Chapter 12
"Equenel," Xyvareth said.
"Yes, Master?" the demoness hissed.
"It is time," he replied, turning around.
"All is in readiness, Master. The ropes are in place and I have legions of lesser demons at my command."
"Then begin the process. I want to see it happen," Xyvareth said, starting down the corridor to the demon's chamber.
Equenel and Xyvareth stood at the edge of the pit. The demon lay calmly at the bottom. Ropes criss-crossed over and under its body, attached to pulley systems on the walls and ceiling, and ultimately ending at the feet of hundreds upon thousands of lesser demons. Equenel held up one of her claws, and the demons picked up the ropes, ready for the next command. She cupped her long hands around her mouths, took a deep breath, and in two synchronized voices, Equenel shouted, "PULL!"
The demons started pulling the ropes with all their might, muscles bulging in their arms as they hauled the mass of flesh upwards. Slowly, it started to tilt upwards until it was perpendicular to the ground, and Equenel shouted, "STOP."
"Well, my abomination," Xyvareth said, smiling up at the demon. "How does it feel?"
"The view is amazing up here," the demon boomed.
"Very well," Xyvareth chuckled. "All is nearly ready. You have become a demon worthy of your name... my beautiful crime against nature. My Wall of Flesh."
"I like that title," the demon boomed, and both it and Xyvareth started to laugh...
Meanwhile...
Lorre and Cassandra continued to gently float down the shaft.
"This shaft is longer than I thought," Cassandra grumbled.
"Cheer up, Cass. I can see the bottom," Lorre said. In fact, the bottom of the shaft was drawing ever closer. He landed ungracefully with an umph. Cassandra, a few meters above him, pointed her toes and landed delicately on the balls of her feet.
"Now THAT'S how you do it," she smirked.
"Just 'cause you landed, you don't have to gloat," Lorre smirked back. "We both made it. Alive."
"Yeah, now all we have to do is find Ramisse! Which should be easy... in several identical obsidian buildings..." she said, her enthusiasm dissipating rapidly as she trailed off. Sure enough, when they looked around, all they could see were tall black stone monoliths, with the occasional red one to break the monotony.
Lorre sighed and reluctantly drew his vampire knives. "Time to play hide-and-seek, I guess."
"Ramisse!" "Ramisse?" "Hello, Ramisse?" "Ramisse Ironfist?" Their shouts reverberated around the obsidian monoliths, echoing for many seconds before fading away. Suddenly, they heard a muffled voice from the monolith nearest them reply, "In here! Hurry!"
Lorre picked up a heavy iron-tipped obsidian bar, and slammed it into the wall as if it were a battering ram. The ancient obsidian wall crumbled to dust, revealing three people inside: a man and two young women, one wearing armor. The armored one flipped up her mask to reveal a face that was nearly a perfect copy of Cyrrus's, albeit without the scar, and smiled at them.
"Hello!" she said. "It's so good to see other people again. I thought we'd never get out of here. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Ramisse Ironfist."
"Pleased to meet you," Cassandra said, shaking Ramisse's callused hand.
"Hey!" the other young woman said amiably. "Aren't you going to introduce us?" She appeared to be in her early twenties, her green robe doing absolutely nothing to conceal the fact that she was extremely pregnant and quite close to giving birth. Her emerald green eyes, the same color as her hair, twinkled as she leaned on the young man's shoulder. He lifted his hand to stroke her hair, one eye sheathed behind a black patch, the other pale gold with laugh lines streaming from it.
"My apologies," Ramisse said. "These are my friends Thunder and Emi Zevulon."
"We're honored to make your acquaintance," said Thunder.
