Hell served Rare PT3

Food was emerging from the kitchen in steady waves and Felicity was doing her solid duty in eating that food. Honestly it was all so freakishly good, she’d been writing little bits on each piece but Ms. Malitrus had told her simply to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to save time. Very Roman emperor, a colloseum of cuisine. She liked it, felt like one of those judges on the cooking shows.

She could do that, she always thought she’d be great at that. All these American’s loved the mean British judge, she could do that and be the hot one. Save the network money. Plus she could actually eat the whole dish, make the contestant feel good. You only ever see the judges pick at them like nebbish children.

The dishes were really kind of a global mess, they’d had appetisers from Japan and a main course from Brussels, dessert would be coming out of Hawaiian plate dishes. Felicity stabbed at the plate with a fork, catching the last escaping pieces of meat and popping them in her mouth. Savouring each succulent little pop of flavour. Honestly this whole plate was a thumbs up.

She could stand for this a little more, slow eating. A menu this long she’d have to pace herself. Her metabolism might overclock, adjust to a higher caloric rate then she’d have to eat like this for a while to adjust. So, for once, she could eat like a regular person...when she felt like it. She still rather enjoyed just upending plates of delicious down her gullet.

“How’s your pheasant, Ms Malitrus?” Felicity asked as she slid over a trio of soup bowls, lord there was a lot of soup around the world. She slurped one down like it was a drink before turning to the next with a spoon. Offering a quick thumbs up for the first bowl.

Cruxia could only smile sweetly at the poor hapless fool. She was drinking poison now by the bowl, it was just so delicious. WELL NOT REALLY. The poison was delicious, the IRONY of one poisoning themselves tasted great. NOT ANY OF THIS FOOD! All of it was...mediocre. Just barely worth passing over her lips. She was only doing it to make sure it was poisoned.

She sipped the soup. It was a tour-de force, a delicious and fulfilling spoonful that caressed her unending hunger and promised that though no end was in sight, that the taste would linger on forever as a blissful encounter…

Didn’t taste good though. Nope. Nope. Not at all. The corpse was NOT making good food, not even a little. She had another spoonful and another and another to check the poison’s potency. Never mind that it was poison she could take it. Honestly it was barely anything to her.

“My bird was honestly underdone, I feel as though a game hunter just threw it before me raw and bleeding and asked me to dig in.” She sighed. “Though at least then there’d be some flavour from the gunpowder, bland and mediocre. Ugh this is why I need you here to assist me Ms. DeLuca honestly bless you for this.”

She speared what was left of the bird on a fork and placed it in her mouth. It was herbed perfectly, each and every time her tongue teased across the skin of the bird she felt a jolt of the cooking sherry and red wine that had soaked deep into the bird’s fat. It was a taste sensation, the crispy skin was a thin crunch of spice followed by the mellowness of wine and the sweetness of the meat beneath.

She couldn’t help but pile more on the fork and more into her mouth. There was...another two forks worth… almost NO POISON on this dish! The corpse! The gall of that horrid thing. She swallowed down the unpoisoned game with a curl to her lips. “Despicable.”

“Man you’ve got some mighty taste if this stuff is bad.” Felicity said with a rueful chuckle. “I mean this is some of the best food I’ve ever had, honestly. You’ve got great people.”

“Not the best food you’ve ever had though.” Cruxia pointed out with an empty fork before spearing it down onto another plate. “The best is what we strive for here, I was raised to provide and expect such a thing of every worker I employ.”

“Man.” Felicity said nervously. Pretty sure she wouldn’t last with this lady. “I guess it’s a good thing you need me to be the plebeian taste tester eh?” She laughed nervously and when the woman raised a single white eyebrow Felicity promptly shoved an entire baguette in her mouth- spilling over its edges was a mess of spaghetti and meats gathered from around the table- and began chewing on it, her cheeks bulging and doing everything she could NOT to meet Ms. Malitrus piercing gaze.

“Quite…” Cruxia replied as she observed Felicity demolish the bread. Clearly the woman was growing unwell. She had to be wilting after all of this.

