"Five Years of Paradise."

[Anks]

After the portal closed at the exigo, Nocte found himself in a blackened, sizzling, and confusing cityscape, off in the distance he could see a ringed vale of jagged mountains. From this he knew his location.

The Second Layer of Baator, Dis. He clenched his head, he had no idea why he was here, in an instant his mind was crowded with thoughts.

"Betrayal!" He exclaimed.

He began to sweat, his mind wandered about, his eyes had lost any glimmer of hope. His ears perked at the sound screams of pain and agony coming from below, the clicks and clanks of metal workings haunted his mind. The sight of the blackened skyscrapers, made him sick to his stomach.

His eyes caught glimpses's of minor devils, Lemure's, his sudden arrival had caught their eyes, some fled, others had stayed whispering, chuckling, and laughing.

Then off in a distance a commotion could be heard. The clicks and clanks of metal workings, the screams of agony became still to his ears.

[Anks]

The commotion he heard off in a distance, it came closer and closer then it stopped. Around the corner of this maze like city there was something. He began to twiddle with his fingers as his body quivered. Then he saw it, a pit fiend, and two imps being guided by a lemure.

The word run came to mind he tried to move but he was paralyzed, He awaited his possible death. As they moved closer to him his lips trembled.

Nocte fell to his knees begging for his life to be spared. The pit fiend and imps chuckled and laughed, looking at the feeble mortal who kneeled before them.

"Yes, yes! come with us then you mongrel shit!" Spoke one of the imps.

Nocte swiftly nodded and arose.

"A pact, a deal! you work for us and our master." The other imp exclaimed and looked back to the pit fiend.

"We let you live and you work as our slave till you make your weight in Coin, for us yes, yes! lucky for us!" All He could do was nod. As the pit fiend laughed his ass off and let his minions do all the talking.

[Anks]

As he was being guided through the maze like city, all he could do was ponder the typical grin glued to his face was finally ripped off, He seemed as if he had lost all hope, but then as he was being dragged a tear fell from his eye, a glimmer of hope could be seen, in the deep recesses his soul.

They then arrived, to a large spiraling structure of twisted and deformed metals. They dragged him through the doorway. Inside the structure, lay two spiral staircases one heading up and another heading down.

The pit fiend finally spoke. "I am your new master R'tax, slave, now."

The pit fiend pointed to one of the imps and spoke, "Fool, what is your name?"

The imp responded with glee "X'rathil, master X'rathil."

"Very well, X'rathil you, are in-charge of dealing with this mortal, torture him, do as you will, but keep him alive I need more back's to work on my buildings do this for me and you will be in line for a new and greater form." The fiend grunted

The imp flipped in the air.

"Come, come follow me, I will break you for the masters yes that I will! and work you shall," Nocte silently followed the imp down the staircase.

[Anks]

He followed the imp down the staircase silently, the sounds of screams and pain became louder and louder as he traveled down deeper into hell slowly the spiral staircase became wider and wider. Revealing a large prison type chamber filled with, mortals of all sorts, minor devils and demons.

At the other end of the chamber theres a rather large door. Nocte was taken to the end of the prison near the door, his cage/cell held the remains and the corpse's of others. Blood and fecal material littered the place, the imp grinned as he cast's spell to open the locked gate.

"Enter, slave! This is your new home!" The imp whistled towards the door.

A rather large Nupperibo came forth, a cat-o'nine tails with hooked strands where held in each of its very large hands.

Nocte's eyes closed, his diaphragm cringed after he spotted what might have been flesh hanging from the hooks.

"Please, this time... Keep them alive, or the master will be angry again... you might be demoted, Again. Also show this one how hospitable we are." The Imp cackled as the Nupperibo nodded and grunted moving towards Nocte's cell arms raised ready to begin his welcome to the second layer of Baator.

This being the first time he was on the receiving end of torture yelled and screamed till the pain was numb but never shed a tear.

His eyes closed as he lost consciousness. Then he awoke to X'rathil floating right above him, his wounds turned to scars and had healed overnight.

"Oh, a tough one we can have fun! But not now master wants more workers, yes workers." The imp guided the seemingly broken Nocte out of the building and through the maze like city to a construction zone.

Mortals, demons, and minor devils where forced to work. A plethora of Baatezu held whips at hand ready to strike at laborers. Quickly Nocte was placed at work, but he kept his cool.

