The Pleasures of Hell 03.055

~~David~~

The issue was punching through the silencing weight of the alien presence, like trying to play the guitar when someone else was muting the strings with a blanket. He had to hit the strings hard. Beyond hard. Agony coursed through his limbs, but the vibration reached Hell, and Hell listened. If she hadn't, he couldn't have done shit.

It didn't happen quickly. Hell struggled, fought against the muting weight of the alien shrieks, but as Ezekiel sliced more tentacles apart, Hell pushed the song through, and the canyon closed. A couple tentacles still stuck up from the void below, but the ravine closed regardless, and the two remaining tentacles were snipped off. The alien shriek shifted from the muting void, to physical alien screams, something everyone could hear, but no longer blocked the music as much.

Canyon closed, David and the girls stared down from the base of the Scar's left mountain, and watched the aliens scream. Maybe they'd melt, like severed tentacles did, now that their connection with whatever was in the canyon was gone?

Nope, the aliens shrieked, more alien screams that echoed through Vasil's Mouth. And David couldn't do anything about it. He reached for the strings again, but it was like before. The aliens muted them, not as heavy anymore, but they were closer now, and David was wrecked. His inner fingers ached. He was beyond drained. Stars danced in his vision, white spots that turned black.

Batlam vanished. Staff gone, he grabbed Caera's spikes and held on as exhaustion tore through him. Sweat dripped down his body. His legs shook. He hyperventilated, desperate to get some air in his system, but it didn't help. Aches grabbed his bones and joints, and hunger followed, deep hunger that reached out from his stomach to his skin and skull.

"David?" Caera asked.

"I... I can't... do anything more."

"Shit," Jes said. "They're coming."

The girls turned and faced the tide. It was only a fraction of what'd been there before, but it came at them over the corpses of angels and a few demons. Saar was dead. The angels were dead. Timaeus was dead. David was drained. Laoko had to be drained, after all that hellfire. Moriah could still fight, but she wasn't at a hundred percent, either. And there had to be at least a few hundred of the creatures remaining.

The reaper tore through the sky like a homing missile, and crashed into a flying alien. A few remained, and he cut each of them down in melee. They shot their strange orbs at him, but he dodged each one, closed the distance, and cut them down.

Some angels remained. The gabriem. Maybe fifty, they hovered high above the battlefield, so distant David couldn't see any details. But he could see glowing yellow dots streak through the air like tracer bullets, hundreds of them, and they rained on the remaining aliens.

But some broke through the chaos of gold explosions and came for David. He had enough energy to get off Caera, but the moment he stood on the ground, his legs betrayed him and he sat down. No point in running anymore, anyway. The aliens were too fast.

Laoko, panting and exhausted, drew her four swords and stood in front of him, but Caera got ahead of her, Dao and Jes at her sides, and they cut down the first of the alien horde.

Hands grabbed David, and he snapped his head.

"David!" Lasca said. "Come. We protect." With a big smile, the little lady pulled on his hand, and Laara joined her. Latia and Laria got in front of him, held their axes at the ready, and slowly backed up with him as David slid along the ground.

Five meters away on the increasingly steep slope, his girls cut down a half dozen of the creatures. Acelina joined them, brought down her huge axe, and split one creature on all-fours apart. Moriah moved in, too, covering the other side, and she unleashed a gold arc of energy that cut a line through several of the creatures. But there were too many, and they dashed around the sides of the girls and came for him.

Lasca and Laara let him go, and the two impas and two gremlas shrieked death cries and cut at the much larger creatures. The aliens weren't huge, maybe as big as Jeskura, but there were many of them, and they wore their strange black and purple armor that belonged on nautilus shells. Lasca's sword bounce off its armor at the shoulder, but Latia dove past her and chopped it in the throat. It gargled, fell over, and clawed at the ground with its too-human hands.

Laara did the same for another of the aliens. The Las were tiny, but plenty stronger than a regular human, and she swung her sword hard. She got the alien in the arm, it fell over, and she and Laria chopped it up.

"Don't!" David yelled. "Get out of here! Run!"

Latia, littlest of the Las, shook her head and got between David and another alien.

"David! We protect! We--"

Blood splattered across David's face, warm. Latia fell over, landed on her side facing him, eyes wide. She stared at him.

Her arm fell beside her and rolled a couple meters down the hill.

David stared at her, at the blood gushing from her shoulder socket, and froze. Sitting on his ass, he just stared, blinking. Part of him reached for the strings, but the aliens were too close, and no matter how hard he plucked, he couldn't make anything happen.

Latia's blood trickled down the steep rock. She was so small. A tiny, dainty little thing, in the middle of battle. She pushed herself up with her one arm, got back up to her hooves, grabbed her axe, and turned toward the battle again. Blood flowed down her side, sometimes squirting from the wound, sometimes flowing straight down. It leaked down her leg, down her hoof, and flowed down the mountain.

David reached out for the alien who cut her. It'd used its trident. Latia's blood dripped from the sharp, spear-like tips.

The strings didn't respond. No music. This close to the alien, even if his inner fingers had felt fine, he wouldn't have been able to move the strings. Its presence, only a few meters away, muted the strings around it, and everything became static. It all looked the same, but it felt like nothing.

Latia stood there, hissed up at the monster, and with her single arm, swung at it. It hissed down at her and knocked her aside with its trident. She blocked, barely, but the impact sent her to her side, and she whined as her body trembled. More blood flowed from the wound, but it grew slower, and slower. Latia went still, and lay there, wings unmoving, hooves shifting only inches.

David stared at her, but as the alien approached, he set his eyes on the creature, and aimed his hand at it. He couldn't play the music. He couldn't so much as vibrate a single string. The presence of Hell was beyond his reach, and he couldn't even create an aura.

It didn't matter. It didn't fucking matter. He aimed his hand at the parasite, and let the rage inside him boil. His veins burned. His eyes burned. His heart burned. It was a strange sensation, to completely let go, to stop trying to control emotions and simply let them come out as much and as quickly as they wanted. It poured over his body, his mind, blinded him to everything. All he felt was heat, and rage.

His hand changed. Bone moved. Fingers merged.

The alien's head exploded in a gold flash, and a breeze washed over David's body. It felt infinitely cool against the fire scalding his guts, and the inner flame disappeared as a gabriem landed beside the alien.

David spared a glance for his hand. Back to normal. He snapped his gaze around and winced as more gold explosions destroyed the creatures on the hill. Several dozen angel wings descended on them, unleashed arrows, and what invaders had gotten close to David and the girls were wiped out in seconds.

He looked past them down the hill. Ezekiel. The reaper, far slower than before and on his feet, put himself in the middle of what remained of the creatures, and fought in melee. The aliens on all fours tore at him, ripped out feathers, and drew blood. The aliens with tridents stabbed him, pierced armor in thin places, and drew blood. The reaper fought on.

"Unmarked," a gabriem said. "Are you injured?"

"Help her."

The angel tilted his head. "Are you--"

David glared up at the angel and pointed at Latia. "I said help her!"

"A gremla?"

David got up and glared up at the man as new waves of agony and heat coursed through his limbs.

"Help. Her. Now!"

The angel blinked down at him, nodded, and knelt beside Latia's body.

"Fetch her arm." Thank god for the angels. Once they listened, they listened. No arguing, just doing.

David stumbled down the hill, grabbed her arm, and ran back to the gabriem. It was an arm. He was holding an arm.

His brain shut off. Just go. Don't let the reality affect you. Just go.

He got on his knees beside Latia. The gabriem had her on her back, and her eyes were half open. She wasn't moving. She wasn't breathing.

David put the arm against the shoulder socket as best he could. Bone against bone, flesh against flesh.

"David?" Lasca's voice. "David. Latia!"

Within seconds, Lasca, Laara, and Laria stood around Latia and David, each whining and whimpering. The battle was over. They didn't have to fight anymore. The distant sound of the reaper's sword cutting through the remaining creatures didn't matter. All that mattered was the little lady on the bloody ground. Her blood.

"I told you to run," David said. "I told you to run. If... If things got bad, you were supposed to run."

"David." Caera's voice. She came up beside him and nudged her cheek against his shoulder. "David."

"She should have run. I told her to run. I told all of you to run!" He set his eyes on the other Las, but they met his gaze, and sucker punched him with them. Big, beautiful eyes, filled with tears.

More bodies collected around David, some angel, some demon. David didn't look at them.

His insides closed. His lungs stopped. His brain froze. It was just like that time at the funeral. Emotions boiled then, but they hadn't been his, and they'd run him over. Being around all those people swept up in emotions, dominated by them, crying tears or turned zombie by their sadness, had been too much. It'd broken him, then.

This time, it was his emotions.

