The Ahara Chronicles, Chapter One: An Infernal Conception
By Dave Mollett
His infernal majesty, the Balor Lord Malevans Phn’Glaz Razz’a'el (the third), was bored. He was perched atop his golden and flaming throne, his elbow resting on the arm of that fiery seat, his hand supporting his head, his great red wings shifting a little as if in a breeze, and was gazing out over his immense throne room, and was bored.
“Lydus,” he suddenly said, “I’m bored. What plaything can you offer me today?”
Lydus’ two heads looked up, the wolf-like one grinning and snarling, the snake-like one simply wavering a little and hissing. “We do have the banquet tonight, if you remember?”
“Ah, yes. The banquet. What’s on the menu?”
“Well,” growled Lydus, “I think Raikh has a few things in mind. Why don’t we go down to the dungeons and see what he has – to alleviate your infernal majesty’s boredom?”
“After you then.”
Lord Malevans stood up, his thirteen-foot frame casting awful silhouettes across the walls in the firelight, and flew from his dais over the flaming pit which took centre stage in front of his throne, and over the small courtyard towards the immense set of double doors opposite, carven out of two single slabs of blood-red ivory from the unknown wastes, and marched downwards towards the dungeons. Lydus, only a foot smaller, stepped across the stone floor and followed, leaving the room strangely empty, and silent but for the excitable churning of the pit. In front of that infernal cavity stood two marble pillars, replete with onyx manacle holders; they stood there in the silence, alone and patiently waiting for the next unfortunate dancing mortal.
The unmistakable sounds of screaming, wailing, tortured groans and howls and the like made clear the fact that they were approaching the dungeons. It soon became a din - of iniquity.
“It’s quiet in here today, Lydus.” said Lord Malevans. “I’m disappointed. I was hoping to hear the sounds of insufferable torment.”
Lydus replied, his gravelly voice attempting an imitation of Raikh’s, “Well, if we tortures ‘em too much then they won’ts be tender when we eats ‘em tonight, your majesty. You know how you ‘ates the stringy ones.”
“Right you are, Lydus. Ah, here’s Raikh. Well, Raikh, what have you?”
The small, spindly, shifty and thoroughly degenerate figure of the gaoler cum cook Raikh shuffled towards them. “If you’ds like to comes this way, sirs, I’s got a few nice ‘uns todays. I’m sure you’ll likes ‘em.”
“I hope so, Raikh. For your sake. We might end up eating you instead.”
Raikh chuckled cruelly, “You always says that sir. Come, see what’s we gots in the first cell ‘ere.”
The three of them peered into the first cell, a small stone cubicle, to see a fat dwarf hanging from the low ceiling and being flayed alive. He would have howled in unspeakable pain if he still had a tongue.
“Is that really necessary, Raikh?” growled Lydus.
“Oh yeah,” Raikh replied, “we ‘aves to do that before we marinates ‘em.”
“I meant the tongue. He’s not making enough noise.”
“Dressing, sir, dressing. It’s all in the presentations, you knows.”
They walked to the next cell, where immediately two thick green tentacles suddenly shot out through the grille and endeavoured to wrap themselves around Lydus’ two heads – the snake-like one grappling slimily with it. The thing inside the cell shrieked hideously as it did so.
Raikh became angry now, and drawing a wicked looking scimitar sliced off the grotesque appendages in two swift strokes, whereupon they fell to the ground, still writhing as if with a life of their own, though only for a moment. An even worse shrieking came from the cell now, as the monstrous whatever howled and squealed in both pain and hunger.
“Calamari then?” asked his infernal majesty.
“Aye.” muttered Raikh, gathering up the severed tentacles.
“Ah, now this is more promising.” Lord Malevans peered into the next cell.
Inside was a very beautiful human female, naked and manacled to the wall. Her long dark hair reached down to her stomach, covering her breasts. But it was cold, and her erect nipples showed through. She seemed to be half-asleep, or dazed, and was moaning softly.
“We gots this one only last nights.” explained Raikh eagerly. “Plucked her from the prime on her wedding night an’ all. I knows ‘ow you likes the fresh ‘uns. Thought you could ‘ave ‘er fer dessert, like.”
“Yes, Raikh, indeed, fresh mortal virgin always goes down a treat, as it were.”
And with that the three demons laughed out loud, horridly, wickedly, greedily. The hideous noise the four heads made reached right up to the higher quarters of the palace, where the other guests were already stirring. And they knew that when the Balor roared like that the banquet was sure to be entertaining. The young mortal bride, for all that, who by some strange quirk of fate could understand the language of the Tanar’ri, the demons, tried to pretend not to hear, and shuddered again in dread. She thought of her husband, the eighth Lord Beavan of Dylath-Leen, and how she would probably never see him again. And yet, somehow she was not too distraught about being snatched away on her wedding night, seeing as the eighth lord Beavan was not the handsomest of men, by any stretch of the imagination.
