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Chapter 5: An Outbreak of Monsters

For a time, Tuco and Pike sat together on the steps and talked, Pike tucking himself under Tuco's massive arm, his fingers softly tracing the hard lines of Tuco's scaled brawn. They burned a torch so that Pike could see in the pitch darkness, and then Tuco put it out to get Pike to shiver and cling closely to him.

"Your arm," Pike murmured, nuzzling over Tuco's biceps with a soft-whiskered face. "It's actually bigger than I am."

"That's an exaggeration," Tuco said, with a nervous laugh. "I'm only a couple feet taller than you."

"But you're not shaped the same way anymore. Not since you came back from the Abyss. Whatever changed you down there, it... made your shoulders wider, your limbs longer. No human has your proportions. Did you think it's normal that I can barely reach both your shoulders with my arms stretched out? You were big before, but now you're enormous. And yes, pound for pound, this arm" --and Pike wrapped both of his lean-muscled arms around Tuco's right biceps as though hugging a tree-- "is bigger than I am." He gave a shuddering little pant of breath. "It's astonishing to stand close to you, to have all my vision filled up by that huge chest hanging over me, it..."

"Pike?"

"I'm sorry, it's... thinking about you, feeling you, the smell of you. It's getting me worked up again."

"Well, we could--"

"No! Er, sorry, Tuco, but... it's going to be a little bit. My balls feel like they've been scooped out, and my backside... ugh, it was too much. I'm not going to be walking properly for a fortnight."

"Pike, I'm so sorry."

"No no, how could I ever regret being fucked by an incubus all night?" Pike said with a weak laugh. "Especially when that incubus is you. It's funny, though. When you first came here, I wished you were able to keep up with me, and now I find myself wishing I could last all night with you."

"Maybe you shouldn't wish--" Tuco warned, but he could already tell it was too late. Something inside him, some dark, gleeful power, had caught hold of Pike's passing desire.

The rabbit-man stiffened against his arm, catching his breath. "Oh. Oh. That feels much better, all of a sudden. How did you--" He faltered. "I'm changing again. I can feel it."

"I'm sorry," Tuco said. "The magic... the... ability, whatever, it doesn't consult me before it starts, it just... do you know what's happening?"

"Don't you?" Pike asked. He lay back on the steps, pressing his paws to his flat stomach. "It's like everything in there is... moving around--oh!" He cried out and cupped his sac in one paw. Its contents pulsed against his fingers, and then visibly swelled, his balls filling up his grip, pulsing as they passed the size of eggs and then overflowed his fingers. "Oh, I feel so--" Pike began and then bit his lip, arching his back as his erection pushed out of him, jutting upward and drooling his precome as his balls swelled again, too large now for tennis and approaching the size of small oranges. "So full," Pike managed through clenched teeth and then he made a grab at his shaft, but it jerked on its own, spewing copious arcs of seed into the air, spattering his ears, his muzzle, his chest and belly. Finally the climax ebbed and his cock throbbed in the open air, oozing a thick cream.

Whatever power caused the change ebbed and went dormant again inside Tuco. Perhaps, he thought, there's some way to control it. He would have to ask Hob when he had a chance. He scooped up Pike, who started at his touch, and held him in both arms. "How do you feel?"

"I don't know. Different, I suppose. But not bad. Do I look different to you?"

"Well, you, er... grew. Your balls did, I mean. A lot. But other than that, you look the same." He leaned down and began to gently clean the come out of Pike's fur with his long tongue.

"My insides feel different," Pike whispered. "I'm not sore anymore, and I just feel... not the same... down there. I don't know how to explain it. I bet with what I said we'll find out the next time you fuck me."

Tuco nodded. "Well, we should--"

"Do you want to fuck me now?" Pike asked, sliding his fingers across Tuco's chest and gripping the curve at its side.

Yes, always. "But we did it all night. And just now you came again!" Tuco punctuated his point by leaning down to suckle Pike's erection clean, but the stiff flesh only strained in his mouth and leaked a little more hot saltiness across his tongue.

"Tuco," Pike panted, "I suspect that may not ever be a problem again."

"Well, perhaps. But if we start now, with your new changes and me being... what I am now, we might not stop for another day. And at least we should go and see if Braxus and Etreon are up. They'll be alarmed if they can't find us."

Pike agreed reluctantly, and Tuco got to his feet, climbing up the stairs with his friend cradled against his chest.

"You're just going to carry me?"

"You can't see," Tuco pointed out. "And it's not as if you weigh anything at all."

They headed back toward the loud cacophony of monster noises coming from the hallway, and Tuco set Pike down before pushing open the door to the watch room.

