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Dark Descent, Part Two
By PainAngel
Many stories were
told about the demon called Ursula.
Some said she had
been created intentionally by God to give something for his soldiers to fight
against. Some said she was God’s equal. His direct opposite.
These stories were the ones told by demons; demons that did not know the whole
truth.
The real story of
Ursula was known only to God, Satan (as well as their inner circle) and Ursula
herself. The Christian doctrine teaches that Satan became the evil overlord when
he, on his own accord, betrayed God and instigated a rebellion that gave birth
to the conflict between Heaven and Hell. But the truth is that before Satan
thought of rebellion, there was Ursula. She, like Satan, had started as an
angel, and had lived in Heaven many years before the Genesis of Earth. Ursula,
not Satan, had been the one to desire power, and many years before she
encountered Satan she had planned her supremacy. She was a creature of pure
evil, and not once in the almost infinite time she had lived had she ever shown
a shred of compassion, pity or kindness.
When she had first
encountered Satan, she had seen potential in him. In a Machiavellian scheme
(despite occurring millions of years before Machiavelli’s birth) she secretly
influenced Satan into declaring war against God. When Satan was defeated,
Ursula abandoned him, claiming she had nothing to do with the rebellion. But
God, in his omnipotence, saw through her and sent her down to Hell with the
rest of the rebels.
Once Satan had
established his reign over the fiery domain, he had the problem of Ursula to
contend with. He knew she would never fall into line, nor could he share his
power with her as she would no doubt demand. She was more powerful than him,
far more. So as a compromise, he granted her the cave palace for her, on the
promise that she never make a move against Hell.
But, for Ursula,
the war and being banished were things of the past. The thing of the future was
Micah; the angel that she was now pulling down the stone steps of the cave by
his chains. She was smiling. It was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a
kind smile. She was taking great delight in his
distress; while he tried to appear strong and indifferent, she could see the
fear in his eyes. She loved fear.
The stone steps descending
from the cave mouth were harsh on Micah’s feet. The shackles made it difficult
for him to move but he could tell Ursula cared little. She continued to drag
him until they reached the bottom of the steps.
With a wave of
Ursula’s hand, the lights came on. Micah hardly expected this to make things
better, but he could not contend with the grim horror that faced him.
It was a palace,
huge and extravagant. The sheer size of the place made it look as somewhere
royalty would live, but no sane monarch would reside in the walls considering
how the palace was decorated. The walls were blood red. Paintings were hung
everywhere, but their content! Vile scenes of torture and
depravity. There were decorations, including such vicious centre pieces
as a woman skewered by a hundred swords and a skull with a crack in it. It was
the palace of a madman, or in this case, an evil succubus. Ursula laughed
cruelly as she observed Micah’s horror, cementing his despair by whispering “Welcome home” into his ear.
Ursula stood in
front of the trembling Micah. ”Now, angel.” She said,
in a harsh voice. “I’m going to demonstrate something to you. And it’s
crucially important that you take heed. Are you ready?”
Micah stared at
her with a look of pure contempt. He said nothing. The next thing he felt was a
strong backhand across his face that caused him to draw blood. He looked up, his
contemptuous gaze not changing.
Ursula’s eyes
flashed with anger. Quickly, and without exerting any strain whatsoever, she
lifted him by his neck, holding him a few feet aloft with only one arm. “This
was the first thing I need to demonstrate you so you do not have any confusion
about who is the superior. This is my domain, and I am infinitely stronger than
you. If I so wished, I could rip your arms, legs and head off without breaking
a sweat. Do you understand?” Micah glowered at her still, so she tightened her
grip on his neck. “Do you understand?” She
repeated, screaming it this time. Micah started to choke, his breath becoming short.
Fearfully, he managed to choke out a small yes.
She promptly released her grip, and he dropped a few feet before holding his
neck, struggling to breathe. This provoked a smirk from Ursula, who lazily gave
him a few seconds to recover. “Good.” She drawled. “Now that is out of the way,
here is the second thing I must demonstrate to you.”
She stood a few
feet away before waving her arm at him. The shackles on his arms and legs
unlocked themselves and dropped off. “If you try to attack me, I’ll rip off your
fingernails.” She said, as he found himself completely able to move. She
directed his attention to the huge set of double doors between the palace and
the stone steps out of the palace. “Now, I want you to try to escape. The doors
are open, try to make for the stairs.”
Suspiciously but
curiously, Micah turned on his heel and ran. He nearly made it to the double
doors when…they slammed shut. He tried to open them but it was no use. Ursula
appeared next to him. “Do you see? This whole palace, from the doors to the
blood fountains, is under my complete control. At the flick of my hand, I can
move any item of furniture anywhere in the place.”
She stared at him,
smirking slightly. “Soon enough, it’ll be the same for you. Except my control
over you won’t be telepathic.” She laughed before suddenly becoming serious. “Alright. Do you understand that I am infinitely stronger
than you?” Micah, utterly depressed, gave a nod. She slapped him, drawing more
blood. “Say it.” Micah let out a low whine before croaking out “I understand.”
She licked some of his blood from her finger. “Do you understand that I have
complete telepathic control over this palace, and that it can become an
unbreakable prison at a flick of my wrist?” Micah nodded with another “I
understand.”
She smiled, again
not a kind one, and continued. “Good, then we have that out of the way. Now, I
feel it is only fair that I explain why I brought you here.”
She gestured for
him to take a seat nearby, on a chair made of what felt suspiciously like the
hair of a tarantula. Or a thousand of them. He sat
down uncomfortably, waiting for her to begin. “I have brought you here because
you are to be my complete slave. You are a soldier, my kind’s equal, and I have
therefore given you the honour of being broken by me.” She paced slightly, a
sinister smirk on her face. “You will soon begin the process of having your
spirit broken. At the moment, you resist me; see me as the enemy and God as
your ruler. I do not know how long it will take, it could be five years or five
centuries, but at one point, your spirit will break. You will be completely
mine, and will worship me as your goddess. Anything that comes from me will be
like sweet nectar to you; be it urine, spit or other. The breaking will be a
bad time for you, as I will have to put you through a lot of pain and
suffering. But once it is over, you will be more than willing to accept your
place at my feet.”
For a few seconds,
Micah was silent, mulling this over in his mind. He suddenly looked incredibly
pale, panicking before calming himself mentally. It would be alright, he told
himself. If he committed suicide he would lose his wings but still return to
Heaven. It was different for humans, suicide was one of the worst sins they
could commit. As soon as her back was turned he would find a way to kill
himself.
While he was deep
in thought, Ursula appeared at his side. “You will not find suicide your best
option soon, angel.” Micah recoiled in panic. She could read his thoughts? This
made things a thousand times worse; she could tell when he was officially
broken. He stared at her. “It’s the only way I’ll return to my home.”
This was,
predictably, met with another hard smack. Ursula hissed at him as her hand drew
blood on his face again. “You do not seem to understand. This is your home now;
you will never again see Heaven.” Micah dabbed at the blood on his face. “You
can’t stop me.”
This promoted a
sinister laugh from Ursula that made Micah, on his chair made of tarantula
hair, shudder. “Tell me, angel,” she began, slowly, “what’s one sin that will
get an angel expelled from Heaven?”
Micah thought for
a second. There was betrayal, but that wasn’t the answer she was aiming for.
What could it be? Suddenly, he jolted. He knew what the sin was.
“No. You…you
can’t!” He yelped. The sin was intercourse.
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