~~Day 79~~

~~David~~

David winced. This wasn't going to work.

"It's not going to work," Tacharius said. Well, damn. Same wavelength.

Ahead of them stretched out dozens of tunnels, and the Scar. Below were dozens of levels, each an outcropping street that moved along the Scar wall, with a street above it and below it, and so on and so on, each street a giant step. What was it called? Terracing? Natural terraces. Whatever it was called, it meant the Scar was less a ravine, and more two very wide, steep stairways facing each other, with steps curving and long, reaching from one end of the Scar to the other.

If you wanted to go higher or deeper into the Scar, you just climbed up or down the wall, like walking up or down giant stairs; each platform was only about four or five meters above or below the other, usually. And each terrace, each step, had many tunnels connected, and large caves. And demons moved around within.

"Maybe," Jes said, raising a wing, "we put the blankets over the two angels? Hide them?" Everyone looked at her, and she shrugged. "Hey, at least I'm putting ideas out there."

The group of followers David had picked up hadn't gone back to the rest of the Scar yet. They should. If they stuck with David, they'd get into a battle, no doubt, but that didn't change that a bunch of betrayers and incubi and succubi were still with him.

The vrats and brutes had died with Timaeus. And sad as that was, it meant David now had a tiny army of useless combatants. Sure, the volas and betrayers were stronger than regular souls, but that didn't mean much. He trusted the Las to fight better than a sex demon.

Then again, it was an army, tiny or not. Eighty, maybe ninety people who could fight. That wasn't nothing.

Tacharius stepped to the edge of the terrace and gestured out at the Scar. "We're still in Vassil's Mouth. No one does much here. No hellbeasts or souls. As we push into the Scar, below us is the Floor, and above us will be the Dens, and it'll stay like that for the whole length of the Scar until we get to Guissia's Mouth."

"Bailiffs?" David asked.

"Three. Septima, a tregeera, prowls the topside every day, and keeps the Dens in check. Priscillian is an incubus on this end of the Scar, and he monitors the Floor. Tatiana is a succubus, and she watches the Floor on the other end of the Scar."

A tregeera, incubus, and succubus, were bailiffs? Somehow he'd expected all bailiffs to be tetrads, like in the Grave Valley.

"And they're all loyal?"

"The bailiffs are," Tacharius said. "Some groups have resisted Tarkissa. He pushes for war, convinced we should help the Red Pits fight the Navameere Fields. But we've never done that."

Laoko chuckled. "And what could an army of volas accomplish?"

Tacharius frowned up at the tetrad. "Plenty of other demon breeds in the Scar. Yes, we're mostly volas, but not only. And we might not fight as well as other breeds, but we can fight."

Acelina chuckled. "We zotiva do not pick vola eggs to do battle."

Tsila raised a hand. The two angels stood further in the back of the caves, out of sight of any demons wandering around inside the canyon.

"We have no choice but to expose ourselves," she said. "But as we understand it, the Scar is... less violent than the other provinces, so to speak. We may move around, and nearby demons won't immediately jump to the goal of devouring us, correct? On top of that, not only do we have many demons and betrayers"--she gestured to the small crowd--"following us, the crowd might grow, as they realize who David is."

"Whoa whoa." David put up his hands. "I'd rather not be the center of attention of the whole province, Tsila."

"Then I can fly you, and we hope my kin have spread the word well enough that the angels will leave us be."

Moriah shook her head. "The islands Azoryev and Yathael will take a lot to convince. Saar would not have been convinced without seeing what happened personally. And while angels never expect other angels to lie, they may suspect they've been hypnotized or affected by the unmarked and their powers." Sighing, she stepped closer to the edge of the cave, and made no attempt to hide her one-and-a-half wings. "It was easy to hide in the Grave Valley, but not here. And we must move quickly. Azailia is bound to pursue us."

Acelina spread her wings and grabbed Tacharius by a horn. "Then we have no choice. This volarin will be our ambassador. We will move through the Scar, avoid Tarkissa, and grow our influence. As more of the demons here accept David's power, we will simply walk our way to the Red Pits. Or, if the moment arises, we can march up to Tarkissa's spire and take it for ourselves!" She held out her free hand in front of her, claws up and out, and her wide shark smile came out on full display, showing an array of sharp teeth. Tacharius stared. "We could take this province, rule over it, and make it ours, and spread our control until the other spires bow to us as well! We can..."

Her smile faded, and she looked around. Everyone was staring.

She sighed and lowered her hand and wings. "Or we can be passive little children and do our best to avoid confrontation at all."

Caera laughed and stepped past her. "We can take over Hell another time, Acelina. For now, let's just focus on saving it. We have to get to False Gate as soon as possible, and unfortunately for us, we can't fly there."

"Indeed," Tsila said. "The storm on the island makes it terribly dangerous for any angel to land. And Azoryev and likely Yathael guard the island, too."

Jeskura gave her wings a flap. "Then we hope that bitch in the armor who saved my ass was right. We just keep going, and hope we figure out a way to get to the Forgotten Place at False Gate. If we end up amassing an army and running over everyone in our way, I suppose that'd work, too?"

"It wouldn't," David said. "The invaders showed up because I played the music too loudly. But I have to play loud if I'm going to take on another fucking battalion of angels!"

Jes shrugged like she knew the answer to all their problems. "Just get better?"

He facepalmed.

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

There weren't any phones in Hell. No cars. No fast way to send information, or get around. Only angels could get around quickly, and they weren't around to help Tarkissa out.

Which meant David and the group could just stroll through the Scar, sorta. Tarkissa would have to react, and it'd be days before he even knew David was in the Scar, let alone attack him. If that was even what he was going to do. And if it took a month to walk through a province, then there was a slim chance they could literally just walk through the province and avoid an altercation all together.

Yeah right.

The group walked the giant steps of the Scar's left canyon wall, and nearby demons stared, jaws dropping as they noticed the angels. They weren't close enough to see David's forehead well, especially with his shaggy red hair blocking it. Laoko earned some stares. Acelina earned a lot of stares; spire mothers never left the spires. But it was the two angels that had every nearby demon frozen, eyes locked on them.

Angels visiting Hell was rare, but it happened. Angels walking around randomly in their revealing potram clothes, with their gold bracelets and necklaces and anklets and whatnot? Probably never happened, ever, in the history of Hell.

Tacharius walked in front with Laoko, but not to be some sort of spearhead for their group. She just wanted him within arm's reach if she had to break his neck for tricking them. The rest of the group followed, though people got pretty lax with the 'formation'. There was something carefree about the Scar that had everyone relaxed, especially the followers.

Naoko came up beside David and smiled up at him. She wore some plain, dark, dirty silk wrapped around her. So did a lot of the betrayers. Not as nice looking as a lot of the incubi and succubi, but enough they weren't naked. They saved the good silk for trade, however that worked.

"Thank you."

"Thank you?" he asked.

"For saving us. From the angels, I mean. And that strange invader."

"I mean, I had to stop them if I wanted to live, too. But, you're welcome." He kept a straight face, but his insides slapped him upside the head. The invaders attacked because of him. Nine hundred and fifty angels died because of him.

Not fair. He didn't know what would happen, and he was just defending himself. And strangely enough, the battle had been the proof the angels needed that something was definitely wrong.

"It was really scary. You created that dome around us, and we couldn't see anything. Just hear it. I snuck up to the exit and watched best as I could, and you were amazing. The armor and staff, you were like a wizard."

He squirmed. "A wizard? You think?" Like he hadn't thought that a hundred times already.

"Yes!"

"You play video games."

She raised a brow. "I'm from Japan."

He choked on a laugh. "Hey, I'm not going to assume any cultural stereotype. Next, you'll tell me you play visual romance novels."

She glared, and he froze, but she erupted into giggles and gently shoved him.

"I'll have you know I played a few. A girl has her fantasies, too."

"Uh huh. Let me guess. A visual novel about a tall, dark, handsome, brooding guy? Dangerous, but in control of his danger? Is obsessed with the girl? Borderline stalks her?"

"Hey, don't give me that shit." She gestured to Laoko, and then back at Acelina. As she did, Acelina walked past them, spared a featureless glance for them, joined Laoko, and quietly chatted about something. "Those girls got tits bigger than their heads, and their heads are pretty damn big."

"That's not fair. I didn't seduce them or anything."

"Uh huh."

"I didn't!"