Inside, fresh candles were lit, and the miasma of sex and mould had cleared. The fresh scents of bergamot and cedar hit Tuco's nose. He blinked about in astonishment. The puddles everywhere were gone; the floor was clean stone with thick, lush carpets spread across it. The broken, sagging pallets and their cots had been replaced with an enormous wooden bed with a plush-looking mattress, heavy, piled blankets, and downy pillows, concealed behind gauzy drapery. The whole bed was so enormous, Tuco could have lain across it lengthwise and still covered himself up comfortably. The broken shelves had been replaced with a large armoire, its doors closed, and other shelves laden with books, amusements, and various useful tools and household items. In the middle of the room, lit by a candelabra burning long, red and black candles, was a dining table laden with fruits, bread, fresh eggs, an entire ham, and goblets of wine. The scent of the food was so enticing, it was all Tuco could do not to fling himself at the table; after all, he'd not had anything to eat in three weeks, he told himself. Over in the corner of the room, Braxus still lay dozing with Etreon under one arm, but both of them appeared to have been cleaned, and Braxus's fur was so sleek and well-groomed, he looked like a completely different person.

It took Tuco a moment to locate the probable culprit: his imp, flying above the table, his face split from ear to ear by his white, fang-filled grin. "Hob!" he exclaimed. "Did you do all this?" His voice awakened Braxus, who yawned and stretched, then got up to look around in bewilderment.

"Yes, master! Hob cleaned up and made a nice place for you!"

Tuco's feet were walking him to the table on their own, urged on by his stomach. "But how did you do all this?"

The imp shrugged. "Master has much power as a devil Knight. Here we are close to the Abyss, easier to change things. You do not mind that Hob used your power to make a nice room?"

"How on earth could I mind, Hob?" Tuco fought the urge to pick up the entire ham and eat it like a drumstick. He'd learned enough about gluttony, hadn't he? And his friends probably would like some ham too. Instead he cut himself off a thick, pink slab and dropped it on his plate. "You did very well, Hob. Well done."

The imp puffed up more and more, his little chest lifting, his cheeks bulging out, and then with a sound like a kettle boiling he flew around in a few frantic circles. "Hob is so delighted that his master is pleased with him. Is so much better than crawling around squooshed under Belphegor's chair." He spat to one side with a fiery little puff of flame. "And when master is ready, Hob has an even better surprise! Master will be so amazed and pleased."

"Can't you just tell us what it is, Hob?" Tuco asked around a mouthful of bread and ham.

The imp drooped a little in the air. "Sadly, no. It is the one thing Hob cannot do. Master will have to see for himself."

Etreon was struggling on the table, trying to remove a grape larger than his head from the vine it was attached to. Tuco nudged it free with the end of his knife and Etreon rolled backward on the table, clutching his prize. The little man struggled to bite into it. Braxus had sidled up to the other side of the table and had piled up a heaping plate as well.

"Well then maybe you can tell me about something else," Tuco suggested, after draining his wine goblet and refilling it. "What about the seals at the bottom of the steps outside? Down at the very bottom of the Throat. What are those?"

Hob brightened. "Those are the Four Seals of the Apocalypse! Once they are all broken, then the world will finally end, and Paradise and the Abyss will engage in the final battle for the souls of humanity, of course!"

"Yes, I know that, but what exactly are they? And why is one of them broken already?"

Braxus paused with a sandwich halfway to his mouth. "Why is one of them what?" His ears went back.

Pike set down his wine. "I actually know this one. I mean, not about why one is broken, but I remember what the Seals are. What was it? 'No one knows the day or the hour, not Angels of Paradise, not the Son, but only the Father, but by these signs shall ye know the time draws nigh: First: When the Watcher is blinded; Second: When the Warden is slain; Third, When the Seraph is corrupted; Fourth, When the Beast rises.' Does that match up with what you saw?"

Braxus still sat frozen, his fork hanging in midair. "You saw the final Seals? And one of them was broken already?"

"It must have been the watcher blinded," Tuco said. "That would be the first one, yes? But wouldn't we all have noticed if it was broken? The Scriptures say we would have heard a trumpet."

"But master would not have noticed that," said Hob, fluttering closer. "That seal was broken seven hundred and eighty-seven years ago."

"So long ago?" Tuco slumped backward in his chair, feeling somewhat relieved. "Oh, I was so worried. I always thought when the four seals were broken, it would happen... closer together, if you take my meaning. I thought we were all in very big trouble."

"No, we are not in any trouble," Hob assured him.

"That is a relief."

"It is the world that is in trouble. We are friends with a powerful devil who likes us! There will be a fine home for us in the Abyss."

