Tales From Sios: The Wishing Well Arc

Chapter 8: The Would-be Demonlord

DATE/TIME UNKNOWN; Targazza, In the Umbra'caelo Realm, the 46th layer of the Abyss, Gallenghast District in the infinite metropolis of Latezar.

The endless sprawling bypasses that run through two of three infinite planes of the abyss, formed into a singular finite shape known as Targazza, held purple illumination within the ground. The snaking-like structures of the oversized catwalks cast shadows endlessly into the void of the abyssal sky in the endless network of overhead buildings and even more bypasses, giving the 46th plane of the abyss its demonic namesake; Umbra'caelo. Positioned in the heart of the 47th plane--which without coincidence is the would-be hearts of the other two planes making up the home of the succubi--was a mega-metropolis called Latezar.
Latezar was a continuing bustle of rowdy and chaotic proportions throughout its endless stretch between all three planes, as merchants from across the outer planes came together to exchange wares and vile tales from every walk of life and each corner of planar existence. However, it is hardly a thing of pleasantries as the many nefarious--albeit lonely--tradesmen and tradescreatures are peddling in the abyss of all places and not without warrant. In the largest black market throughout all of existence with only one entity ruling over it all; the ever-feared demonlord known as the Dark Prince whose sole rule over the Triplerealm goes uncontested. Many items; weapons, drugs, body parts (attached or otherwise), and even the occasional soul get traded on the crowded catwalks and highways of this abyssal city.
Salt rivers flow supernaturally throughout the abyss, but here in the Triplerealm those salt flows chaotically shift into sugar. Some of those rivers find pockets in the plane that stare out to a lower layer and those flows go through the infinite expanses making sugarfalls that fall for eternity, becoming salt once more when it leaves the bound layers. Between the packed streets of outsiders, mainly Targazza natives--Succubi, the throngs of creatures moved to and fro with the occasional turmoil coming unhinged throughout the endless expanse of the roadway. The frequent winged creature passing through and snagging any stragglers, if the opportunity arises, if the opportunity arises becomes casual in this realm.
Amongst a random throng gathered about a single peddler stood next to a garish wagon with rough splintering wood encompassing it. Three succubi, all males, stood amongst a sparse audience despite their attendance. In the demonic three-man squad each succubus were a unique demon flaunting similar perfect physiques albeit with vastly differing moods. The tallest of the three was a deep purple hue with bat-like wings of satin and eyes as black as the depths of the abyss. The shortest sported a pale tone resembling milky-marble with black ventral bands stemming from the shoulder and ending at the wrists. Its eyes were a piercing burgundy with an all-black sclera. The last succubus was far from average, despite its physical standing, as it starred on at the peddler with an uneasy and determined gaze from its remaining eye while the other sported a socket that steadily wept a vibrant pink froth.
The peddler, a human in his early thirties, garbed in a dark cloak that clung to his person with the hood pulled over the forehead and four long prongs to a dark beard magically flowing before the tradesman's chest, waved his arms dramatically out wide arcing in two semi-circles opposing in flow before bringing them in close to his face drawing the mystique and wonder of the other creatures attempting to stroll pass. "Bindings to snare the soul of a misfit, or salves to bring purity to its knees with affliction! I have all that could be desired!" The peddler announced exaggerating his tone with odd hand gestures and signs using his fingers in a way that seemed almost unnatural.
The smallest succubi gave a wry grin as the largest scoffed with annoyance leaving the third to speak up and question, "Is your soul for sale?"
The question had the other two succubi immediately switching their moods as the large one declared, "Not a chance this man has a soul left. He isn't dumb enough to come to the abyss with it..."The man narrowed his eyes on the tallest and held his gaze while he spoke, his tone also growing more cold and far-less kind, "If its souls you wish...I could part with a choice few, but I didn't bring them with me this sprinkling."
