The Pleasures of Hell

~~Day 79~~

~~David~~

David winced. This wasn't going to work.

"It's not going to work," Tacharius said. Well, damn. Same wavelength.

Ahead of them stretched out dozens of tunnels, and the Scar. Below were dozens of levels, each an outcropping street that moved along the Scar wall, with a street above it and below it, and so on and so on, each street a giant step. What was it called? Terracing? Natural terraces. Whatever it was called, it meant the Scar was less a ravine, and more two very wide, steep stairways facing each other, with steps curving and long, reaching from one end of the Scar to the other.

If you wanted to go higher or deeper into the Scar, you just climbed up or down the wall, like walking up or down giant stairs; each platform was only about four or five meters above or below the other, usually. And each terrace, each step, had many tunnels connected, and large caves. And demons moved around within.

"Maybe," Jes said, raising a wing, "we put the blankets over the two angels? Hide them?" Everyone looked at her, and she shrugged. "Hey, at least I'm putting ideas out there."

The group of followers David had picked up hadn't gone back to the rest of the Scar yet. They should. If they stuck with David, they'd get into a battle, no doubt, but that didn't change that a bunch of betrayers and incubi and succubi were still with him.

The vrats and brutes had died with Timaeus. And sad as that was, it meant David now had a tiny army of useless combatants. Sure, the volas and betrayers were stronger than regular souls, but that didn't mean much. He trusted the Las to fight better than a sex demon.

Then again, it was an army, tiny or not. Eighty, maybe ninety people who could fight. That wasn't nothing.

Tacharius stepped to the edge of the terrace and gestured out at the Scar. "We're still in Vassil's Mouth. No one does much here. No hellbeasts or souls. As we push into the Scar, below us is the Floor, and above us will be the Dens, and it'll stay like that for the whole length of the Scar until we get to Guissia's Mouth."

"Bailiffs?" David asked.

"Three. Septima, a tregeera, prowls the topside every day, and keeps the Dens in check. Priscillian is an incubus on this end of the Scar, and he monitors the Floor. Tatiana is a succubus, and she watches the Floor on the other end of the Scar."

A tregeera, incubus, and succubus, were bailiffs? Somehow he'd expected all bailiffs to be tetrads, like in the Grave Valley.

"And they're all loyal?"

"The bailiffs are," Tacharius said. "Some groups have resisted Tarkissa. He pushes for war, convinced we should help the Red Pits fight the Navameere Fields. But we've never done that."

Laoko chuckled. "And what could an army of volas accomplish?"

Tacharius frowned up at the tetrad. "Plenty of other demon breeds in the Scar. Yes, we're mostly volas, but not only. And we might not fight as well as other breeds, but we can fight."

Acelina chuckled. "We zotiva do not pick vola eggs to do battle."

Tsila raised a hand. The two angels stood further in the back of the caves, out of sight of any demons wandering around inside the canyon.

"We have no choice but to expose ourselves," she said. "But as we understand it, the Scar is... less violent than the other provinces, so to speak. We may move around, and nearby demons won't immediately jump to the goal of devouring us, correct? On top of that, not only do we have many demons and betrayers"--she gestured to the small crowd--"following us, the crowd might grow, as they realize who David is."

"Whoa whoa." David put up his hands. "I'd rather not be the center of attention of the whole province, Tsila."

"Then I can fly you, and we hope my kin have spread the word well enough that the angels will leave us be."

Moriah shook her head. "The islands Azoryev and Yathael will take a lot to convince. Saar would not have been convinced without seeing what happened personally. And while angels never expect other angels to lie, they may suspect they've been hypnotized or affected by the unmarked and their powers." Sighing, she stepped closer to the edge of the cave, and made no attempt to hide her one-and-a-half wings. "It was easy to hide in the Grave Valley, but not here. And we must move quickly. Azailia is bound to pursue us."

Acelina spread her wings and grabbed Tacharius by a horn. "Then we have no choice. This volarin will be our ambassador. We will move through the Scar, avoid Tarkissa, and grow our influence. As more of the demons here accept David's power, we will simply walk our way to the Red Pits. Or, if the moment arises, we can march up to Tarkissa's spire and take it for ourselves!" She held out her free hand in front of her, claws up and out, and her wide shark smile came out on full display, showing an array of sharp teeth. Tacharius stared. "We could take this province, rule over it, and make it ours, and spread our control until the other spires bow to us as well! We can..."

