Sins Of The Demons

A wide grin spread across my face as what Lord Malice said finally sunk in. “Oh, fuck yes!”

Malice laughed, “You’re certainly enthusiastic, aren't you?”

“Sure as hell I am!” I paused, “But...did that mean you started out looking like a standard Demon?”

An eyebrow raised, “My, my, you are smart. Perhaps you should use that mind in battle.” What's that mean? Okay, yes, it was stupid of me to fight a Demon stronger than me, but still. “But you're right.”

“That's quite enough of that.” Celestia said as she approached us, surrounded by her guards. “Perhaps you'd like to explain who you are and what exactly is going on here.”

Malice gave her a genuine smile, “Malice, one of the Lords of Hell. Pleasure to meet you...Princess Celestia, correct?”

She blinked, perhaps shocked with how polite and grandfatherly he was. “I...It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Lord Malice. That is what Greed called you, correct?”

He pulled a face, “Please, just Malice is preferable, I was never one for titles even in life.”

She smiled, “Then I insist you do the same for me.”

“Sorry to interrupt, Mr Malice,” Gluttony said, “But Lust is still fighting Princess Luna.”

“Ah, of course! My apologies, Gluttony, I got caught up in my introductions!” He turned to Celestia, “Excuse me for a moment.” And in the blink of an eye he vanished.

Celestia stumbled in shock, “That, that wasn't a teleport! How did he move that fast?!”

I gave a small chuckle, “Hey, it ain't a cakewalk to become a Lord, and once you're up there there's no shortage of idiots who want to claim your title as their own, so Lords need to come up with some gimmick or special power to survive, his seems to be speed.” I frowned, “I used to think it just came with being a Lord, but now…” I trailed off.

“Now you think it's because of all the Demon souls they've consumed.” Gluttony finished my thought.

I nodded, “Exactly. You know, it gets me kind of excited! What ability will I gain if I continue to eat their souls? Will I end up looking completely different from how I look now? All those sort of questions are getting me real worked up!”

“Just a moment. Gluttony, how did you know that Luna and your friend were still fighting?” Celestia asked.

He brought a meaty finger up and tapped his nose, “A gift from this form, I have a real good sense of smell. I used to think I could only use it to smell food, but I've learned I can smell other things. I can still smell the burned ozone from the magic blasts and the burned ground as well as the scent of fresh blood hitting the ground.” I...didn't know his nose was that powerful, I couldn't even hear them, so how far could he smell? “Oh, I think they've stopped.”

“I bet you five chunks of meat that Lust busted up her eye in some way.” I grinned, looking to make some quick food.

“Not even a question. That's the first thing she goes for.” Gluttony waved me off.

I sighed, “Fine, same bet but change it to Luna being more beat up?”

“Are you two really betting on my sister being hurt?!” Celestia yelled. Huh, no more mask to wear, eh? I guess we're annoying her.

“I don't bet anymore, I lost too much food that way.” Gluttony said firmly. He then smirked, “But if we're not betting food…?”

“Forget it.” I scoffed, “I ain't letting you get my shinies.”

Before he could try and persuade me the room’s doors opened and Malice strolled in, holding both Lust and Luna in one hand each.

They were both a mess. Lust had burns and cuts all along her body, her shirt was practically torn to pieces, only just concealing her breasts, blood ran down her arms, she had a large bruise on her cheek, her legs had deep gashes in them and one looked burned black, one of her horns was snapped halfway down and part of her tail was missing.

Luna, on the other hand, definitely looked worse off, her right eye was swollen shut, all across her body her fur was singed, her snout was clearly broken, her mane was practically all gone, with only an inch of hair left, she was missing several teeth, she had deep scratches along her face and down her sides, blood ran down her body, legs and face, her regalia was shattered and a piece of her broken crown was stabbed into her side, her legs were cut up and one of her hind legs were broken and her wings were snapped and hanging limp.

“Sister!” Celestia cried, running over, ignoring her guards, and taking Luna into her magical grip. “Luna, are you okay?!”

When Luna didn't answer, being unconscious does that to you, Malice spoke up, “She'll be fine. Get the crown out of her side and it'll all heal up.” He said before walking over to us and gently placing Lust on the floor.

“Oh, shit.” I muttered, “A mortal did that?”

“I told you.” Gluttony whispered, “They reek of power. Even if they are mortal those two are stupidly strong.”

“Don't underestimate mortals.” Malice said sternly, “Even those that don't have that level of power. You're both too young to remember, but several hundred years ago a lone human fought his way into Hell. He slaughtered us, killing the Lords of the time and making it all the way to the King of Evil.” I blinked, the fuck was the King of Evil? “He killed him and diced his soul into dust, he's the reason we don't have a King of Hell. And after he was done he carved his way out. He was mortal and all he had was his skill with a sword and a basic grasp of magic. That is why we don't underestimate mortals.”

