The Princess lay curled up on her bed, still sound asleep when she was jolted by the sound of the door to her cell slamming shut again. She gave a small gasp, then a luxurious yawn, stretching her arms out and over her head, realizing only when she had completed the yawn that she could stretch her arms out and over her head.

She blinked a few times in the dimness, a glance out the window telling her it was nearing dawn. As she stretched her legs, she still felt a small ache in her nether regions, causing a small smile to grace her lips. She wondered when they had released her. She must have been so tired that she had not stirred even once during the night.

Sarah sat up in bed, and something tugged briefly at her neck, a gently clinking sound behind her as something cool touched her back.

She turned and saw a long chain coiled on the bed, one end secured to the headboard with a large padlock. The other end emerged from the coil and went up her back. She lifted a hand to her neck and felt a thick iron collar had been locked around it. Immediately she ran her fingers along it, searching for a means to release it, to free herself from its cold restraint, but gasped when she touched the place where the ends came together, and found herself touching a great, heavy padlock. Similarly, she yanked on the chain, and found it to be attached to the collar via the same padlock. She fingered the padlock, finding no means to release it, no means to loosen it or even shift it.

For the time being, her capture was effectively permanent. Princess Sarah now had to face the stark reality that there was no way for her or anyone else to free her from her cruel imprisonment.

Good, at least they know how to do this right, she thought.

As the room slowly brightened with the approaching sunrise, her eyes spied a large tray on the floor just inside the door, filled with lush fruits and thick pieces of bread. The Princess retrieved the tray quickly and returned to her bed, making short work of her breakfast, as they had given her nothing to eat the night before.

Yes, they definitely want me alive, she thought with a cynical smile. And I'm likely to stay that way for awhile.

Princess Sarah was very much aware of her father's feelings about her. She was also aware of her father's feelings towards doing anything other than the minimum required effort to get the job done. And from this she drew the conclusion that the Barrier was not coming down anytime soon.

By the time the Princess had finished her meal and was setting her tray aside, she heard noise at the door. She quickly brushed down her hair with her hands, straightened the collar around her neck, and folded her hands demurely in her lap.

The door to her cell was pulled open by the guard, a small grin touching one side of her mouth as she saw it was the same guard that had "raped" her the evening before. But then he stood aside she gasped when the incubus stepped into the room instead.

Sarah swallowed, a trembling hand alighting on her breast, her breath growing short as her eyes fell on the frightening flaming red form of the Dark Lord's Right Hand of Terror. Her eyes then slid down to his great phallus, standing out obscenely from his body, and her heart began to pound.

"I hope you had a nice meal, Princess," Inferno said with a sneer and a heavily sarcastic tone of voice. "You know how much we want your stay to be ... " His lips curled into a most evil snarl. " ... pleasant."

Princess Sarah looked into his burning eyes, and felt palpitations besieging her fluttering heart. Her skin grew flush from the heat of his body as well as the intensity of his lustful gaze upon the creamy white skin of her helpless body. She felt herself shake from the thought of the unspoken perversions she was sure were running through his sick and twisted mind at that moment.

"Well, Princess, make no mistake about today!" the incubus growled. "Yesterday, you were shown the smallest scraps of mercy from our Dark Lord. This will cease. Today, no mercy will be shown for you or your ..." He looked up and down her body, licking his lips with his forked tongue, gazing at her with perverted desire. " ... delicate body."

Sarah gasped and gave him a horrified look. Her heart raced and she drew her legs tightly against her body, hugging her arms protectively around them.

"Yes, Princess Sarah," Inferno said with a throaty chuckle. "Today, you will feel torture like you have never dreamed possible!"

"Oh gods! Oh gods!" Sarah cried desperately. "I knew it! Y-you're going to rape me after all w-with your ... y-your utterly grotesque ... your obscenely long ... your incredibly thick ... your ... y-your ... oh my ..." Princess Sarah fanned herself with her hand, panting. "It's rather hot in here, isn't it?"

"No, Princess, I am not going to rape you today," Inferno said.

Princess Sarah stopped fanning herself and looked at him. "You're not?" she asked.

"No, Princess."

"Um ... are you sure?"

"Yes, Princess, I am quite sure," Inferno said, impatience creeping into his voice. "Now, I ..."

"But didn't you say you wanted to show me no mercy?"

Inferno paused. "Er ... well, yes, but ..."

"And wouldn't you show me no mercy if you raped me?"

"Well, yes, that's true, but as I said ..."

"Don't you want to hear me scream?"

"I fully intend to do just that!" Inferno cried in exasperation. "If you would just ..."

"If you put that in me," she said, nodding to his large phallus, licking her lips, her voice a touch husky. "I'll definitely scream."

"For the last time, I am not bloody raping you today!" Inferno shouted. "Blast you, girl! If you would just shut up a minute, I will tell you what we will be doing to you today!"

Princess Sarah paused, then nodded and said, "Okay."

The incubus fumed, steam clouding around his head and obscuring his vision for a few moments. He never thought he would so loathe hearing so simple a word as "okay". He dispersed the steam with an angry wave of a taloned hand, silently counting to ten. It did him no good, he was still just as angry at the Princess as he was a moment ago. "This day, Princess Sarah, you will be turned over to the Dark Lord Mallevelus most evil, most foul, most merciless torturer!"

Sarah uttered a loud, fearful gasp, her eyes following the guard with mounting dread as he entered the room and unlocked the chain from the bed. He gave it a vicious snap and pulled her towards him, yanking her off the bed. She stumbled as her feet hit the floor, and she had to struggle back to her feet as the guard held the chain fast in his hand. His hand fell to his side, yanking at her collar again, preventing her from standing up straight. She scrabbled at the collar, making small frightened noises as she vainly tried to free herself from it.

Inferno's lips split in a toothy grin. This was more like it. "No, Princess, no escape for you, none at all," the incubus said with great relish as she continued to struggle. "And, Princess, this particular torturer has a specialty. A specialty for the most tender, the most sensitive areas on a young, naked woman's body."

Sarah's eyes opened wide, shimmering with moisture, her lower lip trembling as she gave the incubus a frightened, pleading look.

"And then, Princess, only after your most tender flesh has been rendered painfully raw, only after your most intimate folds hurt so badly that you will run out of tears, only then will you feel the touch of a manhood inside you!"

Sarah uttered a loud moan of despair, heaving a single loud sob.

Inferno laughed. "Yes, Princess! Now you understand! This is not fun and games! Today you will most certainly not associate being raped with pleasure!!"

Sarah gasped and looked at him. "You mean ... then you'll rape me?"

Inferno's smile faltered. "Er ... huh?"

"At the point I'm supposed to feel the touch of a manhood inside me," Sarah said. "Will you be the one to rape me?"

"Well ... not me, personally, but ..."

"Oh ... are you sure you don't want to ... "

"Take her away!" Inferno snarled to the guard.

At the same time, dawn was also breaking over the palace in the Kingdom of Light. The King threw open the doors to the courtyard to greet the morning sun, only to immediately wish he had not. He groaned and rubbed his throbbing temples, fighting the desire to return inside and go back to bed. Rising at this hour was unusual for the monarch in the best of circumstances, and he was in less of a mood for it that particular morning, especially after having a night where the wine flowed just a little too freely in the wake of hearing the news about his daughter.

King Beneficus trying a second time to face the sun without his brain feeling like picks were being inserted through his eyes, rubbing his head with a sigh. He thought about quietly slipping back to his room, but at that moment, a bubbly voice burst into a happy greeting behind him. "Good morning, your Majesty!"

The King winced. Now it felt like picks being jabbed into his ears as well. He turned and cast a bleary look at Joy, standing there in her best white robe, her wings neatly brushed, and a beatific smile on her face. She clutched a large scroll to her bosom.

"Are you ready, your Majesty?" she asked eagerly.

"Ugh ... ready for what?" he rasped.

"To greet the brave young men that will vie for the honor of rescuing your fair daughter, of course!"

The King raised an eyebrow. "Vie?"

"Well, your Majesty, we just can't allow anyone to rescue her, can we?" Joy asked. "We must test their mettle, find out which among them is the strongest, the wisest, and the bravest, and only he will be the one worthy enough to set about on this quest!"

The King made a face. In his view, if any of the men in this Kingdom were indeed wise, they would stay as far away from this as they possibly could. "And you need me for this?" he asked dubiously.

"Why, of course! Your Majesty, your people look up to you. You are a source of their strength, their inspiration, their hope. There is not a thing your people would not do for you. They would lay down their lives if you were to command it."

Bloody daffodils, the girl is utterly daft, King Beneficus mused to himself. He sincerely doubted even half of the people in this Kingdom even knew who their monarch was. He actually preferred it that way.

"And with as many men that would want that honor, your Majesty, we must have some way of choosing the right one to be our Champion."

The King heaved a sigh. "Well, all right, all right, let's get this done and over with."

