FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The Devil May Care

Part 29

For DuskCypher

By Draconicon

The fuckathon continued through the day, each and every demon that came in offering something different and something new. There were times when they entered with shock and questions on their lips, considering that - to their eyes - the other whores had been brought in and kicked out almost immediately. They always wanted to be sure that they weren't just going to be made to cum and then be pushed away, and Dusk always had the assurances that they needed.

There were more than he expected, and as time went on, he started wondering if he was being a bit of a whore himself, what with the way that he was putting himself out there for their pleasure and making it so that they were getting off while he was doing the work. He knew that he was getting paid with their loyalty, but at the same time, he was starting to feel like they were supposed to be the ones doing the work, not him.

And it was work, though it varied depending on just who he was 'servicing' at the time.

There were easy ones, of course. Most of the demons weren't there to be that difficult, and few had the same sort of pushiness that the rabbit had had. They were just there to get him off and get off in return, wanting him to take charge, yes, but wanting to make sure that they both had a good time.

Perhaps the easiest one had been a gorilla that swung around a pole that he'd conjured, showing off a muscular body and shaking an ass that was bigger than he expected on such a big, tight body. The big guy had a deep voice, too, one that had plenty of filthy things to say to keep Dusk good and hard. He didn't think that he had ever cum so hard to words before, and he made that gorilla hold the pole tight when he was done.

On the other hand, there were still those that seemed to need to test him, to see how far they could push their new boss. Some were as bad as the rabbit, but there had been one elephant that had taken things quite a bit further than he really wanted.

Dusk groaned as he shifted on the ice pack that he sat on, feeling the heat that was still coming from his pucker. That trunk had gone places that he hadn't even thought that a truck could go, and he swore that the elephant had cheated, making it longer and stretching it out or something like that to go that far.

You better hope that was worth it for you, he thought, remembering the way that he'd fucked the elephant in return. You're never getting to do something like that again.

The stretching hadn't been bad at first, but the way that the elephant had managed to twist and turn, the way that it had opened him up, had been too much. He'd needed to teach the pachyderm a hard lesson when that was done, and the big guy didn't get the chance to take a collar away with him.

He'd gone away marked, of course. Just not around the neck.

As Dusk leaned back on the foot of his bed, shaking his head, he felt something entering the Hellspire. There were very few demons outside of Ornar that were allowed to come through that particular portal, and only one that would be able to put this sort of aura out. Shaking his head, the black cat leaned his head back.

"Do I really want to talk to her right now?" he asked himself.

He knew the answer was no, just like he knew that he'd have to talk to her anyway. Selene was one of those figures that would make life difficult for him if he didn't, and she'd have every right to do just that.

And besides, if she was here, that meant that she needed to talk about Hell, and that was something that he needed information on, anyway.

With a snap of his fingers, he pulled her through his domain into the time-sealed room, and she appeared with little more than a blink of surprise. He was glad to see that she was properly dressed, a nice change from all the naked or fetish-clothed demons. She had a gown that ran down to her ankles, a thing that showed off her body, but in a way that showed just how proud she was of it rather than as a way of displaying the goods.

She looked at him, and then back at the doorway.

"Ah. A use of Sloth that I haven't seen before. Very clever."

"It gets the job done."

"I doubt that it comes easily."

"No. I feel like I've been awake for three days."

"You might have been, in here. Time is moving swiftly."

He felt his belly gurgle, and all of a sudden, he was very hopeful that Seraph had taken his orders seriously earlier. He was going to need a large meal to cover all that he'd had to do down here.

"What's the reason behind the visit?" he asked, leaning back a bit, his long coat flying to him and wrapping around him.

"We need to talk about Hell."

"I figured."

"And the dark throne."

"I don't suppose that there's a way to abdicate?"

"Not without naming a successor that the rest of the realms will accept."

"And I'm assuming you're not one of them?"

"Pride has never been able to hold the throne. We merely...advise."

In other words, they weren't trusted to hold the throne, but they were powerful enough to have a voice towards it. He nodded, rubbing his forehead.

They were going to need something more comfortable than this, he realized. With a wave of his hand, he called forth Greed, and Gluttony, and Sloth again. They created a table and chairs that were fancy, but comfortable, and the power of Gluttony gave them a bottle of vodka to drink. He shifted to the table, sitting down and pouring himself a glass.

"Do you need to be drunk this early in the day?" she asked.

"I thought you'd like the idea of being proud of your capability. Besides, I can drink a little and then wash it away."

"True. Pour me one?"