The gabriem's hand glowed gold. His eyes, exposed from within the helmet's wide opening, stared hard at the little lady. Violet eyes set and unmoving, unblinking, the gabriem's hand glowed brighter. Another gabriem joined them, gently nudged the Las aside with her wings, knelt, and set a hand on Latia's shoulder.

Nothing happened. She didn't move.

"David." Jes's voice. "I saw what happened. She--"

David snapped his head around and glared up at the gorgala. She stepped back.

The silent music came back. The aliens were dead. What remained of Saar's forces came and finished off the aliens that'd jumped across the canyon and chased David. If he wanted, he could play the music, push through the pain, and make something happen.

But he couldn't do anything about Latia.

She didn't move.

"David." Caera's voice again. "David, come on."

He said nothing, eyes locked on Latia. Please. He couldn't handle this. Couldn't deal with this. If she died, if this little lady died because of him, like this, he'd snap, just like that time at the funeral. He couldn't handle it.

Softness touched his shoulder. Feathers.

"David." Moriah's voice. "She lost too much blood."

He didn't move.

Daoka squatted beside him. He expected some clicks, but she said nothing. Slowly, she set a hand on the little gremla's breastplate, and waited with him.

Silence fell on them all. More angels surrounded them, but none said a word. Everyone waited.

Latia's eyes opened.

Coughing and sputtering, Latia sat up. Her little noises turned into squeaks as her sisters fell on her and hugged her tight. They wrapped her in their wings, and the four ladies disappeared inside walls of thin red wing membrane.

"Latia!"

"Latia!"

"Latia!"

David fell back on his ass and let a thousand muscles finally relax. The rage faded again, and the strange burning sensation it sent into his fingertips left with it.

"Latia," he said. "You... You okay?"

All four Las threw themselves at David. He fell back, and the little ladies pinned him, hugged him, with Latia in the middle on his chest. She rubbed her face on his, cheek to cheek, and buried her nose in his neck.

"I'm okay! Went dark. Couldn't see. Arm hurts."

"Enough." Acelina lifted each La up by their horns one at a time and set them aside. But when she got to Latia, she lifted her gently, set her down just as gently, and squatted in front of her. "You are a stupid... brave little creature."

David sat up and smiled back at the spire mother. Her words didn't have as much venom as usual. And adding shock to surprise, Acelina hugged the tiny lady to her breastplate. Expression unreadable on her black canvas face, the spire mother stroked Latia's dreadlocks, nudged foreheads, and checked the little lady's wings for damage.

"Latia fine," Latia said. And she shook her arm for proof.

"So I see. You have angels to thank for that."

"Angels?"

Acelina gestured to the two nearby gabriem with a wing claw.

Without missing a beat, Latia hopped over to the angels, hooves clopping on rock in the quiet, and she smiled up at them with her big goblin smile.

She hugged the man. He froze, blinked down at the little lady, looked at David, blinked several times, and blinked down at the tiny creature squeezing his legs again. Unsatisfied, Latia did the same for the woman, squeezed her legs and armor, and smiled up at her.

"Humans say thank you, right?" Latia asked. "Latia says thank you."

She might as well have slapped the two angels with the looks they gave her. They said nothing, just froze, like deer in headlights.

Clicking up a storm, Daoka hopped over to the angels, gave them a similar smile with her much more human mouth, picked up the tiny gremla, hugged and squeezed her, and carried her around. A celebration. The Las followed her, marched around in a circle, and cheered military style, weapons up.

"Impressive," Moriah said. She joined the two gabriem and gestured back with her one wing. "Third rank?"

"Yes," the man said. "I... am drained. She was on the cusp of joining the Great Tower."

The gabriem beside him rolled her eyes. Maybe she didn't think demons went to the Great Tower in death, whatever that even meant.

"Thank you," David said. He got up, ignored the ache in his muscles demanding he sit down, and held out his hand. "You didn't have to do that. Thank you, I... thank you."

The man blinked down at him again, but shook his hand, armor to skin. David was hopelessly defenseless without his armor at this close. They could kill him instantly.

He shook the woman's hand, too, and made sure they got to see his eyes. Mia always said when his mental walls got torn down, he wore his emotions on his face. With any luck, they'd only need a single glance to see what kind of man he was.

The woman sighed, nodded, and shook his hand.

"Saar was right."

"Saar. Fuck." David ran his fingers through his hair and looked down past the battle. The aliens had all dissolved. Nothing remained of them, not their tentacles, their glistening onyx skin, their strange black and purple armor or robes, their white blood, their tridents, nothing. But down the side of the mountain, past the closed canyon, were blood, guts, and bodies.

Red feathers littered the battlefield.

On the battleground, some wings moved around. Gabriem, looking for anyone still alive. Even from a distance, a squint was enough to show the angels' posture hanging low. They weren't finding anyone.

"David?" Tacharius's voice. David looked back and up. The incubus and the others had gotten mostly out of the way, but they couldn't climb any higher. The Scar mountainside was not nearly as kind as Death's Grip's mountains.

"David." Ezekiel's voice.

David clenched his eyes shut, sucked in a breath, stood tall, and faced back down the mountain toward the angels. All the gabriem had landed, and there were less than he thought. Maybe less than forty. And behind them stood Ezekiel, pretty boy, wounded, and covered in blood.

The angel of death slowly walked up the cliff side. The gabriem parted for him, but it wasn't respect David saw in their eyes. The angels had military strictness, but he could see the subtle apprehension there. Maybe fear. Maybe... disgust?

"Ezekiel," David said. He forced himself to stay standing, but god damn, he wanted to sit down and pass out. "Still going to kill me?"

The moment the words were out of his mouth, the two gabriem who'd saved Latia stepped toward David, drew an arrow from their quivers, knocked it, aimed at the ground, and faced the reaper. Like soldiers with weapons down, but safeties off.

Not just them, but the rest of the gabriem flew to David's side, two enormous lines that stuck out at an angle so it was like Ezekiel was walking down a funnel, two walls of gabriem. Each had an arrow knocked, pointed down, and their hard glares were on the reaper.

Ezekiel didn't so much as frown as he looked around at the gabriem ready to shoot him down. He looked exhausted, bleeding, and even panting a little. Not the best look for a so-called angel of death.

"Maybe some other time," he said.

Caera prowled ahead, put herself between David and the reaper, and stood up. Ezekiel was seven feet tall. She was eight, and she growled down at the smaller man who could probably cut her in half with a glance.

"Why don't you take your power," she said, "and go deal with the rider? He's been hunting us for weeks."

"The rider is not my concern."

She snorted and hit the ground with her tail. "Or you're not strong enough to kill him. You can fly, and decimate armies, but not even you can stop him."

Ezekiel looked up at the tregeera, sighed, and tilted his head enough to look past her at David.

"The matters of Hell are not my concern. The rider is not my concern. But the unmarked is a larger issue than simply Hell alone. That is why I investigated when I saw the battle." He smiled, a small and weak expression. "For now, I take my leave. We will meet again, David. I will tell my kin of you, and maybe they will agree your life should be spared. Or maybe it will trigger civil war." He stepped back and turned. "And regardless, I cannot guarantee they will listen, if you reach the Forgotten Place."

He took off. David got his mouth open to say something, and so did a few other people, Moriah included, but Ezekiel took to the air and didn't look back.

"Fuck me," David said. "Caera, you're gonna get yourself killed."

She got on all fours and looked back at him, half smiling. "He was weakened from the fight."

"I mean, still." He combed his fingers through her short dreadlocks, and she pushed her head into his palm. "And, uh, you guys, and girls." He nodded to the two rows of gabriem putting their bows and arrows away. "Thank you."

A gabriem stepped up, another man. "Saar declared you were to live. After seeing the invaders for ourselves, and their... need to kill you, we have to admit... the reality."

A woman stepped up. "A cruel reality."

"Yes," another gabriem said. "The council wants you dead, unmarked. They want all the unmarked who head toward the False Gate to die. But..."

And another stepped up. "But we saw what happened. As Moriah said, the council gives orders, but has not spoken, has not explained. We have no choice but to doubt them."

Several angels winced. They might as well have said 'lose your faith'.

David fell. Exhaustion swamped him, and he collapsed back, straight into Moriah's arms.

"David?" she asked, looking down at him.

It was so weird seeing her not angry. Her red eyes definitely didn't have the empathy, softness, or charm of the gabriem, but without the furrowed brow, she almost looked weird. Apparently she noticed, her hard eyes returned, and she helped him stand.

"I'm fine. Just exhausted." He gestured to the angels. "And I'm really... really sorry. I didn't want to fight you. I didn't. And... What now?"

The gabriem looked between each other, shared a few words, and settled on the man who spoke up first before.

"Now we go back to Azoryev. We must speak of what we've learned."

"I... don't suppose you can just fly me to the Forgotten Place? I mean, you know that's my goal."

Each gabriem shook their heads.