Her smile faded, and she looked around. Everyone was staring.

She sighed and lowered her hand and wings. "Or we can be passive little children and do our best to avoid confrontation at all."

Caera laughed and stepped past her. "We can take over Hell another time, Acelina. For now, let's just focus on saving it. We have to get to False Gate as soon as possible, and unfortunately for us, we can't fly there."

"Indeed," Tsila said. "The storm on the island makes it terribly dangerous for any angel to land. And Azoryev and likely Yathael guard the island, too."

Jeskura gave her wings a flap. "Then we hope that bitch in the armor who saved my ass was right. We just keep going, and hope we figure out a way to get to the Forgotten Place at False Gate. If we end up amassing an army and running over everyone in our way, I suppose that'd work, too?"

"It wouldn't," David said. "The invaders showed up because I played the music too loudly. But I have to play loud if I'm going to take on another fucking battalion of angels!"

Jes shrugged like she knew the answer to all their problems. "Just get better?"

He facepalmed.

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

There weren't any phones in Hell. No cars. No fast way to send information, or get around. Only angels could get around quickly, and they weren't around to help Tarkissa out.

Which meant David and the group could just stroll through the Scar, sorta. Tarkissa would have to react, and it'd be days before he even knew David was in the Scar, let alone attack him. If that was even what he was going to do. And if it took a month to walk through a province, then there was a slim chance they could literally just walk through the province and avoid an altercation all together.

Yeah right.

The group walked the giant steps of the Scar's left canyon wall, and nearby demons stared, jaws dropping as they noticed the angels. They weren't close enough to see David's forehead well, especially with his shaggy red hair blocking it. Laoko earned some stares. Acelina earned a lot of stares; spire mothers never left the spires. But it was the two angels that had every nearby demon frozen, eyes locked on them.

Angels visiting Hell was rare, but it happened. Angels walking around randomly in their revealing potram clothes, with their gold bracelets and necklaces and anklets and whatnot? Probably never happened, ever, in the history of Hell.

Tacharius walked in front with Laoko, but not to be some sort of spearhead for their group. She just wanted him within arm's reach if she had to break his neck for tricking them. The rest of the group followed, though people got pretty lax with the 'formation'. There was something carefree about the Scar that had everyone relaxed, especially the followers.

Naoko came up beside David and smiled up at him. She wore some plain, dark, dirty silk wrapped around her. So did a lot of the betrayers. Not as nice looking as a lot of the incubi and succubi, but enough they weren't naked. They saved the good silk for trade, however that worked.

"Thank you."

"Thank you?" he asked.

"For saving us. From the angels, I mean. And that strange invader."

"I mean, I had to stop them if I wanted to live, too. But, you're welcome." He kept a straight face, but his insides slapped him upside the head. The invaders attacked because of him. Nine hundred and fifty angels died because of him.

Not fair. He didn't know what would happen, and he was just defending himself. And strangely enough, the battle had been the proof the angels needed that something was definitely wrong.

"It was really scary. You created that dome around us, and we couldn't see anything. Just hear it. I snuck up to the exit and watched best as I could, and you were amazing. The armor and staff, you were like a wizard."

He squirmed. "A wizard? You think?" Like he hadn't thought that a hundred times already.

"Yes!"

"You play video games."

She raised a brow. "I'm from Japan."

He choked on a laugh. "Hey, I'm not going to assume any cultural stereotype. Next, you'll tell me you play visual romance novels."

She glared, and he froze, but she erupted into giggles and gently shoved him.

"I'll have you know I played a few. A girl has her fantasies, too."

"Uh huh. Let me guess. A visual novel about a tall, dark, handsome, brooding guy? Dangerous, but in control of his danger? Is obsessed with the girl? Borderline stalks her?"

"Hey, don't give me that shit." She gestured to Laoko, and then back at Acelina. As she did, Acelina walked past them, spared a featureless glance for them, joined Laoko, and quietly chatted about something. "Those girls got tits bigger than their heads, and their heads are pretty damn big."

"That's not fair. I didn't seduce them or anything."

"Uh huh."

"I didn't!"

Claws grabbed him from behind, and he almost screamed. Weight hooked him, and suddenly he was leaning forward to keep from falling back.