Okay, after that I'm not underestimating a mortal again. For about a week. You know, it'll probably take a mortal kicking my arse for the message to fully sink in, but I was definitely being more cautious from now on. “Right, but what now? How exactly do I become a Lord?”

Malice just smirked, “You just keep that deal with this world and you’ll find your own way there in time.”

I laughed, “In other words I just have to keep eating the souls of Demons? I’m fine with that.” I looked over to Gluttony, “Are you willing to be my weapon in this, buddy?”

He smirked, “A nice reversal of roles, huh? Yeah, I’m willing, ready and able.”

“I’m...in too.” Lust coughed as she struggled to sit up.

“Lust!” I cried, rushing over and helping her. “Don’t push yourself! Just rest. You gave Luna a hell of a beating, so relax.”

Lust coughed, “I'm not built to be a fighter, but I gave as good as I got. Bitch had it coming.” She pushed herself up, resting against Glutton, “I ain't afraid of the pain, it just reminds me I'm still alive and can still fight.”

“Don't talk crap!” I snapped.

“What?”

“Not built to be a fighter? Like hell that’s true! You've always been a fighter through and through! What, because you're a Lust Demon you think that means you're not a fighter?! Stop talking crap!” I scowled at her, “Where the hell’s the girl that responded to being threatened with a knife by knocking the idiot’s teeth out?!”

She just stared for a few seconds being closing her eyes and sighing, “You’re a real idiot, you know that?” When her eyes opened they were full of that fire she always had as a human. “But you're right.” She pounded a fist into her palm, “Let's move the fuck forwards and kick some arse!” She locked eyes with Malice, “If he can become a Lord like that, then we can too, right?”

He nodded, “Indeed.”

She grinned, “Then we’ll be right there by your side, Greed! There’s no way in hell I’m going to let you become a Lord without me!”

Gluttony spoke up, “If you two are going to become Lords then there’s no way I’m getting left in the dirt!”

“Alright! We’ll become Lords then! It’s a deal!” I grinned. “We’ll stand by each other until Armageddon and beyond!”

There was a silence as the three of us grinned and gripped each other’s arms. After a few seconds there was clapping. I turned and saw Malice grinning at us, “Excellent! Such teamwork will help you reach that lofty goal. I’m rooting for you three!”

“Why did you come here, Malice?” Celestia questioned. “To cheer these three on? Why else?”

Malice smirked, “Perceptive, aren’t you?” His face grew serious, “Don’t push it. As a Demon Lord it’s my duty to slaughter any that show me disrespect.” He gave a kind laugh, “I can keep the eyes of the other Lords off this world and make all the breaches to your location, Greed.” His eyes glinted as he turned to Celestia, “For a price.”

Celestia glared at him, “Like what? Souls of the innocent?! A hundred virgin mares?! A newborn child?!” She spat.

“Someone’s being a total bitch!” Lust jeered loudly.

Celestia scowled at her, “You viciously attacked my sister!”

“Like I give a fuck!” Lust laughed.

“Nothing so dramatic, I assure you.” Malice smoothly cut in. “I simply want access to all the books and scrolls in this world.”

I frowned, “I thought you already had every book from every reality in your library?”

Malice gave a sheepish grin, “I may have...exaggerated there. My library contains the combined knowledge of every world and realm that has died or fallen to Hell, but this world,” His eyes lit up, “It’s all new! New knowledge, new books, new stories, new experiments! Can you imagine the possibilities?!”

I raised an eyebrow, “Something tells me I’m not the only greedy one here.”

“You caught that, did you?” He cleared his throat, “Do we have a deal, Celestia?”

She looked tense, “I cannot promise anything of the other nations, but...you may peruse the Royal Library as you wish.”

I chuckled as she tried to manipulate Malice’s words into something that was better for her. “Oh, you have a pair of brass balls there!” I laughed, knowing that everything was about to go tits up for her.

Malice’s friendly gaze turned ice cold, “I said all books and scrolls. Not a single library. All of them. Every book, every diary, every private note, everything. I will deal with the other countries myself.” I felt myself shudder from his tone, there was the voice of the torturer that had Demons fleeing whole worlds in terror. “Or maybe I should start making the Demons appear in hospitals, schools and orphanages. Is that what you want, Celestia?”

She must have realised that he wasn’t bluffing, because she lowered her head into a bow, “Please. Don’t. You can read anything you wish! Just don’t…” I could hear the panic in her voice.

Malice’s gaze warmed and he gave a warm smile, “That’s fine, child. Just don’t toy with me. Now raise your head and shake my hand, you are a leader, don’t let fear rule you.”

