The Slayer entered an intersection that led to the Labyrinth entrance. He approached the gate directly in front and was about to press the access panel when he noticed its glitching surface. He reeled back and saw the upside-down UAC logo on the door. A malware Backdoor. He scowled and raised the super shotgun before blasting the demonic construct into pieces, which sparked and clattered to the floor in a pile of scrap. He passed through the real gate and came across the translucent figure of a ghost wandering aimlessly through the walls. A quick burst from the phase rifle swiftly dissipated the ghost with an echoing hiss, but something growled from behind a wall and a Z-Sec soldier peered around the corner to check the sound.

The Slayer nodded and sighed in preparation of the battle.

He sniped the Z-Sec with the HAR and began jogging down the corridor as he scanned his surroundings. Enclosed environment, limited verticality and maneuverability. He was almost at the Labyrinth and thus the Annihilator, which would be guarded by the remaining Hell lords commanding the invasion. They would throw everything they could at him and he still had the Baalgar Lord to fight. He could craft a few power-ups for the Baalgar fight but Berserk was almost ready. Armored Offensive, Lethal Force, and Boiling Blood equipped. If Goetic Troopers appeared, he’d switch out the last one for Momentum Swing. His ammo pools were fine. 76 HEALTH, 52 ARMOR.

A Spectre charged at him with a howling squeal and he stunned the demon out of its spectral bullrush with a stun bomb before eviscerating it with a point-blank super shotgun blast. Opening circles opened around and more creatures screeched from behind the walls.

He toggled the Sentry Bot into machine gun mode and broke into a run.

A Sawcubus darted across the walls with chainsaw arms buzzing and he shot it down with the Gauss Cannon. A Cyber Pinky charged with a Rager close behind and the Slayer swerved around the Pinky while dropping two proximity mines and aiming the Lightning Gun at the Rager. The proximity mines faltered and destroyed the Cyber Pinky’s cybernetic back half while the Lightning Gun overloaded the Griefer’s riot shield and left it exposed to a follow-up rocket from the Slayer. He rushed through an open gate and tossed a grenade behind as the two demons glowed in their suicidal death charges before hearing the thunderous explosions behind him clear the entire hallway, compounded by his Lethal Force rune.

Two Ghouls phased through the wall as a Chainstrosity blazed down the hall in a blade vortex. He parried the Chainstrosity out of its charge and eliminated it with a Blood Punch but the Ghouls had already phased away and shot their crackling blue beams through the walls at him as Fireblu torches ignited on the floor above. He winced as the blinding red-and-blue flames seared his eyes but rushed back and leapt into an open gravity elevator to hop onto the second level and extinguished the Fireblu flames by punching the bowls. Three Ghouls rushed below and he fired the rocket launcher at them before they hopped onto his walkway. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! He splattered several of the demons but two teleported out of the blasts and warped upwards before slashing him with their spectral arms. 13 ARMOR left. He jumped off the walkway after dropping a proximity mine, launched a rocket as he fell and remotely detonated it. BOOM!

The sound of psionic emissions reached the Slayer’s ears, and his stomach sunk as four Goetic Disciples and one Preacher warped into the laboratory.

“‘For, behold, Your enemies, O Lord. For, behold, Your enemies will perish.’”

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The Slayer rushed away and opened fire with the rocket launcher. He launched a stun bomb at the five Goetic Troopers while swapping out Boiling Blood for Momentum Swing as he came across a cart of explosive barrels. He kicked the red barrels towards the Troopers and launched a frag grenade.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

The explosions thundered down the hallways and shook the facility. A great many demons and two Disciples had perished in the blast but the last two were already raising their gore as new enemies. But the horde pressed on and the Slayer switched to the Screamer and opened fire.

“ROOOOOOHHHHHH!!” Body parts flew and blood painted the walls as the explosive barrage of souls razed through the ranks of Hell-born demons.

Damn it! If he only had a proper incendiary weapon besides the chaingun that could properly cremate demon remains!

The trites, tentacles, and mimics that rose from the gore were properly eliminated along with entire waves of demons, but before long the Slayer noticed the corpses around him stand back up. The slain bodies of zombies, Pinkies, Revenants, and Cacodemons seemed to heal as ethereal strings manifested onto their corpses and raised them as puppets.

Oh no…

The body of the second Hell Lord warped into the dim laboratory. A slim gray Summoner-like being with four arms, ten glassy eyes, and a wide crested head. Two of its arms ended with scythes and the other two with hands trailing the ethereal strings.

Ah shit, that’s a Gehenna!

The Gehenna manifested new strings from its hands and whipped them with frightening speed at the Slayer. The razor-sharp strings sliced through the reinforced walls and him alike. His ARMOR broke and his HEALTH fell to 65.

There were still plenty of living demons and the two Preachers’ psionic emissions were healing their wounds. The Slayer retreated from the Gehenna and tossed a siphon grenade into the living horde to focus his attention on the Preachers. He needed to kill them before they healed the entire mob or manifested any Evil Eyes.

“You cannot oppose evil with the strength of man alone!

Opposing evil with man’s strength and not God’s leads only to damnation!”

The Goetic Troopers slashed their blade chains as he approached. The Slayer darted side to side and parried the strikes that came close, but one of the Preachers manifested a Fireblu torch and blinded the Slayer before striking him with its chain. His ARMOR which had risen to 43 fell to 17.

DEMONIC MALWARE DETECTED

MALWARE TYPE: VIRUS

EFFECT: DISABLES POWER-UPS

Shit!

The Slayer prepared to strafe away when the Preacher suddenly ran up to him and grabbed hold of his head to force him to look at it.

“LOOK AT ME WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU, BOY!”

…

Feeling something ancient and acidic rising in his chest, the Slayer headbutted the Preacher to throw it off before dropkicking it, equipping the chaingun, and opening fire at point-blank range onto the pinned demon. The demon howled and convulsed in agony as thirty millimeter rounds reduced its torso and head to scorched pulp, but the Slayer did not let go of the trigger until nothing remained of the priest save a smoking bloodstained crater.

A Sawcubus cut its way through the mob and leapt at the Slayer but he struck it down and passed his own chainsaw through the shrieking demon to recover munitions.

The last Preacher warped away but the Gehenna was still hot on the Slayer’s trail. He equipped the chaingun and carved a path through the horde of marionettes towards the Hell Lord, incendiary rounds piercing through the puppets and cremating them into ash. The Gehenna whipped its razor strings at the Slayer as he approached, but he ducked, dodged, and jumped over these as they swung past and fired the chaingun at the Hell Lord. RATATATATATAT! The Gehenna buckled under the barrage and teleported away. He whipped around with the Screamer in hand and triggered its alt fire.

“ROOAAHH!” BOOM!!

The Gehenna was instantly vaporized beneath the blast waves of a dozen explosive souls. Its ethereal strings were severed and the undead marionettes crumbled to dust.

Ha! Two out of three Hell Lords down! He only had the last Preacher to find and then he could-

A suspicious blue figure fleeted through the hall.

Huh?

The Slayer glanced at the fiery red glow of a Forgotten Soul and sniped it out of the air. He launched an echo drone and tossed several grenades to thin out the approaching mob.

That spectral blue being. It wasn’t an Ethereal Soul, Ghoul, Ghost, or Spectre. But that could only mean…

The demons throughout the labs suddenly shuddered and turned again towards the Slayer with ethereal blue auras around their bodies as the spectral blue Summoner revealed itself.

A SPIRIT SUMMONER!!

“RAAAWWWHHH!”

The Spirit withdrew into the body of a Chainstrosity and the possessed demon fled into the advancing horde. The Slayer switched to the chaingun and opened fire on the mob, but the demons were augmented by the Spirit’s latent power and resisted his attacks. They did not falter under the storm of bullets, and even their weak destructible components refused to break. The cannons on Ghoul Revenants continued to fire vortex beams and Cyber Pinkies’ backsides did not shatter.

And the second Preacher’s psionic emitters continued to heal the horde! He needed to kill it soon but-

It was gone. He’d seen the Preacher running along the left side of the laboratory but it was nowhere to be seen.

No, there! Its partially invisible shape concealed by a Cloak Drone! The Slayer equipped the HAR and broke the Cloak Drone with a precision bolt just as a pitch-black cloud of nanoparticles swept through the corridors and reduced the Slayer’s senses to nothing. A Blackout Drone!

The Slayer frowned and turned on his Clearsight to find two Evil Eyes already staring at him from the path along the Preacher’s escape route. His Clearsight eliminated their distracting effects, but their cursed gazes still ticked away at his HEALTH while the Disciples fired psychic beams at him. 84. 81. 77. He closed one Evil Eye with the HAR and destroyed the other with a Guass shot. Running down the halls in the direction the nanite cloud seemed to emanate from, the Slayer hurried into an open portal and emerged on the floor above in front of the ellipsoid Blackout Drone. A Blood Punch shattered the drone and brought down its obscuring nanite cloud just in time for him to watch two supply drones plunging towards him with fiery trails and sputtering red eyes.

Son of a bi…

He blocked the first Virus Drone with the Bracer but the second exploded on his back and lowered his ARMOR to 21.

DEMONIC MALWARE DETECTED

MALWARE TYPE: VIRUS

EFFECT: DISABLES ARMOR FABRICATION

No no no NO NO!

The Blackout Drone had been located in a secluded spot in the local laboratories but two strange platforms suddenly rose besides the walkway the Slayer stood on, each bearing a tall elliptical portal, and began transporting demons onto the Slayer’s position.

SHIT!

The Slayer rushed away from the Spirit-buffed demons as Forgotten Souls, Sawcubi, and Spectres swarmed around him. He fired with the Pulse Rifle as the Sentry Bot aided with its machine gun, but their ammo reserves kept falling and it’d be difficult to find an opening for the chainsaw if the demons couldn’t be faltered, not to mention dangerous if his ARMOR was impaired. He still had power-ups but he had to save those for the Annihilator!

What about Berserk? No no, without his ancient arsenal, Berserk was his only chance against the Baalgar Lord.

A Glitcher surged through one Portal Drone and the Preacher leapt through the other.

“The true path against evil isn’t with human strength and weapons, but through faith and prayer!”

Fuuuu-!

The Glitcher whipped its tentacles incessantly as the Slayer’s parries no longer faltered it. It warped erratically left and right telefragging demons along its path whose gore the Preacher then exploded with its dark magic. BOOM! With 62 HEALTH the Slayer pushed the Glitcher back with a Blood Punch and tossed a Siphon Grenade at the Preacher, but this deflected it with its blade chain and tossed it at a single Spectre. Only 13 HEALTH back.

A livid Slayer switched to the Lightning Gun and toggled its microwave mode before aiming at the Glitcher. BZZZZT! The weapon’s focused plasma stream stopped the tentacled commando in its tracks as it twitched in burning electrocution.

The Lightning Gun was still effective in stunning Spirit-buffed demons!

The Glitcher exploded with a forceful blast and the Spirit emerged from its body, but before the Slayer could aim the Lightning Gun at it the two Disciples surged towards him with flashing cross knives and blocked his shot. The Spirit withdrew into the Preacher and the Slayer’s HEALTH fell to 47.

DEMONIC MALWARE DETECTED

MALWARE TYPE: WORM

EFFECT: HUD JAMMING

His HUD scrambled into an undecipherable mess of glitching text and icons. His ammo counts vanished and the Slayer was completely lost as to his already-low ammo reserves.

“‘For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness!’”