Claws grabbed him from behind, and he almost screamed. Weight hooked him, and suddenly he was leaning forward to keep from falling back.

"Latia seduce David," the tiny gremla said. Latia was a light little thing, but she had her meera armor on. She weighed as much as he did. "David like little Latia."

Naoko laughed and touched the tiny creature's wing. "You're fucking every demon in sight? Even the tiny little girl with barely any tits. Pretty sus, David."

If Latia noticed the implication, she didn't say anything, just giggled and rubbed her face in David's hair.

"She doesn't... She's not..."

The rest of the Las ran past them, giggling and playing, and Latia hopped off and joined them.

"I know," Naoko said. "Little goblins. Goblins can be sexy... if you've played too many video games growing up."

"Guilty."

"Which makes a girl like me happy." She grinned at him. "We're not all tits and ass on stilts."

No, Naoko was definitely not that. Short, dainty, pretty similar to Latia actually, except for being human and Japanese. She even had shoulder-length hair, too, like Latia's hair tendrils.

And the image of the two of them scissoring together hit David from out of nowhere, and he clenched his eyes shut for a moment. The aura did not escape him.

"You don't look like a goblin," he said.

"No, but you got to admit, anyone, guy or girl, is gonna get pretty self-conscious down here, surrounded by succubi and incubi."

"You say that, but I've heard from pretty much everyone that demons -- and angels -- are obsessed with us humans. The reason everyone likes the volas is they look the most like us, exaggerated, but still us. And even they prefer us to each other."

She nodded and looked back at the crowd following them. On the terrace, there was maybe ten meters width of ground to walk on, more than enough room for the group to follow easily, but it also meant every demon they passed stopped and watched. There was no sneaking this group, not when every tunnel led back to the Scar.

"True," she said. "And when you used your aura last night, it really just... flooded the whole cave and hit everyone. The orgy was insane."

He groaned. "Sorry. That was an accident."

"Don't be sorry! It was great. Just wait until you check out some places on the Floor. I really want to see you use that aura on a room with hundreds of volas and souls." She inched in closer. "You really fuck all those demons helping you?"

Groan turned to wince, and he aimed his eyes on the ground. No point in lying about it, if she was already asking the question.

"Yeah. At first it was just Jeskura and Daoka. They saved my life, and before I knew, I had this aura, and my body was changing, and..."

"Your body changed?"

"Uh, yeah." Tell her? Don't tell her? What was the harm? "I don't know why, but my body can change a bit. Not sure how it works, but when things get... heated, it can change to... um... make the sex... more..." Fuck, he shouldn't have said anything. "Laoko is almost twice as tall as me, right? But I can, uh... you know... make it work, size-wise."

Naoko's mouth fell open. "Are you serious?"

"Yeap."

"Dude, what are you?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I'll find that out, when I get to False Gate."

She poked his shoulder again, as if testing to see if he was real. "So you can, uh, just... make it bigger?"

"I know it sounds like a guy's dream come true."

"Duh."

"But it's... Okay, yeah, it's pretty great."

She laughed, but it faded, and her eyes fell to the ground, too. "Must be nice, being unmarked."

Uh oh.

"You mean, because of your number?"

"Yeah, that. And other things. You got angels watching over you, literally. You have demons going out of their way to help you. You're the star of the show."

He raised a brow and looked at her. "You want to be the star of the show? Because I know what I want to be doing. I want to be back in my dorm, learning programming, masturbating to increasingly weird porn, and easing by through life."

That got a laugh out of her, and she grinned up at him. "Increasingly weird porn?"

"Well, you know, virgin spends all his time online or playing video games, he develops some... weird tastes." He pointed at her. "Hey, I didn't invent tentacle porn. You did."

"That is so racist."

"Is it?"

"I don't know." She laughed again. "You don't sound like a typical nerd, hiding in his dorm or living in his mom's basement."

"Orphan."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Never really had a mom or dad, just guardians."

She pouted. "That's sad. But it looks like--"

A loud growl turned her around, and she gulped and backed away from Caera. The tiger prowled between her and David, and glared at the woman before nudging against David's leg and pushing him away.

"Sorry," Naoko said. "Sorry." She fell back and joined the others.

"Caera," David said. "Really?"

"Yes, really."

"We were just talking."

She growled up at him. "Humans never just talk. Especially a man and woman."

He opened his mouth, but only got halfway through a sound before he stopped himself. Think. What sort of humans did Caera deal with every day? Damned souls, who weren't exactly trustworthy. She dealt with the damned, with betrayers, with Cainites every single day, which meant he was the first human she'd ever talked to she could do something like trust with her heart.

Her heart. Was that even the right way to describe it? They liked each other, a lot, and were romantic. But a big part of romance was sex, and that dynamic was just so completely different in Hell, he had no idea how to navigate that, except for what she told him. She didn't mind sharing him with demons and angels. She had no intention of sharing him with another human.

"Caera," he said. "Look at me." She was already looking at him, and she raised a brow. "I mean, look at me, really." He leaned in closer and made some deliberate, close eye-contact. "There is nothing she could do that'd make me betray you. Nothing."

"But--"

"Nothing." Words weren't going to cut it. He wasn't good with them anyway. Best he could do was use the one weapon he knew worked: his eyes. He'd never be good at lying, or being manipulative in any way. A lifetime of not being able to trick anyone, or play poker, because of his expressive eyes.

She sighed and lowered her head. "Fine."

If that translated in Estian well, 'fine' was very much not fine. He stroked her back spikes, her shoulder, and ran his fingers through her short tendril hair.

"You really don't like her."

"I want to eat her."

"Don't eat her!"

"Why not? We've been eating lots of damned souls. We go on hunting trips without you because we know you'll get upset like this, but this is what demons have always done." She nudged her shoulder into his side again. "You should let me eat her."

"I'd really prefer you didn't."

She groaned and jogged ahead of him, as much as a cat jogged, and she joined Laoko and Acelina. Some glances back and narrowing of her single eye told him she was upset, but at least she trusted him.

Never, in a million years, did he think he'd get a jealous girlfriend. Demon girlfriend? Sure. Everyone got a demon girlfriend, right? A demon girlfriend who liked sharing him with other demons, and even angels? Slightly less likely, but still a perfectly reasonable expectation for any human young man to have. But a jealous girlfriend who'd defend him with jealous fervor? It just seemed so weird for someone to be that invested in him, that attached to him.

He froze for a moment. David had always had a bit of a cocky attitude. He was smart; it came with the introverted nerd territory. But he never really thought he'd be a good boyfriend, or a boyfriend a girl prized. And that realization came with some whiplash. He thought lowly of himself, at least about this.

Fuck. Where was Mia when he needed her? This was exactly the sort of thing he'd talk to her about.

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

"And this is the Floor," Tacharius said. "A pretty strict no-violence zone. I mean, as non-violent as you can expect from demons. But most understand the Scar doesn't work if demons start killing each other."

Acelina groaned. "So you sneak, maneuver, lie, cheat, and stab each other in the back, rather than face each other directly."

Tacharius shrugged. No insult there for him.

The Floor wasn't the bottom of the Scar as much as it was all the bottoms of the Scar, the three or four bottom layers of the terrace steps, and the tunnels they held within. So many tunnels, the Scar almost looked more like a bee hive or ant hive from down here.

And just like an insect hive, demons flowed. Imps and grems hung around by the thousands, climbing up and down the deep and dark edges of the Floor lit only by amber veins; not much of the burning sky's light reached this deep, past all the curves of the canyon. They stopped and stared at the angels, perched on nearby ledges, and even approached and stared from up close.

"Lasca," Acelina said, "come speak to your little friends."

Lasca squeaked and ran up to join them, but David stopped her.

"Lasca." He leaned in close and whispered in her ear. "Think you can convince the imps and grems that I'm on their side?" Lasca stared at him, confused. "I mean, imps and grems don't really serve the spire ruler, right? You all kinda just... do whatever you want."

"Imps and grems don't matter to spire ruler or bailiffs." Lasca shrugged.

"Well, they matter to me. And you four girls matter to me. You saved my life." He leaned over and gently head-butted her forehead. "Everyone else underestimates you imps and grems. I don't. If we can get their help, that'd be amazing."