"I am sorry," the first said. "The council may not speak, but they give orders. Several of the islands defend the Forgotten Place at their command, and all the river Styx. Tens of thousands of angels, all hours of day and night, all with one goal. No one approaches the island."

"Have any landed?" Moriah asked.

"No. The island remains locked in storm as it always has."

David blinked. The island was locked in a storm that bad? He knew there were black storm clouds over the middle of Hell at all times, but strong enough to stop angels?

Of course, Moriah hadn't told him that. She'd probably spent every night arguing with herself about if helping David was really the right choice. Until now.

"Moriah," the gabriem said. "Saar--"

"Told me to stay with the unmarked. I will."

The gabriem smiled, nodded, and one by one, they turned and took to the sky.

At least until Jes stepped up. "Whoa whoa! You finally gonna stop trying to kill us?"

The first gabriem turned back, hovering several feet in the air. "We will spread the word to spare your life, and your sister's, but you must understand, Heaven is divided on this. Such a thing has not happened since--"

"Since the First War, I get it. But I mean you bunch, right now. You're all just gonna leave? We could use some help!"

"Perhaps," Laoko said. "Perhaps not. More angels would be yet harder to keep hidden. We are trying to sneak across Hell, not battle our way through it."

The hovering gabriem sighed and gestured to Moriah.

"And you, Moriah. How do you feel? How many demon hearts have you eaten?"

Demon hearts? David looked back at Moriah. All the demons did. And the angel lowered her gaze.

"It affects me, but I am still me."

The gabriem sighed and nodded. "We will aid all we can, unmarked. But understand our position. We cannot simply stay in Hell and help. How would we feed? Slaughtering demons regularly, and tainting ourselves? And each gabriem who survived must share this tale. I am sorry, but we cannot spare--"

"I will stay." A gabriem hovered down from the group. A woman, with emerald eyes. The man shook his head, but she raised a hand and shook her head in return. "I will bear the taint. They need someone who can heal their wounds, Jebediah."

"And who will heal your wounds?"

She smiled and patted the man's shoulder. "We have lost hundreds of us today alone. What is one more?"

David gulped. Okay, the gabriem were supposed to be the nice angels, but that was some fucking dark resolve.

"That is," she continued, "if the unmarked will have me."

"Uh, me? I'm not in charge. I--"

Daoka clicked and thumped his shoulder.

"Agreed," Laoko said. "Ultimately, we defer to your judgment, young soul. You are in charge, of the journey at least. What do you wish?"

"What do I wish?" He wished he wasn't in charge. He wished he was back in his room, masturbating to increasingly weird 3D porn. He wished...

He looked back to Latia. She stood with her sisters, all of them smiling up at the hovering angels, their big eyes almost glistening with wonder.

"I would love some help," he said.

The gabriem hovered down, smiled, and nodded. More than nodded, she bowed, and with a small puff of gold light, her bow and quiver vanished.

"I am Tsila, Gabriem of Azoryev, third rank under Sa..." She stood up straight, and her smile faltered for a moment. "I have witnessed the truth, and I must help."

Well. Holy shit. David smiled and held out his hand.

She shook it.

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

"Come on," Tacharius said. "There has to be some hearts left. Let's go--"

"If there are any angel hearts left," Moriah said, "the gabriem fetched them and returned them to Heaven so their energy can join the great waters. Or they ate them themselves, if necessary."

"But--"

Moriah, no longer wearing her armor, turned and aimed a finger at the incubus.

"You will never eat angel flesh. Understand me?"

"You eat demon flesh."

"Not by choice." She turned and marched along.

Tacharius sighed, slowed down, and rejoined the group in the back. Smaller, without Timaeus, or Koralex.

David held onto Caera's spikes as the group started down the Vasil's Mouth entrance into the Scar ravine. Back to the old formation, more or less, David on Caera's back, Las and Acelina directly behind him, Jes and Daoka ahead of him, and Laoko at the head of the group. Moriah walked at the head, too, different from usual. And Tsila walked with her, also no longer wearing her armor.

Tsila was visually a bit of a surprise. From what David had heard from Moriah, gabriem took care of the souls of Heaven a lot more directly than the rapholem or mikalim. They counselled them, played with them, and had sex with them. A lot. Naturally, that'd put the mental image of ridiculously busty ladies in his head.

Tsila was slim. As tall as Moriah, so a few inches shy of seven feet tall, like Jes, but a petite and slim body and small breasts; her potram clothes were even skimpier than Moriah's and left nothing to the imagination. She looked Indian, and was absurdly beautiful. All angels seemed to have Earth-based looks, other than the eyes, and Tsila looked Indian with tan skin, and a long braided ponytail of dark hair that reached her butt. Where'd it go when she wore her armor?

"Moriah," Laoko said. "I would have you explain yourself."

Uh oh.

Moriah looked up at the tetrad next to her, face heavy. "You heard Saar."

"I did. I also know I mentioned Galon's name before, and you did not say you killed him."

"Why would I have? Would knowing I killed him have changed the journey?"

"It might have."

Moriah shook her head. "I have nothing left to say, demon. I made a grave mistake, and I wrestle with that guilt every day." She gestured back to David. "I devote my life to this little boy. He--"

"Hey, I'm not... that little." And he was an adult, damn it.

Moriah looked back at him, grunted, and rolled her eyes. Attempt to lighten the mood: failed.

"I dedicate my life to this young soul, demon," she said. "It belongs to him, as part of my penance."

Sighing, Laoko let her upper arms droop. "He was my friend, angel, one of the few who thought well of demons."

Moriah stopped. Everyone stopped on a dime.

"What do you want me from, demon? What else can I do to make up for my errors than give my life?"

Laoko glared down at her. "What could a demon possibly want from someone who did her wrong?"

"I don't know! You're a demon. What would I know--"

Tsila leaned in, whispered something to Moriah, and stepped back. A bucket of ice water would have been more gentle, from the way Moriah winced.

"I... I..." The angel looked down and clenched her eyes. That wasn't rage. That was painful acceptance. "I am sorry".

Laoko blinked down at her and snuck a glance David's way. What could David do? He was just as dumbfounded. Angels probably apologized once in a blue moon, and never to a demon.

"Thank you," Laoko said.

Several demons gasped.

"Oh shut up," Jes said, spinning on the crowd following them.

Laoko adjusted her long dreadlocks and gave Moriah a deep nod.

"I have lost much, angel. You may not think that matters to demons, but it does. You mourn for your comrades. I mourn for mine. Do not assume our lust for battle somehow detracts from us. We are different in some ways, but not all." She gently pat the ground with a hoof, and her usual, sneaky little smiles returned.

"This is adorable," Tsila said. "Last time I visited Hell, the demons I met were never this wonderful."

Caera approached, taking David along with her. "You've been to Hell before?"

"Oh yes. I wouldn't have agreed to stay if I didn't have at least some familiarity with it."

David raised a hand. The crowd got moving. It wasn't the reason he'd raised his hand; he'd just wanted to ask a question. But the group kept their eye on him, all the time, and any action he made was met with an action from them. He groaned.

"Where have you been before?" he asked.

Tsila smiled brightly. Oh, there was the gabriem part of her. Her facial features had a softness to them that made him want to relax, and her smile was perfect and disarming.

"I visited Angel's Spine." She shivered, apprehensive. It'd be so damn easy to relax around her when she was so direct and obvious with her emotions. No need to read her, to figure out what she wasn't saying, to read between the lines. Or at least, that was the air she gave off. Maybe it was all an act?

"A scary place," Moriah said.

"Yes. I avoided Dobasi -- the bailiff -- and explored the tunnels below the feathers with some fellow angels. We met some demons, developed a rapport, and learned of each other." She smiled and looked up at the burning sky. "That was many years ago."

"And the taint?" David asked. "You said something about bearing the taint?"

Moriah sighed. "Must we--"

"The taint," Tsila said, "is in the nature of resonance. To eat it directly through a heart means to absorb some of who you devour, or at least, that is a theory. And what that causes, we are not quite sure. But at least in angels who eat the heart of demons, it can lead to... problems. Some angels were known to become more aggressive and violent. Some were altered in other ways."

David tilted his head. More aggressive? When he'd met Moriah, she'd been ridiculously aggressive, and that hadn't changed, at least as far as combat was concerned. Maybe she'd been altered in other ways, whatever that meant.

Moriah glanced back at him, lowered her eyes, and her one-and-a-half wings drooped.

"I am controlling it. Thankfully, the unmarked can grow forbidden trees in certain circumstances. We gorge when that is possible."

"He can?" Tsila smiled back at him so bright, it was almost blinding.

He made a little finger wave. "Yeah, I can, if there's a bunch of remnants around. I--"

"David!" Latia hugged him from behind. Which was weird, because he was on Caera's back.