Joy smiled and led him outside. They stepped out onto a small balcony which overlooked the courtyard below. Assembled there were no more than six men. Joy glanced down at them, getting a puzzled look on her face. She looked this way and that, and then off into the distance towards the gate. "Er ..."

"Something wrong, Joy?" the King asked in a tired voice.

"Well, no, your Majesty, I ..." She leaned over to him and dropped into a whisper. "I thought there would be a bigger turnout than this."

The King peered over the railing. They all appeared to be shabbily-dressed layabouts. One was obviously a simple farmer peasant, still holding the pitchfork he used to shovel the manure out just that morning. Another appeared to ignore the King and his Right Hand of Virtue altogether, standing peering into the Well of Good Fortune and picking his nose.

There was, however, one that was different.

Standing roughly in the center was a young man with golden hair, a square jaw, and eyes bright with intelligence and confidence. Broad of shoulder and strong of sinew, he stood with his head held erect, his gaze steady and sure, held upon his monarch, a visage of honest devotion and loyalty upon his face.

"On the contrary, Joy," he whispered back. "I would say that's a decent showing."

"Oh, no, your Majesty, I must not have made the message clear, I ..."

"You did tell them it was my daughter, right?"

"Oh, indeed, your Majesty, yes!"

He looked again. "Then I would say this is about right, yes," the King said dryly.

"But, your Majesty, surely ..."

His eyes focused on the golden-haired, neatly-groomed man. At least Joy won't be smelling any evil from that chap, the King thought. "In fact, I'd say you have only five. That one is obviously in the wrong place. Oh, and Joy?"

"Yes, your Majesty?"

"Why are we still whispering?"

Joy blinked, her cheeks coloring as she straightened up and faced the men. "Yes, ah ... (ahem) ..." She held out the scroll before her and unrolled it. "The Good King Beneficus of the Kingdom of Light extends his most gracious felicitations to the many, many ... er ... scores of men ..."

The King rolled his eyes. The peasant farmer furrowed his brow and looked around, scratching his head.

" ... uh ... th-that have chosen to compete ..."

A frown crossed one man's face.

" ... in the most difficult challenge to face a man ..."

Another man snorted and shook his head.

" ... since the very humble beginnings of this Kingdom!" Joy continued loudly as several turned away. "Where you will face a small taste of the arduous dangers that you will face ..."

"Insane is what that is," another muttered.

" ... when you travel to the most wicked lands of our enemy ..."

"I thought she just got herself into another scrap with the Ladies of Lesser Virtue," muttered yet another. "I'm sodding well not going around the World for this."

Of all of them, the only one that remained utterly attentive was the young, golden-haired man.

" ... er ... m-maybe I should just skip to the part about the reward!" Joy said quickly.

The men that had been walking away stopped, paused, then slowly returned.

Joy managed a nervous smile. "Um, where was I? ... Uh ... wicked lands ... evil horrors ... certain death ... ah, here we go ... the man who is chosen to rescue the beautiful daughter of the King will receive upon returning her safely to these lands, her hand in marriage!"

There was a silent pause. Several men exchanged looks, and then broke out into quiet snickering.

"Marriage, 'e says," one chortled.

"Wonder if someone told 'er about that," laughed another.

"Daft, I tell you," insisted a third.

Joy looked stricken. "B-but ..."

The King sighed and stepped over to her. "Here, allow me," he said. He plucked the scroll from her hand. "A quill, please?"

She fished one from her robes and handed it to him. He drew a line through something and then scratched in some additional text before handing it back to her. "Try that."

"Um ... ah, I'd like to correct something if I may," Joy called out. "Instead of the daughter's hand in marriage, the King promises that Princess Sarah will give her rescuer a ro ..."

Her eyes widened and she gasped. She jerked her head towards the King. "I can't say that!" she cried, scandalized.

"Well, it will bloody well work better with this lot."

"But ... your Majesty ..." Joy said desperately.

"Just say it, Joy."

Joy glared at the King, but dutifully turned back towards the men and raised the parchment again. "Princess Sarah will give her rescuer a ... " She blushed scarlet. " ... a roll in the hay."

A few dubious looks.

The King snatched the scroll from her again, scratched a bit more, and returned it to her.

Joy looked at the new words and swallowed. "Uh ... she ... sh-she will give ... m-many rolls in the hay."

More interested looks now, but still not takers.

The scroll was grabbed again. Scratch-scratch-scratch. It was returned.

Looking thoroughly stricken, Joy now croaked, "Many rolls in th-the hay ... and ...y-your choice of ... r-restraint ... " Joy staggered and fanned herself with the scroll. "Oh, I may faint ..."

And then, the golden-haired man stepped forward, a wide, confident smile on his face, and declared, "Your Majesty? I will accept the challenge!"

Joy perked up at once. "You will?" she asked happily.

The King looked askance at him. "You will?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes, your Majesty, and if I may say so, I believe you will see that I have passed your first test!"

The King blinked and looked at Joy. Joy shrugged her shoulders at him and shook her head in confusion. Several of the other men jerked a thumb at him and muttered.

"It was a very clever test, if I may say so, your Majesty!" the young man said. "But you will now see that I have passed it when I say I will take as reward your original proposal, that being her hand in marriage!"

Joy gasped and clasped her hands together most joyously. "Oh, this is most excellent!"

"Wait a minute," the King said crossly. "Young man ..."

"I am called Smidlar the Brave, your Majesty!"

"And what test was this, Smidlar?"

"Why, of my integrity, sire! Oh, so clever of you! Anyone who accepted your humorous offer of mere pleasures of the flesh would show himself to be too utterly base to be the rescuer for your fair and pure daughter."

Several people coughed behind him.

"Oh, well, we didn't really ..." Joy started.

"Of course, Smidlar, how very perceptive of you!" the King declared. "Right on the money there, old chap!"

"Uh ... right," Joy said cautiously. "Okay, um ... now we have one challenger. Soon as we have more, we can ..."

But the King was surging forward towards the railing. "Smidlar, old bean, if you were to marry my daughter, and if were to ... oh ... grant you some land somewhere in the Kingdom ... somewhere far away ... far, far away ... would you promise to keep her there ... FAR from here ... and never let her out of your sight?"

"Oh, most certainly, sire!" Smidlar cried happily. "So enamored will I be of your daughter, your Majesty, that I will never wish her to leave my side!"

"Smashing!" King Beneficus cried. "You're hired."

"But ..." Joy said in a fading voice. "The competition! The challenge!"

"Oh, bloody hell," the King said with a sigh. "Smidlar, what's two plus three?"

"Er, five, your Majesty," he answered.

"Good. Challenge passed! Run along now, and save my daughter."

Smidlar beamed. "At once, your Majesty!" He dashed off.

"Er ... b-but ..." Joy sputtered.

"Cheer up, Joy," King Beneficus said, giving her a slap on the back that nearly bowled her over. "A brave man is off to save Princess Sarah, and I can go back to bed."

"Bed?" Joy cried. "How can you sleep at a time like this?"

"Why not? We took care of this Champion rot. What more do you want?"

"But it's dawn, your Majesty!" Joy said in a horror-filled voice. "What unspeakable things is the Dark Lord doing to her at this very moment?"

"Oh, that," the King said. "Uh ... well, she's a resourceful girl, I'm sure she'll sort it out."

Princess Sarah's breath was short and labored as she alternately struggled against her fear and against the unyielding bonds that held her fast. She shivered, her bare skin pressed against the unfeeling cold wall of the dungeon chamber. Her legs were splayed far apart under her until her inner thighs felt stretched, ankles held with large iron shackles. Above her head, her arms were similarly pulled, two more thick metal cuffs pinning them down. There was even less chance of escape here than in her room, for these restraints were pitiless, leaving her no slack, no room for even the slightest bit of movement, no means to pull back from whatever might come for her.

She swallowed and closed her eyes, trying to calm her pounding heart. She tried to remind herself that they needed her alive, that she was useful to them, and that they so much as promised her that she'd eventually get a chance to have her sex again filled with a man's organ of pleasure and elicit from her more of the animal lust that she was forced to enjoy at the hands of the guard. As much as it had been such a blatant violation of her body, it had at least driven her to an intense crescendo of pleasure that it momentarily allowed her to forget her terrible predicament.

Or so she hoped they believed, at least.

What little calm she had managed to gain was shattered when she heard the door to the chamber being unlocked. She gave a small gasp, her eyes opening wide in frightened anticipation as the heavy door was opened, and in entered the incubus.

Sarah's lip quivered, and then she opened her mouth to speak.

"No, I am not here to rape you," Inferno said, anticipating her question.

"Oh."

"In fact, Princess, I am most happy to be leaving you in someone else's hands," Inferno said, his lips twisting into a horribly pleased grin. "And as I promised, I will be leaving you with someone who knows just how to torture the most tender parts of a woman."

