Chapter the fourth

Notes on Succubi and Incubi. Lustful thoughts aren't just
confined to the heads of men, women also can be lead down
that same path. Usually though it is a man who is most
tempted and therefore easier prey, truly in this regard men
are the weaker sex. Succubi use this to their advantage to
take over the minds of men. Incubi, though less numerous,
ply their trade to lure women into lustful acts. 

Both of kinds of these devils truly seek only one thing, the
one thing they can't understand or give on their own, love.
If someone could truly come to love a succubus or incubus
without being drawn in by their physical perfection then
that person could in theory totally undo that devil. 

Certainly there are demons of lust but they are nothing like
their devilish counterparts. Where devils are strictly
regimented by type, demons seem to be a random collection of
whatever aspects of sin they wish to express.


Lucifer forced them all to march through the woods at a fair
turn of speed. He knew that Malficiouse wouldn’t give her
up that easily. 

“We shouldn’t be following him, he’s bloody dangerous.
You saw what he did! He just wiped almost all of us out!
Just like that. And did you see that…that…thing he
turned into?” shimmer Whispered just loud enough for
Lucifer to hear.

“Will you shut up? My god! Do you ever stop whingeing? Is
this what it’s like in heaven? Little girls having a bitch
at one another all the time? Anyway we have to follow him,
what choice do we have? He is strong enough to protect us
and he has that woman. We have no choice but to follow for
our own good and hers!” screamed Ditzy. She was getting
really annoyed by the angels constant whining. 

“Who in hell do you think you are to talk to an angel like
that!” shimmer screamed back. Lucifer had had enough. 

“She’s right, you do need my protection and you need to
make sure that I don’t use her for my own devices. If I
were to leave you now then you’d be dead within the hour.
That pretty halo on you head it getting you attention.
You’re putting the rest of the party in jeopardy just by
having it. 
If you don’t shut your whining face I’ll leave you here
for dead. Better yet, I’ll kill you take your sole for my
sword and keep your pretty halo! 
Now if you don’t stop shouting those spies in the trees
over there will get spooked and tell that scouting force to
come get us. Personally I’ve done enough fighting today so
I’ll let you tack care of them! Would you like that little
angel?” Lucifer was shouting at the top of his lungs but
two inches from the angels face. He pulled back and regained
his composer. He turned to Dani 
“Dani, don’t look but to our left there is a large ash
tree. In the branch third from top is a spy. It’ll look
like a large malformed bat. When I turn shoot it. 

A moment later he turned, there was a twang of a bow and a
strangled screech of to their left followed by and thud. 

The party walked on in silence for three hours. It was going
dark and as much as he would have preferred to carry on
through the night he knew his companions needed rest. 

“Stop. We set up camp here tonight. Shimmer your on first
watch, Dani you make a fire, Ditzy see if you can make a bed
for our sleeping beauty here and Debbeh your cooking
tonight.” It came quick, most of them piled into each
other, But were up and about there chores just as quick.
They’d all been secretly aching, they weren’t used to
walking for so long. 

Ditzy set about making the bed; she closed her eyes and put
her hands out in front of her. Muttering some words she got
to work. The trees to either side of the camp grew; they
made a cocoon around the small camp protecting it from miner
dangers. Branches grew down towards Lucifer. They made a
slid slab of wood, and then they blossomed. There were
hundreds of precious pink petals resting daintily atop the
slab of wood. The bed looked impressive and comfy to say the
least, it certainly impressed Lucifer. 

“Think you can make a few more of those bed’s for the
rest of us?” he asked obviously jealous of the witches’
bed.

She just smiled and shook her head, “sorry, that took a
lot. If it were anywhere other than hell then I’d have
been easy. But these trees are old and dieing that last
growth will probably have killed them. Sorry.” She looked
exhausted from he little excursion. 

Dani had got the fire started at least. It was small but it
was growing, that would do for tonight’s food though. And
we can here everyone’s stories as well. 

As Lucifer stood pondering what to do that night Liz came
scurrying up.

“Eerm... Lucifer, What can I do?” 

“Hum? What? Ooh you. Eerm…You’re a blacksmith aren’t
you?” 

“The best in my village!” she said with pride
“Ooo…was the best in my village…” she sagged as this
hit her.

“Have you ever transferred the power of a sole from a sole
gem to a weapon?”

“A who in the what?”

Lucifer sighed. He could tell this woman was useless.
“Look all you do is heat up the weapon and melt the soul
gem underneath it. The soul is then forced into the weapon.
Got it?”

”Eerm…sounds easy enough, but I need a forge and a damn
hit one if you want me to melt a gem.”

Again Lucifer sighed. “The heat doesn’t matter, just as
long as it heats the sword almost to boiling. The crystal
needs almost no heat at all.” As he said this he tapped
his belt again. Again out came the console, he scrolled
along until there shone the picture of a map. He tapped the
map. The map was enlarged.

He looked around the map while she looked on in awe. She
didn’t know what he was looking for or even how he was
looking for it. It all seemed to alien to her.

Finally he ran his hand down the map, making it shrink back.
He had made his decision. He told everyone to come in and
listen “Right me and her are going to a town to fix a
weapon, you lot are going to stay here and guard her. Any
questions?” 

They all looked horrified. “You said that people were
after her! And that shimmers halo was attracting unwelcome
people! And that we wouldn’t last an hour without you!”
wailed Ditzy “You can’t just leave us!” 