“Umm you might want to slow down.” Felicity said as she noticed the businesswoman undo another button on her waistcoat. The woman had been developing something of a middle during the past few hours. Felicity knew she could maintain this pace for days if she wanted but clearly this….skinny lady was pushing herself. “I mean I’ve got umm plenty of room to fill.”

“Nonsense, I need to have a hand in this.” Cruxia rattled stacking up another plate. Octavio ran out from the kitchen with a trolley and with his four arms plucked the plates from the table to take them away.

“I’m happy to see you’re both enjoying the meal. More should be coming out momentarily.” Octavio rattled and Felicity looked at him.
Cruxia patted the spider child on the head and smiled at him. Leaning in close handing Octavio some of this surface money. “Tell the maggot to add more poison, clearly nothing is happening.”

“Mistress I would bu-”

“If you make an excuse I will be sure the next dish this glutton puts away will be your grilled carcass.” Cruxia hissed between her teeth and Octavio turned to see Felicity dump an entire plate of pasta and a whole grilled roast Sicilian chicken down her maw. She panted at the heat and tossed in a bucket worth of ice. Octavio was pretty sure she wouldn’t even notice him amidst that.

“Of course Mistress.” He squeaked before rushing back to the kitchen with the trolley full of plates. He pushed into the kitchen and stopped the plates by the sink. He approached Garcon who was busy going hell for metal at chopping up something.

“Pardon m-”

“Do the dishes.” Garcon rattled. “Need them cleaned, running out.”

“The mistress said to add more poison.” Octavio squeaked before running to do the dishes. That way he could say what the mistress wanted and be valuable enough not to kill! The best of both worlds.

Garcon just groaned. Stopped chopping, rolled one shoulder and then went right back to it.

Fun fact. Your body is made to work enough to be functional, there’s stuff in you to stop your whole body from destroying itself without much trouble. You see it happen from time to time, hit something so hard it breaks a bone or two in your own hand. It happens but at the same time it should and really could happen a lot more often.

When Garcon was freshly dug up it took him three years to learn how to hold a kitchen knife without shattering it in his hand. Took him ten to hold an egg without destroying it. Even these days if he rubs his fingers together wrong he tears the flesh from the bone with an ease that would scare you. Think how strong your body is that it can totally destroy itself.

When the human body has nothing to hold it back it can some terrifying things. That’s what Garcon learned when they first dug him up and brought him back to life. Most chefs carve, Garcon decimates. He knows how to get the flesh off the bone, he removed it with his bare hands in those first murky days.

When the knife goes up and down he hears the faint hum of the blade as it glides through the meat he’s certain that he’s back there. Back in the days when he felt warmth on his skin, back when he laughed with people he knew. Back before they dragged him into the street. Back before the dark and the colourless world Morte brought him back to.

A fodder thing that learned to speak. That demonstrated skill in something beyond useless. For two hundred years Morte indulged his little zombie and let it learn to cook again. He bought it food and meat and tools to use.It took years to hold the tools without destroying them. Had to work blind, couldn’t feel the heat in the air or taste them. God he misses taste.

Smell he could do. Smell works great when reanimated as a flesh hungry monster, it’s how you find the people. So...that was nice at least.

He stops chopping when he notices the knife has gone totally blunt, hit the counter top too many times and broke the blade. He drops it in the sink. Looks on his work. He’d slice up four hundred pounds of meat and veg by hand. His hands, he looked at them. Blistered and torn around the unmistakable imprint of a handle.

“Hah.” He lets out a little sound. Doesn’t feel it. “These cuts to these cuts! These are for the rouladen and these cuts,” he uses the other knife to slide some meat apart, “for the side dishes at the start.” He turns as the platers dash off with cutlets in hand. “Emma how are we looking on the soups?”

“All ready to be sent out!” Emma had ditched her hat and enlisted a hairnet, the kitchen felt like a furnace more so than ever and she’d taken to dabbing herself with a napkin. “Getting started on the Chinese dishes now...apparently we need someone to get a...what is a Suppon?”