Oh, Acelina had set the little lady on Caera's back, quiet as a thief. But Latia was not satisfied. She climbed around him, literally, claws hooked on his shoulders, hooves on his lap, until she sat on his lap facing him. Agile little creature, dodging Caera's spikes like that. She smiled up at him with a big smile almost as scary as Acelina's; grems and imps may have had big, playful, wonder-filled eyes, but they had wide, deadly smiles full of sharp teeth to go with them. Like cute, sexy goblins.

He hugged the little lady. "How you feeling?"

"Feel good. Lasca says you made angels help me."

He smiled back at Lasca. Lasca beamed.

"I mean, I yelled at them a bunch. I'm not sure that qualifies."

"David saved me!" She squeezed him harder and rubbed her face in his red toga. He had to keep his chin up so her horns didn't puncture his throat.

"David," Acelina said. "We are in a confusing situation, entering a new land, with nearly a hundred demons and betrayers following us. We should establish a plan."

They had a plan. Get to a cave. But then again, if the Azoryev angels who survived the battle were now flying around and trying to convince others that the unmarked, or at least David and Mia, weren't to be killed, maybe the group didn't have to hide?

Nah, they still had to hide. Tarkissa was going to be after him. Azailia probably already was.

Or maybe Acelina was just switching the topic, for Moriah's sake. Would Acelina do something like that for the angel? Mia would know. He had no clue.

Tacharius came up and joined them, Natalie at his side, with the succubus Zazee and her betrayers Naoko and Fuad with her, too.

"We know a place," Zazee said. "We hide there often, all of us who sneak into the Grave Valley."

"Big enough for all of us?" Jes asked.

"Yes, and pleasant."

Daoka tilted her head and clicked.

The succubus smiled. "Indeed. Pleasant. We are vola, after all."

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

She wasn't lying about pleasant. It took a bit to get to it, but as they walked deeper and deeper into the ravine, and the mountains grew higher and higher, a strange thing happened. The walls of the ravine grew steeper, but platforms emerged that stuck out of the walls. The walls themselves became multi-layered, platforms wide enough and flat enough for the group to walk on. Mountain shelves.

So, the Scar had two elements: the two mountains for the top half, but in the increasingly deep canyon, the walls were multi-platformed, each wall about five meters tall. It wouldn't be any trouble for a demon to climb down a wall, or climb up, and walk on flat ground as wide as a big street. The path of the ravine wasn't perfectly straight either, with lots of curves in the red stone.

They found a tunnel early on and went in.

"Feels like home," Jes said, running some claws along the tunnel walls. "If I had to spend one more minute in that stupid province, getting more tears in my wings, I--aah!" She yanked her hand back. Some bloodgrip vine lined the wall, and a thorn dripped a single drop of her blood. "Of course."

Tacharius laughed and gestured ahead in the tunnel. "This is still Vasil's Mouth. No one hangs out here, so we're safe. The only demons in these tunnels are looking to steal from the Grave Valley, and we'll make sure they find some other tunnel to sleep. And--yeah, here we are." The incubus stepped around in a curve in the tunnel, amber veins lighting the way.

The tunnel opened into a host of rooms, each massive, and each overflowing with silk. Blankets stacked on top of each other, the blankets were white silk, but stained with dirt.

No one fucking cared about some dirt. Blankets were soft, and everyone immediately found rooms and alcoves to settle into. Some alcoves were deep, and one of them led around a few curves into a cave big enough for David and the crew. Daoka led the way, and she chirped like a dolphin as she threw herself onto the pile of softness.

"Like I said," Tacharius said, "demons stealing thread from the Grave Valley hide out in here. This silk isn't good enough to make clothes with, so we stitch it together into big clumps good enough for relaxing." He winked at David and stepped back with a small bow. "The rest of us will sleep in other caves. I'd say you could trust us and don't need to take shifts, but I know you won't listen."

"Damn right," Jes said. "But, hey, you've done good so far. We'll let you live." She grinned, showing her fangs.

Tacharius winced. The possibility they'd just kill and eat him had probably faded from mind, only for Jes to bring it back with a slap.

"Thank you," Tsila said, with her own bow and a gentle flap of her wings.

Tacharius raised a brow and looked past the angel to David. David shrugged. If Tsila wanted to be super courteous right off the bat, that was fine by him. Hell, it was a pleasant change of pace.

Moriah groaned, hit Tsila with her wing, and sat down on the giant pile of blankets with Daoka. The incubus left, and everyone moved to the blankets. Pile was the wrong word. More like a thick enough covering that the rock ground wasn't a concern, and the blankets went wide, covering the large room enough that everyone had room to get comfortable.

David sat at the edge near the cave entrance. Caera lay with him, set her head on his lap, and nudged her cheek into his stomach. Everyone relaxed.

It'd been a damn long time since they could relax, and knowing that, at least for now, they were probably safe from any angel ambushes, felt amazing. David lay back, spread out his arms and legs, and breathed.

"Hungry," he said. "That fight took it out of me."

"I can imagine," Tsila said, the only one still standing. "You must explain to me how your abilities work!"

Caera growled at the angel. Quietly, at least.

"We don't trust you yet."

Tsila sighed, but nodded and stepped away. "Understandable. I'll take my leave."

"Nonsense," Moriah said. "Stay."

But the angel grinned at her kin and shook her head. "Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere." With that, she bowed, gently flapped her wings at them once, and left.

"Where she going?" Jes asked.

"To make friends," Moriah said. "She is gabriem. It is what they do. But you can trust her."

Acelina snorted and gestured to the tunnel with her wing. "So you say. But I have no reason to trust an angel."

"I do," Laoko said. She sighed and sat beside David, opposite of Caera. "But let's not worry about her for now. We should take stock of our situation."

"Yeah," Caera said, sitting up. "I'm kinda surprised Tsila joined us. She doesn't know us, and she lost friends today, I bet. Some of them to David."

"Because," Moriah said, "she understands duty. And because she is gabriem. She likely took one look at David and his pathetic, weak face, and realized he was no killer."

David frowned. Moriah looked back at him, face carved out of steel. Sarcasm? Genuine? Who knew?

"Many angels died today," she continued. "But perhaps it is a long time coming. Heaven has grown stagnant. You heard Saar say a hundred captains of Azoryev were prepared for battle, but in the past, it would have been a thousand captains. Many angels are... not what they used to be." Weight dragged her eyes down, and her wing slumped. "Many angels simply kill themselves, rather than let this curse of emptiness destroy them. And the number grows with each passing year."

A wet blanket fell on everyone, and no one said a damn thing. Angels were killing themselves?

"That was what Saar meant, at the end," she said. "He'd felt his time had come. I... I imagine many of the angels under his command felt the same. Old angels. Angels who've... felt the wear of time for longer than I. Angels who..." She closed her eyes and let her head hang.

Laoko reached out, stopped a few inches shy of touching the angel's shoulder, hesitated, and pulled away.

Okay, if David didn't do something, this atmosphere was going to make him snap. He sat up, sucked in a breath, and held out his hands in front of him over the stone. He was exhausted. Beyond exhausted. His inner fingers ached to all hell, and every attempt to play the strings hurt.

So he went slow. Gentle. The strings responded, and the better he got at playing them, the more easily they moved. His sixth sense told him there were remnants in the tunnels, and plenty of them; not nearly as much as the Amisius Forest, but they were there, in tunnels below.

Slowly, he drew the resonance toward him. A quiet ballad. No need to rush, for the first time in a long time. Energy coalesced in the ground in front of him over minutes, until a tiny bud of a plant poked up from the ground. The surrounding girls remained silent, absorbing what Moriah said. Except the Las, who chatted and giggled among themselves in the back.

Over the next thirty minutes, he grew a small tree. Everyone watched. Fruit grew, each with the fleshy texture of organ meat, and he plucked the first one and ate it. It took time to absorb the energy from food, but at least it settled his hunger quickly, and he got back to work.

An hour of playing music only he could hear. An hour of only the quiet chatter of the little ladies sharing stories about how scary the aliens were, and how awesome the angels were for saving Latia. A long time of people just sitting down, and thinking about all the shit that'd just happened.

"I am sorry about Timaeus," Moriah said at last. "I have never seen a demon do something like that."

Laoko sighed and nodded, and combed her long dreadlocks over her shoulder with a couple hands.

"Yes. It... surprised me, as well."

"Done," David said. The tree stood a few feet high and bore half a dozen fruit. Not a lot, but hopefully enough when most of the girls hadn't done any fighting.

He plucked one for Laoko, one for Moriah, and took a couple more for himself.

"What's the word? Pig?" Jes asked, grinning at him.

He rolled his eyes. "I'd apologize for stuffing my face, but you know what's up." He ate the two hearts and sighed relief as they washed away what remained of his hunger.

The last three fruits the girls shared, and everyone looked satisfied. Except Acelina, of course.

"Sleep," Jes said. "Dao and I will take first watch."

