On the path down from the Eye of Hell, Amarena, daughter of Leviathan, held her fighting stance as she was surrounded in ambush.
"Co with us, child of the Wrath Sin," the succubus said, daring to stand within reach of a demon that was four tis her size. "I don’t want to turn this into a fight if I can avoid it. And forcing you could get expensive."
"How about you tell what’s going on and then fuck off," Amarena said calmly. She’d done her job. The Eye of Hell was indeed opening far larger than normal, which ant Heaven and Hell would form a connection soon. A Harrowing was near, and she had training to do if she was going to fight.
"Interesting choice of words," the succubus giggled. "As to what’s going on, that’s between you and Duke Maledict."
Maledict? The group of demons who had appeared around her were dressed in the colors of Jorog, Duke of Lies. Except for the succubus. She wasn’t dressed in anything worth calling clothes at all. Just a bunch of things that jingled and glinted, drawing the eye to her curves. There were tassels.
"What would the Duke of Heresy want with ?" Amarena asked cautiously, one hand moving to the hilt of her sword.
"I have been instructed to tell you that a journey to Ayther is in the offering. If that isn’t enough to convince you..." She drew a clawed finger under the curve of her breasts. "I am permitted to persuade..."
Amarena’s eyes narrowed. She’d told only one person she wanted to go to Ayther... her mother, during their last fight. They hadn’t spoken with each other more than a handful of tis since, not with the Harrowing on the way.
Amarena being sent to the Eye had seed like re busy work to keep her out of the way while her brothers and sisters got to train warriors and build their strength.
"Very well," Amarena replied. "But you will stay within arms reach of . The mont I sense betrayal, you will die first."
The succubus laughed a high and musical sound. "As you wish. Perhaps when your business with Maledict is done, perhaps you can put that reach to a more pleasurable use."
The succubus reached two fingers into her cleavage, a glow powering a storage rune from which she withdrew a stone.
Amarena recognized a mana crystal when she saw one, and this one was purple, rich with mana.
"Hey Know-It-All. Get us ho," she tossed the stone to a spindly-looking demon.
Amarena had made a note of that particular demon, since unard demons were likely to be specialized magic users... or the children of Leviathan. She now recognized what the long-limbed demon was, a gnosinian. Demons who specialized in arcane knowledge.
He eyed the stone hungrily for a mont after succeeding in his struggle to catch it. Then with a reluctant sigh, he began to whisper to himself, focusing for the magic he was about to perform.
A line of purple-blue split the air before growing into a hole in the world. On the other side of it, Duke Maledict was standing over a table, his side to her.
"I would hurry," the succubus said, sauntering around the edge of the portal and stepping through. She looked past Amarena to the largest demon in the company after Amarena. "You know what to do."
Amarena followed her, and the gnosinian entered behind her as the portal closed, leaving the rest of the demons behind. Even before it finished closing completely, the sounds of fighting began as they added blood to whatever farse they planned to leave behind.
Duke Maledict did not turn, continuing to speak to the demon on his right. The clothes he’d conjured were similar to the black-dressed demon. Dressed for business. "The main force will focus here. The more they think we’re trying to conquer them outright, the less they will think to defend their mages."
"The alarms will be a problem," the demon on his right, who was dressed in a plain black uniform and had a strange weapon at his hip - a sickle with a chain attached to its handle - answered. "If they detect you early enough to set up counterasures..."
"I assure you, those wards have been disabled for quite a while. One of my contracted demons is inside as we speak," he revealed.
"A spy?" the demon asked.
Maledict snorted. "No. Just an imp who tried to beco a succubus... a failed experint, but perhaps deserving of a reward for what has been revealed to ." Maledict stood off the table, his hands taking a position behind his back, just above his tail.
This close, Amarena could see he was wearing his incubus form, not that he could truly be considered an incubus. At the height of demonic evolution, what exactly a demon was and the energies they fed on could not be easily defined. Thus Maledict was not so much an incubus as he was... himself.
Amarena’s hope was that she would beco herself soday.
"Keep the bulk of our forces to the west of the city. Heaven, challenge them to honorable combat. Just buy a couple of days, Sreev."
"As you wish, young Duke," the demon at Maldict’s right saluted with his fist, then disappeared. His presence had been a projection all along.
Now Maledict turned.
"I greet you, child of wrath..." He sized her up with his gaze before continuing. "Daughter of Leviathan, it is customary to bow in the presence of one’s superiors."
"It is also customary to remain vigilant in the presence of an enemy," Amarena replied coolly, one hand on the hilt of her sword. "In honor of both customs, I will nod." She did so.
"My lord-" the succubus in front of Amarena started to say before Maledict interrupted.
"Leave us," he ordered her, then turned to the rest of the room. "Everyone out. Luscis, Eriud, your rewards await once I finish speaking to Amarena."
As she and the gnosinian turned to go, Amarena grabbed the succubus by the back of the neck. "This one is hostage to your good behavior, Lord of Heresy. I would not have you make a liar of ."
