The Pleasures of Hell

~~Day 91~~

~~Mia~~

They ran. But for all the dread and fear the rider brought with him, he wasn't catching anyone without a mount. Like some shitty slasher horror movie, he practically walked after them, and as long as they kept their distance and ran, he couldn't catch them. Maybe the rider would find another mount eventually, but for now, he didn't have one.

It took a little effort to convince Anianus that fighting the rider wasn't a good idea. For all the bailiff's supposed intelligence, he and his demons had been eager to fight the legendary, immortal human. Only when Vin had said no did they finally smarten up.

It'd be evening twilight soon, and they were still surrounded by archangel flesh. And no way Mia would go to sleep surrounded by all these strangers, especially with the rider behind them.

A brute ahead of her with a half breastplate, a sword on his back, and a single arm, looked back at her. Brutes were so damn scary. Something about how skull-ish their faces were, with small eyes deep in the eye sockets. Sure, brutes would be hard pressed to beat a tetrad in a fight, or a sarkarin like Kas. And sure, they had no chance of killing someone like Vinicius, but that didn't change the fact that brutes were extremely dangerous. And Anianus, bailiff of this side of Angel's Spine, walked with a dozen of them, escorting Mia and the crew to his spire ruler Dobasi.

Romakus walked up to the brute and poked his armless shoulder with his wing claw. "What happened to you?"

"Stone crawler."

"A traslk took your arm?" Romakus had mentioned mud crawlers and stone crawlers a while back. Giant centipedes. Maybe traslk was their proper 'Hell' name. "Surprising."

The brute shook his head. "I was a hatchling. And it was mutated."

"Ah. Makes sense."

"What makes sense?" Mia asked. "Wait. Why would a hellbeast be in the hatching pit? There's only demons in there, right?"

Anianus chuckled and walked backward, literally, very Romakus-like.

"The spire here in Angel's Spine is not like other spires. When the archangels fell, the spire was driven deep into Hell, and damaged it. And with aeons, the flesh of God's first have warped the flesh of Hell, the hellbeasts, and even the spire itself. Such is the power of the archangel, warping flesh." With a soft chuckle, he smiled at Mia. "Our hatchlings are sent to the hatching pit, as in every spire. But here in Angel's Spine, there are tunnels that connect to the hatching pit, and hellbeasts roam within."

"Oh," Mia said. "Oh!" Wincing, she looked around at the many demons and their many scars. That's why everyone was covered in old wounds. They had to fight off hellbeasts, mutated and strong, as kids, or at least the demon equivalent of a kid. "That's horrible!"

"Horrible?" Anianus asked.

"Well, yeah." She gestured at the one-armed brute. "He lost an arm so young."

"But he was armed with a purpose!"

She glared at the bailiff. Romakus burst into laughter. Assholes.

Anianus winked, shrugged his wings, and returned to walking with his group.

"I like him," Romakus said.

Yosepha rolled her eyes. "You like chaos."

"Chaos makes the world go 'round."

"That's money," Mia said. "Not that Hell has currency."

"Souls," Romakus said, and he adopted a deep, evil cackle. "We trade in souls!"

If he thought he'd get a laugh out of Mia, he failed. She glared up at him and punched his leg, beside the armor. Might as well have punched the armor for all she accomplished. At least Cerb got the message, and he growled up at Romakus and snarled at him, ready to go for a bite.

"It's okay, Cerb," she said. "Come on, boy. Heel."

She headed toward the back of the group, where the true resident asshole walked side by side with Noah. Exhausted, Noah had dismissed his armor, and held his gut as he walked. Vinicius, on the other hand, ignored his wounds, even as blood trickled down his body. They had to find a place to sleep soon, but at least everyone was well fed. A well-fed demon or angel was healing a demon or angel.

Problem: Noah and Vin's wounds weren't minor. Noah's guts had almost come out, and Vin was covered in bite marks, gashes, and had been stabbed several times. They needed proper time to sit and heal, and it was several days to the Angel's Spine spire.

"You okay?" she asked Noah.

"I live."

"That's not what I asked."

The angel peeked at his wound under his hand. "The wound is closed well enough I can move and fight."

"Yeah? Because after you got those two hellhounds off Vin, you didn't contribute to the rest of the fight. I'm guessing because you knew your insides were about to become your outsides?"

He grimaced. "Perhaps."

"Well, at least you're willing to admit it. Vin and Azreal would probably fight until they passed out, wouldn't they?"

