by Brant Danay
Morpheus Rex swung his Prismscepter at the Necrodelic's skull, leaving a bloody dent in his temple. The Necrodelic simultaneously swiped at Morpheus Rex's exposed ribs, opening five red gashes in his tattooed snakeskin. For a brief second, the two adversaries were joined in evanescent contact, and then they passed by one another in mid-air. Chariah landed atop the towering dais as Morpheus Rex alighted upon the head of Serpentikal.
The wounded warriors turned and locked themselves together with bellicose eye contact once again. Chariah placed his right hand upon the prism throne and emitted an electrical charge from his palm, which filled the refracting chair with white heat and crackling energy. He lifted the prism throne over his head with both hands and hurled it toward Morpheus Rex far below. It spun end over end in a perfect arch, and when it reached its target, it exploded, sending shards of blasted prism everywhere, some of which lodged themselves deep in the flesh of Morpheus Rex.
With the dark synchronicity of demon soulmates destined to do battle since the beginning of time, the two fighters jumped once more through the air, meeting at the same equidistant point halfway between Serpentikal and dais. Chariah plummeted with both hands over his head, bringing his ten claws down in the form of the Hellsword and opening a deep gash on the crown of Morpheus Rex's head. As he did so, Morpheus Rex raised his right knee and slammed it into the Necrodelic's testicles. The two ricocheted off one another with the force of the savage blows, back along the same paths they had just traveled. Chariah backflipped onto the high dais as Morpheus Rex backflipped onto Serpentikal.
Again the demons leapt, flashing through the sky. Chariah twisted sideways and delivered a kick to Morpheus Rex's face while catching a spinning blow from the Prismscepter in the base of his spine. Blood sprinkled like morning showers. They landed and then jumped once more. Chariah arched through mid-air in one long, inverted backwards somersault, kicking Morpheus Rex under the chin and knocking blood and venom from his mouth. Morpheus Rex did a sudden back-flip at the same time, and caught Chariah with the exact same blow after the Necrodelic had revolved again in mid-air. Chariah somersaulted backwards again, this time in the opposite direction, landing once more upon the head of Serpentikal. Morpheus Rex was sent careening upwards in a series of rapid back flips until he crashed onto the dais upon his stomach.
Morpheus Rex lay prostrated atop the prismatic pillar, slithering on his belly like a snake, his forked tongues flickering, his fingers clasping the shimmering edge of the tower. Chariah stood defiant over the Serpentopolis below, his eye contact drilling the prone Morpheus Rex with burning heat. The dream-eater smiled and licked his rainbow lips. Like a komodo dragon, his long-nailed hands gripped the edge of the dais. He used them to propel himself from the pillar, this time diving head-first at the ascending Necrodelic. His cobra strike landed in Chariah's throat, but he ended up with five red gashes, raked vertically down his chest and torso, for his effort.
The duel continued. Chariah dove from the dais with arms cruciform, forming the silhouette of a black raptor in the center of the topaz orb of Dzandra. After completing a full front somersault, he brought his skull down upon Morpheus Rex with a brutal head-butt, right into the wound he had previously opened. Blood exploded, and the Dreaming Predator was driven forcefully back. Morpheus Rex reached out and drove his fingers into Chariah's chest as he suffered the concussive jolt of the headbutt. When he landed once more atop Serpentikal, this time heavily enough to nearly break his legs, he held a dripping black rib in his bloody hand.
The Necrodelic's footprints and talon marks formed two purple bruises and ten red scratches on Morpheus Rex's chest, for the Death Addict had used him as a springboard to propel himself back through the air. Chariah stood once more atop the dais, the pale orange sun Dzandra directly behind him. His shadow was an imposing figure for all Elasvai to see, a dark idol, a hieroglyphic epitaph, the shadow of Satan. He breathed heavily, leaking blood from the hole in his chest where his rib had been torn out. He had two puncture marks in his neck where Morpheus Rex had bitten him. He gazed down at the ophidian demon now. Their eye contact assaulted one another once more. They jumped.
