~~Day 130~~

~~David~~

So far, so good. Khazeer hadn't betrayed them, but it'd only been a day. No angels showed up. No aliens attacked. The demons gave him his space, with Sazillia showing up every so often to make sure no one had stepped out of line.

The Red Pits was a dangerous province, but the demons seemed to obey their ruler. Which only made the province more dangerous.

"Here?" David asked. He stood in Khazeer's throne room, on one of the bone chairs. Literally. It was the only way he could look down at the map on the big bone table.

Map was a strong word--really just a piece of leather with some scratch marks showing the various landmarks in the Red Pits and Navameere Fields. It was enough. Khazeer took a small rock and moved it toward the scratch mark that ran down the center. The border.

"On the right flank marches the enemy Tafalius, in the Thorned Ravine. On the left flank, Losiria, who's pushed into my Red Shores. She and her forces have literally swum through flesh and blood to reach me. We will push through the middle, between them. A surprise assault."

By 'flank', Khazeer meant stretches of land a hundred kilometers wide. Battles in Hell, true province-to-province, were not skirmishes poking at small spots, with guerrilla tactics or attempts to cut off supply lines. No drone strikes or missile attacks. If what Khazeer was showing him was right, with twenty rocks facing off against twenty other rocks on the map, demons slammed into each other and fought it out in a big-ass line.

What use were tactics? There were no supply lines to cut off. No tools for traps. All demons slept at the same time, so night tactics were out. They didn't even have bows and arrows for ranged combat, let alone guns. The best they could do was try to out-position each other with the terrain and start a meat-grinder battle on their terms.

"Is there really no way to make bows and arrows?" David asked.

Khazeer shrugged. "You are welcome to find wood that will bend the way you want, and string that will survive the tension. You are welcome to craft arrows for us. You are welcome to teach demons how to aim and fire."

Damn it, he hadn't even thought of that. Logistics of creating bows and arrows aside, could demons even use them? Did their claws allow it? Did their brains even understand the concept of aiming, were even capable of it? Human tactics weren't going to work here.

"Could you at least learn to use shields and spears!?" David yelled, slamming his hands on the table.

Khazeer snorted and flared his wings, glaring down at David; even with David standing on the chair, the tetrad spire ruler was still taller than him.

"Demons are not made of soft flesh, boy. We are made of powerful, dense muscle, and skin thick and strong. A spear wouldn't--"

"You can't swing a spear around like a sword. You have to hold formation behind shields and poke with it! Yes, you're right. In a straight-up fight where people are throwing themselves at each other, once you get in close, the spear isn't as useful. But the idea is to prevent that from happening in the first place!" David pulled on his shaggy hair. He'd be bald by now if this wasn't the afterlife. "You wear armor. Why not shields?"

"A demon would not know how to use a shield," Khazeer said. "Nor would I. You could show it to me, explain it, give it to me and walk me through how to use it, but to instill the reflex? We are demons, boy. Not humans." Snarling, the huge demon flared his wings again, making the skulls dangling from its fingers rattle. "Ask an angel! They are as bound to their way of thinking as we are."

Moriah and Tsila, literally hovering over the table with flapping wings, both nodded.

"The demon has a point," Moriah said. "We have said it before. You cannot instill a new instinct, a new way of acting, into angels, or demons. I cannot learn to aim as the gabriem can. Or at least, it would not be feasible to learn. Maybe with thousands of years of effort? But most angels are happy to commit to what they are born knowing."

Khazeer nodded. "As are demons."

Daoka stepped up, but stopped herself from chirping whatever it was she wanted to chirp. Sighing, she stepped away, eyeless gaze aimed down. Weird.

"Okay," David said. "I guess we're stuck with limitations. It's not like I can just pass around AK-47s and start a civil war, anyway. So demons are just going to slash and cut, and there's nothing I can do to change that?"

"Create spears at the forge," Khazeer said with some bite in his voice, "and perhaps we could learn to use them in a way that feels true. But a shield? Never."

"Forge?"

"Yes. Forge. Only the great forge can create aera armaments, but the forge here in the Red Pits, and the one in the Navameere Fields, can create meera."

David stared at the man and looked back at the rest of his crew. Only Laoko didn't look surprised.

"Show me."

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

The forge wasn't in the spire. Back outside, David winced at the distant field of remnant faces and fingers, and followed Khazeer toward a large, black mound of rock a ten-minute walk away. Innocent enough at a distance, but the closer they grew, the more it looked unique. A large rock. A giant rock. A boulder the size of a house, with at least a thousand black skulls embossed on the surface, mouths open. Somehow, even without skin or muscle, the skulls looked as if they were screaming.

An archway lay within, tall enough for even a tetrad to walk in without issue, and skull-shaped braziers lined a hallway of blackstone. A stairway awaited them, winding down into the ground.

"Uh, we're going underground?" David asked.

Khazeer paused in the archway. "The forge is underground. Is that a problem?"

"No. Just... wondering why there's a forge underground."

Caera stepped up to the archway and peeked down the winding tunnel. "I wonder if the Old Ones made them?" Almost bouncing, the tiger waved her thick, giant tail, and tapped her two hands on the ground. From calm and collected one minute, to excited the next.

If the forge was anything like the one he'd already seen, there'd also be a temple, some place where a large demon could preach from behind a pulpit. And a book that would have runes from the ancient language written inside it. There'd be hallways and rooms inside the temple, probably meant to house other demons, as if someone was gearing their own little army.

He was right.

Down and down they went, Khazeer with Sazillia and a few of his elite guard, while David and his girls followed. Beautiful, smooth hallways covered in more skull braziers and carved stairs that looked like real stairs, instead of just worn stone steps. Down and down and into a giant cave with amber veins glowing along the walls, and a colossal wall of carved rock. The front wall of a temple, carved into the cave.

"You've seen this before?" Khazeer asked.

"There's a temple like this hidden inside Death's Grip," David said. "Wouldn't surprise me if there's one in every province. Maybe more. Just, not next to the spire like this."

Say one thing for Khazeer, he seemed perfectly happy to show David what he wanted to see. Maybe happy wasn't the right word, just direct. David loved direct. The spire ruler stepped through the enormous, open doorway of the stone wall into the open nave of what was essentially an underground church. As if fantasy dwarves had carved a church for themselves, complete with a balcony that circled the nave from above.

In the back center awaited a pulpit, and below it, an anvil, with an amber vein cutting along the floor into the anvil's core.

"No one has used the forge since the Spires War," Khazeer said. "Damavior, a child of the Old Ones, ruled this province then, but died in a battle with the rider. Her appetite for power got the best of her, and she lost her life. And she took her secrets to the grave."

A child of the Old Ones dying to the rider? And probably not just her, but whatever demons she'd taken with her to fight him. Not unexpected, not anymore.

"Where'd you get all your gear then?" David asked, gesturing to the tetrad.

"The gear was here, in the Red Pits. We scavenge it from the dead, and much of our battle with Navameere revolves around taking armor and weapons from each other's dead. Aera metal came from False Gate, drifting here over many thousands of years." The huge tetrad thudded his red, bronze, and gold breastplate, and stomped a hoof on the stone. "Aera metal is power."

"Yes," Moriah said, sneering. "It is."

Argument inbound, David interrupted and gestured to the pulpit. "There's a book up there, right?"

Khazeer snorted, nodding and fetching the book for him. Like the others, it was large, meant for much bigger hands, all leather with an embossed black skull on the cover. Damn heavy too, with thick, firm paper--where the fuck did they get paper? And when he perused, he found the same runes he had found in the other.

Except for one difference.

"Apollyon," David said.

Khazeer shuffled his wings. "What?"

David pointed at a run on the first page. "Apollyon. It's signed. I don't know how an Old One signed a book, considering how fucking big they are, but this is Apollyon's book. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he, she, it, whatever, wrote it."

Dead silence. Revealing he could read the ancient language was a risk, but Khazeer had been straight with him so far, and if Sazillia was anything to go by, he was a frank, honest man.

"You can read the old language?" Khazeer asked.

"I can."

"What else can you do, unmarked?"

David shook his head. "Not what you're thinking. I've never used a forge. Don't know if I can. And staying here to play blacksmith for you so you can win your war against your neighbor, while the universe is about to die, is not an option."

Snarling again, Khazeer took the book from his hands and set it back on the huge pulpit.

"I understand," the demon said, glaring. "But that does not mean I cannot ask for your help if it will not affect your mission."

"Agreed. And if I see some way I can help out more than I am, I will."

David gestured to the amber runes written into the wall above the pulpit. No demon could make these. Only Hell, or maybe the Old Ones themselves, could manipulate the lava of Hell through veins of clear, glass-like material, to create amber veins, and amber runes.