Noah looked up at the titan walking beside him, and then ahead to Azreal, walking in his armor, giant shield at the ready.

"You really think you have us figured out," he said.

"What?"

The angel looked down at her, and his silver eyes struck her still.

"You do not know us."

"I..." She gulped. Where did this come from?

They walked in silence for a while, speed-walked, considering the rider was on their ass. She looked up at Noah, but the angel kept his gaze ahead, wearing a permanent frown. Whatever she'd said, it'd annoyed the angel. So much for developing a rapport.

"We must find somewhere to sleep," Vinicius said. "Or hide. The rider does not rest."

Kas clicked once, nodding.

"We still have a day's walk to get out of here," Anianus said. "And that's to the nearest exit."

"Then we do not stop," Julisa said. "The rider cannot be killed."

"I'd love to try," Anianus said, but raised his wings before anyone could say anything. "But I believe you. We go."

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

~~Day 92~~

Finally, a wall. All night and most of the next day, they walked in the dark, unable to see a damn thing except for the foot-deep blood around their shins, Yosepha and Azreal's glowing weapons, and the torches of Anianus's demons.

Demons did not like hiking. The more they walked, the more they slowed, and much as Mia was not built for hiking either, it was painful watching big, strong demons get weighed down by time. In the end, Mia didn't ride Kas or Vin, fearing her weight would be a burden, and dragged her sandals through the blood.

But they found a wall. Anianus had steered them right. A hole in the flesh took them out of the endless dark into a cavern, and Mia almost wept at the sight of amber veins in the massive cavern below.

Hell. She could feel Hell again, feel the strands of her body, her lava rivers below reaching up into the rock walls as amber veins. Burning bushes below, growing from rocks poking up from rivers of archangel blood. Enormous bones, white, jutted up from the ground like the colossal ones from the Black Valley. And one such bone touched the edge of the tunnel exit Anianus and his crew stood in, in a curiously perfect spot to be walked on like a stairway going down.

"We go," Anianus said. "Make sure to follow us, unmarked. We are deep, and if we go deeper, we risk stirring that which lies below."

"That which lies below?"

"Yes."

"You... quoting a movie?"

He smiled back at her. "No." He gestured ahead, and his army went first, down onto the wide bone slab, down into the massive cavern.

They walked down a giant spine, like stairs.

Azreal and Yosepha took to the air and hovered. They scouted, flying around, above, and under the giant bone structure sticking up from the blood river below. Remnants shrieked and cried, and Mia was almost thankful to hear them.

The ceiling was all flesh, and it dripped blood in various places, little bloodfalls that made little blood pools. A few burning bushes stuck up from dry places, and some not so dry places, fighting against the blood to stay lit. Amber veins were few, climbing up the stone walls, but far better than complete darkness they'd just left behind.

There were giant bones everywhere, sticking up from the ground, growing from it, and they created stairways to raised chunks of rock, pathways in the cavern that was actually a giant tunnel. It was strangely beautiful terrain. Or maybe that was just Mia feeling better, now that she could feel Hell once again.

She peeked down over the edge of the bone stairs, to the ground below. Remnants wandered, free of their prisons. Would Hannah be down there? She took a deep breath and followed Anianus and Romakus down, keeping them both close.

Cerberus felt no such need to stay close. He half barked, half roared, and ran down the giant spinal cord, weaving past the demons on the way.

"Cerb!" she yelled. "Cerberus! Come! Heel!"

Cerberus didn't listen. With cat-like agility, he bounded down to the blood river below, and wasted no time unleashing his predator instincts on the wandering remnants.

Mia held up her hands. "Yosepha!"

Without argument, Yosepha swooped down, grabbed Mia's wrist, and flew down to the blood river near Cerb. Body aching, head throbbing from a night of zero sleep, Mia summoned her armor and staff and slammed its base into the ground. The blood river was a foot deep, just like the dark cavern they'd escaped, but not wide, and she pointed at the embankment.

"Cerberus!" she growled through her teeth. "Come!"

Cerberus, teeth locked around a now-dead remnant's leg, lowered his head and walked toward her, dragging the remnant with him.

"Drop it."

Cerberus did not drop it.

"Drop it!"

If Cerberus got aggressive with her, growled at her, roared at her, or fought her to keep his prize, she wasn't sure what she'd do. What did actual dog owners do if their dog suddenly got aggressive or started showing signs of food aggression?

Cerberus let the dead remnant go.

