The Pleasures of Hell 01.015

A couple tiger ladies pounced the dragon's arms, and jumped up onto its back. Neither had weapons, but just like Caera they had big teeth and claws, and they used them. Roaring with desire and hunger, or maybe just rabid mindlessness, the two ladies sank their fangs and claws through the dragon's thick skin. That was enough to pull the dragon's attention, and again it lost itself in the whirlpool of blood and death.

Two whole seconds of holding still was two seconds too long, and another demon came at David from his left again, a satyr woman.

"Dao!?" He spun to face her. She came at him with a sword. Not Dao.

Whether the satyr was actually attacking at him or just mindlessly swinging at whatever was in front of her, he didn't know, but she swung the big black weapon down at him, and he sidestepped. His hand lashed out, and the tiny, broken, heavy blade got the demon in the neck.

She stepped back, clutched her throat, and aimed her eyeless gaze at him. She lowered her head, aimed her bald skull and four huge ram horns at him, and charged. Maybe she meant to charge at him, force him to dodge again, swing the sword, and catch him on the recovery. She didn't get to the second step. He jumped back again, and the satyr fell to the ground.

She tried to get up, arms shaking with the effort. Her head fell, her horns hit the stones, and she stopped moving. Blood poured out of her neck in spurts, flowed over the flat, hard ground, and joined more blood. And bodies.

Half a second. He gave himself half a second of contemplation and realization, just long enough to look at the dead satyr and how dreadfully similar she looked to Daoka. He looked at the blood on his tiny, useless broken sword, and then back to the spire. Don't stop. Brood later.

He bolted. The spire grew closer, and the bodies in his way grew in number. Demons poured out of the main entrance, toward the dragon and the mosh pit, but none went back in. Maybe they didn't realize the rider had entered the tower. Saldavin and the fujara tetrad continued to fight, their great height allowing them to tower over the crowd. David ran past them, only fifty feet and a dozen demons between him and them before he got past the apex of the crowd. Smooth sailing from there on out?

No such luck. One demon fell in front of him, leg cut off at the knee, and he had to jump over them. He tripped. His shin cracked hard against a piece of their armor, and he crashed into the blood-soaked stone. Stars dotted his vision, and pain flooded him a moment later. Only when he pushed himself back up onto his feet and resumed running did he realize blood flowed down over his chin and neck. Some of it was from the ever increasing crimson that soaked the area. Some of it was from his broken nose.

Just keep running.

Another demon stumbled into his path, some sort of dinosaur creature, titanic, with a dragon-like face and a flat head that almost seemed shark-like. Two big horns came out from the sides of his head, and connected to the dark bone plate of his flat skull. Shark dragon dinosaur? Mental note: ask the girls later. Short legs and long arms allowed the creature to walk on all fours, kinda like Caera, if Caera was less lizard-cat-like and more big-scary-dinosaur shaped. Whoever he was, he turned his eyeless face toward David just long enough for David to pause and look at him in return. Whoever this creature was, his face was unreadable.

"Wh--" The creature's words, thick and guttural, were cut short. A gold-armored demon came at him, a brute, and the hulking creature swung a giant axe straight down at the other demon's head.

David didn't watch to see what happened. He jumped over the shark dinosaur's huge spiky tail, and kept going. Roars and the clangs of metal and bone followed behind him, and someone's shrieks of rage ended short. He kept going.

The Godzilla dragon turned. Maybe a demon bit its heels or tail, but something caused the giant beast to turn, and despite how long it took for something that big to turn around, its tail came around fast, the tip moving car speed. Demons toppled, big and small, black and gold armor, and only the wave of their collapses gave David warning.

He jumped, as high as his legs could get him. Not high enough. The giant tail swept under him, front to back, and clipped his feet hard enough he somersaulted. The world turned into a blur of reds and blacks, and gravity lost all meaning as he spun through the air. Again the ground crashed into him, and this time the backlash of pain that followed poured out of his arm.

