Chapter 1: Opening Act (1)
The fortress of Gastofield was an important locale for the devils that resided within the Satan Beelzebub's territory, a moderately sized construct of blackened metal and sweeping walls, loaded down with enough wards to survive an assault from thousands of foes until reinforcements could arrive. Even more important was that it served as a patrol nexus for the few 'safe' channels of travel through the sprawling wilderness of the Underworld.
Residents of the realm they may be, but even devils treaded lightly through uncharted and unmapped portions of the landscape, well aware that they themselves might become the prey of some known or hitherto unknown predator should they wander away from the regularly mapped and patrolled routes.
Gastofield also had an equally well known presence among the many other factions of the supernatural, albeit for far more nefarious reasons. The garrison stationed among its walls were notorious for perpetuating one of the highest casualty rates among prisoners, torturing or working them to death at a grim pace. While there were some realms or individuals that reaped a higher tally - or were rumored to be more sadistic in their proclivities - it was Gastofield that struck a balance between efficiency of death and sadism. Humans sent there rarely lasted more than a few months and supernatural - while far more durable - not much longer. And even those already grim statistics had picked up the pace recently, what with King Charlemagne's campaign across Europe to unite it under the banner of christianity.
A fact that caused the devils no small amount of consternation, despite the fact that they were very much a part of the spreading religion. Unfortunately Heaven had gotten to the human king first and had him firmly in their pocket, guarded day and night by powerful angels as he perpetuated a christianity that firmly denounced them as the worst things ever, vile creatures and demons to be cast aside and ignored for all they offered was corruption and temptation.
They were right, of course, but having people know that they were ultimately untrustworthy or looking to come out ahead on any brokered deal made things that much harder. It meant all they could rely on were a much smaller number of humans who found themselves dissatisfied with the beliefs they were offered, or were natural contrarians.
Neither were the majority and it was a hallmark of devils that they always wanted more, or were rarely content with what they had. Naturally, an already bloody conflict had increased in size and scope and Gastofield had found itself with quite the bevy of slaves and prisoners as of late from all factions, as the conflict grew ever greater and greater.
In fact, the number of them had grown so impressive that Gastofeld had even begun sending slaves to its far off outposts, one of them going by the name of Black Point, about six hours of straight flight away. It was a welcome diversion for the few devils stationed there as nothing of interest ever happened at Black Point. Both the angels and fallen angels had focused their attention on the eastern and western fronts of the Underworld or otherwise deployed their forces to the human realm to influence Charlemagne's campaign in some way or another, leaving things painfully dull for its denizens.
...Little did they know that garrison duty at Black Point was about to become the most dangerous it had been in its long and plain history.
"Don't fight, little human. You're honestly just making this difficult for all of us."
Nothing but a wordless growl of defiance slipped past the nude woman's lips, the devil merely chuckling at the resistance as his dark-skinned and raven-haired toy writhed and struggled as he advanced closer, fending off her furious blows with lazy ease as he pushed her closer to the edge of the impressively tall watchtower that overlooked the roiling hills and wilderness of the Underworld.
"Typical humans, no better than a rabid dog."
A sudden lunge and grabbing of her legs flipped the woman over the edge of the battlements edge, her body freezing as everything past her hips was now dangling into empty space, held steady only by the devil's painfully tight grip on her ankles as he leered at her exposed nether lips.
"A lot more enticing than any mutt, however...don't struggle, or I'll drop you."
Aroused at the power he held over the human the devil began to shuck his pants-
-and almost lost his grip as she suddenly bucked her hips, actively trying to go into a fall that would kill her.
"Crazy human! Know your fucking place!"
Hauling her back to solid ground - ignoring the way the stone and metal edge tore into her skin - the devil snarled and violently pushed her against the floor, growling, "I was going to make sure you were nice and wet but I think a little pain is the best teacher, wouldn't you agree?"
Only continued struggles as the devil contemptuously snorted, lining up his freed cock with her nether lips-
-and suddenly gagged as with lightning swiftness he found himself wrapped in the coils of some gargantuan snake creature, impossibly strong musculature cutting off his airway and even causing his bones to creak, hands instinctively and ineffectually scrabbling at the scaled flesh.