“Soft shelled turtle.” Garcon said without missing a beat. “Flip it, head pokes out you pull hard it’s got a long neck. Get a dish under it and slice it off. Gather the blood, makes a delightful flavorizer.” He blinked. “So I’m told.”

He looked at the plates. They were onto Mediterranean cuisine and considering Suppon was going out that meant Chinese dishes, which meant lots of bitty things and spices. A good thing, his arms were getting tired from all the meat dishes. He was fairly certain stitching had torn around his right shoulder joint. Arm was going to come off if he pushed it much more.

“Plates out, on you go runners.” He nudged the plates toward Octavio who bolted out into the corridor, others pushing past him to return to the kitchen carrying plates by the armful. Octavio was to say the least just a little concerned about all this...indulgence.

Felicity looked at the little bit of soup left in the bowl and sighed to herself more than anything.

“What?” Cruxia asked from the other side of the table. “Are you feeling odd?” She hoped that was the poison, please let it be the poison. Oh please let it be the poison.

“No just sort of bored.” Felicity said as she slurped up the last of it. “A night of doing nothing but eating food sounds good until you’ve started.” Felicity had eaten at least forty or fifty whole meals and just felt bored, the dishes were still all amazing. Everyone of them was amazing...but man she’d rather be out dancing or something. Maybe finishing off some of her articles, maybe Doc had some kind of new awful biological animal thing he was running around.

“Oh come on we’re nearly finished. I mean if I can keep going so can you.” Cruxia said simply and Felicity looked at her. Wondering if she really could keep going. The woman had lost her jacket, all the buttons had flown off. Felicity was one for whom indulgence came regularly and it was quite necessary for her metabolism but...this Cruxia lady seemed to have gotten quite carried away.

She had let her gut swaddle out to fill her lap, a large constantly noisy thing. She was shoveling away food as soon as it arrived, ravenous as Felicity had ever seen herself get on a bad day. But Felicity at least never looked quite like this. For a demure business lady this Malitrus lady had a real gift at putting it away.

Felicity gingerly began cutting away at her food with knife and fork while the other woman eschewed such earthly things and just dumped the food into her maw.

Cruxia could taste the poison, plain as day. There was poison on this food, totally. This was moon moth poison, supposed to make you feverish in a matter of minutes and dead in hours without the immunity factors. The woman was eating it, every dish the same as her. All of them had poison on them and all of them….were…...good tasting. NOT DELICIOUS but they tasted like they were good. Not great, not amazing, she’d never eat them AGAIN but they tasted decent.

She groaned as yet another empty plate was placed on an ever growing pile. Cruxia cast a furtive gaze to the food critic who still...STILL wasn’t dead and still looked the same. “My dear,” Cruxia asked over the sounds of her stomach groaning, “what, exactly, is your superpower if you don’t mind me being so brash?” She leaned forward resting on her bloated self. “I feel like all we’ve done is talk and eat and not once have you spoke about yourself.”

Cruxia wanted to buy a moment to try and reduce the internal horror she was dealing with. She was quite used to excess and surviving poisonings. But excessive food and poison, even her divine interior was starting to weaken a little. She’d bolster it with some little hexes and incantations while the other woman yammered on.

“Oh?” Felicity’s teeth cracked together around the shell of a lobster. Her mouth filling with shards of chitin and sweet cooked muscle juice.Her face split into a wide grin. “Mmmm.” She sighed dreamily, a little steam spilling between tight lips. She removed the shell from her mouth and placed it on the plate, tongue having probed joints and muscles to slather out all the succulence.

“I’m a bit of a stretcher,” Felicity said stretching an arm into the air and flopping it about. “Sort of a pretty good one, I’d say after some medical assistance from friends. Added durability, a little very VERY limited shape changing.” Felicity retracted her arm and picked up some luxury hotdog and bit the thing in half. “Mmm, I swear. Just when I want to give up we hit the perfect part of the menu to keep me going.”

