~~Day 95~~

~~Mia~~

Dobasi gave them a room and gave Mia a small amber necklace she could use to open and close the door. What a flashback. She almost laughed.

The big scary tetrad left, leaving Mia alone with her crew. Cerberus immediately got to exploring, and he stalked around the large room, noses to the floor, but there was nothing to find. Like Mia's old room in Death's Grip, it was wide, had a raised section off to the side with a huge bone table and bone chairs, and it had a window with bones covering it like bars. Back in Zel's spire, the window overlooked Death's Grip, a wasteland of thorny, deadly mountains. Here, near the top of the Angel's Spine spire, it showed only flesh. Archangel flesh, literally pressed up against the window. The top of the spire was buried in it.

Everyone found a place to get comfortable. Kas squatted in the corner near the bone door, and again, Mia almost laughed. Just like last time. The angels took the high place, standing around the table much too big for even them, while Julisa and Romakus stood by the window and examined the bleeding flesh just outside.

Vinicius found his own little corner and did what Vin always did: be all stoic and shit. He never had the same vibe as Kas, though. With Kas, he was like some classic beast from a gothic horror story, maybe a stone gargoyle or something, brooding on his perch, waiting for some beautiful little lass like Mia to teach him how to love. Vin was like a hibernating grizzly bear, usually quiet, but all too eager to kill anyone who got too close.

She'd check on Vin last. He'd appreciate that.

"Kas," she said. "Feeling alright? Arm okay?"

He held out his huge arm and rotated it. Satisfied, he clicked once, a deep cluck in his throat. All this time he talked with words, with her and the others, she'd plain forgotten the eyeless demon breeds preferred to click and cluck.

"Noah?" she asked, looking at the platform a couple meters up. It had a gentle stairway leading up to the black metal platform, practically cute decor.

She'd spent way too long in Hell.

"I will live," he said, and he sat on the edge of the platform so his legs hung off. He showed his stomach. The wound was closed, but barely, and the surrounding flesh looked blistered and gnarly.

"Hellfire," Yosepha said, "causes destruction in the spirit realm in a way few other things do."

"Spirit realm?" Mia asked. "I suppose that fits. We're ghosts. Or, I am, anyway. Y'all are spirits." She pointed a finger at Romakus. "Ever possess someone, asshole?"

The man laughed and gave his wings a deliberate shake, knocking around the skulls dangling from them.

"Oh, hundreds, and I made deals through them. I'm the demon of the crossroads. How do you think Robert Johnson learned to play?"

Mia scrunched up her nose. "How much scrying pool do you watch?"

"More than you! I've never seen a soul come to Hell, and not spend their first months completely absorbed in one."

She raised a finger, stopped, and lowered it. That was true, and Romakus might have been making a joke, but the following silence wasn't. Mia looked down, shifted in her sandals, and tugged at the edges of her flimsy red dress.

"You're right."

Romakus squatted in front of her, tilting his head. "Hell life so good you don't miss the surface?"

"It's not about missing the surface. I liked life on the surface, more than most, I think. But..."

"But?"

She looked around at the others. Everyone was looking at her, even Vin.

"But... I don't know. You know I was an orphan and never stuck with any family for long. And I had friends, but no close friends, only David. I had a quiet little life, and I was happy to casually cruise toward my quiet little goal. I didn't really ever feel... feel like I belonged, I guess."

Again, she peeked at the others. Kas was unreadable. Julisa didn't care. Romakus was analyzing her in typical sneaky demon fashion, probably thinking a thousand thoughts. Vin watched her like a predator learning prey. But the angels looked at her with a mountain of knowing, and all three's eyes grew somber.

Mia put up her hands. "It just means I don't miss it all that much, despite how much I liked it. Down here, I'm doing something important, and every day may be hell, but every day means something, you know? Down here, the days don't blur together into this giant mess of nothing, like up there. Down here, I remember everything that happens, because it's always important. Everything."

A deep rumble drew everyone's eyes. Vinicius.

"A life without meaning or purpose," he said, "would drive anyone mad."

She blinked at him. "Y-Yeah, it would."

More silence.

After a few minutes of stewing, Mia sat down against the metal wall near Kas. Unlike Zel's tower, this one didn't have any big piles of silk for sleeping on. Maybe Yosepha would let her sleep on her wing?

Azreal and Noah got up and walked to the door.

"Mia?" Azreal asked, and gestured to the black bone spikes covering the door.

"Going somewhere?" she asked.

"We will patrol the area, and see if we can learn anything about James, or return if we spot the rider. There is no danger. There is plenty of space for flying."

That was true. They were safe as long as they stayed in the air.

"Noah?" she asked.

Noah nodded. "I will be fine."

She tapped Dobasi's necklace, and the door opened. Both men nodded deeply, almost a bow, and left.

"Suspicious," Romakus said.

It was suspicious. The two angels had said a few things on the journey, each time wearing away at the trust Mia had in them. Something was up.

"Yosepha?" Mia asked. "You're from the same Heavenly Island as them, right? You know what's up with them?"

She shook her head. "I didn't realize we thought something was wrong with them."

Mia resisted the urge to tease her and call her a typical mikalim. "I'm pretty sure something is on their minds, something they haven't told us. Sure you don't know anything?"

"We share the same birthplace, but not the same captain or battalion. I do not know them well enough to assess."

Vin snorted, getting everyone's attention. "Azreal and Noah are old, perhaps older than they realize. Over the eons, many angels take out their anger in Hell." Everyone listened when Vin used complete, long sentences. Long-ish. "They rebirth themselves, fleeing dread. Some release that dread in Hell."

"Release the dread?" Mia asked, and looked up at Yosepha.

The angel sighed and looked away. "The vortex is vast, and angels have the freedom to come and go from Hell when they wish. It is more common than angels want to admit that we visit Hell, angels like myself, and Galon. And... we speak of it in whispers, but sometimes angels grow violent, grow the desire to do violence."

"Violence?" Mia asked.

"We are warriors of God, but we have no one to fight. Hell is not our enemy, not truly, and we go millions of years without fighting its denizens." Yosepha hopped down to her, wearing her white silks. "It is one of the many questions that plague us. Even the gabriem feel it, the desire to be soldiers, but... soldiers for what?" Sighing, she sat against the wall, and Romakus sat with her. "Imagine, millions of rapholem and mikalim, patrolling our borders that have never been touched since the First War, billions of years ago. Angels and demons may not suffer the hand of time as souls do, but we feel something is missing. Some angels kill themselves as either depression or rage consumes them. Some seek rebirth, for the thousandth time, and their memories fade. Some come to Hell, and while they never speak of what they do, we see the wounds it leaves on their grace. They... kill."

Mia stared. "I know you told me angels were committing suicide, and sometimes visiting Hell, but you never described it like this, like a condition everyone's suffering."

"It is our great shame. No soul in Heaven knows of it, and we would keep it that way."

Sighing, Mia slumped against the wall and sat on her ass. Cerberus joined her, pressed his heads into her chest, and she stroked them until the increasingly large three-headed hellhound lay beside her, heads on her lap. He was the size of a full wolf, now, maybe even bigger.

"The Great Tower isn't perfect," Mia said. "Every religion always preaches about how perfect the system is. But it isn't. God created this thing, this tower-tree thing, and it's trying to grow in literal nothingness. You'd think something capable of doing that would make some sort of elegant and immaculate design, a grand architecture that's perfect in every way."

Yosepha shook her head and fiddled with the small pouch dangling around her neck.

"I know little of science," the angel said, "but on Earth, humans speak of biology, of evolution, and how inelegant it is. Chaos, with nothing that can be cleanly described or categorized."

"That's true," Mia said. "Nothing fits into any neat box in biology, and evolution isn't a machine with intent, just a random outcome factory with a bias toward successful procreation, while everything else it couldn't care less about." Poor octopus.

"Perhaps the Great Tower is the same way?" The angel shrugged her wings, eyes still down. "Perhaps God planted a seed, and mirroring the chaos and insanity of Earth's biology, the Great Tower grew, a budding tree fighting against oblivion to survive."

It took willpower to keep from yanking that stupid pouch off Yosepha's neck.

"The souls in Heaven," Mia asked. "We really don't know what would happen if demons or Lucifer got into Heaven and ate or killed the souls there?"

"We don't. I can only imagine they would damage the Great Tower irreparably. A question for the council."

Groaning, Mia rubbed her face and went from sitting to lying on her back, slowly sliding down the wall until her head rested on the metal floor.

"Someday," she said, "I'm going to use the runes Raphael taught me. I'm going to go to Heaven, and demand answers."