Chariah held his ten claws together and to the right of his head, his palms flat, his talons whistling through the air. Morpheus Rex held his Prismscepter to the right of his own head with both hands. Each connected with each other's temple as they converged, but this time, there would no next leap of combat, no more stages in their demonic duel, for a large lasso of hemp had encircled their battered bodies, pinning their arms to their sides. As the giant noose squeezed tightly into their flesh and swiftly dragged the bound demons through the air, the Necrodelic and Morpheus Rex made one last scorching, mesmeric, painful eye contact. As the battle came to an abrupt end and the two battered combatants were pulled by the enormous lasso toward mutual captivity, Morpheus Rex smiled at his nemesis, licking the blood from his rainbow lips with masochistic ecstasy.
"Next time...," he hissingly promised the Necrodelic between breaths, his sibilant voice bursting in anticipation, "with weapons galleries."
33
When swallowed by the gargantuan worm, the Tantradox set about at once to mutate and domesticate the vermian behemoth from inside its own body. They sailed through the rapids of freshly swallowed cave water and digestive juices on the backs of their conjoined shark steeds, deftly maneuvering their selachian mounts around whirlpools of stomach acid and steaming bile, weaving back and forth as they dodged its beating hearts. Once the creature had settled back into its rocky bed, the Tantradox set to work metamorphosing the primarily sedentary beast into a vessel of escape.
Drelrei and Junisia climbed down from the dorsal saddle of the Siamese twin sharks, leaving them free to swim around the pools of water, blood, mucus, and enzymes which filled the worm's interior. The Tantradox waded through the phlegmatic river of bodily fluids to the ovaries near the worm's head, then crawled inside to perform a tantric ceremony.
The Tantradox began copulating like worms to establish telepathic contact, sexual arousal, and dominance with the behemoth. Being a hermaphrodite, just like the worm, the Tantradox was able to form an instant psychic bond with the creature. The Siamese twin lovers fondled each other's genitals while Junisia began inserting the black hairs of her scalplock, one by one, into Drelrei's flesh. She drove each single hair through a pore in Drelrei's skin, mimicking the tiny, hooked spines with which earthworms exchanged sperm and fornicated. She drove one black hair into each of Drelrei's pupils, one into each ear, and one into the red urethra of his penis. He similarly stuck his pubic hair like quills into her thighs, abdomen, and naval.
They used the advanced tantras which gave them full control over their bodies and its various systems to stimulate the production of mucus and lymph from their various glands. The mucus leaked from their nostrils and genitals and was coughed up as phlegm in copious amounts, until the Tantradox was covered in it. In this pool of their own mucus, Drelrei and Junisia made love, Drelrei's ten testicles resonating in perfect harmony with Junisia's ten clitorises, her black nipples leaking mucus and milk and his leaking mucus and lymph. As they attained orgasm, so too did the giant worm. At that moment, with their tantric powers, the Tantradox telepathically commanded the worm to crawl through the caves and tunnels to a mountain range in the east. The segmented monster immediately obeyed, bearing its interior passengers to freedom with its second head now in the lead, burrowing through dirt where there were no established passages, emerging into the underground caverns below the mountains and finally peeking its round head out from between the rocks and into the light of Dzandra. As the giant worm became visible, however, it attracted the attention of a passing predator. The creature became frightened and began to retreat, no longer responsive to the commands of the Tantradox. A moment later, there was a humongous crash, as if a moon had fallen into the mountains. Large avalanches blocked the worm's retreat, and the creature froze, paralyzed with fright. It would remain this way until the head of a giant
serpent dragged it out and engaged it in combat.
The Tantradox struggled to regain control of the behemoth, repeating the tantric ritual in both of the worm's sets of testes and inside the ovaries near its second head, all to no avail. The concussive impact of the combat jarred them from their bed inside the ovaries, and they bounced around for several moments in the worm's swirling innards. Acrid cataracts of venom poured down the worms gullet and dripped from the multitudinous fang holes in its skin. Their shark steed was lost, vomited in a river of blood, and then the giant serpent dragged its vermiform prey out, tossed it into the air, and clamped its fangs around its head.