The Disciples’ psionic emissions hastened the already Spirit-buffed horde but the Preacher set its emissions to harm the nearby Slayer. The Portal Drones continued to warp demons onto his position but he couldn’t divert his attention from the three Goetic Troopers. He had no ARMOR, no HUD, Saving Throw was spent, his ammo pools were low and obscured, and his HEALTH kept falling. He switched to the chaingun and opened fire but before long the trigger clicked emptily and the smoking weapon spun down. Firing the BFG in such an enclosed environment would be impractical. He had power-ups and Berserk was ready, but he needed to save those for the Annihilator!

The malware virus finally wore off and the Slayer tossed a siphon grenade before briefly electrifying one of the Disciples and passing his chainsaw through its torso, but the Spirit-buffed Trooper broke free of its stun and slashed at the Slayer’s face before it was cut in two. 36 HEALTH.

“You do not oppose evil in a path of holy righteousness! You do so for your own glory!

In a power fantasy in search of more power!”

He held his arm back to launch a Siphon Grenade but the Preacher struck him with its chain and lowered his HEALTH to 12.

DEMONIC MALWARE DETECTED

MALWARE TYPE: VIRUS

EFFECT: DISABLES EQUIPMENT

The Siphon Grenade forming in the Slayer’s hand dissipated as the Sentry Bot on his shoulder shrieked in electrocution and powered off.

There was the briefest pause before a flash of scarlet lightning and a brilliant red light.

The Slayer surged through the horde like a blazing meteor with diabolical black claws sprouting from his hands. He had switched out Lethal Force and Momentum Swing for God Speed and Dark Claw, the first rune scorching all the demons in his wake as the latter rended them apart beneath wickedly long blades.

The last Disciple switched its psionic emissions from hastening demons to slowing him down, but the Berserked Slayer rushed unimpeded through the pulsating frequencies and sliced the Goetic Trooper into rinds of flesh and armor. A Chainstrosity raised its saws to parry but his claws passed through these and its body in a single swipe, shred a Spectre apart, dismembered another Glitcher into mincemeat.

Two Ghouls and a squad of Z-Secs phased through a lab wall but a blazing Slayer raced after them and sliced through the reinforced wall with a single slash of his hands. He stabbed his claws into one Z-Sec and tossed it at its squad before stabbing another Sawcubus and throwing it at the Ghouls. The two demons erupted in spiked tendrils that harpooned a dozen others and dragged them into a fiery implosion. BOOM!

A line of Fireblu torches and two Evil Eyes ignited on a walkway above but the Slayer merely slashed from below and the hazards fell apart and combusted.

BOOM! The piles of corpses around the Slayer erupted in bursts of arcane energy. He turned around to find the final injured Preacher, missing an arm but still raising its cross blade towards the Slayer. He extended his claws with a metallic shink and charged at the Trooper.

“‘The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear-?!’”

With one swipe he cut its legs away. With another he sliced off its arm, and finally he reached upward and brought his claws down through the screaming demon’s torso.

Lightning arced across the Slayer’s skin and he recoiled in burning agony.

BOOM!

The remainder of his Berserk energy was released in a scorching blast that razed the wrecked laboratories around him. Piles of equipment and gore were burned away to leave the dim labs thick with smoke and ashes. The Slayer panted heavily as the Dark Claws retracted and the flames over himself extinguished.

Lazarus Labs…clear.

The Sentry Bot sputtered and whirred back to life, blinking its eye before buzzing sharply at the wreckage around them. It glanced at the clawed walls and shredded armor before turning inquisitively at the Slayer. He tiredly shrugged his shoulders and glanced at a blue glow at the corner of his eyes.

The Spirit Summoner was still alive and turned confusedly as it searched for living demons to boost or possess. The deck was empty, and the Slayer frowned before equipping the Lightning Gun. The Spirit immediately spun around and cowered. It backed away as the Slayer slowly advanced, raising its arm out as if that would stop him. He toggled the gun’s microwave beam mode and pulled the trigger.

BZZZZZT POWW!

A burst of spectral energy, an echoing shriek, and nothing.

The Slayer sighed and checked his ammo reserves as the malware worm wore off and his HUD returned to normal. At least Berserk had boosted his HEALTH back to 100.

Now to beat a fully awake Baalgar Lord without Berserk.

* * *

Ruby rushed through the halls as the Lazarus facility continued to shake and rumble. The sounds of machine guns, shotguns, and rocket explosions thundered close by. The dim ceiling lights sputtered weakly and something horrific roared from above.

“ROOOWWWHHH!” A Gore Golem had risen on the surface.

Ignore it, ignore it! We have to shut the Refractor down!

She kicked down the gate to the final reactor and entered the large chamber.

Dr. Betruger was waiting patiently in front of the roaring reactor, his lab coat billowing furiously but otherwise standing completely still, holding both arms behind his back as he stared smugly at Ruby. He was surrounded by dozens of zombies, Nightmare Imps, Glitchers, and other horrific demons staring intently but idly at her, no doubt awaiting the doctor’s orders.

His body was completely rejuvenated. His back was straight, his figure slim, and a full head of black hair on his scalp. But although his skin was young and unwrinkled, it was deathly pale. His smile uncannily extended far wider than seemed possible, and his formerly clouded right eye was now black with a red iris.

“You are too late, Agent!” He shouted in a reverberating voice. “The Annihilator is awake! Once it breaks free of that wretched prison, it will scorch this planet and lead these legions to Earth!”

“The Doom Marine will stop it!” Ruby shouted with the bitter tastes of fear and doubt in the back of her throat. “He’s survived the invasion! He’ll kill the Annihilator!”

“Before you try to convince me, try to convince yourself, Agent! You doubt the Slayer’s capacity, and well you should! The Annihilator is Hell’s mightiest warrior, rebuilt with the UAC’s finest armament! It’ll squash the Slayer like a bug!”

“Even if it does…you will all be landlocked! Demons cannot cross outer space!” She shouted desperate to buy time.

“Space…what do you know about space, Agent? What do you know about that which lies beyond the veil of perception? Past the placid island of your own ignorance?

I was the one who saw beyond! It was in Project Heaven Stairway where I unlocked the higher dimensions concealed within this universe and witnessed such marvelous vistas! Such wonderful sights!

Life! Everywhere!

Entire ecosystems thriving in the darkness between worlds! In the cores of stars and within event horizons! From the quantum foam to the cosmic filaments! Civilizations of past and future hidden in their own microcosms!

And through it all, Hell’s touch, spread across the cosmos.

You would be surprised, Agent. The powers that be aren’t ALL opposed to the Dark Realm.”

A Nightmare Imp growled at her and Betruger caressed the demon with his right hand.

“That is why I changed my focus from hyperphysics to biotech. That is why I accepted the Imperatrix’s blessing. Hell will devour Earth, but I will reshape life to spread Hell’s glory and sing the melodies of the dark universe!”

“You’re insane!”

“Why? Because I found the truth? Because I’ve seen things you couldn’t possibly understand?

Or is it because when I take a life, it’s not under direct orders? Like a soldier?”

Ruby gasped.

“Heh. ‘Religion.’ ‘Morality.’ ‘Civilization.’ ‘Science.’ All illusions to create a false sense of order, to escape the fact that we live in a world without rhyme or reason. A world of pure chaos.

Great minds break the laws of man as they please, Agent. What makes you think the laws of nature are any different?”

“Agent! Hiro’s at the Refractor control room!” Shouted the scientist over Ruby’s radio. “I did what you asked and placed the cross inside a reservoir tank for the facility’s water lines!”

Ruby returned to combat alertness. “Stand by!”

She flicked the Hellshot upwards and fired a single shot at one of the fire detectors on the ceiling.

BRRRRNNNNGGGG!

The fire alarm rang and water began sprinkling from the ceiling, landing on Ruby and the demons surrounding Betruger and causing their skin to steam.

“Aaaarrgh!”

The possessed soldiers groaned and thrashed as their bodies began to crack and fall smoking to the floor. The Nightmares Imps shrieked as their skin boiled and their bodies crumbled to ash. Ruby grimaced under the stinging rain but Betruger appeared completely unaffected, amusingly raising his hand against the drizzle as only the two remained.

“Holy water?

Agent, didn’t you know…

That oil floats on water?”

Betruger began rising into the air. His feet rested on nothing yet he and the surrounding corpses rose without explanation, the reactor flashing behind him illuminating the drizzle and giving the impression of lightning.

“Did you perhaps think God would forgive you, Agent?

God is not here.”

Betruger moved his right hand in a wave-like fashion, which to Ruby’s horror became skeletal and black.

“I am.”

The doctor closed his horrendous right hand into a fist and the clear rain falling from the ceiling turned a sinister shade of red as a metallic smell filled the air. It no longer stung. Ruby looked down at her feet and found herself stepping in puddles of blood.

“I…who have returned from the void.”

Betruger extended his left arm, revealing a robotic hand with blue fingertips and a red thumb. Three pitch-black spheres appeared over his first three fingers contained within infernal red sigils.

“And have taken it with me.”

Ruby raised the Hellshot and opened fire as Betruger launched the three hyperspheres at her. The projectiles struck the floor and produced miniature vortices that suctioned nearby equipment and quickly exploded in blinding bursts.

Fuck me! He’s shooting black holes!

Her own fireballs struck the doctor and caused him to hiss in pain but he warped away and teleported back to ground level, floating just above the ground. He manifested another three hyperspheres over his hand and launched them at Ruby but she reflexively parried them with the Vorpal Sword, which was fully charged from her fight against Rogers. The three orbs bounced off the blade and two struck the walls but one burst and exploded against the doctor, causing him to yell and falter back.

Ruby charged towards the doctor and swung the Vorpal Sword at his chest while triggering its power slash, watching almost in slow motion as Betruger split his torso diagonally before the sword even touched him and the crackling red blade flew right through.

“What?!”

Bone, flesh, and his coat reconnected once the sword had passed and the doctor was completely unharmed. She swung again and again, at his arms, neck, chest and stomach, but Betruger kept splitting his body to avoid Ruby’s strikes, always reuniting without the faintest scar or drop of blood and laughing all the while. She noted his head itself didn’t split but always moved sideways or separated at the neck to evade her sword.

“Ha!”

Betruger raised a foot and kicked Ruby in the stomach with incredible force, knocking her back as he teleported back into the air. She dug the sword into the ground to regain her footing but Betruger’s left hand cast a purple glow and siphoned nearby debris and metal scrap into a crackling mass almost a meter across.

“You can’t resist the PULL of madness!” Betruger cackled before launching the accretion mass at Ruby. She rushed out of the way as the projectile flew towards her and arced in its trajectory to land directly behind her to explode in a burst of energy and shrapnel, but Betruger had already formed another mass. She triggered Overclock and outran the projectile’s explosion while firing the Hellshot at Betruger and landing several successful hits. The doctor caught fire and he warped to extinguish himself but Ruby kept shooting.

Betruger held his monstrous right hand out and began siphoning her fireballs into a growing sphere of howling flame while forming a third accretion mass with his other arm. Overclock wore off but Ruby stood her ground as the third crackling debris sphere soared towards her. She triggered Reactive Armor and focused a Power Slam to deliver it directly onto the projectile, destroying it as her suit’s shielding negated the flying shrapnel, and revealing the burning orb of soulfire that Betruger had followed the accretion mask with.

Ruby yelled but took the full force of the ethereal projectile as it bypassed her defenses, searing her body and filling her mind with tormented voices.