And with this, Inferno stepped to the side, and in his placed stepped the Dark Lord's Official Torturer. And when the princess lay her eyes upon this being, she drew in her breath in a single, long gasp of astonishment and despair, a terrible feeling of defeat sinking low into her stomach and maker her quake with fear as she realized why the Dark Lord's torturer was considered so good at this task.

The Dark Lord's torturer was female.

"Allow me to introduce Madam Agonusa," Inferno said with a wicked grin before ducking out of the room.

The door to the chamber closed with a resounding clang behind her, making Princess Sarah flinch and her heart thump loudly in her chest as it threatening to jump into her throat when the creature started towards her. As much as she wanted to avert her eyes, she found them riveted to the creature instead, as if drawn there by her diabolic power. Superficially, the creature resembled a tall, voluptuous woman with inky black hair, and tight leather covering her entire body, save for her large breasts. Her boots clacked ominously on the stone floor of the dungeon as she approached Sarah, casting her glowing red eyes on the helpless princess like a wolf stalking a rabbit. Two small horns poked up from her hair, and a thin, barbed tail whipped back and forth behind her. Hanging from her waist was a small leather satchel.

Truth be told, Inferno also flinched at the clanging noise. He hated how every sodding door in the Tower closed with resounding clangs. He truly wished his master had consulted him when the Dark Lord went about ordering options for the Tower.

"Oh, now what do we have here, hmm?" the devil-like creature said in a deeply husky voice dripping with a combination of raw lust and predatory hunger that made Sarah shake like a leaf. She lifted a hand and placed a single fingertip under Sarah's chin. Sarah whimpered and turned away, closing her eyes.

"Ooo, does the little princess not like the royal body to be touched?" Agonusa said, flashing an evil smile that revealed small, white fangs. She removed her finger from Sarah's chin and placed it lightly at her throat, paused, then very slowly ran it downward. Sarah moaned in despair, her body quivering, her legs and arms tensing as if expecting to pull her from her bonds.

She paused with her finger between Sarah's breasts. "Or perhaps ... the Princess prefers a touch ... elsewhere ..."

The creature lifted her finger and placed it instead on one of Sarah's nipples. Sarah gasped, biting her lip as she stared with glistening eyes at her tormentor. Agonusa flicked her finger once, making Sarah flinch. Agonusa grinned wickedly and continued flicking her finger, a little harder each time. Sarah moaned, panting, as her body betrayed her, the touch sparking her unwanted desires, forcing the nipple to swell and harden.

"My, my, Princess," Agonusa said with a malevolent chortle as she bent down to take a closer look. "How positively wicked of you. You grow excited at that, don't you?"

The devil pursed her lips and issued a tiny puff of her hot breath upon Sarah's aroused nipple. The Princess shuddered and moaned.

She straightened and gave the princess a lascivious look as she flicked at the other nipple now. Sarah's breath came as ragged gasps as her skin flushed hot, her nipple growing pink with her excitement, Agonusa's touch forcing Sarah's own buried desires to the surface. Within her nether regions, she felt the telltale heat of forbidden thoughts and needs, her inner thighs cording as they vainly tried to pull her legs together to protect her modesty.

"So you like having your little nipples touched?" Agonusa said silkily. "Tsk, tsk, Princess. So much more like a common harlot than royalty."

Princess Sarah lifted her head and glared at the creature.

"Ooo, she didn't like that, did she?" Agonusa cooed in a mocking tone. "No, she didn't like that at all." She lifted both hands and cupped Sarah's breasts, eliciting a loud gasp from her. "Even though she just adores this ..."

"Uhhh!" Princess Sarah moaned as the devil fondled her fleshy mounds, the growing lust in her voice mixed with fear and desperation. Her nipples grew shockingly erect as the devil creature rubbed against them, so sensitive now that they throbbed with the creature's smooth-gloved touch. As much as her mind begged for this torment to stop, her body craved more, her intimate folds growing wet with anticipation, as if expecting to be touched as well. The reminder of how vulnerable she was in her most sensitive of areas made her shiver.

"You are such a naughty little girl!" Agonusa cooed. "Naughty little Princess! Her Royal Highness of the sluts!"

"Oh gods, s-stop ..." Sarah begged softly.

Agonusa gave a melodramatic gasp and immediately let go. "Oh, of course, Your Highness!" she said mockingly. She laughed. "So you like to give orders, do you? Do you give the same orders to your ... loyal subjects? So long as they bed you?"

Princess Sarah swallowed. She bit her lip to suppress a reply.

Agonusa stepped up to her, her blood-red eyes locking with Sarah's frightened blue ones. "You need a little lesson in humility, Princess," she spat with a horrid sneer. "And perhaps we'll start with those now nicely sensitized nipples of yours."

The creature stepped back. She slowly reached to her hip and opened the satchel. Princess Sarah watched with mounting dread as the devil extracted what looked like a long, thin, tapering black wand. At the thinnest end, the tip forked into two tines, spaced a finger's breadth apart.

Agonusa smiled evilly as she lifted the wand so that Sarah could see. As the Princess watched, a bright blue spark jumped across the tines with a loud snapping noise. The Princess' eyes widened to saucers, glistening brightly with terror.

"And now, Princess," Agonusa said smoothly as she stepped closer to her prey. Sarah looked as if she were attempting to sink into the wall, pulling herself back from the creature but having no place to go. "Now we see if you enjoy this sort of touch instead."

"No ..." Sarah murmured in shock as the tines grew closer to her right nipple. "No, please, don't ...!"

Electricity arced and snapped across the tines.

At once, white-hot pain flared into her nipple, radiating into her breast, making her body jerk despite how tightly restrained it lay. The pain was intense, but mercifully brief, stopping the moment the electricity stopped. Sarah's mouth was frozen in a large "O", her eyes tightly closed, her throat locked. Finally she choked out a loud whimper.

"Oh, you can do better than that, Princess," Agonusa said with a sly smile. "So much better."

The devil sparked the wand again, another intense bite of pain, like the momentary searing touch of red-hot metal, yet leaving only a small residual ache that subsided quickly. Before she could recover any further, the wand sparked again and again in quick succession, tears squeezing from the corners of Sarah's eyes and trickling down her face.

"A stubborn one, hmm?" Agonusa cooed. "In that case, we'll try this instead."

She touched the tines again to Sarah's nipple. The spark crackled and sizzled, and this time, it did not stop.

And for the first time since arriving at the Tower of Doom, Sarah truly screamed in a manner most satisfactory to Inferno.

The Dark Lord Mallevelus stepped quietly yet boldly into the room, his impossibly black cloak billowing behind him, flowing like ink through the breathless air. His intensely malevolent eyes seared a path ahead of him towards his goal, the one he had been longing to see for so many, many years. His lips twisted into a grimace filled with hatred and loathing, yet when he spoke, there was an unmistakable smug satisfaction to it. His very footfalls bespoke of a triumphant haughtiness, as if he had been here before and was merely reclaiming it for himself.

The Dark Lord boldly took a single step onto the raised dais that held the throne.

"And so it ends, my Good King Beneficus!" the Dark Lord thundered. "At long last, everything you have, everything I had so coveted, everything that I had so lusted, is now mine! And all because of a moment of folly from an oversexed young princess! And you, in your own utter foolishness unwisely chose to lower the Barrier that a might return her to you, even though by then, she had been so tortured into insensibility that ... er ... that ... oh, bugger!"

The Dark Lord looked away from his own Throne of Foulest Evil and dug into his robes. He extracted a folded parchment and quickly scanned down the page, mumbling to himself. " ... into insensibility that ... ah, okay ... " He looked up again. "(ahem) that she would cringe even at her father's own touch! And as I have ... uh ... oh, sod it!"

The Dark Lord sighed and raised the parchment to his face, reading directly from it. "And as I have broken her, so have I broken your so-called mighty arms! And now ..."

Mallevelus paused and frowned. "Arms? Why would I break his arms? That doesn't make any sense."

As he turned around, Inferno entered the chamber from the stairs. Drifting up behind him came the distant torturous shrieks of Princess Sarah from the bowels of the dungeon. He paused for a moment and cocked an ear towards the sound, a broad smile stretching across his face. "Yes, so much better," he commented.

"Ah, Inferno," the Dark Lord said, stepping up to the incubus. "What do you make of this?"

He held his parchment to his Right Hand of Terror, pointing to the words on the parchment. The incubus peered at it dubiously. "And what is this, my Lord?" he asked.

"My speech to King Beneficus once I defeat him."

"Your ... speech," the incubus said cautiously.

"Yes, my speech."

"Begging my most Terrible and Evil Lord's pardon," Inferno began. "But why do you need a speech? Why not simply say what comes to mind?"

"Oh, no, no! This is far too important an event to leave to chance. And I have much of it written anyway, just this part here is giving me trouble." He pointed again. "Do you recall breaking the King's arms as a part of the plan, Inferno?"