Staying silent and working without question accepting any whippings. The same routine continued for days on end.
All he could do was dream of the world he left behind The dreams kept his mind from shattering.

He was bidding his time, little did he know the tables would turn and he would better his situation.

[Anks]

Countless months had passed of the same routine. His will was yet to be broken yet he gave the appearance of a mans who was.

One day, however the most particular thing had happened, X'rathil was given explicit orders from Master R'tax to not screw up the delivery of a package filled with one of the purest of souls to ever roam hell.

Nocte on the other hand, had a plan. He would use this as an opportunity to better his situation.

The Imp was ordered to deliver the soul while it guided the slaves through the maze like city.

Tied up by the hands, neck and feet Nocte spoke an incantation, freeing himself.

Having appeared in front of a shocked imp he grabbed it by the neck and laughed.

"Well, Well! Seems like the weak little mortal has a few tricks up his sleeve, I know that killing you will do little, but I know what you fear imp, demotion. If you lose this package, you will be demoted, and we would not want that now would we? So how about it Imp, lets make a deal! The package gets delivered and the master will be happy with you, or you will fail and be demoted." The imp yelped as he was being choked

"X'rathil make deal, X'rathil make deal with you, just don't tells masters please!"

Nocte laughed "I want a better state of being, I don't enjoy this, forced labor situation of mine, I want that Nupperibo's job."

The imp smiled. "You got deal's mortal, X'rathil help you, X'rathil knows master want to get rid of him any ways he to big to fit through door now. Yes, yes! X'rathil tell masters, and you let me deliver this, and X'rathil not demoted to lemure, X'rathil not want to be Lemure."

Nocte then smiled. "The deal is final now." He let go of the imp's tiny neck as he walked along side of him to deliver the package.

The rest of the day continued as usual but the next day, Master R'tax stood in front of his prison, the other prisoners quivered in fear, Nocte did nothing but smile.

"X'rathil, are you sure of this?" The pit fiend exclaimed.

After the Imp nodded he whistled towards the door, once again the Nupperibo came out.

This time with butcher cleavers in each hand, it was amazing how it managed to fit though those doors.

The pit fiend then spoke directly to Noctes mind. "Kill him, and you shall have his position." Nocte grinned. His hands became filled with eldritch energy and he unleased it on to the large creature making it fall with a single blast.

the Pit fiend chuckled as he recognized the power, "Interesting choice X'rathil, interesting choice in deed." The imp in amazement did a flip in the air.

Nocte grinned and smiled as he was heading up the ladder and reaching for his ultimate goal. Sundren.

[Anks]

(( PS. Please re-read the previous postings they have been revised ))

A few months had passed since the harvest devils had come by to collect any broken or willing souls, they always hoped for something pure like the one the imp delivered.

Nocte knew this would be a perfect opportunity to take advantage of his new promotion.

He chuckled as he was promoted to prime inquisitor.

The prison was unusually quiet may it be very few prisoners still lived. All mortal, no demons or devils most of which where priest of good deities and paladins.

So Nocte being the pure soul he is, he begged for them to pretend that they where being tortured and to scream at the crack of a whip.

A few days went on with the same ruse, the paladins and goody goods began to speak to him, Nocte spoke kindly to them and told them of Sundren and how he accidently arrived here. Most of them seemed to be relieved and somewhat sympathetic.

But one paladin in particular stood out to Nocte, his name was Balthier. He always spoke of his children and wife, his family and of his home.

The man foolishly told Nocte everything believing he could be trusted. days went by of the same routine till one day in particular while Nocte stayed in his bed chambers he heard.

Clicks and clanks. hoof's on solid stone, chuckling. He scrambled around to make himself appear vile holding whips in each hand.

Then the door opened, two harvest devils entered his chamber saying that they needed him to open the doors to each cell. They where about to, negotiate for souls.

Nocte being the clever ass hole he was, he decided he would use his information on this Balthier, to his advantage. "Souls, of the pure of heart are worth plenty especially when they willing give them up."

He grinned the Harvest devils turned to look at him. "Lets make a deal, I will give you information on a paladin here, that might help you with extracting the most you can of him, under a few conditions, I want the soul to be guarded and protected by one of the masters many minions, X'rathil, he is due for a promotion and I only wish to see him advance."

The Harvest Devils laughed at his face. "Why would we do that? Stupid Mortal."

