Vain Glory

In a Desolate landscape, three creatures stood.

Lortnoca, shivering and fearful of her own future, dreading what the entity will do to her now that it caught her. Casting glances at Kaleth, who just betrayed her, she only wished to live, all thoughts of revenge fleeing her mind.

Kaleth himself wasn't sure what was going to happen to him, although he mused that whatever was coming for him, he won't like it. Even if given a second chance, he wouldn't have changed anything. The plan was perfect, he was sure of his brilliance. It's just that the execution of it was lacking.

The Entity, or Edrien as he was known to only a few, was amused. He watched the two squirming worms in front of him, waiting and wondering which of them would break first.

"So, let's get this show going. This is how it's going to work: I'm going to ask questions. You answer them, whoever is addressed. If you can't abide by those two simple rules tell me now, so I can just skip this shit and go straight to murdering you both." His voice boomed, startling both trembling devils.

"First Question: How did the two of you get here? The girl in the chains, you first." Edrien said, clapping his hands.

Lortnoca glanced at both other beings present before returning her stare back to the ground, not daring to raise her head in front of The Entity.

"Y-Your highness, I...I was transported here against my will. It was never my intention to disturb your realm. I didn't ha-have any control, and thus ended up here." Lortnoca offered, praying in her heart that shown deference would give her a little bit of Leniency.

Edrien snorted, smirking at her, "None of the Highness bullshit, please. My name's Edrien, so call me that. Anyways, you said you were transported here against your own will, yes? How did that happen? And do you have any proof?" Two red lantern lights blinked in Edrien's skull, giving his shadowed visage a sinister edge. His voice gained an amused tilt, "I mean, anyone can say anything, doesn't make it true though. I could say that I'm a dark god sent to punish the devilkind for its sins, but no one would believe me, as that's a clear lie. I need some proof, woman, if you don't want to get splattered here and now."

Incredulity was the only thing on Lortnoca's mind, 'Of course we would believe that. Nevermind, what sort of proof does he need? Shit I need to stall for time to think of something.'

Trying to buy herself some time Lortnoca cleared her throat, the long time spent in hot air and sand making it parched, "W-Well, I was fighting the devil of Sloth, and when I defeated him, he used the last of its life to transport me here. I-Im afraid I don't have any proof..." At those words she saw Kaleth smirking in her direction, which infuriated her. "Apart from my memories, sir Edrien."

The Shadow hummed, slowly walking circles around Lortnoca, giving her goosebumps and rooting her in place. Finally he stopped in front of her and spoke. "Open those eyes, and look straight into mine."

Lortnoca did as she was ordered, not daring to delay whatever was coming in fear of even bigger punishment. Once she lifted her head, and glimpsed the two red torch lights that were the eyes of Edrien, her head instantly exploded into a huge headache, and she felt as if a hand was rooting in her brain with no regards for her own wellbeing.

"Aha! I see. Well, you didn't lie. And although your mind is filled with all sorts of depraved stuff, I've found what I needed," Edrien said, a tilt of amusement in his voice, "I just have one more question for you, little devil. Why didn't you just leave this place?"

"Uhhh, I tried. I really did. But. no matter how much I walked, I couldn't escape. It was like the very space was keeping me here." She said.

Edrien hummed, suddenly at a loss of words, "What do you mean you couldn't leave? You only need to get to the mountain in the middle of these lands. Hell, I dedicated a good part of my power to warp space here, so that no matter where you are, you could travel to the mountain in half an hour tops."

"Wh- what?"

"Well, yeah. I told the older and more powerful devils to look out for the young. You see, I don't like disruptions," Edrian said, cracking his knuckles. "That's why I gave every single powerful devil at the time an information dossier. It included the instructions to leave this realm if someone somehow ends up stranded here. It's clear they messed up."

Lortnoca couldn't believe her ears. The Entity, The shadow, the one who was rumoured to be a ruthless murderer was... merciful? Good natured?

"I'll have to give them a visit and ask why they ignored my instructions. But that's for later. First, Lortnoca," Edrien said, shaking Lortnoca out of her fugue state. "We have to get you out of here. I imagine you don't want to spend more time here than you need, yes?"

"Y-Yes...*ahem* I would really appreciate it if you would allow me to leave." The devil of control said, Her eyes sparkling, seemingly finding a ray of hope for escaping with her life intact. "W-What about Kaleth? I...I don't dare to presume, but...but I don't want to see him free after what he did to me."

Edrien smirked, the horizontal crack in his face, a mockery of a smile leaking red light, giving her chills. "Oh I wouldn't worry about that. You see, little devil, one of the things I hate most are betrayers. And I know you want to see him suffer, but I promise to you, you will not want to watch what I do to him," Kaleth shivered hearing the tone with which Edrien spoke. "Now don't move, the ride will be bumby."

At those words and abyss speeding from cracks in space engulfed them both, and the vanished in a split second, leaving only Kaleth among the sand dunes and buffeting wind.

Kaleth, spotting the opportunity, tried to move, to flee, believing even now that there was a chance for him to survive.

Only for him to cry out, and fall back down into the sands face down, a burning agony crawling up his legs. Kaleth gritted his teeth and looked for the reason for unreasonable pain, only for his face to pale.

Tiny aberrations in space, so small to be invisible to naked eye, floated around him. His eyes, now full of unshed tears, watched his severed legs as they still gushed blood, dyeing the surrounding sand crimson. His stumps, now nothing more than stripes of mangled flesh extending out of his torse, reminded him that there is no escape.

Only Judgement.

