The Pleasures of Hell 04.056

~~Day 79~~

~~David~~

He woke up, looked around, and smiled. Another sleep with no visions. Another day knowing Mia was alive.

Strange that Tsila still wasn't back, but morning twilight was almost over. Time to get moving.

In a bit.

Beside him lay... everyone. The Las had found pillows, Acelina and Laoko's breasts, and the two huge women had let them indulge. Caera, Jes, and Daoka lay around Moriah, and the angel lay on her back, limbs spread. She'd practically passed out from all the sex; the girls had fucked her long after David had.

And if he was lucky, they'd fuck again before they left.

Fucking christ, David. Remember all the people who died yesterday? Stop thinking about sex. You're fucking awful.

He scooped Latia up and sat back against the cave wall. Feet on the blankets, all the girls in front of him, he set the sleeping gremla on his lap facing him and smiled down at her.

"David?" she asked, rubbing her eyes. Big, wonderful, cute eyes, in direct contrast to her wide mouth full of sharp teeth. Grems and imps really were like goblins, strangely cute, strangely sexy, and very dangerous.

"Just wanted to make sure you're alright," he said. "You lost an arm, you know."

"I did." She nodded, smiling brightly.

"It fell off and everything. I even picked it up and pressed it back on while the angels healed you."

Her jaw dropped, showing all her teeth. "Wow." She rotated the arm. "It works! Angels powerful."

"Good thing we have a gabriem with us now. She'll heal us up."

"Good." Latia hugged him tight and buried her face in his neck. "I protect David."

He hugged her, smiled down at her, ran his fingers through her tendril hair, and earned quiet mews of bliss. He reached behind her, stretched out her wings, teased his fingers along their soft membranes, and tugged at the thumb claw on each. She giggled and fluttered them, but he held on and half wrestled with them.

He spread his legs, pushed her down so she lay on her back between them, and he grabbed her feet. Hooves. He checked their undersides for any cracks or thorns -- bloodgrip was a concern again, ugh -- and nodded, satisfied they were in good shape. But no need to pick her up yet. He tugged on her hooves, tapped them together, and traced the interesting horseshoe shape with his fingers. It was so easy to forget sometimes that the demon girls, all of them, were, in fact, demons, and it was fun to explore the body differences.

Giggling more, Latia lay between his legs, grinned up at him with her shark smile, and thudded his chest with her hooves.

"David paying attention to Latia?"

"Do I not do that enough?"

"Las always want attention." She sat up, turned around, slid up against him, sat on his lap, and guided his hands to her hair. "More."

He laughed and ran his fingers through the little lady's hair again. Or what passed for demon hair. Her horns came straight up, each maybe eight inches long, and he grabbed them and gently steered her head around. More giggles.

"David."

He turned his head. Moriah climbed up from the sleeping ladies, half frowned at him, and sat beside him. Her clothes were back. David and everyone else were still naked.

"Yeah? I uh... Um, last night. That." Fuck, how to word this? "Right, yeah, that. I... did we cross a line? I mean, you... you did say... But before that, Laoko grabbed you, and--"

Moriah rolled her eyes and held up a hand. "I could have freed myself at any point... at least, before you used your aura. That was powerful. That was overwhelming. I could barely think."

"Sorry. Fuck, I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "It's fine, David. I... I needed that." With a small squirm, she looked down at her sandals and gestured out at the sleeping girls. "Everything has been so awful lately, and I've been feeling..." She took a deep breath. "Do feel bad... about Shaul, I mean? And Tzipporah?"

He winced. A punch to the face would have hurt less.

"Yes... and no. Tzipporah, yes. Shaul? Your old boyfriend was... violent."

Her eyes fell. "Yes. Yes he was. It was one of the reasons we'd... grown distant. Him and many angels of Azoryev are volatile these days."

"Compared to you?"

She punched him. Ow. At least it was in the shoulder.

"I was angry with you for killing them. But I was most angry for... for what was lost, and what could have been. Heaven has changed these past millennia. The stories say angels were solid foundations for all souls, but now it's..." Her head drooped further. "Everything is falling apart, and now I, an angel that is supposed to be a foundation for souls, am troubled waters."

He gulped and put a hand on hers. "You don't... I mean... You don't..."

Caera crawled over. Tail slithering behind her, she smiled at Moriah, plucked Latia from David's lap, and took the giggling little lady under her. She lay on top of Latia, pinned her under her breasts, licked her cheek, and snuggled her. And she... winked at Moriah?

David froze. Moriah climbed onto his lap, set her hands on his shoulders, and stared down at him, half frowning, half pouting.

"I am broken."

He couldn't freeze anymore than he already had. "I... I um..."

She leaned in closer and pushed her forehead to his. "You took advantage of me while I was my most vulnerable."

"Shit, I didn't mean--"

She reached her hand down his chest, trailed her fingers along his abs, and cupped his testicles.

"I enjoyed last night, but I want something... more. Give me something... something all angels want. Let me just... indulge in... your soul."

What indulging in his soul meant, he had only the faintest idea. Caera had admitted to fantasies of eating him, but far as he could tell from what Moriah had told him, the angel equivalent was protection, nurturing, and healing. How could she do that?

His consciousness wrestled with that puzzle, but her fingers caressed his cock, and his subconsciousness rose to the occasion.

"Keep your aura under control," she said. "Keep it small. Keep it gentle. I want..." Forehead still on his, her ruby eyes penetrated him, skewered him, and ripped him open. "Just let me indulge, okay?"

~~♥♥♥~~

He snuck a peek past her at Caera, and Caera returned it with a sly smile before again squishing Latia. With Latia being literally half Caera's height, the tiger had an easy time pinning her, squashing her under her breasts, and licking her throat, earning more giggles. Thoroughly distracted.

David still didn't know what Moriah really wanted. Maybe he wasn't grasping the angel thing. He knew they wanted to be close to souls, very close, but it wasn't sexual. Except, she had her hand around his cock, and she was so damn beautiful.

His cock grew, and grew. It slid up between her thighs, up against her stomach, but she touched his chest.

"Not... Not too much. Big is fine. But I don't want... crazy sex right now, okay? Just let me lead."

"Okay." Easier said than done. His sexual energy was limitless, it was only getting stronger the longer he lived in Hell, and he wanted to fill the angel up until she was a drooling mess of pleasure. But Moriah wanted something calmer right now. He could do calmer.

She nodded, and the tiniest little smile came out. She didn't undress, but she did slip a hand under her potram clothes and moved her tiny, hidden loincloth aside. Warm softness pressed to the underside of his cock, and she rubbed her clitoris against him.

"In Heaven," she said, "gabriem are often the first for a soul. But you are hardly a virgin. Slut."

"Slut? I was a virgin before I came to Hell, I'll have you know."

She smiled, but it vanished quick, and she rubbed herself against him a little harder. His aura, small and contained, teased the air around them, and the angel sighed with a relaxed sound, very un-Moriah-like.

"I'd say," she said, "that... skipping foreplay is bad form. That creating auras like us angels and demons do is cheating for a soul. But..." She glanced back at the others. "We have little time."

"I mean, I can--" He sucked in a breath as the beautiful angel lowered herself onto his cock. Not dripping wet and boiling, but wet and warm nonetheless.

Is this what she wanted? Just some quiet, gentle sex? Netflix and chill or something? He had no idea. But the gorgeous angel lowered herself down onto him and sighed quietly once she took him to the base. He'd grown his cock so it was plenty larger than a human's, now maybe as big as an incubus's, so the angel sitting on him still had to struggle with the size of him.

"I said not too large," she said, frowning.

"Sorry."

She rolled her eyes, leaned down again, forehead to his, and stared into his eyes. And as she held his gaze, she squeezed her insides hard, hard enough to make him wince and groan.

"Don't look away," she said. He blinked at her, but forced himself to keep his eyes open, and stared into hers. "Have you ever heard that eyes are windows to the soul?"

"I... I have."

She nodded and ground on his cock, slowly, dragging out each motion.

"The demons will never understand," she whispered. "They want to eat and devour."

"I mean, they are demons."

"They are, but they... don't see..." She took his jaw into her hand, and held eye contact with him. He probably looked like a deer in headlights, and only the tight squeezing of her pussy broke his frozen face. "They don't... see."

"See what?"

She sighed, slid her arms around his neck, and held him as she slowly worked her hips around and around. So damn beautiful, and still clothed, too. Something about sex in clothes was tantalizing, especially the way her nipples poked out against her white silk. But he didn't get to watch, as Moriah pulled him in close and held his head to her sternum.