Yosepha didn't answer. No one did.

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

Azreal and Noah came back.

"You two okay?" Mia asked.

Azreal nodded, but in typical asshole fashion, said nothing. Why did she have so many assholes in her group?

"We saw no signs of the rider," Noah said. "But I suspect he will show himself sooner or later."

Mia nodded. "Probably. You two--"

"We head back out," Azreal said. He held Mia's gaze for only a moment before he left.

"What? You should stay, sleep."

"We will perch somewhere safe," Noah said. "If Dobasi betrays us, it makes sense for some of us to be outside the spire where we may be of use."

Mia shook her head. "What? I'm not sure--"

The two angels left, leaving Mia with her jaw dropped. She looked at Yosepha, and the angel sighed.

"I am beginning to believe," Yosepha said, "those two may truly be far older than even they realize."

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

Evening twilight came. Kas went to sleep, cozy in his corner like a piece of furniture. Julisa, Vin, and Mia were next, letting the natural cycle of night and day in Hell knock them to sleep without struggle. Yosepha and Romakus took first shift.

"Get rid of it," Romakus whispered.

Mia kept her eyes closed, pretending to sleep with Cerberus beside her, her sitting back against him. Eavesdropping was a sin, right? Well, when in Hell.

"I won't," Yosepha whispered back.

"You're not a traitor."

"In a sense, I am."

Romakus grumbled. "Really got your head jammed up your ass, stupid angel."

"Maybe, but you seem quite obsessed with it."

"The pouch? You--"

"My ass."

Romakus laughed. Loudly. Everyone woke up, and Mia pretended to, faking the best yawn and arm stretch. Cerberus did the same, but once Mia stroked his mane a few times, he closed his six eyes and went back to sleep.

"Well, fuck," Romakus said. "Y'all need to sleep better."

Mia stuck out her tongue. "You're the one making a racket, dickwad."

Romakus shrugged and gave her what was probably his attempt at an innocent face. A giant demon with a demony, hyper-masculine, skull-ish face, could not do innocent to save his life, and Mia couldn't help but laugh. Yosepha did too.

"You know, Romakus," Mia said. "You have a lot of explaining to do."

"Do I?"

"You used to be a bailiff for Belor? You were a big mover in the Spires War."

Romakus, sitting at the opposite wall, scooped Yosepha up onto his lap. He set the angel facing away from him, her legs between his, and he casually held the beautiful black woman to his chest. She squirmed and elbowed him, but not hard enough to even earn a grunt, and the giant demon happily hugged her tight. Trapped.

"Not really," he said. "It was a part-time job, and I quit. Poor benefits, worse pay."

Mia frowned at him, walked up to him, and doubly frowned at him. "Vicente called you a traitor."

"What do you think the Damall are? I saw the insanity Belor wrought, and decided I'd put a stop to it. Hell is a much happier place when demons just do their own thing, fighting each other and fighting over food." He leaned forward and took a deep breath of Yosepha's super-short afro. "And I didn't like the idea of fighting angels."

Yosepha scoffed. "I bet you were as hungry for violence as any demon back then."

"Nah. I just wanted to settle down with an angel and raise a few kids."

If Yosepha rolled her eyes any harder, she'd have lost them. She tried to get up, but Romakus held her down, slid one arm around her waist, and a hand around her throat. Like it was Pavlovian, she relaxed back against Romakus, and her wings went limp.

God damn it. Mia frowned at Romakus harder, but the demon just grinned back and hugged his girlfriend snug and tight. Mia wanted that. Maybe not with a joker like Romakus, but damn, she wanted that.

Julisa walked over, whacked Romakus's wing with her tail, walked over to Vinicius, and sat with him instead.

"While we're up," Julisa said, "and we finally rest in a safe place, let us indulge."

Vinicius grumbled, but he didn't stop Julisa from running her claws down his chest, either.

Mia to the rescue. She strolled up to them, folded her arms across her chest, and gave Julisa some knowing glares. The tetrad smirked.

"Vin," Mia said. "Vicente. You really just... jumped him. And killed him." And killing the bailiff from the Black Valley could come back and bite them in the ass, but that's not what Mia wanted to talk about.

Vin rumbled and said nothing.

Mia tilted her head. "I know you said you saw an opportunity, but you also said he deserved to die for what he said."

Vin didn't rumble, and said nothing.

"The last thing Vicente said, was a bunch of threats about what he and Alessio would do to me."

Still nothing.

Mia sighed and looked back to the others. Cerberus slept. Kas watched, squatting in his corner. Romakus and Yosepha were cuddling, or rather, Romakus was groping and hugging and squeezing Yosepha, and she was doing her best not to act like she didn't like the attention.

It was probably their antics that had Julisa in a mood. The damn woman took a peek at Romakus, another at Mia, and again touched Vinicius.

"Kas," Mia said. "Can you deal with this bitch?"

Julisa set one of her many hands on her breastplate. "Do you think I am some--" Kasimiro came over, grabbed the woman's leg, and yanked her onto her back. "What!? How dare you! What sort of demon bends a knee to a soul? You--"

Kas dragged her back to his corner and wrestled with her. Julisa fought against him, but it didn't last, her struggles quickly becoming playful and flirtatious instead of serious. If she had her four swords, she'd be able to fight Kas without issue. But in a wrestling match, Kas was a heavyweight beast compared to her.

Mia walked up between Vin's legs and sat on his thigh. He didn't move. She smiled up at him, slid a little closer, and touched his stomach. He didn't move.

"You," she whispered, "attacked Vicente because he threatened me."

Vin snorted and said nothing.

"You getting attached to me, Vin? Protective?"

His snort turned to a growl, and shivers ran up Mia's spine. He wasn't happy she was poking the bear, but the bear needed to be poked. And besides, said bear couldn't hurt her, not with his leash and her necklace stopping him. He was bound not to hurt her, not to remove his leash or her necklace, and not willingly attempt to leave her.

Maybe she'd release him someday. Definitely. Once they'd saved the Great Tower.

She slid closer and pressed her side up against his stomach, her legs between his thighs and almost against his crotch. From this close, she could whisper even quieter.

"I bet if the others weren't here, you'd talk with me more. I bet I could get you to talk about yourself."

"I have no stories to share."

"Not true! I mean, they must be really violent stories, but you wandered Hell with the rider at your side. I bet you have all sorts of stories about strong hellbeasts you fought, or maybe little tribes of demons you ran into you took on, just you, or hordes of Cainites."

Vinicius snorted down at her, and hot dragon breath blew her hair back. Thankfully, it just smelled like hot air, and blood. He said nothing.

"No war stories? Maybe you joined up with a spire ruler at some point and fought another? Maybe you fought another child of the Old Ones? Tell me a story and put me to sleep."

"Why would I tell you a story to put you to sleep?"

"It's just an Earth thing. Nevermind." Sighing, she leaned into his side a little harder. "You really jumped Vicente and ripped him apart, because he was threatening me?"

Vin looked past her to the others. Azreal and Noah were out doing only God knew what. Yoseph and Romakus were hugging and kissing, as much as she could kiss him and his scary-but-kinda-sexy face. Kas was in a weird, sexual wrestling match with Julisa, which Julisa was more than happy to perpetuate.

Far as Mia could tell, Kas had no interest in Julisa, other than the fact that the four-armed bitch was ridiculously hot, with a tight waist and huge tits. Good. Maybe it was selfish of Mia to want to keep Kas for herself, at least emotionally or mentally. Kas had been protecting her for so long, she'd grown attached.

She'd grown attached to the asshole she was sitting on, too.

"I really don't understand you, Vin," she whispered. "I want to, though. You say you want to eat me, but then you do things like defend me when you don't have to, and even kill someone for threatening me. And yes, I know you'll deny it, but I know you better than that. I think you like me." A poke wouldn't do, so she punched him in the stomach. No response, of course, not even a flinch. "We could be friends, you know."

She almost felt like she was trying to befriend the grizzly bear she'd thought of earlier. If she had a fish to give, maybe that'd work. Except in Hell, the only fish she had was her body. Sex was just a normal way of communicating for demons, a common occurrence, something they did when they were bored or felt like spending time with a friend. It was hard for her to think of sex like that, but a few months in Hell had definitely put the idea in her head.

But Vin felt differently. He pushed her aside, and she squeaked, rolled backward off his leg, and landed on her back and ass on the floor. Apparently, the necklace wouldn't stop him from touching her if he wasn't actively trying to hurt her, even if his bull-in-a-china-shop movements got her neck broken. She stood up and glared, and he nudged her back with his tail.