Lasca's wide eyes opened wider. She nodded vehemently, rubbed foreheads with him, and joined Acelina, Laoko, and Tacharius at the head of the group. It wasn't long before a hundred of the little creatures joined them on the terrace, chatting away with the Las, all with wide eyes and dropped jaws as Latia, Laria, Lasca, and Laara recanted the tales of fighting angels, Cainites, and even strange alien invaders. And whenever they mentioned David helping them, or any of the demons, the imps and grems stared at David and the girls, shocked.

"This the plan?" Jes asked David as they walked. "We just... befriend all the little vermin?"

He thumped her shoulder. "They're not vermin."

She rolled her eyes and gestured around. "Look how many there are."

It wasn't fair to call them vermin, but she had a point. There were a lot of imps and grems, and they poured in over the edges of the terraces of stone, all to watch the angels at first, and then the spire mother, and then David when word spread of who he was.

"It is strange," he said. "I thought spire mothers picked which demons got to be born?"

"Yeah, but I guess they let more imps and grems through than they think? Or maybe imps and grems don't die as often as we think they do? They are pretty good at hiding."

"Has to be the former. We know there are a lot of imps and grems, so the zotivas could just let less be born if they wanted. But they aren't."

"Or maybe Tarkissa's given the same orders the other spires rulers have? Acelina said they had orders to let more demons get born. Maybe they think the imps and grems are more useful than they let on?" She shrugged and hooked her closer wing around his shoulders. "You planning something?"

"Not planning. Just, I noticed people don't seem to think too much about the imps and grems."

"Why would we? They're everywhere, and they don't exactly retain secrets very well. If an imp found out about one of Zel's plans, to, say, lay an ambush in the Adam river, what would that imp say to the people getting ambushed? Probably something like 'Zel scary! Be careful!' and that'd be it."

David choked on a laugh. "That's not fair. They're smarter than that."

"They're really not. They forget things. Details blur. And..." She scooped Laria up, and held the little lady upside down by her hooves. Laria giggled and swayed. "And they aren't exactly paying attention to what's going on around them."

"Laria pay attention! Laria smart." She folded her arms across her breastplate, and swayed some more, like a pendulum. "Laria the smartest."

Not convinced, Jes lifted the girl higher. "What's two plus two?"

"Um... why Laria need to know math?"

Oh god. David laughed. He couldn't help it.

"At least she knows the word math," Jes said. She sat Laria down, and the little lady giggled and ran off with some other imps and grems. None of them were as well geared as the Las, all naked or maybe wearing some ragged, old, uncolored silks.

The incubi and succubi they ran into, on the other hand, were dressed to fuck. Red silks or black silks, fabric that was barely more than a scarf, but some had them arranged and tied into things like skirts and sashes. And on more than a few occasions, David spotted them trading silks with vrats, gargoyles, satyrs, and brutes. Demons from other provinces, probably.

It wasn't just silk, though. The dens above were where silk was harvested from fallo spiders, but demons were trading other things, too. Skulls were common, but it was the jewelry that surprised him. The sex demons had it, and the non-sex demons wanted it. There were necklaces, bracelets, and variations of, some meant to hook around horns, and some meant to pierce nipples and other places. Most of it was metal chains, made of tiny chain links only the volas had the precision and patience to manipulate.

All this, so they could look more human. All this, so demons could get a taste of what life was like on the surface?

And they traded the occasional betrayer. Slaves. And they traded the occasional damned soul, not a betrayer, someone with a random number. Food. David tried to not think about it. They wanted the human experience, and slaves and prepared food were a pretty big part of that.

What would Jes say? Cry me a river. It was Hell. The people down here deserved it. Did Naoko deserve it? From what she'd said she'd done, she certainly wasn't a good person. Or, at least, hadn't been.

And that was the rub. How the fuck could he or anyone tell if someone had actually changed for the better, or was just faking it? Mia might be able to tell. He couldn't tell shit.

"You upset Caera."

David looked up. Acelina.

"I noticed."

"Be careful, little boy." She grinned at him just enough to show some of her sharp teeth against her black canvas face. "Demons obsess over their property."

"I'm not her property... am I?"

"You are, in a way. And demons may not mind sharing with each other, but there is a difference between sharing, and trading." She walked behind him and set her hands on his shoulders. "And humans are not exactly the sharing type, are they? That tiny betrayer woman will try to worm her way into your good graces and exploit you. She will lie, cheat, and steal, as most humans do. Demons are honest." She glanced back at the volas. "Usually."

"You really don't think much of humans, do you?"

She slowly hissed in his ear. And hesitated? She looked ready to say something, but paused and looked to the side. Something on her mind?

"You have impressed me," she whispered. He froze. But her hands were on his shoulders, pushing him, and he stumbled forward and kept walking. "I do not give compliments lightly, young soul. Do not repeat them."

He squirmed. "I won't."

"Good." She leaned in closer and nudged the top of his head with her horns. "If that little bitch manipulates you, tricks you, lies to you or steals from you, I will rip out her heart myself. You are our soul, David, and we won't let another soul ruin that."

He gulped. Okay, mentally, he'd started referring to the girls as 'his girls', but that didn't seem right anymore. He was theirs.

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

The Scar knew about the unmarked. Everyone knew. And once word spread that the angels were with the unmarked, they became famous. Imps and grems might not be smart enough to track sensitive details or share battle plans, but it didn't take much to say 'boy with red hair is unmarked!' and tell everyone.

The followers grew. Some wanted to see the angels. Some wanted to see David. It looked like a lot were excited to see what David might do. Some demons immediately approached him, asking if he was here to fight the unmarked from the Navameere Fields. Some approached and ran away the moment they saw his blank forehead. Some approached and watched in awe, as if seeing a soul for the first time.

It wasn't the original plan, building a small army, but it was a plan.

"And here is Zabulon's Floor."

The crowd stayed outside. There were dozens of tunnels for them to stay in, and the followers all knew the area intimately, so the crowd had no trouble following and finding places to stop. Each time they did, they spread the word.

But David and the girls stepped into Zabulon's Floor, and all but Laoko stared, shocked.

It wasn't a small cave. It was enormous. The ceiling reached high, and multiple floors of stone sat within, as if the terraces outside had formed inside the giant cave, too. Amber veins lit the ceiling, but not enough of them to light the cave very well, leaving it dark. The walls sparkled, caught the amber light, and scattered it over the black walls and floor, warping it into colors of red and yellow that never stood still.

And in the center of the giant cave was a scrying pool, bigger than other pools, at least four times as wide. Small compared to the floor, though, and from the way the rock was worn completely smooth in the huge cave, it was easy to imagine demons doing exactly what Tacharius said they did. Everything. Dancing, partying, orgies, from the dance floor to the raised terrace edges to the sparkling lights, the place was basically a nightclub to hold raves.

A dozen incubi and succubi stood on the highest balcony in the back of the large cave, and they stared down at David as he approached. Nothing showed on the scrying pool, and nearby brutes and vrats stood, leaning against terrace walls and watching. Gargoyles, satyrs, and a couple tregeeras stood higher, watching and waiting, perched and ready to strike. Maybe a total of fifty demons. The cave could hold a thousand or more.

"Zabulon," Tacharius said, stood at the large scrying pool in the cave center, and waved his tail's devil spade up in the air.

"You live, Tacharius." An incubus with a nasty scar across his chest hopped down several floors, each terrace like a giant step four meters tall. Black silk hung from his right shoulder and his waist, and he stood with a little more confidence than the other volas. "I saw those angels swooping down, and I thought for sure you were screwed." He stepped around the scrying pool and whacked his tail's spade tip against Tacharius's. Hell version of a fist bump?

"I was. They were looking for the unmarked, and the unmarked got us past." Tacharius stepped aside and gestured to David and the angels.

Zabulon slowly drew his eyes across David, the girls, and definitely lingered his gaze on the angels. Moriah glared. Tsila smiled.

"You have a small wing," he said.

Moriah snorted, as much as an angel or human could snort, anyway.

"Come now, volarin," Tsila said. "Be respectful." Her beautiful smile never wavered.

Zabulon sighed, sat back against the lip of the scrying pool, and peeked past the group to the followers standing outside his establishment.

"You expect to just walk through the Scar, unmarked?"

David shrugged. "I'd kinda hoped."

"You're amassing a following."

"Not by choice."

"And why have you come here?"

David shrugged again. "Tacharius is going to introduce us to anyone he thinks might help us get through the Scar without a problem."

Jes waved a wing. "Or help us kill Tarkissa, if we have to."

