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The Drakkaren stretched slowly as he yawned loudly, looking up at the ceiling from his reading and asking Sin mildly: "So do you ever get used to the whole not-sleeping thing, or is this a moot question because you're a Naganatine?"

Sin glanced over at him curiously from where she was sitting on the dresser, and then she shook her head a bit, saying softly: "Most demons still complain about it... but for me, sleep has never been necessity, nor part of my everyday life, so... it's moot, I guess, if that's the proper term." She paused, then smiled a bit as she put down the sewing she was working on. "You're nervous about guarding Lily."

"Just a bit." Zerrex admitted grudgingly, making a face as he crossed his arms and looked down at the Basic Magic Principles book which was still haunting him to this day. "I mean, come on. In Hell's terms, I'm illiterate and handicapped... a lot like I was in real life." The Drakkaren rubbed the back of his head embarrassedly, then glanced over at Sin as she rolled her eyes. "What?"

"You aren't handicapped or illiterate... you do just fine with Demonic and even Angelic. Most demons take at least ten thousand years to master all the different words and runes... and you speak it fine, too, and that's more important here in Hell." She paused, then added softly as he looked at him with quiet firmness: "And... and you... you aren't handicapped. You... you're just a bit slow compared to other people's transformations."

"Oh, so I'm mentally retarded then. Wonderful." Zerrex grunted, and Sin let out a loud sigh and shook her head slowly. "But anyway... so I guess Lily can stay down here, unless she was serious about building that whole expansion on the house thing... and I'll stay up in the training room to give you two some privacy, since you seem to know each other well enough."

"I know all the royalty in Hell." Sin smiled a bit, then she slipped carefully off the dresser as she carefully folded up the pants she'd mended and put them away in a drawer, before asking curiously: "How did the Lieutant take your leaving, anyway?"

Zerrex shrugged a bit as he picked up his book again, flipping towards the last section of the book as he said dryly: "He wasn't really that happy, but he offered me a raise if I stayed... but I had to turn it down. Thank Gods he's one of the few Masters around here that isn't an asshole..."

Sin nodded a bit, and for a little while there was quiet as she tidied up, humming a bit to herself as Zerrex struggled his way through the book, rereading pages sometimes twice or even thrice just to begin to grasp the concept or spell it was teaching, and how to execute it. But the problem wasn't just the fact he had trouble understanding everything the book had to say... it was that, just like a beginner, he had pronounciation difficulties and a huge problem in controlling how much power he put into the spell, which was ironic considering his energy abilities.

Despite his lack of talent with magic, his energy powers has grown exponentially over the years, and even things like creating his angel wings took only a moment of concentration before they popped into being. He had also gained enough control to freely create weapons out of his energy as he willed, although for whatever reason he couldn't mimic all of the abilities that he'd once had with Drake. I guess it must be the whole Nephilim thing...

He mused a bit to himself, then finally sighed and put down the book, asking flatly: "Sin, what's the big deal about my energy abilities, anyway? I mean, every time I turn around I'm getting shot by some Inquisitor with a bolt of dark energy, and everyone else uses magic like they've got an instruction manual." The reptile paused, looking down at his spellbook and rubbing the back of his head, mumbling lamely: "Well, I mean... not a manual so much as an instructional video or something like that, since... you know... spellbooks are sort of like manuals..."

"I understand the metaphor, Lord Zerrex." Sin said with quiet amusement, smiling a bit as she crossed her arms, before she paused and added gently: "I think it's because you spend so much time training your body... if... if I can be so bold as to say that. I mean, you're... it's made you very handsome, but... your mind has been a bit neglected lately."

"And you need both to be competent in anything..." Zerrex said softly, musing and lowering his head a bit as Sin blushed quietly, but nodded anyway. He rubbed the back of his head slowly as he sat back, then he looked curiously up at her. "Should I meditate more often? I know I haven't been doing that a lot..."

Sin shrugged, then she flushed a bit and glanced down, murmuring embarrassedly: "I... I'm not supposed to speak of this, because... memories of the past I spent with him are supposed to be forbidden but... but Mephistopheles..." She hesitated for the longest time, then murmured quietly in a voice that was half-embarrased, half-ashamed: "Mephistopheles was... he was a very powerful magician. He had control of every element, and he could perform any magical art... his only weakness was physical confrontation, but he was still very strong compared to most of us, and... I... I'm sorry, I'm getting off topic."

She halted and turned away for a moment, then swallowed and laced her hands together as she half-turned back towards him, looking steadily at the floor. "Mephistopheles said the best way to become powerful, was not to want or seek power, but to feel it and force it to come to you. He... was all about strength and power, and he was... very determined, and very... very scary." She stopped, then murmured: "The greatest skill Mephistopheles taught me was the Art of Self-Illusion. It allows a person to practice a spell without actually causing the effects of the spell itself... but it's very, very dangerous. You can accidently cast the spell on your own body, for instance, or accidently use the spell on someone else, or maybe create an entirely different effect or spell altogether... but in other words, it allows you to practice-cast a spell anywhere you like, and you'll see the effect in your mind of what it would look like if you had actually cast the spell at something... but... I'm sorry, I'm rambling again..."

"It's alright..." Zerrex nodded, then asked curiously: "So you can do this with any spell? And it lets me practice my magical abilities, even requires the same concentration and saps my energy like it would a real spell?" He paused, then asked slowly: "But wait. How is that even possible?"

"Anything is possible if you learn how to trick your mind and your body into believing it." Sin murmured softly, and the Drakkaren smiled a bit: it sounded a lot like something Requiem used to tell him about how the impossible was only impossible because we believed it was impossible. In essence... we let ourselves fail, or we force ourselves to succeed. The latter is just a lot harder to do... "I... I could... could try and teach you it. It works around the same idea as meditation, which you seem to understand..."

Zerrex nodded again, speaking softly as Sin rubbed nervously at her arm. "Yeah. I used to think it was stupid when I learned it from Requiem... but I was just a dumb kid back then. Since then I've learned to meditate whenever I remember, have the time, or feel in the mood for it... and it really does help me out a lot. If this uses the same principles, I think I'll only mess up a few times while learning it."

"Then I'll teach it to you outside." Sin smiled a bit, although she still looked nervous, but the Drakkaren stood up and nodded firmly once more before he walked over to her and gave her a tight hug. She blinked, then hugged him quietly back, blushing deeply and looking up at him with embarrassment before she trembled, then took his hand. Zerrex blinked at both the strength of her grip and the surprising heat emanating off it, and then she dragged him quickly out the door.

For the next hour, Zerrex tried to understand what Sin taught him, working to keep himself calm and level-headed as he clasped his hands together in front of himself and concentrated, murmuring the runic incantations quietly... but again and again, he either blew something up or knocked himself flying backwards, since they had decided to start the training using the Force spell. There was a short interruption when a group of Masters and Slavers descended to kick the crap out of the Drakkaren after he knocked himself over, laughing and yelling... but five minutes later, when Sin finally stepped forwards and began to chastise them, they ran away screaming in terror, and Zerrex spent another fifteen minutes comforting Sin as she cried quietly while fixing his wounds.

"I don't think you're a monster." he said softly, hugging her tightly around the shoulders... and then he glanced up as Lily quietly approached, smiling faintly at her as Sin quickly wiped at her eyes and cleared her throat, shaking her head and looking embarrassedly away from the golden-scaled Drakkaren.

Zerrex stood up and traded a quick hug with her, and then Lily and Sin exchanged a nod before Sin vanished into darkness, and she blinked before Zerrex patted her quietly on the shoulder. "It's alright... she went to the Marquee Sur Noir, I guess. It's just been rough on her lately, with all the orders she's getting from the Princess and the way people tend to look at her..."

"I don't know what's worse sometimes... mortal emotions or the passions demons possess." Lily said with a bit of a disgusted look around, and Zerrex nodded before pausing and they fell into a strange quiet for a moment, as both seemed to realize that for the first time, they were completely alone. She blushed as he coughed and glanced away, and then she asked curiously: "But what were you two doing out here? I can still feel the remnants of magic in the air... were you practicing spells?"

"Uh... sort of." Zerrex said lamely, and he rubbed idly at one of his horns, looking embarrassed as Lily looked at him with mild amusement. "We were working on a technique Sin showed me I'm probably not supposed to talk about, something about... practicing spells without casting them."

"An ancient Naganatine technique... if you could learn that, you would become quite the formidable warrior, Lord Zerrex..." The Drakkaren â€" It's so easy to forget she's a demoness... and I still don't even know exactly what kind... â€" smiled warmly at him, then leaned over and kissed his cheek gently, causing them both to blush a bit. "I look forwards to seeing how you progress with that. Would you mind walking with me, though? I'd like to start exploring the Circle, since the Eastern and Western sections are both finally free for travel... do you have any recommendations on which way we should wander?"

"Let's go that way, first." Zerrex said, motioning at the road behind him and then making a bit of a face as he pointed in the opposite direction. "Down that way is a garrison of Masters, and they'll kick the snot out of me if we try and pass."

"Kick the snot out of you?" Lily tilted her head curiously, looking entertained at the expression, before she paused and held up a hand with a smile, and she dug in the messenger bag she wore over her shoulder. The reptile took in the fact she was still wearing the same clothes as she had been yesterday, wondering absently if she'd changed or if she had spent all this time wandering around... and then she produced a large golden bracelet with a symbol he didn't recognize engraved upon it. The Drakkaren frowned a bit at this, and Lily pushed it towards him, smiling slightly. "Go on, take it. It won't kick... I mean, bite. It's to make sure you can protect me. You're only supposed to wear it when we're out on trips, but I don't mind if you keep it for whenever you go out yourself... but it'll allow you to fight back against anyone who attacks us and ignore the Scholar's Protection."

Zerrex stared as he took the bracelet, then he snapped it on over his wrist and flexed his hand slowly... before leaning towards her and asking oddly: "It's... not going to eat my soul or anything, is it?"

"Oops. Yes, it sucks up your life energy as you wear it." Lily said with a bit of a wince, and Zerrex made a horrified face before she snorted laughter as he clawed at it, and the Drakkaren glowered at her as she reached up and patted his cheek with a gentle smile. "You need to learn to be more trusting, Lord Zerrex. It's a very rare, very powerful magical artifact handed down from the birth of Hell to permit the Elite Guards to always be able to protect the Royal Families, and it defeats even the powers of the Scholars... but don't go thinking you can run around and take over Hell now, since it doesn't do a thing against the Divine Protection of the Monarchs."