"That," David said, "reads: By Apollyon's power, this war will be won." Because, of course, this was all Apollyon's doing. And by war, it probably meant the war with Abaddon in Navameere Fields. If it was about the First War, the battle against Heaven, it'd probably have been written by Lucifer, but this didn't read like their work. Satan's handwriting was firmly burned into David's memory, and this wasn't it.

And like he owned the place, David walked around, exploring the hallways of the old temple. Khazeer stayed in the nave with his guard, grumbling, but David's girls followed. It quickly turned into them following Caera though, as she ducked in and out of huge alcoves, single eye wide as she scanned the old walls.

"What's this say?" she asked, gesturing to old scratch marks. "Old language just carved into a wall? Had to be a child of the Old Ones from the early years."

"'I, Nalliazara, have claimed my first kill.'" David winced. "I'm guessing a child who killed another child, based on those statues we keep finding." He half expected to stumble onto more giant statues of the utterly massive demons, slaughtering each other.

Another set of scratch marks in the same room, and Caera stood up and patted them, as if she could pluck them from the wall for him to read.

"'I, Nalliazara, have tasted the power of an imbued weapon. Apollyon's will be praised.'" More scratch marks. "'I, Nalliazara, have cut down Nariah, and Ozillius. Their hearts tasted strong, stronger than any soul's.'"

Caera nodded. "Must be a child who was trying to help Apollyon? Maybe the children of the Old Ones had an idea how to free their predecessors from... whatever it is that binds them? And she said souls? I guess even way back then, souls were being sent to Hell. I wonder what they were like back then? We know Hell changes form to reflect the surface world, right? I bet back then, Hell and the demons didn't look anything like they do now." She gestured at the wall again. "And all of this warped and changed to fit the new form of Hell over millions of years. Maybe?"

David laughed. Caera tilted her head, squinting her eye at him, but he waved his hands. She was oblivious to how much she changed when history grabbed her attention.

"You're probably right," he said.

They moved on. Of course, all the rooms were empty, just giant alcoves carved into square rooms. But most of them had scratch marks telling tales of children of the Old Ones killing each other, eating each other, and making names for themselves, wielding imbued weapons.

"They were obsessed with killing each other," Caera said.

"Looks like." They stopped in front of another set of scratch marks. "'The spire will be mine,'" it said. No better reason to kill your fellow demons than a chance to be their ruler, he supposed. "I'm guessing these children were... literal children? Or, you know, young demons? Feels weird to write random shit on the walls. Unless you're a kid. Then it's more normal." He shuddered, but that was how demons did things. Except, that was contained to the hatching pit. This was different. Did they even have hatching pits back then? Spire mothers?

A paragraph stopped him, and he stared at the runes. "'The urge consumes me, and Apollyon has nothing to tell us. We kill, and we kill, and we kill. I killed my friends. I killed my lovers. I killed everyone around me, and now I am alone. The mightiest shall rule. That was Lucifer's message to us. That is Apollyon's message to us. We, the first children of the spire, will inherit Hell. It will be ours. It will be mine. But... I will be alone.'"

Convenient for ancient demons to write these pointless messages into the walls. Maybe they wanted to voice their own thoughts. Maybe it was the only way for them to understand themselves?

"The children of the Old Ones," Caera said, standing up and leaning on the wall again, "were... unstable?"

"Unstable is a word for it," David said, sliding a finger along the runes. "Sounds like they were consumed with an 'urge', to the point they killed everyone they knew."

"And they wrote about it?"

He shrugged. "I mean, if I were young and half insane, I'd write about it, too."

A sharp snap announced Caera's tail hitting him in the ass, and she chuckled.

"If you were young? You're a baby."

"I am an old man! The fact this body is only nineteen years old is just bad luck. I was born eighty."

From chuckle to laugh, Caera leaned over him, kissed him, licked his forehead, and the two of them headed back out to join Khazeer.

"Discover anything useful?" the spire ruler asked, glaring, but that seemed normal for him.

"Not really," David said. "Just a bunch of old messages left by the first children of the Old Ones. They tore each other apart, fighting over the spires."

Khazeer tilted his head. For a second, David thought he might ask for more, but the tetrad grumbled, turned, and walked out of the temple, gesturing for David to join him. Like most demons, Khazeer didn't care about ancient history. A shame.

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

Pegasus clopped around their spire room, bored, flapping his wings as if he might someday fly. No luck so far.

"But Vinicius might be with Mia," Jeskura said. The gargoyle perched on the table in the raised section of the room.

David walked up and joined her. "Yeah, I know." He pulled himself up onto the bone table with her and let his legs droop, elbows to his knees and chin in his palms. After the woman-in-armor had kidnapped Mia -- and saved Death's Grip from the growing canyon by doing so -- she'd left Mia with Vinicius, the child of the Old Ones that'd apparently been trapped in the dungeons of the spire for who knew how long. "Mia's not dead yet, though, and it's been months. Either Vinicius is dead, or not with her anymore, or they're working together."

Jes shuddered. "Hopefully not that last one. I mean, even I know how mindlessly violent children of the Old Ones were. Remember those statues? I vote we avoid any children if we find them."

"Are any left alive?" Caera asked from the lower, larger floor of the room, sitting on the leather blankets. "Far as I know, people call Vinicius the last of the children of the Old Ones for a reason." Lasca was pinned under her tail, while Laria and Latia each wrestled with the tiger's giant hands. Unfortunately for them, Caera easily pinned both red goblins by their breastplates, no matter how hard they squirmed.

"We ran into Old Ones," Jes said, "and they were supposed to be dead, right? And it's not like we know much about this corner of Hell. Even Laoko's in the dark about the Navameere Fields."

Laoko nodded, sitting beside Caera and idly caressing Laara's wings. "We entered unknown territory. Morgana keeps to herself in Navameere, and no one knows how she keeps peace with the volatile False Gate. We must be prepared for anything."

"Angels?" David asked.

Moriah and Tsila both hovered in the room, each flap of the wings sending a gentle breeze around, but that wasn't the reason. They were just aching to use their wings after having them wrapped up for so long.

"There is little to tell of the Navameere Fields," Moriah said. "We angels remain ignorant to the nuances of each province, but we have heard nothing of any child of the Old Ones, save for Vinicius."

"Then again," Tsila said, "we didn't know about the Old Ones being alive, either."

Sighing, David scooped up his dice from the table and rolled them. Two and a four. No omens there.

He looked around at the group. Jes, Caera, Daoka. The Las. Moriah and Tsila. Laoko.

"Where's Acelina?" he asked.

"Visiting her fellow zotivas," Laoko said. She grinned up at David and licked her lips in a very, purposefully seductive manner. "Did you want to visit them, too?"

David shivered. Last time he'd visited spire mothers, Acelina and her 'sisters' had all gathered around to give him the best fellatio of his life, deepthroating included.

"I mean... a quick visit wouldn't hurt. Just a visit!"

Caera rolled her eye.

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

Before visiting the spire mothers, it was probably a good idea to confirm with Khazeer. Spire mothers were precious, the only demon breed that had an innate understanding of what eggs bore what demons, and which eggs were in healthy condition. A random visit might not be looked upon well.

David poked his head through the colossal, open, black skull that was the throne room door. He probably shouldn't have.

~~♥♥♥~~

Tatiana sat on Khazeer's lap, naked as before, the spire ruler sitting on his throne. The succubus faced away from the man, and every inch of her was covered in cum. White oozed out of her empty slit, but her belly bulged; Khazeer was in her ass. The tetrad didn't move, content to simply sit there, hands on the arms of his throne, and let the succubus dance on him, twisting, wriggling, and writhing hypnotically.

Twelve brutes, naked, surrounded the throne, and one stepped in and squatted in front of Tatiana and over Khazeer's legs. David couldn't see anymore, the brute blocking vision, but a gush of white poured out onto the floor between his legs as the brute thrust his hips forward. Tatiana had been pumped full of cum and was getting another dose. And through the cracks between their bodies, David spotted the succubus still dancing, still swaying her hips, with two cocks inside her.

She was earning her keep.

~~♥♥♥~~

David decided it was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, and went looking for Acelina.

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

Spires weren't just black, spiky towers sticking up -- and down -- in Hell. Beneath the surface of the province, things got fleshier in the tower, with more white bone and red, bleeding muscle mass that grew along the metal walls, and inside the rock tunnels. Halfway down beneath the crust of Hell, one tunnel of metal looked like the belly of a snake. First, metal walls with rib-like curvatures, then literal white bone ribs jutting from a spinal cord from above. And the deeper the tunnel went, the more fleshy things got, until every step was on spongy meat.

