by Eric Vall
“That’s gonna take forever,” she sighed. “Could I just use Harold and Kumar to blast away all the chunks?”
“I like your thinking,” I admitted, “but that’d be way too loud. Gressil would hear the gunshots and have an entire army of Tartaruchi on us before we could even clear a ten foot section.”
“I could freeze them,” Cupi suggested as she summoned blue Hellfire into her hands. “That would at least cool them down long enough for us to try and dig.”
“That’s still gonna be a lot of work,” Tris argued. “And besides, if them babies are as hot as the fiery waterfall we just passed through, it’ll melt through your spell.”
“I-I could try,” Gula suggested as she raised her hand timidly.
“Try what, Gula?” Sia questioned.
The Sister of Gluttony didn’t respond with words. Instead, she just looked down at the ground, brushed her feet in the sand, and then snapped her fingers. The second she did so, brown Hellfire erupted from her hand and surrounded her open palm in a shimmering, dark flame.
“Sister!” Cupi gasped. “Is that what I think it is?”
Gula nodded slowly, but still said nothing.
“When did you--you’ve never had this power before,” Sia stuttered.
“I just got it,” the succubus explained. “I think it’s part of my upgrade.”
“I’m reaaaall confused, Jakey,” Todd whispered. “What does brown Hellfire do? Make other demons shit themselves?”
“I’m as lost as you are,” I answered. “I’ve never encountered this color of spell before.”
“That’s because it’s really rare,” Cupi spoke up.
“These types of spells come from determination and the bonds of friendship,” Superbia explained. “As you can imagine, there’s not a lot of the latter down here in Hell.”
“But what does it do?” Tris asked curiously.
“It’s mostly seen as ‘support’ magic,” Sia continued. “Brown Hellfire can be used to give allies temporary power boosts. On its own, it can amplify or reduce the effects of, well anything. Take a flame, for example. Gula could use her power to turn a candle flame into a raging inferno. Conversely, she could turn a massive fireball into a simple spark, if her power level is higher than the demon who cast it. The magic also works on sounds, temperatures, light … really anything that has varying levels of intensity.”
“So, basically she’s got Thaumaturgy,” Todd noted. “Interesting spell, but I’ve almost never seen it be useful in any of my DnD campaigns.”
“You must not play DnD with very creative people, then,” I laughed. “That sounds like a fucking awesome spell. Gula, you want to try it out?”
“Certainly.” The redhead nodded and stepped toward the Field of Ember. “Anything I can do to help.”
“Also, shucks,” I joked. “Do you really think our friendship is that strong?”
“Bro,” Todd mused, “you’ve stuffed her guts like a sausage maker with your roast beef pounder. If that ain’t strong friendship, I don’t know what is.”
“Right,” I chuckled as I tried not to think too hard about the visual.
The flirty moment between Gula and I was totally ruined, so we both just turned back to the task at hand.
The curvy redhead approached the edge of the Fields of Ember, closed her eyes, and then concentrated. As she did so, her body was engulfed in the dark fire of determination, and she began to levitate off the ground. Then the succubus extended her hands outward and blasted her spell onto the landscape before her.
Her fire crackled and hissed softly as it spread across the glowing red embers and engulfed each individual piece with its shimmer. Slowly, but surely, the soft red glow of the field dimmed down and then died out.
“Holy shit,” I whistled at the sight, and I turned and slapped Todd on the shoulder. “Worthless power, huh?”
“Still,” Tris groaned, “how are we gonna move all of this shit without green Hellfire?”
“Simple physics,” I reassured her. “Cupi, could you give us some blue magic?”
“Certainly,” the blonde succubus nodded and set her hand aglow, “but what ever for?”
“I want you to ice the ground,” I explained. “Right underneath the embers.”
Cupi gave me a confused look, but then she simply shrugged and set to work. The blonde woman strutted over to the edge of the field, sprayed her icy spell downward, and then watched as it spread forward as far as the eye could see.
“How’s that?” she asked as she stared back at me over her shoulder.