She braced for harsh words. Something like 'leave me be' or 'I do not want you' or something. But he said nothing. He stared down at the floor between his feet, arms limp at his sides, before he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

Sighing, Mia sat with Kas and Julisa, who'd settled their wrestling match and sat next to each other instead. And because Mia was feeling upset, and dejected, and confused and annoyed and flustered, she sat between the two giant demons and pulled her knees up to her chest. Julisa frowned down at her, but didn't move her or anything, leaving Mia squashed between the two demons' thighs.

After a few minutes, Vin looked asleep. Yosepha and Romakus were going to sleep, too. Kas and Mia were up next for a shift, but Julisa was still awake, checking her tail and its spikes like a girl checking her nails.

"Kas," Mia whispered. "What do you want?"

The eyeless, horned, dinosaur shark looked down at her. "What?"

"What do you want? From life, you know, or whatever this afterlife can be called."

He tilted his head. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm trying to figure out what Vin wants." And she was trying to figure out why she kept caring so much about the big, dumb asshole, but that was a different conversation.

Julisa chuckled quietly. "Vinicius wants what all children of the Old Ones wanted. To rule a spire, and then Hell."

"I get that," Mia said. "But is that what he wants deep down in his... sin?" Sighing, she looked up at Julisa. "And you. You really just want power and regular access to violence?"

"Yes." No hesitation.

Mia scrunched up her nose. "I don't believe you."

"Believe what you will. Demons are not human. We are... what is the term... self-actualized?"

For all her effort, Mia could not help but drop her jaw.

"How do you know that term?"

"I ate a therapist once."

Mia stared. Julisa smiled.

"That doesn't mean," Mia whispered, "that you suddenly stop having internal struggles. So I'm just trying to figure out how you demons work."

Julisa shook her head. "It sounds to me like you are a naive little girl who thinks she can live in a fantasy if she digs her fingers into others' minds."

"What? That's not true."

"You want to understand the people around you, so you can pick and choose."

Mia drew her head back. "Pick and choose what?"

Julisa grinned down at her. "Everything. You want to be in control. You want to arrange the people around you into roles. Even now, you flirt with Vinicius in some desire to control him."

Between clenched teeth, Mia muttered. "That's not true."

"Oh yes it is. You wish to control him, as if that necklace is not enough of a leash. You seek to control Kasimiro, your willful guardian. And when we meet Adron again, I suspect you will attempt to control him, as well. Any fool knows truth when it slaps them in the face."

"That's not--"

"Will you tell him of Hannah?"

"What?"

Julisa leaned in close. "Will you tell him that his precious betrayer, a woman he clearly showed more feeling toward than you, is haunting you?"

"I... don't know. We don't even know if Hannah is--"

"And Azreal and Noah, two men you've set your eyes on. Two more men you want to sink your fingers into so you can manipulate their minds."

Mia leaned in toward Julisa until their noses almost touched. Considering how big Julisa was, her head was almost twice as tall and wide as Mia's.

"That's not what I'm doing."

"Liar." Julisa came in closer again and pressed her forehead to Mia's. "Typical girl, manipulating everyone around you."

"You're a girl!"

"I am a demon, and far less manipulative than you. At least I don't lie to myself about my goals."

Sighing, Mia slumped back and into Kas's side. She wasn't trying to control the boys. Was she? She just wanted to help people, and help them get along, and maybe find a little romance on the way.

Or Julisa was right, and Mia was some kind of control freak, trying to fit people into neat boxes so she could enjoy the desired outcome. Like people who watched old TV shows multiple times because they found watching new shows too anxiety-inducing.

"What I desire," Kas said at last. Shit, she'd forgotten she'd asked. "Is change."

"Change?"

"Most demons are like Julisa, too eager to die pursuing power, too eager to kill. I want change."

Mia blinked at him. Julisa blinked at him. In the past, Kas had made it clear that he detested other demons.

"Demons," Julisa said, "cannot change. And Hell cannot change. It has been this way since the beginning."

Kas shook his head. "Not everyone is like you, fujara."

"Yes they are."

Again the sarkarin shook his head, but he didn't press the issue. He slipped his tail around Mia, though, and pulled her closer. She blinked up at him as the big guy lay on his side, scooped his arm around her, and pulled her into a hug.

She froze. Kas. Hugging her. What the fuck.

Julisa groaned, left, and joined Vin instead, leaving Mia in the very awkward situation of being trapped against Kas's chest and arm. Warm.

Her bodyguard leaned in close, and his smooth black dragon snout rested near her ear.

"When Vin and I fought Xela," he said, "in the demon's home, rescuing the other unmarked James, Vinicius was reckless."

Mia turned her head, and froze again when her cheek pressed against Kas's snout. He didn't move it away.

"Vin's always reckless." This close, even a whisper was louder than necessary.

"Yes. But this was more. I think he was hoping to die in battle."

Mia clenched her eyes shut. Fuck. When Vin emerged from Xela's base, he'd been eager to stay behind and fight. For all his strength, he'd been locked up for a couple centuries before, weakened. Mia had just figured he was trying to prove his strength was back, or at least returning. He'd wanted to die?

"Is... Is it because of the leash?"

"No. The old monster thinks of the leash as an interesting barrier to eventually overcome. And a tool to bring him to new battles."

It was definitely that. Without the leash, Mia would have left Vin behind. She might have even killed him with her powers in self-defense.

"What happened? What changed his mind at the end?"

"I told him..." Kas leaned in close, so close his head came up under her arm. "I told him if he wants to see you again, he'll have to live."

She jerked her head up and stared at Vinicius on the other side of the room.

"W-What?" It took effort to whisper.

Kas rumbled softly and nodded, lightly lifting her arm with the motion. "He craves you."

Resisting the urge to gasp, she leaned back in and pressed her forehead to Kas's temple.

"Craves?" The word was so naughty!

"The old monster is not sure what to think of you, Mia."

Mia gulped. Hearing Kas call her by name was a rare treat.

"Not sure?"

"You are the first soul worthy of Heaven he has ever spoken to. He is confused by you. He is intrigued by you."

She gulped again, the boulder in her throat getting increasingly large. That was a straight-up enticing description, from a demon who normally didn't bother with sentences longer than three words, just like Vin. And here she was, cozy against his warm body, half trapped by his delightful one-arm hug.

"And... And you, Kas? What do you think of me? I'm the first soul worthy of Heaven you've ever spoken with, either."

"I am your guard. Zelandariel's last order to me."

She tilted her head like he did. "And all the sex?"

He shrugged. "You are attractive. I hope to be inside you soon."

She squirmed. "On the surface, you can't tell a girl that another guy might be into her, and then say you want to fuck her, too. Asshole."

He shrugged. "We are demons. If you asked Romakus and Yosepha, I'm sure they would fuck you, too."

She groaned. Kas was right. Sex was just not the same for demons and angels. In fact, the cuddling Romakus and Yosepha engaged in probably meant a lot more than sex ever did to them.

The cuddling Kas was doing with her right now probably meant more to him than all the sex he'd had with her combined.

She blinked down at the shark dinosaur, and risked running her hand along his closer horn, a sharp thing that jutted forward out from the side of his head. Kas didn't pull away. Smiling, she teased her fingers along the horn, down onto his flat black head, and down its length to the tip of his dragon snout. He didn't stop her.

"You've changed," she said.

He rumbled softly. "You do not understand."

"Understand what?"

"I have spent my life surrounded by demons like Julisa, and betrayers and other souls who are worse. You..." He nudged his snout into her side. "I am content here. This is change. You are change."

She stared down at the demon's huge head, and after a few seconds of failing to find words, she wrapped an arm around his colossal neck, and hugged him.

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

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

~~Day 91~~

~~David~~

They were getting closer. The stairway shaft opened overhead, not into the ember sky, but up to another cave, hopefully one with an exit.

And a good fucking thing, because they'd been climbing for over ten hours. Ten fucking hours on a tight stairway that left not a single moment to breathe, each second with hands on the rocks, desperate for handholds so David didn't plummet to his doom.

A couple demons did fall. Not the imps or grems; they fell, but they just glided back to the stairs. Not the volas and their few betrayers, either; light on their feet. Two brutes plummeted, and each time, Tsila and Moriah were on the job. Both angels took full advantage of their wings and hung out at the bottom of the two armies, perched on rock outcroppings and waiting for mistakes. They saved both brutes.

"You are strange," Septima said, still following along behind David.

"I get that a lot. What about me do you think is strange?"

The armored tiger gestured down at the winding path on the rock wall. "You told your angels to save my demons."