"Latia seduce David," the tiny gremla said. Latia was a light little thing, but she had her meera armor on. She weighed as much as he did. "David like little Latia."

Naoko laughed and touched the tiny creature's wing. "You're fucking every demon in sight? Even the tiny little girl with barely any tits. Pretty sus, David."

If Latia noticed the implication, she didn't say anything, just giggled and rubbed her face in David's hair.

"She doesn't... She's not..."

The rest of the Las ran past them, giggling and playing, and Latia hopped off and joined them.

"I know," Naoko said. "Little goblins. Goblins can be sexy... if you've played too many video games growing up."

"Guilty."

"Which makes a girl like me happy." She grinned at him. "We're not all tits and ass on stilts."

No, Naoko was definitely not that. Short, dainty, pretty similar to Latia actually, except for being human and Japanese. She even had shoulder-length hair, too, like Latia's hair tendrils.

And the image of the two of them scissoring together hit David from out of nowhere, and he clenched his eyes shut for a moment. The aura did not escape him.

"You don't look like a goblin," he said.

"No, but you got to admit, anyone, guy or girl, is gonna get pretty self-conscious down here, surrounded by succubi and incubi."

"You say that, but I've heard from pretty much everyone that demons -- and angels -- are obsessed with us humans. The reason everyone likes the volas is they look the most like us, exaggerated, but still us. And even they prefer us to each other."

She nodded and looked back at the crowd following them. On the terrace, there was maybe ten meters width of ground to walk on, more than enough room for the group to follow easily, but it also meant every demon they passed stopped and watched. There was no sneaking this group, not when every tunnel led back to the Scar.

"True," she said. "And when you used your aura last night, it really just... flooded the whole cave and hit everyone. The orgy was insane."

He groaned. "Sorry. That was an accident."

"Don't be sorry! It was great. Just wait until you check out some places on the Floor. I really want to see you use that aura on a room with hundreds of volas and souls." She inched in closer. "You really fuck all those demons helping you?"

Groan turned to wince, and he aimed his eyes on the ground. No point in lying about it, if she was already asking the question.

"Yeah. At first it was just Jeskura and Daoka. They saved my life, and before I knew, I had this aura, and my body was changing, and..."

"Your body changed?"

"Uh, yeah." Tell her? Don't tell her? What was the harm? "I don't know why, but my body can change a bit. Not sure how it works, but when things get... heated, it can change to... um... make the sex... more..." Fuck, he shouldn't have said anything. "Laoko is almost twice as tall as me, right? But I can, uh... you know... make it work, size-wise."

Naoko's mouth fell open. "Are you serious?"

"Yeap."

"Dude, what are you?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I'll find that out, when I get to False Gate."

She poked his shoulder again, as if testing to see if he was real. "So you can, uh, just... make it bigger?"

"I know it sounds like a guy's dream come true."

"Duh."

"But it's... Okay, yeah, it's pretty great."

She laughed, but it faded, and her eyes fell to the ground, too. "Must be nice, being unmarked."

Uh oh.

"You mean, because of your number?"

"Yeah, that. And other things. You got angels watching over you, literally. You have demons going out of their way to help you. You're the star of the show."

He raised a brow and looked at her. "You want to be the star of the show? Because I know what I want to be doing. I want to be back in my dorm, learning programming, masturbating to increasingly weird porn, and easing by through life."

That got a laugh out of her, and she grinned up at him. "Increasingly weird porn?"

"Well, you know, virgin spends all his time online or playing video games, he develops some... weird tastes." He pointed at her. "Hey, I didn't invent tentacle porn. You did."

"That is so racist."

"Is it?"

"I don't know." She laughed again. "You don't sound like a typical nerd, hiding in his dorm or living in his mom's basement."

"Orphan."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Never really had a mom or dad, just guardians."

She pouted. "That's sad. But it looks like--"

A loud growl turned her around, and she gulped and backed away from Caera. The tiger prowled between her and David, and glared at the woman before nudging against David's leg and pushing him away.

"Sorry," Naoko said. "Sorry." She fell back and joined the others.

"Caera," David said. "Really?"

"Yes, really."

"We were just talking."

She growled up at him. "Humans never just talk. Especially a man and woman."

He opened his mouth, but only got halfway through a sound before he stopped himself. Think. What sort of humans did Caera deal with every day? Damned souls, who weren't exactly trustworthy. She dealt with the damned, with betrayers, with Cainites every single day, which meant he was the first human she'd ever talked to she could do something like trust with her heart.