The first massive room was like the last spire mothers' room he'd seen, a large place with two tunnels along the sides leading further in. The main room had no amber runes, or eggs, and instead had tables and chairs, and black metal shelves covered in fancy chained jewelry. Flesh walls, flesh ceilings, flesh floor, with bony protrusions and furniture that almost looked elegant.

Acelina stood with three other spire mothers. If every spire only had three, zotivas had to be the rarest breed of demon, next to other children of the Old Ones.

"This is the unmarked boy?" one lady asked.

Acelina chuckled and gestured to him. "Yes."

The three ladies approached, hips swaying with each step, the motion emphasized by their hooves--basically high heels, anatomically speaking. Apparently all spire mothers were absurdly busty ladies, with narrow waists that almost looked too tiny over wide hips. They even wore red silks, likely bartered from the Scar or brought to them as gifts. According to Acelina, anyone who got on the good side of a spire mother likely got to stay in the spire instead of living out in the dangerous world, so the spire mothers were treated like royalty.

They were the princesses of the spire, older, mature princesses, and with the way their horns sort of curled back and around, they looked like they wore crowns.

They strutted up to David, various necklaces jingling, nipple chains connecting nipple to nipple, piercings hidden under the flimsy silk breast curtains. Acelina had gotten used to wearing her chains in tighter shapes around her torso so they didn't make noise when she walked, and didn't bother with nipple chains much; a solid yank on that would make for a nasty wound. But the three other ladies wore their necklaces loose, as if to emphasize just how absurdly deep the valleys between their breasts were.

"This is David," Acelina said, standing beside him. She still wore her breastplate. Not comfortable with the other spire mothers yet, maybe?

"You are right, Acelina," a spire mother said, and she squatted in front of him. "Most souls worthy of notice are not... small, thin boys."

"Thin?" He looked himself up and down. He was in great shape! Muscular, even! Yes, he was small, and lean, but damn it. Heat pulsed in his cheeks, and he folded his arms across his chest.

The three strangers chuckled, reached out, and ran claws down his red, revealing toga. They tugged at the tiny black necklace the potram rune gave him, and his rings and bracelet.

"But he is worthy of notice," another said. She licked her shark teeth as she let out her wide, massive, monster smile, before hiding it again in the black, featureless canvas of a spire mother's face. "Are you here to save us from the other unmarked on the warpath, little boy? We would reward you handsomely, if you dedicated yourself to the Red Pits spire."

"Most handsomely," the third spire mother said. "You would be protected by us. Every night, you would spend with us. Acelina says you can grow your cock long, and numerous? I would very much like to experience that."

"Yes," the first one said. "Every night, you would spend with us, sheathed in our bodies, your lips on our breasts, drinking of us. Would that please you? You could be our... what is the word? Knight."

Good fucking god. David clamped down on his aura with the jaws of life, and gently pushed their hands off his body.

"Sorry, ladies," he said. "My services are not for sale. And besides, I like my crew more than I like you."

The spire mothers sighed, but chuckled, disappointed, but entertained. They stood back up, making sure to let their barely covered breasts dangle and sway slightly as they did. Even unaroused, with skin a firm dark red, their tits were big enough to jiggle.

"That," the second spire mother said, "Acelina also told us. You are quite the slut for a human, sleeping with demons and angels." She gestured to the crew. "Even imps and grems!" She scowled down at the Las, and the Las ducked behind Laoko's giant legs along with Pegasus. "Vermin."

David glared. "They're not vermin."

"They feed on remnants."

"So? Someone has to. And besides, you won't let them feed on souls."

The third spire mother growled. "They are stupid."

"And yet my four little ladies have fought in a war and defeated smarter demons in battle. They've organized armies in days, and swarmed an entire spire." He maintained his glare, even as the three zotivas traded eyeless groans of disapproval.

Okay, he was embellishing a bit. Imps and grems were dumb; there was no getting around it. But they weren't dumb dumb, either.

"The boy speaks truth," Acelina said. "You would do well to consider his words."

David stared up at Acelina, as did the other spire mothers. Whatever they thought of David or the Las, they apparently thought highly of Acelina, sighing, nodding, and taking small steps back.

"Very well," the third spire mother said. "Did you come to see our hatching pit, unmarked?"

"No. I just wanted to see how Acelina was doing."

The second spire mother tilted her head. "Why?"

"Why? Because she's a member of my crew, and I like her?"

The spire mothers traded glances again before looking at Acelina. It was hard to say, with spire mothers having no facial features at all, but Acelina looked a bit surprised, tail raising and flowing a little differently than it had before.

"David," Tsila said, beaming a beautiful smile as she stepped up to his side, "is a soul worthy of Heaven, zotivas. You will find he is empathetic and kind."

"Empathetic and kind?" The third mother said. "Like in the scrying pools."

Tsila nodded. "Exactly."

"That... is strange," the first mother said. "So you actually care about those in your crew? You cherish and protect them? Like some... knight from one of those stories from the surface? Fairytales?"

David blushed more, especially when Caera brushed up against his hip.

"I do," he said. "I mean, I try, anyway."

The spire mothers looked down at Caera, and Caera stood up on her hind legs and folded her arms across her breastplate, challenging them. She wasn't quite as tall as the spire mothers, but she had more muscle, and she thudded her giant tail on the ground. Pegasus jumped back like a startled cat.

"He does," she said. The tiger leaned down over his shoulder, gave his cheek a lick, and smiled at the mothers. "Can I see the hatching pit? I just like to explore and see other places. In trade, you can play with David."

Oh shit. Caera gave him a gentle shove, and he stumbled forward, straight into the awaiting hands of the three spire mothers.

"Uh, Caera?" He gulped and stared up at the three ladies. From this close, their busts hung directly over his head, hiding their featureless faces from him. All he could see were giant boobs.

Caera laughed. "Come on." Back on all fours, she gestured for the spire mothers to follow. They laughed, and did, pushing David along like he was their brand new toy.

At least until Acelina reached out and plucked him out from under their claws. He looked up at her, blinking. Her claws spoke for her, a gentle grip that kept him where he was, securely in front of her as they walked after the other spire mothers into the other rooms and toward the hatching pit Caera wanted to see.

David smiled.

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

Something warm and wet woke him up. Tongue? Tongue.

Back in their room, David lay on his back in his red toga, but the girls still had their armor on; they didn't trust Khazeer yet. But Khazeer had given David a small amber necklace he could use to close the room door of teeth at will, so at least they had a door between them and the rest of the spire.

Caera lay on her side beside him, facing him, the two of them near a room wall. Jes and Daoka, on watch duty, were off to the side, quietly chatting and chirping about something. Caera was supposed to be sleeping. So was he.

She leaned into him and licked his neck, letting out a long, quiet, deep rumble. If tigers could purr.

"Caera?" he asked.

"I just wanted to snuggle."

"You sure? I thought you wanted to throw me to the sharks."

She blinked. "What? Oh, the zotivas." Not dissuaded, she snuggled into his side and licked his cheek. "I just like to watch you squirm. I wouldn't let them do anything to you."

He squinted at her, unconvinced, and earned another chuckle from her.

"I guess," he said, "everyone's feeling a little more... relaxed, since arriving."

"A little. I expected trouble, but after meeting Sazillia, I felt better."

"You like her?" he asked.

"Yes." She licked his nose. "You like her?"

"Not as much as I like you."

"Of course." Nodding, Caera nudged her short snout into his neck and licked him some more. Long, heavy, slow licks. Each one sent shivers down his spine, and painted images in his mind of a tiger lying beside her meal and tasting it. That the girls in his crew had literal fantasies about eating him made every interaction like this a little scary, but very arousing.

"I think you just want me to get crushed by a tetrad's thighs," he said.

"Laoko's crushed you a few times."

"Yeah, but Laoko's a bit on the softer side, compared to Sazillia." It was true. Laoko was certainly a fit, strong woman, but she didn't have muscle definition lining her whole body. The bailiff Sazillia was more like Caera, with obvious muscles on a feminine frame.

"I guess you're already too spoiled." As if to prove it, Caera sat up and pulled him onto her lap, facing him. She hugged him to her body, squashing his chest into her breastplate, and leaning over him with her great height, she licked his forehead. Naturally, his shaggy red bangs stuck up.

Jes and Dao crawled over, weaving between bodies, and they sat around them, the four of them near the room wall. Dao clicked twice, little chirps, and she gently dragged her nails down his back. Full-body tremors, and he melted into Caera as the satyr gave him a back scratch.

"We're going to war," Jes said. "Tomorrow?"

"A couple days," David said. "Need to relax a bit before we... throw ourselves into the meat grinder again."