"Well, yeah. Don't need anyone to die unnecessarily."

"Your goal is to defeat Tarkissa. If I decide not to aid you, helping me does not help you."

Laoko, ahead of Caera and David, laughed. "Agreed."

How could David convince these ladies there were other ways to achieve goals than just running everyone over and killing them?

"You've been honorable so far," David said. "While that lasts, I'd really prefer not to kill you."

Septima snorted at him, but said nothing more. They spent the last few minutes climbing in silence.

They reached the top. The cavern above was big enough for both armies, and it led into a short tunnel with an exit at the end. With safe ground underneath everyone's feet and no danger of angels dropping in from the sky and bombing them, everyone sat down in the cavern.

"Let us rest here," Laoko said. "Who knows what tomorrow will bring, and it seems safe here."

"Agreed," David said. He sat against the cave wall, amber veins lining the rock like a classic Death's Grip tunnel. It almost felt cozy compared to the shit they'd been dealing with. No remnants either.

The demons practically collapsed. Even Septima fell on her side, legs out like a dog. For all her bravado, she couldn't handle long distance better than anyone else. Brutes slumped against the walls and fell on their asses. Volas gathered in circles. Imps and grems lay out on their stomachs and backs, wings spread, not a care in the world for the demons around them looking at them like a snack.

But so far, zero casualties except for the one demon David had killed. So far, so good.

David and his girls sat in a circle, closer to the exit.

"We survived," Jes said. "A fucking Old One, in the Scar. Three, supposedly. And Azazel said the others are alive."

"I know," Caera said. "I can't believe I never found them, all these years, digging for artifacts and history."

Daoka gestured down at the ground, clicking.

Caera nodded. "Yeah, I guess. If they're all buried that deep, I guess I wouldn't find them."

"The Old Ones," Laoko said, "are not what interest me. They are fossils from an ancient time, and they should remain thus. We have survived all this time without them, and we will continue to do so. It is the other things Azazel spoke of that interest me. The Great Tower floats in oblivion?"

"Apparently," David said.

"And the tower seeks to ascend? And the great cycle, the birthing and cleansing of souls, leads to that goal? What does ascension imply?"

David shrugged. "No idea."

"And there are entities, creatures, out in that oblivion, who have hunted down this Great Tower, and seek to destroy it. How does that make sense?"

David shrugged again. "No clue."

Acelina held up a wing, egg in her arms. "The nature of the Great Tower is a less pressing issue than the human with aera armor and fire wings who has nearly killed you on several occasions, David. Cain."

Sighing, David rubbed his face and ran his fingers through his shaggy red hair. "Yeah, good point. But I don't have any clue about that, either. Why the fuck would Cain be after me? And why would Lilith be helping me? Are they even the actual Cain and Lilith? Did those people ever exist?"

Moriah and Tsila, considerably less tired than everyone else, stayed standing and scanned over the crowd of resting demons.

"We have read of them," Moriah said. "But we do not know if they used those names while on the surface. Perhaps they took them once they were in Hell. Perhaps they took them upon devouring the heart of an angel." Old Moriah would have snarled saying those words. But Laoko's argument had put a dent in her pride, and she sat down and dismissed her armor, eyes aimed down.

David watched her for a bit, waiting for something else from the sullen angel. Nothing.

"Tsila," he said. "Azazel said demon hearts make people feel aggressive. Even angels?"

"Yes." The angel sat down in the circle and dismissed her armor, too. "That is the taint an angel must bear if they visit Hell and need sustenance. Normally, forbidden fruit is terribly rare, and we cannot absorb the resonance of a human. We must use demon hearts if we stay long, normally."

"Can't absorb a human's resonance? An angel ever try?"

"No. I cannot even stomach the idea. I imagine any angel who has tasted the flesh of a human heart vomited it up immediately. To gain resonance in Heaven, we drink of the holy fountains, and the resonance within is given freely by souls who wish to move on from Heaven. If a soul in Heaven is struck down, they do not die, and their flesh mends. To somehow remove their hearts from their bodies? I do not think it possible."

"Getting hurt in Heaven painful?" David asked.

"Oh yes. Without pain, or the risk of pain, where is the joy in, say, rock climbing?"

David laughed. There was some truth to that.

"It's strange," he said. "When I eat a demon heart, I feel energized and alive, but I don't feel any more violent than usual. And apparently I'm the only one absorbing memories. Like... Like the Great Tower probably does."

The girls stared at him, and he lowered his head. It wasn't like he was feeling bad, or self-conscious, or even surprised by the revelation anymore that he was part of the Great Tower in a way the others weren't. But still, there was something unsettling about that knowledge. He wasn't human, or at least, not entirely human. He was part... thing. A god thing?

Jes slipped her wing around his shoulders. "Even Azazel has no idea why you exist. Not sure if that's good or bad."

"It means," Caera said, "that we aren't ever going to get an answer unless we talk with an archangel. And there's only one left."

"Yeah," David said. "And both Cain and Lilith talked to Lucifer, probably, if they went to the Forgotten Place and came back changed for Cain's War. Something's happened since then to pit them against each other. Why would Cain want to stop me? If I need to get to Lucifer and get its -- his -- whatever's help to save the Great Tower from annihilation from some void entity, why would Cain get in my way?"

Moriah slowly raised a wing. "Why would the angels?"

Everyone sighed. For all the answers Azazel had, they still had no idea what was going on with David, or why the angels were trying to stop him, or the rider or the woman, Cain and Lilith, were invested in killing or helping him.

"Azazel," David whispered. "What should I do? I know we shouldn't let it out, but..."

It was Tsila's turn to raise a wing. "Azazel still seems committed to its original purpose, unlike its kin, supposedly. And that original purpose led to a full war between Heaven and Hell, the First War. The fact that it was honest about its intentions does not change that those intentions are vile. It wants to free Lucifer, and take over Hell, Heaven, and the material world."

Jes nodded and raised her wing, too. "It wants to save the Great Tower so it can rule over it at Lucifer's side. We sure we want to deal with that?"

"It did save us," David said. "Those angels had us in a pretty nasty situation."

Caera shook her head. "It was saving you so it could use you."

"Yeah, I know. It just... I don't like the idea of not helping someone who helped me."

Laoko snorted, but didn't bother with the obvious insult she had in her head. "We must sleep."

"Yeah, okay." David got up, and crafted for them a cave, the same he'd crafted every night.

Tomorrow, they'd go outside, topside of the Scar, and resume their march toward Tarkissa and the spire. And with any luck, Domnius and the army would be nearby.

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

~~Day 92~~

The cave came out on the Scar's topside alright, a few hundred meters up from the top terrace edge. The Scar's main body was two mountainscapes, running parallel to the terrace steps below, and the two long mountains were insanely steep. No demon climbed them. They were basically cliffs, and David and the crew stared down the cliff edge to the Scar below.

"Holy shit," he said, and blocked out the heat from the burning sky above with a hand. "Damn high."

"Too high," Septima said, stepping out of the cave and standing beside him at the cliff edge. "How do you propose we get down, unmarked?"

"Azazel said I might have to use music."

"You can sculpt the mountain?"

He shrugged. "Enough for a path down? Sure. I--what's that?" He pointed down at a colossal red blur covering the terrace steps of the canyon below on both sides. "Those... Those are demons."

Moriah and Tsila both stepped off the edge, hovered, and scanned the sky.

"No angels," Moriah said. "Their battle is over."

Tsila pointed down. "Demons congregate. Many demons. Many... Many demons."

David winced. "Shit. We going down there, just to get killed by a bunch of demons? Or is that our army? That's a lot more demons than we had."

Moriah and Tsila both summoned their armor and weapons again, and without a word, flew down to the shuffling, buzzing crowd below.

"Septima," David asked. "You seem like the sort of asshole who's used to ordering a lot of demons around. How many demons are down there, waiting for us?"

She groaned. "I see many volas, and even more imps and grems."

"Yeah, but, how many?"

Her groan turned into a snarl. "Many tens of thousands."

"Holy. Fucking. Shit." No wonder it looked like a giant red blur. They were demons, crammed together, sharing space on the terrace edges and walking toward the spire. So many demons, they blanketed the terrace steps from view.

It didn't take long for Moriah and Tsila to come back up, and Tsila carried a one-eyed gremlin by his shoulders. Domnius, wearing the biggest grin on his face.

"Domnius spread word!" he said. "Many imps and grems, and many volas heard of unmarked! Heard of David! Billions came."

"I uh... still not sure it's billions, but--"

"Want to stop other unmarked. Want to stop Tarkissa. Want to stop Azailia."