"That's armies, my Lord."

"Ah! Yes! That makes so much more sense!"

Inferno rolled his eyes. This is not the first time that the Dark Lord made such a mistake. Several years before, he had laid siege to a town and had ordered his minions to kill the first born son of all the families in the town. He wrote the order himself and, in wanting to make a historically interesting moment, got a bit flowery with the language and used the word "laddies" for "boys". Unfortunately, he wrote it as "ladles", and his minions subsequently broke into kitchens all over the town and dutifully destroyed every ladle they could find.

"Anyway, my Lord, I ..."

"Oh, one moment, Inferno, one moment." The Dark Lord turned back towards the throne and cleared his throat. "And as I have broken her, so have I broken your so-called mighty armies! And now, former King Beneficus, by my command as the new ruler of the Kingdom of Light and of the World, you shall step down from that throne, and my minions will insert appropriate torture here! ... Oh ..." He turned back towards the incubus. "Hmm, what would be a good torture to put here?" he mused.

Inferno sighed. "May we discuss that later?" he said. "If you are to conquer the Kingdom of Light in the first place, you must know what you have available to you for your Army of Darkness."

"I know exactly what I want for my army!" the Dark Lord declared. "I wish to have the most powerful, the most deadly, the most fearsome collection of utterly evil and malevolent beings that have ever walked the earth! I want them to thunder across the ground, felling trees and shattering boulders with the power of their very footfalls! I want the sky blackened with winged hordes of living death! I want the very sight of them to cause mortals to die of fright and the gods themselves to tremble before it! I want ... Armageddon!"

He lifted his arms and uttered a deep, maniacal laugh, thunder booming around him.

Inferno took a deep breath and let it go. He snapped his fingers and a scroll appeared in his hand. "I am afraid, my Lord, you will have settle for something a little less impressive than that." Inferno dropped his eyes to the parchment. "Specifically, I can get you approximately 200 orcs, 100 trolls, 40 minor demons, 20 fire dragons, 8 evil sorcerers, 4 hell hounds, 3 balrogs, 2 giants, and one basilisk. A small one."

The Dark Lord frowned. "That's it?"

"Yes, my Lord, but it should ..."

"Only one basilisk?"

"Yes, a small one. And that's only if its rash clears up."

"Oh, come now, Inferno!" Mallevelus cried. "Surely we can get a cyclops, at least!"

"The cyclops has pink-eye, my Lord," Inferno pointed out.

"And the mind-flayers?"

"Out of the country at a gaming convention."

"This is preposterous! You cannot tell you can't even scrounge up one cockatrice!"

"Not during moulting season, my Lord."

"Arrghh!" the Dark Lord bellowed, cracking lightning from his Scepter of Infernal Power at the parchment that the incubus held, causing it to burst into flame.

Inferno patiently wiped the ashes from his hands. "My Lord, according to our spies, the King does not have much of an army to speak of," Inferno said. "The army I just described to you will be more than enough. I daresay most of them will be bored."

"That's not the point!" Mallevelus said sullenly, collapsing into his Throne with a sigh. "This is an occasion, Inferno! It should be bigger than life! It's not enough just to win. You must utterly crush your enemy! Gods, I long for the days before that infernal Barrier was put up. Now those were the days, Inferno! Mighty armies clashing on the battlefield! Blood running in the fields!"

Inferno remained quiet. He knew his master well enough to know that if just waited it out, the Dark Lord would move on. And in very little time, this is exactly what happened.

"Anyway, Inferno, how is the Princess doing this morning?"

"Ah, quite well, my Lord," Inferno said with a sly smile. "Well-tortured, that is."

"Yes, yes, I did hear some screams of some sort a short while ago," the Dark Lord commented.

Inferno raised an eyebrow. His master sounded almost indifferent about it. "You can be quite assured, my Lord, that she will be in much pain and torment by sundown."

The Dark Lord paused. "You're making sure she doesn't get ... well, too tortured, are you not?"

Inferno furrowed his brow. "Too tortured, my Lord? Is there such a thing?"

"Well, we don't want to do her in all at once, now, do we? Hardly leaves anything for the next day."

Inferno took a deep breath. The last thing he wanted was for Princess Sarah to stay in the Tower one more second than was absolutely necessary. "Her only purpose to us, my Lord, is to get the Barrier down," he stated firmly. "And nothing more."

"But if he does not lower it today ..."

"Why would he not lower it?" Inferno countered. "You have sent him the letter, have you not?"

"The letter?" the Dark Lord asked absently.

"The letter, my Lord," Inferno said with forced patience. "The one to the King describing exactly what we are doing to her today."

"Oh, yes, that one. Er ... no, I haven't."

"Then allow me to send it for you, my Lord."

"Certainly, certainly."

Inferno turned to leave.

"Oh, and Inferno?"

The incubus turned, a stony expression on his face.

"Do tell the torturer to go just a smidgen easy on her, please."

"Of course, my Lord," Inferno said.

He had intended to see the torturer anyway. But he absolutely no intention of telling her anything of the sort.

The Princess again clenched her teeth, her whole body shaking, as the wand lay sparking against one of her nipples. By this time, both had been turned from healthy pink to bright, tender red. Her cheeks were stained with tears, her face twisted into a vision of suffering torment. Sarah resisted as long as she could, the pain tearing into her, searing her nerves deeply into her bosom, growing worse and worse with each passing second until she felt as if she were on fire. Finally, as with each time her torturer did this to her, it became too much for her, and she signaled her defeat with yet another scream. This, however, was not enough for her tormentor. Only when she had screamed long enough for her satisfaction, long enough for her throat to grow raw did Agonusa lift the wand from her.

Sarah gave a shuddering gasp, fresh tears flowing from her eyes as the intense pain was slowly replaced with a lesser, throbbing one. Yet as always, her tears were in vain, for they only excited the creature. After only a short reprieve, Agonusa simply moved to the other breast. With a wicked smile, she would tease her, sparking the nipple very briefly, or sometimes only pretending to do it and watching her flinch as if she had been touched by the stinging energies again. But always, it ended the same way, another continuous touch until the Princess thought she would go mad.

And yet on those rare occasions when Agonusa left both her breasts alone for a little longer than just a few moments at a time, the throbbing of her nipples flooded her senses, becoming the only thing she could focus her addled mind upon. And under the pain, she felt the smallest sensation, the feeling that she would normally associate with a touch of pleasure upon her breasts. Perhaps she had gone mad, she thought, yet there it was, and it was just enough to spark the tiniest flame of desire inside her.

But it did nothing to save her when the wand was again applied to her, the tines lying on either side of the nipple, the electricity piercing through it. This time, Sarah could not hold back a single moment, and she let out a piercing shriek that would have dulled the hearing of most men.

"Oh, most excellent, Princess," Agonusa cooed, speaking for the first time in a long while. She removed the wand from her.

Princess Sarah sobbed. "P-please no more ..." she cried in a quavering voice. "Oh gods, please ... have mercy ... dear gods, please have ... AAAAHHHRRRGH!!"

Agonusa had applied the wand one last time, cutting her off in mid-plea. When it was removed, the Princess hung her head and let her tears spill to the floor in silence. She did not even stir when she heard the door to the chamber open.

"Yes?" the devil said, mild annoyance in her voice at being interrupted in her work.

Inferno stepped into the room. "The Dark Lord wanted me to check on your progress," he said. He glanced at the princess and saw the tears dripping from her eyes. His mouth twisted into a grin. "Oh, and I see you have done very well with her indeed."

Agonusa gave him a sultry smile. "Indeed," she said. "Every one of them breaks, every one. This one appears to like to have the royal nipples touched. Perhaps now I have weaned her of that."

Inferno stepped up to Princess Sarah and forced her to lift her head so he could look into her face. Sarah gave him a ragged gasp, tears still trickling from her eyes. And from behind the pain once again, her nipples throbbed with the very slight tingling of desire. The incubus stared intently into Sarah's eyes, and deep under the pain, the suffering, the torment, and the utter sense of defeat, he saw something else ...

He stepped back from her. "Perhaps you should find out," he snapped, his eyes narrowing.

Agonusa raised an eyebrow and smiled evilly. "If it amuses you," she commented, though it was clear from her tone that it would amuse her as well. She stepped up to the Princess, giving her a haughty sneer. "You like to have your nipples touched before, o princess of the harlots," the creature said. "So let's see if you like it now."

Sarah's eyes widened as the devil's hands lifted. "N-no ... no! Please!" Sarah begged. "Please don't ... "

Her eyes went wide and her mouth opened into an "O" as the creature gently cupped Sarah's tortured mounds in her smoothly gloved hands. With a wicked grin, Sarah's tormentor rubbed the pad of her thumbs very firmly against the tenderest flesh of the nipples.

