Cogs of Infernus (Discontinued)

[Chernabog]

Darkness, the screams of the tormented, the damned, and cries of brutal savagery done unto them by his demonic children... how it had filled his ears in the hours of the day light. It had been mildly amusing to the demonic God in his times of inactivity. How the souls of those who had sinned, or had done other deeds to land them in his treacherous grasp, had suddenly begun to beg for forgiveness and mercy when faced by the Black God. He reveled in these soul's anguish and hopeless abandon upon facing him, and despite the whole monotony of the whole routine since they all acted the same way in the end.. he never grew tired of it. The simple image of their faces twisted in such horror from acknowledgment of their fate giving him a perverse, inexplicable sensation of bliss.

As he sat on a promontory that overlooked the deep depths of his mountain domain, his clawed hands rested on his thighs as one of his legs was draped over the side of the rocky precipice that overlooked a sea of eternal hellfire, while the other was bent up and tilted at a diagonal angle. Situated within the seas of flames were assorted chunks of land with the said condemned souls dispersed, writhing in agony of the evil flames as well as the unspeakable acts his minions were performing on them.

With his cohorts in the Fantasmic Kingdom being relatively quiet at the moment, and with his own plans not being formed into fruition, he had spent his days overlooking this very spot. But it was evident in his eyes that he could not become bored in the severe perverse mental bliss his mind was provided with what he watched, his yellow eyes burning coldly, and his lips curled in a smile of satisfaction.

[hornedking]

It was in the caverns where the terror of Prydain, the Horned King entered the subterranean domain of the Devil God. A figure who was merely clad in a blood red robe with a animal hide of some kind, brown in color draped over his shoulders and around his neck in a sort of crude form of a cape.

Although his face was covered by the shadows the hood of the robe gave him, his dual horns showed he was not something to be considered human.

At his feet limped a small imp creature, timid in the presence of his master and stopping a few inches behind him when the robed figure stopped to take a brief glance around himself. The architecture of the caverns were not something incredibly foreign to him, but the Horned King noted how different they were to the more cooler colored rock walls of the Grecian Underworld.

"You are certain this is the way that oracular pig showed, Creeper?" he asked of his short companion, the hood tilting down to look down at the imp.

"Uh, oh yes, yes Master!" was the nervous response from the lesser creature, the smaller normally closed eye opening widely as did his other larger eye, taking a few steps.. or like a few scrambled inches away from his previous position, instinctively bring his hand up to his own throat, "...Don't you remember, Master?! That swine's visions showed this place after the places we've traveled through to get out of Prydain!" he was desperate to not have his Master's hand gripped around his neck, scrambling through words with a second nature induced fidget.

"Indeed..." the Horned King replied, "Although... tell me.."

"Yes, Master?" Creeper twitched some, a nervous feeling over coming him as he had the feeling that his Master was going to--

In one swift motion the Horned King lowered his sickly yellow arm down toward the creature, gripping firmly at the imp's neck and lifting him up to face-level, "Tell me WHY you failed to take that pig along with us!"

]A red ethereal light shone on the imps face, presumedly from the hood his master wore. Creeper gagged and struggled for breath, "Ma-Master!" he choked out, "I-It was not my fault!!"

"It was within every boundary of reasoning YOUR fault!" Horned King's voice rasped hoarsely at the imp struggling in his grasp, "We already had learned the words needed to make that pig show us what we wished to know of due to the capture of that pig keeper boy Taran! We only needed the pig, not keeping the boy from escaping.. and yet you and the rest of those mindless grunts went after him anyway!"

The Horned King was irritated at his own minions incompetence, now he was left to square one in trying to find the Black Cauldron. How could his delicately laid plans have gone to ruin..? This thought lingered on his mind as they proceeded forth, stopping as he noticed the familiar form of the black devil perched on a singular precipice in the distance. The yellow burning gaze of the demon piqued his curiousity and he proceeded to head to the edge of the volcanic cliffs to see what had cause such mental pleasure that was readable in the God's expression.. his skeletal brows lowering in examination under the hood, his red eyed gaze turning toward the black skinned male's form and giving out a rasped sigh.

Things never changed, it seemed.

[chernabog]

There was a certain other figure down within the depths of the mountain's volcanic, infernal torture pits. This figure had been almost haphazardly placed within the depths for a few weeks at the very least, and at first his presence had lightly surprised the demon god when he first set his piercing yellow gaze on the wretched creature that stood down among the damned.

When he had first seen the creature known simply as "The Beast", he had appeared lost, confused and most notably disoriented. His disheveled appearance had portrayed his wanderings, fur dusted in soot and mud and giving a relative hint to the placed he had been to. His eyes had seemed to lose their light, as if his heart had been closed off and discarded... perhaps from the loss of someone. The creature had appeared desperate for answers when he found him, and while he held not the truth, he had supplied what would suffice as a replacement.

The enchantment that had been placed on this beast was whispered upon by the shadows of his castle, from which had circulated around parts of the world until it flowed into his own mountain home. Heart of selfish design, the utter disregard of another, and to further concrete his condition the then state of not a trace of what the humans called 'love' within his heart. A punishment fitting one such as him, but one that gave a few advantages. From the Beast's exposure to the other residents of the Fantasmic Kingdom, he had gained a few acquaintances, friends, as they would call each other and despite his questionable personality they had still accepted him. For what reason had even that girl accepted him all the same, and created a certain niche in the transformed man's heart, the demonic god would not understand such motives no matter how much he had observed it in the village resting at the foot of his mountain to even a global scale.

But whatever the concept, it would also create a general weakness and supply more than enough a way to use him as he would see fit. As the days rolled on, the Beast's aggression had become a defining characteristic and something that had made him something to put into consideration as his role of a pawn in some form.

Those metallic-clad fools Jackal & Hyena had failed to provide results, and he had not heard from Cruella in some time now. Seeing the Horned King enter the chamber had brought his attention to the cloaked figure who in a typical fashion, was strangling his lackey within an inch of his life.

Chernabog's glance turned completely to the pair, giving a heavy exhale and a narrowing of his eyes.

[hornedking]

"Look! Master! The God has captured one of those heroes!" Creeper blurted out as his eyes rolled to the side from the strangulation, choking out the words. His arms flailing around, gripping at the unusually powerful grip despite the bony hand around his neck. An attempt to distract his master was better than his own attempts to pry the fingers off.

"...." Horned King's grip remained, but from under the hood his gaze shifted to where Creeper's gaze had fallen, "So it is, interesting.." But how Chernabog had collected him, that was something that had kept his curiosity. His gaze went back up to Chernabog, was he starting to collect the stronger pests? And for what reason... personal interest?

"...Hurm." he dropped Creeper and headed toward where the Black God perched.