★Memorable Author: [El_Roy_1999] Hell on Earth - An Experiment

[El_Roy_1999]

This night, the guards at the village gates spotted a small vehicle approaching quickly over the desert sand. As they challenged the driver, she turned out to be a rather short nun accompanied by a severed head in a bowl. After a few words, they called Lucy, who quickly came and was very happy to see her companion again.
"Theresa! Oh my God, how are you? How did you get here?"
The head replied:
"I'm fine. This here is Philippa, an initiate that was kind enough to trust me. Please treat her as a guest of honour and do everything to ensure her safety."
Lucy nodded and told one of the guards:
"Take her to my quarters, give her something to eat and drink and set up a bodyguard for her. She is a guest, so treat her as such. You answer to me for her safety."
"Yes, mistress."
"Excellent. Philippa, this is Brom. He may look... impressive, but he is a gentle soul at heart and a very good cook. Just tell him what you want and he'll get it for you. Enjoy."
She turned to Theresa, but had to stop for a second as another cramp made her hesitate. The head looked at her sceptically.
"What's up? Is there a problem?"
"I'm fine. Tomorrow, everything will be okay."
"This is just what I wanted to talk about with you. There's one massive army in the hills and it's going to flatten this place in no time. Honestly, I don't think you stand a chance."
"I'm aware of this, but if you could give my people more precise information, we might be able to do something about this."
"Of course. It will be a pleasure. Also, I might have an idea to even the odds a little. There was a scrapyard in the vicinity, wasn't there?"

[El_Roy_1999]

⚡ Support Saradas

Keep the archive alive with Bitcoin

1QDxcxUx8pnsZvauyVxTqaJrWkeNhQrPdK

Donate →

[El_Roy_1999]

The night was filled with the noise of hard work, of drunken singing and of dark thoughts and despair. Yet, when the sun rose in the east, bathing the blasted plains in its grayish-golden light, the defenders rose to their stations, preparing for the onslaught. At the same time, the tank drivers revved their engines, filling the air with the roar of burning petrol.
Helen climbed on one of the command vehicles, pushing her muscle-bloated legs into the cupola. She turned to the rest of her army, rising the enormous gun she had had manufactured to fit her huge frame and shouted:
"Let's kill them! Death to the demons!"
Her words were taken up by the amassed troops and the plains resounded with the battle cry. 

The tanks lurched forward, slow at first, but rapidly gaining momentum as the troops advanced behind them. As they descended in the plains, they fanned out to form a spearhead and halted, readying their guns and training them on the village gates.
Inside the fortifications, the defenders stared at the sea of black and white that had gathered in front of their home. The demon warriors, with their shotguns, axes and machetes realised that this fight was going to take a turn to the worst. Then, the guns fired. The ground shook. The screeching of the shells filled the air, drowned out by the crash of their detonation. The gates exploded into a flurry of shrapnel, showering the defenders with burning debris. Several of the horned demons that had guarded the gate lay dead, their bodies torn apart by the explosions.
Helen screamed for the gunners to reload. Meanwhile, the troops caught up with the tanks. Once the cannons were reloaded, another salvo demolished the guard tower and the outer wall of the village. There was a gaping breach in the town's fortification. Helen smiled and ordered:
"One more, then we go in. This isn't fun." She turned to the troops: "Get ready to charge once this volley hits. No quarter!"

As the next shells struck the village buildings, Lucy left Theresa in the scrapyard and returned to the wall or what remained of it. Rubble lay strewn all around, the screams of the dying filled the air. Lucy gathered her weapons and said:
"They're going to charge now. Keep calm and concentrate on the plan."
The older demon warriors next to her looked at her grimly and clenched the petrol-filled bottles to their sides, before disappearing in the wreckage of the blasted walls. Lucy rolled her back muscles, spread her wings and looked at Belul, who had just walked over.
"You should go. This isn't going to end well."
"I know. That's why I'll stay. You might need me at the end."