"Alright. I--"

Latia snuck around David's side, climbed onto his lap, and with a flap of her wings, pushed him onto his back. She beamed at him, rubbed her face in his chest, rolled off him, but stayed close and nuzzled into his side.

Caera laughed, did the same to his other side, leaned in close, and licked his neck.

"You did good, today," she said.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I've never seen you cause so much damage."

He laughed. Of course, it was the destruction that'd impressed her, not his attempt to negotiate with a battalion of angels, and a reaper.

David held up his hand and looked at his fingers. They'd merged before, for that one split moment.

The fuck was that about?

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

"David."

David sat up and looked around. Moriah sat with him, eyebrows furrowed. Latia and Caera were still with him, asleep. Jes and Doa were asleep, too. So it was Moriah's shift, and she was waking him up to join hers.

Except he wasn't doing a shift tonight.

"Yeah?" He slipped his arms out from under Latia and Caera, extra slow, extra careful.

"I..." She frowned and looked away. "Do you hate me?" A flat statement, as direct as a punch to the face.

He blinked at her, frozen. "What the fuck? No, of course I don't."

"You suffered much pain because of me."

"Well, yeah, but it was a misunderstanding."

She shook her head. "I... I..."

He tilted his head. "What?"

"I don't know. I don't know what I say. I just..." She slid a little closer. "More angels died today. Many. Some to the invaders. Some to you."

"I know. I wish I didn't have to kill them, but--"

"It was inevitable. And the invaders killed far more." She touched his shoulder with the tip of her furthest feather. "I... I am... sick of this. Sick of this strange... weight, that follows me, and separates us." She slid closer again. "And after today, I am tired. I wish... I would like..."

He tilted his head. Where was this going?

"Yeah?"

"I believe... that perhaps... I would like..."

Nothing. Moriah sat there, looked around at the sleeping girls, and let her gaze linger on Latia, still at David's side. With no words, she just sat there, watching the little lady who'd almost died. Her ruby eyes grew stern, but her wing drooped, and she shifted away from David.

"Never mind."

"What? Moriah. Come on. Talk to me."

"I said never mind, David. Goo--"

Laoko sat up, and Moriah whipped her head around.

"What she wants to say," Laoko said with her subtle, evil little smile on, "is that she wants to be a part of the group."

David raised a brow. "She is a part of the group."

The demon shook her head and crawled over to them. Watching someone with four arms crawl on her hands and knees was weird, and Laoko did more than just crawl. She arched her back, emphasizing her ridiculous curves as she grew closer.

"What she means to say, is she is lonely, separated from her own kind, and forced to walk the surface of Hell, while demon hearts twist her desires into sinister things." The huge demoness sat on her knees and ass in front of the angel, only a couple meters away from David, and she grinned down at the smaller woman. "She wants company, but she doesn't know how to ask for it. Like Acelina, she is a bundle of internal struggles, refusing to admit to herself what she craves for."

David blinked. Moriah blinked. With silent claws and effortless motions, Laoko took off her breastplate, and the slabs of metal that guarded her wrists, thighs, and ass. She grinned down at them both, skin growing redder by the moment, and enormous breasts growing softer and softer.

How someone could have Acelina's breasts while simultaneously being a foot taller, David had no idea. She wore her breastplate so tight, it probably cut off circulation.

"What are you doing?" Moriah asked.

Laoko grinned, reached out, and grabbed Moriah. The angel gasped, but Laoko brought a finger up to her up lips and fangs, and shushed her.

"You'll wake the others."

Moriah froze, and Laoko took advantage. She knelt upright, spread her knees, yanked Moriah in close, and turned her around so she sat between Laoko's thighs. Somehow the angel had enough presence of mind to not make a sound, or even move too much since that'd shake the blankets everyone was sharing. Once the shock wore off, she glared up at Laoko, but froze again when the giant demoness slipped a hand around her throat.

"Laoko," David said, frowning.

Laoko grinned at him, and pulled the angel snug to her stomach, hand grasping her neck. Busty as Laoko was, her breasts spilled over the back of Moriah's shoulder and onto them, surrounding the angel in two enormous pillows of soft red skin.

"Demon," Moriah said between clenched teeth, voice quiet. "Release me."

The demon did no such thing. Tetrads were strong, the only demons around strong enough to fight angels, but Laoko was smarter than this, smart enough to not make enemies. Plus, she liked angels, didn't she?

"This angel," Laoko said, "wants to be with a soul, as all angels do. And you, David, you sneaky little boy, have wormed your way into her heart."

He froze. Again. "What?"

"Oh yes. We've spoken, several times. Those nights you crafted us rooms, and she stayed with me so you could have your orgies? We spoke." With a manipulative little chuckle, Laoko's three other hands roamed over Moriah's skimpy silks, cupped her moderate breasts, teased her naked skin and navel, and danced down her thighs. "She confided in me she finds you intriguing."

Moriah looked furious. She looked livid. She also blushed through her tan skin and glared up at the demon using her shoulders as a breast rest.

Chuckling, Laoko ran a hand down the woman's small, growing wing, then her large one, one hand forever around the girl's throat, other two now teasing Moriah's nipples through the thin white silk. But when Moriah covered her chest with her arms, Laoko grabbed the angel's wrists, and pulled them side. She abandoned stroking the wing, and instead used her one free hand to tease a claw up and down the plunging cleavage of the angel's silks.

"It is tantalizing, isn't it?" Laoko said. "Look at the way she sits, still utterly refusing to admit something as simple as her desires."

David gulped. Moriah glared at him, and as they locked eyes, her expression softened.

Softened turned back to anger and blushing when Laoko moved Moriah's clothes aside, exposed her breasts, and her dark nipples. Hard nipples. David gulped again.

"That why you're interested in Acelina?" David asked, doing his best to not stare at Moriah's exposed chest. The woman was so damn fit, she had subtle ab definition on her flat stomach, and her tiny waist emphasized the curves of her ass he could see press against Laoko's inner thighs.

Control yourself, David. Moriah doesn't look like she wants this. Kinda.

"Oh yes." Laoko leaned forward, pushing Moriah with her as she came close to him. "Acelina likes you more than she cares to admit, David, and I will help her realize that later. For now, let us break this angel, yes? This tasty little morsel wants nothing more than to lie upon these blankets, spread her legs, and take every inch of your cock into her body. She wants to feel my hands, the hands of the others, roam her skin, caress her wings, and squeeze her ass, while you stretch her deep. She wants to know what Acelina's delightful milk tastes like. She wants to know what it would feel like, to have my tongue wriggling around in her guts, or perhaps Acelina's tail, while you pour cum into her womb."

David stared up at Laoko, at her huge swollen nipples, at Moriah, squirming and wriggling, and at how hard her nipples were, too.

~~♥♥♥~~

Evil grin small but beyond powerful, Laoko slid her free hand underneath the plunging cleavage of the white silk, worked her fingers underneath the tiny hidden loincloth, and did something to Moriah David could not see. But from the way Moriah's eyes shot open, gaze locked on him, he knew what.

Moriah's arms and wing went limp. She leaned back against Laoko's body, and her eyes lowered down David's body to her own, to her exposed breasts, and the hand rummaging around under her clothes. Laoko noticed, let the angel's wrists go, and caressed the angel's breasts instead; one hand still around her throat, though, in case she tried something.

Moriah tried nothing. She'd... submitted. The tiniest little gasp escaped her, and she looked up at David for half a second before looking down in such a classic shame look, she might as well have walked out of a hentai. She grabbed Laoko's wrist, but the demon continued to play with her pussy under her clothes, and the deadly, forever angry angel, whimpered.

David's aura lit up like paper thrown on a fire. It exploded outward, broke past his defenses, flooded the room, and earned some moans of bliss and surprise from both demon and angel.

Everyone woke up.

"David?" Caera asked. "David, what's--oh. Oooh."

"Holy shit," Jes said. "Laoko, she's going to kill you."

Everyone in the group took up kneeling positions around David, Laoko, and Moriah. Daoka chirped and smiled. The Las all stared at Moriah, awestruck. Caera purred and licked her big cat fangs. Acelina sat on her hip in her usual feminine way, directly beside Laoko, and she ran a claw's blunt side up Laoko's nearest breast.

"You do enjoy imposing yourself on others, don't you?" she asked the tetrad.

"Tetrad scary!" Lasca said. She hopped up and took off her armor like a drunk lumberjack getting to see his girlfriend for the first time in months. She fell, the Las giggled, and did the same.

David raised his hands. "I um, I didn't mean to..."

No one was listening. Jes and Daoka helped each other out of their clothes. Acelina stood up and undid hers. Caera went to Jes and Daoka for help once they were done. Everyone was efficient with their second skin, and two minutes later, everyone sat or knelt back in their previous positions. So many breasts, all growing soft as their owners grew redder and redder.