He nodded, taking the bottle and filling a second glass and sliding it to the other side of the table. She sat down, drinking it and then hold it out for a refill. He chuckled.

"Looks like you need it, too."

"More than you realize."

"Something happening?"

"Brutus is up to something."

"And?"

"Admittedly, he's always up to something, but he has been...quiet. That's not normal for him, and it's not particularly good when Gluttony starts to go silent. It means that there's something big on the horizon, and they're starving themselves in expectation of a feast."

"Should I be worried?"

"Perhaps. He has been...obsessed with you. And he still expects that marriage."

Dusk sighed, rubbing his forehead. That was the thing that he wasn't looking forward to dealing with. He didn't want to get married, particularly not to that boar, and he didn't want to go back down to Hell, either. Not permanently. Not as a ruler. All he had ever wanted was to get this power and then live his life freely, without constraints and without problems and politics to get in the way.

Perhaps he should have known better. He had, after all, offed one of two rulers that were keeping a cosmic balance.

"And the other realms?" he asked. "I know Pride is more or less on my side with you. Yes?"

She nodded. At least he had that much going for him. Pride was powerful enough to consider itself one of the major realms, whereas there were several minor ones that he didn't need to deal with just yet. He poured himself another glass and downed it.

"So, Pride is on my side. Lust nearly is, at least enough that Brutus can't actually count on them to support anything that he says. Greed?"

"In the air. They need someone on the throne, and they'll take whoever will make them rich. Brutus would start the sales to the Wrath demons again, encouraging war, so they might throw behind him if he pushes for their support."

"Envy?"

"Not that important at the moment. They'll sulk and go along with the majority, whoever that happens to be."

"Sloth, then?"

"If it wakes up, then it might very well side with you if you can give it a half-decent reason. Surprisingly, it has some of the greater minds in Hell."

"That...is surprising, actually."

"Well, when you're resting all the time, you have to do something, I suppose."

He nodded. So, there were a number of different splits in Hell. Pride and Lust were basically on his side, while Gluttony probably could get Greed in its pockets if it really had to. Two to two. Envy was out of the game, for the moment, unless things devolved to the point of a tie-breaker.

Sloth would probably side with him, just because he'd want to keep things from going too far out of hand for the moment and would like to keep things fairly quiet. They'd like the rest. So, that might be a three to two thing, him.

That just left Wrath.

"And the angry guys?"

"That's...complicated. They're trying to be more pacifistic of late, believe it or not," the lioness said, shaking her head. "At the last meeting, they refused to buy more weapons or continue the wars that Lucifer pushed them through."

"...How many did he start?"

"More than you want to know."

"I see...and they're trying to leave that behind, then?"

"Some of them. The big ones, at least. I don't imagine that it will last, but they'll likely come to the point of wanting to fight wars that they choose, rather than ones that amuse the other powers that be."

That was something. He didn't want them to be fighting, anyway, and he certainly didn't want them wasting their lives when they might need as many as possible if something went wrong in Heaven. He didn't think that it would, but Mercy had played quite the game, and he was sure that it wasn't the last that he'd seen of her or her father. They were both angry at him now, and he knew that they'd find some way to start fucking with him.

And if he needed to fight, he knew no better fighters than Wrath demons.

He sighed, rubbing his forehead. The vodka bottle had refilled itself somehow, and he imagined that was a little residual gluttony trying to keep things topped off. He pushed the glass to the side and just drank from the bottle.

"Your liver isn't going to thank you for that."

"Since when does a demon care about that?" he muttered.

"Since you took the power of Lucifer and could take the dark throne."

"I don't want it."

"That may not matter."

"Hmmph."

He downed half the bottle before putting it down. He knew that he could get rid of the alcohol hit that was following, and considering who he was talking to, he made it happen. He didn't like it, but as the impending buzz faded from his head, he still felt a bit of relief at having a clear mind.

"Fine. What do you want me to do?"

"Take the throne."

"Other than that."

Selene shrugged, and he balled his hands into fists under the table. The lioness was being maddeningly unhelpful, particularly when all he wanted was to just have this over and done with. He didn't want to be the ruler of Hell, he didn't want to be anything with that level of responsibility. All he wanted was the power to enjoy himself.

This should have been done with the minute that he kicked Satan out the window. Failing that, it should have been done with after he kicked God back to Heaven and settled himself back down in his own house. Instead, he had Brutus stirring up trouble, he had the different realms of Hell contesting and competing for superiority, and now, he had a lioness that was pushing him to settle it by taking on even more responsibility for himself.