Zabulon raised an eyebrow and looked at each person again. "You're going to kill Tarkissa?"

David shot Jes a glare and put up his hands.

"No no, no, that's not the plan."

Zabulon looked past him again to the followers standing outside.

"You have several hundred demons and betrayers following you. I can only see thirty, but in the Scar, it's always safe to assume you can only see one-tenth of what is going on." He smirked. "And what reason would you have for a small army, if not to fight?"

"I didn't recruit them! They just started following me!" And honestly, it was probably more than several hundred, if he included the imps and grems. No one ever did. "Tarkissa wants me dead, and I'll defend myself if I have to."

"Why does Tarkissa want you dead?"

No point in lying. Timaeus had confessed, and no way at least some of the followers hadn't heard him.

"He wants to sacrifice me. Azailia, too. I don't know to what. I don't know why. Probably has something to do with the invaders."

"Invaders?"

And thus began the back and forth David didn't want to have. He kept details light when it came to him, the music, the angel runes and runes in general, but any attempt to hide his ability to create an aura vanished when a dozen incubi and succubi attested to what he'd done last night. Thankfully, he steered the conversation back onto the alien invaders, and how they were trying to kill David. And if they were trying to kill him, it probably meant it was a better idea he stay alive, continue his journey, and hopefully save the whole damn world from said invaders.

"Wow," Zabulon said. "You're really going to cause chaos, passing through the Scar."

Daoka stepped up and clicked several times.

Zabulon looked down, thinking. "Not sure. Tarkissa has been acting... I don't know, strange, for few decades now. He's always been volatile, but lately he's been less volatile."

"Less volatile is bad?" David asked.

"Yes, for Tarkissa. The Scar exists because we trade in vice to Azailia and Khazeer, and to other demons from further out, if they can reach us without getting caught and eaten. We trade sex, silk, jewelry, slaves, food, and excess. So imagine the sort of ruler who'd control all of that. Volatile and maybe a little insane."

David didn't need to imagine all that hard. Human history had plenty of examples of rulers with absurd appetites for all kinds of vices.

"But lately," Zabulon continued, "he's been more reserved. Some of us think he's planning something, that he's been considering betraying the Red Pits. And now that an unmarked is pushing through the Red Pits as we speak, on her way here, he's become even more quiet. His bailiffs say nothing. Everyone's nervous."

"He's a couple weeks' journey from here, right?" David asked.

"Yes. But news travels faster than hooves. He'll learn you're here soon. He might already know." Zabulon gestured to him and the crew. "So what are you going to do?"

"Right now?" He looked to the girls. The girls looked at him. "Right now, I'm just going to keep walking. If Tarkissa gets in my way, I kill him."

"You say that like you could do it easily."

David met the incubus's gaze. "I could do it easily."

Zabulon looked stunned. David didn't flinch. Whether playing the music loudly risked another alien attack or not, if he had to do it, then he'd do it. And maybe he wouldn't have to play it super loudly. The better he got, the less crazy hard he had to hit the strings. Maybe it'd be okay?

Probably not.

"And besides," he said, and gestured to Moriah and Tsila. "I have two angels with me. And a bolstara tetrad. And the rest have more than proven themselves."

Jes snorted. "Oh yeah, sure, mention the angels and McTits Number Two before the rest of us."

He winced again. "Sorry."

"I recognize Laoko." Zabulon smiled up at the huge woman. "Does this mean you're against Azailia now?"

"Not exactly." Laoko walked past him, ran a claw along his shoulders, and stood on the other side of the bowl, wearing her usual subtle, playful grin. "But there is no denying that David's journey must continue, and I will help him, as will all the girls."

Nodding, the incubus gestured around at the terrace ledges of his cave. "We'll be having a party tonight. There's no way Tarkissa or the bailiffs will show up anytime soon. Priscillian is a few days away. If you want to make friends, now's the time."

"A party?" Moriah asked. "We don't have time for--"

Tsila leaned in and whispered to her. Moriah whispered back, though everyone could hear her say things like 'it's stupid' and 'we don't have time'. But Tsila patted her fellow angel on the shoulder and faced Zabulon with her perfect, disarming smile.

"A party sounds like a wonderful treat, after what happened on the border."

"You're coming?" Zabulon asked, eyebrow raised.

"Of course. Why wouldn't we?"

"Because you're angels? And we're going to be... indulging."

Tsila laughed and gave her wings a single flap. "Heaven is a non-stop orgy, incubus. As long as you don't bring in damned souls and rip their hearts out and bathe in their blood, I think we angels will enjoy the reprieve."

Fuck, David hadn't even thought of that. Orgies, sure, but he knew some demons had some pretty twisted tastes.

David held up a finger. "Wait, you said tonight? Don't we... sleep at night?"

Zabulon smiled. "Humans stay up all night."

"Yeah, but we pay for it the next day. And there isn't any caffeine down here. And the few times I've had to stay up all night in Hell, the effects were a lot worse, compared to the surface."

"Indeed. But that's part of the experience, isn't it? We will engage our auras, bury the cave in sexuality, and no one will stop dancing and fucking until morning twilight. And then everyone will suffer the hangover."

"You... want a hangover?" Not that getting zero sleep in Hell was really a hangover. A day after no sleep in the afterlife was a complete wreck for the body, exhaustion, and full body aches. So, kinda, but worse.

"That is part of the human experience," Zabulon said.

"I mean, I guess, but most guys aren't really getting rock hard erections when pass-out drunk." Or so he'd been told, anyway.

The incubus laughed. "Not a problem for us, or any betrayer caught in our auras."

"David aura stronger," Lasca said. She grinned up at the incubus and flicked her tail.

"Is it now?"

David winced and shook his head. "Uh, I mean, maybe? But I doubt you need me. So I'll--"

"You interest me, unmarked," the incubus said. He walked circles around the scrying pool, tracing his short claw along the metal edge. "Tacharius knows I've been keeping my eye open for an opportunity. You're that opportunity."

"Opportunity?"

"Come back tonight, spend some time, and we'll have a chat. I want to see your aura in action."

Ugh, not a party. He hated parties. He tried a couple back in university, but they were pretty much the antithesis of David. Where was the quiet? Where were the nuanced, deep conversations? All a party had was loudness, surface-level conversation with no topic lasting longer than ten seconds, and absolutely zero personal space. How the fuck could anyone stomach a stranger randomly coming up to them and gyrating inches away?

"Do... you have earplugs?"

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

They didn't go any further. He didn't like holding still, but it was important they make some friends when hiding was no longer an option. They--

Was hiding no longer an option? It wasn't like they couldn't disappear. If David had to, he could cause some ruckus, start an avalanche or something, and they could hide in the tunnels. Problem: the Scar's tunnels didn't run randomly like in Death's Grip. They only ran perpendicular of the Scar, cut a kilometer or three into the walls of the Scar's mountains, and came right back to the Scar's center. Using them to get through the province was not an option. They'd keep coming back to the middle, the ravine.

They had to play the game. And right now, the game was making friends, including taking a moment to get to know the demons around. So David and the girls went deeper into the Scar, checked out some of the caves and demons hanging around down there. Lots of sex demons with their betrayers. Lots of vrats, brutes, and gargoyles, sitting around and doing absolutely nothing while their betrayers dotted on them and fed them. Where the fuck did they get hearts? David didn't want to know.

They tried going up, too. Higher up and out of the depths, the ember sky shined and lit up the giant terrace steps of the Scar. Everything was fully visible for kilometers in either direction, including the Dens.

"This," he said, looking at the wide pit, and the odd wall on the terrace edge, "is not what I expected when you said hatchery."

Tacharius shrugged and gestured to the cave tunnel, the shallow pit exit in the terrace edge, and the dozen incubi and succubi. They were armed with swords and axes, and they poked at some fallo spiders at the edge of the attached tunnel.

"What do you mean?"

"That looks like... a spider den."

While the opening of the tunnel seemed innocent enough, save for the spiders trying to get out, only to get driven back in by the volas, the tunnel itself was filled with webbing. The wide walls were covered in it, arcs and strands that reached from floor to ceiling, and spiders moved within. A lot of them.

"Shelob would look comfortable in there," he said.

"Who?" Jes asked.

