LADY DEATH

Hope was sipping cheap red wine from a goblet made from a human skull. Hier gaze was turned down to the table on which a map depicted something looking like a battlefield lay. Hope stared at her intently, almost obsessively, as if she wanted some secrets to be revealed by it.

"Nervous for tomorrow?" a male voice said, startling her. Evidently she must had been there in that position for quite a while.

"Emmetovich, sorry I forgot to come by. I was very busy here"

"Stop puzzling, you know how battles go. You can plan every little detail, but unexpected always comes up and shuffles the cards."

"Yes, you're right. Maybe I'm exaggerating," the woman admitted.

"I'm sure your strategy will prove successful, you are by far the best warlord of the whole Hell. Lucifer's tyranny is running out. And in its place will be born the kingdom of the infamous Lady Death."

Hope smiled. "Stop it,"s he said affectionately, "you know I hate that name."

"You chose it," Emmetovich replied with a chuckle. "Listen, I'm going to sleep. See you in the morning." So saying he headed for the door.

"Wait up!" Hope exclaimed. "There may be no more opportunities," she said, pointing with her index finger at the bed on her right. Emmetovich could not refuse the proposal of the woman he had secretly loved for years. Love, moreover, was not a welcome feeling there in Hell.

Maybe the shadow of oblivion has wondrous powers or whatever, but it was the best sex of their life, including the dead "life" in the Hell.

Once Hope was asleep Emmetovich left the bed. He wanted to go for a walk. Hope was obviously having a somewhat eventful dream judging by the way she fidgeted. Although it was very cold she was almost completely uncovered allowing the icy air to caress her nice firm ass and her long white skinned legs that ended in beautiful and tapered feet with red nail polish.

 

 

 In the meantime Emmetovich, unusually restless, had already walked the perimeter of the camp six or seven times and did so again and again, until he realized that it was daylight. Having a sleepless night wasn't a great way to prepare for such a decisive battle, he thought.

Hope had been the first to get up. Not that she had slept much either. She finished drinking the wine she had started the night before. When she put down the chalice she noticed the disaster: her sword had disappeared from her tent. Hope was shocked. Unfortunately, it was not a simple sword, but a weapon with miraculous magical powers given to her by Lucifer himself many years earlier. She knew there had to be his hand. Yet she blamed herself, she should have looked after that very important sword with much more care. Hope was shaking with anger, but a decision had to be made quickly. Had maybe the battle to be postponed? Eventually she confirmed the plans. Despite this, she wanted to see clearly. She questioned all the soldiers, but no one had noticed anything strange that night.

 

 

The sky was covered as always by gray and threatening clouds. Hope scanned the horizon. Her main asset had dissolved and hier optimism was beginning to waver. She had little time to mull over: the enemy front had reached the south side of the valley. At its sight there were the first deserters: Lucifer's soldiers were at least five times more numerous.

  "You know it will be a massacre, right?" Emmetovich told her.

"Do you think they will accept it?" Hope asked him.

"Those who remained… of course".

"And you?"

"I will always be on your side, you know that."

“Tonight was great, anyway. Why did you leave? "

"Such as? I don't… ”Emmetovich was confused, then he understood. “I was nervous, I wanted to take a walk and stretch my legs”.

"I see. Come on, it’s the moment” the woman exclaimed energetically.

She gathered the soldiers and gave the last speech.

“You know what to do, right? I know that I ask you a lot, and don't hang about, unfortunately many of you will die today. But I promise you that your sacrifice will not be in vain ”. Then she called Simion and Pauls. “Remember, it is essential that you and your troops have my back. It is vitally important that I get to Lucifer's palace so I can kill him. He will be there, I'm sure. He has become too lazy to fight firsthand on the battlefield ”. Hope's charisma gave her soldiers new confidence.

Hope then mounted her horse. Emmetovich approached her. "Tonight drunk together, promise me?". "Promise," Hope said with a smile.

"Attack!" Hope yelled.

The battle was very hard. The soldiers fought valiantly. Hope cleverly pushed her way through with powerful and precise sword swipes. Behind her the blood of her men flowed copiously, but the blood of her enemies flowed even more copiously. Thanks to Emmetovich's leadership, the entire right wing of Lucifer's army was annihilated. Simion and Pauls were also doing their duty. Hope was a few dozen meters away from reaching Lucifer's castle, whose soldiers fell one behind the other. Incredibly, the rebel army, despite its numerical inferiority, seemed close to a landslide victory. But suddenly the plate overturned. A furious barrage of arrows from east and west struck Hope's men. Reinforcements had arrived, and in great numbers. Too many. The battle was practically lost, but Hope could still win the war. She was now at the castle gates when a hundred of Lucifer's men appeared out of nowhere. "Hope, we'll take care of it!" Simion yelled behind her "just think about galloping, you're almost there now".