"Is this insanity ever going to stop?" he asked. "Do the realms of Hell ever just...settle down?"

"Yes. When there's a good person on the throne."

"Good?"

"Well, competent."

"And Lucifer wasn't?"

"At the start, he was. He had a mean streak through him, but he wasn't bad at the start. He knew how to keep the different parts of Hell running, and he had a way of speaking that persuaded those that were at the bottom to support those at the top. He had a silver tongue, and it kept him on the throne long past where others would have thrown him off.

"But as time went on...well, things changed," she said, running a hand along her neck, touching something that he couldn't see. "He became more cruel, more obsessed, more prone to rage. It was around that time that he started marking me."

"Marking you."

"The scars."

"Right."

"But for a time, he knew how to rule, and there was a sort of peace in Hell. Not a good one, but a peace. Then he had to start pulling different tricks, different little traps for those that would defy his rule."

"The war for the Wrath demons?"

"And the starvation of the Lust demons, and so on. Those that supported him gained little favors. Those that didn't were made to be too weak to challenge him."

"Basic politics, I suppose."

"Essentially. And that is what you'll have to do."

"If I take the throne."

"Do you have anyone better?"

He opened his mouth, then shut it again. Much as he might have nominated Ornar for the position of second Satan, he doubted that it would go over well outside of the realm of Lust. He needed to have someone that the various realms would settle for, someone that had the strength to push people rather than just the kindness to keep his own demons in line.

Ornar was a good man, but that didn't mean that he was a good ruler.

The only other demons that he remembered were the demon Hellsmith, his bodyguard Arnis, Brutus, and Selene. Outside of that, he didn't know any by name that had any real authority, and Arnis was pushing that more than a little bit.

Hellsmith, he didn't know enough about. The man obviously had fame in Hell, and had the power to create many different items, but he doubted that the demon could hold the throne with that. However, he would be an asset to whoever could.

Selene had already confessed that she couldn't hold the throne, and neither could anyone else from her realm. Considering the sheer problems of Pride, he imagined that it would be a short reign if anyone tried. They'd be so far up themselves that they'd be pushing the buttons of all the other demons in short order.

And Brutus? Fuck that boar. Fuck him hard.

He rubbed his forehead, trying to put his thoughts in order. The whole thing was problematic, and there was the huge problem that, if he named a successor, he might not even get to keep the powers that he had. He was an uncrowned second Satan, and that meant that he was in line for the throne purely through the powers that he had. If someone else took it, who was to say that they wouldn't take his powers to keep from having a rival?

It was a conundrum.

"Do you have any idea what to do?" he asked.

"For the throne? No."

"Then why are you even here?"

"Because you deserved the chance to know what was happening in Hell, and the chance to know that we still want you ruling it."

"The Lust demons are telling me that often enough."

"Then listen to them."

"Hmmph..." He shook his head. "I didn't want this. I just wanted...I don't know. A good life. Something to enjoy when the rest of the world started going to Hell. Something that put me above all the other petty shit."

"You picked the wrong powers to steal for that."

"You're telling me."

"Dusk. Look at me."

He looked up from the bottle. The lioness had her eyes fixed on him, her legs crossed under the table, and she had her hands folded on top of it.

"You are an exceptional man. I will not say that you're good, because you're not. But you are exceptional. Nobody normal could have stolen Lucifer's power from him. Nobody normal could have out-thought God and changed his plans. Nobody on the median line of power and intelligence and capability could have done anything that you've done.

"Does that mean that you will succeed as the ruler of Hell? No. Does it mean that you have a better chance than some? Yes. I want to see you try, if only to keep the chaos at bay."

"...And because it would make things better for you and yours?"

"There is an element of that, yes."

"Heh...Pride can be honest, it seems."

"The best pride always is."

She stood up, brushing her dress out along her legs a few times before looking at him again.

"I bargained for you to have time. You have some left, but not much. A few months. In that time, you will need to find out what you want to do, and decide how you will approach the matter of the throne. Even if you decide to abdicate, you will need to find someone to sponsor. If you don't..."

She left that hanging, and he knew what she meant. The creatures of Hell would not just fight each other, but they would come for him. Having the power of the devil would be a shortcut to the throne, and there would be many contenders. He nodded in understanding, and she nodded back.

"Then we will talk again, later. Goodbye, Dusk."

"Goodbye, Selene."

She left the bedroom on wings of darkness, and he shook his head as he tossed the vodka bottle into the portal after her. He released the spell of Sloth, and was immediately hit with a blinding headache.