"Never mind." He approached the Den's opening. The tunnel opened up onto the terrace edge, same as the other tunnels, but this tunnel opened up to a sort of shallow pit, a foot deep that reached wide and far over the ground. Inside were armed volas, and they fought against fallo spiders, took eggs from them, and killed a few spiders, too. Probably the ones that got too large or uppity. What constituted 'too large' for a spider the size of a medium breed dog, David had no idea.

"Valissa," Tacharius said. "I bring visitors!"

A succubus wearing meera metal armor stood up and looked his way. A fallo spider approached her, but she hissed at it, and the spiky creature jumped back and fled into the tunnel.

Like the other succubi, she was gorgeous. Unlike the other succubi, she wasn't an exaggerated fountain of curves. Surprisingly, she had Tsila's build, if maybe a little more muscular, a flat stomach, a small bust, and powerful legs, though the black armor slabs hid some of it. A scar cut across her face, forehead to chin. Demons didn't get scars easily. A wound like that must have nearly killed her.

"What the..." She stepped out of the shallow pit and stood before David, eyebrow raised. Sharp features, angular face, stabbing eyes. "An unmarked?"

Tacharius nodded. "He's passing through, but Tarkissa's probably going to try and capture him. So I'm becoming his good friend." And like Tacharius was his best friend, the incubus gave him a buddy punch on the shoulder. "Because, when push comes to shove, David here can kill Tarkissa and take this whole place over."

David groaned and put up his hands. "I have no intention of doing that. Like he said, I'm just passing through."

The woman raised a brow and looked past him to the girls. "Two angels?"

"Hi," Tsila said, smile glowing.

Moriah grunted.

"And Laoko herself." Valissa nodded to Laoko, who returned the nod with her usual subtle smile. The succubus looked at Acelina and tilted her head. "And a zotiva? Outside of her spire?"

"It is a long story," Acelina said. "But I am on this quest, and I am essential to its success."

Jes and Moriah rolled their eyes. Caera laughed, came up beside David, and nudged against his hip.

"We can do introductions later," Caera said. "We'll be moving on tomorrow, but for now, we're getting a lay of the land."

"A lay," the succubus said, eyebrow raised.

Before someone could groan at the implied pun, the Las stepped past Valissa, perched on the edge of the shallow pit, and stared at the demons fighting to keep the spiders in their den.

"Never been to Scar," Lasca said. "How Den work?"

Valissa smiled. David recognized that smile. That was his smile, the kind he used when he was proud of something and was more than happy to explain it to someone who wanted to listen; he'd seen that smile in the mirror, explaining shit to himself for the fun of it.

"Fallo spiders are inside," she said. "There's a nest in there. The walls of Hell birth the eggs, but they birth too many, so we go in and pick the eggs we like. We hatch them out here. That way they get along with us easier, because volas are the first thing they see. But"--she gestured to a fallo spider, hissing at a nearby incubus, only to get split in half by an axe--"once they get old enough, they get too rowdy and we kill them."

David got halfway through a word and stopped himself. That wasn't far off from how farming was done on Earth.

Valissa continued. "We go into the tunnels regularly to get the good thread. Not the stuff the betrayers wear, but the quality, durable stuff. We harvest it with claw and knife, carefully prune it, wrap it, weave it, and dye it over there." Another cave waited nearby, and some volas sat inside with a pile of white, soft-but-actually-deadly-sharp thread in front of them.

"I swear," David said, "this is practically done note for note on the surface. I mean, kinda."

The succubus smiled. "My first time talking to a soul that isn't damned. What're you doing down here in Hell?"

"I'm not sure, myself." He approached the edge of the pit and looked into the tunnel. Very creepy, dark, with the webs hiding amber veins behind their walls of white. "After what I've seen in Death's Grip and the Grave Valley, this is... strangely comforting. It feels like I'm visiting a farm. A fucked up, strange farm, but a farm."

"In the Floor, you get the human experience." Armed with a playful smile, Valissa approached and touched his potram clothes with a claw. "What is this? It's very soft."

"It's, um..."

"It's not fallo silk. I know fallo silk, and this isn't it." She tugged at his shoulder strap a bit, rubbed the fabric with finger and thumb, and looked to the angels. "Is it that?"

Tsila and Moriah traded glances, but David sighed and shrugged.

"Yes, it's the same as what they're wearing."

Valissa gasped, rubbed the fabric more, and looked down at his gladiator sandals. "I should have guessed from the footwear. You're wearing angel clothes?"

"Sorta."

"They gave you angel clothes? But it's red."

"It's mine. I made it myself."

She blinked. "What?"

He shrugged again. "Long story. So, you harvest fallo silk here. Is that really enough to keep Azailia and Khazeer from coming in here and taking over the Scar?"

Again, he recognized the grin on her face. The 'I know the truth is stranger than fiction but I know it's true anyway' look.

"It's strange, hearing a soul talk so... openly," she said. "Normally you're cowering on your knees or running away."

Acelina flared her wings and stomped toward the succubus, hooves clopping on the stone ground, but she stopped at the lip of the shallow pit, and peered at the eggs. Whatever load she'd been ready to dump on Valissa, the sight of eggs grabbed her attention, and she stepped down into the pit.

"I have never seen a hellbeast egg," she said.

David spared an eye squint for Valissa and followed Acelina. "You haven't?"

"No. Hellbeast eggs are birthed from nests in Hell, and demon eggs are birthed solely in the spires. What reason would I have to leave my spire? Before now."

He squatted down beside her over the small clutch of eggs, and smiled. "I keep asking myself that same question."

She snorted at him and hit him with a wing, but he stayed where he was and smiled at her some more. Eventually he got a groan out of her, and she picked up an egg; smaller than a football.

"It is quite different to a demon egg." She traced her claws over the bumps and grooves of the black and red leathery skin. Something stirred inside, barely visible through the partly opaque shell.

"You can see differences?"

"Of course. The shape of the indents. The color. They tell me much. This fallo spider will be quiet and docile."

He tilted his head. "You can tell what kind of spider it's going to be? It's your first egg. How do you have any context?"

"Context?"

"Yeah. I'd need multiple eggs, take notes for each, see them hatch, observe their behaviors, and see if I could find any patterns. Do big bumps mean more dangerous? Does more black instead of red mean more docile?"

She shrugged and set the egg back down with the others. "I read the intent of the egg."

Intent, right. It wasn't the first time he'd heard that. The afterlife wasn't a world of physics, of biology, of science. Intent mattered. And if Acelina could read intent on an eggshell, who the fuck was he to disagree?

He looked at the cave. Spiders scurried around inside, some daring to come to the exit, only for a demon to drive them back. An incubus tossed a fleshy heart into the tunnel, and the spiky spiders descended on it, tore it into pieces, and took their meal back into the shadows.

He recognized the size of the heart. Human.

"Farming human hearts?" he asked.

Valissa laughed and joined him in the pit. "No good to farm demons. Not worth the effort. But humans get dumped off here by the Hell gate, and they keep well. So we capture them, herd them, and when we need to eat, we eat them. When we need to feed creatures in the Dens, we grab some souls and feed their hearts to the hellbeasts." She shrugged, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

David clenched his teeth and looked away. Of course, just when he was getting comfortable, Hell threw him a twist and punched him in the soul. There were probably entire caves around here full of damned souls, trapped, held prisoner, to be killed later for food. The volas were more patient than other demon breeds, smarter, and they planned. They found the perfect way to be as ridiculously, horribly cruel as possible, and turned it into a farming tactic.

Cruel.

Caera joined him, nudged his side, and he leaned into her and rubbed his forehead against hers; hard to do with her forward-pointing horns, but he managed.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah." He stood up and looked around. As was the norm lately, a bunch of demons had gathered and stared, betrayers too, all to look at the two angels. When they noticed Acelina, they stared at her. When they noticed David had no mark, their jaws dropped. Imps and grems had come in droves, too, hanging out on the higher terrace ledges to stare down at him from a distance. Hundreds of them. Maybe a thousand.

"You want to keep exploring?" Caera nodded up at the onlookers. "The more you move around, the more demons are going to follow you."

"You're right. But if hiding isn't an option, then the only other option is hitting critical mass for followers."

"Critical mass?"

"Yeah. No point in growing followers if there's not enough to break through the barrier; in this case that barrier is Tarkissa. We need to get enough to make that an option." And he hated it. This was the last thing he wanted for him and the girls, this center-of-attention bullshit. Maybe if they'd left the angels, they could have just walked through without issue, but he would not leave Moriah or Tsila behind, for a bunch of reasons.