“ Oh ha ha, a stretcher.” Cruxia said, having shoved her own stomach back to a slightly smaller but still ridiculous proportion. “That sounds interesting, lots of…” She swallowed. “Compression and mass altering, yes?”

“Oh yeah.” Felicity took the last half of her hot dog and dipped it in a big bowl of soup before tossing it in her mouth. “I do quite a bit of that, pretty much 24/7. I’ve got what my medical friend calls a non-euclidian internal arrangement.” She picked up the bowl of soup and slurped it empty. “I mean,” she stood up and did a little pose, “as you can see I’m about 25% more hip than I’ve any right to be. This is pretty average, it helps if I have a physique in mind and hold it mentally. Looks a bit daft but I’ve got a couple I flick through, this one is comfy for lounging and city living so it gets the most use.”

Cruxia just smiled leaning on her stomach, drawing unholy sigils to force out the poison and purify herself. “I see.” She said inwardly screaming. Was it any wonder the woman hadn’t been slowed in her consumption, Cruxia was a thing of gluttony but even she was constrained by a limited biological system. “Have you, perchance, ever been satisfied by a meal since your powers came about?”

“Oh no.” Felicity said with a groan. “Ever since the powers and an accident I could eat and eat and eat and never notice.” Felicity took a pizza on the table and put two others on top of it, folding the stack in half and promptly shoving the trio down her throat. “Honestly…. It’s…..a pain.” She replied, sucking on a finger and removing it with a pop between each pause. “Makes it easy to be a food critic though.”

“Oh….yes.” Cruxia said. She’d made this woman drink an ultra rare poison and revealed one of her ancient relics to mere mortals to bring down one woman. Now that one woman was explaining that she had some impossible set of innards that may be beyond comprehension and even the reach of demonic toxin. “I can only imagine that. Would you pardon me for...just a moment?”

Cruxia forced herself out of the chair, the handles squeaking as her bulk forced itself free. She smiled at Felicity who did her best not to laugh at the pale woman’s engorged middle. She waddled her way toward the kitchen and left Felicity to the plate of spaghetti that had arrived at her table.

Cruxia pushed the door open with her bulk and then groaned as she forced her stomach back to it’s usual slim proportion. Then she ducked under the madness. The kitchen was a boiling hell, the heat was reminiscent of The Nether and the atmosphere was just as tense.

“Plating the next two lots of spaghetti!”

“Taste testing the perogies!”

“Need more of those peppers!”

“Look out Time chefs are back!”

Cruxia let it sink in. This was starting to build up. This was long past the point of doability. She had hoped this would be a one off drink and then she could tempt chefs into selling their souls, followed by setting up a private beach-head in some new world of super humans. It was all supposed to be so simple.

Now she cast her eyes over the room. Rostrul was running around carrying vials of poison and sprinkling them on dishes and into liquid. Octavio was standing by the sink washing dishes by the load while a pair of individuals sat beside the exit door rubbing the soles of their feet.

The woman Emma, whose soul she really could have taken any other day, was stirring things around in a set of woks and being spoon fed little tea spoons of soup by a bow legged youth. She’d take a slurp and then say something else about the taste.

The cooking ghoul was chopping away grimly at one side of the room, shoving aside chunks of meat and veg into small piles. It was hardly dignified but she could think of nobody else that could manage the stamina. There were the teleporting time chefs bringing food from the past and the future, ingridients long lost to time.

It sunk in here.

“This is a colossal waste of my time.” Cruxia muttered to herself. The realisation was there. Right there. As she watched her butler passing puny mortals a bottle of water, her other servant washing dishes and her very costly time traveling immortals handing over ingredients that SHOULD be going into her larder!

“Oh hey sorry.” Someone bumped into Cruxia. Cruxia reached out and slapped the meat sack across the face, there was a sick sound that had everyone turn to see that one of their server’s had been slapped so hard his head had turned around. The body flopped over.

Garcon’s eyes narrowed. “Ain’t that like a demon to get bored of their own stupid idea first?” Garcon sighed, looked at the broken knives in his hand. A pain. He dropped the ruined tools in the sink, noticed an ice pick. It’d do. Had a cleaver left too, he grabbed that.