Moriah clenched Laoko's wrist, but didn't move. She probably wanted to cover herself, or her face, but at this point that'd probably be admitting defeat, or something ridiculous like that. But considering Laoko's apparent kink, the harder Moriah tried to resist her and act like Laoko's touch didn't affect her, the more turned on Laoko got. And the more turned on the ten-foot-tall demoness with absurdly massive breasts currently fingering and groping an angel got, the more turned on David -- and Moriah -- got.

The room was boiling with his aura, and he couldn't stop it.

Laoko tore the angel's clothes off, tossed the silks aside, and they vanished in silent puffs of gold light. Moriah gasped and stared down at her naked body, but Laoko kept one hand around the girl's throat at all times. She wasn't going anywhere.

"So pretty!" Latia said. Never mind that she'd almost died not even a day ago, Latia crept forward, knelt beside Laoko's giant thigh, reached over it, and touched Moriah's arm.

Moriah sighed, looked down at the little lady fawning over her, and shook her head. Even trapped, she could easily summon her armor and escape. But she wasn't.

"I am no gabriem. I--" She sucked in a breath as Laoko resumed playing with her body, cupping her breasts -- utterly tiny compared to Laoko's hands -- and massaging her pussy. Full, deep strokes of her fingers along the outside of the angel's smooth pussy, spreading around the juices already building, before resuming caressing the angel's budding clitoris.

David stared.

"Told you," Jes said, and she poked David with her tail. "All she needed was a push."

"Indeed." Acelina chuckled and teased circles around Moriah's nipples. "Such an angry creature, at the mercy of her own desires. How delectable."

Laoko winked at David, quick and sly. No one else noticed. What an evil, scheming woman, probably thinking about how she was going to do this same thing to Acelina later.

"Not angry," Latia said. Giggling, she crawled up between Moriah's legs, lay on her stomach, and nudged her forehead against Laoko's fingers. "Not angry. Angel nice."

Moriah frowned. "I am not--" Words cut short by a gasp, she grabbed the little lady's head, and stared down at her as Latia buried the angel's slit in her mouth. "I did not say you could--" She shuddered again. Latia was too excited and apparently had no patience, because a subtle bump moved up along Moriah's lower abdomen, and David couldn't help but lean closer and watch it move like a tiny wave. The littlest lady in their group, a tiny, skinny 4-foot-tall gremla, was eating the deadly angel out, and jamming her tongue into her.

Everyone came closer, until shoulders collided, all eyes locked on the angel.

"Stop... staring... at me." Moriah glared at them all, somehow keeping the angry face despite her squirming and the little gasps sneaking in between her words.

"Can't help it," Jes said, half purring, half groaning as she touched herself.

Daoka nodded, chirped, got in snug beside Moriah, and did the same. She caressed her own breasts, massaged her nipples, and on her spread knees, she stroked her clitoris. The Las followed suit, each on their knees in the circle around the angel, each with spread thighs, each stroking themselves. All eyes were on Moriah.

Caera had a different plan. She prowled forward, lifted Latia up, set the giggling little lady aside, and got on her stomach between Moriah's legs instead.

"You need more if we're going to stretch you enough for David."

Moriah glared down at the much, much larger woman now suddenly between thighs.

"How dare you. I am not some toy to be--" Moriah's eyes shot open wide, and she grabbed Caera's horns, as the eight-foot-tall tiger lady engulfed the angel's little pussy in her mouth. And moments later, a bulge moved up along her flat stomach, too, bigger and longer than Latia's. It rolled like a wave up and down the space between Caera's head and the angel's navel, and Moriah stared down at the tiger jamming her long tongue into her pussy.

Laoko took the angel's wrists again, moved her hands aside, and smiled down at Caera. With no more angel hands grabbing her horns, Caera was free to lean into it, lightly move her head from side to side, bury the angel's slit in her maw, and force rolling waves of tongue up into her.

Moriah lifted her eyes to David and held his gaze. Asking him for help, maybe? He wasn't sure he could help her. He was mesmerized. Moriah had the body of a holy warrior, slim and lean, with strong legs and a large ass, and her tan skin highlighted every curve of her muscles as she wriggled. And came.

The angel gasped, clenched her eyes, and shuddered. Her core flexed. Her breasts jiggled. Her muscles clenched, made her pull away from Caera, but the tiger grabbed her legs and pinned her ass down. And didn't stop. Moriah stared down at the tiger, wriggled more, but she was trapped. All her squirming got her was a tighter grip from Laoko around her neck.

Caera lifted her head. Moriah sucked in some breaths, chest rising and falling, and she somehow summoned enough anger to glare at the tiger.

The glare vanished when Caera prowled around behind David and slid him out of his clothes. He didn't stop her. He didn't move. Eyes locked on Moriah's body, his gazed flowed down her skin, her hard and pointing nipples, and her smooth pussy, a little thing glistening with saliva and juices.

He wanted to fill her.

Fingers wrapped his cock, pulled him out of his hypnosis, and he stared down at the demon claws around his girth. His length had already grown to a foot and was only getting longer.

"You've been wanting to fuck her for a long time," Caera said.

"I... I uh, I mean..."

Chuckling, Laoko touched Acelina's shoulder, let go of Moriah, and lay on her side. She took the angel's hand and pinned it to her chest.

Acelina grinned, exposing her shark small against her black canvas face, and did the same thing. She lay beside Moriah's other side, grabbed the angel's other hand and held it snug between her breasts. Trapped on her back, Moriah gulped and looked between the two absurdly busty women lying next to her, before looking at David.

David didn't even get to say anything. Caera pushed him in closer and closer, and Daoka and Jes pried the woman's thighs apart. Closer again, until Caera had to lift his cock, and she set it on the woman's hard, flat stomach.

Moriah stared down at the huge thing. David stared at her staring. A drop of precum oozed from the tip onto her sternum, and his testicles nestled against her bare, soaked slit. So warm.

"You... You're all monsters," Moriah said.

Laoko chuckled. "I hadn't thought you would break this easily, angel."

Moriah glared at the tetrad and squirmed, big wing and small wing fluttering against the blankets under Acelina and Laoko's heads.

"I am not broken yet."

Laoko moaned. "We will see. David. Fuck her."

"I uh... I don't want... you know..." He stared down at the angel. So damn beautiful, her long black hair in a mess on the blankets under her, her ruby eyes glaring at him. Her pussy boiled underneath his cock, and her juices were drenching his testicles.

"I cannot be broken," she said, and she glared at David. "Try, if you dare."

Okay, whether that was a literal challenge, or she was just trying to find a way to give in while saving face, he couldn't tell. But his body liked the sound of it, and it pulled back on its own until the head of his massive cock pressed against her dripping slit.

Jes and Dao let her legs go, and the angel didn't close them. Caera purred, hand on David's cock keeping it straight, and she moved it up and down and rubbed his glans against Moriah's little slit. Her pussy's lips caressed the exposed, red skin, sent warm tingling sparks down his length, and he shivered. And all the while, the four Las masturbated, touching themselves and collapsing forward onto Laoko's and Acelina's backs and legs.

David inched forward. Moriah's lips spread around him. He pushed forward more, and her tight, clenching slit fought against him, resisted, but her flesh was soaked and slowly spread around his girth. He pushed in closer, stared down at her opening pussy, and groaned as he finally pushed in the head, earning a gasp from Moriah, and her pussy lips sank around the groove at the base of his glans.

He kept going. Caera let him go and cozied up behind him, her large breasts to his shoulders, her hands on his hips. Purring into his ear, she reached out, touched Moriah's stomach, and ran her fingertip down to the girl's pubic bone, and the distension pushing out from above it, as David sank a few more inches into the angel.

"This," Caera said, "is probably the biggest cock she's ever taken. She's never fucked a tetrad before." Again, the tiger purred, half groan, half growl. "She'll break."

"I will not!" Moriah glared up at Caera, but David sank a few more inches into her, pressed his fat glans against her depths, and the angel shuddered. She set her gaze on the bulge moving up her subtle abs, eyes wide, and fluttered her pinned wings. "That is..."

David pushed in deeper. Moriah gasped as her insides stretched inward, and she squirmed, arms pulling at the two huge demonesses holding them. More moans, more shudders as David pushed deeper, push turning to pull once he got his hands under the angel's hips and lifted her pelvis up. He knelt up straight, held her tight, and stared down at her body as he pulled her toward him. He wanted to get into her, every inch. He wanted to hear the defiant angel squeal.

"W-Wait, that's... that's..." Moriah's gasps turned into quiet pants, and she squirmed more, ass wriggling under her. But David didn't let her go. He sank into her, slid his knees up so he could get even closer, and slowly eased every last inch of his cock into her boiling, gripping insides until the bulge nestled just under her sternum.