Not that such an action lasted long, a bladed tail slashing deep into the devil's exposed groin and causing an airless scream to escape a rapidly reddening face. A few seconds and the male collapsed, slackening muscles meaning the bones in his body began to snap in short order under the immense pressure, a few seconds more and clear signs of demise announced themselves, what with voided bowels and a distinct lack of warm air leaving the squished male's body. The reptile waited a few moments after the fact even then, well aware that supernatural beings were quite the hardy bunch.
But eventually it unwound itself from the corpse, turning to face the wary and cautious woman...before, to her immense surprise, the creature's body shifted like moving water, assuming the form of a young boy perhaps twelve or so years of age. Skin a shade of tanned brown lighter than hers, albeit unevenly spread so that some portions seemed paler. Midnight hair that stood upwards at uneven intervals and a wiry physique that complimented sharp blue eyes, the boy grinning at her as he raised a finger to her lips...and spoke only gibberish with a whisper that caused the woman to narrow her eyes and tilt her head.
A problem that the youth also seemed to pick up on, slapping a palm over his face before grumbling something under his breath, pulling himself straight before motioning first to himself, then the corpse and then the rest of the outpost, a savage grin showing straight and pearly teeth.
...The message of that seemed clear enough. Slowly nodding in understanding the dark-haired female was then pointed at, the male motioning for her to stay where she was before grinning and shifting into some kind of small, gossamer-winged insect before flying into the rest of the fortress.
The woman merely stared at the strange series of events that had occurred before shrugging, rummaging through the devil's corpse in hopes of finding anything to be used as a weapon.
"Man, can't believe I didn't think to check if I had some kind of language barrier or something before all of this. So much for auto-translate. Now let's see who else in here who needs killing."
Such were the thoughts of one Harris Xavier as he fluttered throughout the interior of the outpost, compound eyes studying his surroundings with surprising ease despite the massively different field of view, crafting the beginnings of a plan. The hallways were narrow but well illuminated, some kind of crystalline torches lining the walls while hard-packed stone or brick was the construction material of choice, metals mostly reserved for the parts of the place that needed the most reinforcing or protection.
"And that just leaves the denizens of the place...hope there's not too many or this may turn ugly. As I am now a single, moderately trained devil could probably waste me."
Keeping such careful and humble thoughts at the forefront of his mind Harris continued his search, eventually hitting the proverbial jackpot as he came across what were almost certainly the barracks or living quarters of the place, beds scattered about while a few devils reclined in them, a group of four playing with dice at a further table and bringing the total up to eight, none so much as even glancing as the tiny insect alighted upon the ceiling.
"Yeah, that's a few too many to actively assassinate or ambush one-by-one. And it's only gonna be a little while more before the body is found...hmm, gonna have to get creative with this."
Silently leaving the premises the shapeshifted male continued his search, eventually heading towards one of the lower levels where the sounds of rattling chains and aggressive voices could be heard.
And despite the highly suggestive noises and other such evidence Harris still found himself disgusted by what he found. A single devil, holding in each hand a metal chain attached to the necks of two women, both in different positions of clear violation.
One was a much younger girl laid atop of a young woman with their limbs bound together by additional links of chain, the male grinning perversely as he harshly yanked on the leashes, both females gagging and wheezing for air as he alternated penetrating them with wild and brutal thrusts. And the cherry on top of the messed up cake was the pair of children locked behind bars, one clearly a kitsune boy covered in bruises and strung up by his wrists, naked as the day he was born while the other was largely concealed by Harris' poor angle but had long silver hair, just as nude and in a similar position of restraint.
"Well, at least killing these assholes is going to leave me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. But before I go and waste this guy I still need to figure out a way to take care of the rest."
Pushing down his distaste at having to leave the prisoners to their fates for a little while longer Harris quickly resumed his search, scanning high and low for a solution of some kind-
-and would have grinned were he back in his human form upon his latest discovery in what seemed to be a storage room, a bunch of crystals similar to the ones he saw socketed in the flameless torches that lined the interior of the outpost...the ones that emanated a fair amount of heat and energy if one stuck their hand close enough.
Focusing as he shifted back into his original form the young male slowly shifted his hand into something that resembled a tortoise shell if turtles were spiky and demonic little hellbeasts, complete with retractable bits of shell that could secure the fleshy insides if need be.
"Alright, let's see if we can engineer our own little slice of IED, shall we?"
Stuffing the shifted shell full of as many crystals as possible that he activated with a pulse of his almost non-existent magic Harris shut the container and made a beeline for the barracks, feeling the material in his hands steadily heat to almost agonizing levels with a crazed grin.
