Blood apes fought one another.  The floor of the makeshift arena was already slick with blood from the previous combatants.  Cheers echoed around the violence, it wasn’t clear who was cheering for whom, most likely they were just cheering the violence.  Only a handful of Infernals remained to watch the fighting, the wagers were become less interesting, and the Althing Infernal was approaching.<br/><br/>The Neomah had left their mark on the Imperial grounds.  Towers of brass and flesh rose around the palace and throughout the city.  Some of the towers bore vague resemblance to the many creatures the Neomah had claimed flesh from to build such monstrosities.  Faces of the once-citizens of the Blessed Isle covered the spires, lit from within with a sickly green flame.  Great gaping maws led to the inside of the towers where a light smoke trickled out.  From within some the sound of cracking whips could be heard, from others delighted moans, and from others still muffled screams of something between agony and arousal.<br/><br/>The courtyard was where most of the other Infernals had gathered.  Decadence would have been the word that best described it.  A feast of fineries was littered throughout the courtyard, some more exotic than others.  Nearly anything imaginable was available to eat, drink, smoke, snort, or fuck.  For centuries the Realm had been drowning in the same debauchery—but privately.  This mockery of the Realm instead delighted in their depravity, and no one could say that one was really any different than the other.<br/><br/>Tomorrow would be the first day of Calibration, but they were celebrating today as if the next would be the end of the world.  Some could easily say, though, that the end had already come and gone with the death of the Unconquered Sun.  There were rumors that something was going to happen during those five days of darkness, but no one knew what it might be (or who started the rumors to begin with…).  Despite the immense celebration at this Althing Infernal celebrating their final victory, a handful of Infernals were not in attendance.<br/><br/>Brass Fist Bodhisattva, a powerful Defiler who had been instrumental in recovering a number of First Age war machines and turning them on their enemies was absent.  He never had much of a stomach for warfare, and some derided him for it, ironically though he was a master of the Infernal Monster Style.  Some say he was mentally broken due to the fighting, it was hard to tell sometimes where the separation between Man, Defiler, and Monster still lay.<br/><br/>Jade Knife Lover, a Scourge favoring Kimbery (if such a combination could even be imagined), spent most of her time in the East strangely.  She was eccentric to say the least, though began to retreat from contact with others the farther into the reclamation they went.  A skilled and silent assassin, she could never really be directly attributed to any real progress in the East, she was likely behind any strange unexplainable deaths that happened in that Direction.<br/><br/>The Unconquered Moon took up her name upon the defeat of the Unconquered Sun.  Some suspect she used some kind of magic to mask what her previous name had been, for no one seems to remember it.  This Fiend was so deeply entrenched within the Sidereals that she seemed to almost be more Sidereal than Infernal.  No one truly knows the loyalties of a Fiend (and some accurately say that they are only loyal to themselves).  Beautiful, shadowy, and deadly, this treacherous woman has nearly disappeared completely from Infernal society.  Nearly.<br/><br/>Only a handful seemed to take notice of their absence, though, as distracted as they all were with the bounty of their hellish festival.  The most distracted was the infamous Havoc and Iron Tyrant, a Slayer of great prominence.  He was at the battle against the Unconquered Sun, and to hear him retell the tale he would say he was the one that struck the final blow.  The truth of the matter was irrelevant as no one seemed courageous enough to balk at the claim.  He was a haughty man before, and now he was even more uncontrollable.  Most let him lead, or at least let him think he was in charge.  He was being waited on by a handful of women—his own harem it would seem—one serving him food, another serving him drink, while three others simply rested with him in a thinly veiled bed of pillows.<br/><br/>While the formal Thing was still some time away, special presentations were going to be made in a few hours time.  It was announced as a display of their victories over Creation, but what it entailed only a handful knew about, and none were really talking.<br/><br/>And so the Heroes of Hell found themselves surrounded by praise, adulation, and most of all distractions.<br/>