The Tantradox tried to escape through the amphisbenic worm's other head, but the ophidian giant began sucking out the innards of its prey, and the Tantradox was unable to escape the strong, tornado-like force of its mouth and lungs. The serpent swallowed all fourteen of the amphisbenic worm's hearts, all of its organs, blood, mucus, and half-digested soil, and then the squirming Tantradox itself. Drelrei and Junisia fell through a giant green esophagus along with the fourteen hearts and a variety of other organs, and were deposited in a tangled mass of limbs inside the Serpentopolis.
The fourteen hearts slapped against the ground around them, followed by the ovaries and testes they had copulated within, the impressions of their bodies still indented in the tissues. The torn saddle of the Siamese twin sharks and its reins fell on top of them a moment later. Drelrei dragged it from their backs and held it in one hand, knowing it might be the only weapon they would find. There was a growing pool of blood and half-digested liquid spreading through the foyer. The Tantradox arose from the puddle of ichor and observed its surroundings.
The walls, floor, and ceiling were lined with snakeskin. The corridors ran off in nine different directions, with long curvings instead of corners. Five similarly wavy spiral stairways led to upper levels. Two snakeman guards in dark iron armor and helmets were approaching them from either direction, with tridents and spears in their hands. Another was descending one of the curving staircases directly in front of them.
"Serpentopolis," Drelrei whispered. "The serpents have returned."
"They've disavowed their banishment," Junisia replied. "We must destroy them this time."
As the ophidian sentinels approached, forked tongues flickering, beady eyes gleaming below the pyramidal frontpieces of their helmets, the Tantradox attacked. Helmets, scales, flesh, skull, and brains became one beneath their cloven hooves, each sticking out of one another like shards of broken glass. They kicked the first two sentinels in the head, killing each instantly. The other they trampled as he ran down the round corridor in search of assistance.
The Tantradox reversed its direction and fled through the labyrinth. They accidentally burst into the courtyard, where fountains of venom sprayed high in the air, in mandalic shapes, amongst marble statues of multi-headed nagas and large-breasted gorgons and lamias. There were several of the serpentmen here, guards, sentinels, soldiers, and archers. The Tantradox kicked out like a rabid destrier and managed to escape their clutches.
Drelrei and Junisia wandered throughout the corridors of Serpentopolis. They avoided the serpent citizens whenever possible, as well as the doors with names and hieroglyphs in ancient ophidian languages etched above them. Finally, they emerged into one of the snakehead turrets, just in time to watch the demonic duel between the Necrodelic and Morpheus Rex from a fanged balcony.
Drelrei began to smooth the reins of the saddle in his cloven hand. It was made from strong hemp, and thus he was able to make it grow longer within his very fingers as he watched the two demons bludgeon and bloody themselves. He waited until they had inflicted more damage upon one another, and then swung the elongated rope of hemp from the snakehead tower in a large lasso, catching the two combatants at their equidistant convergence point. He pulled the hemp tight, capturing the demons in its unforgiving grasp.
Laughing, the Tantradox began swinging the demons around by the hempen noose, bashing their bodies against the walls and towers and down upon the coils of Serpentopolis, where they bounced in a bloody bundle like a sadist's plaything and a necrobestialist's pet. This only served to alarm the guards, however, and every fanged balcony across from them soon filled with serpentman archers.
Using the tangled, bound bodies of the Necrodelic and Morpheus Rex as a grapnel, the Tantradox hurled the elongated lasso into the mountain peaks in the distance and swung to freedom, soaring over a barrage of ophidian arrows. After safely escaping to the opposite side of the mountain range, holding the captured demons down with the heavy cloven hoof of its giant middle leg, the Tantradox whistled for one of its servile beasts.
"We will break them apart," Drelrei said as they awaited their steed.
"And then sacrifice them in the Temples of Tantra," Junisia replied. "They will be offerings to the demiurge of our love."
From the gardens below a pair of Siamese twin sphinxes came rumbling from the east, each bound by a complex leather yoke. Behind them the hybrid beasts dragged a chariot covered in ornate, pornographic wood-carvings. The sphinxes were harnessed in succession, bridles and reins slipped over their heads. The sphinxes galloped up the mountainside, pulling the chariot behind them, their paws kicking up small avalanches. The creatures came obediently to the Tantradox's side. As the Tantradox had commanded by the pitch of its whistle, the chariot contained a weapon's rack, a hookah, and a treasure chest full of drugs. It also contained two spiked ball gags, which were like tiny morning stars with a pair of chains that clasped together like a necklace. These were fitted over the heads of both the Necrodelic and Morpheus Rex, to keep them from breathing fire and spitting venom, respectively, and to prevent them from casting spells or summoning their living spaceships.