The Drakkaren nodded, rubbing at the bracelet slowly and barely able to believe it could possess such power, before he paused and asked curiously: "Lily, I know I'm not supposed to ask... but just what are you? Not in terms of demonhood, although that'd be nice to know too, but in terms of the Monarchy."

Lily shifted uncomfortably, looking back and forth before murmuring quietly: "I'm... I'm nothing special, Lord Zerrex. Just a lowly aristorcrat, the only child of my father and his first wife..." She paused, then took his hand gently and brought it up to rub her muzzle slowly against it, closing her eyes. "I don't want to talk about it, Zerrex... we've shared so much already. I know so much about you, and I've told you more about myself than I have about anyone else... I don't want things to change between us, but only grow better. You are one of my closest friends here in Hell...

"And well... one day you'll find out, but for now I'm just a cute Drakkaren girl." Lily smiled a bit up at him, then laced her fingers with his own as her other hand rubbed along his strong arm, saying softly: "And let that be enough for now, Lord Zerrex... but come, I'd like to start walking and see how much trail we can cover. I love to walk... I love to see the people..."

She paused as she smiled again up at him, and Zerrex smiled faintly in return, unable to help himself before he nodded and said softly: "Then let's get walking, Lily... but first..." He held up a finger as he stepped away from her, releasing her hand and striding out into the road as she watched curiously, and then the Drakkaren stepped out in front of a tall, emaciated Slaver.

It looked down at him with a snarl, and then Zerrex said mildly, looking up into its eyes with his hands in his pockets: "So, I banged your mother last night and I have to say, I wasn't very impressed until she started sucking my cock."

"You little piece of shit!" The Slaver howled, and it lunged at him... and Zerrex easily sidestepped before sliding a foot out and tripping it, pulling his hands out of his pockets and grinning widely as it leapt up to its feet and dived at him again... and Zerrex easily caught it and slammed it down into the ground before punching it hard in the face, knocking it out. He smiled slightly, raising his hand and looking at the bracelet. Now this I can think of a million uses for...

"If you're going to abuse it, I'm going to take it away from you." Lily said mildly as she strode over and glared at him, and Zerrex shrugged a bit, grinning at her before she sighed and crossed her arms, the corner of her mouth quirking up in the smallest of smiles. "Don't you go thinking I like watching you do that, now. I'm not a Dius, I'll have you know."

"Yeah, that doesn't mean you don't find me sexy." Zerrex said airily, flexing his muscular arms and winking at her, and she snorted laughter and shoved him hard backwards, Zerrex joining her in her merriment before they strode along the street side-by-side, and Lily took his hand quietly again as they walked in a comfortable silence.

After about ten minutes, Lily finally looked up at him curiously and asked: "Zerrex... why didn't you just kill him? I know you have more than enough strength to, and I also know you're certainly not a fan of their methods... so why let him live when no one ever would have said anything to you about it?"

The Drakkaren shrugged a bit, rubbing a hand through his hair and then smiling a bit at Lily, saying softly: "It's... an old mortal thing, I guess. I still don't see the point in unnecessary killing anymore... whether they're demon, angel, or mortal, they're still... I guess for the most part, they're all still people to me. We all feel, have complex emotions, thoughts, ideas... and we all butcher each-other senselessly enough as it is."

"You really don't fit in here." Lily said gently, but she was gazing at him tenderly, and the reptile knew it was a compliment as she stepped a bit closer to him as they walked along together. "I... think I understand, though. You really aren't like anyone I've ever met before, Lord Zerrex... there are very few demons who think the same way you do."

"Yeah, well, I've only been in Hell for seven thousand years now... I'm sure I'll get bitter and angry like everyone else sooner or later and want to start killing mortals, too." Zerrex said sourly, rubbing the back of his head and looking down, and when Lily looked at him with a curious frown, he shrugged a bit and continued quietly: "It's just... I already did a lot of that when I young-young, mortal-young... and even though it seemed to soothe my paith at first, it was only later I realized that it made the hungers and the pains going on through my body even worse. I can recount a hundred times when I should have been more merciful, and a thousand times when I should have been more gentle, but more than either of those things I know I shouldn't've killed all those who I did... but... yeah, I can't talk good."

Zerrex coughed a bit, looking embarrassed, and Lily smiled at him before shaking her head slowly and nudging him gently with her shoulder. "If it's any consolation, I don't think you'll change..." She paused, then added softly: "And I do like you just the way you are."

For a while they were quiet as they strode onwards... and then Lily laughed softly and pointed out a field of apple trees, looking over at the Drakkaren with a slight smile. "Let's go take a rest in there... we can just sit together for a while."

Before the Drakkaren could point out that the field probably belonged to someone, Lily had already taken off... and the reptile rolled his eyes before quickly following her, and then he let out a yelp of surprise as she tackled him from the side just past the first tree and they fell, rolling together and laughing as they wrestled playfully on the ground for a few moments.

Soon, they were sitting together in the shade of a tree, Zerrex's eyes closed as Lily relaxed against him, rubbing slowly along his strong chest and curling tight to his body, the smell of cinnamon and smoke in the air as they relaxed quietly. They were comfortable and happy together even in the silence... and then the Drakkaren's eye opened as he heard a branch break nearby, and Lily said softly: "Don't pay any attention to that... I thought I saw a Dius spying on us earlier."

The reptile made a face, then he paused as he heard something else, faint but still there... before he slowly got to his feet, and he realized things were too quiet. Hell might not have the same sort of life as the mortal realm did, but there were still small animals, beasts, and vermin that existed here just as they did in the physical plane... and a moment later the reptile held his hand out and created a short, single-edged sword of energy, saying quietly: "Lily, we should likely head for the road."

"Why?" Lily frowned, getting up to her feet, and then her eyes widened as several Plasmids crested the nearby ridge, ticking and hissing to each other. They were jet black and red, unlike the other Plasmids Zerrex had seen so far, and he didn't like the quiet they moved with compared to their brethren: a normal Plasmid, after all, could be heard from almost a mile away with their chattering and screeching to each other.

They slowly backed away, Zerrex holding up the blade in front of himself as he instructed softly: "Lily, if you could portal us, that'd be great..."

"I can't... something's blocking it." Lily cursed under her breath, and the Drakkaren looked over his shoulder in surprise at her before raising his hand and attempting his own portal... but he was rewarded with nothing. But my energy still works... did we step into an antimagic circle, or a distortion field? No, it has to be something else...

"Let's just get out of here." The Drakkaren said mildly, and then he narrowed his eyes, setting himself and creating a second sword of energy in his other hand as several Plasmids swarmed forwards out of the trees, hissing and raising their huge, scythe-like forelimbs. "On second thought, stay close to me. It looks like we might not be able to escape without a fight after all."

"Wonderful, because you know I staged this whole thing just to watch you cut up some bugs." Lily said dryly, and Zerrex thought her sarcasm was finally starting to improve as he gave a snort, rolling his eyes as she patted him firmly on the back, adding in a mutter: "And I'd like to add I'm not useless without magic, by the way."

"I wouldn't want you to get dirty." Zerrex said mildly in return, and then he paused before swinging one sword up at a long, solid-looking branch nearby and cutting it off, the apple tree immediately rearing back with a loud grumble. "There, makeshift pole."

"Beautiful." Lily said flatly, and she kicked it up to her hands as Zerrex stepped forwards, before wincing and adding in a more-concerned voice: "Zerrex, they look like Anguish Plasmids, the new species Az'Iriel's been breeding... and this field's the perfect battleground for them-"

Before she could finish, the tree nearby let out a loud groan, and then a Plasmid leapt down towards them with a scream... and Zerrex immediately chopped its head off before kicking the headless corpse into its fellows as they mobbed forwards, at the same time throwing one of his swords of energy in an easy flicking motion. It smashed into the group, cutting one of them in half as it screamed before exploding in a burst of blue light, and Plasmids flew in all directions before the Drakkaren slid to Lily's other side as she stared in shock, looking back and forth before saying clearly: "Keep an eye behind us for any more, I don't want to be ambushed here."

Lily nodded with a grunt and turned around, raising the makeshift pole as the Plasmids picked themselves up off the ground and chattered to each other, squirming uncertainly back and forth... and Zerrex watched the blades of the first before he realized they were actually organizing battle plans, and he immediately threw his other sword before concentrating, and the blade of energy exploded on contact this time, hurling pieces of Plasmid in all directions before the Drakkaren picked up Lily and quickly ran, the demoness letting out a yelp of surprise as the reptile barreled out of the trees and onto the road, past the Masters, Slavers, and jailors that were already storming forwards to see what all the nonsense was about, thankfully disregarding the two Initiate-looking creatures.

Zerrex put Lily down, and she glared at him before blinking as he created a portal, and he made a bit of a face. "Well, at least that works out here... come on, let's head back to my place. We can get some rest."

"Rest? Why? I'm not going to let some bugs freak me out, Zerrex." Lily said firmly, striking her chest with one fist and looking up at him with that determined look in her eyes that he was learning very quickly was going to lead to trouble for him. "So why don't we just go back to walking, huh? I'm sure the Masters are competent enough to clean up whatever's left of those Plasmids back there."

Zerrex looked at her sourly, and then he crossed his arms and sighed, glancing at the portal and concentrating to make it vanish before he gave her a snooty look and walked onwards, saying emphatically: "I'd like to point out that you wanted to run away first, when you first saw them, Lily. So... there. Bitch."

"Asshole." Lily shot back, running up beside him and looking almost proud of herself for remembering the mortal curse. "I think you wanted to run first, anyway. You were all... ‘oh no, we should get out of here' even before they showed up. I'll have you know I'm not exactly fragile, and I could've easily taken them all on myself if I wanted to... you didn't have to show off with your weird energy abilities and all that."

"Yeah, well, next time I'll leave it to you, then, and you can show off." Zerrex said mildly, and Lily made a face at him. "What? I thought you were all miss tough-britches now."