The banquet was already in full swing when the young woman was brought up to the throne room. She was still naked and manacled, though long onyx chains had been attached to those wicked bracelets. A group of fiends manhandled her to the centre of the courtyard, which was now surrounded by long tables, forming a kind of small square in the middle of the room, behind which was assembled a very large number of assorted demons of all shapes and sizes, all of which whooped and readied themselves in unspeakable delight at her approach. There she was brought before the fiery pit, at the edge of which the two small and smooth marble pillars had been erected, in between which she was now placed, and the long chains from her manacles pulled through the onyx hoops at the top of those pillars and then locked into the hoops embedded into the floor at the sides of the stone courtyard. The chains were pulled up tight and high, lifting her arms up painfully to either side of her, and lifting her long hair up too, revealing the gorgeous human breasts which had previously been hidden, so that she almost hung there, open, facing the throne, precariously close to the pit, from which tongues of flames rose periodically to lick her as if they had an intelligence or desire of their own. She squirmed a little in her bonds, but her movement was restricted and the heat from the fire made her perspire and grow faint, and hazy, as she had been with the cold in the prison cell.
“Ah,” announced Lord Malevans, perched again on his throne and sucking on a long piece of green calamari, “dessert is served.”
Lydus strolled over to the naked woman, walking round her. His snake head curved and coiled downwards, slithering over her body as if to gather up her scent, its long tongue darting in and out in excitement. She felt its rough texture almost cut into her, and tried to wriggle this way and that to avoid the horrid thing.
“There ain’t much to her.” he snarled. “Couple of bites and that’d be it.”
“Hmm.” Agreed his infernal majesty, “well in that case we don’t need to eat her, and she can be made to entertain us in some other way.”
Then he glanced around the room. “Lili?” he exclaimed, seeing his second daughter seated at one of the other tables.
“Father?” asked Lilith, with a smile, brushing back her golden hair.
“Make her dance, Lili.”
With that the Succubus, for that was the type of demon she was, got up from her chair, taking a long whip with her, and walked around to the back of the unfortunate mortal, whose slender body was glistening all over with sweat now from the heat from the fire, and the tongues of flame which still reached out for her now and then. Lili glanced over to a group of nameless musicians at one corner of the room, who started to play some hideous, piping, drumming, screeching piece of music that could perhaps have been some blasphemous parody of a waltz, whereupon she commenced to lash out at the girl with her own instrument of torture. The girl winced as the first blow came, then writhed with the second, whimpered with the third, and then sighed with the fourth. Lili stopped for a moment.
“I think she likes it.” she said. Murmurs of approval went up from the dinner guests.
And so she started again, but much more rapidly now, and the lustful onlookers soon became aware of the uncanny skill which the Succubus possessed with regard to entertainments like these. For the strange thing was that the howls and sighs of almost-pleasure coming from the beautiful young human seemed to fit perfectly in tune with the caterwauling coming from the demon musicians, and the writhing and jerking of her body seemed to correlate perfectly in time with the decadent dance. For she was, indeed, dancing now.
And the sounds which she made seemed to suggest to her eager audience that she was in fact indeed beginning to enjoy it.
“In which case, perhaps,” said Lord Malevans, “we should educate her further. Corrupting mortals for dessert always tastes so nice.”
And he leaned back in his fiery throne and smiled.
“Lydus, bring out the living wall.”
Lydus grinned wickedly, and the demonic dinner guests let out a cacophony of debauched approval, for they all knew what his infernal majesty’s request meant. The girl of course, did not, but could make a pretty good guess, and raised her head weakly and interestedly to see where the Molydeus was going. She felt less pain now, partly due to the consummate skill of the Succubus Lilith, as a result of which her whole body was tingling all over, as if the whip did indeed possess some kind of corrupting quality, some demonic magic.
Lydus strode over to one side of the throne room, where a huge black velvet drape covered a large section of the wall, perhaps thirty feet long, and about fifteen high. From where the girl was she thought she could see the drape moving, as if unseen things were pushing outwards from the wall itself. The dinner guests had moved one of the long tables out of the way, so that everyone could get a clear view of the entertainment, and were all gathered now in the centre of the courtyard, an awful, wicked throng. The same group of fiends who had manhandled her into the chamber came once again to release her from her bonds, and then proceeded to carry her over towards the wall.
Her suspicions about the wall were confirmed when Lydus pulled away the drape. Gasps went up from within the crowd of onlookers, and the girl tried to turn her head away, but was forced to look. Lord Malevans himself had come down from his flaming throne and stood about twenty feet from the wall, where Lydus had already taken up a prime viewing position. What she saw was an unmentionable thing - for the entire wall was alive, and writhing, like waves, and out of the wall protruded body parts - limbs, hands, lips, breasts, legs, some at odd angles. And not all the body parts were human – there were tentacles, snake-like appendages, wicked-looking claws, even horrid beaks. Worst of all were the eyes which gaped out of that eldritch structure and seemed to follow the victim as she approached. The whole thing was grotesque. The girl winced and tried to look away.