The gargoyle shook her head. "It doesn't have to be a meat grinder. I mean, yeah we'll kill that other unmarked. But it doesn't need to be bodies over bodies. We could be stealthy, maybe? Maybe a quick strike and then just move on before anyone can even react?"

"Yeah, maybe," David said. "I... don't want to go to war."

"Don't wanna kill people?" Jes asked.

"I don't want you girls to get hurt."

The three ladies went silent for a moment, and Dao leaned in and kissed his cheek, clicking twice.

"We knew the risks," Caera said. "And--"

David put up a hand and held Caera's short, cat-like snout. Damn large compared to his hand, and she licked his palm.

"I don't want to have that talk," he said. "The war talk. The 'people are gonna die' talk. I've seen too many war movies, and I am too young for that shit."

Jes chuckled. "Didn't you say you're eighty?"

"A lie. I'm just a baby."

All three girls chuckled.

"She's not wrong, though," Jes said. "Demons fight, kill, and die all the time, David. It's what we do. You're going to see an eyeful of that once we get out there. The fights we've seen? Nothing compared to the shit the Red Pits and Navameere Fields throw at each other every week. I bet we'll see tens of thousands of demons just smashing into each other, cutting each other down. Limbs will go flying. Ever seen a demon cut in half still try to fight? It's--"

Apparently, that suggestion didn't make Daoka happy. She shoved Jes over, clicked at her, scooped David off Caera's lap, and took him a little ways away against the wall. She sat on her butt, put David on her lap facing her, and undid the leather strap holding her breastplate on. David relaxed and let the satyr shift him so he lay on her lap, his head on her thighs, while she took off her breastplate, revealing her huge breasts.

If Daoka wanted to spend time with him sucking on her nipples, who was he to say no? Topless, Dao leaned over him, bringing her breasts over his head and burying his face in their softness. Head pinned to her lap by the huge pillows, he gave her closer breast a kiss, shifted a bit, and took her nipple into his mouth.

"This," Jes said, sitting beside her lover again, "is just avoiding talking about the future."

"I'm with Dao," Caera said. She prowled over and sat in front of Dao and Jes, facing them, so David was trapped between them. "We can talk about it later."

David nodded, still suckling. Later was good.

Jes groaned. "Why am I the adult in this relationship?"

Dao clicked.

"Fine. Fine!"

David couldn't see Jes with Dao's breast in the way, but he heard the telltale sounds of armor being removed, leather unhooked, and the clink of metal on metal. Caera, he could see, and he groaned at the sight of the huge tiger woman slipping out of her armor, revealing her large breasts and muscular curves.

He hadn't even let his aura out and their skin was turning red. Massive ego stroke.

Claws pulled him out from under Daoka's boob. Jeskura, naked, tall and lithe and lean, sat back against the wall beside Dao, and she put David on his knees between her legs.

"You really are just so fucking spoiled," she said. "I mean, look at this." She gestured at herself, her flat stomach and narrow waist, and large breasts a body that slim had no business having. "I am the definition of perfect."

"Acelina would disagree," Caera said, sitting behind David, naked too.

"Yeah, well..." Jes looked past Caera to the sleeping spire mother. "Okay, yeah, she's the hottest."

David choked on a laugh. Of all the things he'd expected her to say, that was not one of them.

"Oh fuck you." The gargoyle reached out, grabbed his head, and forced him down.

~~♥♥♥~~

On his elbows and knees, and down onto his stomach. The leather blankets saved his joints, and he blinked up at the gargoyle as she drew him in closer. Thighs spread, her slit was a beautiful shade of red, and she spread it with her other hand, exposing the clenching tunnel of muscle within.

"I think," she said, "Dao and I should get priority treatment. We've known you the longest."

"I--"

She pulled his head closer and pressed his mouth to her mound. Not gentle, he winced as his nose bumped into her, but Jes was Jes and she didn't let him up. Dao clicked at her, even shoved her a little, but Jes just laughed and kissed her lover. David wasn't going anywhere until Jes was satisfied.

He opened his mouth wide and gently engulfed the gargoyle's slit in the warmth of his mouth. Instant shivers from Jes, and she relaxed back against the metal wall. Her wings went limp, slumping down around her, and her eyes half closed as she looked down at him, watching. Slowly, he ran his tongue up along her clitoris, taking his time, letting Jes's body respond.

"You little slut," she said, and she ran both sets of her claws through his hair, combing it and massaging his head. "You're getting better at that."

"Maybe he could grow a really long tongue?" Caera asked.

"Yeah, maybe. But honestly, I kinda like this. Just a tiny guy, licking my clit." With a purr of her own, much higher pitched than Caera's, she arched her back, showing off her breasts that grew increasingly soft the redder her skin turned. "I mean, look at that face. It's just so fucking..." She shivered, and her breasts rippled lightly against her chest.

Caera sat on Jes's other side, and both ladies watched him, eyes and smiles aimed at him as he buried Jes's clit in increasingly firm licks. Mouth open wide to keep as much of her pussy between his lips as possible, he kissed her mound, her slit's lips, all of it, before again pressing his tongue to her clit.

Much as Caera was shaped almost like a tiger, she could sit on her ass comfortably, and she did, nuzzled to Jes's side and slowly spreading her own thighs. David couldn't see, but Caera slipped a hand down her stomach and between her legs. From the sounds and the way the tiger lady's breath quickened, she was caressing her own clit. Daoka followed suit, snug to Jes's other side as she touched herself, one hand between her legs and the other cupping and massaging her breasts. Huge breasts on the smallest of the three demons, and they jiggled as the eyeless satyr shivered; she was showing off on purpose, for sure.

"Faster," Jes said.

Faster it was. Jes lifted her knees, and he slid his arms under them, hooking his hands around her thighs and pressing his mouth snug to her. Heavy, long strokes of his tongue turned into fast flicks, almost bouncing her clit against the tip of his muscle.

Jes squeezed his head, holding him in place. "Fuuuu..." More shudders worked through her, and David smiled up at her as both Caera and Dao leaned in to the squirming gargoyle. Caera knocked horns with Jes, literally, the much taller, much bigger demon chuckling as she lightly smacked the black horns together; a playful gesture, far as David could tell. Daoka leaned in and kissed her lover's neck, making Jes close her eyes before they opened again, rolling up.

Jes pushed his head away, and David watched as the seven-foot gargoyle shuddered, her empty slit clenching and leaking juices down her ass cheeks underneath her. Some tremors made her arch her back again, breasts rippling, nipples swollen, and after a dozen seconds, she sucked in a breath.

"Okay," she said after a few pants and nodding with a toothy grin. Arms up, she stretched out like she'd just woken up, and gestured to Daoka. "What do you want from our boy toy?"

With a warm, motherly smile, Daoka chirped.

"God damn it, Dao. You really spoil him."

Giggling, Daoka got on her hands and spiked knees, her side to the wall, and gestured for David to get behind her. With her on all fours, her huge breasts hung underneath her, swaying from the movement, and David stared. Jes noticed, reached under her lover, and gave both breasts a gentle nuzzle, making them jiggle and sway more, like water-balloon pendulums.

"So obsessed with tits," Jes said.

"Not true." He crawled over to Daoka's ass, knelt behind her, and slipped out of his red toga; it puffed out of existence the moment it fell from his body. "I prefer ass."

"Liar," Caera said. She crawled over, sat beside Dao, and grinned at him, idly teasing her own breasts.

Jes crawled over too, sat on Dao's other side, and pried Dao's ass cheeks apart with both hands.

"My slut girlfriend wants you to fuck her pussy. Fill her up, make her pregnant, and she's yours. Her words." Nodding, Jes gave her girlfriend's ass a light smack. Dao had softer curves than Caera or Jes, and her large ass rippled appropriately.

David almost laughed at the crude porn dialog. Had she been watching something awful in the scrying pools?

"I uh... don't think I can impregnate her," he said.

Rolling her eyes, Jes stabbed his chest with a claw. "Just fuck her already."

David nodded, looked down, and grabbed his cock with a hand. He could change his body with a thought, as long as he was emotionally on board with the thought, synced-up internally with it. How did the girl unmarked do it for other stuff?

The sight of Dao's huge ass waiting for him pulled him back to the moment, and his cock grew immediately. Bigger, longer. A lot longer. Eight inches. Ten. Twelve. Jes groaned, leaned in to his temple and growled in his ear as she reached down and slipped some claws under his girth. Squeezing and massaging it, she guided the swollen tip to Dao's wet pussy, and rubbed the sensitive skin against her boiling heat.

David shivered, pleasure sparks pulsing from his glans down to his core and between his thighs. He flexed his pelvic floor, making his cock jump lightly in Jes's grip, and she growled again as she helped guide him forward.