"He talks the talk, but doesn't appear to be what he seems." The one-eyed demon reasoned melodramatically, but the small one didn't patronize in its remark, "He isn't a demon...beg thee, creature, what use are your wares if we just take your soul?"
The largest also kept the gaze of the peddler as it prodded the man with a demonic mind to no avail, "He uses something to block me."
At that, the man broke his gaze as he stepped back closer to his small black cart hands held out in submissive relay. "Now as a tradesman im under your Demonlord's protect-"
"Don't quote laws at us. We are the demons here, we don't give two licks of a hell flame about those rules." The smallest bellowed out causing a few of the throng members to take their leave as the situation showed a turn for the worse on the up-and-coming, not worth getting caught up in.
"Why don't you come to kiss me?" The pink-frothed orbital dripped a fizzing glob on the ground as he moved closer to the back peddling peddler.
The man twisted his face into a snarl before swearing under his breath, "Fuckin demons..."
"Gizmol, the human has magic that is deferring our abilities. Don't try. Lets just leave this one and head back to-", the largest began but was cut short.
"To hell with this." The smallest turned his gaze to the man while he neared fanning his bat-like wings out and back-in, partially cocooning his person, using his wings like an odd thin shell to disappear behind.
The one called Gizmol cried out in bitter taste, "Ahh, how come Dante gets to have all the fun?"
The large succubus only rolled his eyes before Dante ripped his wings back exposing a twin set of magically enhanced scimitars--both aimed thrusting for the tradesmen--of elven fashion with fiendish traits. Before either blade of glossy blackened steel could find its mark, the man had slid back his hood, revealing more than a man, but a horrid anomaly of creation. With four long tentacles of a pale blue tone with royal purple spots speckling over all of its skin...only it didn't seem to have skin, only nerves made up its clothed frame. When the being unhooded itself, it appeared to slip off some sort of a headpiece that clattered to the ground with a magical ring like a whir of gears spinning out of control and Dante missed his mark as the monstrosity deftly evaded the dual skewer and flung its head in an arc that whipped the single barbed tentacles out at the succubus, but Dante easily ducked all four reaching living weapons and spun in place descending into a crouch while the other two demons watched with mixed emotions, playing on their perfect features, as they stood aside and watched. Until the next moment when the anomaly snapped its head back to look at Dante and in a sudden burst of mental waves, before the tentacles could even begin to move to catch up to the gaze, flooded out to crash over all three demons. Dante froze in his stance as the larger one fell in suite, eyes glazing over as deadened moans escaped their lips, but the pink foaming demon, so called Gizmol, violently shook his head as the volatile frequency squealed with malicious intent. Finally, Gizmol pushed pass the sensation of giving in to the dead brain and fully pulled himself from the intense mind effect.
Gizmol quickly scanned, darting his view around, until his eye fell on the anomaly who had watched his struggle. At that the remaining demon, Gizmol, rushed to the being, but both lunged for their destiny. It lunged forward and grasped Dante's vegetable like frame while Gizmol, watching in shocked stupidity, flew forward with outstretched arms and in mid-lurch they locked eyes right before the anomaly winked out of existence with the smallest of the succubi. Gizmol was left to have only caught air before crashing on the ground, turning with deft reflexes to land on shoulder instead of face, sending a pink foaming pus to spray out from his socket and rain down in a mist of tiny pink clusters of demonic goo to rain over him and the violet glowing road.

                     AP#46●>>>●MP:Sios

Novi 21, 5-14980
Time: 1:00am
Near the border to Indomabilis on the Côte Bizarre in the Almecca Kingdom. Late Autumn.

Dante came to, but immediately realized his surroundings were not of his demonic dwelling. Nothing was the same... the smell was orderly with a hint of chaos as nearby odors began wafting in and mixing with his own. It was also bright, despite the darkness, for the heavens stretched out in full display as he starred up at the siosen night sky full of color and wonder. The temperature was cold, but not so cold to bother the demon who stayed laying on dew covered grass and soft soil while his head's incessant ringing droned on.