“Perfect.” I nodded. “Now, who wants to fly up and do some melting?”
“I’ll do it,” Tris agreed, “but I still don’t see where this is going.”
“Just trust me,” I reassured the succubus. “Fly up and, on my signal, rain fire down on the fields.”
Tris’ large, bat-like wings sprouted forth with a flash of purple Hellfire. Now that she was “leveled up,” her wings had an outline of silver, and the skin between her bony appendages was perfectly smooth.
More importantly, each one now beared a tattoo of my sigil.
The Sister of Sloth took to the sky, traveled about fifty feet off the ground, and then prepared her red Hellfire.
At the same time, I called forth my bronze flames of judgement. Next, I slammed my glowing fist into the ground, pictured the fire traveling to the halfway point of the field, and then watched as it followed my commands.
I ordered my spell to create different degrees of vibrations in an ascending pattern, all the way across the field. There was a dull hum as the sandy ground beneath us began to vibrate and shift, but I made sure it didn’t grow too loud.
“Now!” I commanded, and Tristitia unleashed a blast of Hellfire down into the field. “Gula, give her a boost!”
The Sister of Gluttony was caught off guard, and she just barely was able to get her spell off in time. Gula’s brown flames collided with Tris’ incendiary attack and amplified it into the size of a semi truck.
The powered-up blast struck the Fields of Ember, and its intense heat radiated off it like asphalt in the summer. Around us, the air began to fill with the sound of cracking ice, and then there was the distinct sound of rushing water.
Bingo.
As the water rushed down the newly-formed crater, it took the embers with it. Within a minute, the ice was completely gone, as were the hundreds of thousands of rocky covers.
Now, all that stood before us was a large, flat track of land.
“You said she can amplify sounds, right?” I asked Superbia as I pointed to Gula.
“Correct,” Sia gasped, probably still impressed by what she had just seen.
“Good,” I retorted. “Gula, I want you to look for the sound of dripping water. When you find it, turn it up a few notches, okay?”
“Bro,” Todd grumbled as he rubbed his fingers against his temples. “This whole plan is too smart for me. Could ya please elaborate in the language of the commoners?”
“We think the Castle of the Heretic is underneath these fields, right?” I began, and the imp nodded. “So, I just created a makeshift stream out of Cupi’s ice attack. The entrance to the castle is somewhere out in these fields, and I’m imagining it’s a hatch or a giant hole in the ground or something. Sooooo … ”
“Still not following.” Todd shrugged.
“When the water rushes over the hole, it’ll fall down,” I continued. “And when it falls down--”
“It’ll make the sound of dripping water!” Sia gasped. “Jacob, you’re a genius.”
“Seriously,” Tris added. “This means we don’t have to go flying over the entire place looking for the damn thing! My wings will thank you later, my dude.”
Gula shushed us harshly, and we all stopped talking. Then the redheaded succubus brought brown flames into her hands, knelt down, and buried them into the sandy Earth.
There was nothing but silence for a moment as she worked, but then, off in the
distance, we heard it.
Dripping water.
“This way!” Cupi exclaimed as she ran forward, sprouted her wings, and somersaulted into the sky.
Todd was right behind the succubus, while Gula and Tris halted to pick up Sia and me before they followed.
The six of us traveled north, in the direction of the sound, for a solid ten minutes. As we soared across the barren landscape, the sound of the water grew louder and louder until it was almost deafening.
Then I saw it. There, in the ground below us, sat a large wooden hatch.
It wasn’t anything too complex. It appeared to be made out of some sort of dark wooden material with a handle made out of Vargrat twine. As we fluttered down closer, I noticed the thing didn’t even have a hinge, it was just a giant manhole cover in the middle of the Sixth Circle.
“This has to be it,” Gula confirmed as she approached. “Kegg’s castle will be through here.”
“These guys must really be scared shitless of you, bro,” Todd noted. “It took us a lot of fucking trouble to find this place.”
“Knowing Kegg, I think it’s the opposite,” Cupi shuddered. “I think he wants to be in an enclosed, locked-off space so if you find him, you won’t be able to escape.”