“What do you think, Agent? This is the suffering you’ve created! The legacy of the UAC! And it’s all thanks to YOU!”

Betruger warped back to the ground and rushed at a stunned Ruby while swinging his clawed arm, but she broke out of her stun and raised the sword to block the doctor’s strike.

CLANG!

She grunted as the attack landed incredibly heavy and Betruger made no reaction to having struck solid metal, only smiling as her sword sparked against his skeletal black hand.

“Oh? Your reactions are even faster than I expected. Let’s see you keep up with this!”

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Betruger darted side to side on his toes swiping at Ruby with both hands at incredible speed, stabbing and slashing from every angle. Ruby successfully parried his attacks but found herself getting pushed back and was unable to find an opening herself. The doctor raised a foot and kicked at her, which she blocked but was pushed back by regardless. She skidded to a halt besides a discarded belt of arc grenades, grabbed one and rapidly tossed it at Betruger.

ZAP! “Urrgh!”

The grenade landed and electrocuted the doctor. Ruby triggered Overclock and blazed forward to fiercely swing the Vorpal Sword on Betruger, her attacks landing on flesh and bone and releasing sprays of blood.

It’s working!

Ruby could see the wounds close but there was heavy scarring and his coat wasn’t mending. Knowing she was doing damage, she aimed her sword upward and struck Betruger’s head.

“Aah!”

Betruger riled back free of his electrocution. Bending over, he touched the wound on the side of his head and studied his bloody fingertips. The sword hadn’t gone through, but it was a hit and the wound remained.

“Mmm-hmm.

Not bad, Agent.

Let’s see how you deal with the full FORCE OF GRAVITY!”

Betruger warped back into the air and raised his right hand as the debris around Ruby started to float. Her eyes widened and she rushed out of the way as Betruger negated the gravity across the wide space, raising debris and corpses high into the air before forcefully slamming them back on the ground with a heavy BOOM. The debris crashed and bodies splattered against the ground to drop spare medpacks and grenades.

Betruger cast another three black spheres in his hand and launched them at Ruby who swerved past their explosions and picked up a stray medigel syringe from the ground. She injected it into her arm and sighed in relief before aiming the Hellshot back again at the doctor.

PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW!

Her shots landed while Betruger continued launching hyperspheres at her. She dashed out of their way while deflecting the ones that came too close back at the doctor.

“Urrgh! Agent! I think you DROPPED THIS!”

Betruger formed an accretion mass and tossed it at Ruby. She activated Overclock and blazed away from the projectile’s explosion. Betruger tossed another mass and she shattered it with a Power Slam. He launched the third sphere and Ruby jumped over it while aiming the Hellshot.

Betruger grinned as violet electricity arced across his left hand.

Ruby gasped and quickly drew the Vorpal Sword as the doctor cast the crackling lightning bolt at her, holding the blade aloft and successfully blocking the strike. To her surprise, the electricity remained contained on the blade. Hurrying while she still had a clear line-of-sight to Betruger, Ruby slashed the sword and returned the lightning bolt back at him.

BZZT!! “AAAH!”

Betruger groaned and fell back to ground with electricity leaping across his body, but Ruby charged in with Vorpal Sword at the ready and fixed her eyes on his sparking robotic hand.

Left hand rule!

SHINK!

Successful hit. A singed and heavily scarred Betruger stumbled back with a sparking robotic stump where his left hand once was. Ruby summoned the discarded hand into her own and crushed it beneath her claws.

“Mmm hmm-hmm ha ha ha ha HA HA HA HA HAA!

NOW I'M MAD!"

Another skeletal black hand sprouted from the stump on the doctor’s arm and he slashed at Ruby. CLANG CLANG CLANG! She dashed back but Betruger split his arms lengthwise into multiple pieces and extended them to strike at her from a distance.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!”

Swish swish! The clawed hands cut through her suit and slashed at her body. She stumbled back before drawing the Vorpal Sword again and parrying the relentless assault. CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG! The arms withdrew but now Betruger’s legs charged at her while his upper half remained floating from a distance.

POW! POW! POW! The legs kicked and swiped at her with skeletal black feet while one of the doctor’s extended arms tried to flank her. POW! Swish! She blocked the hit but took the arm attack to the back. The arm and legs returned to their owner and Betruger shuddered and cackled before transforming into a gigantic skeletal black beast with a grotesquely thin body and a pale, black-eyed, uncannily grinning head.

“ROOOWWWHHH!!”

“AAAAHH!”

The monster roared and warped towards her but Ruby fell back and opened fire with the Hellshot. Her fireballs landed and released sprays of dark fluid but the monster continued and swiped at the floor and equipment with its massive claws trying to hunt her down. She kept pulling the trigger and set the monster on fire, which roared and writhed before shrinking and transforming back into the doctor.

“To dust you shall return!”

Betruger raised his hands and produced gravity-negation fields throughout the chamber focused on Ruby, where he reduced gravity and then greatly increased it to send any captured objects crashing back down. Ruby rolled and strafed out of these fields before they captured her and fired the Hellshot at Betruger. PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! The doctor’s coat was entirely burned and his body seemingly barely holding together. He groaned and extended his arms at Ruby to slash at her, but she leapt over his attacks and took aim before launching the Vorpal Sword directly at his heart.

Shink! “AAH!” The sword landed and sunk up to its hilt in Betruger’s chest before Ruby summoned it back in a wide spray of blood. The doctor retracted his arms and fell to his knees as blood soaked his coat but he growled and transformed back into the skeletal black beast.

“ROOOWWW-!” ZAP! Ruby tossed an arc grenade and stopped the monster in its tracks. She triggered Reactive Armor and charged in as the creature swiftly broke free and swiped at her, but she was ready.

CLANG! Shink! Its right arm flew off. CLANG! Shink! The left arm followed.

“ROOOWWWHHH!!”

As the monster roared in pain, she swung the sword and sliced its legs off before focusing a Power Slam and delivering straight into the monster’s chest. The dismembered creature flew back and transformed into a gravely injured Betruger as Ruby triggered Overclock and rushed in with Vorpal Sword at the ready.

Shink! Shink shink shink shink! The black blade carved through flesh and bone as Betruger’s torso and limbs fell apart. The red aura over the Vorpal Sword reached maximum intensity and Ruby triggered its power slash before slicing through Betruger’s neck.

“AAAH-!” SHINK!

The doctor’s body exploded in a multitude of fragments while his head clattered and rolled away on the floor. The fragments did not regenerate and the head was still and silent. It was over.

Ruby sighed and moved onward to the reactor control panel. She initiated the self-destruct procedure and stabbed the Vorpal Sword into the controls.

“Hiro, it’s done,” Ruby spoke into her radio. “The final reactor is offline. Shut the Refractor down. Once you’re done, meet me outside the exit elevator.”

“Copy that, Agent.”

“Lazarus Refractor power at 0%. Shut off procedure initiated,” spoke the automated facility voice. “Refractor powering down.”

I can’t believe it, we actually shut the Refractor down! The signal interfering with the flight network should be gone now! We can finally evacuate!

Ruby moved to exit the chamber when she heard a coarse laughing behind her.

“Heh. Heh heh ha ha HA HA HA HA HA!”

She turned around in horror to find Betruger’s head still alive and staring directly at her with that same diabolical smile.

“This fight is only just begun.” Beneath his hacking voice spoke another, a dreadful and ancient voice that seemed to rise from the fires of Hell itself. The room shook and Ruby raised her arms as a colossal piece of machinery crashed through the far wall, reaching out and grabbing Betruger’s cackling head with what appeared to be massive claws.

“Twas brillig and the slithy toves!

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe!

All mimsy were the borogoves!”

The claws hooked the doctor’s head to a writhing mass of cables and tendrils that then closed behind several layers of flesh and metal plates. Ruby stared in horror and finally broke into a run as the blaring reactor incandesced and she heard the low whirr of powering machinery.

She triggered Overclock and Reactive Armor as the facility exploded behind her and Betruger’s laugh fell in pitch to something utterly demonic.

“AND THE MOME RATHS OUTGRABE!!”

* * *

“You’re almost there! Keep going!”

I rushed through the Tower as I closed onto the peak. Deimos’ tentacles writhed in the distance and the whole moon seemed to heave. The Tower swayed perilously on its base and I knew it wouldn’t hold much longer.

I broke into a chamber containing a multitude of smooth black surfaces hanging from the ceiling, which unexpectedly ignited to depict a familiar silhoutte of a horned humanoid demon.

The Ravager!

“Well done, little drone!” The Deraki warlord’s voice echoed all around. “Besting my troops, surviving a Parasite Moon on your own! It is almost commendable!”

I clenched my hands into fists.

“Unfortunately, this hunt has come to an end.

This lost moon awakens and my forces must depart soon, but I will give you one chance to prove your worth.

Meet me at the peak. If you are ready.”

The screens shut off and went silent.

“I bet you’re gonna tell me that it’s a trap and I shouldn’t go, right?”

“RRRROOOHHHWWW!!”

“MOVE YOUR FUCKING ASS, SOLDIER!” Colonel Johnson’s voice roared through the transmitter. “FIND THAT GOOD-FOR-NOTHING LOWLIFE AND BEAT HIS ASS!”

“That’s what I like to hear!”

I fired my jets and raced towards the peak.

* * *

“Taylor!”

“Agent!”

“GUYS!”

Ruby rushed forward and embraced the scientist as she reunited with her team. The three had rendezvoused outside the elevator that would take them back to the Archives and hopefully to the surface.

“Great work, you two! I couldn’t have done it without you!”

“Come on! Let’s get the hell out of here!”

At that moment the automated facility voice interrupted.

“Lazarus Refractor auxiliary energy detected. Power at 30% and rising. Refractor resuming normal function.”

Ruby’s heart sank.

“What?! No no NO!” Yelled Romero. “We shut it down! It said- Agent! Did you disable all the reactors?!”

“I did! The Refractor only has three power sources and I destroyed them all! It shouldn’t still be active!”

“HA HA HA HA HA!” Betruger’s grave and dreadfully altered voice echoed from the darkness leading into the tall arching chamber in front of them, and the group cowered back in fear.

“DID YOU REALLY THINK I WOULD LET YOU SHUT THE REFRACTOR DOWN SO EASILY?

I WILL KEEP THE PORTAL OPEN MYSELF IF I HAVE TO!”

“ROOOAAAWWWRRR!!”

The team covered their ears as the monstrous roaring seemed to fill the world. Their eyes shook within their heads, their hearts quivered, and their bodies and minds seemed to go white-hot in pure terror, filling with visions of a terrible demon lord rising over the scorched surface of Mars.

The terror and visions passed, but they then heard the footsteps of something gigantic and mechanical approaching from the darkness beyond. Enormous claws scraping the ground and the clinking noises of something large and metallic.

“You two need to get out of here!” Ruby shouted as she pushed the others towards the elevator. “You’ve done all you can! Get to the surface and find a shuttle to the Spaceport!”

“Taylor, what do you think you’re doing?!” Romero yelled as he pushed against Ruby.

“I’m going to stop Betruger! You go on ahead! I’ll catch up!”

“We ARE NOT leaving you behind! We’re a team! We stay together!”

“Hiro, you don’t know what’s coming! I can’t ask you to-!”

“FUCK ALL THAT! We’re staying with you! If it costs us our lives to keep this thing from reaching Earth, so be it!”

Ruby stopped pushing the gunslinger back.