He had never laid upon something so welcoming before, not in all of the 48 years of abyssal life he endured, so he laid there until his head stopped harassing him. Hours passed as he recovered lazily watching the stars randomly fall and zip past. Until a pack of grazing fauna unknowingly intruded upon the succubus. The herd had just gotten within a hundred feet of Dante when their superficial thoughts began to flood in with many individual simple calls for, 'rest' and an agreeance of 'here'.
Dante inclined his head bending his neck in a hyperextension that allowed him to stay laying while looking behind him althewhile unbeknownst to the now grazing deer. Their thoughts were sporadic and fairly nonsensical, but Dante waited patiently as they inched ever nearer before finally stealing his moment.
With a slurping-crackle Dante teleported from his siosen bed and appeared with a crackling-slurp, face-to-face with the buck of the herd. It didn't even have time to rear before Dante ripped free his two blades from sheaths, crossing his arms and slicing outward in both directions simultaneously, spilling the blood of the deer to gush forth in a heavy torrent before it crashed to the ground headless. The sickening death throws it made--convulsing into the soft sios--sent the herd into a panicked scatter, but Dante was far from finished as he used the back of his hand still clutching the matte black handle to his blade, 'Nip', to smear the fresh blood over his attractive features, that under the crimson sheen, grew diabolical. Casually, Dante flicked his wrist that held 'Tuck' and sent it slashing back toward the downed buck, stopping it abruptly. Slinging blood off its usual black glossy surface, Tuck sparkled burgundy in the red-moonlight as it shed its black-looking liquid-sheath. In a flash the demon rushed the nearby fleeing prey, feeling the wet ground as his taloned toes ripped free the blades of grass in his motion, he caught up to it with ease as his powerful wings helped him surge forward meeting the doe and stabbing down with both blades. Like fangs of a serpent, the blow ripped through its hind quarters and pinned it to Sios. Its wailing continued as he abandoned the doomed fauna and leapt for another deer beheading it, from a single stroke with Nip, before teleporting to the next. He steadily worked traveling magically and slicing, moving further from where he initially had lain.
After several minutes the field was littered with slaughtered deer and the ground appeared black from the blood than ran thick upon it. Dante, who was walking beside a lone doe through the massacre, had bent the poor creature to his whim and suddenly began a mental conversation with it.
'I am Dante the demonlord of lust...do you have a name creature?'
The doe looked to him with soft thoughtful eyes that seemed vile in the glare of the moonlight, 'Anej-ay.'
Dante's features hardened as he scoured his memory of the books he read about on the material plane. It took a moment before it dawned on him that he had read about this. 'Ah, so in the common tongue you would be Jane...I see now. Tell me, sweetling...do you have desires, Jane?'
The doe responded in thought immediately, 'Abyb-ay, abyb-ay, abyb-ay, abyb-'
'Enough!' Dante commanded telepathically, forcing the doe into silence mentally, though it did let out a snort as it shook its head from the stress.
'So you desire a baby. Hmmm' Dante scanned the deer and saw her distended belly and realized she had her desire already. Dante finally stopped his stroll as he pointed down to the initial buck he had slain. 'Who is this to you?'
'Rotectorp-ay, Eadd-ay, Eadd-ay!' Jane's eyes began welling as it frantically looked to the body before darting around scanning the area. Dante felt its panic build before quelling it with his mind.
'(You are safe with me).'
Immediately the doe slipped into docility once more from his suggestion as Dante extended his hand to its belly and caressed the bump facing him feeling the soft fur beneath his palm and a gentle kick from the babe within.