Drelrei and Junisia bound the Necrodelic and Morpheus Rex separately now, weaving their magic on the hemp to make it grow around their arms, wrists, and ankles, then tying it in two long ropes to the yoni-shaped rings of the chariot. Once bound and immobilized, the demons were laid supinely on the ground.
The Tantradox climbed inside the chariot, grasping lingham handholds for balance. They closed the wooden doors of the chariot and bolted them with an iron lingham-and-yoni configuration. Drelrei pulled upon the reins of the sphinxes, and the trained Siamese twin beasts began running at full speed down the mountain, dragging the bound and gagged Necrodelic and Morpheus Rex behind them. The Tantradox gazed from the back of the chariot upon its helpless victims, bouncing down the mountainside, the skin on their backs being torn off by friction and abrasion. Sometimes their flesh hit jutting rocks, which the laughing Tantradox found sadistically amusing.
Drelrei pulled on the sphinxes' reins, shouting, "To the rose gardens."
The large steeds stampeded over the planet obediently, into the fields of roses. The Necrodelic and Morpheus Rex were dragged helplessly behind, their skin catching and tearing on the thorns of roses, leaving large dewdrops of blood behind.
For an hour, they were pulled through the thorny roses, and then, for another hour, through fields of poison ivy. The Tantradox smoked opium from its hookah and began to make selections from the weapon's rack. Drelrei grabbed a long spear, which he jabbed at Morpheus Rex like a phallic symbol of dominance. Junisia wielded a whip like a dominatrix, flaying the Necrodelic as he was jostled through the poison ivy, opening red wounds upon his irritated skin.
They traded weapons when they came to the meadows of poison sumac, and the Necrodelic was punctured while Morpheus Rex was flogged. An hour later, as they entered the Venus flytrap gardens, the two bound victims were covered in welts, cuts, bruises, and rashes. The Venus flytraps snapped at the intruders being dragged through their midst, clamping down hard on their flesh. Some of them had teeth and fangs, while others had sticky tongues which ripped the skin right off their prey.
Morpheus Rex had flipped over onto his stomach, and a Venus flytrap had grabbed ahold of both his penises in painful fellacio. The dream-eater ejaculated with ma
sochistic delight as the plant tried to devour his members, then ejaculated again when its viscous tongue ripped all the skin from the underside of his upper penis. Chariah, conversely, was seething with wrath, more from the bondage than the pain, plotting thousands of different forms of revenge.
The pain would increase after an hour in the cactus gardens. Ripped and torn, the dangling bodies of the Necrodelic and Morpheus Rex were subjected to further tortures at the hands of the Tantradox, assaulting them with morning stars on extremely long chains, aiming blows at their heads, chests, and genitals as the cacti tore the flesh from their bones.
Another hour in the apiary and a forest full of hives provided thousands of stings from Siamese twin bees, wasps, and hornets. An hour in the jungle of tree frogs added painful venom and curare to their open wounds. An hour of fire ants added burning, swollen bites all over their bodies. As evening fell, the Tantradox spurred the sphinxes to attain their fastest possible speed. The chariot careened toward the topaz sunset, through an open plain of razorgrass whose edges were as sharp as blades. The sphinxes were further inspired by repeated lashings from the whip, as well as words uttered in the primal goat-like native languages of Elasvai, to a bludgeoning gait that resulted in broken bones and concussions for the Necrodelic and Morpheus Rex.
When night fell, Morpheus Rex transformed into the Oneirophage. The hemp around his tail reflexively tightened. Chariah watched the entire metamorphosis with stinging bloodshot eyes, eyes filled with dust, dirt, sand, pollen, and debris. The Necrodelic wondered to himself if he could use the Oneirophage's were-nature against him somehow, in future battles, after they were freed from the infernal chariot and he had slowly dismembered the Tantradox.