The Pleasures of Hell

~~Day 137~~

~~Unknown~~

A battle. Demons everywhere, slaughtering each other.

The woman stared at the body of a dead fassila spider, a titanic version of the already giant hellbeast. Dead, head ripped open.

She stared through a dozen eyes as her body grew, transforming into a weird, fleshy mass of limbs, not unlike the dead spider itself. A dozen gazes mixing, overlapping, like a kaleidoscope.

Through a dozen images, a small boy, a ginger wearing black armor and wielding a black staff, looked down at the dead tregeera at his feet, eyes wide with shock, disbelief, and rage. His armor shattered. His staff shattered. And he transformed. He stepped over the dead demon girl, and grew. And grew.

Me. David. That's me.

It was abhorrent. A centipede thing, its long body covered in ten thousand screaming faces, each glaring straight at her. Limbs grew from it, more and more, arms and legs and wings and mandibles and things that made no sense. It curved as it came to her, body bending in the strange ways a centipede did, as it grew human-like arms from one of its ends, and brought them down on her body.

All her size and strength meant nothing compared to the ginger boy who'd grown into this creature. Pain ravaged her, blinding her to anything but agony, and the monster rained hammer blows down on her, until a million things inside her shattered.

Everything went red, blood coating her gaze. Then black, death pulling her down and down. She kept her gaze on the monster until the darkness took her, a couple dozen eyes staring up at thousands of eyes, each staring death into her, each screaming, each drowning the battlefield in a chorus of pain and misery. They weren't just screaming. The faces were crying.

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~~Day 138~~

~~David~~

He sat up with a jolt and swung his hand beside him. No one there.

No one there.

He took a slow, trembling breath, and rubbed his face with his hands. Knowing it was coming was different than experiencing it, how quickly he'd grown used to something being there, and then just... not. And there were a hundred things he hadn't even thought about, specific little things that didn't cross his mind until now. The heat of her body, a little warmer than his. The way her spikes sometimes rubbed against him and scratched him. The way she breathed slowly, heart and breath slower than his.

Thankfully, the horror of the vision replaced the sadness crawling up his spine.

As the girls woke up in the cave, David sat against the wall with Pegasus and clenched his eyes shut. The vision. God, he'd been terrifying. The unmarked girl's last sight was of a monster out of a fucking nightmare, some giant fleshy thing covered in faces. He'd looked... biblical. He hadn't realized each and every face on his body, pressed together enough to give anyone with trypophobia a heart attack, had all been glaring and screaming, mouths wide enough to expose teeth. Horrific.

He clutched his knees to his chest and trembled.

Dao was at his side immediately, rubbing his shoulder and clicking at him.

"The vision," David said. "It's just the vision. I knew I'd get it. But... yeah."

Jes joined them, sat with Pegasus, and helped the growing horse up to his hooves.

"Bad?" she asked.

He nodded. "I didn't realize I'd... looked like that." Not entirely true, but better they think that was what was bothering him, and not seeing Caera again in the vision, seeing her body through the dozen eyes of a madwoman.

You got revenge, David. That had to count for something, right?

He wasn't sure it did.

The Las came up to him, sat in front of him, and waited, big eyes locked on him and each face trapped in a half frown.

"Girls?" he asked.

Lasca, ever the leader, held up a hand. "Worried about David."

"I'm fine, Lasca. It was just a vision of the last unmarked to die. I knew--"

"Not vision. About Caera. We miss her."

He flinched. So much for imps and grems getting over things like death faster than the others.

"Yeah," he said. "Me too."

Without request, Laoko and Acelina walked over and plucked the Las away, both giving David a solemn nod. Maybe Tsila explained it, or maybe they just knew on their own. Now was not the time to bring up Caera.

Time to get to work.

He got up and spent a couple of minutes with Pegasus, rubbing his horns, petting his wings, and pressing cheek to cheek as he hugged him. His insides were still raw, but not so raw that he couldn't at least make sure Pegasus felt good, and loved.

He waved a hand, summoned a silent song, and peeled back the cave ceiling, revealing the group to the army above. Sure enough, the army was still there, and Khazeer wasn't far off. As David and the crew climbed out of cave-now-pit, the spire ruler approached, his bailiffs with him, Zaavras and Sazillia. Tatiana, Tacharius, and the other sex demons weren't too far off either, looking decidedly less scared now that Morgana's army had backed off.