Launching the shimmering shell like a bowling ball into the room full of devils they had maybe a second to look at the strange device, wondering what the point of it was or where it had come from...and an ear-splitting CRACK launched white-hot fragments of superheated shell in every possible direction, agonized screams leaving the few devils that weren't immediately shredded by the assault as Harris grinned, shifting into a flying beetle with razor mandibles that honed in on the groaning and lacerated survivors, slitting throats and savaging eyes as within just a few seconds eight devils were well and dead.
"And now we wait…"
Shifting into the same serpent that he'd killed the first devil with Harris took up position right above the entrance to the now smoking and ravaged barracks, hurried footsteps approaching within a few short seconds as the devil who'd been having his fun in the prison came to a screeching halt, gaping at the destruction that had occurred-
-and without so much as a whisper of noise Harris jammed his fangs directly into the devil's neck, pumping paralyzing venom into his victim's bloodstream as with nary a shout of protest the man collapsed to the floor, the only movement to be found that of slow and instinctive breaths.
"And that makes ten. Mission accomplished, me."
Once again back into his human form Harris began to drag the stunned devil behind him, scowling at the relative weakness of his now tiny body.
"Dammit, this better not take too long…"
"You two okay?"
Both the Kitsune boy and newly revealed Vampire boy gazed at Harris with clear wariness and confusion, the trio of human women gazing hatefully at the bruised and beaten devil that was still largely under the effects of the paralytic agent, weakly stirring from where he was heavily locked up in chains.
"...None of you understand me, do you? Crap, didn't think about that...hey, asshole, wake up already."
Smacking the restrained devil across the back of his head Harris asked, "You have universal translation, right? Gonna need you to universally translate for me, not all of us have bullshit abilities like that."
Weakly stirring the devil's words were slurred and slow from the remnants of the venom, expression filled with contempt.
"You...have no idea who you're fucking with...Lord Beelzebub will-GUH?!"
Harris sharply yanked on one of the chains wound around the man's body, links of metal harshly digging into the soft genitals of the devil and no doubt causing quite the bit of agony.
"That isn't what I asked, now is it?"
Wheezing in pain the devil merely responded with a nod of submission, Harris stating, "Tell them to hold on for a moment, I need to retrieve a few things of theirs and we can talk then. Clear?"
Relaying the words the young boy noted with satisfaction that the five former captives settled for warily watching him as he went rooting through a few locked chests and cabinets he'd seen earlier, retrieving their clothes and other effects before doling them out.
Some of the tension dissipated, the women eagerly garbing themselves and throwing aside the simple blankets he'd given them while the two boys shyly changed within their provided cloaks, Harris turning back to the devil and stating, "Alright, next on the list of things you're going to do for me if you want to live is-"
"S-sumimasen?"
Turning to face the yokai boy who'd suddenly spoken up the tanned male raised an eyebrow, two fox tails hesitantly swaying behind the other boy as he said something else that Harris didn't catch, turning to the devil who quickly translated, "He says he has a way to allow you to understand them without, um...me."
"Uh oh. That doesn't speak well for your longevity, now does it?"
Allowing the man to stew in his steadily growing nervousness Harris gave the fox-eared boy a curious look, the youth hesitantly holding out a talisman and pointed quill pen, no doubt some kind of esoterism ritual that would cut out the middle man.
"Eh, what the hell. Sure thing, kid. Go for it."
Nodding to the youth he held out a hand, the kitsune hesitantly drawing a bit of blood that Harris encouraged with a relaxed wave of his free limb, quickly scribbling some figures on a slip of paper before gesturing for Harris to turn around, the parchment affixed to the base of his neck and with a muttered phrase that he would hopefully soon understand ice seemed to pour into his veins, the boy shaking his head as if to knock loose an irritating fly as he turned to stare at the kitsune, remarking, "Wow, that felt weird."
"C-can you understand me, stranger?"
Cocking his head at the youkai's unfairly cute and adorable voice Harris responded, "Sure can. Nice job there, now we don't have to rely on this tool to translate for us."
Kicking the devil in the side and ignoring the man's growing disquiet the oldest of the three women muttered, "It was bold of you to trust an animal spirit so callously...they are not to be relied upon so callously."
Cocking his head at her the boy eventually settled for a shrug, deciding to put the matter on hold for the moment since he had something rather important to get underway...namely celebrating his arrival into this world and the first of his rewards.