Daoka chirped and gestured to Tacharius.

"Old runes? Yeah, sure, we got things like that deep in the Floor tunnels. No one can read them, of course."

David smiled at the riiva and walked up to Tacharius. "Show me."

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

"Here, the greatest wound that will never heal. Michael struck Lucifer down, but Lucifer rose again, and cut down their sibling. Forever Heaven's Tears will flow. And beneath this scarred land, the corpses sing."

He shivered. The amber runes glowed on the stone wall, in a long abandoned cave deep in the Scar. Super deep. Remnants grew down here, and the ground wasn't worn smooth. The walls had sharp edges where rocks jutted out aggressively, and bloodgrip vines ran along randomly.

Jes hissed, cut down a nearby remnant, and pulled her wings close to her body. "I thought we were done with this shit."

Caera chuckled, sitting beside David in classic cat-sit pose. "You lived in Death's Grip for years, Jes."

"And I hated every damn time I went into the tunnels."

Daoka nodded and served as wall guard for Jes and Acelina best as she could, but Acelina's wings were far too large. Hissing louder than Jes, the spire mother tucked her wings in and stayed out of the smaller tunnel. Moriah and Tsila stood with her, standing guarding, while David and Caera played explorer.

"Michael struck Lucifer down," Caera said. "And Lucifer got back up and hit them back?"

David nodded. "Apparently. And he, er, they, hurt Michael so bad they died on Angel's Spine."

Daoka clicked and touched the stone beneath the amber runes.

"I guess," Caera said. "She said Angel's Spine is on the other side of Hell. How could a fight here end there?"

"No idea," David said. "Archangels must have been colossal."

Caera stood up and touched the runes. Amber veins were hot, and she yanked her claw away quick.

"Angel's Spine looks like a bunch of white mountains, covered in giant feathers. When I was there, the ground was soft, and it bled. The feathers were soft. I couldn't find anything more than that, but that stuff covered almost the entire province. I just assumed it was something that'd grown there, but... are we thinking Angel's Spine is literally made of the corpses of the archangels?"

"Maybe," David said, "if they worked on a scale so big that this province is literally a result of a battle between Michael and Lucifer." He faced Tacharius. "That all there is?"

"I'm sure there are other runes," the incubus said. "But, I mean, how often do you think you'll stumble onto runes that happen to describe the First War, just randomly decorating a wall?" He gestured at the runes, and the tight cave no one wanted to be in. "It is random, right?"

David shrugged. "I guess. I know archangels can write this stuff, but maybe Hell can, too? And Hell likes to grow areas to reflect things, like the surface, or reflect events that happened in Hell. It wouldn't surprise me if she's grown a bunch of runes around like this, describing things."

Caera wagged her tail and set her hands on his shoulders. "Let's go find them!"

"What?"

"Let's go find more runes! We can answer some questions, figure out more about the First War, figure out what happened and where. And--"

Daoka clicked, shaking her head.

Caera sighed, groaned, got back on all fours, and nodded toward the tunnel exit. "Fine. Let's go save the world first."

David laughed and followed her, and the crew and Tacharius worked their way back toward the center of the Scar.

They were at the absolute bottom of the Scar, where remnants groaned and screamed, bloodgrip vines grew uncontrolled, and the tunnels were fucking mean. Jagged rock stuck out, and the black and red rock invited more bloodgrip to sneak along its crevices, like traps, waiting to shred anyone not paying attention.

They climbed back out quick. The demons had no trouble, but he did. Caera, thank god, got under him and took him back up the terrace edges until they were high above the canyon's center.

"You really want to explore that shit?" Jes asked.

"I do," Caera said. "There was decidedly less lava than Death's Grip."

"I mean, I suppose that's true."

David laughed. "I--" He turned his head and looked out to another terrace with a pit and cave. Another place where they farmed fallo silk? "Tacharius, what's over there?"

"Just another hellbeast den, why?"

"I... I feel something."

Tacharius tilted his head, eyebrow raised. "You feel something? It's just a goort den. A failing goort den."

"Goorts?"

"Yeah. I'll show you. Not much to show, though." He gestured, and David and the crew followed. Some distant demons and betrayers followed, too, but David had stopped keeping tabs on them as they flowed in and out of the tunnels they were intimately familiar with. Was Naoko still following him?

It was another den, just like the fallo spiders, a shallow pit only a foot deep that covered the terrace edge and led into a big tunnel. No spider webs, though. Some eggs sat in the center of the pit, and a couple succubi and incubi stood over them, chatting with each other, swords and axes in hand.

"Still no luck?" Tacharius asked.

"A little luck," a succubus said. "Caisar tamed one for a few days."

"But?"

She shrugged. "But it killed him, ate him, and ran off."

David held up a hand. "A baby goort killed a demon?"

The woman laughed, shook her head, squatted down over an egg, and gently rolled it around in place. "Nah. He kept it in a pen, locked up, but he socialized with it every day as it grew. And once it was mostly full grown -- took half a year -- he took it out. Seemed to be one of the nicer goorts. And then it skewered him on its horns, stomped him to death, and tore his heart out with its teeth." She gnashed her teeth in demonstration, but a sex demoness with a very human face didn't exactly have the gnarly mouth of a hellbeast. No love lost, from the smile on her face, either.

"You're trying to tame goorts?" he asked, stepping into the pit. Caera and Acelina followed.

"It's been done before, rarely, but it has. We're trying to figure out how to do it consistently. We have a nest right here, so we might as well try, right?" She gestured to the tunnel. "And if we can figure this out, Azailia and Khazeer will trip over themselves wanting our goorts. Imagine an army of vrats or riiva riding on these creatures?"

David hadn't seen many goorts, but from what he remembered, they were definitely big enough to be ridden by a vrat, and considering vrats were usually seven to eight feet tall, that was a damn big horse. Goat. Unicorn? Bicorn?

He gestured at the tunnel. "How long have you been trying to tame a goort?"

"My whole life. Must be around a hundred years now."

He blinked. "Wow. That's--"

Whoever the woman was, she winked at him and did a little spin. "Volas learn to play the long game, in the Scar. I've been working at this my whole life, and so did volas that came before me. Sometimes we just give up and make sure to kill the goort eggs as they're birthed. Sometimes we give it a shot. Tarkissa told me to get to work on this all those years ago, so I've been trying."

"Decades of trying," Caera said, sitting cat style in front of an egg. "Tarkissa hasn't killed you for failure?"

If Caera's words offended the demon, she didn't show it.

"When other provinces start taming goorts and we still can't, then he'll eat my heart. Until then, we just keep trying new things and see what sticks." Sighing, she squatted down by the egg with Caera and poked it with her tail. "If I could ask the rider, maybe he'd tell me."

Caera snorted. "He wouldn't answer."

The succubus raised her eyebrow, but didn't ask.

David stepped up to the tunnel entrance. It wasn't nearly as dark as the fallo spider den, no webs blocking all the amber veins, but if there was anything special about the tunnel, he couldn't see it from this far out.

But he could feel it. Something tugged at the strings, played lullaby notes, and the soft, encouraging sound teased his ears.

"Can I go in?" he asked.

The succubus shrugged. "Yeah, sure. We do a sweep every morning and bring any eggs we like out here. No live hellbeasts in there."

He nodded, looked back, and Caera joined him. Acelina paused in the center of the shallow pit and looked down at the few eggs around.

"If you want a docile goort," she said, and poked the egg with her tail, "look for an egg that has a thicker shell."

"A thicker shell? I figured--"

"You figured incorrectly." Acelina snorted down at her and followed Caera and David.

The rest of the girls followed, too, only Tacharius staying outside to chat with another one of his friends. He definitely knew his way around the Scar, around the people of the Scar, and probably knew a lot more about its politics than he wanted David to realize. David would keep him around.

The tunnel changed. The deeper David and the girls walked into its depths, the fleshier everything grew. The walls were soon covered in red flesh, like exposed muscle, and it pulsed gently with a slow, lumbering heartbeat. The flesh grew overhead, turned the hard tunnel walls into flowing, smooth walls of crimson, and the floor changed with it. Spongy, soft.

A little deeper and they found the birthing holes, closed, wet orifices that looked way too much like the birthing canal of a fucking alien. And sure enough, one of the flesh orifices was in the process of pushing out an egg the size of a small beach ball, nearly a meter wide. It landed with a quiet, squelching plop on the soft flesh of the floor below.