Dao chirped back at him, a smile aimed over her spiky shoulder, but it melted into a moan and her head went limp as her clenching pussy spread around him. Spread turned into taut as his girth opened her up, and David let out a tiny groan as her warm, heavenly juices coated him. The subtle grooves in the muscled walls of her insides, soaked and pliable, gripping tight as he eased inch after inch into her, sent more electric tingles through him.

Halfway in and his glans pressed against her depths. He stayed there for a bit, letting Dao's insides adjust, before he pushed in a little more. Dao chirped between a harsh breath, and he slowed down, pulling out a few inches. The sight of her pink insides pulling out with him, just a sliver, had him hypnotized. He eased back in, stretching her deeper again, and he pushed further, sinking more until Dao chirped shakily. Again, back out, giving her a break before he pushed in more.

It took a couple of minutes, but finally, he buried every inch of his massive cock into Dao, and the curvy woman trembled, pussy clenching on him and forcing a trickle of her juices to run down his testicles.

"Any bigger," Jes said, peeking down under Dao to look at her stomach, "and she'd look pregnant."

"I uh... went a bit big."

"Nah. Just don't fuck her too rough. You know, yet."

Not rough yet. He could do that. Slowly, he eased out of the satyr's squeezing slit, again pulling a sliver of her insides out with him that left a coat of her juices. Out and out until only his glans remained, and then back in, stretching her wide before stretching her deep. And as he sank his cock balls-deep inside her, Jes gave her lover another firm slap on the ass.

The way Daoka's pussy clenched on him, drowning his girth in massaging heat, was too much. He didn't cum yet, but his aura got away from him and drowned the room in silent vibration, heat, and desire.

Everyone woke up. David froze, buried to the hilt inside the satyr, and winced as every girl in the room glared at him.

"Without us?" Lasca asked, the little lady pouting.

"I uh, thought I should, um..."

"David," Tsila said, smiling warmly as she slipped her clothes off her slim frame, "should spend more time with those three. They are the reason he is alive, after all." Nodding, the angel stripped naked, revealing her tan skin, slim frame, small breasts, and perfect body. "And we do not need David to enjoy ourselves."

Without hesitating, the gabriem sat with the four pouting goblins, and got to work undoing their armor. The red goblins chuckled, helping her, and the moment they were naked, they threw themselves at the angel like hungry raptors. Tsila fell on her back with a very feminine, playful little giggle, white-feathered wings spreading, and let the swarm of red goblins kiss and lick her naked body.

Laoko, Acelina, and Moriah glared at David, but after meeting his eyes, Moriah rolled hers and disrobed. She made for her angel friend, but gasped when Laoko pulled her into her lap instead.

Laoko and Acelina took off their armor, put the angry angel between them, and buried her between their breasts. David stared. Much as all the women in the crew were absurdly hot, Laoko and Acelina had breasts the size of mountains, and Moriah disappeared in the layers of softness as the two biggest demons in the group worked together. The angel struggled, but couldn't stop Laoko and her four hands from holding her in place while Acelina leaned over her.

Daoka squeezed David's cock, looking back at him and frowning with her lips.

"Sorry! Distracted."

He gave her a slow, deep thrust, earning some chirps and sighs of bliss from the satyr. Soon, Daoka got down on her elbows instead, arching her back so her large ass stuck in the air. David grabbed it with both hands, kneaded it, squeezed it, and pried it apart to let it jiggle back into shape when he let it go. And his eyes locked on it when he thrust into her a little harder, hard enough to make it ripple with impact.

Daoka squeaked, head tilting up. But each thrust robbed her of energy, and soon her head dangled between her shoulders as David pounded her. Hard, heavy thrusts, bottoming out inside her, each stroke exposing her pink insides and the juices she was drenching him with.

Her elbows gave out, and she collapsed onto the leather blankets, cheek to the floor and breasts squashed underneath her. She clenched hard, drenching him in little spurts of wet warmth, and she teetered to the side. He didn't let her fall. Grip firm on her hips, he kept her on her knees, and thrust into her again.

Daoka's squeaks turned into weak whimpers. Torso still on the blanket, she didn't get back up, back arched deeply and ass up. Caera and Jes both watched it, drinking in the sight of it rippling with each thrust. A harsh slap from Jes forced Daoka to squeak, and her insides clenched hard again, more juices leaking out of her.

Normally, the girls had fun with David, pushing him around, sitting on him, fucking him. He didn't usually get to go on the offensive like this. Grip tight on Daoka's hips, he pounded harder, fucking her through the tight grip of her muscles and their spasms, until her whimpers devolved into pants and nothing else.

He stopped, and as pleasure pulsed down his length, he came. Thick heat flooded his cock, gushed into the satyr's cunt, and fought for space. Plenty squirted out of her, white splashing against his pelvis from the sheer volume and her taught insides. Plenty went deeper.

Sure enough, when he let Daoka go, and she rolled onto her side, her inflated belly began to shrink, and what cum he'd pumped into her womb flowed out of her.

Sweating, panting, David sat back, ass on his feet, kneeling, and staring at the sight of Daoka trembling on the floor. His cum-soaked cock twitched at the sight of it.

"All that clicking," Jes said, "about having a nice, long fuck, and look at her." Rolling her eyes, Jes got on her knees beside her lover, aimed her ass at David, and wagged her tail at him.

Grumbling, Caera got onto her back -- as much as she could with all those spikes on her spine -- and underneath Jes. Before Jes could say something, Caera reached up and gave the gargoyle a taste of her own medicine, using both hands to pin her face to Caera's pussy.

With an evil smile, Caera winked at David, closed her eye, and relaxed back on the blanket, legs spread and Jes on her elbows between them, Caera's giant tail underneath Jes. Jes gave her wings a flap, but she was trapped, and with Daoka out of commission, she had no one to save her.

David knelt behind Jes, lined up his cock, and pressed it against her slit. Wet from before, he didn't take as much time as he had with Daoka, and he forced her lips wide apart as he quickly sank half his length into her.

Jes lifted her head. "Fuu--" But Caera brought her back down onto her slit, and again melted onto the blankets as she forced the gargoyle to eat her out.

Which gave David all the freedom in the world to hold the lean woman's hips, and force the rest of his cock into her stretched pussy with maybe a little more force than he should have. But demons liked rough, especially Jes, and the gargoyle's large wings spread out, flapping desperately a few times before going limp onto the blankets--and Daoka beside her. Stretching her deep and deeper, he pulled the lithe gargoyle snug to his pelvis, and laughed as her tail pressed against his chest and wrapped his arm. Jes's tail wasn't nearly as thick as Caera's, but it wasn't super thin either, and he struggled against the long, strong limb as it squeezed his arm.

He slowed for a minute, enjoying how her pussy squeezed him, and how her tail squeezed his arm and shoulder. And then he slammed into her. The gargoyle moaned into Caera's pussy, her ass rippling and wings lightly bouncing as he fucked her fast.

Caera moaned, too, and pushed herself up on one elbow, other hand still holding Jes to her cunt. Cat-like snout smiling and showing her fangs, she kept her eye on David. The impact of his thrusts into Jes -- and Jes into Caera -- made the tiger's large, heavy breasts ripple just ever so slightly on her muscular chest. No matter what body part David looked at on whichever girl, something was jiggling, or rippling, or quivering.

He thrust harder, and Jes squeezed hard in retaliation, drenching him. He didn't stop. Each thrust was euphoric, pushing through taut, boiling, wet muscles that massaged every inch of him, and he made sure each stroke went to the hilt, stretching Jes's depths into her. A lot rougher than he'd been with Daoka, but the two ladies wore their desires on their sleeves. Daoka was sensitive, and liked soft. Jes was rough and tumble, and liked it hard. He worked up another sweat as he slammed his cock into her, fucking her through her orgasm that would have probably been filled with profanities, if Caera hadn't been keeping her head pinned down between her legs the whole time.

The background noise of sex was like thick incense drowning his senses in sensuality. Beautiful, deadly women of varying heights, moaning, whimpering, mewling, as other women brought them to climax. David peeked around for only a minute before his eyes came back to Caera.

Caera closed her eye again and melted back, somehow still staying half propped up on an elbow while lying back, even as she climaxed. Her huge body shivered, gargantuan tail wagging left and right underneath Jes as she trembled, each orgasm shock making her abs flex. Crunch. Crunch.

David watched her cum as he poured his into Jes, sinking himself to the hilt and staying there as each cunt spasm milked him of another wave. After a few spurts, he thrust again, deep and hard, making Jes's entire body shudder before going limp. Her tail let go of his arm like an unwinding snake, and it fell to the side. He thrust again, and again, slow, deep strokes that poured another wave of cum into her leaking cunt, each making the limp woman teeter to the side. And when he let her go, she slumped over beside Daoka, like Daoka.

