Akuro's head hung low. He was tired and even though his wounds had healed over, his body ached miserably. After nailing chains to both of his arms, Lilith then continued to take blades to his skin and cut him apart. She had cut out his eyes, tongue and even his teeth, and she had cut open his body multiple times over. She also took black needles and embedded them below his fingernails and, making it look like he had black talons.
When Lilith had finally had her fun, she stabbed a black spike into Akuro's heart, then exited the room. Akuro hung limply for a time before he eventually fell asleep and into a deep dream. He dreamt that he was back in the barn, his father kicking him over and over again, except that when he looked up, it wasn't his father at all. It was Lilith. And then Akuro looked to where Hope's body lay, still and soaked with blood, except that it wasn't Hope, it was Darius, laying with a gap in his chest and lifeless eyes. Then Lilith bent over and whispered in Akuro's ear as he lay motionless and powerless on the ground;
"You're mine."
Akuro woke at that moment, breathing heavily. His body was shivering violently and he felt nothing but pain
"About Damn time." Mato's voice came. "You broke off your connection with me when Lilith cut out your eye."
Akuro remembered then that Mato had been telling him about how to remove the mark, but just as he did, Lilith had taken black spike and into lunged it into Akuro's right eye over and over again. Dried blood caked both of his cheeks as if he'd been crying crimson.
'Well sorry I couldn't focus as my eyes were being gouged out, that's entirely my fault.' Akuro said mentally.
"Yeah, it really is." Mato joked.
'Fuck you.'
"You probably would, and that's pretty creepy."
'Screw off.' Akuro cursed, 'can we get back to removing this fucking curse mark?'
"Oh, yeah, I forgot. Well, as I said before you rudely allowed yourself to be tortured, in order to remove the curse mark, you have to burn it with fire, scorching it off of you."
'Seriously?'
"Yep. But you won't have to worry about figuring out how to do that."
'What do you mean?'
"It'll be seared off when Lucifer or Lilith decide it's time to execute you. Or, in this case, banish, seeing as you are immortal."
'What? Wait what is going to happen to me?'
"Well, in hell it's customary to punish the ones that piss off the Archdemons by throwing them into the river of hell, which, luckily for us, is a river of lava! Usually you'd die from this, but seeing as you are immortal it won't kill you, it'll just hurt. A lot." Mato said this as if it were a good thing.
'You're fucking kidding…'
•
•
•
Inari and Onoma stood at the edge of one of the cracks, staring down into the depths below them. It seemed to be an endless drop emitting an ominous red light.
"We should get going." Onoma said.
Inari nodded, then pointed down. "You first. I still don't trust you as far is I can throw you."
"Well I'd say you trust me a decent amount then seeing as you could probably throw me pretty far." Onoma joked.
"Shut up."
Onoma chuckled at his own joke before jumping down the split in the earth. A few moments later Inari drew in a deep breath of anticipation, then followed suit. She descended for a long minute before finally crashing to the ground in a dark cavern. The cavern was large and dimly lit with crimson light. It split off in three different directions.
"Well. Which way should we go?" Onoma asked.
Inari looked down each of the tunnels, trying to see any sign of recent activity. Then she heard strange screeching sounds emitting from the middle tunnel.
"Let's give this one a try." She said, then she and Onoma began down the tunnel slowly, making sure to observe absolutely everything around them so that they would not be caught off guard by an attack from a group of demons. If possible, they also wanted to go completely undetected.
They continued like this for an hour or so before stopping to rest. The air was miserably hot and dry and the walls around them were similar to magma rock.
"Does this tunnel ever end?" Inari asked.
"I do not know, but I do know that if we get caught in here it'll be a pain. We need to be careful." Onoma responded.
"Careful! Careful! Yes, be careful! Very very careful!" Came a high pitched voice from above them.
Onoma and Inari looked up in shock and saw a strange demon hanging upside down from the ceiling. It had pitch black scaly skin and looked like a large humanoid bat. It had two stubby legs that clung the the small holes in the walls and four arms, two of which had leathery wings. It's head was small and it had large beady green eyes with a small nose and a large underbite. Two large bat ears flopped down from its head with two small horns in between them.
"Shit! A demon!" Onoma cursed, his axe appearing in his hands.
"Noooooooooooo! Stoooooooop! Do the stopping please!" The demon screeched. "I come in peacefulness. I am to be friend!" It said as if it had a hard time talking properly.
"Friend?" Inari asked.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can helps you. I don't like here, here is not good here."
"That doesn't explain why you'd help us." Inari asked.
"Well, I is weakly. I would die by you. So is my only option helps is." The demon said. "I also sees the destiny pass me."
"The destiny?"
"Yes, yes! The destiny. Is the destiny your friend?"
"Wait, do you mean Akuro? The Deity?" Inari asked.