He quirked an eyebrow, but did not press the issue.
"I’d offer you a seat, but I was expecting you would have fought... your siblings, at least-"
"Do not compare to them," Amarena tensed. She was long past tired of being compared to her siblings.
"I rely point out that I am not the only "heretic" in the room," Maledict smiled. "Or is that sword just for show?"
"Bend your neck and find out," she challenged. The children of leviathan were expected to perfect their bodies. Weapons were thus forbidden to them, but Amarena persisted... even when sword after sword broke, she would find a smith to make her a new one.
Sothing about the blade arts called to her... ever since she first saw an Aytherian swordswoman dancing the blades in the arenas of Tartarus. Her grace, her mastery of the keen edge, her ability to bypass even the thickest armor and hides of her opponents...
Maledict smiled. "You have spirit. Leviathan indicated as much. I have promised her that I would send you to Ayther. Where and how I send you there... that depends on you." He turned the seat at the head of the table and sat in it.
"What do you want?" Amarena asked.
"Straight to the point..." Maledict looked away from a mont, as if reminded of sothing or soone. "I want you to work for . Help build a fortress that even Heaven cannot breach. I can offer you resources, magics, an army - perhaps even my son, Kir - if you prove yourself. Unite the House of Wrath with mine, and together we can claim all of Hell. Your children will be Demon Lords."
Amarena laughed, glad to have her pre-existing hatred of Maledict confird. "You ask the impossible. Whatever you build, they will simply appear where you are weakest, and all you have will scatter and crumble."
Maledict remained silent for a mont. He bridged his hands, a note of disappointnt in his gaze. Amarena was used to seeing such looks from Leviathan. "The angels aren’t the only ones who have mastered portals," he smiled.
What was he implying? Amarena knew too little of politics and magic to puzzle out what Maledict would do with a mastery of portals. She was a re maven. Did he an to invade Heaven once the Harrowing had purged his enemies? Or perhaps do to Ayther what the angels were about to do to Hell? And what of this son he claid? Since when did Maledict claim any of his children? If he even had any. There was too little known about the Duke of Heresy...
"My answer is no. You can keep your offer, I may be a heretic but I am still a warrior," she replied. "I will not be breeding stock."
"Hm. A warrior, you say. All the children of Leviathan always claim it is they who are champions of hell... But very well. I will accept that you won’t work for , but I can’t have you working against either."
He started to reach into the air and Amarena drew her blade with a single hand, holding it at the back of the succubus’ skull. Her captive whimpered, knowing it would only take a blink to end her-
"Calm yourself, child," Maledict said, having produced in his hand a black stone, richer and larger than the one with which the gnosinian had brought her here.
"Soulstone..." she said. Only spirits, strong monsters, and demons produced such when they died.
"Correct. Useful in getting here or there, or letting soone get to Ayther if the quality is high enough, when no perdition is available," he continued to smile. "A gift from House Goetia."
Goetia... the core of Maledict’s heresy. Amarena knew that Maledict had sohow seized control of the minor house from within, when the Duke of Lust had ruled Tzal. Goetic magic had sohow freed Maledict, enabled him to kill his way to power...
He was called Duke of Heresy not for his rise, however, but for daring to allow any demon from any land to inhabit his realm, turning Tzal into the chaos it was known for today. He was called Heresy for daring to grasp the reigns of magic from any source - Aytherian, Hellish, or Heavenly. And lastly, twenty years ago, for daring to propose Hell seek to establish peace with Ayther and Heaven.
The last seed like madness to Amarena, but it had also been rumored he’d captured a living angel.
Though his realm was the smallest in Hell, it was the most powerful in magic, the most sought after for contracts with the Aytherians, and the least predictable.
"You’re giving this to ?" she asked.
"No. I’m using it to send you to Ayther, exactly as promised," he smiled as the stone in his hand began to disintegrate, flaking upward as if it had been made of nothing but ashes. "Mind the drop."
"Mind the-?!"
Suddenly Amarena was falling. She tried to drag the succubus with her but in that mont the succubus shifted her form to sothing shorter. A dwarven woman looked down the portal at her with a succubus’ slitted eyes, before giving her a rude gesture. The hole in the sky closed.
Amarena felt sothing crunch under her back and tail, flipping her until she landed on her stomach. The wind was knocked out of her but she found herself otherwise fine. Nothing a mont of regeneration didn’t take care of.
When she got up, she saw what had broken her fall was sothing spindly and brown but with green scales growing out of its many limbs.
"Is this Ayther?" she asked out loud, looking at all the green and brown everywhere. She saw the back of so lean critter running away, bounding from side to side as it hopped off of tree roots. Realizing she wasn’t under attack, she touched the thing that had broken her fall. "Is this... a tree?"
Sothing snapped a twig behind her, and she reached for her sword, only to realize that she must have dropped it during the fall.
"Shit."
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