"Fucking... surprised me," she said, body shaking as she forced herself to sit up. "Assholes." Eyes half-lidded, she looked down at her belly, the shrinking bulge, and the waves of cum oozing out of her slit.

David smiled. "I--"

Caera got up, prowled over to David, turned around, and waved her tail at him. Unlike Jes's tail, Caera's was colossal, almost as thick as her leg, and covered in big spikes along the spine. The tiger got on her elbows and knees, and waited, smiling back over her shoulder at him.

"Two," she said.

"Two? Two--oh." He shivered, reached into his body, and found the desire. It was easy now, finding his sex drive and letting it affect his body. It wasn't music, but something different, something about his body, his vessel that was strange and malleable. And for the moment, there was only one desire.

A second cock emerged from underneath the other, growing from him, flesh adapting seamlessly. In no time at all, he had a second cock as large as the first, and he needed two hands to guide them to Caera's body. Her slit was soaked in Jes's saliva and her own juices, and he pressed the second cock against it. His first cock, higher up on his body and dripping with layers of cum, pressed against her asshole underneath her tail, and he took his time rubbing his glans against the clenching ring of muscle. Everything was already such a mess, but he didn't want to hurt her. Slowly, he soaked her ass in juices, and only then did he ease his two cocks forward.

Caera's tail wagged a few more times, brushing over his face and knocking his hair around into his eyes; she didn't realize. The tiger rumbled, a bass-filled purr, and she lowered her head as she leaned back into him. The tail was a problem, but they'd done this before, and Caera rested the giant limb against his chest and up over his shoulder, so the spikes pointed away from him. She had to spread her legs too, lowering her ass down enough so he could reach.

But when he finally eased the first few inches of his cocks into her clenching holes, Caera moaned, the bassy tiger purrs replaced with higher-pitched sighs. And she squeezed, hard, making every inch a battle he slowly won. And when he finally stretched and filled her pussy and ass completely, Caera mewled. There was nothing as hot as hearing a big, strong, predatory woman mewl.

Daoka and Jes joined him, kneeling around David and reaching around him. At first their hands explored him, caressing his back, ass, and chest. But their fingers found Caera's tail, and slid their fingers down it to the woman's lower back, and down to her ass where her huge, muscular cheeks spread around his cock.

"You bitch," Jes said, smiling as she slapped Caera's ass. David shivered as the ring of muscle clenched around him.

Daoka chirped, rubbed her horns on David's head, and reached under Caera. A new pressure found his cock, and David outright groaned. He couldn't see, fucking Caera from behind, but he knew Dao was pushing on the bulge on Caera's stomach. And massaging it.

Caera pushed into David, using her muscles and sinking her claws into the blanket for grip so she could drive her ass toward him. David held on, staring down at her hourglass figure, the huge black spikes on her back, her thick legs, and muscular ass jiggling with each bounce. At first, he held on for dear life, but as he found the rhythm, he thrust back into her.

That's what Caera wanted. The moment he took charge, Caera melted. Her tail flopped to the side, dangling off his shoulder, and her insides squeezed in spurts.

"I got her nice and ready for you," Jes said. "This tregeera bitch acting all greedy, pushing me around." Another ass slap from the gargoyle earned another hard clench of her insides. "Look at this woman, all that muscle. And those claws! What a beast."

Caera frowned over her shoulder at Jes, but it melted away, her single eye rolling up and closing as she let her head droop again.

Dao and Jes watched, hands idly roaming and caressing Caera's legs and ass, as David tested his cardio. Hard thrusts, fast and deep, but Caera was a heavy creature of muscle, and eight-feet-tall when she bothered standing. It was not easy, but he managed, driving his hips forward as he yanked her back. Chasing orgasm was a powerful stimulant, and feeling Caera clench and drench his lower cock in a coat of juices drove him on. Each stroke sent waves of bliss down his lengths, and his body was happy to build up a third orgasm.

As his cum flooded his length in warmth, Caera pressed back into him. She pushed herself up onto her palms, looked back at him with some mix of hunger and challenge, and drove her ass straight toward him again. He held on, matching her thrusts, but she was damn strong, and her ass shook with each collision from her own motion. Every squeeze was tight, like she were wrestling him, trying to pin him, and he had no idea how he stayed on his knees.

She broke first. The huge tiger lowered herself to her chest, set her cheek on the blankets, and came again. No more fighting him, no more slamming her ass against him, she arched her back like a cat and squeezed on him, body shuddering as she soaked him. The rumbles and purrs, mixing with pants and mewls, lit him on fire, and he fucked the tiger as hard as he could, slamming into her so his testicles slapped her clit with each thrust. More juices dripped from them, and soon his own joined them as he poured cum into Caera's pussy and guts.

Daoka and Jeskura sighed wistfully, and squeezed and massaged Caera's ass as the sex slowed to a crawl. White leaked out of her, soaking his cocks, and each slow, outward stroke left a trail of juices on his lengths before he sank back into her holes. Caera tried to get back onto her palms, but David fucked her hard again, just a few strokes to milk out the last drops of his cum. They were enough to bring the mighty tiger down, and she went limp on the blanket.

Dao and Jes were happy to keep her from falling over, and they both slapped her ass a few times. Coming down from their sex high, the slaps were still enough to have Caera squeezing on him, and make her sensitive insides spasm and milk him. But soon, the sex slowed, and the slaps turned into massaging caresses.

"Okay," David said, panting, and he wiped some sweat from his forehead. Hell was always a bit warm, especially in a room full of bodies piled on bodies. He couldn't help but sweat a little. "That was... a workout."

Chirping happily, Dao nodded as she snuggled up to his side, and nudged his body back until both his cocks slipped free of Caera's body. Before he knew it, they had him on his back.

He looked at the others. Tsila had little Lasca on her back, scissoring her, pussies squashed together. Laria and Latia were beside them doing their best to copy the movements, while Laara had drifted her way to join the others. Laoko and Acelina still had Moriah pinned between them, both taking turns rubbing their pussies against hers or her thighs; so many wings everywhere, it was a wonder no one hurt each other. And with hands to spare, Laoko scooped up little Laara, and buried her enormous tongue in the red goblin's tiny slit, making her belly bulge in waves.

But they were coming down from the waves of sex, too. Grinding slowed. Tiny, breathless gasps turned into soft moans, and then relaxed sighs. The Las were exhausted, and the others set them aside in a literal pile, while Tsila crawled over and sat with Moriah beside Laoko and Acelina.

Much as David currently had three girls around him, with his cum literally leaking out of them, he couldn't help but stare as Laoko climbed onto Acelina, and lay on top of the demon. Acelina was a nine-foot-tall evil goddess of absurd curves with breasts almost as big as her own torso. Laoko was a ten-foot-tall, four-armed devil demon with similar curves, if slightly more muscular, and she smiled down at Acelina as she pressed her breasts down into hers. Acelina grumbled, not happy about the situation, but not fighting to escape either as Laoko gently squashed her breasts down onto the woman underneath her.

With a playful chuckle, Laoko slid down, and wrapped her lips around Acelina's left nipple.

"Cur," Acelina said, but even with no facial features, everyone could see the spire mother relax onto the blankets, her enormous wings spreading and going limp as the biggest demon in the room suckled on her, drank her milk, and massaged her other breast. Which Tsila took advantage of, leaning in and drinking from the free nipple and earning a quiet moan from Acelina. The angel set her closer wing on Laoko's back, and the two ladies snuggled into Acelina, getting comfy on her tits as they massaged the two giant pillows, and kissed her skin.

~~♥♥♥~~

Moriah rolled her eyes and crawled over to David.

"You are to blame for this?" Moriah asked, gesturing.

"I'm not! Caera--"

Caera crawled on top of him and lay on him, the same as Laoko did with Acelina. Lower body between his legs, her upper body lay on his, her breasts on his stomach and her chin on his shoulder. She licked his jaw, nibbled at his jugular, and went limp. If she'd put her entire weight on him, she'd have asphyxiated him.

Smile lighting the room, Daoka clicked at Moriah and gestured down at David.

"Yes, I know, riiva. I am not..." Sighing, Moriah crawled around and knelt over David's head, looking down at him. Her long black hair flowed down over him, and she met his eyes with her red gaze. "In Heaven, your lusts would surprise even us."

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Yes. Two penises aside, do you not realize you just spent the past hour fucking three women without pause?"

He blinked. An hour?

"It couldn't have been--"

"An hour," she said, rolling her eyes, "of you, holding their hips and thrusting." The naked angel flicked his forehead, smiling. "I do not think you normally have that level of endurance. I can only surmise it's your strange body adapting to your desire."