Princess Sarah felt the renewed pain crash into her body, momentarily overwhelming her such that her throat locked and she could not even so much as scream. She could only lift her head and open her mouth as if she could scream, her body shaking as her arms and legs tensed, the metal shackles that held her biting into her wrists and ankles.

But as Agonusa continued to flick her thumbs mercilessly at the inflamed flesh, it began to stimulate something more, something very familiar, something as surprising as it was intense. Radiating out from the point where the devil touched her, the spikes of pain were joined with jolts of utterly erotic pleasure. The torture of her nipples had sensitized them to a level she had never experienced before, flooding her body with sensual delight.

So stunned and excited was the princess that she could barely breathe, but when she did, it came in ragged, gasping pants. Pain flared and arousal mounted, combining such that the pain was not merely masked or overcome, it became a very part of her pleasure, a pleasure that was quickly becoming so intense that it spread down to her intimate regions, which now responded as if touched directly, growing moist between her folds, her womanhood tingling madly.

Agonusa grinned and laughed. "Did you think the pain would stop simply because I removed the wand from your body?" she cooed. "Were you so foolish to think that? Perhaps you need a reminder of that foolishness."

She pinched each of Sarah's nipples between thumb and forefinger and squeezed hard. Princess Sarah cried out, her voice as heavy with lust as it was as strident with pain. The fresh torment only sparked more pleasure, intensifying the feelings that grew in her nether regions, causing her breath to grow short.

Inferno's mouth dropped open. "What in Hades' name ...?" he muttered.

Princess Sarah moaned loudly, her body now shaking with desire instead of fear or pain. So intensely excited was she that drops of her own intimate fluids trickled down the insides of her thighs or dripped onto the floor where her tears had fallen only moments ago. Her panting grew more pronounced as the pressure in her folds grew, her womanhood swollen and sensitized.

"I don't believe this," Inferno said in a rising voice. "I don't bloody well believe this!"

"Oh, believe it, Inferno," Agonusa said in a husky voice. "Watch her writhe with pain, pain so intense she can't even scream ..."

"Stop!" Inferno cried.

"Do you not want to see her faint from ...?"

"She's enjoying it, you stupid cow!" Inferno bellowed. "STOP!"

Agonusa blinked in astonishment. "What?? But how ...?"

She started to remove her hands, but it was a moment too late.

"Ohhhh!!" Princess Sarah cried.

Hot, clear fluid erupted briefly from between the folds of her intimate regions, splashing onto the floor at Agonusa's feet.

Princess Sarah's mind reeled as her sex throbbed so hard it made stars dance before her eyes. Her hips jerked with each spike of intense pleasure despite the tightness of her bonds. She panted wildly, her eyes closed, for the moment forgetting she was restrained in a dungeon chamber with a pitiless torturer. The lingering pain in her nipples contributed to her climax, making her feel lightheaded and giddy. She uttered a long, loud moan as her throbbing began to subside, her muscles going limp as she felt herself drained, both from her torture and her climax.

Inferno slapped a hand against his forehead.

"What manner of girl is this?" Agonusa demanded of the incubus. "What exactly have you given me to work with?"

"Only the most annoying, the most frustrating, the most infuriating mortal woman I have ever had the displeasure of meeting!" Inferno shouted.

Agonusa placed her hands on her hips. "Then perhaps you should just rape her and be done with it."

"I WILL NOT RAPE HER!" Inferno roared. He shook a talon at the torturer. "You will continue to work on her," he said in a deadly voice. "You will find a way to hurt her so that it leaves her incapable of feeling pleasure. You will break her. You will show NO MERCY!!"

Inferno stomped out of the dungeon cell, banging the door closed behind him and leaving a trail of smoke in his wake.

It was not until well after King Beneficus' headache finally abated that he realized he had not seen Joy for some time since early that morning. Usually he would take this to be a good thing. He was always happy the less he had to actual accomplish while he was monarch. In his few, what made a King great was not what he did but what he did not do, especially when the Kingdom was already prosperous.

His reasoning was this: When a King does something, some will consider it good. Some will consider it bad. But there will always be a very small number that believe that his actions were so bad, they warrant a change in leadership, brought about by force if necessary. Now, if a King does nothing, this will cause most people to simply sit around in taverns grousing about how nothing ever gets done around this Kingdom, that things were really good back in the days of King Gratuicus, now there was a monarch that knew how to kick arse! But eventually someone will make a comment about how at least he's not like King Judicus, who's path to greatness included such things as attempting to convert to a lint-based economy and an ill-fated campaign of war against the invisible stalkers of the Shadow Wood (who did not exist), there will be a general nodding of heads, and the barkeep will refresh everyone's drink, and no talk of any of this revolution rot, not if you want someone worse in the palace than they had now.

Yet he had to maintain appearances, and the truth was, he was bored. So he wandered over to the small office that Joy used for her duties, only to find the angelic creature flat on her back in a dead faint, a slightly singed parchment next to her hand.

The King sighed and shook his head. He picked up the letter from the floor and opened it. As his eyes scanned the page, he picked up the water goblet on the desk and poured out the remainder of the contents over Joy's face.

Joy awoke with a start, coughing and sputtering as the King wandered a few steps ahead as he read the letter.

"Y-your Majesty!" Joy gasped as she struggled to her feet. "I have the most horrible news for ... wait, it was around here somewhere ..."

The King waved the letter in the air. "So, this is another missive from our Dark Lord, eh?" he asked.

"Yes, your Majesty," Joy croaked.

He dropped his eyes to the letter. "Now, as to what the Dark Lord has for us today ..."

Joy gasped and raced over to him, clutching at the King's robes. "Your Majesty! Maybe you should not read it! It's ... it's too terrible to behold! ... oh, I may faint again ..."

She collapsed into the chair, fanning herself.

King Beneficus rolled his eyes. "I am confident my constitution is up to the task," he commented dryly. "Now let's see here ... hmm ... oh? ... heh, rather cheeky of him, that is ... oh yes, bet that would sting a bit ... hrm ... yes."

He folded the letter and dropped it onto Joy's desk. She flinched and recoiled from it.

"Well, anyway ... anything else for me, Joy?"

Joy blinked and stared at him. "But ... b-but, your Majesty!" she cried.

"Yes?"

"The letter!"

"Yes, I read it."

"And?!"

"And ... what?"

Joy looked horrified. "We have to do something!"

"We already did, this morning. We sent that Slidmar fellow ..."

"Smidlar," Joy corrected.

"Yes, him. Fancy he'll sort all that out."

"But your daughter is being tortured now!!"

The King's eyebrows rose. "Torture? Where did you see that?"

Joy stared at him and paled. "In the letter!" she cried.

The King gave her a humorless smirk. "Joy, do you remember that night last summer?" he asked. "When we found Sarah in the old jail cell near the lake, hmm?"

Joy's eyes widened, and she fanned herself faster. "A-are you trying to make me faint again, your Majesty?"

"So you do remember that?"

"Oh, gods, I wish I did not! The poor thing, tied to the bars like that ... and ... a-and that boy ... oh, the horrible things he was doing to her! Her tortured cries of despair ..."

"Joy, those were most certainly not cries of despair."

Joy looked askance at him. "What do you mean?"

The King sighed. "Must I spell everything out for you? I believe she was enjoying it."

Joy looked positively scandalized. "Enjoying it?" she squeaked. "But that's i-impossible!"

"Then explain to me why she would not talk to me for a week after I stopped them?"

Joy opened her mouth, but then closed it without saying a word.

King Beneficus grinned. "You see? So you can forgive me if I'm not too worried about Sarah at the moment."

But this was simply too much for the angelic soul to take. She shook her head and rose from her chair. "I know what you are trying to do, your Majesty, and I admire you for it."

"Er ... you do?"

"Yes. You are trying to look strong. You are pretending not to be concerned so you do not cause a panic at court. It is ... most noble of you. I am so proud to be your Right Hand, your Majesty!" she gushed, tears shimmering in her eyes.

"Uh ... well ... okay, yes, sure, that's it."

"Then I have your permission, your Majesty?"

"My ... for what?"

"To raise the army of course!"

"Er ... what army?"

"The army that will go and seek out the Dark Lord and destroy him in righteous revenge for this travesty!"

"Ah, that army," King Beneficus said. "But what about Schmidlap?"

"Smidlar, your Majesty. He will take your daughter out of harm's way just before the army strikes."

"I thought the idea was to have the army here?"

"That has changed, your Majesty!" Joy cried. "These heinous actions of his means we must strike back! We must take the initiative! Merely defeating his army is not enough now, your Majesty, we must wipe his foul evil from the World once and for all!"

The King considered this. He had no intention of wanting to raise the Dark Lord's ire any more than it already was. At the same time, giving Joy something to do would keep her out of the way. "Will this require lowering the Barrier, Joy?" he asked.

"Oh, no, your Majesty, not until your daughter and the army return. The Barrier allows one-way travel, you see."

"Ah. Smashing. Go for it."