She sighed. “You bastard. I knew you’d say something stupid like that.”

Romero cast a sly grin and nodded at her. She returned the smile.

“Wait-!” Started the scientist, but Ruby had already thrown a right hook at Romero’s jaw and knocked him unconscious, though careful as to not injure him. She caught the gunslinger as he fell and gently set him inside the elevator.

“You have to get him to the surface!” Ruby told the shocked scientist. “Find the docked shuttle in the Helix Labs, take it to the Spaceport, and find an evac shuttle! Don’t wait for me!”

“Agent, wait-!”

“Listen to me!” She reached in and clasped the young woman’s hands. “He’s unconscious! He needs you! He’ll be up in a few minutes but until then, you have to keep him safe! The two of you can make it!”

“I can’t! I’m not a soldier! I can’t do this without you!”

The scientist wept softly, and Ruby gazed quietly as heavy footsteps continued approaching from behind.

“Miss…what is your name?”

“Huh?”

“Your name? I never did find out. What is it?”

The young woman gasped and looked up at Ruby, a tear rolling down her eye.

“Elena.

My name is Elena.”

Ruby smiled and gazed warmly at Elena, gently lifting her chin up.

She had never seen anything so beautiful in her life.

“Elena…I’m Ruby.

It’s nice to meet you.”

Ruby reached forward and kissed Elena.

The scientist gasped in bewilderment, but Ruby placed her arm around Elena’s waist and pulled her close, letting her fingers run through the scientist’s thick black hair.

The sounds of the roaring and the shaking facility seemed to fade away with a warmth that spread from Ruby’s lips across her whole body, her spirits lifting with newfound strength and vigor, though her heart ached with a deep and anguished sorrow.

image [https://i.imgur.com/sNisqnt.png]

Weeping, she tore herself free from the scientist and pushed her into the elevator before summoning Romero’s LXR knife into her hand.

CLOSE.

The windowed gate shut in front of Ruby and she smashed the control panel as the elevator rose with the evacuating Romero and Elena.

“Agent!”

“I hope you’ll forgive me,” Ruby whispered to the quickly rising scientist. Claws scraped the ground and growling echoed behind her, and she turned around as the monster finally revealed itself.

“Oh my God…Oh my God!”

It was a reptilian cybernetic demon at least seven meters tall but whose full length was much greater, its long serpentine neck scraping against the chamber’s ceiling. Its body was composed of gnarled brown flesh implanted with UAC-made armor plating and machinery. Its two arms ended in metallic talons almost as long as Ruby, and the empty eyeholes on its four-horned humanoid skull resembled the very pits of Hell.

The Maledict opened its jaw and Betruger’s distorted voice thundered from within.

“BEHOLD WHAT HAPPENS TO ALL WHO OPPOSE HELL’S MIGHT!”

Lightning gathered within its maw and the monster raised its head at the departing elevator.

“NOOO!!”

FEWW! BOOM!

A green fireball suddenly erupted against the back of the Maledict’s head and the monster roared in pain as it stumbled forward. Ruby rolled out of the way of a massive clawed hand and looked upward to see the intact elevator finally disappear out of view.

They’re safe.

The Maledict roared and turned its head around towards the armored green figure who’d shot it.

It was Staff Sergeant Grimm, wearing his old helmet and holding a steel-gray firearm that cast a familiar green light. An ancient plasma grenade launcher with a Y-shaped barrel.

A BFG-2005!

“Hey you, old snake! Remember me?!”

“YOU.” Hissed the Maledict. “I KNOW YOU. YOU WERE THERE THIRTY YEARS AGO.

I WATCHED YOU FALL INTO THE HELLGATE! I WATCHED YOU DIE!”

“Oh, you can't kill the Reaper,” replied the Sergeant through an unmistakable grin. “Remember this?” Grimm reached behind his back and held out the floating Soul Cube, which spun its blades as it was presented to the Maledict.

“THE SOUL OF THE PRAELEANTHOR.”

“That’s right! It’s the only thing that can kill you right about now, isn’t it?

Why don’t you come get it?”

“GRRRRRR!!”

The Maledict slinked around to chase after the Sergeant, who lowered the Soul Cube and broke into a run while yelling at Ruby.

“Get out of here! Run!”

Ruby ducked under the Maledict’s tail as the monster snapped and clawed at Grimm, who ducked and leapt over its attacks as he led the demon towards the Refractor.

He won’t last long on his own! I have to help him!

Ruby spotted a sign beside her leading to another deck.

ATLAS DOCKING BAY

An ATLAS mech!

Ruby gasped and raced towards the deck.

* * *

The gate to the Refractor control deck was already open. The Slayer squeezed through the pried blast doors and jogged down a short corridor towards the control station overlooking the Lazarus Refractor, a massive dark sphere crackling with scarlet energy. The terminals indicated that the Refractor’s three power sources were offline and the shut-off procedure had been initiated, though the machine clearly remained active.

“I am handling the situation,” assured Hayden. “Don’t worry about the Refractor. Get to the Labyrinth and face the Annihilator.”

The Slayer scowled but moved on and left the whirring Refractor behind. Following the HUD marker, he took a short detour leading to the Labyrinth entrance and jumped into a tall elevator that promptly closed behind him and plunged downwards.

“You will need to rip out the Argent Accumulator powering the Cyberdemon. Destabilizing the core will cause a rift in the Labyrinth that will send you back to Hell.

I have found a suitable return point and have configured the transporter to bring you back approximately forty-five minutes from now. Once the Crucible is in your possession, your Suit’s tether system will automatically activate, and we will pull you out.”

Forty-five minutes, huh? The Slayer could spend another eternity in Hell before he found the Crucible, but once it was in his hands, Hayden would summon him back and only forty-five minutes on Mars would have passed.

A lot could happen in only forty-five minutes.

The elevator came to a halt with a loud thud and the heavy gates opened. The Slayer stepped forward into an ancient Martian portal facility taking the form of a tall domed chamber, with glowing arches above and inscribed spirals on the floor leading to the central focus. Space within the chamber visibly shook and thundered from a concealed presence that hammered on it from higher dimensions.

There was no mistaking it. The Slayer recognized that presence.

He hurried towards the central focus and placed his hand on the dial, activating the transporter’s launch procedure as the hieroglyphs ignited and the chamber crackled with energy.

The Slayer grimly hoped Hayden and the two AIs could manage the crisis.

The Sentry Bot beeped with excitement and the two were cast into the Labyrinth.

* * *

I shot a burst of missiles at the ceiling above me and broke through to the peak of the Tower.

It was a large flat clearing easily two hundred meters wide with fortified walls around the perimeter, mounted with the mutilated corpses of giant demon lords resembling horned red Hell Knights. A multitude of spires rose from the ground towards the colossal black sphere crackling with lightning on the sky above. The sphere hung over the whole Tower peak and was surrounded by the roiling storm clouds that loomed over the damned moon.

A small platoon of Deraki soldiers stood in front of a smaller crackling portal in front of me, projected beneath one of their downward-pronged destroyer ships, and the commanding figure standing in the middle turned around as I arrived.

“So, human. You finally arrive.” Growled the Ravager.

“Cut the shit, demon! I’m taking that portal and heading back home! Send all the guys you want, you’re not stopping me!”

“So fierce! So determined!” Exclaimed the Ravager as it approached me with its dozen troops following close behind. “You would have made an excellent warrior!”

“If you like my fighting so much, why don’t you come here and have another taste?!” I primed the Dagger Throw spell and toggled my guns to missile launchers. “I seem to remember kicking your ass last time! Want a rematch?!”

“Oh, I am COUNTING on it!” The Deraki warriors around the Ravager likewise primed their weapons and spells to attack, and the warlord extended the baton on its arm and then disengaged it to reveal a crackling spiked warhammer.

“Little drone.”

I launched a burst of missiles but the Ravager leapt into the air and plunged towards my position. I dashed backwards just as its warhammer slammed the ground on my position and cracked the thick rock.

“SHIT!”

“He’s had an upgrade!” Shouted Colonel Johnson.

I fired several blasts of crystalline daggers at the Deraki warriors before following with a flame wave. Four of the weaker soldiers immediately perished but the rest dodged the attacks and the Ravager blocked them entirely with its deployable arm shield.

“Human!” Yelled the warlord’s cycloptic lieutenant, the Desolator, as it charged at me with burning claws extended. “We meet again!”

I made a fist and threw it at the demon, but the illusion dispelled and revealed the Ravager rushing towards me with warhammer at the ready.

BOOM! “AAAH!”

My overshield broke, my mana was disabled, and I took the heavy hit to my chassis. I flew back and crashed on one of the spires as the Deraki closed in.

“Drain him but keep your distance!” The Ravager commanded its troops, and two Deraki Viles manifested their fire chains to bind me and drain my mana.

“Wouldn’t want to catch this!” I opened my chassis and extended the spinning Heart of Lothar, fully charged after absorbing the souls of three of the four slain Deraki.

“RAAAAAAHHHHHH!!”

The fully charged soul blast eviscerated another two Deraki and faltered the two Viles binding me, breaking their chains and releasing me as the Heart restored my wounds and my mana returned. Two more Ancient Deraki summoned a pack of Velcores and Hellions but I was ready.

“Are those guys your friends?! CUZ THEY’RE ABOUT TO BE MINE!”

I cast my new Subjugate spell on the two Velcores and immediately brought the demonic beasts under my will, commanding them to turn on their Deraki beastmasters. I extended my left arm and briefly drained the Ravager’s life force to regain some health and mana but the demon raised its arm shield to break the beam and I jumped into the sky to fight the winged Desolator.

“You cannot face me in the air! The skies are mine!”

The demon aimed its arm blaster and fired several blue fireballs at me, but I dashed out of their path and deflected the last one back at it with a slash of my knife. The Desolator faltered back and I dashed towards it while extending my knife into its spear mode. I stabbed the demon and then plunged towards the ground with my burning dive spell with the Deraki still pinned to the spear.

“AAAAHH!” BOOM! I struck the ground in a heavy explosion directly on top of the Desolator, which bled viciously but was still alive.

“About time someone brought you back down to earth!”

PEWW! “AAH!”

The Ravager shot me with a blazing orb of soulfire from its Reaper rifle, a new alternate firing mode that bypassed my overshield and set my chassis in flames. I thrashed desperately trying to put the flames out, too distracted to notice the Ravager charging with its crackling warhammer.

BOOM!

The warlord struck me again and blasted me off the Desolator. I rolled across the ground until I came to a flaming halt. My overshield and mana were disabled again and my health was reduced to half but the flames wore off and I rose to my feet.

The Ravager helped its injured lieutenant back up as its remaining troops withdrew behind them.

“This is where we depart, little drone. The gateway will close soon and I have a bargain to upkeep.”

“Leaving so soon, coward?!” I sneered while cracking my knuckles. “I’m just getting started!”

“I’ll have you know, human,” grunted the injured Desolator as it weakly pointed at me, “that sometimes, cowards, do survive.”

“Indeed,” concurred the Ravager. “To retreat from battle would be dishonor.

But this was never a battle. This was merely a diversion.”

I became aware of a slow thudding that shook across the ground like the footsteps of two giant feet. I turned around to find a gigantic shadow looming through the fog. Two legs, two arms. The left leg made a machine-like whirring as it stepped, and the right forearm was long and cylindrical. I caught sight of two great horns rising from the top of the shadow’s head, and six glaring red eyes ignited through the smoke.

“Now THIS is one of my friends!