“I’m sick of this. Not even a soul for all this, tripe is all this has been without any share of profit. I get the soul of,” she gestured into the other room, “that creature? She’s probably already destined to wind up in The Nether, I’ve made nothing here. I’ve given you a building, products, promised you revenge and you will get it! But at the same time I am done doing this peacefully.”

Cruxia plunged an arm into the body of the dead man and tore out some glowing blue shape, a little orb with a confused look. Cruxia slurped the thing up by it’s tail. Mana flooding her being, the day's expenditure recouped some. “I intend to collect.”

Garcon was fast so Cruxia expected him to close in first. She sheathed her arms in a thick layer of armoured darkness, intending to if not mitigate the attack then to at least deflect it. The cleaver, she heard it before she heard him move. Coming down she raised up both arms. Blade bit deep, slid through the armour plating of the first arm and only stopped when it hit the bone. Cruxia bit back a scream of rage, she’d been saying it all night. He wasn’t a normal undead was he?

He had something else, she jerked her head quickly to the side as some kind of pick went for her eyes. Scraped along her cheek, tore clean through one of her ears. A hole in it for sure. He pulled back stabbed again, she heard something snap and looked at his arm a faint leak around his shoulder. She had a thought. He stabbed and she leaned again to dodge, opening her mouth and biting at the limb quickly.

Putrid flesh was the reward and a tearing sound, she was right. Garcon’s eyes went wide as Cruxia planted a foot in his chest and wrenched back, torn stitch from earlier… The arm came clean off and he was sent flying back. He hit a wall, felt something in his spine move out of place and then saw his own arm come at him. Through the chest and out his back, stuck.

“Hm.” Garcon said as he tried to drag his arm free, found it difficult. Probably went into the wall behind him. “Emma don’t attack her.” Garcon said simply. “The ritual won’t let her hurt you and if you strike her she can attack you, my advice is for you and everyone else to leave. I’ll be fine.”

“But Garcon,” Emma said looking at him and then Cruxia. She’d grabbed one of her chainsaw spatula weapons but really she wasn’t any good at close quarters nonsense.

“But nothing. She can’t hurt you and if you take everyone else with you that’s the end of it. I mean you could sit here with me, keep me safe which I would appreciate but I imagine she’d start to get tricky.” Garcon said simply again trying to free himself, find that his ribs had been entangled in this whole affair and were making right pains of themselves.

“What do you want?” Emma asked Cruxia as she crossed the room to Garcon’s side. Cruxia just looked annoyed.

“To be done with this farce! I am going out there and destroying that woman and then I am going to kill all of your idiot staff until you offer me something I want not to.” Cruxia rattled and sighed. “Now wait here I am going to do away with that thing outside, Rostrul! Contain these weaklings.”

Cruxia left the kitchen and Rostrul looked at everyone. “Sorry, she’s going to want your souls. Just FYI.”

Felicity craned her neck some and Cruxia left the kitchen. “Is...everything okay Ms. Malitrus?” Felicity asked and Cruxia just groaned at the pile of plates on the table. “Thought I heard some weird noises.”


“Okay, listen.” Cruxia replied her horns growing out of her head and her limbs lengthening some. “I am a dark and terrible overlord of The Nether. I was brought here to poison you to death and torment your soul for all time. I have wasted hours on this plan and it has vexed me to no end. As such I am simply going to kill you now.”

Felicity sat there for a moment and looked to the window. Cruxia swatted a table and it hurtled across the room to cover the exit and snapped her fingers, great chains wound about the doors to lock them.

“If you just straight up surrender and die I promise your demise will be swift and your afterlife will only be horrific rather than an unending misery without relief. If you give up now I might even let you be some furniture in my mansion, you’d make a stunning armoire.” Cruxia considered and nodded. She’d likely just eat the wretch's soul, only WAY to get rid of those super-human beings.