Joy beamed. "Thank you, your Majesty!" she cried.

Princess Sarah did not realize how truly helpless she was until her body contorted and twisted itself against the cold, hard dungeon wall, her wrists and ankles aching from the useless attempts to free them from the unforgiving thick iron of her bonds. Amidst her cries of anguish and screams of torment, her body did everything it could to get away from the sharp needles of pain that started in her womanhood and radiated out to the rest of her intimate regions. Agonusa applied the wand with an evil determination, her face twisted into a horribly malevolent sneer, her eyes glittering with cruel joy as the bright sparks from the tines of the wand seared the Princess' tender flesh. This time the devil creature was relentless, giving Sarah no more than a few seconds rest at any time, and even that was rare.

Yet even this could not distract the Princess from the lingering sensations around her nipples. As tortured as they had been, as much as they still hurt, she could still feel the soft throbbing sensations that had sparked so great a climax in her. The Princess had never felt so wondrous a release, and never before had she splashed at the start as she had that day. She had heard tales of women that could do such a thing, but she thought them only that, merely tales. Yet she had done it, and only when her desire had been driven to such insane heights by the presence of pain with her pleasure!

And now, pain once again entered her body, invading her at her at her most sensitive point near her most intimate portal. Agonusa slid her infernal device further between the Princess' legs, playing the agonizing energy of the wand along the two swollen guardians of her portal, inflaming them and making them glow red with hurt. The Princess screamed, but yet again, behind the pain throbbed a sensation that quivered like a cornered wild animal, ready to emerge and bound free once the right moment came.

Finally, Agonusa withdrew the wand. Princess Sarah panted, her breathing raspy from the rawness of her throat, her body going limp against the restraints. She looked at her torturer with glazed eyes. The lingering pain in her nether regions was constant, fading only very slowly. But then, after only this brief moment's rest, her sex began to tingle, escalating quickly, the dull throb she had felt before flaring into a pounding sensation, a burning need that quickened her breath again only just after having calmed.

Agonusa gave a sniff at the air, and then cast her glowing red gaze at Princess Sarah's triangle. "You ... you cannot be excited!" she snarled, bearing her fangs. "By Hades' fires, you cannot be!"

She threw the wand aside and thrust her fingers into Princess Sarah's intimate folds.

Sarah gasped and her body shuddered violently, her eyes snapping open so wide that her eyes appeared as large coins. Agonusa began rubbing her womanhood very hard, sending bolts of pain through her. At the same time, as with her nipples, the skin had been so utterly sensitized that she rose as if launched from a catapult, her pain enhancing her pleasure. Agonusa moved her fingers back and forth as fast as she could, squishing loudly against the Princess' swollen flesh, the Princess' fluids copiously dripping from inside her portal. Sarah's eyes teared at the pain, her sexual pleasure mounting to a point of exquisite intensity before cresting over.

Princess Sarah shrieked. Hot liquid splashed over the devil's fingers.

"Curse you, girl!" Agonusa spat as she yanked her hand back.

But the Princess barely heard her. Her sex did not throb, it pounded. And with each one, pain was subsumed into pleasure, driving her into an insensible frenzy of sensual delight. It was almost too much for her, body writhing frantically. It was almost a mercy when it started to fade.

"I will break you!" Agonusa shouted. "So help me, I will break you!"

She reached into the pouch at her hip and withdrew another wand. This one was far thicker than the other had been, and had been fashioned into the shape of a rather long and thick manhood. Princess Sarah barely had a chance to recognized what it was before the devil creature plunged it into her, pushing past her swollen lips, penetrating her intimate portal and sinking it into her completely with a slick, slippery sound. It rubbed mercilessly against her womanhood as it entered her, both pain and pleasure flaring anew. Princess Sarah gasped loudly at how full her depths felt with this obscene instrument inside her. The pressure of it against the tip of her most sensitive spot at the top of her parted sex made her rise again, and she began to pant as her lust overcame her yet again.

"And now, my precious Princess," Agonusa growled, fangs flashing. "Now you will suffer. Now you will truly descend into the utter depths of torment from which I will offer you no escape, and no mercy!"

Agonusa touched the wand, and bright sparks of electrical energy coruscated through the evil object, crackling loudly with sharp snaps and hisses, rippling up the shaft and into the deepest and, until now, the most protected of her intimate regions. Without pity or mercy, it pricked at the sides of her portal and up her intimate tunnel..

The cry that threatened to rise up from within Princess Sarah stopped before she could open her mouth, for at that very moment, she climaxed.

And climaxed.

And climaxed..

Wave after wave of sexual delight crashed over her, consuming her pain, obliterating all thought of her predicament, of her torment. When her mouth did open, she uttered cry after cry of purest ecstasy.

"Stop it!" Agonusa screamed. "Stop enjoying it!"

But the Princess was not listening. All that filled her consciousness was the throbbing, exquisite pleasure from her sex.

At that moment, the door opened, and Inferno stepped into the room.

Agonusa uttered a most dark and obscene curse and stomped over to the Princess. She grabbed the wand and yanked it from the Princess' sex. Princess Sarah moaned loudly as her spectacular climax abruptly began to fade. Even as the lingering pain of her torture now reasserted itself, a very small smile formed on her lips as her head lolled to one side.

Agonusa started to snarl, turned, and was startled to see the incubus standing there. "Oh, um, Inferno, I, uh ... didn't hear you come in."

"Obviously," Inferno said sourly. He looked at the Princess, whose eyes now gazed back at him. The smile had disappeared, and in it's place was the anguish of the pain throbbing in her nipples and her sex.

Inferno narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Your timing is quite good," Agonusa said. "I have just, ah, finished with her."

"Have you, Agonusa?" Inferno said in a flat voice.

"Um, yes, I have."

"Did you break her?"

"Ah ... just about."

Inferno raised an eyebrow.

"Um, well," the torturer stammered. "Close enough. Just a little more and she'll go right over the edge straight away."

"Indeed," Inferno said with a humorless smirk.

"Her very insides are afire with pain," Agonusa declared. "The least touch will cause her unspeakable torment."

"How much torment?"

"Ah ... well ... I did say unspeakable, Inferno, so it would be impossible to enumerate."

"How convenient," Inferno snorted. "So ... just a little more, you say?"

"Oh, indeed. Perhaps if you would see your way clear to raping ..."

Inferno gave her a murderous look. A fly that was unfortunate enough to be flitting through the air across the line of his gaze abruptly dropped out of the air, stone cold dead.

"Um, that is, to having your guards rape her," Agonusa swiftly corrected herself.

Inferno gave the Dark Lord's torturer a withering look. He sighed. "Guards!"

Two of the brutes poked their heads into the room.

"Take the Princess back to her room and rape her."

The guards smiled lasciviously as they stepped into the room and began to free the Princess from the wall. Princess Sarah whimpered, a few soft sobs issuing from her mouth as her stiffened muscles hurt, adding to the pain from her breasts and sex.

Inferno cast a dubious look at the princess as she was hauled out of the room.

At the very edge of the Kingdom, just within sight of the glowing white wall that was the Barrier of Purity, sat Ye Olde Rusty Tavern. In days long past, this quaint establishment was a common gathering place for knights and adventurers, who would spin wonderful tales of their great exploits of bravery and derring-do to pretty young damsels who hung on their every word, greeting the conclusions of their tales with sighs of admiration, each one hoping that someday one of these young men would ask for her hand in marriage. Above the tavern, these bold explorers would be lodged for the night before setting out on their latest adventure. Here a self-styled hero could find a stalwart band of men to accompany him into glory, returning with yet more tales to entertain the ladies.

With the creation of the Barrier of Purity, once hailed as the greatest accomplishment of the King's wizard, times changed. Gone were the bold explorers and brave adventurers of old. Now the tavern was occupied by local farmers, merchants, and peasants. The tales of great quests were replaced by gossip, grousing, and grumbling. Instead of a place to gather for grand adventure, it was an excuse to get away from work and nagging wives. Gone, too, were the lovely, demure young women, replaced by the brazen Ladies of Lesser Virtue, who plied their trade amongst the men, and could be seen sharing a drink with them in their tight dresses that pushed up their bosoms in a most unlady-like way, or whispering quite inappropriately in a man's ear, or, shockingly, sitting in his lap. It would not be long after before they retired upstairs, the former inn now a brothel.

This day was like any other. The general din of idle conversation filled the somewhat stagnant air, which smelled of cheap ale, sweat, and dirt, occasionally mixed with the cloying sweetness of the Ladies' perfume as they wandered among the tables, wiggling their hips and jiggling their bosoms to catch the men's eyes.

BANG!

Silence abruptly descended on the tavern as all eyes shifted towards the door, which had been dramatically thrown open by the broad-shouldered, golden-haired young man that now stood in its frame. The man smiled broadly and marched through the stale air, everyone watching him with looks of annoyance and confusion. He slapped his hands on the bar and hauled himself up onto it in one single flex of his powerful arms.