'Your baby is not.' Before the doe could move Dante plunged his claws through its fur and used the other hand to grab the deer by the throat. Its screams were long pained distress bawls that echoed across the grove they stood in. Like music to his ears, Dante began to sway his head as if to a melody before he gripped the edge of the hole he made and ripped it upwards sending blood to fall and splash over his feet althewhile exposing a swollen womb. The deer began a series of pitiful moans as the demon extracted the fetal deer, holding the doe still by the throat as he reached in up to his shoulder, slicing with surgical precision with his demonic nails to remove the sac. The doe's cries drained to ragged breathing when he finally pulled it free, as its legs gave out, but Dante's hold around its neck kept it from crumbling to the ground fully. Its eyes were full of terror as the demon moved to gently set her down, cradling the sac while he did so.
Dante turned to the uteral sac and with his freed hand ran a long slit across its surface in an 'x' pattern before he peeled it with dainty pinched claws, but before he started the second line the fluid poured free and the deer gave another whimper drawing Dante's attention.
'Shush sh-sh-shussshhhh. Stay with me, no, don't go to that light, the Beastlands can wait.' Dante knelt with the sac as he finished cutting it and peeling the flesh to show the still fetal fawn, angling the makeshift window to showcase to Jane her unborn.
The doe tilted head toward her babe grasped in the exposed womb and between pained motions of sniffing its eyes finally grew wide as the smells brought reality into realization and thoughts, full of dread, spilled into Dante's mind, 'Ym-ay. Abyb-ay! Ym-ay! ABYB-Ay!..'
'No, no, Jane. (This isnt a baby...its a fruit from my world.)' Dante was quick to reason and gave a vile lip twisting smile at his own suggestion.
Jane was partially convulsing from its breathes as its life dwindled, but its thoughts were magically affixed on the odd looking fruit in the demons arms softly thinking as its mouth began watering, 'Ummyy-ay. Umy-ay. Umy-ay!'
'True, it is delicious, but the best part is that seed.' Dante, while he mentally spoke, reached in and plucked the unborn from the sac and held it out for the mother, 'Of course how rude of me. Have first bite...'
The doe, without any hint of hesitation, lunged and snapped down on the soft back of the fetal fawn, pulling a crescent chunk out of it, before gnashing on the super tender flesh.
"Ooo look! Two seeds! Now that is lucky!" Dante exclaimed, aloud, while he flung the first--hitting the mother in the face--before he plucked out the twin with a thought-addage, 'That one you can have, since you took most of the best part in that one bite...so selfish.'
Jane didn't flinch when it slapped against her snout, but moments later while still gnashing a third bite--consisting of a majority of the first fawn's soft skull and brain--suddenly went still.
Dante looked from her, mouth chomping its violent demonic maw back to his snack and finished chewing before swallowing loudly. "Gross. It is grown cold already. No matter..."Dante tossed the 'seed' and knelt to the lifeless deer, grabbing through her wound to find a rib before snapping it out. He gnawed the flesh and tendon that clung to it, picking it clean before holding it out for his examination after his teeth were done reshaping it to a fine point at its slender end, "Looks like shit... it's perfect."
Dante moved over to the head of the buck from before and grabbed it by the thick stalk of antler in one hand and walked it back over to the family he had just dined with. Setting it down to cover the wound on Jane's side, he dipped the end of his rib quill in the pool of blood still soaking into the sios all around him, and while still kneeling began marking in the blood on the buck's antlers; glyphs of his heritage. Each stroke demanded more blood as the bleeding in the antlers absorbed in a supernatural way forcing more symbols than what he drew. The blood soaking around the doe began to boil as Dante spoke an enchantment in broken Dark Speak--the language of negative energy, mixed with a splattering of infernal and abyssal--while he continued his inscription filling every inch of the antler with seldom a stroke doing so on its own.
Clouds began to roll in as Dante stepped back at his work of art, hands spread out as he muttered his name to finalize the chant. Suddenly the deer altar was swallowed by sios as the ground caved and a spire of onyx rose from the ground, filled with scripture in silver and gold of his own choosing. The clouds blocked out the astral heavens just as the jutting spike of a pillar formed. From its base, the blood boiled and steamed while further out from the carnage the grass withered and died.
"I could get used to this," Dante affirmed aloud nonchalant.