Celestia raised her head and hesitantly took hold of his hand. “I’m sorry.” She whispered.

“I know.” Malice said as they shook. “Which makes this so hard on me.” A blue glow suddenly appeared on Celestia’s hoof, just above where Malice was holding, and she started screaming in agony. “But you disrespected me. You tried to worm your way out of our deal, I can’t allow you to try that again.”

The guards rushed forwards before Gluttony grabbed them all up. By the time Malice let Celestia go there was a Demonic symbol burned into her flesh. The symbol of a Demonic Oath. As soon as he let go Celestia collapsed to the floor and curled up into a ball, sobbing and whimpering. “That mark makes our deal the same as a Demonic Oath, if you try to change the deal or stop me from what we agreed on, directly or indirectly, you will be torn apart at the atomic level, yet will be in constant agony for the rest of eternity.” He sighed before gently taking her hoof and resting his hand on the burn, “Let me help with the pain, child.” His hand glowed blue for a few seconds and Celestia’s whimpers faded away.

After a minute or so she got to her hooves and tried not to look at Malice, shaking slightly when she did, yet he just stood next to her. I sighed, Malice didn’t understand mortals, did he? “Malice? You don’t understand mortal emotions very well, do you?”

He turned to me with a surprised look, “How did you know?”

“Just...move away from the pretty, pony princess. She’s too scared of you to function right now.” Having a Demonic symbol burned into your flesh had to mess you up no matter how strong you are.

“Ah, right you are.” He joined Lust and began treating her most severe wounds. “Perhaps I may reconnect with my mortality during my stay here.”

“Stay?!” Celestia squeaked.

“Yes, I like the air in this world, besides it’d be nice to get out of that pit.” He sighed contentedly. “I suppose I’ll have to pop back to Hell every so often, but for the most part I’ll be here.”

I looked over to Gluttony. “Uh, Gluttony? You can, uh, drop the guards now.”

“Huh? Oh.” He muttered, unceremoniously dropping the guards into a pile on the floor.”

“I need you to comfort Celestia. You know, like you used to.” We needed her with her head on straight.

He raised an eyebrow, “You mean like back in school? That I can do.” He headed over to Celestia and dropped to his knees next to her and began to whisper comfortingly into her ear whilst rubbing her back.

“Having him play counselor?” Malice asked.

I smirked, “He’s stupidly good at it. Why not exploit that?”

“You’re plotting something else already, aren’t you?”

“Just setting up some possible payouts. You never know when some friendly contacts will come in use.”

He chuckled, “You’re smarter than you let on.”

“Nah, I’m not smart, I’m just good at planning.” I shrugged.

“And that doesn’t take smarts?” He raised an...eyebrow bone at me.

“Maybe, maybe not.” I looked over to Gluttony. He had already calmed Celestia down considerably. She wasn’t completely calm, but I could try and use that to my advantage. “Gluttony! That’s enough now.”

He looked up at me before glancing back at Celestia before shrugging, “Your call, Greed.” He lumbered his way over to my side.

I gave him a friendly smile before heading over to Celestia with a smirk, “Better now?”

She frowned at my tone but nodded nonetheless, “Yes, your...friend, is skilled in what he does.”

I shrugged, “Yeah, sure. Look, in addition to our services I want to deal with the rest of the cult in any way I see fit. I mean, you don’t want to change the deal, right? I’ve heard that changing the symbol hurts even worse than getting it.”

Her eyes widened in fear, “No!” She squealed. “I...I mean, no. Fine, you may deal with the cultists as you see fit. I give you my word.”

I smiled tightly, “That’s real nice and all, giving me your word. Like your word can’t be taken back when you feel like it.” I scowled and snarled at her, “I want it in writing! I thought you’d learned your lesson in trying to screw over Demons!”

She shot back, “I didn’t…!”

“Greed. Enough.” Gluttony rumbled, “She was being honest. Things are different here. Her word means something.”

I blinked, “Oh. Sorry, Princess. Culture difference, you understand, right?” I took her silent nodding as a confirmation. “But I still want it in writing, that way we can bypass changing the mark on your leg. Who knows, with more commands the mark might spread further.”

Two minutes later I had a Royal Decree saying I could do what I wanted to the cultists Open Speech belonged to. “Is that all, Greed?” Celestia grumbled.

“Yeah, like I said, Gluttony will work out our pay with you. In the meantime we need some housing.”

“I’m sure with the bounty you can deal with that yourself.” She said icily. Wow, she got pissy all of a sudden. Then again her sister is unconscious, we pretty much destroyed who knows how many walls on the way here, her citizens are panicking and she must be in a ton of pain. I’ll let her off this time.

“Yeah, whatever. If we're going to be living in this world it's going to be near my castle.”