Behold the Ch’tarr Clan’s Cybruiser! The guardian of this gateway and the Extinctor of the Praeleanthor!”

The smoke dissipated and the demon lord revealed itself.

“THE CYBERDEMON OF MARS!”

“ROOOAAAHHHRRR!”

The monster was eight meters of bulging red flesh. Its left leg and right arm were completely robotic, the right hand replaced with a menacing cannon apparatus. A tattered cloak hung on its shoulders, covering the remains of a wrecked back device and a severed tail stump behind its shoulders. Two horns rose over its head and two more curved beside it towards its jaws, which growled beneath the cruel gaze of six bright red eyes on a robotic face plate.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“You almost have my sympathies,” taunted the Ravager as its troops retreated through the portal. “Farewell, little drone.”

The warlord followed suit, and the portal immediately closed as the destroyer ship that projected it rose and flew off into the Hellish sky.

“ROOOAAAHHHRRR!”

With a harrowing roar into the turbulent sky, the Cybruiser turned its gaze and its cannon towards me.

* * *

FEWW! BOOM!

Staff Sergeant Grimm fired his BFG grenade launcher at the draconic monstrosity behind him as the Maledict swiped and snapped at him, shattering the ground and leaving deep cracks across the walls. He struggled to evade and leap over the monster’s attacks, let alone counterattack with the BFG, and what few shots he did land barely scratched the Maledict.

A squad of possessed soldiers shambled from the darkness but Grimm merely aimed his pulse rifle. POW! POW! POW! POW! He liquidated the five soldiers with a stream of plasmoids and held the Soul Cube out, which siphoned faint spectral essences from the smoldering corpses and quickly ignited with glowing eyes and spinning blades.

Grimm spun around and launched the Soul Cube at the Maledict.

“ROOOAAARRR!!”

The monster staggered as the Cube struck its chest and sent a shimmering pulse throughout its body that sliced its flesh and components, dealing considerable but not fatal damage.

The Soul Cube returned to Grimm’s side and the Sergeant rushed toward the sinister red glow of the Lazarus Refractor, a crackling black portal projected at the center of a colossal circular apparatus. He was trapped.

“YOU CANNOT ESCAPE!” Thundered the voice behind him as the Maledict reared back with lightning crackling within its maw. Grimm rushed out of the way but the Maledict breathed a violent stream of golden bolts that exploded against the ground the Sergeant was on. He avoided a direct hit but was struck by a stray arcing bolt and yelled in pain as he landed on the ground, suit smoking and body seared.

“DEATH WILL NOT BE YOUR END!” Shouted the Maledict as it raised a monstrous clawed hand for the finishing blow. “YOUR SOUL WILL BURN IN HELL FOREVER!”

CRASH!! A colossal machine blasted through the wall and blazed towards the Maledict shrouded in crimson flame. It held its shoulder out and rammed into the Maledict before it could crush the Sergeant and sent the howling demon flying back.

An injured but living Grimm painfully lifted himself and stared at his rescuer. A seven-meter tall heavyset ATLAS mech bearing the logos of the UAC and an Amber Sun corporation. Its armored hull was a deep red with the name “INFERNO” visible on its shoulder. The mech’s back carried a large smoking apparatus, and thin tubes carried a luminous orange fluid from it to the mech’s arms and hands. The entire mech smoldered with unmistakable Hellfire, though it appeared unharmed from its own flames.

image [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/b193ee98-825f-4d7d-a3ea-4dcc88c00fc0/dftcklo-0caaa6fd-51b9-4fc2-a2d3-0f4eb1fbf7a5.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2IxOTNlZTk4LTgyNWYtNGQ3ZC1hM2VhLTRkY2M4OGMwMGZjMFwvZGZ0Y2tsby0wY2FhYTZmZC01MWI5LTRmYzItYTJkMy0wZjRlYjFmYmY3YTUucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.SxrniuxEOSl9zi-q94P1J-962w9Qo8stNKNZa0gGeLA]

“Are you okay, Reaper?!” Shouted a voice from the Inferno.

“Wait…Taylor?!”

The mech’s cockpit opened and revealed the Elite Guard standing inside the cabin.

* * *

“What are you doing?!”

“Saving your life, that’s what!” Ruby shouted from the Inferno’s cabin as she kept an eye on the recovering Maledict.

“I don’t need your help! This is between Betruger and me!”

“Get the fuck over yourself! You have no way of beating him on your own!”

“I’LL KILL YOU BOTH!”

The Maledict focused energy into its mouth again and Ruby extended the mech’s left hand out and projected a Hellfire shield to block the incoming lightning blast. The bolts erupted against the shield and were deflected by the swirling flames, but the shield wouldn’t last long.

“GET OUT OF HERE!” She shouted. “NOW!”

Grimm grunted but rose to his feet, stumbling into an evacuation teleporter at the edge of the chamber and vanished in a blue flash.

Good luck, guys.

Ruby closed the cockpit once again and watched the cabin wallscreens ignite to show the Maledict stop firing lightning and charge towards her. Hull integrity at 100%. She powered off the flame shield and raised the right arm with a fist.

“MY TURN!”

“ROOOAAARRR!”

FFFFFFFHH!

A howling stream of Hellfire shot from the dual flamethrowers on the Inferno’s arm and scorched the Maledict, who screeched as Hellfire seared its body and plating. Ruby extended two shoulder launchers from the mech and fired two incendiary grenades at the Maledict’s position which ignited its area with flames.

“ROOOAAARRR!” A metallic tail whipped through the air and stabbed into the Inferno with the spikes on the end.

“Urrgh!” Ruby yelled as the mech lurched. A burning Maledict leapt out of Hellfire and clutched onto the Inferno, wrapping its tail around the mech and clawing violently at its hull and back apparatus. Ruby shook inside the blaring cabin as the mech took damage before the Maledict wrapped both arms around the Inferno and squeezed.

ALERT: HULL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED

75%. 66%. 51%.

Ruby toggled a switch on the mech’s controls and braced as the Inferno’s hull began glowing.

BOOM! The thermal pulse emanated from the mech seared the chamber’s walls and blasted the Maledict back and off the Inferno. Ruby launched another Hellfire stream as the demon focused energy into its maw and released a howling barrage of golden lightning which seared the mech’s hull. The Maledict raised its clawed hands and slashed at her, which Ruby dodged by deftly sidestepping and backing away from the encroaching demon. The Maledict then reared its head upwards and drew in air before releasing a resounding shriek that likewise eroded the mech’s plating and even lacerated Ruby’s body, who screamed as terrible visions and screams shot through her mind. 28% integrity.

“YOU CANNOT KILL ME, MORTAL!

THIS PORTAL WILL REMAIN OPEN! THE INVASION CANNOT BE STOPPED, NOT BY YOU, THE SLAYER, OR ANYONE ELSE!”

“I’m not trying to kill you, Malcolm,” Ruby grunted but cracked a smile as she formed an idea. “I’m just trying to knock some sense into you.”

“ROOOAAARRR!”

The Maledict prepared to cast another lightning attack but Ruby rushed forward and projected a flame shield directly on the demon’s face. The lightning was diverted by the shield which also incinerated the Maledict’s body at such close range. The monster raised its arms to claw at her but Ruby braced the Inferno and released another thermal pulse to knock the demon back. She launched two incendiary grenades on either side of the Maledict, released a short Hellfire stream to set the demon on fire, and rushed forward with fists at the ready.

SLAM! SLAM SLAM! She hammered the burning Maledict left and right with one gigantic metal fist after another, cracking its plating and gradually pushing it back towards the portal. The serpentine demon tried to slink its head away but Ruby grabbed it with one hand and pelted it repeatedly with the other. She primed the flamethrowers and released a Hellfire stream directly into the Maledict’s mouth.

The sound released from the demon shook the whole room and caused the mech to sputter and take further damage, but Ruby felt a sick satisfaction as fire erupted throughout the monster’s neck.

The Maledict raised a hand and immediately negated gravity beneath the Inferno, which began rising awkwardly into the air.

ALERT: GRAVITY GYROSCOPES MALFUNCTIONING

NON-STABILIZED IMPACT WILL RESULT IN SERIOUS HULL DAMAGE

MANUAL REORIENTATION REQUIRED

Ruby grunted and quickly fired miniature thrusters on the Inferno’s hull to correctly orient it relative to the ground before the Maledict reversed the gravity field and sent her and the mech crashing back down. She only lurched slightly from the impact thanks to the cabin’s inertia-control tech, but the reoriented mech landed firmly on its feet and avoided major damage.

The incendiary grenades Ruby had launched burned out, but a flame icon on the Inferno’s HUD indicated its ultimate ability was fully charged.

SCORCHED EARTH READY

“Fight fire with FIRE!”

Ruby raised the Inferno’s arms as the mech channeled its full Hellfire reserves and slammed them on the ground to release a roaring flame wave that engulfed the entire Maledict. The demon writhed in burning agony directly in front of the howling Refractor.

If I throw him through the portal back into Hell, he won’t be able to power the Refractor anymore!

“I’LL SEE YOU IN HELL!”

Ruby triggered the Inferno’s bullrush and charged forward with blazing speed towards the Maledict and slammed into it at full force, digging its stability spikes into the ground to come to a lurching halt but not before throwing the monster through the portal. The Maledict flew through the gate and vanished with an echoing roar that faded into silence, and the Refractor immediately began to sputter and die.

“Lazarus Refractor power at 0%. Shut off procedure initiated,” spoke the facility voice. “Refractor powering down.”

6% hull integrity.

Huh, that was close, thought a panting Ruby. Haven’t piloted one of these in years. Guess ol’ Ava’s instructions sure came in handy.

Ruby thought back to her older sister’s lessons in piloting an ATLAS, and smiled.

After all this, being a freelance Pilot doesn’t sound so bad.

She turned around to leave the Refractor chamber when something grabbed the Inferno’s leg and stopped her in her tracks. She looked down to find a giant scorched metal hand firmly digging into the mech’s hull.

“What?!”

The Maledict strenously pushed its injured head through the collapsing portal and hissed at Ruby.

“IF I GO DOWN, I’M TAKING YOU WITH ME!!”

“NOO!”

The Maledict grabbed the Inferno’s shoulder with its other hand and the two were pulled into the portal by the force of the collapsing Refractor, which went dark and exploded in an empty chamber.

* * *

The Slayer walked along the Labyrinth entryway, a short passageway occupied by UAC equipment and spotlights amidst the wider Praeleanthor cavern. He checked his automap, but he could already tell that he wasn’t technically in the Lazarus facility or even Mars anymore. He was in a pocket dimension the Martians had built to contain the Extinctor, which the UAC had retrofitted to contain the Annihilator. There were ammo crates, security armors, even a portable health station. The Slayer restocked his munitions, boosted his ARMOR to 135, and restored his HEALTH to 150. For runes, he should use God Speed, Momentum Swing, and Armored Offensive. No viruses or malware, the Praetor Suit was operating at full capacity. Worst case scenario, he could always craft a few powerups.

“ROOOAAAWWWRRR!!”

The Labyrinth rumbled as the Annihilator roared from the other side of the twenty-meter tall gates. It was basically at the door. The ancient Martian structures glowed and cracked as they struggled to maintain the structural integrity of the pocket dimension before it collapsed and released the awoken demon lord into realspace.

He turned to the Sentry Bot on his shoulder and the robot nodded.

Go time.

Bracing himself, he reached forward and ripped the hatch off the access panel before pulling the heavy lever down.