And the woman melted. She didn't cum, but every muscle in her body relaxed as she held him close, like David was the drug she needed, and she ran her fingers through his shaggy red hair and down his back and muscles.

"I'm being selfish," she said. "But I don't care. Just... cum inside me, quickly, before the others ruin this."

He lifted his head and blinked up at her, but she pushed his head back down and hugged him again. Trapped and helpless, all he could do was hold her hips and feel her dance on his cock. And he hugged her. Slowly, with a firm grip milking his length, she swayed her hips and sent tingling sparks through him until he was quivering. It was almost painful, the constant grinding stimulation on his swollen glans, but it wasn't long before it got his inner muscles flexing, and soon, the first warm gushes of cum up his length.

Moriah sighed, deep and happy, and she hugged him tighter. Her full wing snuck around and joined the hug, and her half-grown wing tried, too, half hiding him in a cage of white feathers. She clenched in spurts, coated him in her juices, and his own flowed out of her as she squeezed him him.

Fingers still in his hair, she pulled away and tilted his head up to look at her. She stared down at him, eyes locked, not hard or soft, but open and sucking him in. He couldn't have looked away if he tried. She stared into his soul and milked his cock with a tight grip that made him shiver.

~~♥♥♥~~

No words. She slowly curled her fingers through his hair, traced her other hand's fingers down his chest again, and kept her eyes locked on his.

"Thank you," she said.

He gulped. "Thank you? I'm... the one..." Inside a beautiful angel's tight pussy and cumming. Even a gentle orgasm like this felt great, even better than the others, considering how it was so much easier to focus on it.

She pressed her forehead to his again, and stayed still, letting him finish and bask in her warm, wet depths.

"I missed this," she said.

"Sex?"

"No." She leaned back and grabbed his shoulders for balance. "In Heaven, even the rapholem and us mikalim meet with humans regularly. They're everywhere, and every night and day, we hear the laughter of children, and the moans of adults. We hear the excitement of games, and the tears of sadness. Heaven is a never ending bustle of the human experience. Down here, that's you. Only you."

"Oh. I--"

She stood up, and he shivered as his cock fell free of her. Not nearly as much of a mess as usual, and she nodded down at him as she adjusted her clothes back to normal. She hadn't cum, not even close, but that hadn't been what she'd been looking for.

"The demons get to feast. We don't. It's not only about resonance, about sustenance. So, if you don't mind, I'll... take part of you every so often, until this is all over."

He stared up at her, down at his softening, shrinking cock, and back to Caera, who'd somehow distracted Latia through all that. His girlfriend grinned at him, winked, and played with Latia more. In the intensity of David and Moriah's encounter, he hadn't even noticed Latia and Caera playing like a big cat and... small cat.

He took a deep breath and watched the angel stand tall and stretch. She didn't look at him, content to practically ignore him as she took stock of the situation and the waking demons. Embarrassed, maybe? Considering what'd happened last night, being embarrassed didn't make much sense. He'd literally pumped so much cum into her, she'd looked pregnant, only for the girls to pounce her and keeping fuck her when he'd moved onto Laoko and Acelina.

Maybe it was the intimacy? The sex they'd just had had been oddly intimate. Not romantic, but intimate, like she'd been trying to absorb his soul through his eyes.

After a few more deep breaths, he summoned potram, and a subtle red glow covered him and regrew his clothes from nothing. He got up, checked his sandals were fine, and analyzed the mess of naked ladies on the blankets.

"Where's Tsila?" he asked.

Jes sat up and stretched out her wings. "No idea."

Daoka got up and hopped out of the cave, clicking.

"Damn it, Dao," Jes said, and she chased after her girlfriend.

David chased after them. Chasing down a couple naked demon girls in cave tunnels. What a world.

They didn't have to go far. In the next alcove, bigger than the one they'd been sleeping in, were several dozen betrayers and demons, all naked, all spread out, sleeping, with limbs draped over each other in random ways. Same in the next group. And the next. Everyone was naked. Everyone was draped over each other, tails and wings under or on someone else.

And there was Tsila with five of the incubi, and one succubus. She stood up, stretched out her glorious wings, and naked as a jailbird, she smiled at David, Jes, and Dao.

"Your aura," she said, grinning at David, "it hit everyone in the cave."

"Shit." He buried his face in his palms. "I... I didn't think about that. I knew it reached out, I just... didn't think about it." Grimacing, he looked around at all the naked, sleeping, apparently well-fucked demons and betrayers. His fault. Not really a bad thing, hopefully, but still his fault. He had to be careful from now on.

Jes folded her arms across her chest and looked the naked angel up and down.

"Damn."

The angel smiled, warm and bright, and turned once in place. "I am a gabriem of Heaven. I am beautiful, am I not?"

"Cocky bitch," Jes said. "But, yeah, very hot."

Daoka nodded and poked the angel's flat stomach. Tsila didn't stop her. She had a lean, almost skinny body, and small breasts, very fashion model, with just enough musculature to the rest of her she looked healthy and fit, instead of anorexic. Her dark hair was in a braid and reached her ass, and her emerald green eyes practically shined.

There was a softness to her face that struck David still. Galon had been the same way, just a ridiculously gorgeous man, who also had such perfect body language, posture, and facial expression, you couldn't help but relax around him.

David squinted. "Are you using an aura, angel?"

She stood up straight and put up her hands in surrender. "Sorry. Sorry." With a little giggle, the warmth around her disappeared, and the air returned to normal. "It helps with making sure people get along. But you know all about auras, unmarked."

"I know how to make people horny, that's about it. I might be able to do other stuff, but I haven't tried."

Nodding, the angel stretched out her wings, showed off her lithe body, her tan skin, before she summoned her potram. The clothes barely hid anything, loose hanging fabric with only a couple thin strips over her breasts, and a long, loose skirt with two splits that reached past her hips. No underwear. She had some gold tattoos that flowed around her limbs, almost like vines, and potram summoned jewelry, necklaces and earrings and bracelets and anklets.

Daoka chirped a few times and gestured to the angel with her horns.

"No," Jes said, frowning and folding her arms across her chest. "She's still a stranger. And a slut!" She pointed at the rising sex demons with her tail.

"Come now," Tsila said. "It wasn't my intention, but David's aura hit everyone. I am but a simple gabriem."

Jes glared down at the sex demons, and each one put up their hands in surrender.

"I'm surprised," David said. "I mean, letting your guard down around a bunch of demons and betrayers who want to eat you?"

"I didn't let my guard down. I am an angel."

He squinted again, but dropped it and looked around. "I'm surprised no betrayers joined you. I bet they'd love to touch an angel."

Tsila sucked in a breath and let her wings droop. "I... would never touch a damned soul."

"You wouldn't?"

"No. They are damned. They aren't worthy of Heaven. It would be... painful, not pleasurable, to touch such souls."

Oh. It wasn't that she thought lowly of them--though Moriah probably did. It just hurt her, knowing they were damned, that they were doomed to suffer.

"Well, come on, slut," Jes said. "We always have a chat as a group before we get going. And I guess you're part of the group, now."

The angel followed, but shook her head. "I'll join the meeting, but let's be honest, gorgala. I am not part of the group. You barely know me."

"I know you passed up the opportunity to get back to your friends."

"Or maybe I lied, and am looking for an opportunity to kill David?"

Daoka laughed and clicked.

"Dao's right," Jes said. "You angels are too stupid to lie. And besides, you had chances to kill David. If that was your goal, you'd die for it, and you could have done it already. You haven't. So I got no choice but to trust you, skinny bitch. So come on."

Tsila's eyes fell. "And... my friends are dead, Jeskura."

Jes stopped. Dao and David stopped.

"Shit," David said. "I didn't think... All your friends were in that battalion?"

"Most were. And tonight, I welcomed the reprieve David's aura brought me." She touched his shoulder and smiled down at him.

Jes looked back at the angel, wincing. "That's rough."

"Yes, it is." The angel sighed, gave her wings a gentle flap, but took a deep breath and stood up straight. "But you're right. I should join you for this team meeting."

"It's a stand-up," David said, nodding. Maybe a joke would take her mind off losing hundreds of friends less than twenty-four hours ago?

Yeah right, dumbass.

"Stand-up?" Jes asked.

"Uh, it's a meeting between people working on a project. The idea is they quickly talk and make sure everyone is on the same page, so there's no mistakes made by people tripping over each other and stuff. Far as I've read, they don't work."

Daoka chuckled, got behind David, and hugged him tight as they walked. He did his best to ignore her breasts squashed against his back.