"Azailia's here?" David asked. Last thing they needed right now was the Grave Valley's spire ruler on their ass.

"No. Sent scouts. Followed us. Others captured! Ate them. Sent word. Azailia hunts you."

Fuck. Eating the scouts wasn't good, but at least they had information.

"Shit," Jes said. "The fuck do we do now?"

"You don't fight a war on two fronts," David said. "We deal with Tarkissa first. We strike hard, strike fast, and take him out."

Laoko stepped forward and put herself between him and Septima, eyes aimed down at the tiger, but speaking to him. "We should--"

"Septima," David said. "You heard Azazel. You know what I'm about. I'm trying to save this whole damn universe from the invader, and Tarkissa probably wants to feed me to Belial or Astaroth in exchange for power. So now you've got a choice. Either stand aside, or fight me."

Growling as always, Septima prowled from side to side, looking down over the cliff edge at the armies below. Behind her, her heavy hitters got ready, drawing weapons and leaning forward on the balls of their toes if they had them. The volas, imps, and grems did the same, and the two armies split down the middle, both still inside the cavern.

"We will not fight you," Septima said. "We will help you."

Everyone froze, and Laoko tilted her head.

"What?" Laoko asked.

"Tarkissa has made it clear he wants the unmarked captured so he can empower the Scar. He said as much to me. After hearing the words of Azazel, I must come to the obvious conclusion. Tarkissa is a deluded fool, or tricked by Belial and Astaroth, and his aspirations will doom us all."

Laoko stared down at the tiger. David stared at her. The hovering angels and the hanging gremlin stared at her.

She snorted. "I am no fool. In this Scar, surrounded by nothing but useless volas, I prowl the Dens and keep everyone working. Or did you not notice our exports are the reason the Grave Valley and the Red Pits are not our enemies? I am the reason the Scar continues to exist. I am wise enough to see where change must be stopped, and when it must be invited."

David looked back at Tacharius and Zabulon, and the two incubi shrugged. Of course. To those two dumbasses, Septima was the annoying manager raining on their parade. In reality, she was the boss with jokers for employees, doing her best to keep the morons working so things didn't fall apart. Or maybe the truth was somewhere in the middle.

"Thank you," David said.

Septima's eyes widened. "Yes, well... we still don't know what you will do when you take the Spire. Will you remain and rule? You have a journey to make."

"I'll figure that part out when I have room to breathe. Let's deal with Tarkissa for now."

Holy shit, progress.

He grinned up at Laoko, got a quiet but hard glare in return, and he summoned his armor. Staff in his hand, he waved the ruby tip and the amber fire within down at the cliff edge, and forged stairs. Not the whole staircase; that'd be too loud and might attract alien attention, or Belial or Astaroth's. But a few steps at a time, he forged the stairs, walked down the cliff edge, and like Azazel's stairs, made them zigzag downward. Unlike Azazel's, he made them a good five meters wide, an easy walk down to the terrace steps of the Scar below. The Dens.

The demons below watched, and the closer David grew, the more they came into focus, details exposing what was hidden from high above. Numbers. Some heavy hitters, brutes and vrats, gargoyles and satyrs, some bat girls and minotaurs, and even one of those shark dinosaur dudes. Thousands of volas, some with weapons, a few with some armor, sparse but better than nothing.

But the imps and grems made the others look almost nonexistent. Tens of thousands of wings. Hundreds of thousands? So many little pairs of wings from little demons, and the little demons were everywhere. They moved in throngs, dense crowds, flowing over the terrace steps. They clung to edges, spikes, and stood perched on metal trees and rock outcroppings. They glided across the ravine, and perched on the railings of another bridge. They climbed the cliff edge David had just walked down, found rocks to sit on, and decorated the mountainside like dark red jewelry.

"Fucking christ," David said. They stopped five meters above the gathering crowd on the top terrace step, and the constant chatter and sound of hooves and claws on stone turned into a humming white noise. "Domnius, how'd you find so many?"

The gremlin walked beside him, beaming. "Domnius said David was nice. Told others David wanted to help. Said David could do what other unmarked from Navameere Fields does. Other imps and grems saw! They saw Las, and how David's group treat Las."

David blinked and looked back at the girls. The four little ladies, standing around Acelina and Laoko's legs, nodded and waved their wings.

"Las strong," Lasca said. "Been with David for years!"

"A couple months," Jes said, rolling her eyes. "But, yes, these four have been quite the surprise."

"Surprise!" Latia yelled, and she flared her wings. "Las super strong. Las save David. Las save Great Tower!"

Whether the Las even understood who Azazel was, what Azazel was, and what it meant with all its revelations about the Great Tower, David had no idea.

"Okay," David said. "We're a couple days away from the spire, right?"

"Yes," Septima said. "I will accompany you. I must speak with Tarkissa. I must hear from his own mouth his excuses."

Nodding, David looked back at the girls, and they all shrugged, even Moriah and Tsila. Only Laoko didn't look convinced, but, like always, she kept her expressions subtle and reserved.

With a deep breath, David raised his staff, and the staring crowd went quiet. Double holy shit. Thousands upon thousands of eyes stared at him, bodies that covered the canyon in all directions in living, moving flesh. Fear of public speaking? No. Fear of saying the wrong thing and either turning the crowd against him, or accidentally dispersing them? Most definitely.

The fuck to say, then? What could he say to a bunch of demons who'd randomly come together on hype and whim? The fuck could he say to demons who'd come to see what the unmarked was about, and who'd crushed the spire aura earlier?

"I am David," he said. Not loud enough. "I am David! Unmarked! I am on a journey across Hell to save it from the invader! And Tarkissa seeks to stop me for his own selfish gain! I go now to the spire, to kill him, to free the Scar from his insanity, and to achieve my destiny!" He almost vomited on the word. "Under my rule, the Scar will be different! No more will you bow to Tarkissa and his absurd demands." No more will you fucking assholes treat damned souls like fodder. "I will make things better! I go! Who is with me!?"

A deafening cheer, mixed with roars and battle cries, slammed into his ears. The Scar vibrated with the sound, and some pebbles rolled down the mountainside.

"Angels haunt our footsteps, but angels fight to protect us as well! They will not stop me! They will not stop us!" He paused, and raised his staff. "To war!"

The crowd rumbled with the cheers of the bloodthirsty. If David had had white paint, he might have put a white handprint on a few faces.

David waved his staff, finished the stairway, stepped onto the terrace edge, and started the march. The demons ahead of him on the highest terrace step moved out of the way, and let him, his girls, Septima, her honor guard lead the way.

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

An entire day of walking, hard walking at that. Each kilometer they walked, more demons awaited, coming out of their tunnels from either the Floor or the Dens. David found demons tending eggs, though they were in disarray from the chaos the spire aura had caused earlier. They found demons climbing out of the Floor's pits, all to see what the madness was about. A few conversations later, and a hundred more volas joined them. And it happened again, and again, and again.

Imps and grems didn't even need a conversation to join. They saw Domnius and the Las walking with an unmarked, a known tetrad, a spire mother, two angels, and that was enough to convince them. And thousands of the little demons climbed out of small tunnels, holes too small for even volas. A goblin horde, little critters four feet tall with the proportions of goblins, plus wings. And the moment any of them spotted David and the army, they hopped on board.

The army had reached critical mass. It no longer mattered what David's army was about, or what his goal was, demons joined, eager to be a part of change, and to be a part of the battle. A blessing and a curse how it took no effort at all to convince a demon to fight.

David raised his hand, no longer wearing his armor. Everyone stopped in a slow wave, almost like doing the wave at a football game; not that he'd ever been to one.

"We made good time," Septima said. "We'll reach the spire early tomorrow." Even as she said it, she wobbled a bit and her tail dragged. Exhausted.

It wasn't any better for the rest of the army. Everyone was tired. But the march had made sure they'd have time to reach the spire tomorrow while still fresh. The art of warfare, the true art, was logistics. Feed the soldiers and horses, ensure supply lines, only travel so quickly, take into account the weather, etc. And Hell had its own, weird logistics.

David turned back to the army, and crafted himself a tall rock to stand on, pulling it up from under him.

"Sleep," he called out. "Tomorrow, we fight."

Nodding, David dismissed the rock, sat against the Scar wall, slumped, and gestured to his army. Like the wave again, they sat, and unlike him, they were completely drained. Say one thing for how weak humans were compared to other animals, they were one of the few that could walk and walk and walk.

Laoko sat next to him, but kept her eyes on Septima, lying only a couple of meters away.