"Yeah! That! Akroru!"
"It's Akuro."
"Yeah, Akuro. Sorry, me not speaks well." The demon spoke, "I saw the Akuro's future! He special! You see, you see!"
"Special? How do you know this?"
The demon pointed two fingers at its eyes, it's ears flopping as it did so. "Eyes," it said, then spreading its other pair of hands out in a jazz hands motion, "in futuuuuuuure."
"So you can see the future?" Onoma asked, and the demon nodded, it's ears flopping violently.
"I can sees futures, just cants says what is, else I dies. Oh ands my names is Gozzu."
Onoma gave Inari a look that said he didn't approve, but Inari thought otherwise.
"Okay, Gozzu, can you show us where Akuro is?" She asked.
Gozzu tilted its head. "Maybes. It may be too laters."
"Too late?"
"Yeah. Execution todays see?"
Inari felt her heart jump to her throat. "Execution?"
•
•
•
Akuro struggled desperately against his chains, pulling at them with all of his might, but they refused to give. He then looked around the torture room for anything that he could use. Then his eyes settled on the torches on either side of him.
"What are you thinking?" Mato asked.
'Shut up.'
Akuro leaned against his chains as hard as he could, his hand stretching out towards the torch, but it was useless, he couldn't reach it. Next he tried using his foot, but of course, that didn't work either. He took in a deep breath, letting his body hang limp.
"Ooooh my, that's gonna hurt." Mato said.
Akuro then burst into action, dropping his body completely on one side, pulling his left arm against the chain with all of his force and body weight and as he did he heard his hand *SNAP* as his bones were broken and his skin was peeled off of his hand. He grit his teeth and shook in pain as the wounds healed over, his bones snapping back into place. It worked! His hand was free!
Akuro then reached for the torch, but as he did the door to the chamber swung open at that exact moment, and Lilith came into the room.
Akuro sped his pace, grabbing the torch, but right as he was about to put the burning flames against his body, Lilith appeared in front of him, grabbing it out of his hand and tossing it to the ground.
"We're you really trying to escape?" She asked, placing her hand on Akuro's chin while pinning his other hand down and pressing herself against him, her lips touching his cheek.
"I told you, you're mine." She laughed, backing away from Akuro, then turned to look at the torch on the ground. "Why we're you trying to burn yourself anyways? What would that accomplish?"
Akuro's eyes widened. 'Does she not know?'
"I wouldn't be surprised, not much is known about the God Slayer. I only know how to remove the mark because I fought it's original owner, receiving a curse mark of my own, which I removed." Mato answered.
"Oh well. It's no matter. If you want to burn, your wish will be granted soon." Lilith grabbed a key and approached Akuro, grabbing his hand and unlocking the chains, then she did the same with the chains on his ankles.
"You sure you should be removing my chains?" Akuro asked.
"It's of no concern to me. It's not like you'd be able to do anything without your powers anyways." Lilith laughed. "Come along. Today is the day of your execution."
As Akuro heard Lilith say those words he shivered at the thought of being burned alive in lava, never aloud to die and being forced to feel the pain the entire time. He clenched his fists. He knew he had a chance, no matter how slim, it was it was there.
"It really is too bad we are throwing you away this early, I was just starting to have fun with you." Lilith said, looking back at him as he followed her out of the cell and into a yawning cavern. The chains nailed to his body jangled with his movements and he could still feel the metal in his ears and fingers, though he was used to them being there now.
"I guess it's a punishment for me as well as you." Lilith sighed. "You know, I've seen the rise and fall of four Demon kings, and in all that time I've never seen a demon king as impatient as Lucifer. It's quite annoying. He won't let me have any fun."
Lilith led them down twisting halls of red and along the way Akuro saw many, many more torture chambers, all filled with bloody prisoners with limbs broken, misshapen or removed, some of them had their skin peeled, and some were just unrecognizable. The sight accompanied with the smell of blood and rotting flesh made Akuro want to throw up.
"Honestly the Azazel was my favorite. He liked to have fun." Lilith continued talking as if everything that was happening was completely normal, but then Akuro realized maybe it was normal to her. "Did you know Azazel is the one who made the torture chambers? He loved torture, actually he's where I got all of my skills from. You have him to thank for your new fashion."
Akuro glanced down at his chain wrapped arms. He fiddled with one of the spikes for a moment before giving up on getting it out, his body had healed around the spikes and they were basically a part of him.
Lilith came to a stop at a large set of doors and turned to Akuro. "You are about to meet the demon king, so make sure to show some respect." She said, then the doors swung open.
As Akuro followed Lilith into a dark chamber, he felt an immense pressure begin to suffocate him, forcing him to his knees. He looked up and saw a pair of glowing red eyes glaring back at him.
He was in the presence of Lucifer, the Demon King.