Everyone else was already getting dressed, slabs of bent, black armor held on with nothing but leather straps. Uncomfortable, but the girls didn't mind, and Jes and Dao wasted no time getting dressed, too.

David raised a hand. "So, uh, what's the plan? Where's Tacharius?"

"Here," the incubus said, coming up from behind them. "Not like I have any kind of special plan, though. You got us back to the Scar. We're good."

"Oh no," Jes said, flaring her wings. She marched up to the incubus and glared at him, eye to eye. "You're going to help us."

"How?"

She grabbed one of his short horns, gave it a good yank, and forced the man to his knees. His devil tail snapped out straight behind him.

"By escorting us through the Scar! We want to avoid Tarkissa, so you're going to show us every tunnel, every path, every group of demons who won't turn us in."

Laoko joined her and bent down and over the kneeling incubus. "You didn't think we took you past the angels out of the goodness of our hearts?"

He managed a pained grin. "I mean, I kinda hoped?"

Acelina marched up, with plans to kill from her body language, but Laoko gently nudged her back, and brought the incubus back to his feet.

"You saw what the unmarked was capable of," she said. She set two hands on the incubus's shoulders, another two on the top of his head, and stroked his small horns. Like a cat being dominant over another cat by licking them. "You want to be on his good side. Imagine when the unmarked from the Navameere Fields reaches the Scar, if they do, and what they will do to everyone inside?"

The incubus scrunched up his face like he'd tasted rotten milk. "I only know what I've been told, the unmarked that way isn't... very nice. She's a bitch. Kinda kills everyone in her path."

David gulped. Women were scary enough. A woman with all his powers, and using them to go to war? Whole new level of scary.

"She'll have to be careful," David said. "Playing the music loud is what got me in trouble. The aliens showed up when it saw what I was doing." He aimed a hand down at the ground in front of him, summoned a spike of rock, and told the music to snap it off at the bottom. It did, and he held the blackstone spear in hand. "I can do this, no problem. But to do the really big stuff? Could cause trouble. Whoever this unmarked is, she might cause problems."

"Sounds dangerous," Tacharius said. "You should probably just let me--"

Laoko grabbed the man around the throat and lifted him up. "Should let you do what?"

"Should let me help! Definitely help!"

Laoko grinned back down at David and winked.

"Always with the violence," Tsila said, shaking her head. "Come now, there are better ways to enlist their aid. Promise them easy food, easy lives, wealth -- or the demon equivalent -- and power. Surely if David's powers are so grand, and they most definitely are, great things await in the future for us?"

Everyone looked at her, an eyebrow raised.

"Or not." She sighed and gave her wings a shake.

"Either way," Caera said, prowling up to them, "we need some kind of plan. If we could just scale the mountain and stay outside the Scar, I'd say do that, since apparently Tarkissa and Azailia want to sacrifice David, whatever that entails. But we can't, so we need to sneak our way through the Scar, avoid Tarkissa, maybe make some allies."

David raised a hand. "Think the Red Pits will make for easy allies? If it comes to it, I can offer my services to stop the other unmarked."

"Maybe," Moriah said. "Ideally, we'd avoid all nations, get to False Gate, and see if your ability to read the old runes will help us, David."

The dangling incubus waved his tail. "Avoid! I vote avoid!"

Laughing in that feminine, playful way Laoko liked, she set the incubus back down and brushed his cheek with a knuckle.

"Serve us well and you will be rewarded, slave."

David waved his hands. "Whoa whoa, no slaves. None of that. We're all comrades in this."

Acelina groaned and whipped his ass with her tail. He caught himself before he squeaked.

"Foolish boy. Demons are not humans. They are not angels. They respond best to force, especially these vola and their slimy tactics."

A heavy insult, but Tacharius grinned and flicked his tail like a cat.

"Guilty as charged."

The spire mother groaned, squatted down, and faced the Las.

"Do not let the volas trick you with their false stupidity," she said to the little ladies. "They are devious tricksters, and they will rob the hearts out of your claws and your own chests."

The four Las gasped, covered their mouths, eyes wide, and glared at Tacharius. The incubus put up his hands in surrender -- a repeating trend in these parts -- and shook his head, but the four little ladies charged the man and pounced at him, literally. But Laoko had four hands and she used them, grabbed each girl by a horn, and saved the man from death by piranha.

"Not yet," Laoko said. "When he betrays us, then you may eat him."

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

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

~~Mia~~

Awkward, and yet not awkward. Okay, yes, last night had gotten very steamy, and she'd gotten a lot closer to Yosepha than she'd ever planned. But at the same time, crazy orgies weren't a big deal to demons or angels. Yosepha helped get Vin off? No big deal. She'd helped get Mia off? No big deal. Right?

Easy to think that. Not so easy to act like that.

Mia sat against the wall of her little cave with her friends, her puppy's heads on her lap, and she stroked his mane of spikes as she looked between the group. The Maze burned above. Her sixth sense told her it was burning, a distant roar, but that the nearby walls were fine. Unfortunately, she couldn't reach very far with the sense. It was like trying to listen to something quiet, while the distant fire was someone with an over-tuned car engine running in the background.

But that was fine. She smiled, pet the bestest best dog in the world, and looked up at the little cave ceiling. Another night with no visions. Another day, knowing David was still alive.

"Okay," she said. She got up, adjusted her ridiculously revealing clothes, and clapped once. Everyone opened their eyes. "Okay. Last night was a little heated, but I enjoyed that." Take command of the situation! Own it. "It was fun. Vin is an asshole, and so is Julisa--"

"And Romakus," Yosepha said. Her boyfriend chuckled.

"And Romakus. Bunch of assholes. But I enjoyed last night, and I'd like to do that again." Deep breath. You can do this. She faced Noah, and met his silver eyes. Like Azreal, his gaze was so damn intense, and with his long, dark blond hair and face stubble, he really had that older man look. The sexy older man. The sexy, older, tall, athletic man in a nice suit who had a little office assistant girl on a leash he made serve him drinks and blowjobs while he worked before he inevitably fingered her into a puddle of juices.

Surely she wasn't the only one who had that fantasy? And from certain angles, she saw a bit of that older man look in Noah. Sometimes he looked around thirty. Sometimes he looked around forty. He always looked gorgeous.

"Noah," she said. "You, um... I mean, I know angels really like souls." Her conversation with Azreal came back to her and made her smile again. "You could... join us?"

Vin snorted. Kas snorted. She spun and pointed at the two of them.

"Hey! You two are bullies who keep taking without asking. Assholes." And the more she got to know them, the more romance felt less like a possibility. They just didn't think that way, not really. Maybe they'd prove her wrong, but for the moment, there were no balls in that court. "But don't think I haven't figured out that you really like souls, too. Well, I'm the only soul here, and damn it, I can't help but use the aura when things get steamy. And Noah is stuck down here, helping me, away from Heaven, so--"

Julisa raised her tail. "Sounds like you're offering him pity sex."

"What!? That is not what I'm doing!"

Cerberus got up and circled around her feet several times. Ideally, he'd have been growling at Julisa, but Cerberus sat in front of Mia and stared like a happy dog waiting for play. A guard dog, he was not, not yet.

Noah groaned. "I will be fine, Mia. It is true that angels desire to be with souls, even rapholem like Azreal, but I did not come down here looking to make friends."

"I get that! I do. But... I just want you to feel comfortable, you know? You're risking your life to help. You--" She stopped herself and glanced Yosepha's way. Do not use the word 'traitor' or 'betrayed'. "You're going up against Heaven. The least I can do is... make your stay down here more enjoyable." She squirmed and held her hands behind her back. "You know?"

Yosepha raised a brow and looked Noah's way. Noah kept his eyes on Mia though, and unlike Azreal, his intense gaze didn't have that 'I just survived a war and now I'm made of stone' look. It was more a 'I'm an adult, wise, confident, and I can see what you're doing' look. Which was all sorts of stimulating in a strange way. Vin and Kas had that animal attraction, like beasts. Adron had a bit of that, too, but he was more like Faust and the boys, fun and sexy. Noah? Daddy vibes.

Ugh. Here she was, organizing the boys into the ways they were sexually stimulating. She was awful. Was David this bad?

Noah shared the smallest, most mature smile she'd ever seen. "I will consider it, young soul."

Young soul. Insult? No. Calling a young woman a young woman could be kind of demeaning, but for an angel to call her a soul felt nice. It felt right. It felt true.

"I think," Julisa said, "that this little girl is just looking to have as much sex as possible."

Mia spun. "I am not! I'm being serious."