Khazeer opened his mouth, but David held up a hand and summoned a rock platform. He raised himself a couple of meters off the ground, and all nearby demons took a step back in surprise at how easily he did so. And from his vantage point, he saw no sign of Morgana's army. They had indeed fled.

Body heavy and aching, he sat on the edge of the platform, putting himself at eye level with the tetrad Khazeer.

"Khazeer?" David asked.

"Unmarked." The spire ruler nodded. His wing was still a mess, but at least it wasn't bleeding anymore. "When do you plan to continue your journey?"

"Tomorrow."

The tetrad nodded. "I cannot follow past the border. I must stay in my province. You understand."

"I do."

"But I understand the fate of the Great Tower rests on your shoulders. What aid can I provide?"

David tilted his head. Khazeer had proven to be more reasonable than previous spire rulers. The first, actually. But offering resources? That was a step beyond what he'd expected. Maybe Sazillia had a point about her boss.

"I'm trying to sneak my way through the Navameere Fields," he said. "But now that everyone knows about me, they'll be looking for me, and Morgana doesn't sound as reasonable as you."

"She is not," Khazeer said, nodding.

"And worse are the angels. So I need to avoid them even more."

"Understood."

"So I need a way I can push through the province while avoiding contact as much as possible, and drawing as few eyes as possible. What can you tell me about the province?" David gestured to the incubus Tacharius. "Tacharius's already told me the province has literal fields--"

"Avoid the fields, unmarked," Khazeer said. "They will shred human flesh, and are filled with hellbeasts."

Flashback to that scene in The Lost World with raptors in the long grass.

"Alright. Any gear to spare?"

The spire ruler nodded and gestured to his brute honor guard. "You will need it more than they."

David sat up straight and stared as the brutes took off their armor and set it on the ground in front of him. They weren't wearing meera metal. They were wearing aera metal, forged from the bodies of angels, a bronze and red metal with highlights and edges of gold. Indestructible, far as anyone knew. The brutes weren't wearing as much as Khazeer, or especially the rider, but the slabs of metal were thick and beautiful, held snug to their bodies with heavy-duty leather straps.

The big aera swords were gorgeous.

"You're giving me this?" David asked the spire ruler.

"Some of it. Take what your group can comfortably wear, and what demons you think will be of use to you." And despite it all, the huge demon grinned. "Except for Tatiana."

The succubus rolled her eyes, but offered David a tiny finger-wave, too. A potential friend?

"Wonderful," Laoko said. Without hesitation, she stripped out of her meera metal in front of everyone. For just the tiniest, fleeting second, David looked at her absurd curves, and forgot about everything else.

The moment passed as quickly as it'd came. Still, it was nice.

Jes joined her, grumbling as she picked up some pieces. "All of this is too big for anyone but a tetrad or a devorjin brute, and maybe a zotiva. Acelina?"

On cue, Acelina joined Laoko, and stripped. Again, utterly absurd curves, even more ridiculous than Laoko's, and she scooped up some of the aera pieces. The crotch guard, a breastplate, and something for the quads and forearms. Jes and Dao helped the two huge ladies get dressed in the upgrade, and Tsila and Moriah watched, frowning. No need to ask why.

Laoko held a sword in each hand. They were big swords, but she made it work, and she took a few experimental swings with four blades; girl tetrads always looked like farm equipment reaping the harvest when swinging all four arms at once.

Acelina only had two arms, and looked much more comfortable using both to wield one sword.

"Tight," the spire mother said, groaning as she gestured to the breastplate hugging her chest.

Sazillia chuckled, standing at Khazeer's side.

Laoko gestured to Sazillia. "And we will take her."

David froze. Khazeer froze.

"You want one of my bailiffs?" Khazeer asked.

Laoko smiled and hooked all four swords onto hooks on the back of the breastplate; a tetrad had worn it before.

"Sazillia found us near the Scar, punishment for failing you before, yes? She has since regained her honor. And the Scar needs no border patrol. Send scouts to speak with Septima, and she will understand that you and David are now allies. That leaves Zaavras to patrol your border with the Navameere Fields, and you know Morgana will not be quick to attack again after yesterday."

David glared at Laoko, but she grinned back at him, turning her head fast enough to sneak in a wink and make her long dreadlock ponytail bounce against her lower back.