With her ass in the air, legs spread, him holding her pelvis up, Moriah was pinned on her back at an angle. Which meant, when he pulled his hips back a few inches, and gently thrust back into her, he drove the pressure of the thrust straight toward her abs.

She gasped, bit it down, and found the will to summon her angry face again.

"Weak," she said. Whispered.

David shivered, and unless he was going crazy, he grinned. He didn't mean to, but the expression just came out, an evil little grin that probably looked a lot like Laoko's. He pulled back further, and thrust in harder. Moriah didn't make a sound, teeth clenched. Something about the way she resisted him, glared at him even as she blushed through her tan skin, was euphoric. He pulled back further, and slammed into her hard, pulling her hips toward him so his testicles slapped against her ass. And every inch, her taut pussy squeezed.

She moaned, mouth open, before clenching her teeth again. The sound sent heat through David's spine, straight into his skull, and his aura exploded again. Every demon in the cave moaned, and every single one of them masturbated, each with a hand between their thighs, while Laoko and Acelina used one hand to keep Moriah's trapped.

Fill her. Absolutely wreck her.

His cock grew thicker, and a little longer, and Moriah gasped again, this time from surprise, eyes wide.

"David, wait. That--"

He thrust harder, and growled. The way his girth pushed up through her pussy, against her clenching, drenched insides, and moved the bulge along her abs up to her sternum, was hypnotizing. He thrust again, drove his glans against her deepspot, stretched her pussy deeper into herself, and fucked her. Hard. He wanted to hear more noises. Needed to.

Moriah, trapped between pants and gasps, whimpered. Her breasts rippled against her chest. Her ass jiggled underneath him and collided with his testicles. Her legs clenched around him, curvy thighs of muscle against his sides, but Jes and Dao spread them yet again. Nothing to stop him from pounding into the angel as hard as he could.

She came first. She bit down a moan but it came out on the next thrust. Eyes closed, she turned her head and wriggled, trying to escape. They didn't let her. And David didn't stop. Her insides clamped down like a vise, but he pushed through, fucked her, drove every inch of his cock into her again and again, until Moriah's angry expression melted. Her mouth opened, her eyes locked onto the bulge driving back and forth along her abs, and every breath was a shallow gasp.

She whimpered, and David melted. He slammed into her and stayed balls deep as the tingling warmth of cum poured up his length. Inner muscles clenched and spread the pleasure out through his thighs, and sent waves of cum up his cock and into the writhing angel. He pulled back every inch, kept only his glans inside her, and thrust again. Another wave of cum poured into her and fought for space. Some of it stayed inside her, making her belly bulge more as it flooded her womb. Some of it squirted out of her, not enough room, and shot out against his abs, pelvis, and her thighs. He thrust again, and again, forced more cum into her, some staying and swelling her belly, some pouring out of her and drenching everything. And with her ass up, weight on her back, the cum oozed down over her body, down her stomach, around the bulge, and down onto her ribs, breasts, and neck.

He stopped. Moriah sucked in a breath; he hadn't noticed she'd stopped breathing. Between weak whimpers, she got control of herself again, and squashed her sounds. Her eyes lifted from her bulging belly to David, and they locked gazes. She wasn't angry, but he could tell she was trying to be.

But he wasn't done.

"Flip her," he said.

Laoko and Acelina both growled and moaned, and did so. Moriah fidgeted, squirmed and wriggled, but with no trouble at all, the two enormous women turned Moriah onto her knees and pinned her hands to the ground. And David made sure to stay balls deep inside her for the process, helping them tuck in her knees for the rotation. Doggy style.

"David," Moriah said, looking back over her shoulder. "What're you--"

He grabbed her hips and fucked her. Moriah shuddered, head hung low, face hidden behind her hair and shoulders. Her muscular body and lean back arched, and her firm, large ass rippled against him. No buildup, no gentle start, he pounded her hard until his testicles slapped her clit, and her ass jiggled, hitting his abs and her lower back. Her wings fluttered, and went limp, spreading over Acelina and Laoko. It wasn't long before each thrust got a grunt from the defiant angel, then moans, and as she panted and fought for air, tiny whimpers.

A bead of sweat dripped down David's chest, and a little moisture wet the angel's skin, too. Demons didn't sweat. Angel's did.

She clenched hard, and warm juices soaked him. He didn't stop. The angel fell to her elbows, and then to her chest, ass in the air. Head turned, cheek to the blankets, she looked back at him, mouth open, and her eyes rolled up in their sockets. He didn't stop. He came in her again, and pinned her balls deep on him for the first few gushes of his cum, thrust into her for the next few, and slowed.

He slapped her ass. Moriah shuddered, clenched, and her wings flexed straight up again before going limp over the two giant demonesses beside her.

"David," she said, voice trembling. Head still turned on the blankets, she looked back at him again. "David..."

He thrust into her again. Her eyes rolled up, and mouth still open, a small wet spot formed on the blankets around her mouth. She was drooling.

"Look at this," Jes said. "Firm." She grabbed the angel's ass and shook it. It rippled.

Daoka chirped and did the same with the other ass cheek.

"I guess it is like mine." The gargoyle nodded and slapped it again.

Chuckling, Caera prowled around to Moriah's head, lay facing her, and leaned in. She nudged her short, subtle snout against the angel's forehead, leaned in closer, and kissed her cheek. Moriah didn't respond. Chuckle turned to laugh, and she tried again.

"Petulant... tregeera..." Moriah groaned, pushed her weight back up onto her pinned palms, and shook like a leaf. "How... dare you... I--"

David fucked her. He tightened his grip on her hips and fucked her as hard as he could. A small guy, he shouldn't have been able to fuck her all that hard. But he did. His muscles squeezed, and he drove his cock balls deep into her harder than he should have been able to. Part of his brain knew this was unusual. A much bigger part was concerned only with feeling the angel cum again and drench him. He wanted to feel her squeeze, hear the mighty hardass angel whimper, and see her quiver.

He didn't have to wait long. Moriah collapsed again, and again lay on her chest and cheek, mouth open slightly, spreading the wet spot under her lips. She soaked him, coated his length in heat, and her juices trickled down his balls along with his own cum. And it got gloriously messy when he came inside her again. He fucked her through his orgasm, deep strokes, each met with a pause when he stretched her up to her ribs, each met with a huge gush of cum that fought for space inside her.

Jes and Dao both moaned and watched as his cum poured out from their connection, some cum going up and flowing over the angel's ass and down her back, most going under and flowing down her thighs and stomach. The two girls slapped the angel's ass, leaned in, kissed him, and slapped her again, earning painful, blissful clenches of her insides.

He leaned into Jes, nudged noses, and kissed her back. He leaned into Dao, kissed her black bone plate covering her eye sockets, and kissed her lips, too. Slowly, he pulled back from the angel, and quivered as her clenching little slit milked him of a few final drops of cum. His glans fell free of her, and Jes and Dao groaned as a flood of white poured out of her and splashed over the blankets and David's cock alike.

Moriah collapsed. Her hips fell to the side, landed on Laoko, and the tetrad laughed. Laoko got on her knees, as did Acelina, and they both smiled down at the trembling angel on her side. The impact of falling over made her swollen belly jiggle, and David licked his lips. Cum swelled her insides, her womb. He'd fucked the girls dozens of times, but he'd never pumped that much cum into them before.

His body was changing.

"She cums easily," Laoko said.

Acelina smiled, showing her shark teeth. "Very easily. Quite the slut, this angel."

Moriah frowned, barely, but it didn't last. Her thigh twitched, and she melted into the sheets.

"You," Caera said to Laoko, "are quite full of yourself, aren't you?"

"Naturally. I am ancient and I have survived a million hardships through guile and awareness." The enormous tetrad gave one of her classic little smiles, raised all four arms, and stretched, arching her back. She wiggled her chest, and her enormous breasts rippled. "And I am gorgeous. Perhaps not as gorgeous as the spire mother, but I am."

Acelina chuckled. Caera nodded, in that 'aren't you a cocky fucker' sort of way.

"David's fucked everyone else here. Why not you?" Caera asked.

"Because I am a tetrad, the strongest breed of demons left alive in Hell. I choose when I will partake."

Caera, Jes, Daoka, and Acelina -- somehow -- rolled their eyes. But instead of getting offended by the obvious dismissal, Laoko chuckled, warm and playful, and rolled onto her back next to Moriah.

Wicked little smile on, she spread her legs, cupped and massaged her breasts squashed against her chest by gravity, and hooked two other hands behind her head.

"David has earned the right to touch my body. Come, handsome young man. Fill me."

He blinked down at her. Okay, yeah, he'd fucked some big ladies before. Caera was so much bigger than him, and Acelina was bigger than even that. But Laoko was a ten-foot-tall tetrad with four arms and breasts just as big as the spire mother's. If she rolled wrong, she would squash him.