“I’m...kinda not game for that.” Felicity said nervously. She knew this was too good to be true, all of it was too weird and now here she was fighting some demon. Great, what an end to the day. She looked to her side at all the empty plates.

Cruxia tittered. “Oh look at you thinking you have a choice, honestly you should surre-gah!” Cruxia had a moment to scream as Felicity’s hand grew in size and she hurled all the plates at the demon. Porcelain shards and circles slammed into the demon, shards getting stuck in her parasite suit and ruining her expensive tailored look.

“You contemptuous wretch!” Cruxia roared tugging a shard from her cheek and throwing it to one side. “You have no idea the wrath you haft wrou-” A table hit her in the face.

Felicity had no idea what hurt demons but surely if you kept hitting them with stuff they would die. Right? She picked up another table and held it over her head. “How about you let me leave demon lady? I mean come on my soul probably isn’t worth much...right?”

Cruxia shattered the table and stood up. “It’s not! It’s practically worthless! But right now I’d trade my whole KINGDOM to bite it in half! You’ve been such a pain and I can’t LEAVE until you die!” Cruxia’s arms thickened into giant club like shapes and she charged Felicity who just held up the table like a shield.

The giant arms smashed the shield to one side and Felicity was...nowhere? Cruxia looked down to find the woman as a puddle on the ground and then boots right in the face. The woman unspooled from the ground and the whole force her launch slammed the overlord against the ceiling, horns piercing through with ease.

Felicity rolled backward, her whole form unfurling back to normal. She shot her arms up and grabbed Cruxia’s legs and then pulled hard. Cruxia rasped as she was slammed into the floor, skull cracking against the wood. Head spinning then the room started. Felicity spun like a top her arms lengthening to drag Cruxia against the ground, arms wrapped around herself and lifting Cruxia from the ground as the spin length shortened.

Cruxia’s vision blurred into the colours of the ceiling. She flexed something and Felicity screamed, razors blurred out of the overlord’s legs and Felicity let go of Cruxia sending her slamming into another wall.

Felicity waved her arms around and looked at her palms, big horrid holes in them she could see through. Her skin was already filling back in the gaps but got that hurt. Her arms stretched over to another table she hurtled toward Cruxia but a tentacle swatted it out of the sky.

“Shape changer are we?” Cruxia asked. “I’m a little versed in that myself. I’ve found fighting one is very tricky so I’ve been working on a little something to make it easier.”

Felicity saw the unmistakable white of Cruxia’s face and the gleam of the teeth in the strange mass. The rest of her was a mass of tendrils and some awful murky mess that made up the body, thick and sludgy and awful. Every movement sent ripples across the surface. “I’ve found the best way to get rid of a changer is to put them somewhere that can...also adapt.”

Tendrils snapped forward and Felicity tucked into a roll, making herself fluidic and thin. A tiny ropey thing diving around the assault. Tendrils flailed and one caught. Felicity felt it stick fast, not exactly barbs but something sticky that stirred into her essence.

“Ah got you!” Cruxia cackled as the tendril held tight sticking into the liquid core of Felicity, it was joined by others. “Now let’s reel you in.” She rattled off as Felicity was dragged toward Cruxia. Felicity fought returning to her normal form to fight for purchase fingers dragging in the ground. Groping for furniture or anything to slow her approach.

Every time she reached there was another tendril that sunk under her skin, slid down and dragged her back. Slowly. Felicity didn’t scream much as she wanted to just yelled and dragged and fought as much as she could.

“Huu.Huu.Huu.” Cruxia rasped as Felicity’s feet met the start of the membrane of her form. A window into the total darkness that her body had become. Felicity was dragged within, a swamp like form to drown her. Shapeshifters were a pain the best thing to do was overwhelm them totally and utterly.

“Gonna kick your arse!” Felicity snapped flailing her shoulders and looking for an option of escape. She saw something as she felt a tug below the surface. Her neck stretched forward and she caught a tentacle with her teeth before being dragged under.