Mia sighed and rubbed her big dog's heads. Rubs for dopey head, serious head, and boss head, her hands massaging the leathery skin before stroking back the mane of spikes.

"Good boy," she said. "Come." She looked up at the spinal cord stairway overhead, the many demons walking down it, and the angel beside her, chopping down remnants by the pair with each sword swing. There were a lot of remnants.

"I think it best," Yosepha said, "now that Cerberus has obeyed, that you let the hellhound release some frustration. It has not slept either."

"Yeah, you're right." And hopefully Cerberus, like dogs on the surface, wouldn't have the memory span to think he was getting rewarded for running off. "Cerberus, get 'em!"

Cerberus launched at the wandering remnants and ripped them to shreds. Mia watched only long enough to make sure he was fine before she walked out of the river onto some hard ground. Such a massive cavern, with remnants growing out of stalactites and stalagmites, and giant bones sticking up from random chunks of ground. Not so giant, really, compared to the archangel's bones, but still, huge slabs of white that the crew and Anianus's army walked on like boardwalks.

"Alright," Mia said to Anianus once he'd joined them. "Now that I can sense Hell again, I can help out."

"Oh?" The gorujin tetrad jumped down the last few meters of the bone stairs, and flared his wings on the way down. "Is your strange hellhound mutant going to help us? Take care of all these zombies for us?" Shuddering, Anianus wrapped his wings around his torso. "Creepy."

"What? No. I mean, I guess he's already doing that." She gestured to the blood river, and Cerberus running around inside it, taking down remnant after remnant. As long as he didn't run off, that was fine. "I mean, I can use my powers now."

"Ah, the abilities of an unmarked. I've only heard whispers of such powers. Not even Dobasi has told me what you're truly capable of." Wearing an evil grin that Romakus could have worn, the giant demon squatted in front of her, tilted his head, and his long dreadlocks rolled off his shoulder.

He didn't believe she had power. Or he didn't think they were dangerous. Apparently, her fancy armor wasn't proof enough.

She frowned at him, held out a hand, and pointed it at the bone stairway they'd walked down. A few demons were still on it, but she wanted to make a point.

The bone structure vibrated and groaned, and changed. It bent and warped, more malleable than rock, and Mia was free to play music for it and curve and twist it like a snake. Sculpting it was easy enough, but she had to be careful she didn't play the music loudly. A delicate balance of loud, but not so loud Hell would jump on board and help her.

The bone grew, its tip flared, and she guided the strange stairway up and pressed it against the exit of the flesh cavern they'd escaped, blocking it. But that wouldn't be enough to stop the rider. She summoned more bone, thick pillars in the shape of spinal cords, and she guided them like a host of centipedes up from between the demons, and brought the giant structures to the exit. They pressed against it, like bracing a wall of boards jammed against a door, or a chair under the doorknob.

White spots danced in her vision, and her legs didn't listen. She fell on her hands and knees, sweat dripping down her body, but when Anianus approached, she smiled up at him and his shocked face.

"That," she said, "is what I can do when I am fucking dead tired, and with no help from Hell."

The tetrad nodded appreciatively and looked up at her work. "That is very impressive. Good job."

She blinked. That was a straight compliment, from a demon. Weird. She wasn't sure whether she liked that or not. A backhanded compliment like Romakus would give her, she'd expect from a demon, or maybe a dismissal like Vin would give her, or just a click or grunt from Kas.

She did not trust this Anianus. Dobasi had used a spire aura, for a little while, and Mia's runes had blocked it. The spire aura was gone now, but that didn't change Dobasi had used it in a bid to find her. Capture the unmarked, the spire aura had ordered. Maybe it still lingered in their hearts, or sins.

"This," Anianus said, gesturing around at the cave tunnel, "is our world. We do not normally enter the areas of Angel's Spine where there are only the holy bodies of the three to find. It is dangerous inside their veins. But here where their flesh meets stone, you will find many demons, and many hellbeasts."

"So just as dangerous," Julisa said.

Laughing, Anianus pointed down the colossal tunnel, and without a word, he and his demons started the march.

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

They found a spot to rest, a quieter section of the cave with a raised chunk of rock ground where the remnants couldn't reach them. Everyone climbed up onto the stone, and Mia stared out from the edge at the surrounding tunnel. A ten-meter drop into the blood river below, but the river was too shallow to stop her from breaking a bone if she fell. Don't fall.

"Okay," Mia said to Anianus. "I'm making my friends and me a home. You all can go do... Well, it's your home. Do whatever you want, I guess. We're sleeping alone."