“There won’t be any escape,” I growled as I grabbed onto the handle of the hatch and lifted. “I’m not leaving until this asshole is dead.”
As I pulled away the lid, my nostrils were assaulted with the smell of sulfur. I gagged, tossed the hatch to the side, and then stared down into the abyss.
Below us was pure darkness. Just at the top of the entrance, there was the tail end of a rope that hung down until it fell out of our sight completely.
“I’m getting PTSD for gym class, bro,” Todd shuddered. “I think I’m just gonna fly down this one.”
“Is there enough room for us to fly?” I questioned as I inspected the hole further. “The shaft looks way too narrow.”
“No comment,” the imp said as he tried to hold back a giggle.
“Perhaps we could jump and then catch ourselves at the last minute?” Cupi suggested. “If there’s an entire castle down there somewhere, then it can’t stay that narrow forever.”
“We’d be flying in the dark,” Sia warned. “Or, at least as close to ‘in the dark’ as our Hellfire will allow.”
“Wait a second,” I pondered as my finger drifted up my right arm.
I had a morbid idea, but it was one that would definitely work. I tapped on my tattoo of Ira’s flaming whip, and it began to glow with a blinding white light. Then a beam of the magic extended from my arm and formed the figure of the Sister of Wrath directly in front of us.
The succubus was completely naked, and she had her whip in one hand and a giant, dick-shaped piece of wood in the other.
“Awwwww,” Ira groaned, “I was just about to get to the good part.”
“Sorry,” I bemused awkwardly and rubbed the back of my neck, “but, uh, we need your skills right now.”
“Apologize to my sub, not me,” Ira corrected. “I was just going to fuck her raw with a wooden dildo.”
“Ahhh, the ‘ol rough n’ dry,” Todd nodded, “or, as I like to call it, ‘life.’”
“This will be quick,” I promised the succubus. “We just need to figure out how far down this pit goes, and if there’s anything down there that might be dangerous.”
“Oh!” the Dom giggled as she tossed her toys to the side. “I’ll be right back. Geronimo!”
The Sister of Wrath dashed toward the hole, and my cock hardened in my pants as I saw her breasts jiggle with each step. Then Ira jumped up into the air and went feet-first into the hole.
There was nothing for a few seconds, but then we suddenly heard a loud “crash” at the bottom of the pit.
I quickly tapped the tattoo on my arm to return Ira to her original place, and then I touched it again to call her back to us.
As she appeared in the white glow of the spell, her body was completely crumpled up. Her leg bones were sticking out of her knees, and she had scrapes and bruises all over her naked body.
However, she was still in high spirits.
“About two hundred feet, I’d say,” she said in an orgasmic tone as she touched the exposed bone of her leg. “The tunnel widened about sixty feet from the ground, though. No traps. That was fun.”
Ira bit her lip passionately as she studied her wounds, but then she surrounded her body in golden Hellfire. The second she was encased by the healing flames, the bones from her legs crawled back beneath her skin, and then her flesh grew back over them. Each one of the succubus’ wounds sealed themselves shut until the Dom was as good as new.
She stood up, brushed the sand off her shoulder, and then picked up her toys.
“Uh, Crazy Eyes?” Todd asked and pointed to her sandy lower half. “I think you missed some.”
“Not at all,” Ira said through a sly smile. “That’ll be extra lubricant.”
Todd let out a shudder that sounded like it touched his very soul and shook his head vehemently.
“Thanks for the help, Ira.” I nodded to the succubus and touched the whip tattoo. “Now, go have fun.”
“Oh, I wiiiiilllll,” the dark-haired woman purred as she disappeared with a flash of white light.
As soon as she was gone and we’d all gotten over the weird shit we’d just seen, I turned back to my friends.
“Okay, so it’s about two hundred feet down, and it opens up at about sixty,” I reiterated. “Now, I’m not a mathematician, but I think that’ll give us enough time to slow our momentum before we all send our knees through our shoulders.”