“Aaaand that’s that.” Cruxia rattled. The Felicity woman would soon be drowned within her elemental self, the dark crushing force of pure liquid darkness would suffocate her very soul into nothingness. “You can all come out now.”

Rostrul and Octavio walked the kitchen staff out into the hall sans Garcon who was still very stuck. Emma was doing her best to hug all of them and spread as much herself around as a barrier, considering she was something of a short portly lady she did not cover much. Cruxia just smiled at them.

“Ohh isn’t that sweet. Loyalty, I kid you not, I just don’t understand how it works.” Cruxia rattled. “So come on, if you act smartly we can do a deal. I’ll let you keep this place, stock it from time to time and allow you to run it. In return I’ll want a sixty percent of earnings and...oh lets say the souls of three to four works a month.” Cruxia beamed at the group.

“Can’t you just...take my soul?” Emma asked. “I mean if I give you that can you let the others go, I mean I did summon you. Surely that’s an offer I can make?”

Cruxia could only smile to herself. “Oh of course! If you were to give up your soul in a wholly pure act I would have to depart true to my word that I would cause the others no harm.” She said her voice ringing out. Of course Rostrul and Octavio could harm them all they wanted and she would reap the benefits regardless.

“But...surely you could not be so pure.” Cruxia said in faux horror. “To deny me of my prii...my…” She felt an ache in her essence and looked down there was a sinkhole in her liquid form. “NO!”

There was a quick moment where the group saw Cruxia twist at her very centre and then a pair of legs slowly seemed to grow out of the blob like form. Tentacles flailed and reached for purpose as the overlord wailed and wriggled seemingly try to crawl away from herself. Tendrils stabbed into the roof.

“No!NO NONONONONONONONO!” She screamed madly trying to pull herself up, the mortal would not! This was unfathomable she was a being of pure malice and darkness and gluttony she would not be defeated as this.

There was legs that led into hips that led into a damp body, as more of this shape appeared the more overlord Cruxia seemed to vanish and taper off into nothing. The tendrils strained and bulged as they strained to lift their master free before it was too late.Cruxia gnashed her fangs and worked for freedom, staring at her tendrils before all at once screaming as they came loose.

Felicity stood there and slurped up the last of the overlord, tendril vanishing between thin lips. She placed a hand over her mouth as she felt the contents within twist and squirm slapping against teeth and twisting as the demon tried to force her mouth open.Liquid climbing and scrambling to go back up. Felicity could only smile to herself as she leaned her head back and swallowed.

Cruxia tried to grow, tried to increase in size and stature as she went. She felt the flesh around her expand to fit her, she’d grow massive. A Colossal dragon shape, a great serpent that could wrap around whole buildings it mattered not how much the woman could condense and compact she’d not be caged.

Cruxia then felt nothing, she flailed for a surface and purchase as she was pushed free of the throat all she saw was void. Nothingness and darkness as far as the eye went. She yelled in impotent rage as she fell into darkness. She’d escaped the void before she would do so again.

The crowd watched as the blond slurped up the terrible tendril monster. Watched as her cheeks bulged out and shapes like claws and wings bulged in the woman’s chest and throat before her whole body returned to normal with a resounding gulp. The chefs looked to Rostrul and Octavio who stood there, Octavio slack jawed in horror.

“The mistress is made of pure elemental darkness and malice. Sheer greed and gluttony given a material form. There is no way a human could contain that…” Rostrul said not sounding sure, there wasn’t exactly another incident of this happening.

Felicity clutched her stomach for a moment and she shuddered, the chefs backed up a step along with the demons. Felicity’s body expanded out in a couple of places, a great many shapes like arms bulged up her sides, grasping hands and claws, bulged ripples like the movement of some vast thing. Then Felicity squeezed herself and her body once again snapped back to normal with a thumping sound like a bass drum.She stood still for a moment or two, one hand braced over her mouth and the other clutching a table for support.

Nobody was exactly sure what to expect so when she moved her hand away the group backed up slightly. She stood there, gagged for a moment. Tensed up her shoulders rising up and then lowering once or twice as though gagging. Then at last she made a sound that rang out and startled the group.

