We bow to your greatness (Axiom and Zaila)

[Zaila]

For centuries Liandra's people had worshipped demons. While the outlying towns and villages chose to go the more celestial route, a battle with these monsters so many years ago had forced them to pay homage to those they hated and feared the most. Part of this homage was a tri-monthly tribute that was to be paid at exactly the same time every three months. The tribute was that of a girl. It had to be a girl of at least sixteen, blonde, shapely, and befitting of those they worshipped. The last trimester had warranted no such females and the leaders of the town were tortured mercilessly for their disobedience to the law.

Now it was the sixth month and they had spent the last three months searching tirelessly for that perfect girl. By the end of the fifth month they had managed to round up six girls, Liandra one of them, who would be presented in a line the day of the selecting. The leaders prayed one of these girls would meet the demon's standards since they hadn't quite healed from the last torture they had endured.

It was the last day of the sixth month, noontime, and the girls were arranged from shortest to tallest, Liandra falling somewhere in the middle at 5'4." They had dressed her in nothing but a strip of red cloth, tied in just the right places to hide what needed to be hidden, but otherwise leaving nothing to the imagination. They were instructed to kneel, keep their heads down, and not move a muscle until the inspection went underway. The demon would be here any moment and the leaders stepped off to the side, waiting anxiously for either praise or pain from the demon once he looked over the selection.

 

[Axiom]

Humans were dirty, pitiful creatures, meant only for death - if not by his people’s hand, then by their own. He’d never encountered a race so motivated by greed and selfishness, that would willing give away their females, for only a few months of promised safety. They were weak. Exceedingly weak. Just pathetic husks of pallid flesh and distasteful mentalities and inhibitions. The only thing he could respect was their desperate sense of survival - the same thing that caused them to give him women ever so few months.

Fire, herald his coming. The sky turned a seething red and the clouds grew pregnant with thunder. The little village, with their little beautiful girls, was shrouded with heat and shadow. A sense of danger, of despair, would well up in the people. Animals would quiver and people would tremble like leaves in a gale. A single bolt of lightning would blast the ground, and from it would be Gang’iel, high demon and the bane of humanity. His imposing red form, accent with coils of hellfire rising from him occasionally and topped with arching, sinister horns, would be at the entrance of the village. They all knew the rules. They already had the women ready for him.

“Good.” He bellowed, ash wafting from his mouth. His body radiated an evil heat, that sunk into the skin of man and caused doubt. The elders tortured before, knew this to be true - they winced, with their weak hearts, at the sight of him. “Good.” He repeated. “You have my offerings.” His attire, which was a gothic collections of straps, as well as his own muscles, clung tight to his body - showing off a form honed in the pits of hell and created for torment and torment alone. This monstrous physique paced back and forth, in front of the girls. They were all beautiful. They were all shaking.

He knew none of them wanted to be picked. None of this darling creatures wanted to return to hell with him.

That was too bad.

“You.” His hand, more a claw than anything, pointed to the girl next to Liandra. Then…he felt something. Fate. Fate told him to pick the woman next to her. His skin rippled. Fate told him Liandra was a riper fruit. A better desire. “No…” He conceded, following fate’s suggestion. “You.” He placed his blazing hand on Liandra’s shoulder. Instantly, the girl would be in pain. It would feel like a thousand knives made of fire carving up and down her spine. He would grip her shoulder until it bleed and until her voice went hoarse from screaming out of excruciating pain. “You’re going to come with me.”

When he left go of her, her skin was smoking - yet the only place that was burned was a small corner of her shoulder. She was branded, with the mark of the demons.

She belonged to him now. Forever.

 

[Zaila]

Everyone looked up in unison as they sky turned a seething red, their hearts pounding in their chests as the prepared for the entrance of their God, their Master, their Leader. Thunder roiled in the sky, clouds slamming against each other as if in some morbid symphony heralding the arrival of the demon. Every three months a different demon came. The last one hadn't come with such an impressive display of power which meant he was stronger and would be even more ruthless should he not find a woman to his liking in the line-up.

All the girls shivered, keeping their heads down, tears streaming down their cheeks as they all inwardly prayed for the same thing. ~Please don't let it be me.~ Liandra's thoughts were along the same lines, her lips silently mouthing the words as she begged whatever semblance of a god there still was to spare her of this fate. Heat prickled at their skin now, the sensation making every single one of them whimper in turn. It was only a matter of moments before the demon actually showed and one of them was taken to be nothing more than a plaything...Any semblance of self or dignity ripped away. Screams warranted from the lightning bolt striking the ground, the girls shrieking fright and forcing themselves to remain still for, even if they weren't picked, the demon could find their behavior angering and choose to make an example of them. No girl ever survived that...

So, they remained motionless, if not bit stunned now, fingers digging into the ground beside them. Each girl looked downward, not daring to meet the demon's gaze as he walked the line. Liandra chanced a glance up, but only slightly and with the slightest tip of her chin so as not to be noticeable. He was coming towards her, but...he stopped at the girl next to her. Inwardly she was celebrating, but outwardly all she did was breathe out in relief. She felt sorry for the fate of the girl, but it was necessary to keep her people alive. The girl was seen as a martyr when she was taken. The leaders moved in, ready to instruct the girls to go back to their homes since they thought the demon was done, but he wasn't... Liandra felt whatever sliver of hope she'd had falter only to be squeezed into nothingness when the demon touched her shoulder. Blinding pain clouded her vision, fingers cutting as she ran them along the cobble, her entire body tensing.