[El_Roy_1999]

With a roar, the tank wedge advanced on the wrecked entrance of the village. Behind the machines, the nuns clenched their weapons and followed.
However, just as they hit the gates, one of the massive machines keeled over, crashing into a pit next to the gate. Out of the rubble, the demon veterans ran out, some of them falling in the withering fire of the tank's machine gun, but finally managing to throw their fire-bombs on the tanks cupola. The burning liquid flowed down into the compartment, forcing the crew to bail out, but finding themselves facing the young demons' fire. At this moment, the following tank rammed the first one, tipping it on its back and setting off an explosion inside that threw the burning carcasses of its crew and assailants down the village's main street. The wreckage blocked the gate further, forcing the following tanks to maneuver around it.
Seeing the complicated dance the tank drivers tried to perform, Helen howled in frustration and climbed out of the cupola. She took her gun and laid down a hail of fire on the young guards. Those that weren't killed fled as fast as they could. She gritted her teeth as the smaller horns on her torn face fused into a large one, swelling up to form a massive bull's horn growing out of her face.
She stepped over to the second tank, gripped its top with her bare hands and strained against it. The insane rage in her fueled her demonic parasite and she could feel that the core lent her its strength. As she slowly lifted up the machine, flipping it on the other one, her muscles swelled and grew madly, lacing cord after cord of demonic flesh over her human ones. The sigils of purity tried to burn off the diabolic growth, but the core just added more and more of it. As the tanks crashed down into the pit, she turned back to her followers. She screamed, her voice distorted by the demonic parasite:
"Kill them all! Kill them!"

[El_Roy_1999]

Scared by their leader's appearance, the nuns recoiled at first but then advanced into the street, the tanks following them after a while. The houses seemed empty, the inhabitants appeared to have deserted their homes. Checking one building after the other, they soon concluded that this part of the town was empty.
Lucy watched them from her hiding place in the broken remains of the main tower. She could feel the remains of civilisation stir beneath the town, but it would take some more time. She grabbed the shells she had taken out of one of the tanks' wreckage and kissed Belul. She said:
"See you later. We'll get them at the village square."
"Be careful."
"Never."

With these words, she took one shell in each one of her hands and threw herself from th building, unfolding her wings and gliding down towards the rear guard of the nuns. When they spotted her, it was already too late. With perfect precision, she dropped the munitions in their middle, blowing up several of her former comrades and cutting off their retreat as the remaining structures below the gates collapsed. They revealed a deep chasm that had only been closed up by rubble. The nuns opened fire, but Lucy just continued on, taking the direction of the main square.
Helen tore down one of the houses with her bare hands as one of the nuns came and told her about Lucretia's attack. She turned around, ripped the nun apart and ordered an attack on the square.
The remaining tanks crashed through the sad remains of the town, eventually reaching the large open area that was the plaza. Opposite the entrance was a large building, the town tavern. Behind it, the large scrap heap loomed, blocking out the sight of the human dwellings behind it.

[El_Roy_1999]

The nuns advanced carefully in the square, ready for a surprise attack. They were nervous, unable to ascertain whether they were more afraid of the enemy or their own leader. Helen strode past them and just stood in the middle of the place, shouting for Lucy to come out.
"Lucretia! You weakling! Come here so I can kill you!"
There was no reaction. Helen pointed at the house in front of her.
"You there, tank man. Blow that house up!"
He quivered with fear and the plaza shook as the shell blasted it open, raining plaster and wood down on the nuns. Helen looked around, stepping over to the building. She shouted:
"Where are you, demon scum?"