"You let your guard down around her, far too often," she said softly, not really a whisper. She didn't mind if Septima heard. Knowing Laoko, she wanted Septima to hear, speaking softly to show she wasn't intimidated or worried. Always with the mind games David couldn't navigate to save his life.

What would Mia say about Laoko? Probably call her a manipulative bitch. And she was definitely that, but David was convinced there was more to her than that. She'd been nice, and oddly tender when he first met her. But given his track record in the past, he wasn't the best judge of character.

Moriah, who'd spent most of the day hovering around and examining the army, landed in front of him.

"I will watch her," she said.

David gestured to her wing. "You've been flying a lot. Tired?"

"Yes, but to fly is God's gift. To be grounded is... frustrating." She smiled. Barely, but considering how much Laoko had hurt her, it was a massive improvement.

"Lucky you," Jes said, sitting on David's other side, back to the Scar mountainside. "You know what I can do with my wings? Glide, that's it. And get them torn up on anything with a sharp edge."

Daoka sat with her girlfriend, chirping and clicking, and gestured at the Las.

"Las happy with wings," Laria said, sitting in the center of the path. Her sisters joined her.

Jes poked the girl with her tail. "Yours are small. Bloodgrip vines are my bane."

Acelina joined them, hooves clopping quietly as she sat. "Indeed. In the spire, my wings were treated with respect by all, and distance given. In the tunnels of Death's Grip, they are a hindrance, nothing more."

"Nah," David said. "Yours look regal."

"Regal?"

He nodded. "Yeah. You look like a beautiful queen with those wings, especially when you have them hooked on your shoulders like a cloak. Like, a royal robe or something. A beautiful queen with a great crown." He gestured to her four huge horns.

Acelina stared at him. Without any facial features, a black canvas, smooth, mask-like face, he hadn't the slightest idea what she was thinking. She shuffled her wings a bit and hooked them over her shoulders.

"Like this?"

"Yeah." He gestured to her. "Looks amazing."

Jes pfft'd, got up, and did the same. "Do I look like a queen?"

"No," he said. "More like... a gargoyle."

"Oh fuck you."

"A sexy gargoyle! A sexy, badass gargoyle."

"Better." Satisfied, she sat next to him again and spread her closer wing across his chest. "Wing check."

All the Las stood up. "Wing check!"

Before David knew it, he had four more sets of wings in front of him. He got to work, running his fingers down their wing membranes, earning some giggles from the little ladies, and some sighs of contentment from Jeskura. All the while, Septima watched him, half glaring, but gaze also wandering over the girls.

"You are all from Death's Grip," Septima said. "Are the demons there so soft?"

Acelina sat across from David, the Las between them, and she tended to their wings, splitting the duty.

"Death's Grip," the spire mother said, "is full of the strongest demons in Hell, thousands of small groups, each forever fighting each other. This"--she gestured to the girls--"is a result of this fool boy, his soft touch, and enormous penis."

Septima half chocked. "Enormous penis?"

Daoka nodded, clicking as she made some obvious hand gestures. Whatever she said, it got some incredulous looks from the bailiff.

"Maybe," Jes said, "when we take the spire, we can show you."

Septima snorted. "Is this what you are about, unmarked? Sex and nothing but? Perhaps this is why you are in Hell, indulging in sex like some sort of mindless surface animal."

He winced. "I don't think sex addicts go to Hell. Pretty sure you gotta be a nasty piece of work to get sent here, like that Greg unmarked I killed."

"Greg," Acelina said, "was unmarked. Are you sure he deserved Hell's punishments?"

"Honestly? Yeah. He was fucking awful. I have no idea how he avoided getting a mark. Maybe all unmarked -- I mean unmarked like me -- just bypass the whole judgment system."

"Maybe," Moriah said, frowning.

"Maybe," Tsila said, nodding, and then frowning.

They sat quietly for a bit, the demons resting their feet and hooves, and those with wings making sure they got theirs checked. At this point, David knew every tiny bump and groove in Jes's and the Las' wings, and he found and discarded a tiny pebble here or there. And when he was done with them, Latia and Laria had him check their little hooves. So did Daoka. Laoko and Acelina did not, probably not ready to completely relax with a giant army behind them.

"Caera," David said to the tiger lying beside him. "When's the last time anyone put together an army this size?"

"For civil war? No idea. But Zel summoned an army like this in a battle against Alessio in the Black Valley, the war I was part of."

"It is a large force," Tsila said. "My captain would have taken note and spoken with the council, if he had seen this from on high. There is no doubt your earlier army led to angels reporting the occurrence as well. And when they see this force, they will come. To stop or to inquire, I do not know."

Septima slammed her tail. "Fly up and ask!"

Moriah shook her head. "We could, but it's a risk. If we fly up and ask the wrong battalion, they could simply capture us and use the cross of truth. We would never be able to return, and we would answer all they asked."

The two angels shared a glance before looking down. There was something there, some history with Moriah maybe, and David was happy not asking about it.

"For now," David said, "let's just focus on what's ahead of us. We got no idea how many angels are siding with the council, or if there's even a civil war happening in Heaven. Best we can do for now is avoid them."

"Easier said than done," Laoko said, "with an army behind us."

David nodded. "Once we've taken down Tarkissa, we go back to how we did things before. Sneakily."

"You will leave?" Septima asked. "You truly plan to kill our spire ruler, and then simply leave?"

David held the tiger's gaze. "You got a better idea? I can't stop here."

"And who will rule in your stead?"

He didn't answer. He still didn't know.

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

~~Day 93~~

It was time for change.

The spire pulsed its aura, but Azazel, deep below the Scar, kept it from affecting anything. It was a buzz, a quiet hum, meaningless. The only demons between David and the spire were demons committed to serving Tarkissa, or demons who didn't know who David was or what he was about.

There were a lot of them.

The spire looked like the other spires, a titanic structure that reached high into the sky, spiky black metal with a thick base, thinning out as it reached up. On the outside, you couldn't see much of the red flesh, but you could see the white bone jutting out from various places as spikes. Black balconies circled it every few floors, all the way to the top where it all coalesced into a spike that stabbed the sky.

It grew from the mountain on the top terrace step of the Scar, as if someone had taken a titanic chunk out of the mountainside, expanded the terrace step half a kilometer in, and given a place for the spire to grow. A giant, open pit for an entrance. Crowds of demons flowed in front of it, filling the open area in front of the spire. Big hitters, all wearing more meera metal than David's demons, and all wielding weapons, unlike David's, who only maybe half sported weapons, and the imps and grems mostly wielded none.

For the bird's-eye view, David dangled in the air from Moriah's arms. Both wore their armor, and both scanned the spire and crowd ahead.

"I see perhaps ten thousand," she said.

"Damn. I didn't expect so many big ones."

Moriah flew him back down to the crowd, where he, Septima, and his girls spearheaded the group. While his team and much of his army were on the top terrace step, his army had grown too massive, and spilled over the terrace steps. All of them. Throngs of red and black flowed over them, like some sort of god-sized red and black curtain dragged along god-sized steps.

"I expected more," Septima said.

"For Tarkissa's forces?" David asked.

"Yes. Tatiana did not come."

Tatiana, a succubus, and bailiff of the other side of the Scar. She handled the Floor, like Priscillian. Septima was unique for a bailiff, travelling the whole Scar and managing the Dens on the upper floor.

David peered past Septima to the demons ahead. "Think she'll show up?"

"No. She is like those worms, Tacharius and Zabulon, you keep nearby. She senses an opportunity and will take it when she sees it. For now, she has been loyal to Tarkissa, but that can change."

"And you?" David asked, and he gently tapped the base of his staff against the ground. Wearing his armor, full plate that covered him neck to toe with black spikes and rubies, he felt much more comfortable being direct with Septima. The black crown and its rubies made it even easier. He knew what he looked like. A fucking badass knight wizard.

"Azazel has made it clear, unmarked. Tarkissa's goal is greedy, shortsighted, and I know the tetrad well enough to say he will not give up that goal. If I had known he was so blind to the truth, I would never have come for you at all."

It'd be oh so easy to look back at Laoko and grin. He didn't. Look at that, personal growth.

"What now, soul?" Laoko asked. "We march up to the front and ask Tarkissa to give up his position?"

David shook his head and faced his girls. "Laria, Lasca, Latia, Laara. You stay near Daoka and Acelina. You six stay with me. Caera, Laoko, Jeskura, I know you three have a hundred battles under your belt, but don't go too far ahead, okay?" He didn't wait for confirmation. This wasn't a negotiation. "Moriah, Tsila, stay in the air and keep an eye on things. Swoop in if you see easy kills, but don't commit to anything you don't have to. I'm going to be playing music, and if I get too... absorbed in it, I'll lose focus. The presence will pull me into the ocean, and I'll start playing music much, much louder. If that happens, I might summon the aliens."