"What the hell does that even mean?" Lily asked with a frown, and Zerrex couldn't help but snort laughter, earning him a surprisingly-hard punch in the arm before they walked on for a while, eventually going from arguing to chatting about the thing Lily always seemed the most interested in: mortal pastimes and conversation.

The reptile had tried to explain to her hundreds of times about how the physical plane was full of people who thought that the current weather was a perfectly-acceptable conversation starter, himself included. He had also tried to explain how talking about one's bodily functions was not, and that most people who talked about sex with their friends generally got labeled as a slut or whore, even if they didn't actually sleep around... the same as how in the mortal realm, nudity was seen as obscene and public displays of affection were seen as grotesque or just plain rude by some people.

Almost everything about the mortal realm confused Lily, and Zerrex wondered what was more difficult to comprehend: the mortal world or Hell. It only took him a moment before he settled on the mortal world â€" after all, Hell might be full of sinners, but at least they weren't all pretending to be something they weren't... and furthermore, apart from the civil war, they all seemed to get along perfectly well despite whatever differences they all had.

Zerrex made a bit of a face as he passed a pair of Slavers savagely beating a prisoner, adding mentally: Well, for the most part they do, except for the ones who are instructed to be assholes... "I'm sorry Lily, I was thinking about something... can you repeat that?"

"I was just thinking out loud... you know... wondering how mortals can coexist, especially with all that technology up there." She shook her head slowly, looking quietly ahead as she added softly: "I think we're lucky down here in Hell... everyone has access to magic for the most part, and we don't need to sleep, don't need to eat, don't need blankets to keep warm or fans to cool us down... and here, everything can be earned, and the lowliest demon can ascend to become a Prince... it's not like in your world, how... how everything is so underhanded, and it all seems... so planned from the very beginning... so you-can-and-can't-do..."

"Yeah..." Zerrex nodded a bit, thinking back to the military and how Project Scarecrow, better known as the Goth Legion, had been set up that way. All of us thinking things were set up fairly... but in reality, we were just all experiments, all of us carefully pre-chosen and pre-ranked... and I just happened to be one of the lucky ones who excelled so much on the exams I got noticed by the higher-ups secretly watching from behind the curtain... "The physical plane sucks. Cherry always told me that this place was beautiful, even wished we could come here someday together... and now I think I'm really starting to understand what she meant by that. It's not just beautiful here... it's... exotic, special, different... maybe even fair."

Lily laughed a bit at this, shaking her head slowly. "Now I wouldn't go that far, Lord Zerrex... I wouldn't say it's so much fair as... a bit more balanced. But there's still crimes, still terrible things that happen here in Hell to the best of people... and the best of things sometimes happen to the worst. Look at Feldspar, for example... she has driven herself insane, but she's still in power as the Princess's right hand..."

Zerrex grunted a bit, then he looked down at Lily with a bit of a smile, saying mildly: "I'm surprised you don't call it the left hand down here... but hey, maybe that's just me being all closed-minded again and doing that mortal thing called stereotyping." He paused as Lily looked confused, then rubbed the back of his head and said lamely: "That one went a bit over your head, didn't it?"

"What the hell does that mean?" Lily asked dumbly, and Zerrex laughed before slapping her firmly on the back, causing her to grunt and stagger forwards before she rolled her eyes and hip-checked him firmly into an old fence, and the Drakkaren crashed through it loudly before she laughed and continued to stride purposefully onwards.

Zerrex grumbled as he picked himself up, then he immediately ran forwards and pounced on her, Lily letting out a squeak as his huge body landed flat on hers before the Drakkaren shot off at a run, and Lily took off after him a moment later, scrabbling off the ground and flailing her large satchel back and forth with shouts of consternation and various demonic curses until the two finally both tired, and once more they retreated to the side of the road to rest under a tall, gnarled tree, the branches looming down over them ominously for a moment before Zerrex punched the trunk firmly, and the tree immediately righted itself.

"I love the way you solve every problem. Do you punch females too when they get mouthy?" Lily asked teasingly, and Zerrex rolled his eyes with a snort before the female added idly: "You should, though, it's not like a Dius or a succubus deserves any better treatment than that, just like most other lowly demons."

Zerrex stared at her as she pulled a slightly-squished banana out of her large bag, and then she began to peel it, pointedly ignoring the stare he was giving her before she finally looked over at him mildly, and he poked her nose firmly, asking slowly: "Are you making fun of me?"

"I keep forgetting how bad you are at telling when I'm kidding or not... and furthermore, I just think it's funny, some of the faces you make, when you're all morally-outraged about something." Lily responded mildly, and then she winced as Zerrex punched the end of her maw gently, rubbing at her muzzle and glaring at him. "I bet you're a wifebeater."

"No, just incestuous." Zerrex responded absently, and then he shook his head when she offered him a bite of her banana. "I hate those things. Hell hasn't made them look any better to me, I don't care what anyone says."

"You would if they made you bigger in any way." Lily muttered, and Zerrex rolled his eyes and shoved her lightly before she sat up, and they looked at each other before trading smiles. Without the constant survellience and chaperoning of her huge, burly minotaur guards, who intervened every time Lily so much as looked at Zerrex funny or the reptile said something that could be misconstrued as offensive, Lily was obviously far more relaxed... and Zerrex had to admit it was easier to mess around with the female as well.

They sat together in quiet for a little while, Lily sliding over a bit to relax against him, and the two looked up at the red-and-black sky for a while before the Drakkaren said softly: "You know, you're a lot different without your honor guard around... I'm thinking that's for more reasons than simply because they liked to walk up and start shoving me around if I even disagreed with you on how the weather was."

Lily smiled a bit, shaking her head slowly and saying softly: "Yeah, Elite Guards suck. The biggest problem was that they'd report back to my parents and my teachers on everything that was going on... and since I want this to be a little vacation for me while I continue to explore Hell, I thought I'd get you to hang around with me... after all, I came down here to see you, since you haven't figured that out yet, you big dummy."

Zerrex laughed a bit, blushing slightly as she leaned closer against him, wrapping his arms around her waist and quietly pulling her closer as he gazed down into her pretty rainbow-kaleidoscope eyes... and as she leaned slowly up, he asked softly: "But... why? I mean, Lily... I've never thought of myself as that special..."

"Well, you are. So there." Lily said firmly, then added mildly as he opened his mouth: "Just shut up, will you?"

The Drakkaren did so, and instead they kissed slowly, and it was like electricity between them as he squeezed her tight against his strong body, and her muzzle worked slowly against his, their tongues moving to twist and dance together slowly and deliciously... and then she pulled back for a bare moment before kissing him again, and pushing deeper this time, her aggressive movements urging Zerrex to respond in time as he leaned down against her, squeezing her tightly against his powerful chest... and then their muzzles parted and they looked into each other's eyes again, and Lily winked as her eyes flickered emerald for a moment, saying softly: "Thank you, Zerrex... and by the way..."

She grinned and winked at him, before tilting her head backwards with a sigh as her scales turned evergreen over her body and navy blue over her cleavage up to her neck, and white hair pushed out of her head before Zerrex found himself looking into green eyes that reflected his own as she said teasingly: "Ever seen this before?"

"Cherry did that once." Zerrex said dumbly, then he coughed a bit and added as he stared over the smaller female version of himself, then he rubbed the back of his head slowly and added: "It... certainly doesn't make it any less impressive, though, I'll tell you that. You shapeshift faster than even a Dius."

"Well, technically I'm not a true shapeshifter... I need a bit of the person's body before I can transform into them or a similar body to theirs, like a drop of blood or saliva or something else like that." Lily said dismissively, then she added with a slight smile: "But now that I have it, I could turn into a perfect copy of you, bigger, smaller, female, hermaphrodite, whatever I wanted... it's probably the only reason I've stayed safe for so many years from the Warlord."

Zerrex nodded slowly... and then he tilted his head, asking quietly as she shifted back to her golden-scaled Drakkaren body: "Lily, why does the Warlord want you so badly? Can you at least tell me that?"

Lily looked nervously off to the side, and then she glanced down and shrugged a bit, sighing softly. "I honestly don't know. Since... since I really don't want to talk too much about myself just yet, I... I won't go into too much detail, but you do know I'm not from around here, right? Well, I'm from the Eastern Province... and you know that Prince Raithe, in his ‘infinite wisdom,' signed a non-aggression pact with the Warlord, right?"

Her voice dripped sarcasm, and Zerrex decided to simply listen, only needing to nod a bit as Lily clung to his neck, pressing tighter to him and closing her eyes. "The old fool really thought the Warlord would honor the treaty, but so far it hasn't stopped him from wiping out the people of every land, village and territory that he'd come across in the East before the Princess's forces pushed him back into his own lands. He was specifically targeting supporters of Raithe, including the monarchs and royal families and other aristocrats... but I don't know if even I support Raithe anymore. I mean... he just sat back and let the Warlord butcher our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, including the people of my land, that I was one day to rule over..." She swallowed a bit, looking up quietly into Zerrex's eyes and asking softly: "How... how can I sit back and say I support a ruler who won't stand up for his own people?"

The Drakkaren nodded a bit, then he laughed quietly, tilting his head slowly: "Well, what are you going to do, overthrow him?" A faint smile as Lily smiled a bit and glanced down embarrassedly. "Exactly. All I know is that... sometimes people don't share everything they should with us. I know... I know I always wished I'd shared more with my own family, my own daughters, but I always tried to protect them..."

He glanced silently off to the side, then laughed quietly again as Lily looked up at him softly. "And look how that turned out. I tried too hard for them... I pushed myself too far, and I ended up screwing up and never letting them know everything I always wanted to say. I wonder sometimes if monarchs feel that same way..." A pause as he glanced over Lily, who looked down with a thoughtful frown before he said softly: "But hey, what do I know? I'm just an Initiate full of mortal thoughts, still little more than a soldier. You're the one with the blue blood here, after all."

"My blood isn't blue." Lily said, blinking and looking up at him with a frown, and Zerrex snorted laughter, earning a glare from her. "What? What the hell's so funny?"

"It's... it's just a saying. It means you're the one with royal blood." Zerrex said amusedly, poking her stomach gently and causing her to grunt. "Now why do all you chicks keep making out with me? I've never felt like such a sex machine before in my entire life."