"Makes sense, I guess."

Jeskura nodded, tapping a claw where Moriah flicked him. "Yeah, but let's not think about it too hard, okay? I'm sick of all this thinking."

"We must think," Moriah said. "This is all a giant mystery, and we--"

Daoka clicked, scooted closer to Moriah, and gently pushed the angel over.

"Riiva! I am--"

Jeskura joined her lover, and the two ladies lay on the lean and mean angel. David turned his head just enough to watch Jes lie on top of her, breasts to breasts; they had almost identical body shapes, but Jes had her beat for boobage. Daoka snuggled in, careful of Moriah's wings, and both demons buried the grumbling angel in body rubs, licks, and neck kisses.

Okay, maybe they weren't done.

Caera was, with sex at least. She snuggled on him, licked his jaw, and once he turned his head, lick turned into kiss. Smiling down at him, she put her weight on her elbows around him so she could stare down at him, tilting her head just enough so she could lick the other side of his neck, too. He'd seen people in fancy restaurants admire their meals the same way, too. If he'd been on a plate, she'd have turned it around a couple of times.

"Still want to eat me?" he whispered.

"Yes." She took his neck into her mouth and fangs, and he held still as the tiger gently bit down. Not hard enough to break skin, but he still felt many teeth, and the power of the bite her short snout could use.

He got to live another day. Teeth released, and Caera licked him instead, again turning it into a kiss as she gently rubbed her body down on him, her large, naked breasts squashing against his abs and molding to the shape of his waist.

"Sometimes I wonder," he said. "If I ever got back to the surface world, do you think I could pass you off as a pet?"

"What?"

"Like, a big tiger pet. Some celebrities have big cats as pets; not the best practice, but still. I could keep you in my mansion -- because I'm rich in this fantasy -- and you could walk around naked all day, my giant pet cat. I'd come home from work, and you'd be splayed out on my couch, naked. Then I'd get naked, and fuck you, on the couch. Then we'd hang out on a cleaner couch and watch movies. Naked."

Caera rumbled and nudged noses with him. "It sounds wonderful. But you know I'd get bored with watching a scrying pool, or TV, all day."

"But then we could go explore old ruins and fund excavations and stuff. And you'd be my sexy tiger pet the whole time."

She laughed. "Yeah, maybe. Could be fun."

He ran his hands down her body, down her wide torso and muscles, down her spine and its enormous spikes, and dug his fingers into her hide. Softer now that she was red, but still, a tough body.

"It would be," he said. "With you."

Every muscle in her body relaxed, and she rested her jaw on his shoulder as she snuggled into him.

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

~~Day 137~~

A week later. Six days of walking. Six days of marching with thousands of demons around him.

This was a big deal, but the demons made sure they didn't make it look like that. They were just another battalion, another thousand demons heading out from the tower. Except circumstances were different this time, for the armies of the Red Pits.

Khazeer was with them. So was Sazillia, wearing a suit of aera armor. Maybe she'd earned it back for bringing David to Khazeer, or she'd just need it for the inevitable violence. Either way, Khazeer, Sazillia, and twelve brutes wearing red and bronze armor, wielding red and bronze weapons, walked inside the army.

Tatiana and the other sex demons and betrayers were with him, too. Escorts? The betrayers were all still alive, and far as David could see, Tacharius and Zazee were fine. They didn't look too happy about getting dragged along on this journey, literally marching toward battle, but otherwise looked perfectly fine.

Khazeer had said he would take part in this battle. Madness for a leader to literally join the fight, but considering the man's armaments, it'd take a lot to bring him down. But he'd also said, once David killed the unmarked girl and started his way into the Navameere Fields, that David would be on his own.

Honesty. Khazeer was proving to be the best ally David had made yet.

The spire ruler walked at the back of the battalion with Tatiana and the others. David walked in the middle, with Tsila and Moriah wearing leather cloaks covering their entire bodies. To any eyes above, the Red Pits and its brown and red dirt would blur all the demon bodies together with their brown leathers. David, too. He was just a little guy wearing red silk, walking beside a bunch of other demons.

"I've seen scenes like this in movies," David said.

"What?" Caera asked, walking beside him.

Daoka chirped. From the tone, she'd repeated the question.

David gestured around him. Hundreds of demons in front of him, marching over the dirt and crushing underfoot-remnants into mulch. Hundreds of demons to the left and right. Hundreds of demons behind him. The constant hum of chatting, snarling, and the clinking of meera metal. So many bodies, David couldn't see past them to what lay beyond.

"In spy thrillers and stuff," he continued. "Someone on the run can lose their pursuers by ducking into a crowd. So many people around, you know? No way to keep track of someone if you're trying to look through a thousand bodies."

"Was that not the plan?" Laoko asked, looking back. Even the enormous woman didn't look so huge when surrounded by so many demons.

"It was. I just didn't think it'd work so well."

It wasn't just one battalion on the march. It was ten. Ten thousand demons, all moving in the same direction. The air hummed, and the ground vibrated from twenty thousand footsteps.

"Heaven," Moriah said, walking beside Laoko at the front of the crew, "often has scouts watching Hell's battles from high above. But not since the Spires War has a battle warranted reporting to the council. Demons routinely kill each other in absurdly massive battles, especially here. As long as you do not do something insane, David, we should be able to do battle without interference."

"That's the problem," David said. "I'll end up fighting the other unmarked. It's gotta happen. And if she's doing some crazy shit that someone can notice..."

Moriah nodded, looking up. "If there are angels roaming overhead, I have not seen them since their attack on us two weeks ago. I suspect the civil war has grabbed their attention. And you heard them. The greater angels block each other. Perhaps they interfere?"

"Yeah, maybe. But let's not take the risk. If I fight the unmarked girl -- and we know I will -- then I'll try and take her down without drawing any attention. Subtle songs. Blackstone spikes, things like that. I'll--"

Pegasus clopped up behind him with a quiet whinny, and someone on his back.

"Lasca!" David said, glaring. "I thought I told you not to ride him."

"But he's bigger! Big big." The red goblin gestured down at the goort, and she gave her wings a flap as she smiled at David. Not up at David, just at him, eye level with him.

Pegasus had gotten bigger. A lot bigger. Easy not to notice when he grew only a little every day, but every day over four weeks had apparently been enough to upgrade the winged unicorn from Great Dane, to... a larger-than-normal Great Dane. His shoulder no longer touched David's hip, but pushed past it. His legs were thicker, more muscular. Shoulders, too, back wider and sturdier. Still just a baby goort, but almost at the small horse size. And big enough for an impa to ride, apparently.

"Fine," David said. "And! You, the Las, and Pegasus aren't getting into battle, remember that. Stay in the back and out of the way. Play with the dice I gave you."

"Dice!" Laria said, running up behind Pegasus. She shook the two dice in her hands, making the small, black squares clack. "Snake eyes!"

"You have to roll them first."

She threw them ahead, and they were immediately stepped on by some oblivious brutes and vrats. With a gasp, Laria ran and plucked the two dice from the dirt.

"Dangerous to roll," she said. "But invincible dice!" True enough, the dice were unharmed.

David facepalmed. "Roll, not throw. Remember? You toss them just enough to make them roll. Half a foot is usually enough, or just drop them."

Physics was not something the red goblins understood, or appreciated, and Laria grumbled as she threw the dice straight at the ground. They bounced in random directions, and she scampered to pick them up.

"You okay, Pegasus?" David asked, and he leaned down over the horse's head.

Pegasus pawed at the ground twice and nudged his shoulder into David's side. It wasn't just his bulk, but his wings were growing too, and one flattened against David as Pegasus idly rubbed against him, like a clumsy cat.

Caera came up on Pegasus's other side and smiled. "He is getting bigger. Shame hellbeasts don't store resonance in their hearts. Could be tasty."

David snorted at her, his best demon-like sound, but it only earned a laugh from Caera and a click from Pegasus.

"Acelina," David said, looking back. The demoness stepped up, the other Las behind hers. "You'll keep an eye on Pegasus, right?"

"I have no leash."

"You won't need a leash, right? You speak Hellian. And Pegasus is well-trained." Which was insane. Four weeks old and the hellbeast already understood his name, knew some commands in Estian, knew more in Hellian, and apparently didn't mind a goblin on his back. So big he was basically a lean pony; not the big ponies, but the smaller ones. But if Pegasus stuck his head up high, he'd be as tall as David at the skull. He really had gotten a lot bigger.

How big would he get? Goorts could grow as big as large horses, the massive ones on the surface, and apparently, Pegasus had hatched larger than other baby goorts.

"Dao, Jes, Caera," he said. The girls came in close. "Make sure to stay back, okay? You've been great bodyguards and you've saved my ass many times, but a full-on war? I don't know if I'll be able to handle that chaos. Don't get hurt."