Pike cleared his throat. "Well, hold on, I'm not ready to say goodbye to the world just yet."

Hob flitted over and patted his shoulder. "Do not worry, Favored One. It has not happened in seven hundred and eighty-seven years. There is no reason to think it will happen in seven hundred and eighty-eight."

Pike nodded. "You're right. I'm being s--"

"Though of course it might," Hob added. He stroked at his chin. "Many unusual things happening lately. Our new master is turning the Abyss upside down. More changes and surprises since Hob can remember!"

"Delightful." Pike groaned and leaned back in his chair. "So on top of everything else, we have the Apocalypse to worry about. I mean moreso than before."

Etreon peered at him. "Pike, are you erect right now?"

"Yes, but it's nothing to do with the end of the world!" Pike groaned. "It just won't go down. It just needs some time."

"But you fucked all night," Braxus observed.

"Yes, well, our friend there is an incubus, these things happen. Look, don't worry about me, I just need to ride it out--yes, all right very funny, ha ha--and in the meantime we have bigger things to... you know what, everything I say right now is going to sound ribald to you. Are there any clothes around here?"

Hob pointed. "In the armoire."

Tuco could taste Pike's embarrassment, but also his secret pleasure, as he dramatically stomped over to the wooden cabinet and opened it. Inside there were a few of the drab woolen robes and tunics the apprentices were accustomed to, but also several brightly colored, sheer garments made of something that shimmered and spilled across his fingers like water. "Hob, what is this--is this silk?"

The imp beamed. "You like it? Very pleasant to wear. But just don't take it up into the Abbey; the enchantment won't reach that far."

Pike slipped the red and black garment around his shoulders and moaned. "Oh, is there a temptation of comfort? Because if so, consider me fully damned."

Tuco stood from the table, wiping his mouth on a napkin. "You have really outdone yourself, Hob. This is the nicest place I've ever stayed in. We're close enough to the Abbey that we can head up any time we like, and this room is certainly superior to the apprentice dorms. I cannot wait to try that bed."

Pike groaned at that and reached down to cup the erection that still peeked out between the buttons in the silk. He looked very fetching in the garment, Tuco decided, the red and black setting off his cream fur nicely.

"I'll have to try one of those myself," Tuco said. "And it seems that we can stay here pretty much indefinitely."

"Until Brother Gabriel comes down here with another new prisoner and thinks to check the watch room," Pike reminded him soberly. "We're safer down here, but not safe. And if people notice that Braxus and I are gone a lot, they'll start asking questions. And we could be followed even in the best of circumstances."

Tuco sighed. "I suppose you're right. And there's all the other apprentices up there at Brother Gabriel's mercy. So then. All we need to do is find a place for me to stay that's safe, figure out how to stop Brother Gabriel, and then find a way to free Lord Krastor and all the other imprisoned innocents from Throat Prison. All while worrying about demons from the Abyss, the devils hunting me for my big stash of souls I've got somewhere, and whatever is happening with me and this logos of Sathanus that I've somehow gotten inside of me. Oh and I suppose, now, avert the end of the world. That's not too much, is it?"

"Don't forget Flavros," Braxus reminded him glumly. "You said he'll be wanting revenge on you."

"As for that," Hob said with a wide grin, "Hob thinks it is time for his other surprise."

---

Tuco stared up at the immense wall surrounding E-Temen-Anki. "You are jesting, Hob. Why on earth would I ever go back inside there?"

The black demonling shook his head. "Hob cannot tell you, master. You must trust him."

Tuco focused his gaze on the brand on Hob's neck, the mark that identified him as in loyal service to Tuco. It couldn't be faked, or so Hob had claimed. "You understand that the last time I followed you in here--or thought I had, anyway--I was imprisoned."

"Yes, master, but it was your loyal and true Hob who got you out again. Why would he do so only to trap you once more? And then Hob ends up in service to Baronet Flavros, who is just as unpleasant as Belphegor was. You must have people you trust, even in the Abyss. Look for the mark; those bearing it will not betray you. It is a sign of your covenant with them."

Tuco sighed. "I suppose you are right. You've proven yourself, Hob. I'm just... wary."

"You will be pleased, master. Enter the wall. When inside, follow your tongue. It will lead you to what you need to do. Hob cannot say more, or risk the plan failing forever."

With a nod, Tuco turned toward the wall leading into E-Temen-Anki. He stepped forward, and it unfolded before him, the stones shifting apart to reveal the long passageway through to the other side. "All right, well, goodbye, Hob," he said. "I hope to see you soon."