"Oh, bloody hell, what do you think you're ..." the barkeep began to protest.

But by this time he had already risen to his feet on the bar and turned towards the tavern patrons. "Greetings to you all!" he boomed. "I am here to inform you that I, Smidlar the Brave, has been chosen by His Most Royal Majesty, King Beneficus, to embark upon an important quest, a quest of such danger that I was forced to earn this honor via a most difficult trial. I rose to that challenge, and now, here I am, about to set upon this wondrous adventure beyond the great Barrier!"

Several of the men smirked to each other.

"Damn fool thing to do if you ask me," one muttered.

"Won't catch me doin' some fool thing like that," muttered another.

"And what, you ask, is this quest?" Smidlar continued. "It is nothing less to rescue her fair and pure daughter ..."

Someone coughed.

" ... the Princess Sarah, from the evil and most foul clutches of the Dark Lord Mallevelus, who now holds the poor damsel captive in his unspeakably terrifying Tower of Doom!"

"Huh, the Princess is kidnapped?" commented one.

"Blimey, that's a damn shame," said another.

"Good lookin' bird, aye wot?"

"Heh, especially in the all-together."

"Yep, there was a girl that really knew how to do the naughty, if you know what I mean."

More general mumbling of laments rumbled through the men. The Ladies, however, glanced at each other with faces of unmistakable glee. They had wondered why their business had suddenly picked up again in the last day or two.

"I, Smidlar the Brave, will journey to the foul sorcerer's edifice of evil and save the Princess, bringing her safely back to the Kingdom!"

The smiles on the Ladies' faces faded.

"And now, my friends, I have only one thing to do before I go, and that is to form a stalwart band of fellow adventurers to assist me in this great quest, a collection of brave men wishing to share the glory of this wondrous task! Join me, and your names will be spoken far and wide throughout the lands for many years to come!"

One man snorted. "Yeah, sure, as the most daft men who ever lived," he quipped.

"Heh, it was a great roll in the hay, but not that great," commented another.

"Hmm, I don't know," said one clean-shaven young man. "It sounds like it might be bit of a fun lark to ... hey!"

One of the Ladies had upended a mug of ale over his head.

"Aw, no girl deserves that," said another. "Maybe I should ... ow!"

Another of the Ladies had kicked him in the shin.

No one else said anything, as they were either not interested, or had one of the Ladies of Lesser Virtue hovering dangerously over him.

"Oh, come now!" Smidlar called out. "Surely one of you wishes to join me? Surely one of you wants to experience the sheer thrill of facing danger at every turn, the pure rush at the idea of certain death awaiting those that are not strong enough to face the challenge?"

"Oh, well, you didn't say anything about danger, now," said the one who was now mopping bad ale from his hair.

"And you didn't mention any of that certain death rot, either," said the other that was rubbing his bruised shin.

"Come, come, now!" Smidlar said crossly. "You will be well rewarded for your troubles. I am quite sure that the Dark Lord has an immense horde of gold and pilfered treasures just waiting to be taken!"

This managed to spark some interest in a few, until they met the unyielding glares of the Ladies, at which point they simply turned back to their drinks. "I heard he was broke after buying that sodding Tower of his anyway," someone muttered.

"Very well, then," Smidlar said with a frown, jumping down from the bar. "I shall reap all the glory myself, especially when I take the Princess as my wife as a reward!"

One the Ladies gasped, a shocked look on her face.

Smidlar turned away from the others. "Barkeep!" he shouted, pounding his fist on the bar. "Your best ale to fortify me before my arduous journey!"

"Psst!" the Lady hissed, gesturing urgently to her cohorts, who immediately gathered around her. "'ere now! This bloke intends t' make the Princess his bloody woife!"

"Like that li'l twat'd settle for one man!" scoffed a second Lady of Lesser Virtue.

"She won't, and that's th' problem that is!" piped a third.

"Aye, wot do y' mean by that?" demanded the second.

The third Lady snorted. "You try stayin' more than five minutes wi' tha' great pillock! She'll be playin' th' field again inside a fortnight, she will. And where will that leave us, aye?"

"Leave that t' me, Ladies."

The three of them turned towards the fourth. The flaming redhead, her dark green eyes filled with evil mischief, curled her ruby-red lips into a sly smile.

"An' wot d'ya suppose t' do about it?" demanded the first Lady.

"Are y' f'gettin' the little, ah ... artifact our generous benefactor gave us?" the redhead asked. She reached towards a thin chain that hung from her neck, the ends plunging between her large, pushed-up breasts. She tugged on them and plucked a small pendant from between her fleshy mounds. It was a sapphire stone with a flaw in the center that made it look like a cat's eye.

"Ooo, aye, I f'got," the first Lady said.

"Here now, 'e said use that only in an 'mergency, 'e did!" the second cried.

"This is an 'mergency," growled the third. "When I can't bring in enough to pay the bloody barkeep and the Dark ..."

"Shhhh!" the other Ladies all hissed at once. "Don't say you-know-who's name out loud, y' dumb git!" the first whisper-shouted.

"Here, now, just wait right 'ere an' I'll take care of it," the redhead said with a smug grin.

She turned away from the others, dropping the pendant between her mounds again, giving them a jiggle to settle the pendant between them. She straightened her dress, heaved up her bosom one more time, and sauntered over to where Smidlar stood by the bar. She slid into place next to him, leaning nonchalantly on the bar, and flashing him her best smile. "Well, 'ello guvnor!" she said in a bright voice. "Fancyin' yerself some last remainin' luxuries b'fore headin' out on yer grand adventure, aye?"

Smidlar smiled ingratiatingly at her. "Ah, yes, you would be one of the Ladies of Lesser Virtue, would you not?"

The redhead giggled. "Oh, a keen eye y' have, guvnor!" she bubbled. "Guilty as charged."

"I should tell you now, my dear," Smidlar said in a righteous voice. "I am not interested in what you have to offer me, for I am intending to save myself for the fair Princess Sarah."

"Oh, wot a most noble notion, soir!" the redhead gushed. And a bloody daft one as well, she added in her mind. "Far be it fer me t' be soilin' yer, ah, purity, soir."

"I'm glad you understand," Smidlar said with a small, forced smile.

"Oh, but if I could embark on such a noble cause, guvnor, and lift me position in the woild!" she said with a dramatic drape of one hand across her forehead. "But, alas, it is not meant t' be fer the likes o' me."

"My dear, you only need to give up all this," Smidlar said, turning and sweeping his arm across the tavern. "If you wish to better yourself."

"Y' truly are a great one, if y' can see that in me!" the redheaded Lady gushed. "Oh, I do wish you luck on yer journey, guvnor!"

Smidlar gave her a smarmy smile. "Luck has nothing to do with it, ma'am," he said with a smug grin. "I shall triumph over my enemy because I am smarter than him, because I am strong and brave, and because, most of all, good always triumphs over evil."

"Too roight!" the redhead declared. "But ... sometimes, a li'l luck never hurt anyone. Here ..." A smile touched her lips as she tugged her pendant from between her bounteous breasts. She reached behind her neck and unclasped it. "I want ya t' have this."

Smidlar glanced with curiosity at the object as it was dropped into his hand. "It looks like an eye," he commented.

"Yes, soir, an eye of luck," she said with a sly gleam in her own eyes. "It will, ah, watch over ya in yer journey and keep ya safe an' sound."

"Why, I am quite touched, ma'am," Smidlar said with a smile. He immediately put the pendant on. The redheaded Lady's smile widened. "I shall wear it on my entire journey, if for no other reason than as a reminder of your faith in me."

"That would be perfect," the redhead said in a low, satisfied voice. "Ah, I mean, that is most kind of ya, guvnor, most kind!"

She turned away from the bar, smiling smugly and winking at her fellow Ladies. The other Ladies grinned conspiratorially in return.

Princess Sarah lay helpless on her bed, her wrists having been chained again to the headboard. Her arms were stretched painfully above her head, the chain pulled tight, the unyielding metal of the chains biting into her wrists. She had been pulled towards the foot of the bed by the hulking brute of a guard that now seized her calves in his iron grip, separating her legs and shamelessly exposing her tender sex. He speared her with his massive manhood, pounding it into her intimate portal with a vengeance, making her body bounce with each thrust. The second guard loomed over her on the bed, a knee on either side of her, his manhood forced into the Princess mouth.

Sarah gave muffled, nasal cries of painful pleasure as the firm, rock-hard flesh in her nether regions slid past raw, tortured flesh, while at the same time, paroxysms of unimaginably exquisite pleasure radiated from her sensitized womanhood. Her cries were often interrupted, as the hot, excited man-flesh in her mouth thrust its swollen head towards the back of her throat. Her hair lay entangled in the guard's fingers, forcing her head to move as he desired it.

