------ Ceria's Estate, Hell ------
Even just the fairgrounds were enormous, let alone the entire courtyard devoted to games and tournaments that didn't involve the need for lots of room or much danger. Ceria's estate had been transformed into a carnival in the course of a day, coming up from a shamble of hodgepodge stages and tents and narrow pathways to elaborate round stages with pulleys and curtains and sectioned, tiered platforms.
Worn earth tracks dotted the festival grounds in a wide area, where races were held, teams fought over king-of-the-hill matches, and physical games of strength and teamwork were played. Bets were places on all manner of game and unofficial tournament, bringing to life a flourishing economy inside the estate itself.
Tents that had been put up at random were now rowed and some lined with fences to make sure they were kept in good order. Banners and streamers of every color and size had sprung up. Poles dozens of feet high stood proudly over it all, some used as perches for gargoyle-like demons who surveyed the scene below with interest. Pathways had been worn into the earth through the grounds, so high was the traffic through the place.
In the middle of it all, Tom sat watching a stage with Adze, uncomfortable and unnerved by what he was watching. Earlier, he had seen a man bordering being tortured by a succubus in a spiderweb of chains, blindfolded and gagged. Compared to the poor soul on the wheel currently planted on the stage, it seemed as if even
that
would be a nice fate to endure.
Apparently, amongst the hustle and bustle of the festival, there were smaller areas where simple stages elevated about a foot off the ground had been erected and a curtain drawn behind the areas of focus in the middle to separate the two halves of each stage. Here, lessons on everything under the sun were being offered to those who wished to sit a while and listen. One earlier had been on swordplay, another about properly binding prisoners or lovers if such a thing was sought by a pair of partners.
This one, however, was on the proper use of torture to extract information. An incubus's personal slave had been drawn from the audience and asked several questions, to which he had been instructed to remain silent to or lie. At first, he'd lied, and received a slap to the face. The demon teaching the lesson switched gears for a moment to explain ways to tell if a slave, a mere human, was lying, something Adze paid very close attention to.
After that, the lesson basically devolved into the demon repeatedly asking questions, giving commentary on what he was doing both physically and psychologically to the slave, carving the man up with a set of blades and wires and other tools that ripped out fingernails and clipped skin back so he could reach inside the human to tug at ropey intestines and tendons and muscles.
It almost made Tom throw up, but he kept it down long enough for the poor slave to expire at last after his throat was slit and his guts spilled out of his body while he hung upside-down on what looked like a chin-up bar with two gears on the sides to spin it. When he was done, the demon took a bow and an applause followed him off the side of the stage to rejoin the crowd.
The demon who apparently maintained control of the stage's events cleared and cleaned the stage with several others and then addressed the crowd with his tail swishing behind him mischievously.
"A fine main course for the mind, was it not? But, now, shall we remove ourselves from the unclean business of pain and spectacle of torture? To more...pleasurable, and in no way less sensual, displays?"
"The male orgasm!" Adze shouted before any other suggestions could be offered up.
A number of heads turned to her, and even the demon commanding the stage twisted his horned head toward her.
"And what, pray tell, would we see new about something we see and experience almost daily?"
Tom yanked Adze's leash and pulled her head so that he spoke directly into her silver ear. "Shut
up
, Adze, or I'll use this helmet to snap your jaw like a fucking twig.
She pulled back and managed to sit upright again. "I can show you how to manipulate an unwilling partner for one." Interest didn't seem that high, so she continued. "
Without
raping him."
Suddenly, intrigue bloomed throughout the crowd and the demon on the stage nodded in acceptance. "As it has been suggested, so shall we receive a lesson on manipulating an unwilling partner. However, I do believe it would be prudent to change your partner before beginning. The human you've got with you seems more than willing to comply with any favor you ask of him." That was met with a chorus of laughter and several jokes aimed at the weakness of Tom's will to a succubus, even one so brightly clad in a mask of silver and shame.
Adze stood up and grabbed her leash with one hand. "Come, human. I'll finally show you what it means to have teased a succubus."
"I don't think so," Tom replied, "Not w-"
Adze tugged so hard on the chain that Tom stumbled into her. She wrapped one arm around his shoulders and the other around his waist. He fought her to get free, but she just scoffed at his efforts and made her way up to the stage blindly, relying on the crowd to part before her to avoid tripping over anyone.
When they neared the stage, Tom stuck his feet out and kicked off of it, sending Adze back a few steps and off balance. Tom swung his legs back between the succubus's and tried to trip her, but she just planted her feet and waited his efforts out with a solemn look on her face.
Eventually, she got Tom on the stage and mounted it as well, keeping the agent's hands under the control of her own.
"Lusotan isn't here to save you now," she whispered to him smugly. "You're all mine now. Every little piece of your soul belongs to me."
"Go fuck yourself," Tom growled, planting his foot firmly between the succubus's legs.