Septima snorted. "How much can you contribute then, unmarked?"

"I'll kill more demons than you, tregeera, even with a quiet song."

Another snort. "And your orders for me?"

"You'll take my orders?"

She gestured to the waiting, eager demons behind him. "I have no choice."

He sucked in a slow breath. Giving orders to his girls was different; they knew him. Giving an order to a stranger?

"How strong are Tarkissa's best?" he asked.

"Almost as strong as I."

"Will they come outside the tower to fight?"

"No. He will hide in his tower, and his elite will defend within. From without, we must deal with his standard soldiers."

He nodded. "Then spearhead the charge with your army, but don't go inside the spire. I'm trusting you and your elite not to die, Septima. We take the outside, then regroup and assess."

Septima nodded.

He did not expect that response. No argument or anything? Maybe he was a better strategist than he thought. Or demons were far more interested in a straight-up bloody brawl than any kind of strategy.

Okay, time for the speech.

He faced the crowd. Of course he was way too short, so he summoned a platform of rock until he was an extra ten feet up.

This wasn't like the speech yesterday. This was the speech to give so the demons would run into battle, and die, so David could kill Tarkissa, take over the spire, and make his journey easier. With a home base, he could stop Azailia from attacking his ass, and push forward knowing he had somewhere to fall back to. The demons were going to die so he could save the Great Tower. A valiant, worthwhile sacrifice. Bleh.

If he'd been giving this speech to humans, a general announcing the plan to his troops, he'd have wussed out. This was awful. Asking people to die for him? It sounded so easy on paper. But actually doing it made him want to puke.

Except, demons weren't people. They were demons. They wanted to fight. Even the volas, happy to let others do the fighting for them, looked eager. Auras bubbled in the air, demons unable to contain themselves from gently coaxing aggression and violence auras and stirring their comrades.

Auras.

David closed his eyes and felt for the strings. Demons could only do two auras, pure violence or pure sex. He didn't want the typical violence aura the demons used, mindless slaughter, full-on aggression with no care for self-defense or even their own lives. He wanted something different, something he could distill down into a single train of thought, something obvious and easy to understand.

Control. Discipline.

David slammed the base of his staff onto his raised rock platform, and unleashed his aura. The spire's aura was still crushed, but his was not. He found the strings and plucked them hard, so the silent sound flowed over his army. He had to be careful, guide the aura, control its direction, but that was as easy as controlling the flow of water in a lake.

But he managed. And thousands upon thousands of eyes settled from a rising high of demon adrenaline and bloodlust, into hard steel.

"We fight!" he yelled, and raised his staff. "They die!"

The army roared and poured past him. Instead of the mindless mob they'd been moments before, they were soldiers. Roaring, screaming, raging warriors.

David turned, still on his rock platform, pointed his staff, and the army rushed around his rock without pause. An island of ground in a flood.

"Here," he yelled down at his girls.

They got in front of the raised stone so the army wouldn't crush them. Moriah and Tsila took to the air. Septima and her heavy hitters charged in, and the army followed.

Too many. There were too many demons. David raised his rock platform higher and took Acelina, Daoka, and the Las up with him, up above the chaos. More demons than David realized had been following him poured up the terrace steps. They flooded the area in front of the spire, a wide, open area full of tall spikes and jagged rocks. And awaiting demons.

Battles from human history weren't fought like this, two armies slamming together. That was almost never a thing. Armies approached each other, often slowly, poked and prodded, tested each other, searched for weaknesses, and bashed shields. When a weakness was found, the army collapsed, and was run down by cavalry.

These two armies slammed into each other. In the giant arena in front of the spire, ten thousand brutes, vrats, gargoyles, satyrs, tigers, and even a few minotaurs and bat girls, threw themselves at even more volas, plus Septima's heavy hitters spearing the charge. But all their noises disappeared under the banshee shrieks of imps and grems, and David stopped and looked back down at the terrace steps behind him.

The little creatures poured out of the tunnels. They poured up the steps. They poured out of tiny holes in the ground. They climbed down from the mountain. They jumped across the ravine, glided across it, and joined David on his side. They washed over the Scar like ants.

The Las added their high-pitched battle cries to the sound, but stayed on David's island. Acelina and Daoka drew their axes. David's egg was somewhere safe, according to the spire mother, freeing her to use her arms.

David walked forward, summoning more rock underneath him with each step. His six bodyguards walked behind and with him on the growing island. In front of him on the ground were Caera, Laoko and Jeskura, obviously eager to get into the fight, but they stayed near.

It was a slow walk, but not because he was summoning rock underneath him with each step, keeping him ten feet above the crowd. He was scared. With each step, the battle grew louder, metal hitting metal, metal hitting flesh, roars of pain and ecstasy filling the arena and echoing against the mountain walls surrounding the spire's entrance. Arcs of blood shot up into the air. Limbs followed, spiraling before landing back in the crowd.

David's army listened to his aura, mostly. He kept the aura contained, focused it as best he could so it affected only his demons. It was hit and miss, but better than nothing.

Tarkissa's demons were happy to throw themselves onto Septima's charge, and her demons stopped and blocked with raised swords. David couldn't see the details. Everything blended together, no uniforms to separate the two groups, only a general sense of direction. Tarkissa's demons were in front. Comrades were beside or behind.

David grew closer, and volas, imps, and grems swarmed around him. A rampaging herd, rushing forward toward the goal, and his island of stone was the only thing keeping him from getting trampled. Above, Moriah and Tsila unleashed attacks of their own. The gabriem hovered high up and sent glowing arrows into the demon army close to the tower. Each landed with a small gold explosion, each strong enough to tear the arm off a demon, or head if lucky. Moriah flew like a raptor, diving low and unleashing an arc of gold energy into the mess of red and black before taking to the sky again.

But the sky wasn't completely safe. From the top of the tower, a hundred wings blocked out the burning embers above, demons jumping from the highest balcony. They descended straight toward the two angels like diving falcons.

"Tsila! Moriah! Up!" David yelled.

Tsila looked up, raised her bow, and shot arrows into the descending swarm, but there were too many. Moriah flew up to meet them, shield in front, sword at the side, and drove her shield into the face of the first gargoyle. Noise, lost to the battle. She pushed the gargoyle aside, dead and limp, and she cut down the next, splitting her in half. But there were too many, and the gargoyles grabbed her and her wings, sending them all plummeting.

Tsila dove in and smashed one wrestling gargoyle in the wing with the grip of her bow, swinging it like a bat. The divine bow didn't mind at all, didn't break, and Tsila used it again on the next gargoyle, sending the two demon ladies down to the battle below with broken wings. Free, both ladies stopped only ten meters up from crashing onto the ground.

David forced himself to look away from them. The angels could take care of themselves. And a hundred more gargoyles were flying straight down toward him now.

Daoka clicked loudly and pointed up. The Las stood around David and brandished their weapons, but David gestured them back with his free hand.

"Stay behind me," he said, and raised his staff.

Wielding his aura like a weapon was difficult, and playing a proper song while doing that was like rubbing his stomach and patting his head at the same time. But he had no choice.

He wielded the music and summoned a harsh spike of stone straight up from the rock platform he walked. It skewered the frontmost descending gargoyle. He summoned more, and turned his platform into a porcupine's back, a large slab of rock covered in enormous spikes. More gargoyles dove for him, weaving between the massive spikes, but he summoned more, and skewered their bodies. When they grew close, he felt the auras, their sins pumping out pure violence with no concern for safety or tomorrow.

They threw themselves at him, and he summoned spikes for each. Another, and another, most skewering a fresh gargoyle with each and drenching the rock with their blood. It wasn't long before his platform was unassailable, a couple hundred spikes jutting from it, and a hundred corpses hung from them, bodies skewered and slowly sliding down with gravity.

He snapped his gaze back to Acelina. A gargoyle came swooping down and around, and David summoned a spike out from between Acelina's legs and into the demon. Acelina jumped.

"Careful," David said, panting.

The spire mother nodded, crouched low, axe in hand, ready.

With a heavy nod, David faced the spire and the hordes, and pushed his rock platform forward. Instead of summoning new rock and walking on it, he drove the current platform forward like a car, pushing it through the ground. It was a strange fortress, and it moved slowly but surely toward the spire.