"Ugh...never...never doing that...again..."

After getting no less than three breakfast burritos from Seraph, he went to the balcony that overlooked the realm of Hell again. This time, he picked one that had a hot tub, wanting something that would burn away some of the discomfort and stress that had built up from everything that he'd done. He felt he deserved that.

As he stepped outside, wearing nothing but a pair of swim trunks, he felt something. It was barely there, something that he scantly noticed, and he imagined that it was just the difference of moving between the paired realms. The black cat took a step towards the hot tub -

"My, my..."

And just like that, he heard a voice. He started to turn, only to feel a firm hand on his ass, pressing the trunks tighter to him.

"Lord Diel was right about your ass being perfect..."

"Who are you?"

"Just an Assassin."

A finger pressed towards his crack, and the black cat yowled in rage. He pulled on Wrath, kicking back, only for the stranger to grab him by the leg. There was strength there, strength that pulled at him and fed on what he had.

He felt...weak. Not doomed, or helpless, but weak, as if some of the strength was being drained out of that contact with his leg.

"Ah, ah, ah..."

"Let go," he whispered. "Let go, or I'll show you the full power of the devil."

"Oh, dear. You think that I'd let you do that? Let's put some of those thoughts out of your head, shall we?"

And then he felt something that he had never expected to feel, nor ever anticipated could be done. Another hand pressed against the back of his head, and he felt a surge of hunger, something that pulled at the back of his mind, something that was digging through the back of his skull.

It was Gluttony magic, and it was eating his thoughts.

Dusk's eyes went wide, but every time that he tried to come up with a thought to strike back, the strange demon pulled it away, eating it. Consumed before it could come to fruition, he just squirmed and struggled, trying to wriggle and then forgetting why.

It was a singularly effective spell.

But before it could get worse, a deep roar filled the air. The grip on his head and leg loosened, and suddenly, a hot spray hit his back.

"Hands off the boss, fucker!" Arnis shouted.

Weakened from the strange spell, Dusk stumbled into the hot tub, the water going from white and clear to red as he hit the water. He managed to keep his head above the foam, panting as he turned to see what was happening.

He had a split second to see a panda bear trying to fight against an enraged Arnis, the smaller ursine flinging claws, fists and more at the other male. He had a split second in which he saw a muzzle starting to open, only to see Arnis's claws batter through it. The upper half went flying off the balcony into the stretches of Hell below, teeth flying everyone, one scratching the black cat's cheek.

More and more damage was done, blood flying in sprays of red, flesh coming off in tears and tatters. There were strings of flesh, chunks of muscle, and more that hit the ground and hung off the edge of the balcony, and most of all, bone chunks that cracked and filled the air with the sound of splintering parts.

He stared at the maelstrom of destruction that Arnis had become. He had never seen the bear unleash the power of Wrath that he had, and he had never known just how good a fighter that the big guy was. Now? Now, he knew that he never wanted Arnis pissed off at him or someone else important to him. It wouldn't end well.

It had taken less than thirty seconds, and the fight was done. There was only one man left standing, and that was Arnis. Whatever the other demon had been, it had been rent apart so forcefully and so completely that there was only a hint of what it had once been in the muscle fibers, blood spatters, and bone pieces that were littered over the balcony. As for the hot tub, it was almost clogged from all the debris.

Arnis panted for breath for a few seconds, the shackles on his wrists and ankles from his time in Hell showing again. The big bear shook his head slowly, looking at Dusk. The Wrath faded from his eyes, and he offered a hand.

"You alright, boss?"

"Yeah...yeah, I'm alright."

"Didn't take nothing?"

"No. He was trying, but...yeah."

If nothing else, the attack had been a wake-up call. Someone had managed to get through many of his defenses, and they had been waiting for him in a place that had been completely secure against invasion. Or at least, so he had thought. There were powers in Hell that still could fight his, apparently. If he was caught by surprise. If he didn't know what they were going to do to him.

He mentioned Diel, and he used Gluttony. That means that he could only come from one realm.

He shook his head. So much for getting a chance to rest. He was going to have to deal with this sooner than later, otherwise, Brutus might get a chance to start hiding evidence. Much as he wanted to stay divorced from the politics of Hell, it seemed that they were determined to drag him back into it.

"Any idea what he was, boss?" Arnis asked as the water slowly filtered down, taking the blood spatter from the black cat with it.

"Glutton. He was from Gluttony."

"Looks like he snuck in, somehow."

"Yes. Obviously."

"...Sorry, boss. Didn't mean to -"

"It's fine."

