Dalaria didn't know how to find a victory with her army, now that Anatithenai was against it. There was nothing she could do to stop the endless wave of troops Grymir brought to the field, and Anathane was waking up, albeit slower that Dalaria's even far-fetched dreams could have predicted. She was lucky the demon wasn't already here. She might have a day to fortify, maybe less now.
Her meager force was no match for the monster that was coming for her, and everyone knew it. However, these were her elite, three of the remaining jailers, their armies, and her personal execution force, created for times such as these where things looked grim. On top of that, she had almost a hundred warlocks under her command. She had only lost one in a decade that wasn't killed by his own magic or by natural decay of his body from over-use, and that was the one that that bitch Kan had killed.
She ground her teeth in frustration and waited impatiently for the arrival of the rodent demon bringing her news of the assassin she had ordered woken up for duty. It wasn't often that she used demons that had to be paid for their work and service, but this was the only one she thought capable of the job. This war had been lost the second Anathane had woken up, but Dalaria could still make one last gamble to give them a Pyrrhic victory.
It would be close, but if she could funnel that boy into the right place, then she would have him trapped and kill him. Anathane would be infuriated, but at least she wouldn't have him and claim victory both. Dalaria grunted as the rodent vied for her attention with a series of squeaks and muttered apologies.
"What?" the greater snapped harshly.
"Milady, she has been awoken. But call he-" Its head was pierced by the long blade of a sword and it fell to the ground in a spray of blood. Dalaria looked up and found her assassin waiting for orders.
"You know my fees are very steep, Dalaria," she said casually, adjusting her helm briefly before looking around the room at the other demons going about their business making the great hall a last line of defense. The assassin paused and then furrowed her brow. "Are things truly this bad?"
Dalaria rolled her eyes and sighed. "No, but they have broken into the Sanctuary of the Underworld and caused me more than my fair share of trouble. I need you to kill their leader when he gets here."
"They're in the Second Palace already? I didn't think you'd call me out so late," the assassin teased, mocking Dalaria blatantly. The demon tried not to let it get too deep inside her. It was all going to end soon anyway; this was nothing compared to what Grymir and Anatithenai had done.
"Believe me," Dalaria replied. "The last face I want to see here is yours, but I have no choices left. Tell me your terms and we can get to waiting for him."
The assassin smirked. "I want my own army, estate, slave army, and the most appetizing souls you can find in this army you're fighting that haven't been brutally maimed already. I assume you still take prisoners?" She said it as if what she was demanding was a single slice of cake out of a ten-layer masterpiece. Dalaria snorted, and briefly thought about what she would have to give up in order to pay the debt, if she had any plans to pay it at all.
"I'll search for the souls, but your army has to come from your hands alone. I may be able to do a great many things someone in my position shouldn't, but raising an army is a serious, blatant offense to the Second Circle."
She had to at least make it seem real.
The assassin shrugged. "Fine, just make sure that when my army is raised, that it gets the equipment it deserves. I would so enjoy watching those fancy swords your bodyguards carry around hang from belts that don't belong to anyone in your service."
Dalaria groaned and bit her bottom lip until it bled to keep from killing the insolent bitch. It was little comfort now that she was going to get killed by Anathane anyway; Dalaria wanted to do it herself and shut the assassin up early.
"Just make sure that this room will be his tomb, and you'll get everything you want. I have other business to attend to. One of my captains can show you what he looks like." Dalaria took two of her bodyguards and left for the furthest dungeon in the Second Palace. She planned to prepare one last blow to that upstart's pride, should worse come to worst and every plan she had laid until now fail miserably.
She passed legions of her soldiers and minions, rushing about down wide hallways and narrow corridors, preparing to do battle with an unstoppable force and sell every inch of ground dearly. They had been instructed to fight for every corner, and force the Army of Darkness, now that it had been drastically reduced in number, to slow its advance in the face of nearly equal numbers.
The ratio of Grymir's bastard offspring clones to her stout soldiers was still nearly forty-to-one, but in the narrow passages and within the constricting walls of the Second Palace, their numbers would matter little. The honeycomb design of the fortress had allowed her to maximize her defensive capabilities and form a strong barrier between her and the coalition raised against her. And everything funneled into one room.
The Guard Quarter was the cork in the bottle. Everything depended on that room being held for as long as possible. She had left two jailers in charge of its defense, and several hundred of her finest, the most fierce and loyal of her troops, to defend it to the last man. If the Guard Quarter fell too soon, the cork would be forced out and the Army of Darkness wouldn't face any organized resistance past it, and overrun the rest of her forces without slowing at all.
She clenched the haft of her axe so tightly her knuckles were bone white. It was all for these three whores, that had broken the laws of Satan, those that preceded everything in the Second Circle. They had blatantly refused to obey the rules, and they now faced their punishment. Dalaria had been unable to sell such worthless and uncooperative merchandise to any of her usual buyers, and all the others were afraid of them.
One, Elassa, was simply too strong-willed to break, and refused to have anything to do with even the most attractive and seductive incubi in all the Second Circle. She had bitten off more than one now-useless appendage, and killed quite a few of the guards that had managed to pacify her for mere hours at a time with severe beatings.
The other two, inseparable, were almost as bad. While they weren't nearly as uncooperative, they schemed constantly and had managed to escape their cells twice while buyers had been looking them over and trying to coax them into showing a taste of what they could give in the way of sexual pleasures. Needless to say, they hadn't been good prospects for sale either.
"Back with another cock that needs biting off?" Elassa chided from within her cell, neon fire illuminating the hateful leer written all over her face.
"Master is going to enjoy our recounting of the day we torture you," Fain said, a baleful dark orange illuminating a blank expression.
Niaf grinned. "And we're gonna fuck him so hard when that day comes. You better believe it, cunt. Its gonna be glor-i-fucking-us!"
"I don't believe that any of you will be doing any fucking for a long, long time," Dalaria spat tiredly. She turned to one of her guards. "Ezti, take the blue one. Renavt, the orange one." The two guards moved to unlock their respective prisoners. When the doors were opened and the chained prisoners brought out, however, the two succubi sprang yet another one of their schemes for escape and murder.
Niaf leapt upon Renavt and flipped over him so that she hung with her back against his, the chain between her shackles catching the demon's throat in a vice. Fain had her hands on the hilt of Ezti's blade. She freed the blade at the same time Niaf pushed her wings through Renavt's chest and tore his insides from his noble body. He dropped to his knees as the succubus' wings receded back into her body.