Anianus squatted in front of her and tilted his head. "Are you giving me orders, unmarked?"

"Nope. Do whatever you want. But I am fucking exhausted, and I trust you as far as I can throw you. So we're going to sleep."

Before Anianus could respond, she turned, faced the wall their raised path of rock ran along, and played the silent song. From the wall she summoned rock, a thick slab of it a few meters thick, pulled it down to the ground, and bent the sides to connect the wall and ground. A door in the front came last, and tadah, she had a cave built in the wall, complete with some small holes in the upper walls for air.

Anianus stared. She grinned at him, scrunched up her nose, and entered her cave. The crew followed. Once everyone was safe within, Anianus stood at the door, head tilted.

"A safe den for you, but not for us?"

"I'm tired," she said. "Maybe next time." She raised her hand, lifted a chunk of ground up into the doorway, and sealed them safely away in her cave.

Surrounded by friends and no one else, she collapsed on her ass, panting. Cerberus pushed up against her, and she leaned on him, hooking an arm between the spikes along his back.

Her voice came out a trembling whisper. "Fuck me, I am drained."

"You antagonize him," Yosepha said.

"Anianus? I don't trust him."

"He saved us from Vicente."

She shook her head. "I know, but I still don't trust him, or Dobasi."

"Smart," Romakus said. "I'm certain Dobasi hunted down and killed all the Damall here in Angel's Spine. He despises me, and intruders."

Mia sat up straight. "He's going to be a problem. No way he's going to just let me go. Or maybe he won't let our angels go, thinking he should get to eat them! Or something. Whatever happens, I just know it won't be good."

Everyone nodded, except Vin, and the crew got comfortable, finding their usual places to sit. Mia made the cave big enough for them to have some room, and they spread out, Azreal and Noah taking one spot, Yosepha and Romakus taking another, and Kas and Vin taking another. Julisa, the wildcard, sat between Vin and Kas, leaned against Kas's side, and ran a claw along his shoulder. Side by side and sitting, they were the same size, though Kas was a meatier beast. She was playing with fire, teasing him. Knowing Julisa, it'd make her happy if Kas got angry at her and smacked her around a little.

Mia glared at her. Julisa returned it with a wicked smile and traced claws along Kas's chest. What a bitch.

"Vin," Mia said. She crawled over to the big guy, sat in front of him, and glared at him. If she asked if he was okay, he'd dismiss her. She had to play his game and be aggressive. "You're wounded. Badly."

"I will be fine."

"You really took the initiative when you jumped Vicente. You could have died, you know, if they'd been faster."

Vin snorted, and said nothing.

"And," she said, "Anianus thinks, once Alessio finds you, you might have triggered a war, killing her bailiff and all."

Another snort, and click, deep in his throat.

"I didn't tell you to attack him," she said.

Vin leaned over her, breathed into her face, and her hair fluttered in the hot air.

"I don't need your permission."

"It's not about permission, Vin! You burned down the Maze in the Black Valley, so now Alessio thoroughly hates us. And now you've killed Vicente. Don't be surprised if she sends her entire army after us now! She might use a spire aura, summon an army, seal that aura in with her tools, and then we'll have, oh I dunno, a few hundred thousand demons chasing us!"

The demon snorted. "I will--"

"You can't fight a few hundred thousand demons at once, Vinicius." She dropped the full name like a mom scolding their child. "We're trying to get to False Gate quietly. You're making it anything but quiet."

He didn't back off, and again snorted in her face. "Your indecision will cost you your life. I am the reason you are alive."

Mia frowned her hardest frown and looked at the rest of the crew for some backup. The three angels had nothing to say, so she settled for Romakus.

"Hard to say," he said. "Vicente was looking for a fight, both times. Maybe in the second encounter, Anianus could have convinced him to leave, but... Well, I can't entirely blame Vinicius for attacking when he had the chance."

"Indeed," Julisa said, slipped her tail around Vin's leg, and winked at Mia. It was so performative, it caught Mia between angry and laughing.

Sighing, Mia inched away, sat in the middle of the cave, and lay on her back. With her flimsy red silks, she had to keep her legs snug together to keep the others from getting a peek.

"Cerberus," she said, and held out her hands.

Her big, beautiful lion-wolf dog lay beside her, facing her, and set all three heads on her chest. She hugged them as best she could, scratched the underside of his neck, and combed back his mane's spikes with her arm. And the bestest boy in the whole world rumbled happily.