And he stepped into the tunnel. The passage was much as before, walls broken up by the erratic deposit of limbostone, his monstrous image reflected in it. Now he could see what Pike had spoken of before: his proportions, even beyond the muscular, were no longer human. His shoulders were too wide, his limbs and neck longer, his hips set wider than before, all to make room for the swollen, imposing brawn that had piled onto him in his paper castle atop the tower. He turned his eyes away from the limbostone before he could catch any glimpse of the souls held in torment within.

He was nearly out of the tunnel when a thought occurred to him: perhaps Hob did indeed have a good reason for keeping his aims here a secret. Baronet Flavros had revealed to him that the tunnel into the fortress would not admit anyone who planned to harm or retrieve its contents. If Hob couldn't tell Tuco what he was doing there, then maybe that was because if he knew, the tunnel wouldn't admit him. Which would mean Hob did have some kind of plan, something that would destroy or defeat Baronet Flavros for good.

No sooner had the thought occurred to him, than the whole tunnel groaned and began to shake. Tuco stumbled forward and was nearly struck by a stone that dropped from the archway just in front of him. In panic, he scrambled to one side and hurried ahead. The tunnel was closing in around him. Rocks fell everywhere, the wall groaning and shaking. One heavy stone clipped Tuco's shoulder and bounced off; he scarcely felt it, but ahead of him, the stones of the wall were interlocking together, blocking off his escape. He lunged forward, just as a pillar of rock erupted from the passage floor in front of him, struck his knee and sent him sprawling.

The edges of the passageway folded in around him, and on hands and knees he scrambled forward. Masonry clamped around his foot, pinning it, and with a terrific wrest of muscle and the snapping of stone, he wrenched it free. He sprang to his feet and barreled for the end of the passageway, the archway of light ahead of him growing narrower and narrower, the roof folding in toward the ground, layers of rock thrusting up from the floor. He was twenty feet away, and the exit was half its size.

Fifteen feet away, and there was just enough space remaining that he could have wriggled through.

Ten feet, and the rectangle of light shrank to a window.

Five, and it was gone, the exit sealed away in solid stone.

He had nothing else to do. He leapt at the blackness with all his strength.

With a roar and snapping of masonry, he burst through the stone wall on the far side, stumbling through the grass, broken stone and rubble showering down around him, his body covered in dust.

He felt as though he'd fallen off the roof of the Abbey. He fell to all fours, his heart pounding with terror, his wind knocked out of him by the force of the blow. Finally, he managed to recover his breath, and he slumped to one side, looking back at the wall of E-Temen-Anki, now with a monster-shaped hole in it. "That's my hole," he said with a wheezing laugh, and then he got to his knees, lifted both arms over his head, and pounded his fists down on the ground with a roar of triumph, lifting an explosion of grass and soil. He'd beaten it. He was alive!

And for better or worse, now all of E-Temen-Anki knew he was here. He'd have to work quickly. What had Hob said? Follow your tongue? Already it swayed between his parted jaws. If he ever dwelt among humans again, he'd have to try to re-learn how to keep it in his mouth, but it provided so much sensory information that keeping it withdrawn was like walking around with his eyes closed.

In the Abyss there was always the faint odor of sulphur--something related to devils and demons, he supposed, but eventually you stopped noticing that. He could taste the grass on the air, the muddy flavor of rock dust, and the silvery scent of limbostone. And something else, a taste that awoke all his senses and pricked him into alertness. The scent of danger or the scent of prey. Blood. The odor pierced everything else, commanding all his attention. His tongue flicking like a serpent's, he followed the trail, the odor growing stronger and stronger, until it led to a large boulder, a little taller than him, planted some distance from the path that led to E-Temen-Anki's labyrinthine network of bridges and stairways. The scent was coming from beneath the enormous standing stone.

Once, a stone even a tenth its size would have been completely immovable, but Tuco gripped both sides, his claws chipping at the boulder as they dug in, and with a great heave of his arms, back, and legs, he hoisted the monolith up and tossed it to one side, where it landed with a dull thump. In the flattened earth beneath was a small, hollowed-out area, and nestled in the little cache lay a collection of wineskins. Tuco didn't need to open any of them to detect that they were filled with blood.

He frowned, putting his hands on his hips. "Well, what does Hob expect me to do with these?" he muttered. Crouching don, he lifted one of the blood-filled flasks from the hole. On it, in blood with spidery script, Hob had scrawled a word. Tuco tried to remember his letters, and sounded it out: "Bah-yee-mahn. Bayemon." He didn't recognize it. Perhaps he wasn't reading it correctly? He wished he'd had more time to study reading before having to flee the Abbey. Or that he could have brought his friends with him. Another wineskin had another word: Furfur. Another, Demoriel. Well, that one sounded like the name of an angel. Or a devil, he considered. Wait, that had to be it. These must all be devil names. Names of devils and sacks of blood.