Chuckling, Julisa cozied up against Vin's side, and with her two upper hands, casually cupped the undersides of her huge breasts and jiggled them on her palms.

"Serious about seducing as many men as you can."

Mia stood her ground. "If we were on the surface, I'd agree. But this is Hell, and I'm apparently not a normal soul. Sex is great, it's healthy mentally, and I think having it regularly is good for keeping everyone happy and functioning. And when I have sex, this aura kinda goes crazy."

"It does," Yosepha said, nodding.

Romakus grinned. "Appreciated, by the way." He picked up Yosepha, put her on his lap facing him, leaned down over her, and licked her neck with a big, long lick from his giant tongue.

She squirmed and lightly punched his shoulders, but it wasn't long before she sighed, leaned back, relaxed into his awaiting palms, and let the big asshole devour her neck and cleavage like a hungry monster.

It was sexy and not sexy at the same time. Mia wanted a tall, dark, and brooding man to do that to her. Having Romakus drool all over her would be like having the Joker drool all over her. Not her thing. But considering how much of a hardass Yosepha was, it kinda fit.

Kas got up and tapped the ceiling. "Do we go?"

"I think so," Mia said. "I can feel the bone walls around us are still there, so they haven't burned down." She threw Vin a hard glare and got a tiny grin in return. "The fire's still going, but I can't tell from where. It's all blurry."

"And demons?" Julisa asked. "Or angels? You cannot tell if they're nearby?"

"I still can't, sorry. I don't think I'll ever be able to. The strings aren't connected to them, not in the same way."

Noah got up, and Yosepha jumped to attention as he did.

"We are fed and healed," he said. "If we have to fight, we fight. But Vinicius's fire has likely brought the whole Maze to chaos. Hopefully, it has not killed James."

"It hasn't," Mia said. "No vision."

Vin snorted, got to his feet, and pressed his four hands to the ceiling.

"Let's go."

Mia sucked in a breath, patted Cerberus's heads, and pulled the cave apart. The ceiling stuck up, a funnel at the top that pierced up through the muck before spreading out to make sure the infinite remnant guts didn't fall on their heads. And as she spread the roof open, she brought the ground up enough they could climb out. Once they were out, she lowered the cave ceiling edges, and let the swamp pour in. To any demon that found the hole, it'd just appear to be one of the many holes decorating the Black Valley.

"All clear," Yosepha said.

Noah nodded, took lead, and the journey began once again.

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

~~Day 81~~

They had sex again, and things went pretty much exactly as last time. Cerberus sat off to the side, completely uninterested in what they were doing, and slept. Mia controlled her aura better and hopefully didn't bother Noah too much, and Noah continued to not partake. Maybe he would someday, but for the now, Mia found herself a new guilty little pleasure.

She fucking loved it when Kas and Vin fought over her.

There was something about two huge monsters, bodies made of thick muscle, faces scary and full of sharp teeth, hands armed with giant claws, and cocks enormous and filling her up, fighting over her. They growled at each other, pushed each other, sometimes half rolled to the side and fought for new positions, all while both men were inside her. It was so naughty! Caught between two hungry beasts in some animalistic snarling match to claim her, and eat her; not eat, but from the way they looked at her, not too far off, either. They squished her between their bodies, got their hands on her, and used her like a toy, both fighting for the right to fuck her.

Sure, sometimes they got a bit too rough, and she had to placate them. And that was hot, too. Her, stroking their bodies, whimpering little noises, and trying to fuck them both at the same time so they'd stop fighting. And--

She clapped both hands against her cheeks and stared down at the muck. In the past, her aura would have exploded and drowned everyone nearby already. She was stronger now, more aware of the music, of the strings. Good. She was on a journey to save the world, damn it, not indulge in some sexual fantasy.

Yosepha stretched out her wings and sighed bliss. "Finally."

Mia smiled at her back. Angel wings were something else, ridiculously beautiful, and while Yosepha's were covered in black grossness, that didn't change that her huge wingspan finally looked grown.

"Healed up?" Mia asked.

"Yes. Maybe another day, I think, for the final touches, but..." She half turned to Mia and stretched out her wings. Far as Mia could tell, they were as big as when Mia first met her. "I can fly."

"You can tell?"

"Mhmm." Another warm smile. For the badass angel to smile like that was strange, but she set her obsidian, almost glittering eyes on Mia. The woman was truly happy. "I can fly."

"Flying that important to angels?"

"Oh yes. It is God's gift to us. In the afterlife, only the creatures of Heaven may fly: the angels, the council angels, and the archangels. And to fly is to feel God's gift."

God. Mia beamed a smile at Yosepha, but her thoughts went on a tangent. God was real. How easy it was to forget that, considering how visceral all these experiences were. Heaven and Hell felt so real, and the concept of God always felt so... philosophical. You couldn't touch, hear, smell, see, or taste God. She could do all those down here, and more.

"Must be nice," Mia said.

"When this insanity is over, we will take you flying, Mia. We can explore Hell the way angels explore it, and perhaps Heaven as well."

"Flying? Like, you'll... pick me up?"

"Yes."

Mia clutched her stomach. "That sounds scary."

Yosepha nodded. "It would be."

Well, so much for being coddled by the angel.

The group continued on for hours, drifting around and around. Maze it was, but Yosepha and Noah still had a general direction of which way was clockwise or counter-clockwise around Hell. They pointed counter-clockwise, and the group did their best to find paths that led in that direction. When they came to an area where the bone walls blocked them, forever screaming at them with endless remnants, Mia opened a pathway. And without demons or angels on their ass, she had the time to carve a tunnel through the bone instead of smash through it, and close it behind them.

It was still a giant pain in the ass.

"We make good time," Noah said.

Julisa snorted and came up beside the angel. "You could have flown over the Maze in hours."

"Yes," he said. "But we would have been spotted."

"It must be infuriating, having to walk."

"It can be."

Romakus flared his wings. "Woe is I, the demon! Forever doomed to walk the tainted ground with wings that will never take me to the sky."

His girlfriend wasn't having it. She hit him with her wings and snuck a glance back at Mia, along with a hidden grin. Her wings were working well.

Unless Mia was going crazy, Cerberus was already looking a bit bigger, too. Could people get fat in Hell? She let him eat as much as he wanted, and that was quite a bit, but far as getting fat was a concern, it didn't seem to happen. It definitely wasn't happening for Mia. She ate herself silly down here, never got full, and still had a flat stomach. The others got full after one or two fruit, and she made sure they ate constantly, but they never gained weight, either.

She missed ice cream, and ice cream cake. She missed chocolate. She missed sour gummy worms, and dark chocolate-coated dried blueberries, and marshmallow candies. As awesome and filling as forbidden fruits were, they didn't hit quite the same way as sweets. But at least she got to eat to her heart's content, and keep her tiny little waist and great ass.

Finding the silver lining of a life in Hell. How quaint.

"Cerberus," she said, "we're getting close. You stay close."

Cerb looked up at her and tilted his head.

She spoke gently. "Heel." If the command was soft, maybe he'd learn that it meant a suggestion, a generalization, and not a hard order? Could a dog, or hellbeast, understand that nuance? They'd worked on 'sit', 'stay', 'come', and 'heel' the past few days, and they'd made good progress. Doggy was smart doggy.

Cerberus followed along beside her, three heads glancing in different directions. The middle head, the big-dog with the casual, quiet gentleness of a big dog like a Bullmastiff or something, harrumphed and looked up at the black smog hiding them from the angels above. Left head was totally dopey, very Golden Retriever, and looked around randomly. Right head was totally serious, like a pointing dog on the hunt, and he stared ahead, undeterred by distractions.

She scrolled through the list of dog breeds she knew in her head, dogs she'd planned to buy when she got rich as a psychologist. She couldn't have that, but she got three dogs in one, so that was pretty amazing, too.

By the sixth carved tunnel through a bone wall, she was tired. She paused inside the tunnel, leaned against the wall of bone, and clenched her eyes as she breathed.

"Why," she said between pants, "do my lungs burn?"

"What?" Kas asked.

She teetered over to him and climbed onto his back. "There's no oxygen in Hell. I'm a ghost. You're all spirit creatures or something. Why do my lungs burn when I'm tired?" She took deep breaths, and it helped a little. Maybe not in the same way it would have on the surface, almost like it was a more holistic 'recovering' sensation, instead of taking care of the burning lungs issue first.

"Why do angels sweat?" Noah asked, without a glance back.

"Why do we bleed?" Julisa asked with a shrug. "Whatever the reason, the Great Tower doesn't care about your nuances."

If Julisa actually knew anything about biology, Mia would eat her own foot.