“It does,” Sia confirmed, “but we’ll only have a few seconds of wiggle room. If we expand our wings too quickly, we’ll hit the walls and spin out of control. If we expand too late then, well … knees through the chest.”
“This is the first and only time I’m gonna say this, bro,” Todd warned, “but thank fuck I’m so tiny. Now that we know there ain’t any nasty surprises, I can just float on down there and act as a spotter for the rest of y’all. Now, if you’ll excuse me … cannonball!”
The imp ran over to the pit, surrounded his body with black Hellfire, and then hopped over the edge. He plummeted out of sight, and then there was nothing but silence.
A few moments later, we saw a flicker of Hellfire ignite all the way down at the bottom of the pit and wave back and forth like a signal.
Todd was alright.
“Okay,” I sighed. “Who wants to go first?”
“I will,” Tris offered as she stepped forward. “Better to just do it and get it over with. Besides, I don’t wanna really carry anybody else.”
“How thoughtful of you, Tris.” Gula rolled her eyes at the comment, but I could tell by her tone of voice that she was joking.
The Sister of Sloth stepped over to the edge of the hole, shrugged, and then jumped down, feet-first.
All four of us seemed to hold our breath as we waited for what happened next, and it was so quiet you could probably hear a pin drop on the sandy ground.
Then we heard the sound of fluttering wings, and a second red flame appeared at the bottom of the pit.
I let out a sigh of relief. Tris was safe.
“I’ll go next,” Gula offered, “and I’ll take Superbia with me.”
“Wow,” Cupi giggled, “of course you’re taking the lighter person.”
“Excuse me?” I joked. “I’ll have you know all of the weight on my body is muscle.”
“I know that,” Cupi cooed. “I’m usually the one pressed up tight against it at night.”
The blonde woman ran her hand tenderly along my chest, and I felt my heartbeat quicken in my chest. The succubus was staring deeply into my eyes, and I would have loved to have ripped off her clothes and taken her right then and there.
“Now, now, lovebirds,” Gula interrupted. “We’ve got a mission to finish. Then we can all go home and celebrate.”
The Si
ster of Gluttony and her Madame walked over to the side of the pit, and then Gula picked up the smaller redhead from behind.
“On three,” Sia commanded. “One … two … three!”
The two succubi disappeared through the pit as I held my breath once more. There was nothing. Nothing. Nothing …
Now, I was starting to get worried. They should have halted their descent by now.
Finally, there was the sound of flapping wings, and I heard a loud grunt from below.
Gula ignited her red Hellfire and told us she was safe.
“I guess that just leaves us.” I nodded to Cupi as we walked over to the pit. “You sure you’re up to this? I know I’m kind of a lot to handle.”
“You can say that again,” the succubus winked, “I think I’ll be fine. Training with all these Shades has made me ripped as hell. Maybe I’ll let you feel sometime … ”
The fit blonde woman walked behind me, wrapped her arms under my armpits, and then began to walk toward the pit. As we moved, I could feel her abs rippling against my back, and I seriously wanted to see them in action.
We stepped onto the edge, took a deep breath, and then pushed off.
The world went dark, and time seemed to stand still as we plummeted through the silence around us. The wind whipped through my hair as we fell, and I guessed we had to be moving at a crazy-high velocity.
Based on what Sia told us, we were only about five seconds away from the deployment area. Five … four … three … two …
Suddenly, Cupiditas’ wings appeared with a flash of purple.
The next thing I knew, I heard the sound of her feathered appendage smash against the rocky wall, and our momentum was halted instantly.
She was just a split-second too early.
Cupi let out a yell of pain as she began to spin out of control, and the impact forced her to lose her grip on my body.
Fuck.
I instinctively tried to catch myself with my telekinetic Hellfire but, thanks to the hex, nothing came out but sparks of green. I had no other choice but to throw down a wall of purple flames and brace for impact.
I hit the barrier hard. Most of the impact was absorbed by my armor, but I still felt my brain rattle around in my skull as I was launched backwards. I slammed into the ground at an awkward angle, tumbled across the dirt, and then came to a stop a few feet away from my friends.