The gates hissed and with a heavy rumble they slowly slid open, but a massive bladed hand suddenly stabbed through the aperture and forced the gates open before slamming down to crush the Slayer. He caught the attack even as the ground beneath his feet cracked as he struggled to hold the tremendous weight, but the hand suddenly retracted and grabbed him in a vice-like grip before tossing him through the opening into the maze-like structure of the Labyrinth. He soared through the air and stuck the landing just as the gargantuan horned figure looked back to see what creature had blocked its attack. The monster stomped in an intimidation display, but a sweeping light from the Martian structures behind illuminated both the Slayer and the true identity of the Annihilator.

A fifteen-meter tall humanoid monster bearing thick green organic armor over its musclebound body. Its left arm was replaced by a UAC cannon assembly and its right foot bore cybernetic components, powered by the blue Argent reactor on its chest. There was a curved green blade extending from the armor over the right hand, two broad horns over its four yellow eyes, and a maw full of sharp yellow fangs.

He knew this monster. It was the shadow lord of the Titan’s Realm! He himself had slain it eons ago!

The Cyberdemon suddenly stood up straight and tilted its head in unmistakable recognition.

Then it bent down and roared at the Slayer.

“ROOOAAAWWWRRR!!”

MOTHERFUCKER!! HOW DARE IT STILL LIVE?!

The gate behind the Cyberdemon slid closed and the monster raised its arm cannon at the Slayer.

image [https://i.imgur.com/pMSjYOi.jpg]

A diagnostic reading of the Cyberdemon’s health appeared on his HUD in the form of a horizontal bar. He equipped the rocket launcher and fired.BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The Slayer landed several direct rocket hits on the Cyberdemon’s body and its impressive health bar began ticking down, but the monster likewise launched four-round volleys of its own rockets from its arm cannon at him. He strafed out of the way of the explosions and missed the monster with his next rocket shot, but he triggered the remote detonation and managed to catch the Cyberdemon in the rocket’s burst.

No effect. The Cyberdemon was vulnerable only to direct rocket hits but not their splash damage. In fact, the Slayer noticed the monster wasn’t even faltering from any of the hits. The demon suddenly stood in place as its cannon emitted four targeting lasers directly on the Slayer.

OH SHIT!

PSHEWW!! A thunderous laser beam shot from the Cyberdemon’s cannon and blasted the Slayer, immediately lowering his ARMOR to 100. The monster then ignited a flaming sword from its arm blade and swiped it to release a slicing energy wave through the air at the Slayer’s feet.

Shit!

He leapt over the energy wave just as the Cyberdemon aimed and charged another laser blast.

FUCK!

PSHEWW!! The targeting lasers ceased tracking a split second before firing and the Slayer barely swerved out of the beam’s path.

That laser was too strong. He needed to take it out if he wanted to focus on killing the Cyberdemon. As the monster continued firing rocket volleys, the Slayer equipped the chaingun and opened fire on the arm cannon.

RATATATATATATAT! The armor-piercing incendiary rounds left bright smoking trails as they erupted from the chaingun and exploded against the cannon’s plating. After several seconds of consecutive assault, the Cyberdemon aimed the targeting lasers again but the rounds perforated the cannon’s plating and caused it to spark in malfunction. The targeting lasers shut off and the central laser emitter powered down, and the broken cannon dropped a surplus of ammunition.

Now was his chance!

The Slayer rushed in as the Cyberdemon manifested the flame sword from its blade and held it back to release another flaming wave, but the Slayer equipped the Gauss Cannon and charged a siege blast before firing it at the arm blade.

PSHEWW!! CRACK! The flame sword dissipated and the arm blade shattered in a burst of shell fragments, which his HUD identified as armor pickups.

The Slayer then equipped the chaingun and aimed it at the Cyberdemon’s stomach.

RATATATATATAT! He fired unimpeded at the towering monster as it awkwardly attempted to swipe and punch at him with its arm, collecting the discarded armor and ammo pickups. It then roared and raised its left leg into the air with flame focusing in its foot.

OH SHIT!

CRASH! The Slayer strafed out of the way of the stomp but the attack still released a flaming shockwave on impact that struck him and reduced his ARMOR from 148 to 107. The Cyberdemon then suddenly darted back and aimed its broken cannon at him to fire another round of missile volleys, which struck him in their blast waves.

Shit! Even if the laser attack was disabled, the arm cannon could still shoot rockets!

In fact, the cannon appeared to be reassembling, and even the broken arm blade was regrowing from the demon’s shell.

The Cyberdemon then growled and lowered its posture before charging at blazing speed towards the Slayer.

OH FU-!

BOOM! The monster crashed against the Labyrinth wall and smashed through the thick stone, but not before striking the Slayer in its charge and spinning around to follow with a flaming stomp. 0 ARMOR and 131 HEALTH. He rushed back to regain distance just as his HUD indicated the Cyberdemon’s cannon was fully repaired and its arm blade entirely regenerated.

That was fine, the Cyberdemon’s health was at 50%! He had to keep going!

He had an idea! The Slayer equipped the Screamer and unleashed a howling barrage of souls at the monster, but the Cyberdemon held its hand out and collected the incoming souls into a screaming burning sphere.

Bad idea! Bad idea!

“RAAAHHH!!” The monster released the souls in a shotgun blast that erupted across the Labyrinth and lowered his HEALTH to 97.

Fucking bastard-!

POWW! POWW! POWW! He fired shot after shot from the Gauss Cannon at the Cyberdemon’s head. The demon flinched slightly from the attacks but did not falter and continued launching rockets at him.

It was no use! The Cyberdemon’s head was too heavily armored!

The Slayer’s eyes drifted to the exposed end of the Argent Accumulator in its chest.

What if…?

The monster’s cannon suddenly aimed four targeting lasers at the Slayer, and he desperately switched to the Gauss Cannon and fired it at the demon’s chest reactor. POWW! The cannon’s laser charge was immediately interrupted and the Cyberdemon flinched in pain as its health bar fell by a substantial amount.

“ROOOAAAWWWRRR!!”

Just as quickly though, the Cyberdemon snapped back and glared at the Slayer with blazing malice. It summoned another flame sword and released an energy wave at his head, and though he keenly ducked and slid under the wave, he failed to notice the monster bracing for its charge and rushing at him. BOOM! He attempted to dodge at the last moment but the Cyberdemon slammed him and shattered another stone wall in the shifting Labyrinth. 51 HEALTH. Still maintaining fire with the rocket launcher, the Slayer strafed towards the demon and tossed a siphon grenade at it, but the projectile uselessly sputtered and dissipated without restoring his HEALTH or ARMOR.

Damn it!

He had approached the Cyberdemon to ensure a successful hit with the siphon grenade, but the demon spun around and launched further rocket volleys. His ammo pools were running critically low and the monster was too heavily armored for plasma to be efficient.

Forget resupplying by breaking the arm cannon! The Cyberdemon was at 20% health! He had to kill it now!

The Slayer grit his teeth and Rampaged towards the monster. It manifested another flame sword and released two consecutive energy waves. One at his neck, the other at his feet. He slid under the first and leapt over the second as he strafed closer to the monster. It needed to be a direct hit to maximize damage!

“ROOOAAAWWWRRR!!”

The Cyberdemon raised its left foot and slammed it to release a searing fissure wave that cracked the stone floor and blazed past the Slayer, but he circled around the demon waiting for an opening. The monster slammed again and released two, three more fissure waves, but its cannon blocked his line of fire.

He ceased strafing and presented a middle finger to the Cyberdemon.

“ROOOAAAWWWRRR!!”

An enraged Cyberdemon aimed its arm cannon and focused four targeting lasers, but the Slayer swiftly equipped the BFG-9000 and pulled the trigger.

PSSHT FEWWW!! BOOM!!

The blinding green fireball struck the exposed Cyberdemon directly in the chest and threw it back, releasing a wide spray of steaming blood and causing the monster to buckle as emerald lightning arced across its body. Its health bar had fallen to 5% but it was still alive. The Slayer equipped the Screamer and fired at the crippled Cyberdemon, each howling spirit bypassing the monster’s armor and releasing scarlet essence that his HUD identified as health pickups.

One more hit to finish it off! The Slayer equipped the Gauss Cannon, charged a siege blast, and pulled the trigger just as the Cyberdemon stood up and broke out of its stun.

PSHEWW!!

The bolt passed through the monster’s chest and shattered its chest reactor, which sparked as the Cyberdemon weakly fell to its knee with 0% health and insufficient power. The Slayer rushed forward and leapt onto the monster’s knee before reaching into its chest, disengaging the Argent Accumulator, and removing it from the Cyberdemon.

“Rooaarr-waa…”

The Cyberdemon stumbled back and painfully gripped its chest as the Slayer leapt off. Twitching, it raised its arm cannon at him but this powered down and went dark. The Cyberdemon then leaned back and fell to the floor with a resounding CRASH, a stunned expression of surprise still on its face. It was dead.

Pussy.

The Slayer sighed and grinned inside his helmet. That was a tough fight, but compared to the battle he once had against that demon lord on the Titan’s Realm, it was nothing but a cakewalk. Looked like the demon hadn’t fully recovered from its death, and being extracted from Hell and imprisoned in a pocket dimension must have further weakened it.

What a fucking pansy!

The Argent Accumulator in his hands glowed and released scarlet arcs from its cracked casing. The Slayer braced himself and tossed the Accumulator away as its hull broke and the released energy electrified the entire Labyrinth. With a sufficient power source detected, the Labyrinth would open a Hellgate and transport any contained entities back to the Dark Realm.

The Slayer felt his feet lift off the ground, and he grit his teeth as he plunged into the rift between dimensions.

Time to kick in the gates of Hell again!

* * *

“GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE! RUN!” Shouted Colonel Johnson.

“ROOOAAAHHHRRR!”

PEW PEW PEW PEW! PEW PEW PEW PEW! PEW PEW PEW PEW!

The Cybruiser aimed its cannon and fired three bursts of crackling bolts that stuck to the ground and erupted in dazzling plasma explosions, leaving sizzling arcs on the stone. I desperately dashed left and right and just barely managed to avoid the blasts.

It then raised its robotic leg with energy pulsating across it and stomped it on the ground, releasing a crackling wall of arcane energy directly at me.

“AAH!”

I leapt to avoid the attack, but the dazzling wall of energy had sealed off my movement in that entire direction.

“DON’T JUST STAND AROUND! DO SOMETHING!”

I primed my machine guns and opened fire on the Cybruiser, but the rounds visibly shattered against its skin. With gritted teeth I switched to missile launchers and fired several volleys of homing rockets, which exploded but didn’t leave the faintest scratch or drop of blood.

“Shit, it’s too tough! Your guns can’t break its skin!”

The last missile volley flew towards the demon’s cannon and exploded against it, releasing a burst of sparks and shrapnel.

“But they can break its gun!”

With an idea forming in my head, I primed my Skullfire spell and tossed a fireball at the monster. The fireball seared its skin and released a spray of blood.

“And that’s how we kill it! With spells!”

“Shoot that bastard till it dies!"

I smirked and rushed into battle.

PEW PEW PEW PEW! PEW PEW PEW PEW! The Cybruiser fired volleys of explosive plasma bolts across the Tower peak, but I nimbly darted and shade-dashed through these to avoid their blasts while launching fireballs at the monster and shooting at its cannon at the same time. The monster slammed its foot and released an electric wall at me, but I fired my jump pack and soared above the crackling barrier. Approaching the Cybruiser, I primed the Dagger Throw spell and launched a volley of crystalline daggers directly at its chest before swiftly following with a flame wave.