They carried on for a bit, Mia breathing deep the whole way. Cerberus looked up at her, or at least his two heads did, serious head forever pointed forward. She smiled down at him and waved, calming him.

"I'm okay, Cerb. We just gotta keep pushing ahead."

Vinicius followed in the back, healed up and ready to fight. Good. Because if Noah and Romakus were right, when they got to the edge of the Maze, they'd have to break through demons and angels and find tunnels to hide inside. Mia felt ready, physically. Tired at the moment, but she'd been careful to take her time and not push herself. She was good for battle.

She didn't want battle. She didn't want to kill angels, more people like Noah and Yosepha and Azreal, like Galon, people who were just trying to do right by humanity. And that's what it was. Angels obeyed their bosses because they thought it was the way to preserve Heaven, the Great Tower, and the whole deal with the surface and souls and whatnot. They wanted to preserve and save. They were the good guys.

If she had to kill any more good guys, she was going to crumble.

She broke through another wall, and slowly tore down the last layer of bone before the group came out into a new world. No more bone walls covered in thousands of remnants. No more strange bone structures poking up from the ground, oddly alive and twisting with rotating parts that ground through remnants like beef. No more endless black swamp of remnant guts to wade through.

No more black smog to hide them.

In the distance awaited mountains. Giant mountains, as big as the ones in Death's Grip, but instead of sharp, jagged edges and steep cliffs, it was all smooth. And white. Deathly white. And upon the strange skin of the mountains, were feathers.

Asmodeus had been the size of Godzilla, literally, just absurd and hard to understand from close up. If these feathers belonged to archangels, and the archangels had wings like regular angels, they'd have eaten Asmodeus like a snack.

She looked up. Angels flew above, white dots against the burning sky. Oh, the burning sky! It'd been so long. Mia stared up at it and breathed deep, both settling her burning lungs and basking in the strange beauty of the flowing ember waves and red flames.

She didn't get to stare up for long.

"Mia," Noah said beside her. "Dismount, and summon your armor."

Oh no.

She got off Kas's back, and at the edge of the bone tunnel, she wrapped herself in a red glow and summoned her armor and weapon. In the tunnel, the light wouldn't be too noticeable, hopefully, but it didn't really matter. The demons ahead of them saw her plenty.

A tetrad stepped out from the line of demons. A woman. No need for anyone to tell Mia. That was Alessio. She wasn't directly in front of them, but not far off, either, maybe half a kilometer off. She knew they were coming? Maybe she'd heard them. Maybe she'd known where they'd end up, considering she knew the Maze so well. However she knew, she knew, got ahead of them, and waited.

The demons stood in a line. Literally. With maybe fifty meters between them, demons stood in a line along the border of Angel's Spine, vrats and brutes and gargoyles, and some tigers and bat girls, too. But upon seeing the tetrad move, the demons fell in around and behind her like pack animals following their leader.

Mia and the crew stayed in the tunnel, ready to run back to the Maze, but for the moment, the demons weren't swarming. Maybe they wanted to talk? What little she knew about Alessio told her any conversation the demoness wanted was just precursor for battle. But what the fuck were Mia and the crew supposed to do? Run back into the Maze, hide, and pop out at a different part of the border tomorrow? All they'd do is run into demons again, who'd summon their buddies and quickly collapse on their position.

Noah backed into the tunnel. "I did not expect them to stand in a wall. That is absurd."

Romakus chuckled, but backed up, too. "Demons can be pretty strategic, when it comes to food."

"Why aren't the angels coming down?" Mia asked.

"I saw movement above," Noah said, "angels speaking with angels, but I know not why. They should be swooping down the moment they saw demon movement, if they are working with Alessio."

"Small miracles," Julisa said. "That's the expression, right?"

"I guess," Mia said. "So... what do we do?"

Kas snorted. "Get ready to run back into the Maze, but talk with Alessio."

"Talk." Mia sucked in another breath. Get ready to fight. "Cerberus. Stay. But... get ready."

No need to tell Cerberus. Her hellhound snarled loud and stood next to her, all three heads baring their teeth, tail dead still behind him.

Alessio came closer, gestured her demons to stay back, and came closer again. The demon army stood a ways off, far enough they could probably swarm in a few minutes, but distant enough Alessio's intent was clear. She wanted a chat.

She was fucking scary.

The tetrad stood before them, body covered in scar tattoos of hard corners, squares, swastikas, and other straight edge patterns. She wore the typical meera metal on her body, hard slabs of black hammered into vague curves that let someone wear them over the thighs, chest, and other places if you had enough leather straps attached. But she wore bone jewelry, metal chain necklaces with hanging skulls, bracelets with hanging finger bones, and necklaces that connected her horns, piercing through the black bone, each holding more skulls.

All the skulls were human.

"So you are the unmarked," she said. A lifetime smoker, from the grate in her voice. "You are the one that killed Zelandariel."

Mia squinted at the woman and squeezed her staff at her side. "I am."

"Was it a battle?"

"What?"

"You killed her. Did you battle her?"

Okay, how to answer that? Lie? What would make Alessio happier? Was making her happy something she wanted?

"Um... no. Her guard was down. I stabbed her in the eye."

Alessio stared at her. Silence fell on them, with only the screaming remnants to fill the vacuum, before the tetrad shattered it with a laugh.

"Did she realize what happened?"

"Uh, kinda? I stabbed her, and she was alive long enough to realize I'd killed her. She definitely wasn't too happy her new toy did her in." Maybe Alessio would appreciate Zel's last moments being so undermining?

"Good." Alessio sighed bliss and gave her tail a little wag. "Very good."

"Does... that mean you'll let us pass?"

"Of course not. You're all going to die. You stole away Xela's unmarked before she was ready to bring him to me. You have burned down half of the Maze, my Maze. And the angels have told us any demon who eats the heart of an unmarked will gain great power. What possible reason could I have to let you go?"

Well, fuck. Mia aimed her staff at Alessio.

"I'm not looking for a fight, Alessio."

"Tell that to Xela. The child of the Old Ones killed dozens of her entourage."

Much as Alessio was going to be an enemy, she was willing to talk. Pretty awesome, compared to the barriers Mia had run into. Then again, she talked like Zel talked, someone who was convinced their own life was more important than others', and that she deserved to rule.

And the longer this conversation went on, the more likely some bad shit was going to happen, and the more demons who showed up.

Vinicius pushed past Mia and Noah, and growled, claws out at his sides. The muck was shallow here, and it vibrated around his feet.

But before he could speak, Romakus came out, too, drew his sword, and stabbed its tip into the muck.

"Alessio," Romakus said.

"Romakus." What playfulness danced in the tetrad's eyes vanished. "Another reason to kill you all."

"There anything I can say to make you get out of our way?"

"Not in the slightest."

He gestured to the hundreds of demons behind her. "Bit overkill, don't you think?"

"After what Xela told me, no, it's not. And the angels will be here soon to help."

Noah stepped out of the tunnel and looked up. "The angels do not come."

Everyone looked up. Noah was right. There were angels up there, each a pair of white dots for wings, and each hovered there, facing what looked like a dozen other angels.

They were leaving?

Alessio sighed, reached behind her back, and withdrew four swords. Sigh changed to sinister smile, and she dragged a blade across her tongue.

"I want your power, unmarked."

"Then go get it from Asmodeus."

Alessio tilted her head and lowered the blade. "What?"

"One of the Old Ones is trapped and wounded underground in the Black Valley, closer to the Death's Grip border." Mia poked the ground with the base of her staff. "Or didn't you know that?"

"I did not know that."

Oh. Well, this Alessio was full of surprises, admitting ignorance like that.

"That's got to be a lot of power, right? How about, you go find him, jump him, eat him, and take his power?"

"Why would I not do that to you? The angels have made it clear you possess great power, and that you must be killed. How about I eat you, and then confirm your story?"

"Because..." Fuck. Okay, Alessio was willing to talk, but she wasn't willing to be nice.

Cerberus growled from beside Mia, and Alessio glared down at the little hellbeast.

"A cannam pup with three heads?" she asked. "How interesting." She pointed two swords forward. "Perhaps I will let it live and break it. I could use a pet."

Searing heat shot through Mia's stomach, and mixed with dread. She held her staff in front of her, both hands, and squeezed the metal hard with her gauntlets.

"You will not touch him." She prepared the strings. If she had to burn them all, if she had to rip this whole area into broken pieces to keep Cerberus safe, she would.

Alessio chuckled. "I have heard of your powers. I have to admit, I wasn't convinced when Vicente told me what the angels told me. But Xela confirmed."

