Chapter 21: The Throne of Black Thorns
The air inside the subterranean volcanic cavern of Ignis Vraal was thick with the stench of sulfur, ozone, and burning flesh.
It was a hollowed out hellscape where the rivers of magma bled a sickly crimson light across the jagged obsidian walls.
At the center of this nightmare sat General Kajkha.
She rested upon a monolithic throne of black thorns, the barbed iron like structures piercing her own thick, callous hide without drawing blood.
In her clawed hands, she held the freshly severed torso of a human child.
Blood, dark and viscous, dripped down her chin as she tore away a strip of flesh, chewing with a rhythmic, sickening crunch.
To her left, a massive iron spit turned over an open vein of magma.
Skewered upon it were three human children, their skin blistering and blackening in the ambient heat.
"Mom"
"Dad"
"Help me"
"I want to go home"
one of the boys shrieked, his voice cracking into a high pitched, desperate wail before the rising heat choked the air from his lungs.
His screams dissolved into a bubbling, agonizing rasp.
The surrounding demons did not look away.
instead, they erupted into a chorus of guttural, mocking laughter that echoed off the cavern walls like cracking thunder.
"Pathetic creatures,"
one of the lesser fiends sneered, wiping a mixture of grease and ash from its snout.
"Yesterday,"
"I caught a little human girl in the outer fringes"
"I played with her until her limbs gave out"
"It made me truly satisfied"
"Tonight"
"I think I’ll venture back to the surface"
"capture another and break her just the same"
Another demon, a towering brute with asymmetric horns, bared its yellowed fangs in a grotesque grin.
"Wow"
"Then I will accompany you"
"We shall raid the border villages together"
"and see whose plaything screams louder before the break of dawn"
"Agreed,"
the first replied, throwing a gnawed femur into the shadows.
Deep within the cavern, the depravity of the demon horde knew no bounds.
In the darker alcoves, savage fiends tore into living children, devouring them raw while the victims were still conscious enough to witness their own consumption.
Further down the rocky slopes, a group of juvenile demons kicked a severed human head back and forth across the ash, using the skull as a macabre ball in a game of sadistic sport.
Piles of discarded torsos, limbs, and viscera littered the floor, picked clean by the smaller scavengers of the abyss.
Near the edge of a precipice, a particularly cruel torment was unfolding.
A massive, four armed demon had bound a young human girl by her wrists and ankles with coarse, thorn braided ropes.
He slung the center of the rope over a jagged stalactite, leaving her suspended over a shallow drop.
The beast turned to three of his kin, gesturing with a sickening smirk.
"Pull"
The three demons grabbed the loose ends of the ropes and hauled backward with brutal force.
The girl’s joints popped and stretched violently against the sockets.
A piercing scream of sheer agony ripped through the cavern as her body was tautly suspended in mid-air.
The sight of her torment only fueled the demons amusement.
Their booming, sadistic laughter drowned out her cries, treating her agony as nothing more than a tavern performance.
Suddenly, the heavy atmosphere shifted.
The heavy, metallic thud of armored boots approached the throne room.
The lesser fiends parted, their laughter dying down into tense murmurs as Varkul, the Demon Minister, strode forward.
His face was a mask of grim urgency, his dark robes singed at the hem from the ambient magma.
He stopped before the throne of thorns and bowed his head, though his voice carried clearly over the bubbling lava.
"General Kajkha,"
Varkul announced, his voice tight.
"The cattle have realized their losses"
"The humans have discovered that we are the ones responsible"
"for kidnapping their children from the borderlands"
"In their desperation"
"all five human kingdoms have set aside their squabbles"
"and formed a grand alliance"
"They have gathered their armies hundreds of thousands of soldiers"
"and are marching toward our domains to wage a war of extermination against us"
Silence fell over the immediate chamber, save for the crackle of the flames.
General Kajkha stared at the minister for several second.
Then, with an expression of supreme boredom, she tossed the remaining half eaten child into the churning lake of lava below.
The body vanished beneath the molten rock with a brief, violent hiss.
She stood up from her throne of thorns, her towering stature casting a long, monstrous shadow over her subordinates.
She looked out across the vast cavern, her voice booming with an oppressive weight that demanded absolute submission.
"Listen to me"
"All demons of the deep"
"Kajkha roared"
"The weaklings of the surface have finally opened their eyes"
"They know we have been taking their young"
"They think that by gathering their pathetic forces and uniting their fragile kingdoms"
"they can challenge the supremacy of the abyss"
She paused, a dark, arrogant smile spreading across her horrific features.
"But they are fools"
"They do not comprehend the vast chasm between our strength and theirs"
"They are prey"
"we are the predators"
"They have brought their armies to our doorstep"
"saving us the trouble of hunting them in their hiding places"
Kajkha drew a massive, jagged greatsword from the stone beside her throne, pointing it toward the cavern ceiling.
"All soldiers of the horde"
"take up your weapons"
"We will march to the surface"
crush their pathetic alliance, and slaughter every human who dares stand against us.
We will hunt them until their kingdoms crumble, and we shall rule over the ashes of their world forever.
She raised her blade higher, her voice vibrating with demonic malice.
"For the sake of the Demon Horde"
The cavern erupted.
Thousands of weapons clashed against shields, and a unified, deafening roar tore from the throats of the demon army, shaking the very foundations of the earth.
"Yhhhhhhhhhhhh!"