Acelina stood over the egg, but her black canvas face scanned the wall instead, and she ran her claws gently down the flesh texture.

"It is... quite similar, isn't it?" she asked. "This wall of flesh, and the flesh of a spire's birthing walls."

Caera nodded and stood up beside her. "Pretty similar, but I assume there are little differences only a zotiva would notice?"

Acelina chuckled, but only for a moment, the sound fading away as she scanned over the wall and walked beside the flesh of the cave.

"I see many differences. There are no runes, of course, but other things as well. The disorganized array of birthing holes. The lack of a hatching pit." She looked around. No giant pit to set the eggs in. No hatchery. "The flesh is tougher. And the eggs are tougher, too."

"It is wild," David said. "On the surface, that's a normal feature of wild stuff. Hardier."

Acelina shook her head. "This is not the surface. Things are not determined by the chaos of the material. In Hell, things are determined by intent. It is the intent of the spires to birth Lucifer's demons, where they are handpicked by us precious zotiva." She gestured down at the fresh egg with a wing. "This thing is meant to hatch quickly, grow quickly, and become a mindless animal that will consume anything with resonance that it can." She raised a hoof and brought it over the egg.

David waved a hand. "Don't! Don't. Just, leave it alone, okay?"

She eyelessly glared at him, but lowered her hoof and let the egg survive. Wow. He hadn't expected her to listen to him. And he was smart enough to not say thank you; she'd probably squash the egg out of spite.

"Why are we in here?" she asked. "There are many goorts in Hell. They are especially everywhere in the Red Pits and Navameere Fields, so I have been told."

"I hear a song."

"Song?" Caera asked. She got on all fours and walked beside him as he wandered deeper through the flesh tunnels.

"Yeah. I hear a song. It's... weird."

Caera tilted her head. "You normally hear the music?"

"No. Hell is just... Hell. If she has her own music constantly playing, I can't hear it. Maybe she does, like some sort of background noise I've tuned out. But normally, there's no distinct music. Except... I can hear music here."

"But not in the fallo den?"

"No. Only here. And... it's coming from somewhere... specific."

Caera prowled along beside him, Acelina directly behind him, and the rest of the crew chatted away in the background. The music was gentle, inviting, and soothing. It sounded... familiar? No, familiar wasn't the word. But there was something to it, something that made him think of memories he'd long lost, of being a baby under a mobile?

The gentle tune took him to a wall. Just another flesh wall like any other, covered in orifices close enough to the soft ground so any egg they birthed wouldn't splat on impact.

"It's coming from here," he said. He leaned forward and touched the flesh wall. The red muscle slowly pulsed, driven by some slow-beating heart no one could see or find. It almost felt like he was in the gut of a blue whale.

The music changed pitch, growing sharp, as the flesh wall birthed a new egg. It came out slower than the previous egg. And unless he was going crazy, it was considerably bigger than the other egg.

It landed on the flesh floor, came to a gentle stop near David's feet, and the music faded away.

"What the fuck?" he said, and squatted over the egg. "It... It's... why I'm here."

"An egg?" Caera joined him, set a hand on the egg, and gently rolled it over. Checking for cracks, maybe. "A goort egg?"

"Yeah. The moment it was born, the music stopped."

Acelina joined them, squatted over the egg, and picked it up. It was a meter wide, maybe more, and oval like the other eggs. To him, it looked identical to the other eggs he'd seen, but Acelina tilted her head to the side and stared at the egg as she slowly turned it.

"How strange."

"What?" he asked.

"This egg... It is not like other eggs."

"What's the difference? I mean, other than size. It's bigger... isn't it?"

"Yes, it is bigger than the other goort eggs." She took a quick peek around. A few eggs sat nearby, confirming. "The shell is hard. The exterior is a perfect blend of black and red. The bumps and grooves look... less random. It lacks the chaotic indentations of a hellbeast egg, almost like it was intentionally shaped."

"Intentional?" He poked the egg. "I... think that makes sense."

Caera leaned in close and sniffed the egg from inches away. "A special egg made for David? But he just got here."

Acelina shrugged with her wings. "If Hell can sense David, then perhaps she knew he would come this way, and lured him in with the music once he was close."

"Hell is sentient?" Caera asked.

David reached up and touched the egg's underside; Acelina was just that damn tall.

"I don't know about sentient," David said. "Each time I play the music super loud, a piece of me gets pulled into the music, and I meet... her. I think it's her." He rubbed his arms and stared down at the fleshy ground. "Just... something pulls me along in the song, in this unending ocean of strings and vibration. She speaks to me sometimes, then."

Caera aimed her one eye at him. "Speaks?"

"Yeah, sometimes. She's... nice. And intelligent if she can do that, right? So, maybe she did know I was coming this way?"

"Maybe. She say anything about invaders? About the woman in armor's plan? About what we're supposed to do when we get to False Gate, or anything about what's happening in Heaven?"

"Not a thing."

They all sighed.

"Let us go, then," Acelina said. She turned and walked toward the exit, egg in hand.

David chased after her. "Um, you... don't want me to hold on to that?"

"A special egg birthed for a clumsy, weak soul? You will trip and shatter it."

"I won't!"

"Yes you will." She jabbed his chest with her tail without a glance back. "I will keep the egg safe. Who better to watch over an egg of Hell than a zotiva?"

He raised a finger, and lowered it. She had a point.

"Is that what we're doing?" Caera asked, following. "We're keeping the egg?"

David shrugged. "Why not?"

"Because of what that succubus told us twenty minutes ago? Goorts are wild and dangerous. And large."

"I can't just leave the egg. I was called here, literally, and an egg got plopped right down in front of me." He glanced back at the flesh walls. There was a gentle hum, almost inaudible, as if the flesh walls themselves were playing the music, but so quiet it was just background noise. The lullaby song that'd pulled him into the tunnel was different, audible, and specific.

"I get that," Caera said. "But it's still going to hatch a hellbeast, right? If I saw an unusually large goort egg, I'd just assume an unusually large goort is going to come out of it. And I'd want no part of that trouble."

Goorts were scary, and badass. Giant horses with horns and spikes, and sharp teeth. And the one the rider had been riding had been more than capable of carrying his immense armor's weight with ease. Maybe David could have a mount like that, too?

Or maybe he didn't know what the fuck would happen, the succubus's story would repeat itself, and David would get squashed under some hooves and eaten like a snack.

"What's that?" Jes asked. The girls stepped back and joined him at the entrance of the tunnel.

"I found an egg," he said.

"Indeed." Acelina stroked the egg with one hand, and held it against her breastplate from underneath with the other, kinda like a football carry. "A special egg."

Daoka came closer and clicked a few times.

"Yes, special." Nodding, Acelina held out the egg with both hands. "I will guard this egg."

David snuck some quick glances at the other girls, but each of them had an eyebrow raised in confusion, too.

"You don't need to do that," David said. He approached, but Acelina bat him away with her wing.

"Nonsense. I am a zotiva, and I miss handling the eggs." With that, she stepped out of the pit, cradled the egg in her arms, and waited for everyone else to follow.

The girls looked at David, but all he could do was shrug some more.

"I guess she's leading now?"

The group made to leave, until a succubus got in their way.

"Um, hey, that's my egg? What are you--"

Acelina growled down at the woman, flared her immense wings, and the succubus backed away.

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

Tacharius took them to the closest cave, and the few demons and betrayers living there were happy to give up their sleeping quarters. Or at least, that's what Tacharius told David. The man was as trustworthy as a viper. But it was a nice room, similar to the one from last night, large and floor covered in uncolored, messy silk.

David did a head check. Caera, check. Latia, Laria, Lasca, and Laara, check. Jeskura and Daoka, check. Acelina and his egg, check. Laoko, check. Moriah, check. And their newest member, their white mage Tsila, check.

"Party starts in a couple hours," Tacharius said. "Everyone will expect the unmarked to be there."

"I'll be there," David said. "I don't want to be, believe me. But I guess I gotta do some social networking, even in Hell."

Tacharius laughed, gave everyone a playful little wave, and left.

"David," Moriah said. "Is it safe for you to use your powers enough to move the ground? Create walls?"

"I think so. I--oh, right. I really should be doing that, shouldn't I?"

"Yes, especially now that we are within the Scar. Tarkissa must have plenty of fiercely loyal demons; loyal to the chance at a promotion, but still. They will come at us while we rest."