Suddenly, there was a rumbling below and behind the building. Something was wrong. The noise grew louder. The building started to collapse. Helen grinned wickedly. Then, the building burst. It fell apart, its facade falling away. With a loud crash, the whole house crashed down, revealing a assembly of scrap metal. Helen looked at the metal juggernaut in front of her, which slowly revealed itself as a bizarre ten-limbed steel beast made of all kinds of spare parts and wrecks. In its middle, Theresa's head rolled up in her sphere. The titanic construct pulled itself up and threw itself at the attacking force, its cable tendrils wrapping themselves around the tanks. Crushing some and incorporating others, Theresa made quick work of the remaining weapons. Helen grinned as she saw the machine's tremendous power. Turning to one of the nuns that was paralysed by fear next to her, she said:
"That's the thing to rule the world with. Let's see what I can do."
The nun stared at her in total horror. Helen contracted her increasingly demonic physique and let the ever-growing red and black flesh expand. Her formerly bizarre body was now downright grotesque. Unnatural and impossible bands of muscle grew on her hardly natural ones. Spikes and horns grew out of her skin. Her still human half-face was pressed down against her expanding pectorals as her shoulders spread wider and wider and her traps overtook her head, forcing her spine into an unnatural bend. Although the holy tattoos on her body made her insane with pain, she gritted her teeth and just propelled herself up on the metal behemoth in front of her.
Theresa saw the ball of insane fury approach with lightning speed and tried to throw a tank in her way, but the goliath ex-nun just smashed right through it, sending torn metal spiraling to the ground.

Lucy had expected her foe to be held up by Theresa's intervention and had only just recovered from an even worse seizure, so she came too late. She could only just see that the demonic, horned beast Helen had become broke open the sphere, crushing Theresa's head into pulp with her bare hand and sticking her own head into the orb's connectors.

[El_Roy_1999]

Lucy stared in horror as the demonic nun-hulk inserted her face into the system and splintered off the rest of the glass. The hellish creeping skin wrapped itself over the cables that had linked Theresa to the monstrous metallic contraption she had controlled. Helen's muscles expanded in all direction, growing over the cables and steel girders, quickly twining themselves around this metal skeleton. The metal juggernaut lost a few elements along the way, but after a few seconds, it pulled itself together. Lucy's rival laughed insanely as her colossal demon body stood up, its shape bristling with weapons of all sorts. Atop the massive, yet strangely squat body was a bizarre metal and flesh construction resembling Helen's face. Out of this thing's front, Helen's torso emerged, still covered in spikes and muscles. The only thing that still vaguely resembled her human form was the remaining human half of her face that was up there, watching the tiny world below her with amusement.

Helen's demon body stretched, its steel components groaning before being reinforced by even thicker slabs of muscle. The behemoth muscle woman thundered:
"This is absolute power!"
With a swipe of her hand, she sent Lucy and two close-by buildings flying through the air. She smiled at the human compound next to her, then fired all the guns inside her body at it. The houses exploded into a cloud of fire. She turned back to Lucy, couldn't find her for a second and amused herself by firing another volley. Within seconds, most of the village had disappeared in a firestorm. She gloated, grabbing some of the fleeing nuns with her over-sized excavator fingers. She held them up and asked them:
"Join or die!"

The nuns held on to her for their dear life, the ground far away below them. One of them screamed "Never!" and was instantly flicked away, crashing down in a bloody pulp. She bent forward and asked them again:
"Your choice."

The nuns begged for their lives, so she was happy to oblige.

[El_Roy_1999]

As Helen extended a set of syringe-tipped metal fingers from her overgrown lower face, the nuns tried to get away, but they found themselves caught between the hammer and the anvil. Just as the first one was struck by the needle, Lucy flew up to them, lifted her spear and threw it at Helen's torso. The weapon was about to strike true when the giant creature simply flicked it away with  one of her many smaller limbs. Lucy flew closer, grabbed the nuns and carried them down as fast as she could. In response, Helen just peppered the air with shots, one of the exploding shells striking Lucy's wing.
The four-armed woman crashed more than landed, her charges fleeing as fast as they could. Helen gloated and lifted one massive foot to crush her. Meanwhile, the injected nun twisted and bent screaming. She soon was covered with the same reddish demon skin her mistress had and disappeared gladly into the depths of her body. Others would follow.