"I concur," Acelina said. "Sazillia, have you pushed into the Fields before? When fighting Morgana's forces?"

Sazillia blinked at them a few times and gave her tail a flick. "I have."

The spire mother nodded. "Then you will be our guide."

David looked to Tsila and Moriah for help, and while they both spared him a glance, it wasn't to share in his dismay. Laoko and Acelina had taken over the conversation, and the angels agreed with what they were saying. David agreed with them, too, but it didn't feel good having the crew make decisions for him.

Except, it kinda did, at least for the moment. Let someone else drive for now. He relaxed, let his muscles unclench, and let Laoko and Acelina handle negotiations. Trust. He could trust them, even Laoko, sort of. But it wasn't in his nature to let someone else handle things, always doing the planning or the work in group projects, always--

They wanted to help him. Let them help.

He closed his eyes and gestured down to Pegasus. "Up."

Pegasus gave his wings a flap and jumped high, using them to launch himself a couple of meters onto the rock platform. He stood at David's side, nudging into him, and the two of them watched Laoko and Acelina barter.

Eventually, Khazeer relented. Sazillia would join them, a boisterous fujara tetrad. Unlike Laoko, Sazillia had clawed feet and a tail, but otherwise had the same absurd ten-foot height and four arms. Short tendril hair, an absolutely nasty scar across her throat like someone had slit it in the past, and now one of her four big horns was missing its top half. If anyone had seen a few battles, it was Sazillia.

Plus, she came with her own aera armor and swords, re-armed with her old gear when she'd brought David to Khazeer. It made perfect sense to bring her.

"Why not Zaavras?" David asked, gesturing to the second bailiff. A korgejin tetrad, wings, hooves, no tail, wearing his own aera gear and sporting more than a few scars and trophies.

"He could," Sazillia said, stepping up to David's platform and smiling at him. "But he's always been more defensive. You need offense, right? Someone who'll run in and get things done quickly? I'm your girl."

David squinted past her at Laoko and Acelina. Any other day, he'd find their attempts to get yet another girl into the 'harem' funny. Not today.

But Laoko was impervious to his glare, and smiled at him as she adjusted the leather straps of her new, fancy armor.

"Tomorrow, then," Moriah said. Both she and Tsila had their wings and togas wrapped in brown leather again, and they didn't look happy about it. "Today, we talk about the Fields with Sazillia. And we rest."

Khazeer nodded. "Then it is done. My army will join you up to the border, and Zaavras and I will do battle with Morgana's forces there. We will spearhead the charge into Navameere Fields and tear a hole through their army. And then Sazillia and the unmarked will sneak through in the chaos and infiltrate the province." The tetrad flapped his wings and regretted it instantly, groaning and looking at its ruined membrane. "Agreed, unmarked?"

Sighing, David gestured to Tsila. "Help him out, please."

Tsila nodded, stepped up to Khazeer, and motioned for him to kneel. Khazeer tilted his head, looked at David again, and David gestured at Tsila again. Once on his knee, Tsila ran her hands over his wings, keeping the gold glow low--slow healing. But it was enough for Khazeer's eyes to open wide and stare at his wing repairing in real time.

"Morgana," Laoko said. "She will assume David is with your retaliatory attack, Khazeer, and she will defend against your attack with forces effort."

It took a bit, but Khazeer looked away from his healing wing.

"Then she will be disappointed, and I will be sure not to push too aggressively. I will not cross the border, but Zaavras will, to draw her attention. It will be a great battle, but I will not sacrifice my province on the possibility that David will succeed."

Aragorn, Khazeer was not. Still, something was better than nothing.

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David and the girls got back in the pit, the cave without a ceiling anymore, and they all sat, letting the hours slip on by. At first, David couldn't feel anything, numbness coming and going as if he had been out in the cold too long; Canadian winters did that to any man. But like it were a weird joke, once he grew a burning bush in the center of the pit to be their bonfire, the numbness ebbed, as if the fire helped.

That's how it went, according to Mia. Sometimes you went numb. Sometimes the emotions ran you over, and you spent weeks, or even months, sliding between the two states. And when emotions ran high, people retreated into a bottle. David had always told himself he'd never drink, and only a weak worm would pick up a self-destructive habit like that. Now, it was easy to understand why anyone would. Anything to escape the pain when the emotions came back.

David had only known Caera for a few months. What did a man feel when a wife of twenty years died in a car accident? Or when his child died? Drinking yourself to death made all too much sense, now.