Her heart. Was that even the right way to describe it? They liked each other, a lot, and were romantic. But a big part of romance was sex, and that dynamic was just so completely different in Hell, he had no idea how to navigate that, except for what she told him. She didn't mind sharing him with demons and angels. She had no intention of sharing him with another human.

"Caera," he said. "Look at me." She was already looking at him, and she raised a brow. "I mean, look at me, really." He leaned in closer and made some deliberate, close eye-contact. "There is nothing she could do that'd make me betray you. Nothing."

"But--"

"Nothing." Words weren't going to cut it. He wasn't good with them anyway. Best he could do was use the one weapon he knew worked: his eyes. He'd never be good at lying, or being manipulative in any way. A lifetime of not being able to trick anyone, or play poker, because of his expressive eyes.

She sighed and lowered her head. "Fine."

If that translated in Estian well, 'fine' was very much not fine. He stroked her back spikes, her shoulder, and ran his fingers through her short tendril hair.

"You really don't like her."

"I want to eat her."

"Don't eat her!"

"Why not? We've been eating lots of damned souls. We go on hunting trips without you because we know you'll get upset like this, but this is what demons have always done." She nudged her shoulder into his side again. "You should let me eat her."

"I'd really prefer you didn't."

She groaned and jogged ahead of him, as much as a cat jogged, and she joined Laoko and Acelina. Some glances back and narrowing of her single eye told him she was upset, but at least she trusted him.

Never, in a million years, did he think he'd get a jealous girlfriend. Demon girlfriend? Sure. Everyone got a demon girlfriend, right? A demon girlfriend who liked sharing him with other demons, and even angels? Slightly less likely, but still a perfectly reasonable expectation for any human young man to have. But a jealous girlfriend who'd defend him with jealous fervor? It just seemed so weird for someone to be that invested in him, that attached to him.

He froze for a moment. David had always had a bit of a cocky attitude. He was smart; it came with the introverted nerd territory. But he never really thought he'd be a good boyfriend, or a boyfriend a girl prized. And that realization came with some whiplash. He thought lowly of himself, at least about this.

Fuck. Where was Mia when he needed her? This was exactly the sort of thing he'd talk to her about.

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

"And this is the Floor," Tacharius said. "A pretty strict no-violence zone. I mean, as non-violent as you can expect from demons. But most understand the Scar doesn't work if demons start killing each other."

Acelina groaned. "So you sneak, maneuver, lie, cheat, and stab each other in the back, rather than face each other directly."

Tacharius shrugged. No insult there for him.

The Floor wasn't the bottom of the Scar as much as it was all the bottoms of the Scar, the three or four bottom layers of the terrace steps, and the tunnels they held within. So many tunnels, the Scar almost looked more like a bee hive or ant hive from down here.

And just like an insect hive, demons flowed. Imps and grems hung around by the thousands, climbing up and down the deep and dark edges of the Floor lit only by amber veins; not much of the burning sky's light reached this deep, past all the curves of the canyon. They stopped and stared at the angels, perched on nearby ledges, and even approached and stared from up close.

"Lasca," Acelina said, "come speak to your little friends."

Lasca squeaked and ran up to join them, but David stopped her.

"Lasca." He leaned in close and whispered in her ear. "Think you can convince the imps and grems that I'm on their side?" Lasca stared at him, confused. "I mean, imps and grems don't really serve the spire ruler, right? You all kinda just... do whatever you want."

"Imps and grems don't matter to spire ruler or bailiffs." Lasca shrugged.

"Well, they matter to me. And you four girls matter to me. You saved my life." He leaned over and gently head-butted her forehead. "Everyone else underestimates you imps and grems. I don't. If we can get their help, that'd be amazing."

Lasca's wide eyes opened wider. She nodded vehemently, rubbed foreheads with him, and joined Acelina, Laoko, and Tacharius at the head of the group. It wasn't long before a hundred of the little creatures joined them on the terrace, chatting away with the Las, all with wide eyes and dropped jaws as Latia, Laria, Lasca, and Laara recanted the tales of fighting angels, Cainites, and even strange alien invaders. And whenever they mentioned David helping them, or any of the demons, the imps and grems stared at David and the girls, shocked.