Demons on his left and right, below the spikes of his fortress, fought the demons in front of them, and did not stop to so much as look at him. David stepped between the spikes to the edge of his rock platform, looked down at the swaths of demons ahead, and winced. For all his numbers, volas, imps, and grems couldn't defeat the bigger demons in a straight fight, not easily. Brutes got their hands on the little ones and ripped them in half. Volas lost sword fights with vrats, and heads went flying. A few tigers on Tarkissa's side ripped through volas like they were foxes in a chicken coop. Even satyrs ran down and crushed any injured imp or grem that tried to get away.

The ground was soaked red, mostly in the blood of David's army.

He aimed his staff forward. Which heavy hitters were Tarkissa's or Septima's, he had no way of knowing, except the direction they faced. The spire, snug in the carved-out chunk of the mountain, funneled everyone who came toward it between the mountain walls. All of Tarkissa's demons faced out from the spire, and all of David's faced in. Mostly. And they collided with each other in a mess of pandemonium.

Volas worked together, stabbing with their swords and taking on vrats with greater numbers. A tiger cut through them, but a dozen imps and grems jumped her and got their claws and fangs between the layers of armor. It wasn't cooperation. They were piranhas, swarming the target in a frenzy.

"Control," he whispered to his army. "Control." He forced the feeling through his bones, and out into the world.

The change was subtle, but there. Instead of literally jumping at the enemy, his army marched forward again, slashing and stabbing. And when Tarkissa's forces jumped at them, David's army stabbed up with their weapons, sliced open bellies, skewered chests and necks, and pushed the heavy corpses aside.

Control the aura with one hand. Do something else with the other.

He brought his rock platform forward, a giant spiked turtle, close enough to the front of the battle that he could see Tarkissa's demons clearly. Targets. He pointed his staff, and from under Tarkissa's army, summoned a dozen spikes in random places. No need to aim. Bodies launched high, skewered on the spikes, and stayed there.

Tarkissa's demons roared fury and charged. David's rock protected him from the sky, but it did nothing to protect from the ground. Brutes rushed forward, knocked volas aside like they weighed nothing, and got their claws into the walls of his fortress where there were no spikes to defend it.

Acelina brought her axe to bear. She stood behind David, wielded the enormous weapon with both hands, and brought it down hard on the first brute to scale the rock platform. Brutes were tough, but Acelina was just as tall as them, and the axe split the first one's head down the center to the neck. She kicked the corpse off with a hoof, turned, and killed the next.

Vrats were faster. Seven or eight feet tall, they were classic demons, tails and claws, big horns, and wielding swords and axes of their own. Some even had helmets.

Daoka and the Las joined Acelina and got to work. Daoka had her own smaller axe, and the Las had a couple swords and axes between them. Lasca still had David's heavy knife from long ago, and she used it in her left hand. But finesse was not their strong suit, and they stabbed and flailed. It worked, and vrats fell back into the chaos below, missing eyes or other pieces of their faces.

"Focus," Acelina said, voice aimed down at David. "We're fine. Focus on your task."

Whether that was because of David's aura helping out or not, he couldn't tell, but Acelina stayed with him, hacking down the larger demons, and both their legs quickly grew drenched in blood.

In front of David's moving rock, was Laoko. Caera and Jes stayed with her, covering her flanks, and the tetrad marched along with David's rock platform, cutting down demons who tried to reach him. She didn't use hellfire; maybe it took too much time to build up, or was too draining for a long fight. But armed with four swords and wearing her armor, the tetrad stood taller than anyone else in the battle, a beacon for demons to charge at her as much as the giant, spiky rock behind her. And she cut them down with ruthless efficiency.

David pointed his staff forward. If he wanted to, he could play loud enough to summon Hell herself, amplify his song, and drown the area in death. Lava, hellfire, red lightning, a firestorm, anything. He could lay waste to the area, or summon an aura so strong it could drown the area in his desire. Too risky. It might summon the alien. He had to do this on his own.

And doing this on his own was exhausting. He was responding on the fly, summoning spikes as best he could, and pushing forward his rock platform as best he could, all reactive. His body trembled in his armor, he tasted sweat on his lip, his lungs burned, and he planted his staff on the rock and held it for balance as he grew heavier.

Battle raged, but a loud, piercing shriek, echoed by what must have been fifty thousand imps and grems, brought the battle to a sudden stop.

The little demons swarmed up the mountainsides flanking the spire, climbed up, and blanketed the rock in their infinite wings. Thousands and thousands of them, following each other without a word, only battle cries. So many, demons in the middle of battle stopped and looked up at the rising waves of chittering creatures pouring up the rock, like two titanic curtains being pulled up over the mountain.

And once they covered the two mountain walls surrounding the spire in endless wings, claws, hooves, tails, and teeth, they jumped, glided down onto Tarkissa's demons, and blanketed them instead.

The battle changed dynamic instantly. They crushed Tarkissa's army, drowned them in bodies, and there was nothing they could do about it. Heavy hitters of all shapes and sizes, all bigger and stronger than an imp or grem, but they disappeared under the weight of Domnius's army. Brutes roared as six of the little demons latched onto their faces and clawed and tore at their necks, or stabbed with black daggers. The others fared no better, disappearing under wings and banshee shrieks, dying faster than the brutes. Most fell under the weight of half a dozen or more of the little demons landing on their backs, heads, and shoulders, as imps and grems glided down at them like diving raptors.

Laoko held up a hand. David held up a hand. His slowly rolling platform came to a stop, not far from the front of the tower, and he stared at the two armies. The volas stopped and watched, eyes wide, jaws dropped, as the imps and grems flooded Tarkissa's army and ripped it to shreds. With gnashing teeth, they bit and chewed the struggling demons until limbs were ripped free of sockets, and heads ripped free of necks. Leather straps were cut, meera armor fell useless to the ground, and the demon underneath was clawed open until insides were spilled.

"Holy shit," David said. He looked back at the Las, and the four ladies moved to stand in front of him and cheer, waving their weapons and flaring their wings.

"Imps and grems strong!" Lasca said, smiling back at him. "Many imps. Many grems."

"Yeah," he said. "I'm... seeing that."

There was nothing left to do but watch. Moriah and Tsila flew down to the blanket of swarming, swirling little demons, hovered over them, and stared. Only Tsila's face was visible through her helmet, but her jaw had dropped like everyone else's.

David dismissed the spikes sticking out of his rock platform, carefully, sinking them down into the ground into harmless mounds. The gargoyles skewered on them fell off with a thunk, and the volas wasted no time getting themselves quick, easy meals. Geneva conventions be damned, the volas killed any demons the imps and grems left alive, got themselves a free heart, and moved on.

They couldn't push forward though, not with what was apparently ten times as many imps and grems blocking their path. The little demons indulged, clicking, chirping, screaming with glee, and worked together to tear off limbs from demons they apparently knew, and did not like. They had a grudge against Tarkissa's demons.

"Piranhas," David said to no one. "Piranhas meets fairies."

"What?" Acelina asked.

"Nothing. Just... nothing." He raised his staff and lowered the rock platform. He kept it high enough so he could still see over everyone's heads, but low enough his demons could hop up or down if they wanted. "Caera, you okay?"

The tiger stepped back from the flowing waves of little wings, stood by his feet, and nodded toward the imps and grems.

"Have you ever seen such a thing, Laoko?" Caera asked.

"No." Four swords in her hands, dripping with blood, the crimson-soaked demon shook her head. "This is madness."

Domnius climbed up the rock platform and stood in front of David. Blood leaked down his legs and drenched the rock underneath his little hooves. A nasty cut ran down his side, his breastplate stopping it from getting into his ribs, but David was sure most of the blood wasn't his.

"Mission successful, sir!"

"Mission... Domnius, this is... crazy."

The little man shrugged and rubbed the scar over his missing eye. "Spread word. Imps and grems like David. Imps and grems don't like Tarkissa. Don't like his army. Many bad demons. Revenge!"

David gulped and again, looked past the gremlin to the man's swarming masses, pouring over Tarkissa's now completely dead army.

"We go inside now?" Domnius asked.

"I... I uh... Let me figure that out."

Domnius nodded, sat on the edge of the rock platform, and waited for orders, while tens of thousands of his little friends drifted around over their kills, feasting on the hearts of demons that'd probably bullied them or killed their friends. What was there to say?

Septima returned, limping, three of her brutes still with her. Most of her army had survived. She growled at nearby imps and grems and explained who she and her forces were; they looked like Tarkissa's forces at a glance.

Goddamn, they needed uniforms.

"You have succeeded," she said up at David. "Now what?"

"Now, we kill the king."