A loud belch that was to say the least quite voluminous, she looked rather taken aback at how long it was taking. She stood there for perhaps ten or so seconds before it stopped being quite so booming. Felicity was at first quite embarrassed but then it turned into something not unlike pride. After perhaps thirty seconds it was over.

“Delicious.” She said licking her lips and rubbing her gut.

Octavio fainted.

“Well…” Felicity said looking at the wait staff, her arm stretching over to a little table where she picked up a tooth pick. “I gotta say that until...that whole thing the night was great, easily five stars. But like..after that...three and a half. Sorry for the damage and can I get my credit card back?”

One of the chefs ran over with it and handed it to Felicity before sprinting back across the room.

“Hey thanks.” She said warmly and smiled at the group. “Review will be in Monday’s edition, look forward to coming again so long as that whole,” she gave her stomach a quick pat, “demon thing doesn’t happen again. That said she was also pretty tasty so...if that’s like a menu special thing...maybe don’t serve it.” She said with a wink. She turned around and the chains on the door had vanished she pulled the door open and walked out into the night.

“...What now?” Pots asked Emma.

“I umm have an idea.” Garcon called from the kitchen. “Her time chefs left behind enough food to feed an army and a giant treasure chest full of gold.” He looked to Emma with a smile. “What’s say we run a business…. Kill our saviour later?”

Emma could only smile at that. “I think I can live with that.”

----


The Second Best Sin- A review by Felicity DeLuca
3.5/5 stars.

When it comes to presentation the place tops out, though I feel catching any establishment on opening night is cheating in this regard. But I’m a high flying social type, it shouldn’t surprise any of you I’ve been invited to the virginal outing of what I am sure will be the to eat place for the hyper-elite in the near future.

I have done my usual and ordered the whole menu, expect a rough summary of the best dishes and an overall score out of five by the end.

The wait staff is a strange bunch, a lot of young sorts and cut-throats. I feel that these might be temporary hires as I am certain the head waitress was at one point an employee of a mad science friend of mine. Though that is not a demerit; a colourful atmosphere is one half building and one half staff.

Management was a bit of a pain, honestly but the food was second to none. Delightful serving staff and I guarantee you anything the chef puts out is liable to have you craving more. I know I’ll be going back for their French cuisine. If I could make a recommendation, make it a private affair of you and a close friend. Perfect for comfy date nights and a get together with friends.

Don’t ask to speak to management, I think they’ll be having issues with their owner for a while. Real gut-buster that one…

Felicity looked at the review and snorted, she’d transcribe her recommended dishes in a bit of time but until then she’d relax. She had just eaten a demon and probably about twenty times what she would in a normal week. She’d been showering for about an hour after getting in, scrubbing her teeth as well. The taste of...whatever was stuck on her tongue.

Despite demons tasting delectable they had a burny aftertaste she couldn’t kick. She rested a hand on her midriff. She’d been expecting hell from her meal but it had just kind of sat. She wasn’t exactly sure how eating a demon was supposed to be but she had expected a lot more kicking...or curses of revenge. So far it had been nothing of the sort. Maybe this would be a simple thing.

Deep, deep, deep within the innards of Felicity Cruxia had hit the bottom of the stomach. She’d fallen for two hours. TWO hours of non stop falling until she had hit the bottom. She laughed to herself in the dark, amidst the sounds of the woman working around her. The coffin they’d sealed her in was infinite darkness in all directions. That had been a thousand years of madness and torture, this place though. It had edges, it had corners. It had a place she could build upon here in this dank and terrible place she had what her last prison had been smart enough to give her.

She had foundations to build up from. Vast as this human was...there was a soul in here somewhere. Cruxia had nothing but time...she would find it. Then...then she’d be out. She had time...the last prison held her for a thousand years...this one. She’d see how long it could last.
Deep in the dark Cruxia let out a laugh. She’d give this human an A for effort...but at the end of the day she’d never had a soul escape her. She was owed and Overlord Cruxia Malitrus would collect.