"That is hardly the way to treat the unmarked," Acelina said. Everyone stared at her. "He is an insignificant little boy. Infuriating, and so... tiny."

David glared at her, but Acelina returned it with her shark smile. Laoko sighed, the happy kind. The tetrad had a type, apparently, angry women who pretended to not like things, which apparently described Moriah and Acelina pretty well. That didn't describe David at all, but Laoko set her eyes on him, and curled her fingers at him.

He crawled forward, got on his knees between her giant thighs, and set his cum-soaked cock on her belly.

"You had this whole thing inside the angel?" she asked, blinking down at the massive thing. "That is larger than any tetrad's cock, unmarked."

Acelina scoffed. "Don't inflate his ego."

Too late, ego inflated. He grabbed his cock, pulled back, and set it on the demon's slit. Larger than Moriah's, but the moment he pushed against her entrance, that didn't matter at all. The demon was clenching, hard, and she grinned at him. Another challenge.

He pushed forward, fought against her squeezing slit, and shivered as her soaked flesh only slightly parted around his glans. He pushed harder, inched his knees along the sheets, and kept his cock aligned with one hand while his other grabbed her thigh. Damn, that was a massive thigh, as big as Acelina's, but longer.

Laoko smiled. "You only wish the unmarked were touching you right now, zotiva."

Acelina knelt around Laoko's head and aimed her eyeless gaze down at her, knees by Laoko's ears.

"You think you know us all so well, don't you, tetrad?"

"I do. You are all so delightfully predictable. Especially you, dear Acelina."

Uh oh, betrayed. From both working together against Moriah one minute, to arguing the next.

Growling, Acelina gestured to David.

"Fuck her."

David grabbed the enormous woman's huge thighs, and pushed his cock into her wet slit. And borderline automatically, with barely a thought from him, his cock grew. He was with Acelina on this one. Laoko might have been smarter than them, with more experience than them, and maybe even more years than Moriah, but she definitely had a bit of that 'I know more than you and I have no intention of enlightening you' attitude. Not smarmy, but content in her quiet superiority.

He forced his cock into her, and he was not gentle. Again, his grip and strength grew larger than normal, but at the moment, the sensation of her tight pussy squeezing him like a vise was too distracting. He needed more. He only got half his length into her before he filled her, and he had to keep pushing.

Tetrads were big. Tetrads were strong. He was just a little guy between a couple giant thighs. But damn it, every part of him wanted to fill this woman and hear her cocky attitude break; kinda like with Moriah and Acelina, but different. Those two were full of bite and fire. Laoko was sneaky, devious, and cerebral.

So he pushed hard, and Laoko blinked down at her once slender stomach below her enormous breasts, as he drove a bulge up along her belly. She quivered, and her two lower hands grabbed his arms. He pushed deeper, squashed his glans against her deepest place, and stretched her inward. And his cock grew.

"Unmarked," she said, voice a hushed whisper. "Are you... trying to break me?"

Laoko didn't hide her moans. From the way she was smiling, she outright made them on purpose, teasing him. He pushed deeper. She gasped, arched her back, and her massive breasts flowed toward her shoulders. He pushed deeper, grew thicker, the bulge on her belly grew with it, and Laoko melted against the blankets as the distension on her long stomach reached the bottom of her sternum.

Before Laoko could say anything, Acelina leaned forward, and buried the tetrad's face with her left breast. No more sneaky grins or sneakier winks, Laoko nudged her head to the side, only for Acelina to move and again slide her breast over the tetrad. Assault by breast smothering?

Acelina moaned. Her wings spread for a moment, relaxed against her back, and she traced a hand down Laoko's bulging belly, as the ten-foot-tall titan suckled on her breast. David couldn't see any details with how enormous Acelina's breast was, covering all of Laoko's face, but he recognized the spire mother's sounds.

"That should shut her up," Acelina said. "How dare this lowly tetrad disrespect a zotiva." But despite her arrogant princess attitude, the spire mother shivered, and little pants of pleasure escaped her. She loved having her breasts sucked. And David loved the way her breast, soft and heavy, molded over Laoko's face.

She slid her hand further down Laoko's body, and pressed on the belly bulge the entire way, squashing David's cock inside her. He felt it. Grinning, some of her shark smile coming out, she massaged her palm down against his glans, sent jolts of tingling electricity down his length, and worked her exploring hand down Laoko's body until she reached her spread pussy.

"That is... large," she said to him. "Very large."

He gulped, and stared down at how his absurd dick was spreading the enormous woman's pussy wide until it was taut. Gulp turned into gasp when Acelina caressed the bolstara tetrad's budding clitoris, and Laoko clenched.

Too much. He couldn't hold still any longer. He held onto her huge hips, and fucked the giant woman as hard as he could. Long, hard, deep strokes, each jamming every inch of his cock into her, all the while Acelina caressed the woman's clit.

Moans surrounded them, and David risked a quick peek. Caera, Jes, Dao, and the Las had all gathered in a pile, and were fucking each other. And they'd included Moriah, too. The poor angel lay on her back, panting and quivering while Latia again devoured her now cum-soaked pussy. Everyone else had a tongue or finger or tail inside someone, all very much distracted by what they were doing to each other.

Which meant David was all alone, handling a ten-foot-tall four-armed demoness, and the nine-foot-tall demoness kneeling over her head, facing him.

"She might enjoy teasing you," Acelina said. "She might enjoy stroking your ego, but I will do nothing of the sort. You are a tiny little boy. An annoying, infuriating little..." Her hand lifted from Laoko, touched his chest, and traced down his muscles and sweat. "If not for this aura of yours, a demon as amazing and beautiful as I would never touch you."

"I... I mean..."

She reached down and stroked Laoko's clit harder and faster, and the huge woman again arched her back under Acelina. Her insides clamped down, leaked juices over David's cock, and wiped his brain of thoughts. He slammed his cock into her hard, each stroke nudging his lower abdomen against Acelina's knuckles, but he didn't stop. And she didn't stop. He fucked the tetrad, and Acelina stroked her clit, until the tetrad grabbed David's wrists, her other two hands grabbed Acelina, pushed her up, and she gasped as she came. Her juices soaked him. Drenched him. David stared down at her taut slit, and quivered, struggling to keep his eyes open, as her squeezing insides flowed with juices that coated him and trickled down his testicles and thighs.

Holy shit, she got wet when she came.

Between her pants of pleasure, Laoko chuckled and sat up, forcing Acelina aside. She grinned, a subtle and evil thing, pushed him onto his back, and straddled him.

"Wonderful," she said, and she leaned over him, and fucked him back.

David might have found some physical strength he didn't normally have when he was going out of his mind with his aura in full swing, but Laoko was just too enormous and strong. She set two hands on her hips, two hands under her breasts, and danced on his cock as she ground her clit into his pelvis. Not just dancing in a subtle sort of way, but a proper lap dance, with gyrating hips and playful jiggling of her breasts.

She bounced several times, and he came. Laoko growled down at him, slowed her dance, but didn't stop.

"Look at him," Acelina said. She slipped a hand under his back, pulled him up to sitting, got a thigh behind him, and sat beside him. "Look at his face as he cums. Just a little boy, so helpless against the pleasure of a woman's body." Again, her shark smile came out, and she pulled him toward her so his closer shoulder pressed against her sternum.

With one hand holding his back and the spire mother snug to his side, she guided her breast to his mouth, and set her large, wet nipple against his lips.

He opened his mouth and drank in her sweet milk as he pumped cum into the tetrad.

"Hardly a boy," Laoko said. She slowed her dance, but didn't stop either, and she smiled down at him as she timed her clenches and milked him, powerful squeezes that each earned another hot gush of his cum. She had many hands to spare, and she used a couple to hold his arm and shoulder opposite of Acelina, leaned in, and guided one of her breasts to his lips as well. "Come, young man. I am pleased. I came harder than I thought, I must admit. You may kiss my body."

He turned his head and enveloped the tetrad's huge nipple into his mouth. Acelina kept her nipple against his cheek, nudged it against him, and her milk trickled down his chin, his neck, and his chest.

Laoko pushed him down again, and danced for him again, each sway of her hips showing off the distension on her long stomach, highlighting his girth. She was doing it on purpose.

"I just want to..." Laoko sighed bliss, traced claws down her neck, her chest, her sternum, down the bulge along her belly, and jiggled her breasts for him as she danced. "Oh, I do love the way he looks at me. I hadn't thought... those green eyes would be so entrancing."

Acelina snorted, lay beside him, and snuggled up to him so her breasts pressed to his shoulder. She leaned in, brought her black canvas face over his, and snorted.

"I suppose," she whispered.

He smiled, earned an annoyed grunt from Acelina, and she leaned in closer and higher so her heavy breasts covered his face. He opened his mouth, and suckled, while Laoko danced.

~~♥♥♥~~