He paced back and forth. Hob had needed Tuco's blood to summon him out of the prison. He'd said all you needed to summon a devil with absolute certainty was his blood and his name. Could it be?

Trying to recall his demonology training and hoping against hope that he wasn't wrong, Tuco took one of the wineskins, unstoppered it, and carefully spilled out the blood in the shape of a pentagram, being sure to step out of the circle before he closed it. Technically this formed a rudimentary binding circle, and as he was a devil now, it was very likely he could be trapped inside one. From memory, he recited the Latin ritual, concluding with, "Furfur Evocatio! Furfur Evocatio! Furfur Evocatio!"

The words had barely left his lips before above him, the towering spire of E-Temen-Anki, castle stacked upon palace stacked upon keep stacked upon fortress stacked upon garrison, shuddered, and there was a little wink partway up, and suddenly, the tower was shorter. With a great rumbling and cracking of the earth, an enormous leg ending in a point thrust its way out of the circle, followed by another, and another, and a great, chitinous, crablike being with uncountable legs dragged itself up out of the circle. "Who summons me after all these years?" it chittered. From what mouth it spoke, Tuco could not see; its many long, crustacean legs joined into some indefinable mass in the center.

Tuco stepped forward. "I, Tuco Witchywine, Knight of the Abyss, summon you. You have been imprisoned by Baronet Flavros in E-Temen-Anki, and now I set you free."

The enormous being shifted its many legs with a great rasping and scraping of chitin. "And what shall I owe you for such a favor?" it hissed.

"Naught," answered Tuco. "Save a vow never to harm me or the souls in my care. And if you wished to make Baronet Flavros pay for his treachery, I'm certain few would fault you."

"I will tear him apart," the creature vowed.

"Then wait for a while," Tuco answered, "and I will call up some allies."

He broke the weak binding circle with one foot, though he doubted it could ever have held such a powerful-looking being as Furfur, and withdrew the rest of the wineskins. Each of them had a name, and with the blood from each, he made a circle, calling the devils by name. As each appeared--a titanic, evil-looking tree-creature; a fang-mouthed fish that swam in the open air; a bubbling purple-black ooze; a golden dragon-serpent; a creature composed entirely of shards of broken mirror-glass--the tower at the center of the vault dropped perceptibly.

Soon, more than thirty furious, snarling devils were clustered around the grassy fields surrounding E-Temen-Anki. In their forms, Tuco could see hints of the prisons that had enclosed and transformed them: prisons of glass, of water, of fire, of forest, of jewels. All of them were enraged, and all of them had sworn never to harm Tuco or his friends. He had many allies in the infernal ranks now.

It was not long after he'd drained his final wineskin before Baronet Flavros appeared, in a puff of dark smoke. He stalked toward Tuco with his muzzle twisted in fury. "What is the meaning of this?" he snarled. "What have you done? How did you manage to escape the prison? And why in the planes would you ever think of returning? Do you know what I can..."

He trailed off as his gaze shifted away from Tuco's face, and he finally took in the crowd of enormous, slavering, rage-filled devils surrounding them. The blood drained from his face, visible even through his short, golden fur. "But this is impossible. How have you--" He took a step back. Tuco could feel the magic in him, ready to teleport him away, and before this could happen, Tuco shot out one huge arm and gripped Baronet Flavros about the throat.

The devil roared in panic and anger. He slashed at Tuco's arms with his claws, kicked at him with his taloned feet, but his weapons could not penetrate the scales his own prison had given Tuco.

"Now," said Tuco pleasantly, "it's time for you to have a prison." And he carried the flailing, terrified Baronet across the grass to the one final binding circle he'd prepared, the one made out of the blood of devils Flavros had imprisoned for decades, for centuries, for millennia.

He tossed Flavros inside it and felt no small satisfaction as the devil bounced off of the invisible walls created by the enchantment.

"You can't do this to me!" Flavros roared. "I was a star of the heavens. I have shone in the darkness longer than your miserable species has existed. I am a Baronet, for Morningstar's sake!"

"Even stars go out," Tuco answered. "He's yours to do with as you please, devils."

He turned away, so he did not see what happened to Baronet Flavros. But there was a lot of snarling and a lot of screaming. And he did see the great tower of E-Temen-Anki, the tower of Babel, teeter, topple, and fall as its master was destroyed. And he saw the darkness that filled the skies as every devil in the prison of hell was finally set free.