Nocte stood his ground remaining silent for a while

Then the old shit eating grin had from times past was plastered on his face. "Because, it does not matter who holds the soul now does it, as long as it gets to the master and its under the masters control. And I don't think you want the master to be angered by resisting an opportunity on collecting the purest of souls."

The Harvest Devils mocked him, acting child like. Nocte did nothing but stand there and smiled. The two devils looked at each other and whispered, "Al right we will do this, but we hold the soul else we tell the master that the prisoners are lacking a good whip." They grinned

Noctes head quickly shook as they spoke of telling the master of his slacking. "Fine, fine have it your way.' He squealed to them everything he knew about Balthier.

[Anks]

The Baatezu chuckled with a grin as they turned to leave Nocte's chambers. His face was covered with a smile as he walks out behind them. His stride was slower than usual as he took them to the Paladin and let the harvest devil's speak with the paladin.

"Hello, Hello mortal shit. Balthier is it not? You have a nice wife....Medira and your two kiddies, would be a shame if anything would happen to them." The creatures reached into their robes and showed the paladin crystal balls. Balthier charged to the bars looking at Nocte.

"Please what do you want...don't do anything to them." The paladin begged. Nocte looked at the orbs and could see the illusion the baatezu where using for what it really was he knew what would happened.

"No! What are they doing to my family I'll do anything to stop them from dying please stop this!" Balthier exclaimed as the two Devils chuckled. "Yes, yes! human we can stop this attack to your family we just want one little thing from you! sign in blood your name under the dotted line."
One of them spoke as the other take out a parchment with a quill as he pointed to the line.

Balthier nodded. "I'll do it just stop it!"

The creatures laughed. "You better hurry I think little one's about to be ripped to shreds." As the creatures spoke the paladin drove the quill into his leg. he screamed in pain as tears fell from his cheeks. Nocte could do nothing but watch the man suffer to the illusion a small crooked smile began to sneak up on him. Balthier with the bloody quill quickly wrote his name on the parchment as he soon as he finished the two put away the orbs and snapped their fingers as they looked towards Nocte. "Kill him."

Nocte nodded slightly as his hand began to glow red with power and fire a grin was on his face. "A shame you could not see the illusion for what it was paladin so feeble minded." The paladin looked shocked and remained silent as Nocte shot a blast of firery energy at him torching him in a instant.

The harvest devils looked upon Nocte for a bit and grinned. "Till we meet next time mortal." They spoke as they left heading up the spiral staircases as Nocte retreated to his chambers as soon as he entered he slammed the door behind him.

Nocte was awe struck he had just seen first hand the power that could be granted by his heritage. what he knew of the arcane before was just a droplet of his potential. He had just seen two manipulate the weave in front of him with such finesse. He could feel the energy in his blood trying to burst forth as the events unfolded before him. He yearned for the power he had just seen. Nocte laid upon his bed hands behind his head chuckling,laughing as he began to concoct a plan that will allow him to unlock his potential and hopefully get him out of hell.

[Anks]

While in Dis he had noticed some rather important details.

There was a rather particular interest in souls in what they called a anagorisis condition. He had heard of this for quite some time but never found much interest in it till one day he stumbled on a rather important bit of information. These souls in this condition where valued far greater than any others.

From what Nocte could gather these damned souls are in a state in which the find the truth of their situation, their identity and by doing so they sincerely repent for their sins. Achieving understanding of the harm they committed while living.

These specters had never interested Nocte till he found out of their worth and capabilities

Nocte had learned that these types of souls are oddly enough rather common in dis than in other parts of hell. It came to his knowledge later on by hearsay from one of his imp taskmaster X'rathil of how there was a secret to these souls that was coveted by the other archdukes of hell.

He knew this was his chance. If he learned of this secret he might be able to use it to bargain for something greater but the question was how? And once again Nocte began to ponder and plot. Twiddling his fingers, giggling every so often.

[Anks]

Hugs 4 Ever

Nocte kneeled before the beast. His legs and hand's trembled at its presence. This was truly the vision of evil. Nocte aspired to one day become it.

"Go mortal, go back to your realm and spread your wings." It chuckled

In an instant Nocte was engulfed in an intense white flame, his clothes burned off as he transpired reality and realms in that very instant Nocte began to recall the event's that lead to his return to the mortal realm.

((Keeping it short sweet and simple.. and yes this does seem long over do.))