Lily rolled her eyes and flicked his nose, causing him to wrinkle his muzzle as she hopped to her feet with a grin. "Hey, this is Hell, so why not make out with a chick or two, as you so eloquently put it? But Lord Zerrex, if you want to bang me, you're going to have to work pretty damn hard... and for starters, I expect you to take me out to dinner one night this week."

"To have sex with you, I'd take you out for oriental food in the mortal realm, and as any mortal will tell you, that stuff is damned expensive... that, and it's the most you're likely to squeeze out of me." Zerrex said amiably, and Lily snorted and picked up a rock, throwing it at him, but the Drakkaren easily caught it with a grin in return and crushed it to pebbles in his hand, flexing his bicep and making her stare. "Yeah, you want some of this."

"Perverted, dull-witted and self-absorbed... yeah, what chick doesn't want that?" Lily asked in an entertained voice, and then she paused as the reptile rolled his eyes. "But hey, you certainly do have a nice body, and I will admit that scores a fair few points with me."

"Good stuff. Just wait until you see my enormous... sword... collection." Zerrex said easily, grinning and leering suggestively at her as he stuck out his tongue, and Lily gave him an entertained look as she tapped one foot against the ground, waiting for the Drakkaren to head down to her, which he did after making a random thrusting motion with his hips.

As they walked onwards, they stepped into a small village that Zerrex had never set foot in himself: after all, he'd never felt much of an urge to ever go out after getting to know most of the people on the road and finding almost everything he needed in the small, privately-owned shop just a few homesa way from him. The Drakkaren felt a bit nervous as he glanced back and forth, since he didn't know the layout of the small town at all and was worried about running into anyone he had either pissed off or he simply didn't like: and there were a good amount of the latter even in this damned world.

Lily seemed to know the way, however, guiding him quickly off the main road and down a side street, before pointing at a bookstore with a curious look at the Drakkaren, and the reptile's look of interest was enough to earn a slight grin from the cryptic demoness as she said cheerfully: "Tell you what. I'll buy you a book, and you buy me a book, since this place has both demonic and mortal texts... and we'll read them and then tell one-another if it was a good gift or not and what we thought of the story. No texts or anything, though."

"You're so weird." Zerrex said amusedly, but he nodded and grinned a bit nonetheless before pushing into the bookstore, and a strange-looking skeleton with a few metal patches here and there holding its bones in place glanced over at them curiously, leaning on one arm. It was wearing mortal clothes and a cowboy hat, of all things, and small blue spheres of fire burnt brightly in its eyes as the other hand absently toyed with a few mortal religious symbols.

The moment Lily stepped in behind Zerrex, however, it slipped forwards off its elbow and whacked its skull off the counter, jawbone sliding across it as both Zerrex and Lily stared before the skeleton leapt up to its feet and bowed, then a disconnected voice let out an embarrassed huff as Zerrex picked up its jawbone and held it out to the skeleton. "Thank you, sir. I mean, uh... greetings to you, your royal highness-"

Lily glared past the Drakkaren as Zerrex looked back at her curiously, and the skeleton fumbled his jawbone before quickly clicking it back into place with a mumble of embarrassment, bowing its head respectfully as it laced its fingers together. Lily immediately strode off into the bookshelves, looking embarrassed, and the reptile decided to give her some space as he walked over to the skeleton, who mumbled: "Do you even know who that is, sir? You seem so nonchalant around her..."

"I'm not permitted to know. It's a long story." Zerrex said carefully, resisting his natural curiosity and glancing over the skeleton before leaning forwards and asking curiously in a quieter voice: "So uh... do you have mortal books here, too? I'm looking for a particular one, called Paradise Lost..."

The skeleton stroked his jawbone thoughtfully, which was hanging at a slant, a large crack visible in the V-shaped bone. "I'm familiar with most of the books in the store, but I think we only have a few copies of that... let me check the registry."

Zerrex nodded, and the skeleton stepped back, pulling a wide scroll out from under the counter and putting it down on the ceramic top before brushing his fingers over it, and it spun rapidly, feeding around a bottom handle before pulling open, and the skeleton leaned over it, touching three entries in demonic runes, which let up in blue fire. "Yes, here we go. Two by Milton, from what we refer to as the Human Realm, and one from your world by... Prati, is it?"

Pra-tay, like a retarded version of Par-tay, as Cherry likes to say... Cherry... "Uh... close enough. But wait, what the hell is the Human Realm?"

The bookstore owner only grinned widely, shaking his head slowly and saying in an entertained voice: "Believe me, you don't wanna know. You best wait until you see a human for yourself or hear the legends of the worlds in the Beyond... or perhaps you should ask the... person... you came in with." The skeleton leaned towards him suggestively, and Zerrex tilted his head curiously before he laughed a bit, then grumbled as his jawbone fell half-off, adjusting it with one hand and holding out the other, a rectangle of blue fire appearing before it turned into a solid tome. "There. First edition, taken real nice care of and fully restored and de-aged by yours truly. Only twenty coins, bargain price for a book that's been around for billions of years in Hell."

The Drakkaren grunted something as he dug in his pocket for his wallet, and then he scrounged up the coins from his small silver coin bag â€" he refused to call it a ‘purse,' no matter what it meant around here. Urgh. I'm such a macho-lizard. "Can you like... gift-wrap that or something for free, then?"

"Forget it, it's kinda pointless when I can see what you're giving me already." Lily said in a mildly-entertained voice, and then she slapped a leatherbound tome down on the counter as she picked up Paradise Lost, flipping it open to the middle. Zerrex rolled his eyes at this, then immediately snatched it out of her hands, causing her to snort and half-pout at him, leaning forwards challengingly into him. "Asshole."

"Bitch." Zerrex said dryly, and the skeleton squeaked in shock before both Drakkaren and Lily looked at him, the former with curiosity and the latter with a deathly glare. A moment later, however, the reptile returned his eyes to the demoness, deciding to put aside his reaction for now. "You have to start at the beginning of the book, and work your way through it, got that? None of that stupid... read the middle-beginning-end crap or any other variation other than start-middle-finish."

"Just like any other male, determined that you know the right way around anything." Lily said sourly in return, and then she ground firmly against his side with her own, trying to shove him out of the way but failing as the Drakkaren leaned back against her. "You're fat. Move fattie, or I'll have to punch you in the stomach."

"If you punch me in the stomach I'll punch you in the ovaries or the general area where your ovaries should be, since I'm more-and-more beginning to suspect you're a male in disguise." Zerrex responded flatly, and Lily gave him a glare before hip-checking him, but the reptile barely gave up an inch before grabbing her shoulder and shoving her firmly away. "Take that, Juliet. Or should I say, Julian?"

A moment later, Lily bounced what looked like a metal ball off his head and the Drakkaren fell over, the skeleton swallowing a bit as he half-bowed to Lily and mumbled: "Thirty silver coins, please."

"Whoa, hey, no spending more on me than I did on you!" Zerrex said immediately, jumping up to his feet, but Lily only gave him a disdainful, superior smile before pulling a leather bag out of her satchel and pulling a handful of coins out. She counted them with a mumble, then pulled a few more out of the bag and put it away, the Drakkaren staring at her for a moment before crossing his arms and adding sourly: "Everyone in Hell has more money than I do."

"Oh, don't be a child." Lily gave him a look of mild entertainment, and then picked up the book and thrusted it into his chest while snatching away her own, and Zerrex opened his mouth for a moment... then shut it immediately when another metal ball appeared in Lily's hand and she gave him a challenging look. "That's better. Come on, Lord Zerrex. I want to spend some time reading this now."

"Wonderful." Zerrex grumbled, and then he followed her out of the shop before she created a white portal as he created a dark one, and they traded glares before quickly stepping through. The Drakkaren paused as he looked around for Lily, made a face, and then he grinned slightly as he heard an awkward knock at the door.

The reptile took his time striding over to it, glancing down at the book in his hands before opening it slowly and asking teasingly: "Well now, what are you doing out there, Lily?"

"Shut up. I couldn't portal into your home." Lily muttered embarrassedly, and then she rubbed the back of her head slowly and gave him a questioning look, before rolling her eyes as Zerrex struck a thoughtful expression. "Oh, come on! You can't keep me out here all night!"

"Fine, fine. But I want to know what that spell was you cast." Zerrex said mildly, as he stepped aside and bowed her inside, and Lily grunted something as she walked in past him, and the Drakkaren shut the door behind her wih a grin before walking up behind her and grabbing her tightly around the waist, causing her to squeak. "Welcome to my home, by the way."

"What are you going to do, rape me?" Lily asked, and Zerrex could see a blush rising in her cheeks as he leaned down by her with entertainment before slowly licking her neck, and she flushed deeper, half-gritting her teeth but responding back against him despite herself as she grunted: "You should stop that."

"Alright." Zerrex said cheerfully, and then he drew away from her and walked over to his favorite cushioned corner, sitting down on them and looking up at her with an amused smile as she gaped, then glared at him. "What?"

"I hate you. Fucker." Lily grumbled, and then she walked over and firmly sat down in his lap, Zerrex letting out a grunt before she laid back against him and closed her eyes with a yawn. "By the way, I like to sleep every now and then... please don't molest me, huh? If you want to see me naked, all you have to do is ask, and you can touch what you want, but don't start thinking you can pull your dick out and put that anywhere you want on me."

Zerrex rolled his eyes at this, then he paused as he realized she was serious as she settled back against him comfortably, and he did his best to repress a smile even as he hugged her back against his body and closed his eyes as well for a moment, simply relaxing with the golden-scaled Drakkaren-demoness.

Lily indeed was true to her word about adding on a new section of the house, as well, and bought all the materials necessary for them while Zerrex was happy to do the physical labor, Lily keeping an eye on him while she struggled her way through Paradise Lost. Since the book wasn't just written in a mortal tongue, but an ancient mortal tongue before the advent of the dictionary, it left her confused as hell at some points that Zerrex had to later explain, just as the ‘Tragedy of Sol Tel-Kanna' did the same for him. Once, she'd told him to sound out a rune he didn't know... and Zerrex's immediate response had been: "How the hell do I sound out a rune?"

The years faded into one-another, Lily cheerfully dragging Zerrex into the plush bedroom-slash-sitting room he'd built for her and making him examine all sorts of mortal texts with her, but most of their time was spent together in the main room of the cabin with Sin. At first, it had been awkward when Lily had reminded the Drakkaren that she didn't mind him continuing his usual habits... but after Zerrex had managed to get up the courage to drag her along with him to the Forbidden Fruit meal club and she had shown deep interest in the entire thing, he had become a lot more relaxed with her around.