“Ooh quit whining! We’ll be back in twenty minuets!
I’m sure that you defend yourselves until we’re back.
Now we’re going” he picked her up again, walked out,
brought out his wings again and flew away. They all ran to
the opening, staring in demoralised disbelief. Including a
new face.

It took him three minuets to get to the small village. It
was little more than a cluster of buildings. One of them was
a forge, it’s fire’s were burning bright. They landed
and walked in. 

“I need your forge, leave us for twenty minuets and I’ll
pay you well” the dwarf nodded and ran out. As soon as he
was out the door Lucifer tapped the console yet again and
pulled out the pure white sword. He handed the sword to Liz;
she walked over to the forge and began to heat it to the
immense heat required. 

Lucifer took out the soul gem and threw it in the fire
underneath his sword. 

Immediately Liz screamed out “No the sword isn’t ready
yet, the soul will be useless!” but the gem stayed there
in the flames doing nothing out of the ordinary. She looked
confused “I thought it didn’t need much heat?” 


“It doesn’t, it needs a little magic that’s all. Now
I’m going to talk to the owner, I trust you can be trusted
to heat my sword?” the little dwarf nodded. 

Lucifer Strode out of the forge. He saw the owner waiting
outside a little too close to the door for his comfort.
“You, dwarf what’s your price?” he said rather louder
than he should have. 

The dwarf looked a little puzzled by the demons volume, but
he’d learned not to ask a long time ago. “Eeer…What
kind of currency you got on ya?”

“I have all currencies, from the rubies to pound sterling.
Whatever you take I’ve got it” he replied again louder
than necessary. The dwarf looked puzzled, he couldn’t see
any money pouches on the demon.

“Eeer…then call it twenty sapphires” the dwarf
followed suit by raising his voice; this demon wasn’t
doing it for fun. The demon looked pleased that he was
talking louder. Then he drew the demon in and whisper in its
ear “and kill the wife, she’s getting tiresome and a
drag in the business if you know what I mean?” 

The demon straightened up and nodded, but it carried on
talking “So how’s business going?” 

The dwarf looked confused, demons never took and interest in
mortals lives other than to terrorise them. But the demon
ushered him to carry on. So carry on he did. 

They carried on talking loudly about nothing much for a good
five minuets. All the time the demon would press it’s ear
against the door then draw back to speak. Something was
obviously not right. 

Inside the forge the little dwarf carried on smelting the
sword. It was burning hot now although it was hard to tell
with it shining it’s brilliant white light. It illuminated
all the shadows of the forge. She heard the dwarf and demon
talking outside, she waited for a minuet until she was sure
that he wouldn’t be coming in anytime soon before she
pulled out a gem around her own neck. 

Then held the gem tight and muttered something under her
breathe. A moment later a small void opened a foot away from
her. A demon poked its head out.

“You have something for me?” the demon said in a demure
voice.

“Yes master, look master! This sword it’s power is
immense! You will surely be able to crush your enemies with
this!” the demon looked at the weapon. The void grew and
the demon stepped out. It stood at just over six foot tall
in a red velvet bathrobe. 
“This is powerful indeed. How did you come to get this
sword?” 

“Well I was rescued from that market by a strange
half-breed demon, its power was unfathomable! But It has
given me this sword to put this sole gem into.” She said
pointing to the soul gem under the sword. 

The demon looked cautious, as if he had remembered something
it didn’t want to. “Where is this demon now?” 

“He’s outside the door. He’s talking with the owner of
this forge. Don’t worry he’s not about to come in.” 

“What did you say he was called?”

“He said he was called Lucifer…”

The door burst open and Lucifer jumped in with his dark
blade drawn. The new demon had already begun its scream but
it intensified when he saw Lucifer there with his sword. Liz
dived under a table but the new demon was paralysed.

Lucifer walked up to it, the fire threw strange and
disturbing shadows from him making him look all the more
ominous and powerful. The demon regained it’s muscles. It
knew it had no option but to stand and fight. 

It drew it’s own weapon, an evil looking rapier. It thrust
and stabbed at Lucifer as he approached. All the hit’s
landed but none seemed to have any affect other than to rip
his chainmail. With his bare chest revealed Lucifer’s
Image was enhanced, the chainmail had been doing a good job
of hiding his muscles, but now the flames were being
reflected from the sweat glistening on his bare chest. The
effect was moral crushing. The other demon stared in
disbelief and admiration. Lucifer was upon him. With one
crushing blow to the head the demon was thrown through the
wall. 

Lucifer bent down and picked up the dwarf by the scruff of
the neck.

“Who was that and how long have you been taking orders
from him?”

Liz was hesitant at first but Lucifer sighed and brought her
head close to the flames burning the back of her head. She
screamed out in agony. Amidst the screams Lucifer made out
the words “Darius XXXIV” and “three months” 

Darius the third? Lucifer had never herd of him. He must be
a nobody. Lucifer finished the job by holding her head in
the flames. After a few seconds the screaming stopped. After
a minuet her pulled out a headless body. Even the bones had
disintegrated.

He took his sword from the flames, put it back in the
console and walked over to the owner, he gave him one
hundred sapphires and flew away with the body in hand.

“Wait!” yelled the dwarf “what about my wife? You’re
meant to kill my wife dammit!”

“Hugo!!! What did you just say? And who was that? And what
was that about having me killed?” obviously his wife had
woken up at the most inopportune time. He sighed. Looked
like he’d have to do it himself, he went into his house
and picked up a war axe from above his fireplace and shouted
up “nothing dear. I’ve got a surprise for you!”