“Don’t worry dearest,” said the Succubus, slightly sarcastically, putting her hand on the girl’s shoulder, “it doesn’t hurt that much. And only at first.” And then she laughed, and was not comforting at all. The demons who had brought her there handed the girl over to her, whereupon Lili embraced her firmly, kissed her once but fully and lingeringly on the mouth and then suddenly threw her backwards towards the wall. And something reached out from that wall and grabbed her.
Or rather, many things reached out and grabbed her. First a hand managed to catch her wrist, then a tentacle wrapped itself around her other arm, and two legs hooked around her own thighs. Those living bonds drew her arms and legs apart, so that she was spread-eagled and lifted up off the ground. She was pressed back hard against the wall, and could feel things moving behind her and pressing into her back, and something moving up between her legs. So this is it then, she thought, I’m to lose my virginity to a damned wall!
And then wicked things began to happen. As if fighting amongst itself for this beautiful prize, various appendages on the wall started jostling and wrestling with each other, and more hands, snake-like growths, breasts, lips, legs moved across her body and wrapped themselves around her, so that her whole voluptuous figure became a writhing mass of things grappling with her, her and each other. She was pulled and twisted this way and that by the motion, as the crowd of blasphemous onlookers moved closer and jeered and applauded and slavered in the jaws, jostling amongst themselves for better views. Lord Malevans, Lydus, and Lilith stood cross-armed watching, and enjoying the spectacle immensely.
The girl was still wet and moist all over from sweating in the heat from the fiery pit, and so some of the wicked limbs could not get a firm hold on her, and could only slide across her body in frustration. One singularly long tentacle had snaked around her thigh and across her glistening belly and up between her breasts, heading for her mouth, before it ran out of length. She lifted her head up to escape it only to find herself grasped from behind by two more claws. Tongues, not of flame this time but just as long, licked up and down her sides and up her back. The two claws which held her head moved it to one side where she was horrified to find herself delighted to see a mouth moving across the wall towards her and opening itself out as it drew closer. A tongue came out of it and entered her own mouth, as the lustful lips came together with hers. She groaned, and cried, but not in pain, as the Succubus had said, any more, but in pleasure. And some unnameable appendage moved up between her thighs again as she shuddered.
But Lord Malevans noticed, just as the crowd noticed and noticed the fact that she was no longer in pain, and that the corruption was proceeding with surprising swiftness. Lili herself was visibly moistening with delight. But his infernal majesty shouted some unspeakable phrase in Tanar’ri to the wall, and as suddenly as it had come alive over the girl it stopped its unholy grappling, although it did not let her go. Instead two rope-like growths entwined themselves about her wrists, and two more around her legs, pulling her tensed thighs apart at they did so. And more than that, in their shifting at the Balor’s command they turned her around, so that she was now facing the wall with her back to the demons. Hands all at once came out again and put themselves on her, grasping her sides and her breasts and her shoulders. The Balor approached, and took out his many-tailed whip.
But, perhaps cruelly, he did not immediately lash out with it, but instead let it unfurl and entwine itself about her ankles, leaving one tail free, which proceeded to move slowly up between her legs. The girl readied herself then in unspeakable delight as the wicked whip rose up beneath her. She cried out in excitement as the squirming hands that held her squeezed more tightly and the whip caressed her upper thighs, but then in anguished anticipation as the whip did not stop there but instead moved up and over her back.
And then the girl cried out, to the wicked cheers of the crowd, to the Balor; “please,” she said, not wanting it to stop.
But it did. The Balor shouted again to the wall and it released her, she dropped to the floor, exhausted. Lord Malevans picked her up, giving her to the group of guards again. “Enough of this foreplay.” he said. “Take her to my private chambers, and chain her to the wall. I will come up just before sundown, when the banquet has ended.”
And so the guards took away the ravished mortal as their lord had commanded, while the guests resumed their seats and their feasting. Raikh sent up half a dozen Black Abishai for dessert instead, and so all were happy.
A little while later Lydus turned to the Balor, as Lilith looked on. “What will you do with her?” he asked.
“What do you think I’ll do to her? What a silly question!”
“I meant afterwards, my lord.”
“Oh, well, it rather depends on whether or not she conceives, really.”
“I’d like another sister.” Lili said, hopefully.
“Well then,” replied the Balor, “we’ll see what we can do. She was rather feisty and entertaining, wasn’t she? And very beautiful.”
“For a human.” interposed Lydus.
“Yes, but I’m sure she’d produce very beautiful offspring.”
His infernal majesty leaned back in his throne and smiled to himself again.
“Hmm. Yes, I’m looking forward to her very much, indeed. I love the smell of corrupted mortals in the morning.”
And then he sniffed the air. “It smells like, victory.” he said, with a wicked gleam in his eye.
(to be continued…)