"Call it a gut feeling then. Now!"
Clapping his hands and getting the six's attention Harris announced, "I'll be in the outpost's meeting room if you need me, there's some stuff I have to take care of. He's all yours and we can do introductions a bit later."
Gaining a vicious smirk at the unsure and nervous captive Harris knelt next to him, whispering, "Interesting little fact, my friend...if I think I'm in the right time period and those women are who I think they are then you're in deep trouble. You see, I'm pretty sure they're Native American and some tribes had interesting practices."
His voice gained a malicious tinge.
"The men had to hold onto warrior pride and standards of warrior-like conduct and other self-justifying bullshit, so they couldn't take out their frustrations or grievances on captives they took...but the women? Oh they had free game."
He smirked at the devil's steadily growing fear.
"Think about what you did to them...and what they're going to do to you in turn."
Offering a friendly pat on the pale-faced man's back he rose to his feet, stating, "Give me fifteen minutes and feel free to find me then. Or take your time with this bastard, no skin off my nose."
"You have strange phrases, little shapeshifter...but we will be taking skin off of far more than his nose."
Shaking his head in amusement Harris left without a backwards glance, both the Kitsune and Vampire boy appearing slightly unsure of what was about to happen but clearly having suffered their fair share of torment at the former denizens of the outpost...they were curious, to say the least.
[Well done…'Local' conditions have been completed. Please manifest the first soul you desire to be yours and yours alone, as well as a fraction of my strength.]
Harris smirked, the disembodied and utterly neutral voice coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once as a strange warmth grew in the center of his chest, spreading outwards and filling him with newfound strength and power...which thankfully included his physical body, no longer the scrawny and tiny form of a pre-teen but something vaguely close to how he'd looked when he was eighteen. If he'd been a super fit and insanely olympian individual at eighteen which he certainly hadn't but hey, he wasn't about to complain about that.
"But this is just the foreplay...now we get to the real meat of the matter."
Doing as his sponsor suggested Harris reached out to the formless and awaiting sphere of energy visible to him and only him, a pure and unmarred bit of soul that was waiting for his will to mold and shape it into the individual it would become, an individual beholden to his wishes and desires and would grow in strength as much as he would.
He smiled, knowing just who and what he was going to select as his first - quite literal - soulmate.
He enforced his will upon the raw soul material-
-and with a soft shimmer of visible light and power the sphere grew into the outline of a human being, definition gradually appearing as more pronounced features came into view.
Bright white hair that fell in wild strands to the woman's knees, frosted with brilliant pink in spots while vivid eyes of red-purple locked on Harris' own sharp blue. A white and ornate dress adorned with streamers of rainbow fabric that brought to mind a fairy's wings, midnight boots adorned with gold lining traveling past her thigh while a regal and flawless staff occupied her right hand.
All in all the woman was an example of exotic feminine beauty, the whole breathtaking image completed by her pointed ears and coquettish smile.
"I have come as you desired, master Harris...Merlin is here at your disposal~!"
She dipped her waist forward, one eye winking flirtatiously.
"Or would you prefer to call me big sister?"
The young man merely stared, having trouble believing that the impossibility of what had just occurred did exactly that...occurred.
I ask of you only one thing...one labor, one quest. One journey in which you shall be provided two gifts, one arbitrary and one of your own design. That quest? Be all that you can be, and show me the tenacity of a mere mortal.
Well, time to sit down and hold court I suppose.
The original Hedonism at it's Finest (HaiF) was a self-admitted wank fest of a story (it was in the title, lol) that was fun to sit down and just write about for awhile. Unfortunately my creative direction for it basically amounted to 'think of canon event or characters, kick over canon event and be goofy with it'. And while I had a few ideas for the potential endgame (Three goddesses broke the rules by sending him to that world, leads to interdimensional warfare) they were pretty far off and more thought experiments rather than any kind of planned storyline.
But so many people enjoyed it and asked me to continue it in some fashion that I felt that I should get back to doing so...except I didn't really have the narrative drive to take up the old one, so why not start anew, with a story framework that lends itself to all sorts of crazy shenanigans?
This one is going to be taking place during the great war and instead of canon's sandcastle being kicked it's going to world history that's getting the proverbial swirly, with a fair few minor crossover elements, as everyone no doubt read towards the end.
Oh, and lots of shameless pandering!