He knew that feeling. That was a dislocated shoulder. Again. He ground his teeth, snatched his useless little sword off the ground with his good arm, and got up. His left arm dangled in its socket, and pain shot from his shoulder into his back, neck, and skull, with each frantic step he took.

He took them anyway. The spire was close, damn close, and he risked a glance up at its towering size, its flesh and bone, its black metal, and the balconies that circled it. No way a demon built this.

He ran for the entrance, and the battle grew further and further behind him. No more demons came at him from the sides. No more demons jumped in front of him. No demons fell in his path. Only the cave-like entrance of the huge building before him. What demons had been inside were now outside, giving him a clear path to get into the spire.

But now that he was inside, what the fuck now?

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~~Mia~~

She clutched the spike tight in her hands until her fingers went white. What to do what to do what to do. Oh god if she didn't do something right now she was going to get strung upside down and tortured and... and... and probably a lot worse than tortured. Zel would do things to her that defied the word.

If Zel found her trying to craft the aura, she'd let her live. For now. She wanted Mia's power, her ability to read the ancient language, and--wait, Adron and Kas didn't tell her she saw memories when she ate that demon heart. That meant something. That had to mean something.

They didn't trust Zel either, maybe? Maybe they thought if Zel knew about that quirk, she might do something to Mia even they thought she shouldn't?

And even ignoring all that, there was no denying that Zel would eventually turn on Mia, enslave her, use a rod on her, kill her, something. She wouldn't share power, or even treat Mia nicely once she didn't have to. Zel had shown her true colors, if only for a moment, a moment too long.

Mia squeezed tighter. She had to do this. She had to do this, and... and...

David. Her brother was out there, and she was making no effort in finding and rescuing him. She had to get out there and save him. The longer she waited, the higher the chance she'd never find him, or he'd die, or anything. The chances of her finding him were already pretty much nil, but he had to be alive -- much as anyone was in the afterlife -- and she refused to believe otherwise! He had to be. Had to be.

Sighing, she buried her face in her palms. If she did this and went on the run, she'd probably have to leave Kas and Adron and Hannah behind. Adron and Hannah were the closest thing she had to friends, sorta, and Kas... Just thinking about the stoic big asshole made her angry, and happy, and now sad because she'd have to leave him instead of getting a chance to peel the layers and see what sort of man he was underneath. Maybe he was a great, empathetic demon? Or maybe he was an asshole through and through. She'd never get to find out.

And of course there was the fact all three of those people had made her cum and cum hard, more than a couple dozen times in, what, three or four days? Her first sexual experiences, extreme and insane and so absurdly good even now the tingly desire for more crept up on her. She banished the thoughts quickly. She could lament abandoning the best sex life she'd ever get later. David was more important. Her life and freedom were more important.

"God, what do I do if I... if I..." Groaning, she threw her hands up and spun around. "I--" A glint of amber caught her eye. She froze, and stared at the back wall and the small chain that dangled there on a hook. The leash.

With a heavy gulp, she forced her eyes back up to the colossal monster bound to the opposite wall.

"If... If I... kill Zel, can you escape?"

He met her gaze, and his red demon eyes held hers. No response. Those chains were massive, and even with enough strength to break one of his spikes off -- which felt like steel in her hand -- he hadn't been strong enough to break a chain.

"I guess killing her doesn't somehow automatically undo your chains."

He grunted and nodded.

"Is it possible for me to free you? Can I get these chains off?"

The beast managed a small smile, a subtle thing only the inner corners of his dragony demon snout could manage. He nodded.

She stepped around one of his legs and looked up. The chains were locked firmly in place, but that didn't make any sense. Zel had locked him up, which meant there had to have been a point where the chains were workable. Maybe they--oh, there was a chain behind the beast, pulling at the other chains, locking them tight around wall hooks to keep his limbs spread. The center chain was bound to its own hooks along the wall, and went up and down the wall so each chain that bound the creature's limbs had a different place it could bind to the center chain.