Lucy had to get away. Now. The shadow of Helen's sole hovered above her just as the four demon cores struggled to seize control. She got up on her knees just as the foot came down. She held against the demon woman's enormous weight with all four arms. Helen pushed on, gentle at first, then harder and harder. Surprised at the unexpected resistance, she shifted her weight.
Below her, Lucy could feel her body struggle against itself, her joins creaking and her muscles bursting. The weight increased further, becoming harder and harder to bear. She gritted her teeth in despair as the cores tried to make her leave and give up.
Just as she was about to give in and accept defeat, she saw Belul walk to her. The demon woman seemed unfazed by the giant and the destruction all around. She stepped over to Lucy, entering the shadow of the enormous foot above her.
"Do you need help?"
Lucy stared at her in utter confusion and hissed between her teeth:
"Yes, please!"
"You will loose me if I help you. Are you okay with that?"
"Yes! I'm sorry!"
"Good then."

[El_Roy_1999]

The enormous foot crushed her slowly into the ground, pushing her feet deeper in the sand. Belul looked at Lucy one last time, stepped forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek, then twisted herself inside out. With a slurping sound, her body rolled itself up upon itself, starting with her legs and thus spreading her cunt apart, her numerous sexual appendages growing outwards until most of her body was just an amorphous mass of flesh, shaped like every kind of pleasuring device. As her face disappeared, Lucy thought she could see a slight pang of regret. Then it was over. The slippery mass that had appeared slithered over to Lucy and entered her body.
Lucy was horrified with what happened. Still, she couldn't just stop resisting the pressure from above even though her strength was nearly spent. She could feel Belul's new form spread inside her body. It felt strange, like a sensation never experienced before. At the same time, she felt strangely invigorated. Then, Belul's core reached the others and everything stopped. Lucy could sense the surprise of her infiltrator in the same way as she was confused, but there it was. The grains of sand around her hung in the air, the beads of sweat waited. Everything was totally calm, there was no sound, no movement. Nothing.

Lucy realised she could move and looked around. Around her, the battle had stopped in mid-movement. She detached herself from Helen's enormous steel and flesh-covered foot and stepped away. She escaped its shadow, but before she could think of what to do next, she saw a glint in the corner of her eye. She turned around and was just able to shield her eyes as a brilliant flash of light filled her field of vision.

[El_Roy_1999]

She could feel a strange entity close to her. Lucy looked around, but couldn't see. Everything was doused in blinding light. She tried to move, but soon found out that she was in a strange kind of weightlessness. Her movements were futile. Calling out, she was forced to accept that her voice didn't carry further than her jaw, making it ring numbly through her skull.
Then, she suddenly saw a shape approach her with roaring speed. As it came closer, it split into four and gave her a certain feeling of depth. The four elements spun around her, each one massive and confusingly shaped. Trying to make out what they were turned out to be futile. Every attempt to discern a structure in them was obliterated by their permanent and fluid change. However, she understood that these were the demon cores she had carried in herself. They continued drifting around her slowly, mutating on.

Lucy felt the entity come closer and address her. It was no voice or face, just a feeling of proximity. She looked around, but it was pointless. The being had to be hidden behind the intense light all around her. Then, she saw another object drift into view. Just like the demon cores, it appeared to be enormous, but this one was completely stable. It wasn't easier to understand since it deconstructed itself into endless fractal structures. The thing spoke:
"Mortal. You have joined the four devastators and assembled their power. You have created balance in yourself."
Lucy was confused, but nodded.
"You have mended the rift in the world with your own being. The entity I speak for does not reject this."
Lucy's nod became slower. She asked:
"What entity?"
"The only there is. Behold: You must accomplish the final task that is your burden. You are require to end the trial your world has been subjected to."
"You mean defeat Helen? How can I? Without the cores, I am powerless, with them, I die."
"Then die."

Lucy could feel her body compact, her muscles contract and every end of her nerves burst into an explosion of pain. Instantly, her consciousness ended.