He nodded, stepped up to the opening of their large alcove, and held out his hands to the sides. Manipulating rock had grown easy, but there was a difference between growing a spike and changing the layout of a cave. The weight above him was unimaginable. He had to grow and shift rock around while talking all that into account.

He moved rock out from underneath him, moved it like flesh, and settled it in front of him. In a couple minutes, he closed off their alcove with a wall of stone, with a few small holes at the top of the wall for airflow.

Jes groaned and poked him with her wing claw. "Why didn't you do this... every time!?"

"It's not easy to move all this rock, especially not when there's a million tonnes of it overhead." He squirmed. "And... I never really thought about just... blocking off the tunnel." Everyone groaned. "Hey! This isn't necessarily the best idea." He gestured at the wall. "I can sense Hell and its shape, and I can feel the remnants, but I can't sense demons, or angels, or souls. What if I lowered the wall and there were a thousand of them just waiting to pounce us?"

Everyone stared at him, waiting for a better excuse. He groaned and sat down.

"We safe now?" Laara asked. "No need for shifts?"

"No need for shifts," Caera said. She stretched out on the blankets and lay on her stomach. Which was fucking adorable, a giant cat-like demon on her belly, arms and legs splayed out like a cat in too-hot weather. If she'd been soft like a cat, she'd have squished.

David sat beside her and leaned back against her side, between an arm and leg. "If we can find a tunnel to do this every night, it would make it easier to relax. And maybe even if there aren't tunnels, I could try digging us a cave straight down. I know I've done similar before, but a proper cave with a ceiling?" He tapped his chin. "I wonder if Mia does that?"

Tsila walked up to the wall and knocked on it. "This will make it hard for me to speak with the others, while the rest of you enjoy your private time together."

"I'll take it down," David said, "if you want to leave."

Laoko sat in the center of the pile of silk near David and Caera, grinned at the angel, and gestured for her to come closer with a curling of her fingers.

"You need not leave, gabriem, when we decide to indulge."

Tsila smiled brightly but shook her head. "Your group is your group, and I am but a visitor. Maybe in the future. When I joined you, it was my goal to aid you. I can see that there is a bond between your group that I am... not comfortable inserting myself into."

Moriah glanced at the other girls. The girls looked at each other before looking at David. What could he say? He'd grown close to everyone here, in one way or another.

Daoka got up, nodded and clicked, and she and Jes sat near David. For a second, he thought maybe Daoka would have invited Tsila to join their sexual indulgences, but whatever she said, it got a gentle nod from Tsila, nothing more.

Acelina sat in the growing circle, let her wings relax like a cape, and stroked David's egg. She set it in the middle of the group, and it sank inches into the soft silk.

"I think," the spire mother said, "that a second angel enslaved to our whims is a good idea. Isn't it, David?"

He blinked. "Um..."

"We're not enslaved," Moriah said, and sat in the circle. "And you should trust a gabriem's intuition about this sort of thing."

The Las sat between Laoko and Acelina, leaned against their giant thighs, and stared at the egg. Lasca crept forward and poked it with her tail, and when Acelina didn't stop her, she sat in front of it and gently rolled it back and forth in front of her. It was as big as her entire torso. Bigger.

Every girl save for Tsila sat in the circle. Everyone watched the egg, almost like they were watching a campfire, and as Lasca gently rolled it, something stirred inside. If rolling it was a problem, Acelina didn't say anything.

"Gabriem know best," Laoko said, not without a little sadness. But she smiled, nodded, and kept her eyes on the egg. "David, what is the plan tonight?"

"Plan?"

"Yes, plan. Zabulon will host his party, and you will meet hundreds, perhaps thousands of new demons and betrayers. He expects you to use your aura and drown the cave in sexuality." The tetrad grinned. "I suggest you do as he wants. Volas may use sex to manipulate and control, but they are more addicted to it than the other demon breeds. If you control sexuality, you control the volas."

He tilted his head. "Somehow, I don't think it'll be that simple."

"Of course not, but it is still a truth that the incubi and succubi have lusts that make us look tame." Her grin softened. "Well, perhaps us demons. Your lusts are insane and insatiable, young man."

"They aren't... I mean..." He squirmed more. "Are they really that insatiable?"

Every girl nodded, and Daoka chirped up a little storm, complete with hand gestures.

"Yeah," Jes said. "Be honest, nerd. If you had this strange body back on the surface, would you ever stop masturbating?"

"I... I mean..." Being human meant he could only jerk off so much. Half the reason he was so into nutrition and fitness was to make sure he could keep his sex drive strong, and his erections too. But the human body struggled with those when you were jerking off three or four times a day.

Why the fuck was a horny nerd like him on a journey to save the world?

Jes laughed and poked him with her tail.

"I love fucking as much as the next girl. And we can fuck every night, especially if you can give us protection." She gestured to the wall he made. "But you take the cake -- that's the expression, right? -- when it comes to horniness. You can't go two seconds without looking at our tits or ass."

Latia stood up and pointed a claw upward. "David is special!" She waddled over to him and sat on his lap, facing the group. "Special and horny."

He rolled his eyes and hugged the little lady to his chest. Still in her armor, she was heavy, but he managed.

"Okay, yes, I am unusually horny. Even around guys my age, I was unusual. Not a lot of guys who grow up knowing exactly what they want to do: make porn. Or in my case, video game porn." Programmer was the career goal. Video game porn programmer and designer was the dream. "But I'm guessing that has nothing to do with why I'm special. Just coincidental." And calling himself special sent nausea through him. It was gross.

"Coincidental or not," Caera said, "it could be valuable here in the Scar. This whole province survives because of the things they trade. Imagine someone with an aura as powerful as yours, controlling it?"

Acelina's shark smile slowly emerged from her featureless face of onyx. "Then you are considering my idea? We do not simply pass through the Scar. We take it for ourselves."

He shook his head. "What? No! I don't want to rule a spire."

Acelina shrugged. "Then give me the throne. I will rule it."

He facepalmed. "I mean, how about we don't go to war with a spire full of thousands of deadly demons; I assume there's more than volas in the spire. And last spire I was in, we were all in, and it wasn't exactly a nice-looking place."

Laoko shrugged. "Was it the remnants? Or the piles of skulls and gore? Or the many demons and their slaves and betrayers that bothered you?"

Was she joking? He squinted at her, but she just looked at him, waiting.

"Yeah, that, and all the spikes, and the weird flesh and metal walls, and the fact it was full of some of the strongest demons I've ever seen. Taking the spire by force wouldn't be easy, and it'd take time. We don't have time."

Moriah spoke next. "It... might be the best choice, David."

"What!?"

She sighed and gently brushed her working wing against the egg between them all. "We rush through the Scar, but we cannot hide in this province, not easily. We cannot help but gain an audience, and from what Tacharius told us, many here are already of the mind Tarkissa needs to fall. There will be a confrontation, there is nothing to be done about that. And to make matters worse, not only is an unmarked we assume an enemy currently pushing through the Red Pits, our next destination, but Azailia will no doubt soon hear of her failure to prepare you for Tarkissa. She may already know."

Laoko nodded. "And if she convinced Timaeus to go along with her plan as a contingency, she must have promised him much. Say what you will of us demons, I knew Timaeus, my friend and bailiff, and betraying me was not something he would do easily. This goal was important to her, important enough she had Timaeus hide his true intentions from Silvain. Important enough she will follow up with force, eventually."

"I can't believe you're suggesting this," he said. "Taking a spire can't be easy. But maybe the angels can?"

Tsila shook her head, still standing by the new wall. "Angels leave the spires be in almost all circumstances. They may be unnatural, but Heaven has no war to pick with Hell. And demons do as hellbeasts do, kill and devour the damned and remnants, helping with the great cycle. Heaven would never take a spire for herself."

"And," Moriah said, "as much as Heaven may never admit it, angels would struggle to do battle in such an environment. We felt that sting when we slayed Belor, two thousand years ago. When the sky is taken from us, demons can be... difficult to manage."

Acelina's huge shark grin returned. "But demons fight in tunnels and hallways all our lives. And trust me, young soul, if you gave these volas the incentive, they would throw themselves into the fight, swarm the spire, and claim it for us. They just need a reason to unite."

David raised a brow. "And... I'm that reason?"

Acelina licked her teeth. "Prove it tonight."