"Let's see how tough you are now, bitch!"



     Grospos, Lord of the Seventh Layer of the Eighth Plane of the Third Ring of Hell, chuckled evilly as

he loomed over his naked female prey, who lay naked in rough rusty chains, bound to the table of rock at

his feet. He reached down and grabbed the chain connecting her neck manacle to the feet manacles, and

hoisted her up by it, his thickly corded muscles rippling underneath his hairy scales. He smiled at her

squirming in pain as the rough metal chafed her soft skin.

     "Oh, you put up a fight.... but it was never in question that I was going to win, was it my sweet

morsel? he sneered as he swung her slowly back and forth. Suddenly he gave the chain a snap, bouncing

her head off of the hard stone. "THAT was for the trouble you put me through. " She whimpered and

writhed in his grasp, disoriented but still putting up a weak struggle. Grospos shifted his grip, and brought

her face up close to his, his putrid breath oozing over her face like the stench of a thousand

slaughterhouses in desperate need of a cleaning and disinfecting. His gruesome maw split in a wide grin,

his eight layers of teeth filled with cracks and hunks of rotting flesh, on which maggots fed. And the

smattering of insectoid eyes scattered seemingly randomly on the top half of his 'face' gleamed with unholy

delight.

     "Now listen closely, my delicious mouthful... you are MINE now. "he whispered in a voice like a

hundred flies losing their wings to the whimsy of a five-year-old. "I own your body, every last drop of

delicious fluids, every last inch of flesh, every precious guarded soft corner and opening, is MINE! I own

your mind, every thought, every hope, every dream, every *nightmare* is mine to use, abuse, and discard.

And I own your soul, in a deep and lasting way that makes your human marriages look like moments of

indecision. "

     He snapped his arm out to its full extension then brought it back, putting her face directly in front of

his mouth, and yelled as loud as a demon can yell, "IF YOU BREATHE ANOTHER BREATH, IT IS

BECAUSE YOU ARE STILL OF USE TO ME! IF YOU FEEL ANY PLEASURE EVER AGAIN, IT IS

BECAUSE YOU HAVE PLEASED ME! AND IF YOU SUFFER, IT WILL BE BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOT

PLEASED ME... OR IT WILL BE *TO* PLEASE ME! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

     She shook in her chains and managed a weak nod. He decided to be generous and help her nod

by grabbing the back of her head and nodding it for her. He chuckled to himself and dropped her back onto

the table with a heavy clank and a groan.

     Grospos went over to the rack on the wall next to the table and selected a heavy leather whip, with

long shiny silver hooks embedded in it which glowed red with magical heat. He turned and gave the whip a

mighty crack an inch from the woman's ear, and she recoiled in shock, then began muttering "No... no...

no.. "

     "It's too late for that now, my pretty.... let the torment... BEGIN!" he growled, and raised the whip

high over his head.

     "Not so fast, Demon! " said a masculine voice from behind them, and the form on the table cried

"Yes!". Grospos turned, whip in hand, to face the source of the voice and the delight of his captive. He saw

a knight, clad in shimmering white armor, and brandishing a glowing broadsword in one hand and a

gleaming golden shield in the other. Seeing this,  the ten-foot demon dropped his whip and murmured

"Damn!".

     "Your days of preying on the innocent are over, hellspawn! Prepare to face the righteous anger of

Pristan of Gnoth!" cried the knight, and swung his broadsword in a vicious swing for the demon's jugular.

     Grospos swung one mighty hand and batted the sword out of the knight's hand, sending it clattering

over the stone floor and breaking every bone in the knight's arm. The knight groaned in pain, and just barely

managed to pivot so that his shield could be utterly ineffectual in stopping the demon's next mighty blow,

which cracked the shield into eight jagged shards and smashed into his ribcage, doing the same to it

despite the armor and sending the knight sprawling into the floor. He sauntered over to the groaning,

twitching form bleeding profusely onto the stone, and picked the knight up by the helmet, holding the man's

entire metal-encased head in one enormous fist. "Pathetic." commented the demon before closing his fist,

crushing the head like a can of beets in a vice, and dropping the limp body to the floor.

     Grospos walked casually over to the female human who now quivered in her chains in her grave

disappointment, and placed a still-bloody hand gently on her soft breasts, leaving a bloody hand-print. "Now

where were we, my dear, before we were so rudely interrupted?" he asked in his most

civilized tone. "Ah yes! " he said and bent down to pick up his discarded whip. He dusted it off and bent it

double to test its suppleness, then turned back to his prey.

     "Now, my beautiful bit of flesh, you know that nothing can save you. Your beloved Pristan is dead

and with him, your very last hope. Tell me, my proud pretty princess, what do you say to that?"

     The beautiful woman looked at the demon, and said "Excorsi Banthanos nosa grue frem!"

Immediately, the was a flash like a light bulb burning out and the demon was surrounded by pink smoke.

When the smoke cleared, he was half his previous size and a good deal skinnier.

The demon cowered, and said in a weak nasal voice, "Is there something wrong, my mistress?"

     The woman sat up and removed the manacles from her body, snapping the steel between her

fingers like snapping a pencil in two. "Something gone wrong? Name one thing that went right!" she barked.

     The demon shrank back from her, and said "I thought the beginning went rather well, my

mistress.... "

     The woman sat on the edge of the table and thought about that. "Hmmm. I suppose you are right

about that.. you were pretty good on the opening monologue. But then you picked up the whip! You weren't

supposed to TOUCH that whip until AFTER the fight with Pristan! I even tried to warn you, but would you

listen? Of course not!"

     The demon stared at the floor. "I know, my mistress."

     "And speaking of the fight with Pristan, you pool of spit and vomit, do you think you could have

made it a LITTLE less one-sided? It was over before it started! Where's the excitement in that?" she ranted.

     The demon toed the floor, his long claw leaving a neat groove in the stone surface. "I know, my

mistress.. I ... I panicked."

     "And THEN you come back and pick up the whip, then jump to a totally different part of the script...

honestly, I don't know why I keep you around, you lame-brained git! " yelled the beautiful woman, her face

contorted in rage.

     The demon fell to his knees and started kissing the woman's feet and legs. "Oh please, please

don't get rid of me, mistress Muriel! I promise I can do better! I'll get it all right next time, wait and see! I

won't miss ANYTHING! Just don't send me back to the Second Plane!"

     Muriel glared down at the demon, lips pursed, then relented. "Oh, very well. One more try. Go tell

Heddij we'll need another Pristan."

     The demon smiled and got to his feet. "Right away, my mistress!" and ran off to do her bidding.

Muriel called after him "And don't forget to take another dose of the potion before coming back, idiot!". She

crossed the room to the crumpled body still oozing blood and muttered an incantation. Immediately, the

body dissolved into a multicolored ooze which quickly drained away through a crack in floor. She then

returned to the table and, after a quick spell of restoration, began chaining herself up again. Just as she

had locked the last manacle and laid back on the table, Grospos came back into the room, once more ten

feet tall and heavily muscled. She quickly assumed a look of utter horror and despair and lay quivering

on the table. Grospos crossed the room and loomed over her.

     "Let's see how tough you are now, bitch!"