On the other hand, he thought some things would always be awkward, like how he'd brought back two succubi for some entertainment one night and Lily had been reading... and had insisted on sitting around and watching while he did his thing with the other girls. Needless to say, the succubi had been thrilled â€" it seemed everyone knew who Lily was other than him, which made the whole not-knowing thing even more frustrating for him â€" but he'd been weirded-out... and even more so when she'd started up a casual conversation with him while he'd been banging the second succubus. In short, it had been one of the most awkward sessions of sex he'd ever had, but Lily was Lily, and wouldn't be deterred from her own ways.

Decades became centuries, and still they were getting to know each other, talking about their lives and going over old stories that had already been retold countless times to each other, but they still ate everything up... and in a small orchard they'd found during their wanderings, Lily taught Zerrex magical abilities forbidden for anyone not of royal blood to know or use, and Zerrex taught Lily how to properly use a sword or staff â€" something she had been forbidden to learn by her father. She was clumsy at first, but he reminded her of Cindy, who had been just as awkward... but had grown into a skilled, capable warrior with any and all weaponry.

And still, they were friends who hadn't even had friendly-sex, despite the fact Lily had watched him with others quite a few times, and Zerrex had wondered absently several times if she ever took part in any sort of sexual relations, or if it would set off some sort of monarch-alarm and her father would come rushing down with a vengeance to slay whoever touched his little girl. He had certainly heard her once or twice pleasuring herself, and he'd even watched once, but despite as arousing as it had been, it had felt too awkward â€" in several ways â€" for him to do again. His pants, for instance, might not be able to stand up to such an occurance again.

It was hard to go at Lily's pace with their strange friendship, but it did have its perks: for instance, after a dozen or so visits to the meal club, Lily had volunteered to be Zerrex's meal for the evening after they'd put a collar on her, and she'd flushed deeply, mumbling quietly for him to be gentle... and although she'd looked pale and terrified through the entire cutting and preparation process, she'd eventually relaxed and watched as Zerrex stirred around her insides and ate her while he watched the show on the stage, and when he'd said how delicious she was, she'd looked so very happy...

He had managed to learn a few things about her, though... he'd even met her father, Baron Tivistigg â€" a tall, draconic demon who had seemed friendly enough, if he'd looked over Zerrex with an uncomfortable sternness, as if he shouldn't be within ten feet of his daughter at any time â€" and thus had guessed her rank really was just as an aristocrat... but on the other hand, he also knew it was more likely her mother was of a higher rank, and she could be anything from a halfbreed shapeshifter to a draconic creature like the Baron... but to Lily's obvious relief, he hadn't made any extra comments, and he'd let her just tell him things as she would. And that's assuming her father married a female, not a male...

Now it had been over two-thousand years that he had worked this job, and he knew her inside-out, just as she knew him... yet still he couldn't always tell when she was being serious or just screwing around, just as she still found the Drakkaren confusing as any puzzle Hell had to offer. They sat together in the orchard they had taken over as their own little home-away-from-home, and smiled at each other, Lily dressed in a plain white dress and the Drakkaren only in his black pants and combat boots, a pair of plain swords laying discarded nearby after a short sparring match where the Drakkaren had taught her a bit more.

The reptile liked Hell's pace: things always went so nice-and-easy, and sometimes nothing happened for thousands of years, eons even... but you could still keep yourself going and motivated, could still train hard and see results... or you could take it as slow as you liked and relax as you worked on whatever, but still end up with the same reward over a much larger frame of time. To him, this place was wonderful... well, apart from the Inquisitors, but even they were scared of Lily.

He felt like asking her again who her parents were, that one piece of the puzzle he was still missing after all these years that he felt would tie everything together... and then she slid over to him and sat beside him, looking down and asking quietly in an embarrassed voice as her fingers twiddled together: "Zerrex... am... am I pretty? Do you like my body?"

"Of course..." The Drakkaren looked at her with surprise, nodding and nudging her muzzle gently with is own as he smiled a bit, Lily gazing at him softly with her rainbow-eyes. "You're very beautiful, Lily... I like your body a lot, and I'm sure your real body is even more beautiful..." A slight smile as he leaned over to kiss her neck gently. "You sound like you're going to propose we have sex to me."

She laughed and blushed, then gazed across at him and said softly: "I am." A pause as Zerrex stared and gaped a bit, and then she quietly took one of his hand and brought it up to her breast, squeezing it forwards against her bosom and murmuring softly: "I am... after all these years, I'm just as sure now as I was when I first met you... I want to have sex with you, make love, fuck... I just want to feel our bodies moving together, and I want to experience it all with you..."

Zerrex nodded a bit, and then he leaned slowly towards in and their mouths met in a gentle kiss as he slid a hand up around her neck to undo the clasp holding the straps of her dress in place, and the upper half fell loose and puddled in her lap, leaving her sumptuous, large bosom free. As the kiss broke, the Drakkaren moved his mouth down to her bust, and he settled his maw gently against one breast, teeth rubbing against the nipple before he suckled quietly back on it, the other hand massaging and rubbing at her other swell teasingly as his free hand slid down her side to slowly unknot the plain sash around her waist.

Lily moaned quietly, both of her hands laced into his hair, pulling him tight against her bosom as she trembled a bit, her eyes closed in ecstasy before the Drakkaren pulled away and smiled slightly as he tugged the cloth belt loose, tossing it to the side as Lily stood and flushed quietly, her dress falling from her body and leaving her standing nude in front of him, and he could almost smell the need coming from her as he leaned in close towards her... and she caught him gently under the jaw with both hands, pulling him slowly up to his feet and gazing into his eyes lovingly as she murmured: "I love you as my best friend, my closest confidante..." she paused, then reached down and quietly undid the Drakkaren's belt, then his fly as she gazed into his eyes, murmuring softly as they fell loose around the reptile's ankles: "Now love me back, Zerrex Narrius..."

It seemed to go on for hours, as they kissed and rolled together under the trees, the Drakkaren thrusting leisurely in and out of her as she bled around him a bit, letting out soft cries and cradling his bulky body with her legs, her eyes gazing needingly up into his, the rainbow irises turning a matching emerald as he moved slowly in and out of her... and they kissed, they loved, they fucked, and he fulfilled every desire he could while buried inside her, in a warmth and depth and tightness he hadn't experienced since he'd taken Little Arcy... and she responded to even his smallest movements, seemed to know exactly what to do to either draw things out or speed them up, used her whole body back against his and made the Drakkaren feel like the inexperienced one here... but she looked flushed and embarrassed at the same time, sometimes even apologizing through pants needlessly up to him.

The Drakkaren only grunted however, only continuing to thrust lazily in and out with his massive shaft, and she moaned and bucked and squirmed in a way that let him know she had still been a virgin, even after so many years in Hell... and she held onto him tightly, her body trembling and sweaty, clinging to him with matchless need as they shared kisses and she bit against his shoulder every so often to try and suppress a moan... and finally, the Drakkaren released his seed inside of her, filling her up and causing her to release a cry of ecstasy and what sounded like pure joy, her eyes filled with tears as she arched her back, already a victim of several of her own orgasms that felt like nothing compared to the reptile's load blasting into her body.

It was over... and they lay together, panting softly under the trees, the Drakkaren still buried in her and clinging her tightly to his chest... and then she slowly pulled free with a grunt and stood up, looking down at him as he looked up curiously as she bowed her head forwards and murmured quietly, trembling as his seed leaked down her legs... but from what he saw, for a reason other than sexual euphoria. "I... I haven't been entirely honest with you, Lord Zerrex. I'm a queen... but my father is Prince Raithe. My name is Lilith, and I needed a strong lover to ensure a strong child... and... you were it. I'm sorry, but I have to go... we have different paths."

Lily turned, and Zerrex felt his heart breaking as she slowly walked away, a tremble of disbelief running through him... and then she suddenly glanced over her shoulder with a faint smile and strode back to him, dropping down beside him and murmuring softly as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "You dork. Like I could ever just walk away from you."

"That wasn't funny." Zerrex said in a quiet voice, and Lily looked up at him before blushing deeply as the Drakkaren looked at her with hurt in his eyes before sitting up and sliding back against a tree, looking across at her as she knelt across from him. "So... but that other stuff you said..."

"It's true." Lily nodded quietly, murmuring softly as she leaned close, then away as Zerrex looked pointedly at the ground: "You don't know how much it hurt me, Lord Zerrex, but... but I was forbidden to tell anyone. I'm supposed to be the Mother of Demons, but the truth is... I've never met anyone who I'd want to father my children. I always fantasized about mortals, since demons... demons are like me."

She dropped her head miserably, whispering: "Demons are just like me. They're demons... and those of mortal blood and soul have something... special about them until they're corrupted. Yet you... you haven't been corrupted, and I don't think you ever will be. I waited nine thousand years to make sure my feelings about you were correct and... I... I was supposed to take on my father's crown a long time ago, but he vanished from the Eastern Provinces, and they say he even renounced his own family... Az'Iriel was targeting me because... he knew I wouldn't be weak like my father..."

I'll never be like my father... murmured a voice in the Drakkaren's head, and he let out a faint, short laugh as Lily â€" Lilith... her name is Lilith, another legendary demoness â€" looked up at him with a tremble of fear. "I know what it's like to think that... but even I'm similar to Narrius, little as I want to be. The same lust for power and blood and battle... the same animal instincts... the same darkness. I hate myself for being that way, but I can't escape my destiny..." Zerrex halted, then he grabbed his pants and quickly put them on, jumping up to his feet and yanking his plain metal sword out of the ground, looking over at Lily with a grunt. "Our contract is done... I don't like being used, Lily. Go find another bodyguard."

"Zerrex, please!" Lily cried after him, half-falling forwards and reaching out with one hand as tears leaked down her face. "Please, wait! I never meant to hurt you, I want you to understand me... please, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! Zerrex!"