Was she stalling? Waiting for angels to come down and help her? The angels were leaving, thank god. Was she waiting for Xela and Vicente to show up? Now that the black smog was gone, looking left and right showed a long stretch of flat ground, and reached for kilometers and kilometers. Hell was flat as a pancake, and the border went on and on. And there were demons, so many demons, walking or running their way to join Alessio. Hundreds. Thousands. Their claws churned up the shallow muck and their shoulders and wings buried the border in shadow.

Mia and the crew were under a time limit.

"I'm giving you one last chance to get out of my way, Alessio. I'm trying to help everyone. If you stop me, we could all die."

The tetrad chuckled. "The angels told me you'd say that. They say you're a threat that needs to die."

"And you believe them?"

She grinned. "Do you know angels to lie?"

Lie, no. But they could still be wrong.

Mia sighed and aimed the ruby jewel of her staff up at the sky, her eyes still locked on the demon ahead of her.

"You want me to prove my power, Alessio?"

"If you do that, out here where everyone can see you, the angels will come back."

Or different angels would show up. Why were they leaving at all? Mia peeked Noah's way, but the man grimaced and stared at Alessio, wings spread. Alessio's threat landed. If Mia summoned her power where everyone could find her, it'd be a problem. Another battle that'd end in a firestorm.

Mia glanced back at Yosepha, Julisa, and Kas, but they all had their gaze on the spire ruler. They looked... surprised?

"Spire rulers," Kas said, "do not leave their spires."

Alessio was definitely a spire ruler. She had the same small amber horn in the center of her forehead, just like Zel.

Julisa, same species as Alessio, glared like she was about to throw herself into a fight she knew she'd lose. She drew her own four swords, snarling.

"Alessio is a savage monster," she said. "We must get past her."

"Run back into the Maze?" Yosepha asked. "We can defend ourselves in there. Hide in there."

Noah spared a quick glance for Vinicius. Vinicius did not return it. They all knew what he was thinking. This was the ragarin's fault for setting the Maze on fire and announcing to everyone in the whole damn province that Mia was here. If they'd just fought Vicente, maybe they could have beaten him and then continue on, sneaking their way through the Maze while Alessio and the others hunted through it for them. But Alessio was smart, and had built an iron wall of flesh the moment she'd realized what the fire meant.

Romakus looked back and grinned at them. "We have no choice. We fight." He turned and pointed his sword. "You always were a bitch, Alessio. You really want to challenge us? To challenge the unmarked? Fine. We'll--"

"You will do no such thing." A woman's voice.

Alessio and her demons spun. The wall of flesh parted, red eyes and wings moving to the side to let a figure in the back pass. No wings, red or white. No tail. No claws.

Bronze. Red. Gold.

"You," Alessio said. "What are you doing here?"

The woman in aera armor stepped past the staring demons, her heavy boots squishing remnant guts under her, and she spared a slow glance for the sky. Calm, collected, she didn't look scared at all. Not that Mia could see anything of her face with the helmet hiding it in shadow, but the body language was obvious: you can't touch me.

She stopped by Alessio, turned, and faced the much, much larger woman. Just like the rider, this woman wasn't big, about as tall as an angel, maybe even a bit shorter, but the unnamed woman's armor was thick, boots included, giving her some mass. She still looked like a child beside Alessio.

And Alessio took a step back.

"You're in clear view of the angels," Alessio said. "You risk much, exposing yourself, old monster."

"The angels have been talking. There is confusion. They flee, to establish a new plan, I assume."

Alessio growled. Nearby demons growled, too, but none approached, and demons further inward and outward on the Hell donut stopped coming closer. A couple thousand demons, and they all stared, stuck in the mud.

"I asked you a question," Alessio said, but she didn't summon the same arrogance she had before. "What are you doing here?"

"Why is a spire ruler not in their spire?"

"This unmarked is worthy of my personal time. She will make a fine meal."

"You will not touch her."

Alessio growled through clenched teeth and slammed the muck with her tail. "I went through mud and bone to get here, creature. I left my tower to exercise my might in my world. She is mine!"

"She isn't. Let her go. She has a mission."

"I care not for any mission! I will--"

"Zelandariel is dead. If you truly want her province, go take it. Or do you think yourself strong enough to take Dobasi's province?"

Mia looked past the woman to the white mountains. Dobasi was the spire ruler there. Did the unnamed woman know them? The vision Mia had weeks ago showed the woman in armor protecting another unmarked from angels, on Angel's Spine. And failing.

Alessio pointed a sword at the stranger. "I have thousands of demons here, at this very moment, ready to fight. You--"

"I would survive. I always survive. And I'd make sure you died."

Dead silence. The remnants faded into the background, and no one breathed, eyes locked on the insanity in front of them. Where did the woman come from? Why was she here? Helping Mia? But she'd told Mia months ago that if she helped Mia, the rider would find them.

Mia sucked in a breath. "If she doesn't move aside, I'll--"

"Don't." The woman aimed her hidden gaze at Mia.

"But--"

"Don't. You will kill us all."

Mia stared, but lowered her staff and let the music go. She'd followed this stranger's advice all this time, dragged her ass across Death's Grip and the Black Valley, and soon Angel's Spine, all because of this woman's advice. Vinicius was helping her because of this woman's advice. It'd be pretty damn stupid to just ignore it now.

"Kill us all?" Alessio asked. "How--"

The stranger snapped her skull helmet and faced Alessio. "You have two options, spire ruler. Fight us, and I will kill you all. You know I will. Or let us go, so we can save you from your own stupidity." Slowly, the woman drew her sword, and it shone, literally, catching the ember light and reflecting it around her. She wielded it with two hands, and held it in front of her, pointed up so the blade stood between her helmet and visor, and the enormous tetrad staring down at her.

"You expect me to believe the unmarked is on some quest to save us? Save us from what?"

"The next time you speak with the angels, Alessio, ask them. Now, back away."

Romakus stepped back and leaned in toward Mia. "I have never seen her from this close."

Not the best time for a sneaky whisper conversation, but Mia leaned in closer to the big demon.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Seems like she's been showing up a lot lately, though, if Alessio has talked to her before. Sounds like she's been doing work, preparing for the unmarked."

Apparently. What was her connection to the unmarked? Why was she helping them? Why was her counterpart trying to kill Mia and David? What the fuck was going on?

Alessio didn't look at her fellow demons, but Mia recognized the body language. That was posturing. Whatever thoughts Alessio was juggling in her mind were considering the thousands of demons standing around and watching this exchange. Rock and a hard place. If she let Mia go, she'd be risking her power, showing that she was weak.

A brute stepped out from the growing crowd. It was only blind luck Xela and Vicente weren't here, or they'd probably be the ones stepping out of the crowd; they were probably fifty kilometers in either direction and on the way.

"Who is this?" the brute asked. "Why do we care what she has to say? Who--"

Alessio spun and brought her sword down on the brute's head. Brutes had thick skin, onyx skin, and cutting them wasn't easy. She got her sword down through the thick demon's skull and down to the jaw, splitting his head in half.

Romakus tried to whistle, but failed.

"Let them pass," Alessio said.

A new wave of silence fell on the crowd. Demon jaws dropped. Demon eyes stared. Demon wings drooped and demon tails fell to the muck.

Alessio snarled at the onlookers, the amber horn on her forehead glowed, and flame burst from her mouth. The demons dove to the side, but a wave of hellfire hit several, and the result was predictable. They died, screaming, and their remains became the path to Angel's Spine.

Alessio pointed her swords at her army. "I said, let them pass. There is more to this game than the angels have told us, and I will not be a pawn. Let. Them. Pass."

The demons backed away, and the path grew wide.

"Let's go," the stranger said, and she hooked her sword on her back.

Noah went first, not wearing his armor or wielding his weapon, but the demons stared at him with a mix of awe and hunger, nonetheless. Romakus followed, Yosepha at his side. Mia went next, climbed onto Kas, and Julisa and Vin followed behind her. Cerberus stayed at Mia's side the whole time, growling at demons that had the courage to get within five meters. Five meters was pretty damn close, but the crowd had grown and didn't have the space to move out of the way. And as Mia and the crew walked past them, they moved more like water displacing around them.

The demons stared at her, and they murmured among themselves when they saw her forehead. The tiara hid nothing, and each demon saw she was both unmarked, and wearing black and red metal armor that couldn't have been anything other than magical. Sometimes they stared at Noah and Yosepha and licked their teeth. Sometimes, they stared up at Vinicius and did the same. But it was Mia and the unknown woman they kept their eyes on.

