Spire Delta and Hellgate 3 (Gazatine Fortress)

The demoness entered the chamber proper with a huff, and started to disrobe. Her leather vest tossed aside, revealing her lithe, toned, yet slightly battlescared torso. Her wings flapped a little, unrestrained by the leather holes of the vest, several pops could be heard at the wings shoulder joints. Next she undid her utility belt buckle, before sliding off her trousers, setting them atop her discarded vest. Again, she stretched, limbering up her body, before briskly making her way to, and into the bloodpools.

The tension in the demoness' face faded almost as soon as her clawed toes touched the swirling, writhing blood. And in the next moment she sank into the bubbling sanquine ichor. Within another few more moments, she inhaled deeply, and several trails of bright blue light wisped from the pools and into her fanged maw. In moments she had consumed a dozen souls. Healing whatever lingering ailments she had immediately, she sighed in content, her tail swishing lazily in the pool.

Darkstorm Zero wrote:The demoness entered the chamber proper with a huff, and started to disrobe. Her leather vest tossed aside, revealing her lithe, toned, yet slightly battlescared torso. Her wings flapped a little, unrestrained by the leather holes of the vest, several pops could be heard at the wings shoulder joints. Next she undid her utility belt buckle, before sliding off her trousers, setting them atop her discarded vest. Again, she stretched, limbering up her body, before briskly making her way to, and into the bloodpools.

The tension in the demoness' face faded almost as soon as her clawed toes touched the swirling, writhing blood. And in the next moment she sank into the bubbling sanquine ichor. Within another few more moments, she inhaled deeply, and several trails of bright blue light wisped from the pools and into her fanged maw. In moments she had consumed a dozen souls. Healing whatever lingering ailments she had immediately, she sighed in content, her tail swishing lazily in the pool.

Lyra had to remain still, to keep out of sight of the creature who entered the pool. She had heard her coming, so now she had to remain beneath the ichor, keep her breath held as long as she could! She didn't have her eye open, but she could see a faint glow through her closed eyelid. I can't hold out much longer....! she thought, before having to force herself to surface. She made a slow, silent surface, her emerald eye glanced at the relaxed creature before sinking beneath the surface once more. She wasn't that close, but closer than she'd like to be, so she slowly began to make her way towards the opposite end of the pool!

The demoness had her pale green eyes shut as she lounged in the vile liquids, her scars visibly faded from her body as it rejuvenated via the blood and souls swirling in the pools, her tail and wings slowly swished in the shallows.

The she-demon turned to her side slowly, and what arose was a platter covered in the bleached ribcage of a mortal, within resided several dozen trapped shrunken humanoids! their voices squeaked high pitched cries of terror. The demoness smiled, and reached for them, trapped as they were within the bone prison, they could not escape her grasping hand as she clutched a small handful of them in her clawed fingers.

Plucking one from her hand with the fingers of her other, she raised the single shrunken man in her hand, tilted her head back, and dropped him in her open maw without much ceremony.

Immediately, her sharp teeth crunched their new prize between them, crushing her prey into crunchy pulp. But, unlike most victims who are subjected to such a fate, this man's shredded, pulverized body was STILL alive! his gurgling screams were still emitting from the red paste that decorated the demoness's teeth!

That soon faded however, as she soon swallowed the well mangled living corpse.

Now she smiled a sinister grin at the other mortals in her hand, and moved to pluck another.

Lyra rises again for another cautious breath, when she heard the whimpers. Her emerald gaze set upon the rib cage prison, the hand plucking the small humanoid from it, then the stomach churning gore which followed as she chewed on him with loud crunching. She nearly puked, noticing the pulsing flesh dotting the demoness' lips. She sunk back down to keep herself from puking. As it was, between all this, the blood, the demons, the scent of rot and blood, now this?! Pulsating crunchies?!

She did everything in her power not to barf, she had to keep herself from being spotted!

As Lyra aubmerged beneath the thic crimson again, she would begin to hear whispers - the whispers of the long dead, and eternally tormented souls writhing in the pools!

Then she could see it, through the transculent sanguine, she would see the faces of long dead and rotten ghosts.



"They killed us all..."

"Everyone is dead..."

"Oh god, please..."

"We didn't deserve to die..."

"*Random crying and sobbing of the various dead*"



When the culmination of sound grew into the screaming, it was directly into Lyra's mind, into her soul!

Lyra had to endure, she had to remain calm even as the ghastly images were cast into her mind, and the crunching of miniature people continued under the surface. She held on for dear life, wishing she was Beijionese to some extent that she could hold her breath just a little bit longer... she was doing well by their standards, but she had no training in this, so it was hard among all factors swimming around her to not simply scream or force herself to the surface for another long drag of air! She waited... and waited...

The Hellgate's maw glowed maliciously bright that day. The patrolling demons on shift were rather lax with their rounds, despite rumors from the south of Spire falling; even so, they were armed and ready for such things; it wasn't like the mortals could do much harm to them aside.

The portal flickered.

Its color shifting from a poison green to a furious red before a creature flew through the portal's threshold! The massive beast fell onto its back, eyes glazed over from death's, sweet yet painful release! Those patrolling the gate turned with curiosity and alarm, just as an object crossed the threshold; a small beeping item! One of the demonic imps noticed its appearance, and was about to cry out 'grenade' when the Helldevice exploded! It wasn't your typical grenade, for it was covered in many little diamond shaped spikes. When it triggered, the spikes shot out, their shafts extending till the tip of the spikes hit something solid, be it the ground, ceiling, walls, creatures- impaling anything and everything caught in its deadly expansion! The weapon skewered many of the creatures on patrol, many in painful positions or locations! It was a weapon designed after all, for sadistic purpose, and was especially effective indoors.

Following this device, the portal ripples, and a slender, sexy leg appeared from its wake. It was soon followed by a pair of shapely thighs, a toned, feminine form, and a pair of incredible, bouncing tits behind a dainty, front tied bikini that did little to preserve the female humanoid creature's modesty. She pulled down the brim of her straw stetson, her emerald, slatted irises turning to an imp who tore away from the javelin explosion and tried to crawl away on damaged limbs. She carefully walked towards its direction, stepping over, under, contorting her flexible body in numerous entertaining and playfully seductive ways around the spike shafts. She planted a heel upon its lower back, grinding it painfully before drawing one of the long katana like blades strapped to her thighs. "Tsk tsk, show some manners! Is that any way to treat a lady, little grub?" she spat, turning the blade swiftly in a reverse grip before stabbing downward into the back of the imp's skull! She twisted the blade viciously with her heel, before retracting both blade and spur from it's back. She looked around. "I don't have much time... best see where the Hell I've ended up now..." she says, her pinkish-red hair flowing from her twin tails as she chose a direction and began to run towards it!

Lyra did not have to wait long, as the demoness in the pool flinched, and looked out into the corridor.

"I don't believe this...." she growled out and stood up. Grabbing her armor as she stomped out.

---

The impaled imp gurgled and breathed it's last as the strange woman's sword snuffed it's spark. If she looked about the chamber, she would see that, while it looked eerily similar, this place was different.



The neo gothic architecture was definitely of Hell origin, but it was not as old as she was used to. The age of Hells facilities was measured in universal epochs in terms of time, yet these stones were barely a few weeks old.... And the air was different here, not quite so foul and oppressive...