“ROOOAAAHHHRRR!”

“HA HA! BURN, MOTHERFUCKER!”

Through its flailing agony, the burning Cybruiser lowered its cannon to shoot the ground at its feet.

“Oh shit!”

POW! I triggered phase shift at the last moment and barely avoided the crackling shockwave. The flames from my attack wore off and the Cybruiser searched for me in the arena.

I’m in phase shift. He can’t see me, right?

The demon suddenly spun around and stared directly at me with its glaring cybernetic eyes.

He sees me!

It raised its arm cannon and focused energy into the barrel.

Whirr- POWW!! A blinding lightning bolt shot from its cannon and struck me, knocking me out of phase shift and breaking my overshield as I stumbled to the floor.

“Urrggh! Goddamn bastard-!”

I entered phase shift again but this time raised my right hand onto my forehead and focused mana into the Blur Artifact to trigger my Third Eye spell. The Cybruiser growled and blinked in confusion as my spell undoubtedly obfuscated its senses, and though it continued firing its plasma bolts its accuracy was noticable diminished. I rushed towards it again while shooting my flak cannons at its gun and robotic leg before launching a blast of daggers followed by a flame wave, firing my jump pack and shade dashing through the monster’s chest in a piercing shadowy blur.

“ROOAAHHRR!” The Cybruiser groaned as it buckled and fell to its knee, burning and bleeding from the inky gash on its chest. It then slammed the ground and turned around to roar at me.

“ROOOAAAHHHRRR!”

“Woah! I think that one hurt!”

“ROOOAAAHHHRRR!” Whirr-

“WooAAAHHH!”

POWW! I triggered my shade dash just in time to avoid the Cybruiser’s explosive lightning attack which scorched the ground where I stood and left crackling electric arcs. The demon then raised its hand and opened a multitude of summoning circles around it, out of which floated out a mob of the floating snake-like demons I fought in the maze..

“Ha! I remember these guys! Thanks for bringing me some backup!”

I manifested a Void clone to distract the Cybruiser while I eliminated the smaller demons. The dark reflection circumvented its attacks while its own shadowy projectiles wore away at the monster’s shell, and I restored my health and mana by siphoning the demons’ life force with my upgraded Hemokinetic Module. The beasts crumbled to ash as I stored excess blood as crystals on my arm, and I could feel the Heart of Lothar gain power as it absorbed their liberated spirits. The Heart captured a third soul and it was fully charged.

“Hey, you big bitch!”

“Grrrr?”

“RAAAHHH!” I engaged the Heart of Lothar and fired its ethereal green blast at the demon, which bypassed the Cybruiser’s defenses and caused it to stagger. I absorbed another three souls and fired again at the Cybruiser while shooting my missile launchers at its cannon and leg as my Void clone likewise fired at it.

“RAAAHHH!”

Its cannon was flaming and its leg was visibly buckling! The Cybruiser aimed its cannon at my shadowy clone and fired an explosive lightning strike at it, dissipating it. I grit my teeth and with another three souls I triggered the Heart one last time.

“RAAAHHH!”

The Cybruiser fell to its knee by the final blast as both its cannon’s and leg’s casing shattered in a burst of energy and metal scrap. The machinery remained but was visibly crippled compared to its original state.

The demon slammed the ground in fury.

“ROOAAHHRR! ROOOAAAHHHRRR!”

It then stood back on its damaged leg and aimed what remained of its cannon at me before firing a volley of explosive plasma bolts.

PEW PEW PEW PEW! “AAH!”

The bolts stuck and broke my overshield but the demon did not stop.

PEW PEW PEW PEW! PEW PEW PEW PEW!

I rushed away as the Cybruiser indiscriminately fired upon the arena and caught its summoned minions in its wake, managing to avoid the shockwaves from the bolts’ explosions through phase shift. The demon then raised its hand to cast a pentagrammic sigil and manifested a multitude of floating fiery runes across the battlefield that exploded and hurt me even through my phase shift.

“Urrgh!”

“John, watch out!”

PEW PEW PEW PEW! PEW PEW PEW PEW! BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

“This thing’s gone berserk! It doesn’t have the lightning blast anymore but it’s firing way faster!”

“Its eyes! Go for its eyes!”

I gasped. The monster’s faceplate was cybernetic too and cracked from some of my glancing attacks.

“Got it!”

I raised the Blur Artifact to trigger the Third Eye again and bewildered the Cybruiser with its gaze as I switched to machine guns and fired at the demon’s faceplate with explosive bullets. The monster continued launching plasma bolts and manifesting explosive runes, hacking away at my health, but I had to focus my mana on maintaining the Third Eye so I could quickly blind it.

RATATATATATAT! Crack!

“ROOOAAAHHHRRR!”

“That did it!”

The Cybruiser’s faceplate shattered to leave only a single pair of glaring red eyes, enough to see me but hopefully not to track me even through phase shift. The demon’s body was heavily burned and lacerated, and it swayed and wobbled on its feet.

The demon raised its cannon again, and I charged directly at it before leaping and passing through its chest in a shade dash. The monster roared in pain and I spun around to spot the severed tail stump and cybernetic harness on its back, which I immediately opened fire on. My rounds perforated the exposed components and triggered explosions across the demon’s back.

“ROOOAAAHHHRRR!”

The Cybruiser crumbled to its knees and painfully stopped its fall with its hand.

“He’s almost dead! Finish him off!”

“AAAAAHHH-!”

I rushed to the demon and ran up its back before soaring upwards and drawing my Bronze Spear. The Cybruiser looked up with an expression of startlement and shock.

“Goodbye.”

“ROOAAHH-!”

I triggered my flaming dive spell and plunged downwards like a raging meteor before explosively landing on the demon’s face, my Bronze Spear passing straight through its eye and exiting beneath the jaw. The monster shuddered and crashed heavily to the ground as I retracted my spear and deftly jumped off.

“Mission accomplished.”

“Not bad, soldier. Not bad at all.”

“Huh.”

Clang!

I jumped at the sudden noise and turned to find the Cybruiser’s cannon casing had split open. Within the sparking machinery were two long and polished helical lances that arced with electricity.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Yeah. Those are MINE.”

“RRRROOOHHHWWW!!”

The whole Tower suddenly shuddered and I struggled to keep my balance as the structure perilously swayed. I stuck my Spear to the ground to remain stable but it sounded like the Tower base was almost entirely compromised. I had moments before the entire structure collapsed.

“John! Get out of there!”

“Not without those two things!”

I rushed to my feet and raced towards the cannon. I planted one foot on the casing and grabbed a firm hold of the two energized lances inside the apparatus.

“GET OUT OF THERE! THE GATEWAY’S GONNA CLOSE AND THE MOON IS WAKING UP!”

“I KILLED THIS FUCKER FAIR AND SQUARE! I’M TAKING HIS SHIT!”

I fired my jump pack and with a loud crack I soared backwards with both stone lances in my hands. They softly pulsated with electricity but they were still intact.

“Huh.”

“RRRROOOHHHWWW!!”

I heard a rumbling higher up the Tower as the moon’s tentacles undoubtedly clasped onto the structure. I raced with both lances under my arm towards the nearest of the spires atop the peak and leapt onto it towards the giant swirling gateway above.

“Colonel, what do I do?!”

“GO! JUST GO!”

“RRRROOOOOOHHHHHHWWW!!”

Deimos was awake. The hellscape surged with a tremendous burst of power that thundered through the air and ignited the atmosphere with howling sigils. The Tower beneath me finally crumbled and collapsed in a pillar of dust as colossal tentacles rose towards me from a living landscape of mountainous flesh and glaring yellow eyes, and I thrust myself upwards as I finally reached the gateway.

I made it. I was finally leaving Hell. I was going home.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

Not today. Not ever.

* * *

“AAAAAHHH!”

Ruby tumbled inside the Inferno’s cabin as the mech plunged down the dimensional rift. The mech’s screens glitched and sputtered as they depicted flashes of red, darkness, blazing flames and horrid screaming faces. Ruby could spot crates of equipment from the Refractor deck and the serpentine shadow of the Maledict plummeting down the rift beside her.

Ruby felt a chill, a freezing sense of primal terror permeating her body and clasping onto her heart. The flames parted and a barren rock surface quickly rushed at the screen as the Inferno fell at an angle. She pulled the emergency ejection lever and was shot out of the mech.

CRASH!

Ruby triggered Reactive Armor and reflexively fired her jump pack as she hit the ground. She landed at an angle feet-first and her suit negated major damage, but the paralyzing sense of fear crippled her coordination and she tumbled along the rocky surface, shattering her jump pack in the process. The crates from Lazarus landed and broke around her to reveal expedition supplies and weapons, and the Inferno crashed against the stone and ignited in a tremendous explosion as its shattered components immediately began corroding. A gnarled rust spread across and ate away at the wrecked mech’s hull, and Ruby doubled over in pain from more than just the impact of the fall.

It felt like her body was coming apart. As if she was being bombarded with radiation that turned her atoms to dust, that leached into her soul and unraveled her very mind. Even her armor seemed to crack and begin to disintegrate.

The flames that burned in that place were a deep crimson red that roared in fury, and yet that place was darker than the deepest night, a pitch blackness that seemed to stain into Ruby’s heart.

Hell…I’m in Hell…

There was a rushing gust of wind and the Maledict landed upon the surface, using its lengthy limbs to break its fall. It picked itself up and turned to face Ruby before opening its jaw and extending Betruger’s severed head, attached by cables and pulsating tentacles from a tongue-like proboscis through its mouth.

“YOU! YOU FOOL!

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! YOU HAVE BROUGHT ME HERE TO THIS FORSAKEN PLACE!

AND YET! YOU HAVE SOLVED NOTHING!

HELL NO LONGER NEEDS THE REFRACTOR TO ENTER MARS! THAT INVASION WAS ONLY THE FIRST WAVE! THE FRACTURE IS STILL CAPABLE OF SENDING MILLIONS OF THE IMPERATRIX’S CHILDREN INTO YOUR WORLD! MY WORLD!”

Ruby grimaced and pulled herself along the ground as the uncorrupted portions of her body boiled and cracked even while the mutated portions regenerated them.

“THE FLEET FROM EARTH IS STILL ON ROUTE! SOON, THEY WILL ARRIVE, AND WITH THEIR SHIPS, WE WILL BRING THIS HELL TO EARTH!”

Ruby’s skin burned. She placed her hands down and painfully lifted herself to gaze at the Maledict as she pulled the Vorpal Sword from her back.

“YOU WON’T LIVE TO SEE IT. AND YOU WILL DIE, LONG BEFORE YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO WARN THEM.”

Betruger’s head withdrew into the beast’s mouth and the Maledict bent down and coiled its arms as electricity began to arc from the ground towards its body, mending its wounds and causing its cybernetic components to ignite with crimson energy.

“Flectere si nequeo superos…ACHERONTA MOVEBO!”

The Maledict extended its arms and raised its head to launch a howling torrent of lightning into the burning sky, releasing a tremendous surge of infernal energy that blasted the ground and caused Ruby to shield her eyes. Four long blazing spines extended from components along its arm as a thin fleshy membrane grew between these, interspersed with bright fiery veins and forming great bat-like wings to give the Maledict the appearance of a monstrous cyberdemonic dragon. Its body was completely healed, its components blazed with Argent energy, and its eyes burned with Hellfire.