Mia wasn't sure if she should feel honored or scared. But there was definitely something exhilarating about being the center of attention like this, terrifying, and energizing. She grabbed the strings in her mind and prepared, but the stranger's order weighed on her. Don't use the music?

When they were past the crowd, the stranger turned, faced Mia, and nodded back with her head. Order received: Keep walking past. Mia did, and so did her crew, until the stranger stood between Mia, Alessio, and her army.

"Do not trust the angels," the stranger said to Alessio. "They know not what they do."

She turned and followed Vinicius. No glance back, no double check to make sure the literal thousands of demons watching her walk away didn't run after her. She just walked.

Mia spoke up. "Um, where we going?"

"Forward," the stranger said.

Forward. Well, that was easy enough. It was the original plan, but now that they were here, where to go wasn't exactly easy. The ground changed texture, became soft, spongy, and each step the demons made left tiny red marks that looked suspiciously liked blood. Rock poked up from the white texture ground, pierced through the skin-like material, and red liquid ran in lines where white met rock. Blood? If this was the body of an archangel, a corpse strewn across the mountains, how could it still be bleeding, literally billions of years later?

They continued up a gentle slope, and Mia took in the smell, but it was different. Hell always smelled of blood, metal, and flesh, but Angel's Spine smelled different, like water. Human noses were supposedly super sensitive to the smell of rain, something to do with water hitting other things, so maybe that's what she was smelling? The strange, almost soothing smell of rain on grass, except without the plant smell. It made no sense. It just smelled like water. It smelled kinda nice.

The demons behind disappeared over the edge of the rolling hill. No sharp edges or steep cliffs here. And as the crew pushed further into and onto Angel's Spine, they came across feathers.

"This is insane," Mia said. Without being asked, Kas moved closer to a giant feather sticking up from the white flesh, and Mia reached out and touched it. Maybe a bad idea. It could have disintegrated her on contact, for all she knew. But it was a feather that was at least fifty meters long, and far wider than she was tall. There was no universe where she wasn't touching a giant feather.

It was soft. And wonderful. The feather's hairs -- or whatever they were called -- were giant, as thick as her arms, but each was covered in white fur as soft as a chinchilla's. And you didn't get softer than that. It was so absurdly, perfectly nice, she reached out and kept her hand dragging along its surface as Kas walked beside the feather from tip to base, where it and thousands more of the titanic feathers waited, blanketing the view before her.

Mountains. Dozens of colossal mountains, mostly smooth except in a few areas, all covered in thick, white skin, with feathers everywhere.

"Unknown one," Noah said, glancing back. "I appreciate your aid, but you must tell us what is going on."

The woman said nothing. She might not have been as tall as Noah, but she was still tall, and each step of her heavy boots make a quiet clink of metal on metal. Bulky armor.

"I see no angels," Yosepha said, looking up. "What's going on?"

"I don't know why the angels left," the stranger said. "But it is an opening I will take. Let's push forward before it is our undoing. James takes the inner side of the mountain ahead, and we should either follow in his path, or take the outer edge. Choose."

There were more mountains ahead, but they were walking up the gentle slope of the first and only mountain at the moment, and it split Angel's Spine like a giant triangle straight down the middle. A spine? Was it wings that were hanging off the spine and covering the entire province in archangel flesh?

"You met James?" Mia asked.

"Yes. He travels with the rest of your Damall. But you will find no Damall in this province. Dobasi has seen to that."

Romakus snarled. "What's going on?"

The stranger nodded forward. "There is a cave ahead. We should go inside and find shelter before Alessio changes her mind."

Cave was a weird word for it. The opening dripped blood, literally, like someone had stabbed flesh with a pen, and left an oddly clean, straight hole. Blood oozed down over the opening like a crimson waterfall.

They stepped through it. Mia covered her head, but before the falling blood could hit her, Noah slowed down and held a wing out over her.

She smiled up at him. "Thanks."

"You are welcome."

She squirmed a bit. It was strange hearing words like that in Hell. She'd gotten so used to how the demons did things, letting her handle shit on her own unless it was something she obviously couldn't. A nicety like protecting her from falling blood was so classically silly, like giving a girl your jacket because she was cold. It was almost comical. And appreciated.

Beneath the surface of Angel's Spine, it didn't get any less weird. The tunnel was oddly smooth, no sharp rocks, stalactites or stalagmites, no hard bends, nothing to trip her or anything. And the walls bled. Dark red oozed down the walls, slow and thick, and disappeared into tiny crevices in the tunnel floor that were thin and innocent. No one would trip on them.

"I must leave," the stranger said.

Mia waved her hands, hopped off Kas's back, and got in the woman's face. "Oh no! No no, you need to explain what the fuck is going on."

"I told you, I do not know why the angels--"

"Not the angels! Me! This quest! You! Asmodeus mentioned you."

The stranger tilted her head. Even from close, Mia couldn't penetrate the shadow of her skull-like helmet's t-slit visor.

"I told the Old One to leave the unmarked be."

"Yeah, well, he didn't listen! He tried to eat me!"

"And you escaped? Impressive." The stranger nodded. "You are most likely to reach the Forgotten Place of all the unmarked."

"And that! You want me to reach the Forgotten Place? But the angels are trying to stop me!"

"They fear you will release Lucifer."

Mia took a step back. Lucifer. Literal fucking Satan. The archangel who rebelled against God, and got beat down for it.

"Is he--they... there?"

"Yes."

Mia gulped and looked at the rest of the crew. They all stood, waiting, watching, but they all looked a little surprised. Even Noah and Vin's eyes were wider than usual.

"Angels," Yosepha said, "may not visit the Forgotten Place. And even if we tried, the island is under constant assault by storms that are deadly to all. It is forgotten for a reason."

The stranger pressed on and walked past them, deeper into the bloody tunnel. "You must reach False Gate."

Mia scampered after her. "And the fuck do I do when I get there?"

"You will find runes to help you near the river Styx. But that is what you were going to do already, is it not?"

"Yes, but before, you just upped and bailed without giving me any of these details! I've been running around blind, just hoping I can do what you told me to do, but you didn't give me a plan!"

"Every moment I am here, the rider--"

"How!? How is the rider supposed to know if you're near an unmarked? And where is he?"

The woman sighed. It was the most expression from her Mia had seen yet.

"I can hear the music, unmarked. I cannot play it, but I can hear it. As can the rider. And the rider and I share a link."

"A link?"

"A unique link. We are special, and there are only the two of us. We were supposed to help the unmarked reach the Forgotten Place, but he has betrayed me." She walked faster. Mia almost had to jog to keep up. "I can feel him and what is around him, as he can me. I know he hunts an unmarked, but has failed."

Mia sucked in a breath. "Probably David."

"Your brother has a longer trip around Hell to reach False Gate. You are more likely to succeed, or that boy, James."

"Did you tell James all this?"

"Yes, yesterday. I felt his music, tracked him down, and explained what I could not while he was imprisoned. The rider might be willing to attack a demon fortress, but I am not."

Mia looked back at the rest of the crew, all following, all listening, all apparently content to let Mia do the talking. Though from the looks Noah gave the stranger, he wasn't too happy about her presence. From what Yosepha told Mia, the angels knew of this woman, but never dealt with her. The rider, on the other hand, had killed many angels over thousands of years.

"I saw the fire," the stranger continued, and she turned and looked back at Vinicius. "You were supposed to keep the unmarked safe, old monster."

Vinicius rumbled and grinned, but said nothing. Just a happy asshole.

"So what now?" Mia asked.

"It is dangerous to travel with James, for the same reason I told you to not play the music now, unmarked. The invader grows closer, close enough they will hear the music and attack."

"I've had a run-in with those invader things. So did Noah and Azreal. I don't understand what you mean by find us, though. Please, give me some details before I go out of my mind!" David was probably dying from lack of answers.

"You saw the invader. You saw the shape they take, reflecting the reality the surface imposes on them. They come from beyond the Great Tower, from true darkness, from true non-existence. They are from the void, in a way us beings of existence cannot fathom. And they are here to swallow us into their emptiness."

Mia paused. The stranger didn't, and Mia jogged after her again.

The invaders were taking shapes imposed on them by the surface? So the invaders didn't normally look like that, but looked like that because they were invading? And they were from some sort of void that existed outside the Great Tower?

Finally, answers to some questions. Just, not very good answers.

"How do you know this?" Mia asked.

The stranger did not answer.

Noah flew ahead. The tunnel was narrow, barely wide enough for wings, but he flew past the woman like threading a needle, and blocked her path.