[El_Roy_1999]

As it collapsed, she could feel the moment stretch into an infinitely slow process of destruction. She realised that this was the end. Her demon self had been stolen, her human self distorted and destroyed. Her identity had been broken and rebuilt to the image of others. The absolute horror of this slowly crept into her understanding as she felt herself die. In this final moment, she saw that the time had come to end her subjugation. In the exact moment that her life ended, she howled her anger into the void and willed herself back into life.
She reappeared amongst the demon cores, extended her reforming arms and cradled them with the determination of someone who had just discovered that all power was only made of one's own certainty. The cores fell apart, draining into her quickly and drifted together into a new structure she created from her own self. Its shape was strange, as hard to determine as the cores had been before, but her essence was easily visible in it.
As she spun a new core for herself, the entity appeared to depart. However, Lucy stared in its direction and focused on it. Suddenly, the ambiance changed. The feeling of calm supremacy grew weaker. Instead, the being hesitated. Lucy turned to it and saw across the blinding light. She said:
"Your trial made us what we are. It's your responsibility, not ours."
The enormous voice below her shouted:
"Blasphemy! It was your choice!"
"What choice were we given?"
"There was a choice in every decision you made."
"But the outcome was the same either way. Could this not have happened?"
The voice fell silent. She continued:
"What happens, happens because it has to."
"No! You could have turned back!"
"Our nature forbade it. Which we were created with!"
"Silence! Your words are lies! Demon spawn!"
Lucy stared at the being in shock, then understood the deceit and pierced it.

[El_Roy_1999]

Helen lifted her foot and looked at its sole. She looked at the squashed remains of Lucy's body and grinned madly. She proceeded to scrape it off with her enormous, metal-and-flesh fingers. She held it up to her face and began picking it apart. Tearing off the arms and legs, she broke it up and gutted the body. She finally lifted it up and and opened her maw, rolling out her tongue. With a blissful expression, she prepared to drop her foe's carcass into her mouth. Suddenly, she hesitated. There was a faint rift in the bloodied body. She closed one of her eyes and focused on the cleft. It seemed to extend. From it, a growing light started to emerge.
She was confused:
"What the...?"
All of a sudden, the gash was torn open from the other side and Helen could see the enormous expanse of space stretch into infinity. She felt a pang of fear in the depths of her bizarre form. From the endless vastness of space, a beam of light approached with utmost velocity.
Her face changed from puzzlement to panic.
Something was coming!

With a roar like thunder and a crash like an earthquake, a stream of absolute radiancy blasted out of the hole in reality and pierced Helen's body. It tore through her body as the carcass dropped to the ground and from the blinding light, a humanoid form emerged. Before Helen could react, the burning creature exploded through her abdomen, showering the area with twisted metal and scorched innards.

[El_Roy_1999]

She tried to understand what was happening, the absorbed lesser nuns inside her torn body struggling to contain the destruction. The shining creature suddenly stopped, hovering in front of her. Helen stared at her assailant in confusion. She asked:
"Didn't I just kill you?"
At this very moment, Lucy was in absolute control of herself. She had created this body as a weapon and so it was. Her new shape was eight feet tall, perfectly muscled and ideally proportioned. Her face was human in shape, but was featureless except for a rudimentary mouth. Not that she needed it in any way. She had eight arms and just as many shining wings sprouting from her back. Around her, golden eyes orbited her majestic shape.
From her mouth came a voice of absolute control:
"You killed me, but not enough. Prepare to die!"

