Eternal Suffering

Akuro's head hung low. He was tired and even though his wounds had healed over, his body ached miserably. After nailing chains to both of his arms, Lilith then continued to take blades to his skin and cut him apart. She had cut out his eyes, tongue and even his teeth, and she had cut open his body multiple times over. She also took black needles and embedded them below his fingernails and, making it look like he had black talons.

When Lilith had finally had her fun, she stabbed a black spike into Akuro's heart, then exited the room. Akuro hung limply for a time before he eventually fell asleep and into a deep dream. He dreamt that he was back in the barn, his father kicking him over and over again, except that when he looked up, it wasn't his father at all. It was Lilith. And then Akuro looked to where Hope's body lay, still and soaked with blood, except that it wasn't Hope, it was Darius, laying with a gap in his chest and lifeless eyes. Then Lilith bent over and whispered in Akuro's ear as he lay motionless and powerless on the ground, "You're mine."

Akuro woke at that moment, breathing heavily. His body was shivering violently and he felt nothing but pain

"About Damn time." Mato's voice came. "You broke off your connection with me when Lilith cut out your eye."

Akuro remembered then that Mato had been telling him about how to remove the mark, but just as he did, Lilith had taken black spike and into lunged it into Akuro's right eye over and over again. Dried blood caked both of his cheeks as if he'd been crying crimson.

'Well sorry I couldn't focus as my eyes were being gouged out, that's entirely my fault.' Akuro said mentally.

"Yeah, it really is." Mato joked.

'Fuck you.'

"You probably would, and that's pretty creepy."

'Screw off.' Akuro cursed, 'can we get back to removing this fucking curse mark?'

"Oh, yeah, I forgot. Well, as I said before you rudely allowed yourself to be tortured, in order to remove the curse mark, you have to burn it with fire, scorching it off of you."

'Seriously?'

"Yep. But you won't have to worry about figuring out how to do that."

'What do you mean?'

"It'll be seared off when Lucifer or Lilith decide it's time to execute you. Or, in this case, banish, seeing as you are immortal."

'What? Wait what is going to happen to me?'

"Well, in hell it's customary to punish the ones that piss off the Archdemons by throwing them into the river of hell, which, luckily for us, is a river of lava! Usually you'd die from this, but seeing as you are immortal it won't kill you, it'll just hurt. A lot." Mato said this as if it were a good thing.

'You're fucking kidding...'

•

•

•

Inari and Onoma stood at the edge of one of the cracks, staring down into the depths below them. It seemed to be an endless drop emitting an ominous red light.

"We should get going." Onoma said.

Inari nodded, then pointed down. "You first. I still don't trust you as far is I can throw you."

"Well I'd say you trust me a decent amount then seeing as you could probably throw me pretty far." Onoma joked.

"Shut up."

Onoma chuckled at his own joke before jumping down the split in the earth. A few moments later Inari drew in a deep breath of anticipation, then followed suit. She descended for a long minute before finally crashing to the ground in a dark cavern. The cavern was large and dimly lit with crimson light. It split off in three different directions.

"Well. Which way should we go?" Onoma asked.

Inari looked down each of the tunnels, trying to see any sign of recent activity. Then she heard strange screeching sounds emitting from the middle tunnel.

"Let's give this one a try." She said, then she and Onoma began down the tunnel slowly, making sure to observe absolutely everything around them so that they would not be caught off guard by an attack from a group of demons. If possible, they also wanted to go completely undetected.

They continued like this for an hour or so before stopping to rest. The air was miserably hot and dry and the walls around them were similar to magma rock.

"Does this tunnel ever end?" Inari asked.

"I do not know, but I do know that if we get caught in here it'll be a pain. We need to be careful." Onoma responded.

"Careful! Careful! Yes, be careful! Very very careful!" Came a high pitched voice from above them.

Onoma and Inari looked up in shock and saw a strange demon hanging upside down from the ceiling. It had pitch black scaly skin and looked like a large humanoid bat. It had two stubby legs that clung the the small holes in the walls and four arms, two of which had leathery wings. It's head was small and it had large beady green eyes with a small nose and a large underbite. Two large bat ears flopped down from its head with two small horns in between them.

"Shit! A demon!" Onoma cursed, his axe appearing in his hands.

"Noooooooooooo! Stoooooooop! Do the stopping please!" The demon screeched. "I come in peacefulness. I am to be friend!" It said as if it had a hard time talking properly.

"Friend?" Inari asked.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can helps you. I don't like here, here is not good here."

"That doesn't explain why you'd help us." Inari asked.

"Well, I is weakly. I would die by you. So is my only option helps is." The demon said. "I also sees the destiny pass me."

"The destiny?"

"Yes, yes! The destiny. Is the destiny your friend?"

"Wait, do you mean Akuro? The Deity?" Inari asked.

"Yeah! That! Akroru!"

"It's Akuro."

"Yeah, Akuro. Sorry, me not speaks well." The demon spoke, "I saw the Akuro's future! He special! You see, you see!"

"Special? How do you know this?"

The demon pointed two fingers at its eyes, it's ears flopping as it did so. "Eyes," it said, then spreading its other pair of hands out in a jazz hands motion, "in futuuuuuuure."