"How do you know this?" he asked, silver eyes set on her.

"James took this tunnel," she said. "He's a day's travel ahead. He said you and the other angel switched places to stay in sync? I suggest doing that soon."

Noah put up a hand, like a human stop sign. "I asked--"

The woman pushed him aside like he weighed nothing. People in Hell were strong, angels and demons alike, but there was something about the absolute ease she had in pushing the seven-foot-tall angel out of her path that left everyone staring.

"Unmarked," she said without looking back, "that animal. Where did you get it?"

"Um, I ran into a hellbeast nest a long time ago, and I could feel something coming from it. I know now it was the music, pulling me toward the hatchery, and an egg got birthed right in front of me. So I kept it."

The stranger glanced back, but after a few seconds of silence, changed the topic.

"I will leave you soon. I have been with you too long already, and the rider will find us. Expect it."

Julisa snorted. "If he was chasing Mia's brother, he's nearly on the other side of Hell."

"He will come."

Vinicius mirrored Julisa's snort. "Then I will--"

"Or you'll what, child of Belial? You and the rider may have once shared in your mindless need for blood, but you know the rider has changed. And for all your ego, you could not defeat the rider, then or now."

Mia gulped. That was tantamount to calling Vinicius weak, and he growled deep in his throat. But the woman in armor didn't look back.

"Unmarked," she said. "I know not why the angels retreat. Perhaps these fools can learn." She gestured back at Noah and Yosepha. "But know that the creatures from the void can hear the music, can crush it, and they have grown close enough to find you if you use it too loudly. If you get too close to another unmarked, you will resonate with each other, and the void creatures' hive mind will see you and attack with all her might, as it did in Death's Grip. And if you wait too long to reach the Forgotten Place, the creature will reach Hell, and destroy it and the Great Tower alike, regardless of your proximity to another unmarked. You are on a time limit."

Mia groaned and buried her face in her palms. "You couldn't have told me all this those two months ago?"

"The more you know, the greater the risk our enemies will learn these secrets from you. I am taking a risk by letting you know all this. But we are close, now, and you and James are the most likely to reach the Forgotten Place."

"And when we reach False Gate? You say there are runes?"

"There are buildings dedicated to Lucifer in False Gate, near the river Styx. You will find the tools inside to create a bridge across the red sea. I do not know exactly how this will work. I could not activate them myself." She looked back, but again, her face was hidden in black. "You must avoid the demons of False Gate."

It was Romakus's turn to step up. "It's been ages since I was in False Gate. Last time I was there, it was chaos."

"It is still chaos. Belor's death left a vacuum no one has filled, and the spire left its mark on the demons within. They are broken."

Broken demons?

Mia raised a hand. "False Gate still doesn't have a spire ruler? I thought Belor was taken down a couple thousand years ago."

"Yes," the stranger said. "But False Gate is now... precarious. Avoid those within as best you can." She gestured out at the walls around them. "Worry about Angel's Spine for now. Dobasi does not want intruders. He may have discovered power here I am not aware of, but know that you must avoid him, as well."

The tunnel split, and the two forks were considerably less smooth than the first tunnel. Big enough for everyone to walk in, but what'd looked like a strange stab wound from something long and cylindrical, changed into the winding paths of sharp tunnels and sharp rocks Mia dreaded seeing again. Death's Grip, all over again, except for one big difference: blood. Red blood oozed down the walls, flowed from cracks in the ceiling, and disappeared into small holes and other crevices.

"This way to follow James's path," the stranger said, and she gestured to the left. "This way to escape the depths and walk closer to the surface and the outer edge." She gestured to the right.

"Is the surface safe?" Mia asked. "From demons, I mean."

She didn't answer. Maybe just her way of saying 'I don't know'. Could she shrug in that armor? It was hilariously bulky, with pauldrons and everything.

"Which path are you taking?" Yosepha asked the stranger.

"Neither. I will stay here. Alessio will send scouts after you, and I will kill them. Then I will go to False Gate, and try and clear a path."

Mia came up to the woman and stared up at her. "You're going to fight Alessio?"

"If she follows her scouts. Yes."

"But, she's a tetrad. She can breathe hellfire! She'll come with hundreds of demons, and--"

The stranger drew her sword, held it upside down, and set its tip against the stone ground.

"She cannot kill me. She can kill you. Go."

"But--"

"And the rider will appear. Be ready. Do not try to kill him, you cannot. Detain him and run."

Vinicius growled again, but if he had an argument to make, he kept it to himself.

"Azreal," Noah said, "will expect us to go this way." He gestured to the tunnel on the left. It went down. "We should follow in his path."

Romakus joined him and pointed to the other tunnel. It went up.

"It's safer topside, if the angels aren't hunting us anymore. And if we go this way, you can fly up and ask, angel boy. It's not like the angels know for sure you've betrayed them."

Mia winced. Why, why did the asshole have to use that word?

For all Noah's control and maturity, he glared at Romakus and let the silence boil for a moment.

"That would be a risk I do not think we should take. It is important we do not lose track of James and Azreal. It is important we avoid the angels, who are a greater threat than any demon in these tunnels. We do not know why they do what they do, and I am not willing to risk our lives to find out."

The two men looked back at Mia and waited.

She put up her hands. "You want me to decide?" She didn't know what to decide! If they went topside, they'd get to walk the soft mountain slopes, and travel in a mostly straight line toward their goal. But they'd be so exposed, open sky overhead with angels doing who knew what. If they went deeper underground, the chance angels would find them was small, but they'd have to go through a maze of tunnels. Blood-soaked tunnels, drenched in archangels' blood.

"Of course you must decide," Julisa said, rolling her eyes. "If we are to die, it is obvious it should be to your choices. This is all for you, after all."

Kas growled up at the tetrad and hit her with his tail. She hit him with her tail. The two growled some more until the stranger slammed the tip of her sword into the stone. Cerberus snarled at the woman, but she didn't so much as glance his way.

"Choose and begone."

"James!" Mia said. "We follow James. It's important we work together, even if we can't get close to each other."

The stranger nodded and said nothing.

Romakus sighed, shrugged, and began the walk down the descending tunnel.

"I hope you know," he said, "if we all drown in a horrible river of blood, Mia, I'm blaming you."

"That's fine. I'm blaming you for pretty much everything already."

He laughed, took lead, and Noah and Yosepha walked with him. Julisa and Kas followed, but Vin stayed with Cerberus, both looking at the stranger.

"The rider," Vinicius asked. "What changed him? What changed you?"

The woman said nothing.

He came closer and towered over her, a twelve-foot-tall monster with four arms, four huge black horns, and a short dragon snout, looking like he wanted to get revenge for something.

"He is different," he said. "I can feel it. Gone is the raging inferno of the man I shared the slaughter with. Now there is only cold murder. And you." He leaned in close and took a deep, slow breath, smelling the woman like a lizard examining a fresh kill. "You are different, too."

"You don't know me, ragarin."

"I know you. I know what you craved. The same as the rider. I know you craved destruction. I know you craved sin." Vin leaned in closer and breathed through his nostrils, straight into the woman's face. "You both did. My memory is not so hazy I cannot remember you, thousands and thousands of years ago, partaking in the butchering and devouring. I remember your laughter."

The woman tilted her head up toward Vin's face. "I laugh no longer."

Vin stood up straight, glared down at the woman he apparently knew better than he'd ever suggested, and rumbled. His thinking rumble. And after a second of glaring, he walked past the stranger, past Mia, and joined the others.

Mia had a million more questions, but the longer they waited, the greater the chance they'd run into the rider again. She had to get moving.

"Unmarked," the woman said, without looking back. "Did you name the beast?"

"You mean Cerberus? Yeah, yeah I did."

"Cerberus." She slowly turned back and nodded. "A gift from Hell. Keep it close. It will protect you."

Mia smiled and followed the crew, leaving the stranger behind. Cerberus followed with a happy rumbling, half roar, half bark.

"Vin," Mia said. "You knew her."

"Yes."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You already knew." He gestured to the leash. Right, when the woman gave him orders to help Mia.

"I didn't know you knew her! Like, really, really knew her."

He rumbled, spared a glance for Cerberus, and kept on, the others just ahead in the curve of the winding tunnel.

"I knew her. I knew him. They joined me in the slaughter. We reveled in it, but she left, he stayed, and we journeyed through Hell and bathed in blood and bone. But they have changed. I sense nothing but coldness in her."

He was right. Mia had felt the coldness, too. Subtle, controlled, but there.

Which was worse, raging heat and wanton slaughter? Or cold, ruthless murder?