He took a deep breath. No, better not to lash out right now. He was holding onto a thread, and he needed to make sure that he didn't lose the support he had. If Brutus was willing to start striking at him in his secure hideout, then that might inspire other demons to do the same. He needed to make a show of power, at the very least. If nothing else, he needed to remind the demons of Hell what they were dealing with.

A tour of Hell? he thought. Well...I've got nothing better to do with my time.

"Tell Ornar that the rest of the fucking is going to have to wait. I'm putting Seraph in charge of the tower for now, and I'm heading down to Hell tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"I want to do this in style."

"Heh...I getcha. I'm going?"

"You just saved my ass. You're going. And so is he."

"Fuck yeah."

The day passed with food and companionship, and the night passed with a good time with Andrew and Peter together, the pair of them recovered enough to be part of the fun again. They were eager to prove that they were still good slaves once they heard that he had been with the different incubi all day long, and they were good enough to keep him happy. Not good enough to exceed the sex demons, no matter how hard they tried, but they were more than good enough to beat out the other mortals that he had been with over the course of his life.

Of course, there was only so much they could do before they conked out. Dusk had to force himself to sleep with the use of Sloth, and even that only gave him a little bit of rest compared to what he wished for.

The next morning, Dusk again took the time to experiment with his powers. On the Hell side of the Hellspire, he left the front gates of the building and started collecting the different rocks and stone. Greed pulled them to him, and a combination of Greed and Pride started transforming them, warping them into something else with the power of his demonic aura. It was spreading through the rocks and stones, crushing them and shaping them into something new.

As the rocks ground and slid and crunched together, the sins started to change them. Not mere stone, but something hard, something smooth. Most of them went flying out again, falling into the earth and expanding with the grasping touch of Greed, filling a space that they were too small to actually cover, but managing it anyway. It was a runway, and the remaining rocks and material? Well, Pride continued to upgrade that, and bit by bit, it became something suitable for the power of a second Satan.

"The notices have been sent?" he asked Ornar as he focused on the mental image of the plane that he wanted.

"All major demonic Houses have been informed."

"Including Lord Diel?"

"The last of the ones informed, but he is informed."

"Good."

This was mostly to keep up appearances, to see if he could trip Diel into revealing something damning. The whole process was annoying, considering that he would have loved to just go down to Gluttony and blow the boar to bits, but that was Wrath speaking. He needed to do this intelligently, or he would set the whole realm of Gluttony against him. While Diel was probably the smartest demon there, he was far from the only one, and he doubted that they would take to him killing one of their own very well.

And that was if, he realized, he could actually finish off Diel permanently. He hadn't tried to utterly slaughter a demon yet, and he wasn't sure how that would work. For that matter, perhaps Arnis hadn't gone far enough in destroying the assassin. They could easily pop up again, or return to Diel and tell him what was going on.

It didn't matter. If he didn't do anything, then there'd just be another assassin sent after him in a few days, or even hours. He needed to show the realms of Hell that he had the power to fight back, and that he wasn't someone that could be pushed around.

Much as he hated it, he had to be involved.

As the plane formed out of black and red rock, turned to metal, and then settled onto the runway, he looked over his shoulder at Arnis.

"You know how to fly?"

"Got an inkling."

"Good enough not to crash?"

"Heh, probably."

"Then you're the pilot. Ornar?"

"I do hope you're not asking me to be the stewardess, Lord Dusk."

"Not at all. Just...company."

"...Company."

"Company."

The orc smiled. Of course, there'd be more to it than fucking on the way to the realm of Gluttony, or the fact that they would be enjoying each other between the realms. Having Ornar Onsen at his side would mean that there was a chance to show off the loyalty that almost half of the realm of Lust had pledged to him, and what that meant to Brutus. If there were other lords of Gluttony present, it would undermine what sort of power Brutus had over them, reminding them that there were other powerful lords in Hell.

They entered the plane. Arnis went to the front, sliding into the cockpit through a door that was almost too small for him, while Dusk settled in a seat that faced backwards. Ornar took the one facing him, smiling.

"So, my lord, how would you like to be serviced?"

"Let's get airborne, and I'll tell you..."

The End

Summary: Dusk finishes up with the fuckathon for the moment, and has a long talk with Selene. But that's not the only thing that he has to take care of, for not all that wait in Hell are friendly to his cause.

Tags: M/M, groping, panda, cat, lioness, feline, bear, orc, various species, series, modern fantasy, demon, politics, gore, attack, ice pack, nudity,