He held out his hands and pretended to heat his fingers on the flames of the burning bush. The girls had probably seen scenes like that in the scrying pool, people warming themselves around a campfire, and the Las immediately joined him. Of course, they got too close and whined when they burned themselves, which Tsila took care of immediately with a smile.

Dao sat with David, shoulder to shoulder. Jes sat on his other side, not quite touching his shoulder, but close enough her wing rested against his back. They were Caera's friends, too, and had known her for years. They could mourn with him.

And they were mourning. The angels were wrong about demons, or at least, not completely right. It might not have been as theatrical or melodramatic as a human mourning, but they were.

A human poked their head up over the edge of the pit. Naoko, the petite Japanese lady. Naoko, who'd screwed over her friends for money and got herself a small stint in hell. 9, replaced with 666, because she was so afraid to die a second time and become a remnant, she willingly ingested the blood of a demon who willingly gave it to her.

Fear made people dumb. David couldn't blame her.

"Can I join you?" she asked.

Everyone looked up at her, confused, but Acelina flared her wings, almost like an angry bird.

"Where's your succubus master?" the spire mother asked.

Naoko flinched. "Zazee's with Tatiana. They're trying to figure out what to do now."

"Do?" Laoko asked. "You stay with Khazeer, do you not? He will not die any day soon, and you will join him back in the spire. And someday you will journey back to the Scar. Septima will take care of you."

Relieved, Naoko sat on the pit's edge, wearing nothing but some flimsy, dirty silk drapes.

"I mean, I do like the idea of not risking my life anymore," she said. "But it's all pointless if we don't help David, right? I... I figured when we started this journey, way back in the Grave Valley, we'd be going all the way. I mean, once we understood the stakes."

Right. They'd met Tacharius, Zazee, and the betrayers Naoko, Fuad, and Natalie at the edge of the Grave Valley and the Scar, stealing spiderwebs to be woven into proper silk garments. And ever since then, Naoko had snuck David a few million glances. Even now she looked at him, sad. Or pretending to be sad. Whether she cared about Caera or not, he had no idea.

She wanted to stay with David because she was terrified. And maybe she thought he'd be able to do something about her number, since he was special. Maybe she even liked him.

And David wanted nothing to do with her.

He tried it on for size, in his mind. Caera had even suggested it, that while he couldn't trust her, they could have some sexual fun with her. Him, with Naoko, the two of them walking side by side, chatting, talking about life on the surface. Having sex. Holding hands.

No thanks.

He looked at his burning bush and kept his gaze locked on the flickering flames, and the spindly twig branches that refused to ashen. "Laoko's right. You and the others are going back."

"Oh." The small woman looked down and squirmed in place, chewing the inside of her cheek. "You sure? I mean, I could--"

"Khazeer and Septima owe me," David said. "You'll be safer with them. Stay with Tatiana, Zazee, and Tacharius. Go back to the Scar, tell Septima I told her to take care of you bunch, and she will." Every word made the little woman shrink in place, and before David knew it, he threw her a bone. "I don't think you deserve six hundred and sixty-sixth deaths, Naoko. When the alien is stopped, I'm going to take a stab at fixing this system. Okay?"

Naoko brightened like a flower in the sun. "Thank you! I... thank you." She got up, smiled, made a little bow, and ran off.

"Why did you say that?" Moriah asked. "You cannot seriously think you can change the Great Tower, David."

He shrugged. "No idea, but I'm going to try."

"It is a system devised by God themself." She sat across from him and glared over the burning bush. "The Great Tower--"

"Is being ripped open by a giant squid monster from another dimension beneath us. And where's God? Where the fuck is--" He cut himself off before he went on some rant about God letting Caera die. No, not even grief would make him think something so ridiculous. "God's not around, Moriah. Hasn't been for a couple billion years or something, right? The archangels are dead, save for the bad one, the one we're probably trying to reach. Heaven's having a fucking civil war, and your council is silent. Things have fallen apart. Time to install an update."

She stared at him, but he didn't bother explaining.

"You know history, David?" Tsila asked. "Human history. Many leaders have said similar."

Hand up, David shook his head. "I'm not a tyrant in disguise, Tsila. I'm not trying to take over the world, and using 'I can fix it' as my political slogan. But I can't look around at this system around us and think it's perfect. Can you?"