Finally a scream ripped from her, form collapsing from the intense ordeal, but his grip remained strong. She closed her eyes and her lips, stifling the shrieks that wanted so badly to rip from her lungs. The hand was pulled away, but the pain remained, her entire body feeling as if knives were cutting into it at every spot imaginable. His words brooked no argument, and she was in too much pain to fight back, so she simply nodded and stood, sparing a look over her shoulder to her weeping mother, who was held back by guards, before stepping up to the demon, her head still bowed, shoulder brand fresh and still smoking from the intense heat.

 

[Axiom]

“You’re never coming back.” He said, pointedly as he turned his back to her and headed towards the entrance of the village. She was now just another girl lost to the demons; a pawn in the aforementioned game of survival. Disgusting, vile, humans – to consider your own expendable! There was no loyalty within their ranks…and even less for honor. If anything, he was doing her a favor by taking…no, accepting her into his stead. Yes, he was doing her a favor, by removing her from this putrid human world, full of lies and weakness. She owed him. “Look at them. Look at the people that gave you up. You had no choice in this.” Eagerly, he sowed hatred in her.

“Those people forsake you, all so they could live in peace for a few months more. Look at them.” Still his back was to her. Slowly, his head tilted to the sky. His eyes glazed over with blackness and the thick hoard of clouds boomed with fury. A bolt of lightning crashed down in the village smashing a home into a smoldering pile of ash. Another bolt fell and a fire started. People scattered accordingly as an impossible hail of lightning saw fit to destroy Liandra’s previous home. Gang’iel’s laughter bellowed throughout the sky.

He turned to his sacrifice and his lips curled into a wicked smile. He grabbed her hair and lead her a few paces away from the village before an arching bolt of lightning stuck them and transported them to his home. The demon realm.

The brand on the girl’s shoulder would burn feverishly, as they materialized in a land with air that was caked with ash. Thick smog covered the sky, and the wind here was hot and churning. It was like being at the foot of a volcano seconds away from erupting. There was no sun here either, but a supernatural hotness illuminated the environment. A few paces away from them was a devilish spire, connected to a horrifically gothic looking castle. It all looked sharp, deathly. The occasional feminine haunted the air around them. She wasn’t the only female alive down here…for now.

“Come.” He said, letting go of her hair. Down here he was stronger. When he said come, no matter how strong she was, she couldn’t resist. His influence would stem from the brand and then course throughout her body. She had to succumb to his demands for now, punishment not withstanding. He would take her to the entrance of his doomed estate; the arching, spiked door, superheated to a temperature only his kind could withstand. Then he would turn around. “Take off…that.” He’d point to the little fabric that covered her. He didn’t use the brand to force her this time. It would be her first test.

 

[Zaila]

Liandra placed a hand on her searing shoulder, closing her eyes in momentary revery of the cooling that her hand delivered. "I know..." she whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks. His words only furthered her anger at the situation and, while she still raged toward the behemoth walking in front of her, the demon's attempt at making her hate her own people was working also. He was right... They knew full well what her fate would be and they were willing to sacrifice her in order to remain alive. They were being so selfish! At least her mother had tried to save her... Were it not for the guards she would have run forth and put her own life on the line to save her daughter. As far as Liandra was concerned, the entire city could rot in hellfire as long as her mother was spared. They were bunch of selfish egoists that deserved to die.

She didn't even look back as the lightning came crashing down, her mind made up about what fate had in store for them. Anyone struck by the lightning deserved it and any home burned by the fire the bolt created deserved the punishment. She smiled in through of them scattering about as she heard the screams, a smile that was instantly replaced by utter terror as the beast laughed. It was a sound that echoed through every bone in her body and seemed to come from everywhere around her at once.

Not even having to look up, she knew he was looking to her, a whimper escaping her lips as her hair was grasped, the handhold sufficient in taking her the necessary few steps from the village before they stepped into the portal. The descent from the mode of travel awoke the pain in her shoulder again, the brand searing as if it was just being applied, her lips closing tightly to keep a scream from bellowing as they walked toward the imposing structure ahead. Finally his grip was relinquished, but his one word was forceful enough to will her legs forward. She could feel his influence all around her and knew this was his domain. Any slight infraction and horror would ensue undoubtedly. Woodenly, she walked behind him, glaring into his back with the hatred she wished she could express verbally without fear of being killed on the spot for such insolence.

Steps halted when he turned, amber eyes finally flicking up to the red beast waiting for his order. Unfortunately, the order was the one thing she'd been fearing and fingers clung to the fabric wantingly. She knew it was a test and that punishment would probably occur as a result of the disobedience, but she still held her modesty in high regard despite the situation.

 

[Zaila]

bumping so Axiom can find it