Intricate. But, at the bottom, there was some sort of lock mechanism, a big block thing that held the chain tight to the wall hooks. If she undid that, he'd... still be locked up, because he could only move forward away from the wall and that'd just pull on the chains on the hooks. She'd have to unhook the chains herself, while standing underneath his legs and behind him. Scary.

"Okay! Okay, plan. I need a plan." She pulled on her hair as she stepped back and paced in circles. "Plan. Plan. Plan. I need to... to... make a decision." Brilliant plan. "Okay! I... I..." Slowly, her eyes went back to the leash. "Demons make deals, right?" Stupid plan. Her only plan.

Vinicius tilted his head.

"Demons, they make deals? It's a big thing in storytelling on the surface, that demons make contracts, deals with humans. The demon has to obey the word of the contract, but not the spirit of it, and will either honor the contract that's ultimately to the person's detriment, or try and find a way to violate the contract without breaking it so they can fuck the human over." Full rant mode. She was stalling. "I... I guess that doesn't apply here. But, either way, I have a deal to offer!" She gestured to the leash. "I'm going to get the leash, because, I mean, you're a demon and I can't trust you any further than I can throw you. And then I'm going to find a way to free you. Then you're going to help me. Okay? You help me, and--"

The metal door swung open, and the ancient reflex of a child to hide something they're not supposed to have at the sound of an approaching adult kicked in. She put her hands behind her back, spike pointed up.

Zel stood there, alone, and her usually calm, even playful, occasionally angry face held something Mia had never expected to see on her. Panic. Or maybe, frustration crossed with panic? She was rushing, in a hurry, and she set her eyes on Mia.

"Come with me."

"W-What? I--"

"Come with me! The rider is here, and has launched some absurd suicidal assault on the spire."

"The rider? I--"

"The blasted rider shows himself now, of all times! He's come for you, clearly. I will not risk your life to him, whether he is here to kill you or steal you away. Now come with me!" She reached down, grabbed Mia's shoulder, and pulled her toward the door. Her three metal rods were nowhere to be found, thank god.

Mia risked a quick glance back up at Vinicius, before she stepped forward with Zel.

"The rider is here for me? I don't... but I..." She stopped moving.

Mistake. Zel squatted down in front of her, grabbed her by the shoulders with two hands, and grabbed her by the neck with two others. Just one of the ten-foot-tall demon woman's hands was big enough to completely circle her throat, let alone two. Her red eyes on her smooth, beautiful, alien mask-like face glared at Mia with enough fury to incinerate her. The amber horn in the middle of her black horns glowed, and heat poured out of it over Mia's face hot enough to almost burn.

"You are mine. Your life is mine. If you so much as open your mouth again without my permission, I will rip out your tongue, and that will be but the first thing on my list of tortures I will force upon you every night." She pulled Mia in closer, until the demon's subtle nose almost touched hers. Whatever patience Zel had to be nice with Mia was gone, evaporated, by the rider's attack. "Understand me, slave? I am done playing games with you. The rider is here for you, proving how essential you are. I will no longer entertain this ridiculous dance of playful threats. You are mine! My tool! You will obey me, or so help me Lilith herself will--"

Mia sank the spike into Zel's left eye, as hard as she could. It sank through flesh far more easily than it should have.

Time froze. Zel stared at Mia. Mia stared at Zel in her one remaining eye. No one said a thing, total silence that stretched on and on until eternity seemed but a moment in the endless nothing. The spike went deep. It'd been sharper than Mia had thought, and Mia had put as much strength into the swing as she could. Years of exercising meant she had a bit of strength to work with, more than anyone thought a tiny ginger girl like her had, but that couldn't explain how easily the spike had parted flesh, and sunk deep into Zel's brain.

