chapter four (story)

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!”