Helen recovered from her stupefaction and attacked. Destroying such a being shouldn't be too difficult for a creature as powerful as she was. She launched her massive body at the intruder, firing her guns and missiles at her. Lucy evaded some of them, blasting others with searing rays of concentrated light from her eyes. She flew above her nemesis and raked her reddish flesh with her eye-beams.
Helen smashed through one of the buildings, screaming in frustration. She struck out at the golden insect buzzing around her, trying to grasp and crush her, but to no avail. She screamed at the minuscule nuns in her to reload and prepare to fire all her guns.
Meanwhile, Lucy flew a long curve and homed in on her archenemy. Summoning an enormous spear of pure light to her many hands, she went into a dive, picking up speed as she folded back her wings. Around her, flak shells exploded and rockets went wide. She saw Helen's chest appear in front of her, the shrapnel tearing at her angelic wings but unable to stop her relentless descent.

[El_Roy_1999]

With a terrible crash, Lucy pierced Helen's armoured chest and tore into the massive demon-nun's heart, exploding the muscle. There was an ear-shattering thunder crack and a fountain of dazzling light projected from the massive being's torn body.
The crimson bodied creature screamed, trying to contain her angelic attacker's advance. With a sucking sound and another gush of blood, Lucy emerged from her enemy's back and shattered her spine. The mountain-tall demon woman trembled and quaked. She crashed down in a fog of dust. Propping herself up on her arms, she howled for her attendants to fix her, but Lucy returned, striking her neck and breaking her foe's spine again. Helen collapsed to the floor, her head screaming in anger at her body's powerlessness.
With a sweep of her wings, Lucy assembled her eyes and focused to deliver the killing ray of holy light.

Helen snarled at her, roaring in impotent anger.

The blast hit her square in the face, exploding it in a shower of flesh and brains.

[El_Roy_1999]

Lucy landed gently. As the thrill of battle subsided, her body transformed back into her original  shape and she was once again a rather tall and athletic, but unmistakably human woman. She shuddered as her demon core rebuilt itself in her chest, this once foreign part of herself finally her own.
The few remaining nuns that hadn't been transformed returned to the scene of carnage and tried to tend to their wounded. Some of the local demons and humans came out and tried to help. The pale men who had escaped the destruction of their vehicles soon joined in and fires were put out and people saved. Lucy took a few clothes from the entrails of a nearby house and left. She had realised that the power she now held in herself was too great to be shared with her peers.
Instead, she decided to pay a visit to a few old friends and see what life would bring. Taking away the imbalance of power would force the people to find their way to peace. She was quite sure that it wouldn't go fast, but maybe the display of the horror of corruption to everybody's eyes would be enough.

As she left the city, she heard someone call her.
She turned around and saw some of the demons from the town, carrying her mother with them. She said:
"You're leaving?"
Lucy turned around and replied:
"I have to. This is all I can do. If I stay, everything will get worse. I wish you all the best."
"Me too. Be careful."
"There isn't much that could hurt me anymore."
"I know, but be careful. Solitude is dangerous."
"Don't worry, I'll see to it. I might come here for a visit once in a while."
Her mother nodded at her lie and added:
"Good luck!"
"Thank you." With an afterthought, Lucy added: "Bury the dead well and with honour. Some of them were friends to the end, all of them at some point."
"We'll do that."
Lucy blinked to hold her tears back and turned around and left.

[El_Roy_1999]

And thus ends the story of Saint Lucretia or Lucy the Liberator as she is known amongst the demon-born. Of course, this account is only an incomplete chronicle, but these were the events that could be verified and compiled for sure. Now, as the years have passed and the decades have gone by, the memory is fading and the last who were alive to see her have passed on. Still, her memory lives on and with these words, her memory will be preserved. Life has changed since these fateful days of war and human and demon live together, blended in freedom and respect. Of course, it isn't Paradise, but Paradise isn't for the living.
The cities are once again growing, new ideas are forming and a new golden age has come. Even though it can't be said that one person can shape history, in this case it might be possible that the actions of this single woman laid the foundation of our recovery.

It should be added that even today, there are legends and tales of people, both human and demon, who were in dire peril and were saved by a lone wanderer with tremendous powers. This solitary warrior woman is reported to be Lucretia. Of course, this is hardly verifiable, but the mere thought might plant a seed of hope in the heart of despair.