't going anywhere.

"Demons," Caera said, a snarl mixing into her voice as she lay in front of him, her side to him and the others as she got comfortable, "are not humans. We burn through resonance doing things. It won't be long before we need to eat again."

"Lot of similarities between demons and Earth predators," he said. "At least, the mammal ones. A big reason humans won -- sorta won anyway -- the evolution game is we learned to walk upright, and saved a massive amount of energy that way. We learned to hunt with tools, walked prey to complete exhaustion, and poked them to death with spears."

Dao clicked a few times.

"You got that right," Jes said. "That's why zombies are so scary, too."

He laughed. Zombies were scary when he was a kid. As an adult, a young one at that, they didn't even register on his fear radar.

"I think demons are a lot scarier," he said.

Jes shook her head. "You can't be that scared of us, getting horny around us all the damn time."

"Well... I mean..."

"Some demons out there like using their sin auras to do things to humans. Some like to stir them up, get them angry and violent. Some like to make them horny."

"Like a succubus or incubus?"

Jes nodded. "Yeah, volaras or volarins do that all the time, since they aren't very strong, and their sin auras are powerful as fuck. But any demon can use their aura, tilt it toward that desire, and push it out to try and influence everyone with it." She poked him in the side with her tail, and Dao clicked a few angry times as she swiped the tail aside. His new bodyguard. "But, I haven't used my sin on you. Neither has Dao. You're the one using yours on us."

"I don't know," Caera said. "Right now, I can feel something, but it doesn't feel like sin."

"Just wait till he's looking to fuck again. It's like getting bowled over by a goort."

The tiger chuckled as she watched him. "I look forward to seeing that." There was a touch of huskiness in her voice that sent a tingle up his spine.

Dao clicked happily, chuckling as she slipped a hand into David's shaggy red hair, and combed it with her claws. Never, ever, had anyone done that to him, caressed his scalp like that. He melted, and his eyes half closed as his head relaxed back against Dao's sternum.

"I... I um... I guess I've always liked... you know, like art of demon girls, monster girls, things like that." No point in being shy about things like that, not with these ladies, not after last night. "I'm definitely not alone. Millions of guys -- and girls -- like it too, if the internet is any indicator of reality."

"True," Caera said. "But usually when fresh meat come down here, the new reality sorta crushes those silly fantasies."

"Not for this kid," Jes said, poking him with her tail again. Dao caught the tail and squeezed, and Jes let out a small yelp as she yanked her tail free. "Not that I can blame him. We are fucking beautiful. And hey, maybe you're part demon? It might explain the aura, and the dick."

"Humans can't be part demon," Caera said. "How would that even work?"

"I don't know, but I know what I felt. That was an aura. He's clearly not human."

David groaned, but Daoka slipped both her hands into his hair again, and the world melted away. Claws, gently scratching his scalp, while the undersides of her fingertips massaged. Being touched so tenderly, he'd no idea it'd feel like this.

"He's clearly human," Caera said. "He's got a reservoir of resonance inside him and he's not burning through it. What else has that other than a human? Even angels burn through their resonance."

"What do you know about angels?" he asked. "And... And Heaven, and stuff." The place he was supposed to be.

"Not much. Only a few runes speak of them. But demons figured out some things, after the few times angels got involved in our wars. Angels use resonance, same as demons. They burn it off to create essence, same as us, and they can use the essence to summon armor and weapons."

"Oh wow."

"There were a couple accounts of angels using some bright light to block attacks, and another about using a bright light to heal wounds."

"Double wow. Can demons do anything magical like that?"

"Just the sin aura," she said. "Though, if you're strong enough, you can create hellfire."

"Hellfire?"

"Zel can do that," Jes said. "I don't know if it's because she's got the spire crown or because she's just damn old. But I once saw her execute a demon who'd step out of line, by breathing hellfire on him. It was terrifying. She turned the guy into ash and melted the fucking blackstone around him. Basically turned the fucker into meera metal."