 

 

Hope felt a pang in her heart, she knew they would die. She was able to transform the guilt into new energy. She cut off the head of the last of the guards, despite the fact that a few moments earlier she had been thrown from her horse. She was inside.

 

 

    The interior of the castle was strangely unguarded. Hope ran to Lucifer's throne room, she knew he was waiting for her there.

 "Good morning, daughter," said an imposing figure.

 

 

 "I don't have a father," Hope replied scornfully. Lucifer smiled. He was a being of enormous size. It had red skin, a pair of stout horns on its head and goat's hooves for feet. "I'm sorry, but parents can't be chosen," Lucifer said maliciously.

 

  "Shut up!" Hope with a feline leap attacked the enemy and hit him with the sword at the neck. This broke into a thousand pieces. Lucifer broke into a loud laugh. “What happens to your formidable sword that I gave you? Maybe you have lost it? You're lucky, Pagan has found it ". A short man dressed as a jester entered. He held Hope's sword in his hands.

“Hey there Lady Death, see you again! Can I give you a compliment? You are a tiger in bed”. Hope clenched her fists. “You damn! What the hell are you talking about ?! " Pagan changed form: he assumed that of Emmetovich. Then it returned to its original form. "It seems to me that you liked it too, didn't you?" Hope had been tricked. "I'll kill you, you filthy son of a bitch!" Hope lunged at him but Lucifer punched her throwing her against the wall. 

Hope was exhausted because the long battle, so Lucifer took advantage of that. He held her by the cloak and lifted her off the ground.

 

 

 The cloak began to tighten around her neck. She lacked air.

“I have to admit, child, you had victory in your hand. You became invincible in possession of that sword. But you made two unforgivable mistakes. The first is to have left the sword unattended. The second is to have persevered with the old plan, albeit without the latter. Honestly, it disappointed me, I made you more witty”.

"Ghhh!" Hope was finding it harder and harder to breathe. “You have sentenced your followers to certain death for nothing,” Lucifer continued, “what a bad leader. And to think that I had designated you as my heir”. 

Hope could no longer even understand her father's words. Her vision was blurred and her mind confused. She lost consciousness.

 

*

 

"You had a good sleep ..." Lucifer said scornfully. Hope was still groggy. She was chained hands and feet, suspended a few meters above the ground in the center of the main hall of the castle.

"Those are the Blessed Chains," Lucifer continued, meanwhile Hope pretended not to listen to him. "Before hell was invented, it was with these that the wicked were punished. They have now fallen into disuse, but sometimes it's fun to reuse them. I'll show you how they work”. Lucifer whispered something, and immediately the chains lit a purple light as lightning flashed through them.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!" Hope began to scream in pain. 

"You must know that the intensity and duration of the torture are proportional to the extent of the sins of the judged. I honestly don't think chains will be kind to the terrible Lady Death” Lucifer explained.

An hour passed. Hope continued to scream in excruciating pain, yet Lucifer looked disappointed. Pagan instead watched the scene amused and did not understand his boss's disappointment. But not long after he had to change his mind: the chains began to express themselves at full capacity. It seemed impossible to him, yet the energy produced by the chains multiplied. Hope's screams became more deafening and heartbreaking than ever. Lucifer finally seemed satisfied. The chains must have been rusted, it took a while to work at full capacity, Lucifer thought. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!" Hope even wept as her robes pulverized leaving her completely naked.

The torture had been going on for more than nine hours now. "I've never seen anyone tortured by the Blessed Chains with such ferocity and for so long," Lucifer said with undisguised satisfaction, hoping his daughter could hear him. But why was the champion of justice being tortured in that way? Well, there was actually a time when Hope was far from virtuous ideals. A time when she called herself Lady Death and was an ally of Lucifer. 

During the wars of independence (wars generated by Heaven's attempt to take control of Hell) she was stained with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the deaths of angels. In addition to free torture. Even in times of "peace" her conduct was no better: bullying, violence, threats, thirst for power were her daily bread. It had taken hundreds of years for Lady Death to become Hope. Well, to be Hope again. The chains could not gloss over all that evil.

*

Emmetovich was sitting in front of a plate of putrid food. He couldn't eat, and not because of the poor quality of dinner, which he was used to. He was worried about Hope. He had bad feelings. The battle had been a disaster: he was one of the few survivors. And he knew that Hope without her trusty sword had little hope of defeating Lucifer. The more time passed the more the chances that the woman had had a bad end increased.

With great effort he had finished his plate when in the distance he saw An unsteady figure. His heart filled with happiness when he recognized his beloved. Unexpectedly, Lucifer had decided to spare her. Emmetovich quickly realized that Hope had no desire to talk about what had happened. So he took the bottle of wine and poured it into two glasses.

"As promised," Emmetovich said.

"As promised," Hope replied.

 

Who would you like to see in peril the next time? Write it in the comments!

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