______Just outside the Deathlands____

at the edge of Deathlands, a huge distortion of air separated verdant fields of lush grass from desolate fields of sand. Next to the distortion, directly above the grass, a crack in space started to appear. Out of that crack steeped two figures. One, a hooded woman with chains splattered with blood crisscrossing her body, giving her a sinister appearance. Another, a living shadow made out of writhing absences of light, nebulous stars blooming and dying inside his dark silhouette, as if a galaxy was consumed by him.

Suddenly, the chained woman kneeled on the ground and...

*burp* started to vomit.

"Sorry about that, dimensional travel outside my domain is not very suited for other beings," Edrien said, watching Lortnoca heave her stomach out.

"I-Its fine. I'm just happy to finally be out of that place." Lortnoca replied, wiping her mouth clean and looking around, noticing the changed landscape.

"Good, well, now that you're out, I wish you best of luck. Take care, and try not to die. I'd hate to see you be handled by hell devil." Edrien said.

Lortnoca looked back at Edrien, or as she just recently called him, The Shadow. Many emotions swirled in her eyes. After the betrayal at Kaleth's hands, her mind couldn't take more of such surprises. It was relieving to her that even though the entity before her was so much stronger, it wasn't duplicitous like most devils she encountered.

"Thank you. For everything. For soaring my life and getting me here," Lortnoca said, and gathering her courage, spoke again. "If it would be alright, could I return later to ask some questions? I have so many of them. I promise I would repay you for your help."

She couldn't let this opportunity slip through her hands. Lortnoca already weighted pros and cons of asking this. She noticed that Edrien, while powerful, extremely so, wasn't as impulsive as some of the older devils she encountered. He also seemed to have a soft spot for young devils, if his comment about instructing the Older devils to take care of younglings was to be believed.

As the oldest being she knew of, he was surely a font of knowledge she couldn't get anywhere else, at least without shedding her blood. A benevolent entity was much better alternative than murderous, stronger than her devils to her.

"I dont mind. But I don't like to be disturbed at random. Here, take this," At those words, a hexagonal piece of stone, engraved with darkly glowing symbols appeared in Edrien's hands, "When you want to talk, just come to the barrier and infuse some of your energy into it, I will know."

Lortnoca started at the slab of stone, its energy even now giving her goosebumps, and swallowed nervously.

If a randomly created trinket like this radiates so much power, His depths of power are even deeper than I previously thought.' The Control devil though to herself.

"Y-Yes, of course. I...I will be going now. Good luck." She said, as she started to walk away, thinking about how she could use this piece of stone to her advantage.

"You too." She heard Edriens voice, but when she turned around, he was already gone.

_____Back with Kaleth_____

Kaleth was regretting his choices in life. The pain he experienced when his legs were severed seemed to be much greater than what it should be. He was no stranger to pain. No devil was, truly. But the burning chill he felt even now was a testament that his experiences in life were much too shallow.

A whooshing noise, and approaching steps of The Entity, who's name apparently was Edrien, made him look up. He started to whimper when witnessed the pissed off aura of power Edrien was surrounded with, leaving no doubt in Kaleth's mind that his death won't be a quick one.

"You know, what I am truly puzzled by, is the reason you didn't use the known way to escape these lands. Instead you hatched a harebrained scheme, that resulted in you being reduced to...well, this," Edrien said, squatting right next to Kaleth, pointing at his severed legs lying not far away. "Just why? Why would you act so stupid? Why lure unsuspecting devils to your abode only to betray them later?"

Kaleth wheezed, his body tired, and mind dull, "I...didn't trust...it. I didn't trust you. I didn't trust Devils older than me."

"That's it? Well, at least I know the reason. It's all good though, you won't have to suffer for much longer." Edrien muttered, grabbing Kaleth by his hands and teleporting both of the away.

After the migraine from the traveling by such means faded, Kaleth opened his eyes, looking around.

He, and Edrien, were in a huge hall, taller than anything he could see. The roof of the hall was supported by octagonal pillars carved the very rock he was standing on. Every wall was dull monochrome, grey like the sky he was previously under.

Edrien started dragging Kaleth by his head, making his stumps of severed legs flare up in pain. Kaleth whimpered.

Eventually they came upon a hole in the ground, with no bottom that could be seen.

Edrien lifted up Kaleth Infront of him, dangling him from the edge of abyss.

"You know, It might be too cruel to toss you there while you're still alive. But on the other hand, a betrayer deservers the lovest circle of hell. I don't hope you suffer horribly, I know you will. Oh, and when you get down there, say hi from me to Johny." Edrien said, and tossed Kaleth's body over the event horizon.

Kaleth began to fall, his body only occasionally illuminated by pulsing lights on the walls of this abyss. After hearing Edrien's words, he hoped for a quick death via smashing to the ground, but he knew that was a fools hope. After he started to wonder just how deep this place goes, he impacted the floor. Only instead of dying, he was cought by squishy pitch black flesh, writhing under him.

Kaleth started to panic when he felt countless tentacles and fleshy tendrils start to drill into his body. The pain eating away at him was making him pass out, only to be startled awake once again by even greater pain.

He started to scream when the pitifull remains of light that could make it this deep illuminated what was happening to to him.

Hundreds of tentacles, ranging from smaller than a finger to the size of the his arms were writhing around him, splitting off, biting a piece of body and merging back into the wall of flesh.

First, he lost all sensation from his arms and what remained of his legs, than the slimy tendrils started to crawl up his chest, melting his flesh with acid and tiny mouths at the ends of those tentacles slurping the soup his body was slowly starting to turn into.

His breaths came in short spurts, like of a dying animal.

The tentacles started to prob his mouth, seeking to get inside him. Kaleth screamed, cursing everything that led to him ending down here.

Eventually, His whole body was covered by pulsing flesh, as if merged to the being down here. One lone eye remained opened amidst the writhing tendrils, in its pupil, a mouth with countless teeth, each the size of his whole body, was reflected.