“That castle belongs to me and my sister, not you!” Celestia growled.

I wagged my finger at her, “Ah, ah, ah!” I fished a copy of the deed out of my pocket. “‘Legal ownership of The Castle Of The Two Sisters hereby belongs to Greed’.” I grinned, “Signed by a blood contract. Maybe you shouldn’t have let the deed sit around in a town hall on sale.”

Having nothing to say she just scowled at me while Gluttony calmed her down. This time I let him do his job properly and within ten minutes she was completely calm.

“You good?” Gluttony asked.

She nodded, “Thank you.”

“No problem. Greed isn’t so bad. He’s just good at using people to get what he wants.”

I gave a mock bow, “So very true, my large friend!” I laughed.

“So you’re just greedy for things, right? You can’t stop yourself? You just need more money?” She asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“We wear our sins proudly as our names!” I roared. “But we refuse to be controlled by them! I plot and plan and scheme because I can’t let fate decide our destiny when it has a chance of going wrong!”

“Greed, I...I didn’t know you felt so strongly about this.”

“The only things we can completely control are ourselves! We’ve seen death, despair, genocide and brutality! But we refuse to give in! We’ve seen both sinners and saints killed indiscriminately!” I glared at Celestia, “That’s why I constantly plot! Why I won’t let things play out naturally! I won’t lose them again! I won’t let them die again, if that means I have to battle the entire force of Hell then I’ll do just that! Don’t underestimate my feelings to them, I’m Greed! I’ll protect what’s mine with my life!” I closed my eyes and sighed, “We all have wants and desires, I don’t fear my own greed.” I opened my eyes and gave her a stern look, “Are you going to fear yours?”

There was a stunned silence for several seconds before Malice started slowly clapping, “Well said, Greed, well said!”

“Thank you.” I bowed. Then I noticed the Holy sword by my feet. “Huh. Someone should move this thing.”

“What is that?” Malice asked walking to my side. “Ah, a Holy sword. Not many of these about this place, are there?”

“You could say that again.”

“Let’s get rid of it. Greed, pass me the sword, use a cloth or something to touch it with. If it touched any part of you, you’ll be instantly disintegrated. It’s not a pleasant experience, trust me.”

I blinked, “But...I blocked the sword with my claws before.” Was I going to die? “It felt my claws were being burned while I touched it, but...I’m fine.”

His eyes widened, “What?! Quick! Show me your hands! I showed him the palms of my hands. His eyes widened as he tapped his glasses several times. “Incredible! I wonder…?” He stared at my chest. Then he started laughing. While he was busy Gluttony ripped up the red rug in front of the throne and passed it to me and I wrapped up the sword.

“Er, Malice?” I said slowly.

He grinned at me, “It’s fine, my child. I was just...surprised. I’ll have to do some research for conclusive results, but I believe...yes! You can wield Holy weapons! Not properly for they’ll burn you after a few minutes of exposure, but perhaps…”

“Perhaps?” I prompted after a few seconds.

“Celestia, I’m changing our deal!” Malice shot out excitedly.

Celestia’s shot wide open with fear as she grabbed her burn. I groaned, “Maybe some reassurance would be good here, Malice.”

“Hm?” He finally noticed Celestia at the edge of a panic attack. “Oh, no need to worry, the symbol on your leg can be changed by the Demon that created it with no pain to the mortal it is inflicted on.” It sounded like he had just read that out of a book. “I simply wish for that Holy sword. I believe it may be of use to your protection in the right hands.”

“What?!” She stared at me, “But...But you said that…”

I gave a shit eating grin, “Oops, did I happen to lie again? Oh, well, my bad!” I laughed.

“You worthless…” She seethed with anger.

“Watch it, Princess! Don’t insult your only defense!” I grinned.

Malice clapped his hands together, “Very well done, Greed! A fine bit of manipulation! Now, shall we move on?”

Celestia grimaced, “Fine.”

Malice placed his hand over the burn and it began to glow blue. “In return for the Holy sword and the Promise that I can read any book in this world that I want, I shall Promise to do my best to keep the other Lords of Hell blind to this world.” He lowered his head, “I'm afraid I can do nothing to the lower Demons, they'll smell this world and be drawn to it like sewer rats to a rotting corpse. Not pet rats, though, they're just cute.” He removed his hands and nodded. So Malice likes rats? Duly noted.

“Are we done? I have to get news out to the public about you.” Celestia sighed.

Malice picked up the sword by the cloth, “For now, yes. I will be back soon, Greed. Until then, do as you will, Demons will be drawn to your location from now on.” With that he opened another blue portal to Hell and stepped through.

Lust, Gluttony and I exchanged looks. “What now?” Lust asked.

I grinned, “Now? We head back to the castle and get ready for the real fun to begin!”