Sinners' Kingdom #1: The Book of Lust (Complete)

73

ASMODEUS

It was a being of monstrous proportions, but no less than what mortals would say of any higher demon capable of such destruction, perhaps. A giant serpent thickly muscled, winding its scaled tail around itself with sinuous lashes, loomed over us with its diamond-shaped head casting an ominous, dark shadow despite the gloom of overcast sky. Or perhaps that was simply intuitive warning, the sheer dimensions of this beast's savagery translating itself to my physical senses. Especially when it began to morph, its entire serpentine body contorting and rippling as it slowly changed shape, no doubt into something even more dangerous. Retreat, a mortal would scream as he scrambled for safety. Retreat before it's too late—

But the sight of this magnificent creature set my blood alight. Fear? Retreat? What was the purpose of life if not to seek these thrills, especially when it was for the sake of my only queen? My queen that had been swallowed up by the serpent along with me, before Mammon transformed and ripped his way back into the beast's maw to pull us back out.

But I never his help to save myself. I could have done it alone if not for one thing:

Sable was gone.

I hadn't let her go. I knew that for a certainty. if she had begged, I would never have let her slip between my fingers. Enclosed in my embrace, she had been protected, in the safest place that could possibly exist. No power in all the universe could have ever pried her from me. Even in the fury of the sun's bare surface, even if my body were reduced to vapor and my bones charred by the hottest fires of Hell, I would have paid any price to keep my Sable safe.

But she was gone.

She vanished, as if she were nothing more than wind. An illusion. A mirage I thought I had captured and held tight to my chest, only to come away desolate, empty-handed.

"Sable!"

I delved deep inside myself, reaching for the founding spark of her soul. No matter how she drifted away, it didn't matter. I had disappointed her time and again, something she was unafraid to express, and ever since arriving in this place things had devolved further — but always, in the center of her, there would be me. Just like how at the center of me, past the unquenchable fires that burned and kept my Infernal soul alight, through the curtains of singeing smoke and acrid brimstone, was her. Sable. My queen. The one I had known would be the beginning and end of me the instant I lay eyes on her for the first time.

When I glimpsed her as I fell through world after world in my shattered dreamscape, the cosmos had tilted. Transformed. It spoke to me for the first time, manifesting like a radiant star born from the darkness, a dead universe full of lifeless rocks and dust swallowed up by the abrupt swelling of fiery life in its lightless belly. Purpose. Drive. A reason to exist beyond spitefulness against life itself that refused to satisfy me. At last, something had come to quell the everlasting flames.

But now, after all these years when I had only just found her again, after all the innumerable days spent fighting the prison of my shattered dreamscape with a broken body, I had lost her again.

"Sable!" I called, but there was no answer. She was gone. There was only one place she could be now.

The beast was a fearsome adversary. It stood like a titan even on four legs, towering above both Mammon and me with a shadow so colossal it seemed to bear physical weight that pressed on us. The sheer pressure of its primal presence, though lacking Infernal qualities, contained enough boiling power to gnaw and scrape, threatening to scorch my skin if not for the deepest essence of Hell itself comprising my body. What was this creature? Where had it come from? This island had its mysteries, but I sensed no buried power here that could produce such a thing. Certainly not this thing that could take Sable from me, even if I had every intention of tearing it to pieces to get her back.

It was no mere mindless beast. It had strange powers. But those powers were hardly our priority when its size was enough to make even Mammon treat it with at least some wariness. His hackles were up as he prowled around the creature on the opposite side of me, both of us circling it while the creature kept its multiple, independently moving eyes fixed on us both. Those eyes... They were great, unblinking things that traveled up both sides of its head, all of them different hues and their gazes roving about as they all of them peered in different directions. The creature's tail waved gently back and forth as well, the movement somehow graceful despite its size. The ridges that adorned the top of it from base to tip flared and relaxed at slow intervals, keeping rhythm with the great, deep breaths that relaxed and expanded the beast's flanks, slow and monstrous.

Humans would flee in terror before a creature such as this, but even denizens of Hell could not claim to be familiar. The horns that curled by its head, giant ram's horns, and the great secondary jaws that spread open on both sides of its neck like twin petals framing its head were nothing like even I had ever seen. Not to mention that the four thick legs it stood on now hadn't been there seconds ago. The creature had been serpentine at first, thickly muscled with scales all over that scintillated strange colors even in this gloom. Then it transformed into this four-legged shape to face us, sprouting limbs and fur to replace the amphibian form.

A shapeshifter. Both Mammon and I had similar abilities, but nothing like this. What other forms could it take?

It wouldn't matter. They would all burn.

Asmodeus!

I ignored Mammon's warning snarl in my head and lunged for the beast's left flank, claws extended and tail sweeping in for a slashing attack to test the thick hide. The creature dwarfed me. By no means did I stand a chance in dealing a death blow with one strike. But an opportune gash aimed for the vital organs would provide distraction, and until I knew its durability, I couldn't know how long this thrashing would last. Every second was crucial. Sable — my Sable, my only, the reason for breath and existence — was inside the beast, swallowed whole and held captive until I rescued her with my own hands.

These claws would be bathed in blood by the time I reached her. The blade of my tail would lance, slash, lacerate, leave swathes of destruction in their wake. No hesitation. Only blood. I had not come this far only to lose her now.

Asmodeus!

Mammon's warning came again, just as ignored as the first one. It was too late. I had already thrown myself forward, weaving around the deadly spikes that ripped out of the beast's side to stab at me with sinuous grace, and slid under its exposed belly with my claws long enough to shred straight to the bone. The keen tips dug into the leathery flesh as I dragged them towards the other side, scraping at first but penetrating deeper the farther I went. I had meant to disembowel it, split open the belly completely and let its viscera spill out, but this was little more than a flesh wound. I came out from under the other side of the giant creature, sliding on my knees, and rolled to dodge the enormous clawed foot that would have flattened me to a red patch on the grass.

The wetness of the earth made it easier to slide and roll to safety, but recovering was harder. The rain resumed, pounding and slapping away, the earth slippery as it turned to streaming mud under the onslaught.

Even Mammon had to exercise care, but he was surer on four feet as he raced toward the turning beast from its other side, taking advantage of the distraction I provided to lunge for its neck. It was too great a prey for his tactics, however. Even his hulking wolf form could only hang on by buried fangs and swing from the neck, the blow too shallow to penetrate to the vital arteries. If the vital arteries were present at all. This was no creature we had ever fought before. We could only sever and hack until it collapsed, or...

Now that it turned back the other way, shaking off Mammon's stubborn bite with slow jerks of its massive head, I lunged for the underbelly again, claws extended once more. I had left a gash. Not deep enough and not wide enough — yet. But I could widen it easier than it would be to create a new wound, and if I was swift enough, I didn't have to concern myself with dropping the creature dead at all. Why couldn't I retrieve Sable from its stomach while it was still alive? It deserved the deepest pits of agony to thrash and bellow in, alive but suffering.

With all my might, I slashed again, dragging my claws with all the savage strength I could summon.