The Princess' body shuddered violently as her first climax overcame her, throbbing powerfully, making her hips buck against the manhood continuing to assault her helpless sex. She moaned loudly through her nose, her tongue and lips tightening around the manhood that filled her mouth. Her own lust fired her excitement, and soon her head moved under its own in the same rhythm as the guard's ruthlessly guiding hand.

Two more strong climaxes wracked her tormented and violated body. Her moans and cries were abruptly cut off, however, when her head was shoved hard against the phallus in her mouth. The guard uttered a guttural groan as his manhood began to throb unrelentingly in her mouth, shooting steaming hot streams of his seed onto her tongue. The Princess closed her eyes tightly and clamped down on his manhood tightly, trying desperately not to choke on him, his heat filling her mouth and spilling out around the corners of her lips. Moments later, the other guard began erupting inside her, each throb sending a new twinge of pain against the sides of her tunnel, triggering yet one more wrenching climax.

Slowly, the two guards disengaged from her. They roughly shoved her into the middle of the bed and reattached the chain to her collar before releasing her wrists. Princess Sarah uttered a pitiful groan and turned over into her side, curling her body up, her breath ragged and short. The guards grunted and grinned amongst themselves in a dim-witted self-satisfaction before leaving the room, shutting and locking the door.

Princess Sarah lay sill, her sides rising and falling quickly, and then more slowly as she caught her breath. Lingering dull throbs rippled in her nether regions. A stickiness lingered between her thighs and in her mouth. Yet despite all of this, despite the torment that her body had experienced, despite the raw, inflamed flesh, all she could think of was how she had never in her life come to such a great number of sexual climaxes in a single day, nor had she ever experienced climaxes of such mind-numbing power.

As she closed her eyes and let her now exhausted body fall into much-needed sleep, her lips slowly curled into a smile.

As the last golden rays of sunset turned flaming red just before the sun bid goodbye to another day, Inferno muttered darkly to himself as he climbed the staircase to the Dark Lord's chamber. He had just come from checking on the Princess. To no surprise on his part, Princess Sarah was sound asleep, the small smile of sexual contentment still visible on her face. It had taken much of his willpower not to strike the girl dead at that moment.

When he entered the chamber, he found the Dark Lord staring into his Farseeing Mirror. Within it, the Barrier of Purity continued to glow brightly and undisturbed.

"Oh, bloody hell," Inferno grumbled when he saw this. "Has the King not yet lowered the Barrier?"

"Indeed not, Inferno!" the Dark Lord said, smiling evilly as he turned to face his Right Hand of Terror. "And do you know why?"

Many answers flitted through his head, none of which were very flattering towards the King or his heritage. "No, my Lord, I do not," Inferno answered.

"Because of this."

Mallevelus stepped to the side and gestured with a flourish at the mirror. Mists swirled and the image of the Barrier faded, to be replaced with the image of a golden-haired man tearing across the duty land on horseback.

Inferno raised an eyebrow.

"Meet the King's Champion, Inferno," the Dark Lord said. "Smidlar the Brave, sent by the King to rescue the Princess."

Inferno sighed. The last thing he needed now was to have to deal with someone trying to break into the Tower of Doom.

"Little does he know that one of my spies in the Kingdom of Light has given to him what he believes to be a simple trinket of good fortune, yet in reality is a magical Eye of Tracking, allowing me to see wherever he is and whatever he is doing!"

"Ah, smashing," Inferno said, seeing a ray of hope. "Then you shall destroy him before he gets anywhere near the Tower, of course."

The Dark Lord rubbed his hands and gave Inferno an evil look. "Oh, no, I intend to let him come to me, Inferno."

The ray of hope was extinguished. "Uh ... why, my Lord?"

"Because I wish to see the expression on his face when I snatch away his victory at the last possible moment," Mallevelus said with a wicked gleam in his eyes. "I want the very last thing he sees to be the battered and broken Princess, so that he knows that not only did he fail in his task, he was too late even from the very start! I want his defeat to be total and humiliating!"

The Dark Lord raised his arms and laughed maniacally, thunder booming through the chamber.

Inferno sighed and waited for the Dark Lord to finish. "Begging my most Horrible and Evil Lord's pardon," he said in a voice of forced calm. "But would that not mean we would be forced to keep the Princess here longer?"

"And why is that a bad thing, Inferno?" Mallevelus said as he swept across the room and sat in his Throne of Foulest Evil. "Do we not enjoy the Princess' screams of torment?"

"I am sure we would, my Lord, if we heard them."

The Dark Lord paused. "I am sure I heard her scream many times today, Inferno," he pointed out.

"Indeed you did, my Lord. Yet they were not entirely screams of torment."

The Dark Lord laughed. "Next thing you'll be telling me that she enjoyed it," he said with a mocking laugh.

"I am, my Lord."

Mallevelus stopped laughing. "You cannot be serious, Inferno."

"I am always serious, my Lord."

"Hmm ... I supposed I did tell you to go easy on her, perhaps ..."

"I did not have Madam Agonusa go easy on her, my Lord."

A pause. "You disobeyed my orders, Inferno?" Mallevelus said darkly.

"Indeed, I did, my Lord."

"You disobeyed me, knowing full well that I have declared that death shall come to those who ..."

"It is a moot point, my Lord," Inferno said impatiently, refusing to be distracted by a point of protocol. "The fact of the matter is that despite not having gone easy on her, the end result was that she enjoyed it."

"You had her most sensitive and intimate areas tortured, did you not?"

"Indeed, my Lord."

"And she was thoroughly raped afterward, was she not?"

"Quite thoroughly, my Lord."

The Dark Lord paused. "And you are quite sure she tortured the right areas?"

"There are a limited number of sensitive areas associated with sex on a woman's body, my Lord," Inferno said with forced patience. "One would assume that Madam Agonusa, herself female, would know exactly where they were located. One would also assume that such places, once having been properly identified, would be difficult to actually miss, especially considering that the Princess was rendered quite immobile by her shackles at the time, thus preventing Madam Agonusa from having to deal with a moving target."

"Perhaps Madam Agonusa needs spectacles?" the Dark Lord mused.

"She doesn't need bloody spectacles!" Inferno shouted. He took a deep breath and calmed himself. "And once again, the guards knew how to rape her and had the proper, uh, equipment to do so."

"Yes, and you would know that, wouldn't you?" Mallevelus said with a small smile. "Since you inspect them yourself."

"Yes, I inspect them. Visually. From a discrete distance," Inferno growled through clenched teeth.

"And still she enjoyed it," the Dark Lord mused. "You know, Inferno, as much as she has the blood of my most mortal enemy coursing through her veins, she is proving to be a rather fascinating young woman. You know, perhaps I should take a more personal role in her torture."

Inferno blinked. "Uh ... what?"

"After all, she is already so in awe of me that it would be child's play for me to break her."

Oh dear, Inferno thought desperately. He's gone from smitten to enamored. "My Lord, if I may be so bold, I believe that is not a prudent idea."

"Oh?"

"Realize that you must devote much of your time to preparing the army for your attack on the King's lands."

The Dark Lord waved a dismissive hand. "They already know what to do, Inferno, I have but to give the command."

"But then there is the matter of what to do with his lands once you ..."

"I already have all that worked out as well. I have planned for this day for a long time."

Inferno's mind raced. "Uh ... your speeches, my Lord!" he finally blurted out.

Mallevelus paused. "What about my speeches?" he asked warily.

"Well, you said yourself, nothing should be left to chance," Inferno said.

"I already have my speech written for when I defeat him, Inferno," the Dark Lord pointed out.

"Ah, yes, my Lord, but what about your speech to the masses you are about to grind under your thumb? What about your speech to the King's court when you put them to horribly painful deaths? What about your speech about how you have so, uh, soiled the King's fair and pure daughter?"

"Good gods, Inferno, you're right!" Mallevelus cried, jumping out of his Throne. "How foolish of me! There will be a ton of opportunities to remind the Kingdom of their coming millennia of relentless despair under my most malevolent reign! I simply must have the right words to say. Oh, I must get started on that straight away!"

"Indeed, my Lord," Inferno said, relaxing. "And I will handle the Princess for you."

"Yes, of course. I put her fate completely in your hands, Inferno."

Inferno's lips curled into a wicked grin. "Thank you, my Lord."

"But do see that she gets a bite to eat before retiring," the Dark Lord said as he conjured up a blank parchment and a quill. "You do want her to have some of her strength, after all, or she will not be able to scream properly."

Inferno no longer cared if the Princess was fed properly, so he had no objection to this. Instead, his mind was racing with ideas on how to finally break the girl's will. The Dark Lord's torturer was of no further use to him, since pain was ineffective. Instead, he would have to try something different, something unusual, something so thoroughly shocking and revolting to her, something so thoroughly overwhelming that it would shatter her very mind and render her utterly mad.

His grin became a most evil smile. He had just the thing in mind.

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