Dismantling the Hero

 

The battle-scarred fields lay barren and still, the summer breeze rustling through the blood-soaked grass. Kamao, the legendary hero, lay broken and battered upon the ground, his armor in shattered pieces around him. For years he had been the champion of the people, the prophesied savior who vanquished the demon empire and ushered in an era of peace and justice. But today, he had finally met his end.

It began when an ancient cabal of demons, thought long vanquished, emerged from the shadows to exact their revenge. Too old and feeble to face Kamao themselves, they instead lured him into a trap, a dozen of their strongest minions lying in wait. The hero fought valiantly, his fists a blur of motion, felling scores of the vile creatures. But soon he found himself beset on all sides, overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

"Enough," croaked the lead demon, a wizened thing with horns like tusks and eyes of flaming coals. "You have thwarted us for the last time, mortal dog." His clawed hand shot out, seizing Kamao by the throat and hoisting him aloft. "Now, your reign of terror ends. And your suffering begins."

The hero struggled futilely as the demons dragged him before the city gates. The people who had so long revered him stood in dumbstruck horror, unable to believe their eyes. "Behold!" The lead demon's voice rang out. "Here lies your precious Kamao, brought low by our hand!"

Kamao spat at his captor's feet. "Filth. Even now, you cannot face me in single combat. Coward."

"Bah! You are in no position to - "

The demon leader backhanded Kamao viciously across the face, eliciting a gasp from the crowd. "You'll soon learn your place, upstart. For your crimes against the demonic race, I sentence you to death. But first, an eternity of torment!"

Leering, he signaled to his minions. "Seize him. Prepare him for defilement."

Rough hands grabbed the hero, pinning his limbs as the leader produced a wickedly sharp knife. Kamao's struggles grew frantic as the blade descended, piercing the socket of his left eye. White-hot agony exploded through his skull. He howled in anguish, thrashing in his bonds, as the demon plucked out the gory orb and dangled it before his face.

"See that? That's your last glimpse of daylight, fool. The rest is darkness, pain and humiliation until you break. It won't be long now." Chuckling, the demon popped the eyeball into his maw and crunched it between fangs.

Kamao wept tears of blood from his ruined socket, shaking with impotent rage and horror as the knife moved to his other eye. The pain didn't diminish the second time, his screams echoing through the streets. Blinded, he could only feel the next violation - a long-nailed hand reaching into his mouth, closing around his tongue. With a sickening rip, the muscle was torn free, leaving his maw a gaping, bleeding ruin.

The demon dangled the severed tongue before his face, slurping at the warm flesh. "Mmm. Not half bad. Too bad you won't be tasting anything but dirt soon, hero." He flicked the tongue at Kamao's feet. "Lick it up, dog. Clean up your own filth."

Kamao hung his head, weeping and cursing, his spirit finally broken. He knew his end was near. The demons jeered, knowing they had at last conquered the scourge of their kind. The leader seized Kamao's wrists, claws piercing deep. With a vicious yank, he wrenched the hero's arms up and out, snapping the shoulders from their sockets.

"Bones shattered, blood spilled. You're helpless as a babe now, mortal. A shell of a man." The demon gnashed his tusks, savoring his foe's misery. "Almost done. Just needs a little more humiliation."

He grabbed Kamao between the legs, groping the hero's man parts through his breeches. Kamao whimpered as deft fingers undid his laces, baring his genitals to the mocking crowd. "Still firm, even now? How pathetic. Let's see you soft and spent, then."

The demon closed his fist around Kamao's member, pumping in a cruel parody of pleasure. Kamao howled, back arching as the unwanted stimulation brought him to a shuddering climax. Ropes of pearly seed spurted over the creature's claws, only to be flung back into the hero's face.

"Again," the demon growled, working Kamao mercilessly to another peak. Again and again he made the broken champion spend, until Kamao hung limp and dripping, nothing left to give. The demon laughed, releasing his reddened member with a moist pop.

"Pitiful. I've squeezed the last drops of your being away. Nothing left but to harvest your chakra for our own use. Then end this." The demon produced a sacrificial dagger, high and serrated. "Say your prayers, fool. You'll soon be naught but greasy stains on the cobbles."

The people could only watch in horror as the demon raised the blade. Kamao, the invincible, the infallible savior, stood broken and violated, weeping tears of blood. His once-proud visage was a mask of anguish, a shattered ruin. He could only hang there and await his fate, his last sight the glinting edge of the knife.

Then, with a downward arc, it ended. The blade pierced Kamao's breast, finding his heart in a gout of blood. He shuddered, mouth working soundlessly, before going slack. The demon twisted the knife, then ripped it free in a spray of gore. Kamao's body slumped, held only by the claws binding him.

The fiend raised the dripping dagger. "It is done! The scourge of demonkind, executed for his crimes!" He thrust the blade into the air and roared his triumph.

Kamao, the legend, hung in the demon's grip. Broken. Blinded. Tongueless. Spent. Killed in the most degrading way possible, before the eyes of those he failed to protect. The once-mighty hero, undone by the cruelty of his enemies and now nothing but a broken toy, cast aside. The age of peace ended in a welter of blood and viscera spilt upon the streets. The demon empire had its vengeance.