Lily got to her feet and scrambled after him, and Zerrex covered his face with one arm as he sprinted through the orchard, trying to hide his own pain from the world before he halted as he heard a scream behind him, and his pain vanished as he spun around and saw Lily being held up in one hand by a huge figure in royal robes and a silver mask. For a moment, Zerrex fought a voice that hissed to leave her be, let her be raped, mutilated, destroyed... and then Lily screamed his name and the Drakkaren ran back towards with her with a snarl.

"No, no, run!" Lily shrieked at him... and then the robed figure flung her into a tree, and she let out a grunt before collapsing in a weak, naked pile, blinking stupidly before the masked demon pointed at her and pink lighting flickered over her body as bands of green locked around her form, the female screaming in agony for a moment before collapsing against the tree, panting hard as blood leaked out of her muzzle and she whispered raggedly: "No..."

What the hell... I've never seen a spell like that before... "Who the hell are you?" Zerrex shouted, holding the plain sword up and wincing a bit as the huge figure turned towards him. He could almost recognize it though, and he struggled to try and remember where he'd seen this giant before... I'm at a huge disadvantage... even if it is a mage, I have a chunk of steel and energy powers, and it's twice my size...

The ominous figure laughed brokenly, and then it held its arms out to either side, the huge sleeves of the long green robes opening like wings. The material was some sort of expensive velvet, and both it and the pose reminded Zerrex more of this thing... and then he traced his eyes over the pattern down the center cloth that hung down its neck, locked into the belt at the waist and then hung down to the bottom of the robe, going into a point that hung just above the forest floor... and at the sight of that carefully-weaved battle in the skies between angels and demons, Zerrex's eyes returned to the snarling silver gryphon mask it wore and asked in a disbelieving voice: "Prince... Prince Raithe?"

The figure twitched as if surprised... and then it slowly reached up and grasped the silver mask with ancient, skeletal fingers covered in short grey hairs, before pulling off the facemask and tossing it aside, the helmet clunking quietly against the ground as Zerrex looked up into the eyes of a massive, demonic bat with the same short hairs over its entire face, a pair of large ears flicking up to a standing position and two curling horns twisting out of its skull to either side. The Prince's features were ancient, lined and haggard, and both eyelids were sewn shut... and then the creature opened its toothless mouth wide and revealed it was not sightless after all.

Instead of a tongue or throat, inside was a smaller head, this one of a feline with two glaring black eyes that took up most of its head, its fur the same mottled grey as the rest of its body as it hissed: "Lord Zerrex... you have overstepped your bounds with my daughter..."

"No wonder she doesn't like you..." Zerrex muttered, and then Raithe snarled and flicked his wrist at the Drakkaren, and the reptile was thrown backwards by a wave of telekinetic force, crashing to the ground and rolling several times before he stopped himself in a crouch, panting hard and gritting his teeth as the twenty-foot Prince of Demons laughed shrilly. "You want to try that in physical combat, asshole? And what the hell do you want with Lily?"

"To punish her for being bad... for taking my position, my power!" Raithe said furiously in return, and then he grinned widely as he stepped backwards, the bat head closing over the ancient kitten's as white light shone over Raithe's body and in one hand before becoming silver armor and an enormous half-sword, half-mace hybrid with several massive, rectangular ridges on either side of the huge blade. The weapon connected down into an X-shaped hilt of gold, but the handle itself was a several-foot-long pole of black steel leading down into a small metal knob, giving the huge blade-mace a total length of almost ten feet as Zerrex stared at this demonic implement with something like horror. "And would you really like to try me, Lord Zerrex? I'm still a Prince, I still have the Divine Protection of this world... no war has been declared on me by any monarch! And I am invincible to whatever shoddy attacks you can perform against my person with that useless hunk of metal anyway!"

"Don't fight my father, Zerrex! Daddy, stop it, stop this nonsense, don't hurt him... Zerrex, run away, you can't win!" Lily screamed from the edge of the battleground, and Raithe howled for silence before shoving a hand now clad in a mesh gauntlet at her, and Lily began to choke, before keeling forwards and vomiting up black blood. "S-Stop..."

Zerrex snarled, then threw the small metal sword at Raithe's head... but the Prince only grinned with his outer head as a purple shield reflected the sword, the blade bouncing uselessly off this energy as the Drakkaren cursed under his breath. "See? Worthless! You don't have enough power to harm me!"

The Drakkaren narrowed his eyes, then he set himself, facing the armored goliath as he held both hands out to the side... and a moment later, a massive blade of energy flickered into being and solidified into a shifting, azure clone of Blackheart, the sword the Drakkaren still longed to hold as he said coldly: "Well, Raithe, I can't run away from a challenge... and you may be a Prince, but you are not my Prince... and I won't let you hurt Lily. What's wrong with you... have you become so consumed with power that you can't see what you're doing?"

"Spare me the theatrics and the patronizing speech..." Raithe said softly, and then he held out the massive flanged sword, grinning cruelly at the Drakkaren. "Let's count the seconds until I kill you instead, Lord Zerrex!"

The reptile snarled, then he charged forwards before leaping to the side as Raithe swung down at him with an overhand blow, laughing as he tried to crush him, and the lizard slashed his blade out at the heavy metal plate covering Raithe's shin... but instead he struck that lavender shield again, the energy hissing and crackling as it connected, before Raithe shoved his other hand out and knocked the Drakkaren flying backwards with another telekinetic shove, and then he cackled and swung hard down with the sword-mace again at the reptile's prone body.

Zerrex rolled to the side, wincing as the huge weapon missed him by less than an inch before running forwards again and this time slicing his way through the Prince's lower robes to charge between his legs, and Raithe cursed as he stomped the ground beneath him, turning around and looking back and forth. The reptile had already leapt backwards, however, and now the Drakkaren took a breath, focusing and snarling as the blue energy intensified over the blade, slowly turning white before Raithe looked over his shoulder, eyes widening in surprise before shrieking as Zerrex leapt into the air with the huge sword of energy cocked behind his head, and then he he swung down with a snarl as Raithe rose an arm instinctively.

The purple shield of energy rippled and glowed as Zerrex's blazing-white blade bit down into it, and Raithe hissed, leaning away from the light and setting himself on the ground before there was a loud crackle... and a moment later, the Drakkaren's sword of solid energy ripped through the wine-colored shield, and it shattered into fragments that vanished into thin air as the reptile's blazing sword cut off several of Raithe's fingers.

The Prince howled in agony, staggering backwards and dropping his huge mace-sword for a moment to clutch at his hand in horror, and the Drakkaren immediately swung his sword forwards into Raithe's shin, rippng through the metal plating and digging into his leg before the reptile was kicked backwards by the demon's other foot. He flew backwards, hitting a tree with a grunt of pain as his sword of energy vanished into thin air, and the reptile shook his head quickly to clear it before staring as Raithe charged forwards with a scream of fury, his mace-sword held in both hands as blood splattered down from one and over his bat-head shell.

He swung viciously downwards even as Zerrex leapt out of the way, and the apple tree he had been against was simply crushed before Raithe smashed his mace-sword to the side, destroying another tree as Zerrex led the demon deeper into the orchard, the huge Prince smashing his mace back and forth as he yelled curses and swung his weapon back and forth like a child until he finally looked back and forth in confusion for the Drakkaren, who had vanished amidst the trees. He slowly relaxed, leaning on the massive weapon and panting hard... and then Zerrex jumped out from the tree he had hid in and landed on the Prince's head-shell, and Raithe flailed and shrieked in agony as the Drakkaren clung to the creature's skull with one hand, the other smashing viciously down into the head, fist glowing with blue energy.

Raithe finally threw his hands out to the side, and the Drakkaren felt himself thrown backwards in a soundless wave of pure force, wincing as the apples on trees all around them exploded and feeling his guts roiling inside his body even as he created a sphere of energy, dark lightning shooting back and forth inside the blue orb before he hurled it at Raithe... but the Prince simply snarled and reflected the sphere with a blast of raw telekinetic force.

Zerrex stared in horror as his own sphere flew at him before, acting on instinct, he simply punched the sphere as hard as he could in return, and it flew backwards before smashing into Raithe's armor, and it exploded in a blast of black flame and a terrible explosion that sent Zerrex flying backwards to crash into the ground and skid several feet backwards, grunting in pain and cursing under his breath as he slowly sat up. The Prince, however, seemed to have taken only minor damage as he let out a sound of fury, brushing at his cracked armor and lowering his hand that was glowing slightly with gold light, and Zerrex guessed he had used some defensive spell a moment before he'd been struck.

"It's useless, Lord Zerrex! I'm far more powerful than any other demon you've quarreled with!" Prince Raithe howled, and then he swung his mace-sword up towards the sky before smashing it down into the ground, and a long crack raced through the earth from the impact towards the Drakkaren, Zerrex immediately leaping up into a nearby tree to avoid the spike of rock that shot out of the ground towards him. "Come now, show me another pretty trick! I want to draw out killing you for what you did to my hand, you son of a bitch!"

Zerrex muttered under his breath, then he paused and mumbled a quick incantation, creating a ball of metal. ‘Marble' was a spell reserved only for royalty, and was relatively useless... but the Drakkaren then pushed as much energy into this metal sphere as he could before he winced at the sight of it seeming to pulsate under his hand, and he turned and ran quickly up the thickest branch of the tree, which twisted around for him as if the tree was willfully-aiding him in his fight against the Prince... and in Hell, you could never quite be sure. "Catch!"

Zerrex threw the ball of metal at the Prince, who laughed and reached up to bat the sphere away... and it exploded with enough force to send the Drakkaren hurtling almost fifty feet backwards through the air before he crashed onto his back, cursing as he pulled a chunk of metal out of his body, before his scowl turned to a cold grin as Raithe's screams rose in the air over the blast. He immediately leapt up to his feet, at the same time creating a small sword of energy in one hand as he charged back into the battle.

Raithe was staggering around with blood running down his central skull, screaming in agony with most of his armor broken off and laying in chunks around himself... and more importantly, one of his hands was missing. Spikes of rock jutted out of the ground all around him, and the Drakkaren could see a field of electricity sparking into life around him in a pattern, creating a double layer of protection... but the reptile only grinned as a spike of rock jutted out ahead of him, and he vaulted off this before wincing and doing his best to ignore the electricity as it sparked over his body, and he plunged the blade of energy into the crown of Raithe's outer skull before running quickly down his back and tearing the blade with him, and blood exploded out of the outer bat-head as Raithe flailed and staggered quickly away.