Zel should have dodged. She could have dodged, if she hadn't been lost in her rage, and utterly convinced of her superiority. The mix of searing fury and freezing cruelty coming out of the demon queen brought Mia's heart to a standstill, and only once the next heart beat kicked in did the eternity end.

"How... dare... y..." Zel's one eye held Mia's until it rolled upward. The demon queen's grip on her throat loosened, and eventually the grip on her shoulders, too. Almost as if trying to resist what just happened, to deny the reality, Zel refused to simply fall over. Her squat turned into a kneel, and for another moment, her single eye managed to refocus on Mia, and one of her hands reached out for her. Mia stepped back.

The bolstara tetrad fell on her side, and went still.

"Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god. What have I done?" Mia, eyes locked on the corpse of the demon queen and the big spike sticking out of her eye, knelt down in front of her. With a shaky, hesitant hand, she shook the giant woman's shoulder. No response. She pushed her over enough -- fucking christ she was heavy -- to see her chest, and watched. No breathing. Dead.

The amber horn on the queen's head glowed, flickered, and died.

"Oh fucking god. She's dead. She's dead and... and... I have no escape plan!" She'd seen enough documentaries and read enough about murderers to know the great flaw killers had was their obsession in planning a kill, and seeming inability to plan what to do after. Those people went to jail. She was going to get eaten alive, literally. "Shit shit shit! I have to..."

The door was open, and the door beyond it. Zel had come in in a rush, forgetting to close the second door. She always kept at least one of the two door closed between Vinicius and the dungeon.

Mia could run away, right now. No one knew Zel was dead, and other demons were used to seeing her around. Normally Kas would be with her.

Kas. He was probably waiting outside the dungeon. Maybe she could run to him, and ask for his help?

No! No. She liked Kas, and she was sure there was a decent guy in there, but that didn't mean she could trust him. Kas had said that himself, you can't trust demons.

She looked back to the leash dangling on the wall, and then to Vinicius. He had a small smile on again, and it looked a little more evil than she wanted.

"Okay. Okay. Okay okay plan plan. I need... keys! To find the keys! Do you know where the keys are? To your chains?"

Vinicius shook his head.

"Fuck fuck fuck! But, it does take keys, right? Keys would work?"

He nodded.

She ran out to the dungeon.

Corpses, everywhere. Skeletons, everywhere. All Zel's torture victims. Demons and souls, still alive, strapped down to bone chairs covered in spikes. Demons and souls missing limbs, sitting in cells of metal bars, with more spikes. She ignored them and their groans and screams as best she could.

"Keys, keys, keys." She forced her eyes up and around, and scampered around between bodies, blood, writhing screaming souls, and demons that glared at her with confusion and rage. Their cells had big metal padlocks, smaller than the one holding Vinicius's chains, but still, something that took a key. "Okay, someone here, tell me where the keys are! If you tell me where the keys are, I'll let everyone out!" Much as the idea of freeing these demons and souls sickened her, there was a good chance Zel locked them up more for disobeying her orders, rather than being so evil they had to be imprisoned. And besides, she'd free them only after Vinicius was free, and he'd protect her.

She'd make him protect her.

One of the demons in a nearby cell, one of the few who wasn't dead, managed to cough up a choked sound.

"Zel--"

"Zel's dead!" Mia gestured back to the room. "You saw her go in, and you don't hear her anymore! Where are the keys!?"

The demons looked between each other, before the vrat in the cell spoke up again. Poor guy was pinned to the wall, but not by chains. He had spikes through his wrists and ankles, crucifying him to the metal wall.

"In her... throne room."

Mia's heart sank into her stomach, and her shoulders fell with it. On the first day she'd arrived at the spire, getting to the throne room from the ground floor had burned her legs off. This trip would be twice as long, past demons, past maybe Kas or Adron or Diogo, or...

She stood up straight, sucked in a breath, tightened her hands into fists, and ran for the dungeon exit.