"I've fought in wars, David," Caera said. "Remember?" She gestured to her shoulder where a spire seal marked her, a permanent reminder of Zel's war against the Black Valley.

"And I was one of Zel's best," Jeskura said. "I've killed hundreds of demons, dumbass."

"I get that, but this isn't going to be the same. This is going to be two armies just... smashing into each other. Skill becomes less a factor than luck. And I don't want you dying, okay? Let Laoko die instead."

Laoko, walking just a few meters in front of him, looked back and grinned, shaking her ass at him, long tendril dreadlocks bouncing off the top of its curves.

"And Tsila and I?" Moriah asked, beside Laoko.

"If you two start fighting, you'll draw attention from above. Stay back and only use batlam if you have to."

Sighing, Moriah held up the meera sword she'd been given. "This thing is crude, and blunt."

"Shitload better than the swords in Death's Grip," Jeskura said.

"And I have no shield. Or armor."

Jes flapped her wings and chuckled as she pointed at Moriah's wrapped wings. "Or wings."

"Which means," David said, "Tsila and Moriah should stay near me. Bodyguard duty."

"And I?" Laoko asked, turning and walking backward. The bolstara tetrad's smile was subtle but relentless. So damn tall, her big hooves quietly crushed any unlucky pebbles underneath her.

"I was kidding. I don't want you to die," David said. "But with Moriah and Tsila having to play this stealthy, you're the best fighter we've got. So stay in front but, don't rush ahead. Khazeer's a great ally, but it's obvious he and his entire army are tunnel-visioned on beating Morgana and the Navameere Fields. That's all he wants, and the only reason he's letting us do this"--he gestured around at the surrounding armies giving him a free pass through their province--"is because he thinks I'm an asset. If I kill the other unmarked, I help him in his goal."

"And when she dies?" Laoko asked.

"Then we stay on our guard. I don't think Khazeer will betray us, but you never know."

Betrayal. Laoko didn't like the word, and she snarled.

"I do hope to return to the Grave Valley someday," she said. "I would love to kill Silvain, and Azailia."

Silvain, a bailiff from the Grave Valley, and the tetrad who'd intended to bring David to the Scar to be sacrificed. Without telling Laoko about it. And Azailia, the spire ruler of the Grave Valley, apparently helping the Scar and Tarkissa in that goal.

Jes growled. "I'd love to kill that Silvain asshole, too. And we can go back to Death's Grip and kill Diogo and Tacitus while we're at it."

The girls all had goals, other than the Las. Beyond saving the Great Tower, Laoko wanted revenge and probably to take over the Grave Valley. Jes wanted revenge for someone Diogo had killed, and on Tacitus for abusing Daoka. Moriah and Tsila wanted to stop the civil war in Heaven, and maybe bring down the rider if the opportunity presented itself. Acelina wanted something, but far as David could tell, she didn't know what that was yet. Typical evil, queenly goals of taking over Hell, sure, but there was something else on the woman's mind David couldn't figure out. Maybe Mia could.

And Caera. What about her?

"Caera," David said. "What do you want to do when this is all over?"

Caera tilted her head, thinking. "Guess."

"Okay, Lara Croft."

"What?"

"You want to raid every tomb you can."

The tiger laughed and nudged shoulders with Pegasus. "Don't act like you aren't interested, too. And with that special brain of yours, we could find out what happened in the First War! I bet there's all sorts of stuff written in the Forgotten Place."

Apparently getting her revenge on the Cainites who'd killed her friends had soothed whatever demony desires she'd had. Now she wanted to be an explorer. Maybe revenge really was worth it?

Not the best message for kids.

Daoka came up behind him and slipped her arms around his shoulders. She chirped at him a few times, clicked, and kissed his cheek. No one translated, but everyone stepped away, giving him and the riiva a little space.

She put her lips to his ear, and whispered. "Don't die."

He shivered. The whisper was so quiet, it had no vocal vibration, just pure air straight into his ear.

He turned just enough to whisper back. "I won't."

"Good." She slid her hands down his sides and hugged him tight, pressing her breastplate into his shoulders. Almost a foot taller than him, she was leaning over him to walk and hug at the same time. "Don't... be not nice."

"What?"

"Don't lose your niceness, okay?" She squeezed him a little harder. "I... I don't care about Tacitus. I want to go back to the way things were. I want to go back to quiet times, with you, me, and Jes. Caera, too. Even the others. I want to sit around a scrying pool and watch movies with you, and listen to music. I want you to rest on my lap and suck on my breasts while I stroke your hair. I want this to all be over, so I can take care of you."

He looked ahead, as if looking directly at the satyr whispering into his ear might let everyone know what she was saying. Every word was soft, and he had to focus to catch them as if they'd slip through his fingers. Sacred, and secret.

"Take care of me?"

She nodded, cheek rubbing against his temple. "Take care of you. Everyone else wants to do things. I don't. That's not me. Maybe that's why Jes and I love each other. She takes care of me. I'd be dead without her. And I want to take care of you. I want to have a home where we don't have to fight all the time. The others are welcome, too. Especially Acelina."

He blinked. "Why Acelina?"

Dao giggled, a soft sound, and the loudest she'd made yet.

"She's like me," Dao said.

"Uh, I'm pretty sure Acelina is nothing like you."

"She's a lot like me. Nothing would make Acelina happier than to spend her days being lazy, sitting around on silk blankets, while you sit on her lap and suck on her breasts. She'd pretend she doesn't love it, but she'd stroke your hair, stroke your cock, and melt into your kisses until she cums." Another giggle. "And I like her jewelry."

All this talk right before the battle? He wanted to enjoy the lovely picture Daoka was painting, but all he could do was swallow.

"Dao, I--"

"Laoko can come. She'd try and control everything, but she'd learn to relax. Moriah and Tsila would fit right in. Moriah likes you a lot, and she'd love to spend more time with you, just being around you, talking to you, even if she won't admit it. And the Las would come and go, wandering little bundles of chaos." Sighing, Daoka's hands turned heavy, and she set them on his shoulders as she leaned on him. "You're the only nice soul I've ever known, David. I didn't realize how much I'd love having you nearby, all the time. The way you look at others. The tone of your voice. The words you pick. I don't want to lose that."

Oh boy. Deep breaths.

"I... I'll do everything I can to make sure no one dies, Dao."

"Not no one," she said. "You. Make sure you live. And... don't become like that Greg unmarked."

The idea of becoming Greg was like being dumped in ice water. Yeah, David had grown more comfortable with violence and being the aggressor over the months, but that?

He clenched his eyes shut. "Okay." He leaned back into her, finding a balance with the taller woman as they walked along. The conversation had come out of nowhere, and she might as well have punched him in the gut. But every word had been so damn warm, and inviting, and loving, he melted back into her, turned, and kissed her cheek. She kissed his back.

The army ahead slowed and spread out. Instead of hundreds of bodies blocking the path ahead, the wall of muscle and black armor thinned. The marching armies came to a stop.

Khazeer stepped out from behind his own wall of bodies, Sazillia at his side along with his twelve brutes, the fourteen demons sticking out with their aera armor.

"Not in my life have Morgana's forces ever reached this far," he said, and he motioned for David to join him.

David took a breath, left Daoka behind, and followed Khazeer through the crowd, Laoko and Moriah at his sides, and Caera and Jes right behind him.

"Khazeer," a new tetrad said, waiting at the border of the armies. Wearing more than a few pieces of the red and bronze armor, he was a korgejin tetrad just like Khazeer, hooves, no tail, huge wings, and a nasty set of fangs on his skull-like demon face.

"Zaavras," Khazeer said, and he bumped armored forearms with his second bailiff.

The valley ahead was a graveyard. No tombs, just bodies. Not even bodies. Skeletons and white powder--crushed bones. A couple of kilometers in the distance, a wall of demons faced David and Khazeer's forces, far too close for comfort. Red pits churned on the ground, pulling bones down into the whirlpools of remnant limbs. But the ground was mostly flat, barely a valley at all, and every step would be a crunchy journey over the bones of countless dead.

At a distance, barely more than a dot, a woman sat on what looked like a white chair. And the white chair sat on the back of an enormous black and red spider. No one had exaggerated. That thing was huge.

"Alright," David said. "My fight with her can't last long. This will have to end quickly, or we'll attract 'attention'." He emphasized the word attention, and Khazeer snorted, nodding.

"We are demons," he said. "Battles do not last long. We commit. We slaughter. We win." He withdrew his axes and roared.

And with no plan, no forethought, no parlay, both demon armies rushed into battle, eager for honor, glory, and a heaping pile of death.