The shell-head was all-but-deflating, however, chunks of bone and blood streaming down it before it simply rotted and collapsed backwards, leaving the kitten head exposed and vulnerable... and then Raithe began to laugh, and the Drakkaren steadied himself as the protective shield of electricity sparked out of existence and the earth rumbled once before settling, and a moment later the Demon Prince rolled its head on its huge shoulders before the kitten head became a monstrous cat's face, now missing one eye and the other solid black, its fur moldy grey streaked with piss-yellow.

The armor faded from existence as Raithe held out his stump, and a new hand seemed to tear out of its forearm, flexing slowly and dripping blood, covered in the same fur coloration before it held it out towards the mace-sword that was still sitting on the ground. This immediately flew into it, and the Prince snarled as he lowered the weapon beside himself, rolling his shoulders as a pair of long horns pushed out of his skull... and Zerrex heard the tear of clothing as long, segemented spikes tore out of Raithe's back, curled in C's up towards his head as the demon whispered: "Now you die, Lord Zerrex. Now you die."

"I said to leave him alone, father." snarled another voice nearby, and then Zerrex heard a loud crunching sound before a tree flew through the air and crashed into Raithe, knocking him over as the Drakkaren stared, before gaping as Lily stomped into the small field... but now she was even taller than Raithe despite being hunched forwards, with six massive, spider-like legs coming from her back ending in long, hook-like claws, and her tail had lengthened, then split near the halfway point and the ends now cuved into a pair of huge spikes. Her body was massive and muscular, with not only an extra pair of breasts below a gargantuan bust but an extra pair of huge, thick arms as well, and all four of her hands bore huge talons. Enormous black antlers had also pushed their way out of her skull, tall and as twisted as the apple trees of Hell... but her eyes... she has the same rainbow eyes...

Lily glanced to him, and blushed quietly through scales that now had a multitude of black, demonic glyphs tattooed over her body, before she asked in a rough voice: "You just stand back, Zerrex. I'll-"

Then several trees smashed into Lily, and she was sent skidding backwards through the orchard on her back, knocking over several more as Raithe roared at her angrily: "Do not disrespect your father, Lilith! I'll kill you if you interfere with this... I'll kill you for trying to usurp me!"

"Father, listen to yourself!" Lily shouted back, and her voice seemed to cause the air to shake as she climbed to her feet and charged forwards, snarling... and Raithe smashed his huge mace-sword across her face, sending her down to the ground in a crumpled heap. Zerrex stared in horror, then watched as Raithe stepped out into the clearing and rose his huge weapon, meaning to crush her... and the Drakkaren snarled, running forwards and creating a shield of energy around his arm at the same time.

He leapt in front of the female as she groaned groggily, then raised the round shield of energy as the Demon Prince brought down his mace-sword in a crushing blow... but the huge weapon was halted by the reptile's shield, even as Raithe continued to bear down on it, snarling furiously, and Zerrex winced as the shield cracked... before he roared and swung his arm up and outwards, and Raithe let out a grunt of surprise as his mace-sword was knocked backwards even as the shield shattered into pieces.

Zerrex immediately rose his hand towards Raithe, and the shards of energy from his shield flew up into the Demon Lord's face, and Raithe staggered backwards, grabbing his features with a howl of pain and dropping the huge weapon... and immediately, Zerrex leapt forwards and snagged the handle, hefting the gigantic sword-mace and cocking it back before swinging it forwards as hard as he could, muscles bulging before the Eastern Prince let out a gasp of shock as it crashed into his gut. He staggered backwards, bleeding heavily and clutching his stomach before Zerrex swung the weapon around in a graceful arc despite its size, snarling with exertion before he slammed it down between Raithe's ears.

The skull of the enormous being cracked loudly as blood spilled down his face, his eyes bulging in horror before he slumped to his knees... and then his jaw trembled as Zerrex stepped back, breathing hard and staring, the weapon embedded in the Prince's head. His eyes seemed to clear and lighten as Lily got slowly to her knees beside Zerrex, staring at her father and trembling... and then Raithe laced his fingers together and whispered: "Show me mercy. Please... please daughter... please, Lord Zerrex, enough, show me mercy... I... I can't take any more..."

The Drakkaren looked uncertainly at Lily, hesitating... and Raithe suddenly tore the weapon out of his own skull before swinging it viciously forwards and smashing it into both Lily and Zerrex, sending them both flying backwards as he screamed: "Did you think it would be that easy to kill a Prince, you weaklings?"

Zerrex spun through the air rapidly before he crashed into the ground in a bloody heap, coughing and spasming violently as Raithe approached him, whispering raggedly: "No... I'm too close... I can't weaken, I can't give in now... I'll kill you, Lord Zerrex, and then I'll have to kill my own, precious daughter... my... my Lilith..."

Raithe halted behind him, grabbing his head and grunting, eyes clenching shut as Zerrex looked over his shoulder, and the Eastern Prince swayed on the spot in his now-bloodstained robes, before he mumbled quietly: "No... why... Az'Iriel lied, didn't he? Where..." A pause, and he shook his head quickly, straightening and gritting his yellowed teeth as he hissed: "Yes. I have to kill you... I don't have a choice, and then I have to kill my whore daughter for disgracing the family... for sacrilege..."

He started forwards again as Zerrex tried to crawl away, but then he leaned over and vomited blood, his chest ripped to shreds and his body feeling too weak, too useless as faint white energy burned at his form like acid, left behind by the demonic sword-mace... and so instead he only stared at Raithe, snarling and watching as he came closer and closer...

Four powerful arms wrapped around Raithe's body, and then six spider legs snapped around him, huge hooks tearing into his form as he shrieked in surprise, arching his back before Lily's jaws snapped down into his neck... and even as the reptile heard her crying, even as he saw the tears flowing down her cheeks... he watched as Raithe bucked once, twice... then as his form slowly turned to dust and vanished in a puff, Lily stumbling forwards and hugging herself tightly instead as her father's blood dripped from her jaws, before she fell to her knees and dropped her head in her hands, breaking down into wailing sobs. "Daddy! Father, I'm so sorry... Daddy, why... why..."

After a few minutes, Zerrex managed to force himself to his feet... and he wobbled slowly over to Lily, who was still crying loudly... and he hugged her around her thick neck as tightly as he could. Immediately, she picked him up and clung onto him, holding him forcefully to her as she sobbed apologies to him, to her father, and even to Hell itself... and Zerrex simply held onto her and shushed her quietly, closing his eyes and resting his head against her body.

They rested there for hours, until a pair of Masters and Bones showed up... but even the cocky Inquisitor went silent at seeing Lily in her true form and Zerrex covered in blood and clinging to her... and then the Masters mumbled something to him before the skeleton stepped forwards and asked in a weak voice: "Lord Zerrex... is... Queen Lilith... did... did... is that..."

"My father is dead..." Lily whispered, and she swallowed thickly, controlling herself as best she could as she bowed her head forwards, and her golden scales became golden, short fur, her features turning leonine as she looked over at Bones and said quietly: "Please leave Lord Zerrex alone today. He is going to bring me to a safe place and ensure there are no more attacks upon my person for today. Tomorrow things will resume as normal... but for today... Inquisitor, it would be appreciated if you told the Princess of what's happened here."

"Yes, ma'am." Bones snapped a rigid salute, along with the Masters, and then they vanished through a portal quickly as Zerrex looked up into Lily's eyes, and she looked sorrowfully back down at him before they hugged each other tightly even as she shrank down, but remained in her true form.

She took his hands, then bowed her head towards him and whispered: "I have to apologize to you, Lord Zerrex... for my behavior. For lying and deceiving you by taking on a body that I thought you would find more appealing than... than this ugly form I have here." She shivered a bit as her spider legs twitched around her, lacing her upper hands together as her lower hands covered her groin modestly. "I want to make it up to you, however I can... I... I got you in so much trouble, and who knows what the Princess will do to you when she hears what happened with my... with my father."

Zerrex shook his head slowly, taking her face in his hands and quietly kissing her forehead, and she flushed deeply as he murmured softly: "You'll always be beautiful to me, Lilith, no matter what you look like or... how freaky you are." He smiled a bit, and Lily flushed, looking away embarrassedly, then bowing her head shamefully forwards as there was a short silence. Finally, the reptile added quietly: "And... you saved my life. I can never ask more than that... you... killed your own father to save my life, and... and I'm the one who should apologize for that. That outranks whatever... stupid fight we had, no matter how serious or what the reason was."

Lily glanced away, then she flushed as her body shifted back to her Drakkaren form, looking down at her hands and whispering: "I loved my father... I did. But he became different near... near the end of his life. He went to see Az'Iriel more and more often... and he... dabbled in the darkest of forbidden magics. He became obsessive and I think that my guardians and step-parents sent me away from him as much as from the war. I loved him... but... he was... he stopped acting like my father around the same time that the war started with Prince Az'Iriel."

She paused, looking quietly over the backs of her scaled hands as she murmured: "I like this form better right now... and I don't like to be reminded I'm a demon. Like Feldspar, I crave to be a mortal... I crave to be just like you, just the same way you still are." Lily looked across at him desperately, taking his hands tightly and trembling a bit as Zerrex gazed at her with soft sorrow. "Don't you understand? I'm a demon... and no matter how romantic my notions and feelings are, I feel, I... I'm so scared that my passions and emotions are different than yours, and I'm stupid when it comes to things like love and good and right... I thought we would laugh about the fight... I mean, laugh about the thing we fought about..."

The demoness shuddered, looking down and shaking her head slowly as she murmured quietly: "I'm sorry, Lord Zerrex... I... fucked up big, as you mortals put it. I hurt you... and I gave into my fears and envy of the mortal realm. I thought you'd hate me if you know who I was, what I was... so I hid myself from you and almost destroyed our relationship. But you are the mortal I want... I want you to father my children... I want you to be my master, and my lover. You were my first... I want you to be my last, as well, no matter how many others I sleep with or marry or love or... I'm... I'm sorry, that's my demon speaking in... concepts foreign to your mortal realm again..."

"No, I understand... I've been here long enough to get that, and it's... sort of been a part of my life, too." Zerrex responded softly, and he offered a bit of a smile as he squeezed Lily's hands gently, saying softly: "You'll always be that cute girl I met on the bench, my first day in Hell..." He paused, then glanced over her and asked slowly: "And uh... wait. You're telling me you can get pregnant?"

"It's a complicated process in Hell, don't worry. I'm not carrying Baby Lily and Baby Zerrex yet in my belly." Lily said with quiet amusement, then she hesitated and murmured softly: "But maybe I should give you time to think about it all before I force you to put another ring on your finger... I don't want to be like Feldspar."

"You're nothing like Feldspar." Zerrex stroked Lily's face gently with the back of his hand, still reeling from everything that had happened today... and then he paused, letting go of her hands and walking over to the huge sword-mace on the ground, hefting it with a grunt and looking it over curiously before glancing at Lily, who blushed a bit. "Mind if I..."

She shook her head quickly as she created a portal, saying softly: "It's yours, Lord Zerrex. Go ahead and take it..." A pause as he nodded, and then she bowed to him quietly as her demonic characteristics slowly faded and pulled into her body, the female grunting and twitching until she smiled faintly at him, looking once more only like a golden-scaled Drakkaren of infinite beauty as she murmured: "I'm ready to go back home whenever you are."

"Home..." Zerrex murmured softly, and then he nodded, carefully carrying the huge weapon in his hands as he stepped through the portal after Lily, and Sin stared in surprise at Lily, then with horror at Zerrex, who looked as if he'd had the front of his body scraped off, his stomach still bleeding heavily as he said tiredly: "Hello, Sin. Sorry to bother you, but uh..."

"Sit down!" Sin barked, and he blinked and shrank away before quickly sitting and putting the massive weapon aside. She immediately rushed over, grumbling: "Lord Zerrex, this is horrible! This was done by a weapon with a very powerful blessing and curse... likely that Smiting Rod you brought in with you. That's... that belongs to..."

"It belongs to Zerrex now. Prince Raithe is... my father is..." Lily fell silent, and instead sat behind Zerrex, grasping his shoulders and lowering her head as Sin looked from one to the other in shock, before she murmured quietly: "I'll heal the damage done by the blessing, you take care of the damage done by the curse and the physical trauma.

They spent half-an-hour working on Zerrex's body, the reptile twitching and hissing in agony every now and then as he did his best to stay still, until Lily and Sin both tiredly sat back and Sin pronounced him fine. The Drakkaren now planned to take a snooze... but before he could even stand up, there were several loud knocks at the door, followed by an angry voice shouting furiously: "You have an audience with the Princess, and she is extremely displeased, Lord Zerrex! I recommend heading to see her straight away!"

The Drakkaren made a face, then he shook his head when Lily opened her mouth. "Don't even say it... I have to go alone." He paused, then grabbed a silver longsword off the wall and slid it onto his belt, making sure that the blade would pull easily free of the sheath before creating a portal and saying quietly: "Just in case. Sin, Lily... thank you. I'll be back soon." I hope...

Zerrex stepped through the portal and onto the balcony... but the throne was empty. He paused and glanced around, and then noticed the Princess standing at the end of the balcony, leaning on the railing as she looked out over her province. A moment later, she turned to him as his portal closed, and then she said coldly: "Lord Zerrex. Do you realize what you've done? Do you have any idea what kind of problems this may cause? And do you really think a pathetic sword with a pathetic holy charm could harm me in any way, if I chose to fight you? My Divine Protection is far stronger than Prince Raithe's was, and I'm not a sniveling coward, either."

"Well, all my other weapons need to be cleaned." Zerrex said flatly, and then he grasped the handle of the sword, bristling as he added darkly: "And believe me, I know you well enough to not underestimate you, Princess. If I have to fight you, I will, though... but I'd rather things not come to that, so why don't you just get to the point?"

"Cute. You and your raw force... it's all you know." The Princess said softly, then she snapped her fingers and a large plate of glass formed in the air, and images began to broadcast over it as she said darkly: "Look at this! Chaos in the streets, riots, madness... the Eastern Province is now without a ruler, and the Governors, Kings, Dukes, Barons... none of them are smart enough to run their own territories, let alone a country! And Lilith is inexperienced... although I can't exactly call her young." The Princess snorted, radiating her disgust in waves of disapproval. "She's as sick as Feldspar, trying to always make herself look... younger and prettier."

"I think that's envy talking." Zerrex said mildly, and then he was blown off his feet by a simple look from the Princess before he arched his back with a cry of agony as several long, deep gashes were torn down his chest, his blood flowing out in long streams that twisted back and forth in the air before pouring down into the Drakkaren's own muzzle, choking and drowning him under a crimson stream before the Princess looked away in distaste and left Zerrex coughing and bleeding sluggishly, rolling over on his side to vomit and gasp as he held his stomach tightly. She's... that strength... impossible...

"Nothing is impossible... I thought your old mentor taught you that." The Princess said ironically, and she looked up into the sky as the glass screen floated over the Drakkaren's face, Zerrex looking up into it and watching as demons ran back and forth in chaos, hearing faint yells and screams before he realized at least half of them were soldiers... "Excellent eyesight, Lord Zerrex... even in befuddlement you see the important points. At least, sometimes."

She snapped her fingers, and the glass shattered, Zerrex covering his face before staring as the glass fell upwards, turning to sand that swirled up into the sky above before arching and flowing downwards towards the earth... and a moment later the Princess strolled over towards him, looking down at him with distaste as she said softly: "Sure, most of Hell is reptiles, and a lot of mortals end up turning into demons that look similar to your Drakkaren and Dragokkaren... but I'd like you to keep in mind that that does not mean we're all automatically friends. Learn your place, Lord Zerrex..."

A telekinetic blast stomped into his stomach, and the lizard let out a wheeze, hugging himself tightly as he glared defiantly up at the Princess... but her eyes betrayed a cold smile as she looked down at him and crossed her arms. "Believe me, I have enormous plans for you, and you will serve me one way or the other... but you can either willingly obey me and one day be a loving husband to the bitch Lilith and a Prince on the Northern Throne... or you can be broken, and have nothing... not even the memories of your mortal family. I get what I want, Lord Zerrex... and no one crosses me."

With that, the Princess turned and strode away, and Zerrex watched her leave with a snarl before he forced himself up to his feet with a grunt, creating a portal and striding through it, his body aching... and then he shook his head and closed his eyes as he stepped into his own home. A shiver ran through his body as he felt Sin and Lily staring at him, and then he dropped to the ground and punched the floor hard with a snarl, shouting angrily and feeling weak and helpless: "How? How are they so strong? I can't do anything against any of them... I'm still so goddamned pathetic compared to her, like I was compared to Raithe!"

"Lord Zerrex..." Sin said softly... and the Drakkaren sat back, bowing his head in shame as he dropped his hands in his lap. The two females looked at him quietly, and then Lily sat down next to him and hugged him quietly from the side as Sin looked away and continued quietly: "You... you push yourself too hard. And demons think far differently than you do... most demons are not like Lily, or myself, or the demons you've met that have retained their mortality, such as Blake and Vampire. They cherish the lives they have lived, and their memories are all fond ones, even the ones of pain and loss and suffering, because they have become strong from those experiences...

"And you too, think like that. You've kept your morals from your past life... but most demons do not. They are either not strong enough to, or they see the easy path of giving in to the darkness and power, the evil side of demonhood... just as they may have done as mortal, taken the easy path instead of the one littered with experience and pain." She paused, then knelt down and touched his face quietly, whispering softly: "They become terrified of Hell's Inquisitors and the tortures, and lust only to become one themselves so they can have power and will be immune from the pains Hell offers... or perhaps their morals just change. Demons are taught only to respect power, to give in to all passions they feel, especially the powerful ones, and that love is fear and awe and arousal at the sight of a more-powerful demon. Like you told me... Hell is Hell."

"Hell is Hell..." Zerrex murmured quietly, looking down and crossing his legs quietly, and then he balled his hands in his lap, looking from Lily to Sin before asking softly: "So even though I train hard and honestly... they'll beat me because they enhance themselves and will fight to win and kill by any means possible?"

"No..." Lily shook her head and clung tighter to him, pushing her head against his neck as she said quietly but firmly: "You'll kill them all one day... because you don't limit yourself and always challenge yourself, no matter how hard things get... but you aren't a full demon yet. You need to give yourself more time... battling in Hell is far different from fighting in the mortal realm."

"Yeah..." Zerrex said softly, thinking of Raithe, the Divine Protection he'd barely broken through, and the way Raithe had spontaneously regenerated his body and changed in the middle of the fight. "Let's just have some quiet time for a while."

As the Drakkaren lay in bed with Lily in her plush room, holding her tight to his body, he thought quietly about everything that had happened... and she curled tighter to his chest as the same thoughts ran through her mind, a tear rolling down her cheek as she thought of her father and how she would have to leave here soon, but not wanting to let go of the Drakkaren even long enough to put on another dress. Sin, outside, was slowly cleaning the Smiting Rod that Zerrex had brought home and looking silently for a place to put it on the wall, trying to ignore her own pains and the sinking feeling that something far worse was yet to come.

Lily left only an hour or so later, sobbing quietly and kissing Zerrex one last time firmly, dressed in a black dress with a matching shawl around her shoulders, her eyes filled with sadness and reflecting the emerald of the Drakkaren's, her satchel thrown over one shoulder... and she promised to come back and see him the moment she could. She vanished through a dark portal moments later, and Zerrex sat back on her bed, not wanting to leave the room that smelled and felt like Lily... and two hours later, Sin quietly let Selena into the back room, and she shared a tight hug with the Drakkaren before asking him gently to tell her everything that had happened.

She tried to comfort him, tried to explain that Raithe was the weakest Prince and that the Princess was said to be almost on-par with the Warlord, but nothing helped at this point, and so instead she muttered she'd come back later and show him some tricks, realizing the Drakkaren needed some time to his own thoughts. She left hesitantly, asking Sin to watch him carefully in case he did anything stupid, and Sin promised she would... but the Drakkaren only wasted away the night laying in bed, deep in thought and arguing with himself over what to do.

Only one thing was clear, however: he needed to figure out how to get past this Initiate stage, and find out why the corruption seemed to have no effect on him... and if the only way I can ensure that I can kill Az'Iriel is to become a full-blooded demon, I'll do it however I can... and if I have to kill the Princess too, then so be it.