The Maledict slammed its hands onto the ground to shatter the rock with crackling energy and slinked towards Ruby.

“WELCOME TO YOUR DEATH, MORTAL.”

image [https://i.imgur.com/873cpI9.jpg]

The Maledict took a deep breath and released a crackling stream of lightning that seared the ground as it sped towards Ruby. With crippling pain and a body that felt as if unraveling, she forced herself out of the way but was struck by a stray bolt and yelled as she fell again with a smoking suit. The Maledict raised a hand to crush her and she rolled to move between the path of its colossal claws, crouching between the two giant smoking gouges that were left on the rocky ground. The demon then whipped its tail around and struck Ruby in the chest. Her breath left her body and she was thrown back into the burning Hellscape, crashing onto the ground before coming to a pained halt with a cracked suit and a broken body.

The Maledict took a great leap and descended towards Ruby, using its wings to slow its fall as it stood over her. Ruby holstered her sword and drew the final LXR knife as the Maledict raised its hand to deal the killing blow.

“YOU THINK YOU HAVE STOPPED ME?! I CONTROL TIME AND SPACE!

AFTER I KILL YOU, I WILL BREAK OUT OF THIS FORSAKEN WORLD! I WILL RETURN TO MARS, I WILL LEAD THE INVASION OF EARTH, AND I WILL PERSONALLY PARADE YOUR COMPANIONS’ CORPSES ON A SILVER PLATTER!”

Ruby extended the blade and plunged the knife into her heart as the Maledict’s hand descended onto her.

SLAM!

There was the rumble of rocks and then nothing. The Maledict hissed in victory until a vibrant scarlet light began to shine between its fingers. Then its hand slowly rose.

Slowly but surely, Ruby pushed up against the Maledict’s hand that threatened to crush her against the stone. Lightning arced across her body and her eyes glared with fury.

“No,” she grunted. “You won’t.”

Ruby focused a Power Slam and punched the Maledict’s hand to thrust it off of her, before focusing another Power Slam and rushing at the monster to punch it in the central component on its chest.

“ROAAAHHH!”

The demon’s chest sparked and blood splattered as it stumbled back, gripping its chest in pain as electricity arced across it.

“All this time,” Ruby hissed lowly, her fear and pain replaced with a deep and growing primal rage. She could feel her senses honing, her strength returning and her energy rising by the moment. “I was rejecting this power. I was afraid and ashamed of it. Ashamed of what I did and what I’d done to become this way. I told myself that I was a soldier, and good soldiers follow orders.

But who was I kidding?

I was only looking out for myself! But now, I’m looking out for someone else. And if embracing this power is the only way to save them, if I must become a demon…

SO BE IT.”

Ruby bent over and groaned as her suit repaired itself and her wounds mended, her body and armor stabilizing to Hell’s corrosive reality. She yelled as two vertical slits appeared on her back and something crystalline emerged through. The Maledict reared back in shock.

“AaaaaAAAHH!” SHINK!

Sprouting from Ruby’s back were two short wings composed of pure bright red crystal. The razor-sharp shards clinked and quivered like feathers, and they simmered with a vivid energy.

“If I have sinned, I accept God’s judgment,” Ruby hissed as she pulled the sheathed Vorpal Sword from her back. “But like you said…God isn’t here, is he?”

She gripped the Sword’s hilt in her demonic left hand and slowly drew the blade, revealing the bright red edge crackling with infernal power.

“And this world…is too small for two devils.”

image [https://i.imgur.com/c4LSCxQ.jpg]

“GRRRRR!” The Maledict slammed its fist onto the ground and growled at Ruby. “I WILL DEVOUR YOUR SOUL!”

“No.” The Scarlet Templar responded as she threw the sword’s sheath away and pointed the blade at the Maledict. “I will.”

“RAAAAAHHH!!”

The Maledict reached forward and breathed a shrieking torrent of lightning at Ruby, but she focused a red crystalline shell around herself and tanked the stream while firmly planting her feet against the ground. She strained and was pushed back as her protective shell cracked, but her defenses blocked the attack with stray bolts arcing and exploding around her.

The lightning ceased and Ruby disengaged the shell and leapt as the Maledict swept its tail at her. She extended her wings and soared high above the demon even as it aimed its head upward and exposed Betruger’s head from its maw to recite an ominous incantation.

“LIBERA ME EX INFERIS!”

Ruby darted out of the way of the blazing golden beams the Maledict fired from its mouth as the dark clouds overhead flashed and the streams arced back down to impact throughout the Hellscape. Ruby plunged back to ground and triggered Reactive Armor to dash around the explosive bombardments while her shielding blocked the shockwaves. The Maledict extended its arms and recited a new incantation as runes blazed across its wings.

“VEXILLA REGIS PRODEUNT INFERNI!”

The demon sliced its wings at Ruby and released searing blade-like energy waves. Two vertical waves in quick succession followed by a horizontal one at her torso. She sidestepped the two vertical waves and slid beneath the last one while aiming and tossing the Vorpal Sword at one of the bright red tubes exposed at the Maledict’s elbows. Slash! The blade severed the tube and shut down the demonic sigils as the sword boomeranged behind the Maledict and slashed through the tube on the other wing and Ruby summoned it back to her hand. The demon roared in frustration but its energy wave attack had been disabled. The monster then slammed its clawed hand onto the ground to crush her, but she rushed out of the way and triggered the sword’s power slash to sever the thick cables at its wrist.

POWW! “ROOAAAHH!” The Maledict pulled back its hand, hanging limply at the end of its arm and viciously bleeding from the deep gouge.

“THIS WILL NOT STOP ME!

YOUR PUNY SWORD MAY DRAW MY BLOOD, BUT THIS BODY CAN RECOVER FROM ALL HARM!”

“Then I’ll bleed you bit by bit till you’re dead!” Ruby yelled. “A THOUSAND CUTS IF NEED BE!”

The Maledict suddenly reached forward and snapped at Ruby to grab her in its fangs. She deployed a new crystal shell and propped her arms against its jaws to prevent it from crushing her, but the monster’s bite force was tremendous and her shell began to crack. With moments left to her defenses, she explosively disengaged the shell and fired razor-like shards into the inside of the Maledict’s mouth.

“ROOOAAARRR!!”

The Maledict tossed her away and Ruby spread her wings to direct her fall. She swerved towards one of the smashed Lazarus crates and deftly picked up a discarded firearm, a heavy minigun with a smooth gray exterior inscribed with protective runes and a label reading “LMG-P.” She aimed the plasma chaingun and fired.

PEWW PEWW PEWW PEWW PEWW! Bright golden plasmoids erupted from the firearm and exploded against the Maledict to melt its armor. She switched to its alternate fire and released a sizzling beam that lacerated the monster’s exposed flesh and caused it to hemorrhage wide arcs of steaming blood.

Although its blood remained spilled, the demon’s wounds stopped hemorrhaging and the cables on its wrist and elbows had already repaired themselves and restored power to the affected components. The Maledict lifted its arms and began flapping its wings to produce a roaring cyclone that pushed Ruby away. She stabbed her wings into the ground to anchor herself while aiming the LMG-P and held the trigger as the ammo counter ticked down. The plasma minigun possessed multiple auto-loading plasma packs, but its munition was not infinite and already beeping at critical levels.

The Maledict focused energy into its maw for another attack. With the LMG-P clicking empty, Ruby tossed the minigun away and pulled her wings from the ground as the Maledict released the lightning stream. She sidestepped to avoid the attack but slashed the sword through the stream to capture its energy and with a firm slash returned the bolt at the Maledict.

CRA-POWW! “ROAAAAHHH!”

The lightning struck the demon’s chest in a thunderous blast and a fiery explosion. It painfully collapsed with a howling screech and released a plume of dust as it crashed to the ground and the windstorm dissipated. Ruby kept a watchful eye as the snakelike tail and head whipped back up through the dust.

“FACILIS DESCENSUS AVERNO!”

A swirling vortex manifested overhead and a gigantic portal appeared above the ground. The injured Maledict spread its wings and flapped to rise towards the rift, boulders and crates of equipment rising as they were sucked into the vortex.

“`WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING?!” Ruby chased after the demon as it fled towards the portal. She leapt off the ground and flew in a bright red trail, summoning a heavy grenade launcher floating nearby and releasing a brilliant energy from her wings to propel herself as she followed into the vortex.

She and the Maledict entered the rift and they passed through a wide fiery tunnel branching off into other portals, but Ruby remained focused on the fleeing demon and she accelerated to catch up to it, approaching from above and behind as she aimed the grenade launcher.

POW! POW! POW! POW! She fired several grenades that stuck to the Maledict’s back and exploded. The grenades were strong but the launcher had even less ammo and was almost empty. Still flying forward, the monster roared and whipped its head back before swiping its tail at Ruby. She plunged out of the tail’s path and aimed upward while toggling the weapon’s alt fire and launching a final volley of incendiary grenades at the demon’s belly.

“ROOOAAARRR!!”

The robotic tail came swiping once more at Ruby, and she tossed the empty launcher away while forming a crystal shell and bracing for impact. POW! She grabbed a firm hold of the Maledict’s tail and clutched onto it as the demon whipped her back and forth. Using her wings as vices, Ruby climbed up the demon’s tail and grabbed onto its dorsal spines as she reached its torso. Her grenade attacks had blown off portions of the demon’s back plating to reveal brown flesh and a cybernetic component that appeared to be a blood regulator. She drew the Vorpal Sword and plunged the blade into the module, causing the Maledict to shriek in pain and violently twist around to throw her off before it whipped back and bit at her. Ruby anchored herself with her wings and crouched beneath the demon’s bite as the Vorpal Sword absorbed the Maledict’s blood and glared in full charge. She withdrew the sword and triggered its power slash along the monster’s spine to slice its ribs and rupture its aorta in a steaming geyser of blood.

“ROOOAAARRR!!”

The Maledict buckled and plunged downwards with a pained groan, careening off-course toward the rift’s walls. Still atop the demon, Ruby shielded herself as the monster plummeted through the barrier and exited the dimensional stream, stranding them in an abstract Hellscape of shattered mountains floating amidst a pulsating crimson sky.

“ABYSSUS ABYSSUM INVOCAT!”

A multitude of summoning circles opened around the Maledict and a mob of strange demons warped through. Grotesque creatures the size of men resembling large biomechanical bats with hunched backs, four long arms connected to their thighs by leathery wings, and blank human faces with split jaws. They swarmed around Ruby and flew at her in a descending funnel, spitting fireballs at her even as nearer ones clawed at her with metallic talons.

She leapt off the Maledict and slashed the Vorpal Sword left and right to bisect the Hellbats in single blows, but there were too many and far faster than the larger Maledict. Fireballs seared her suit and talons sliced at her flesh. The distant dragon focused energy into its maw again and fired a lightning stream at Ruby who rushed away as it vaporized a dozen Hellbats. A splatter of blood sped from the slain demons towards Ruby, splashing her suit, her face, and getting into her mouth.

Her eyes widened deliriously as an overpowering clawing hunger rose within her being.

The blood was thick, oily, and exceedingly bitter, yet she needed more. She triggered the sword’s power slash and dismembered a dozen Hellbats before rushing forward and drenching herself in their blood. She dashed at one of the demons and bit into its neck to tear its head off, forcing down the thick fibrous flesh stuck in her fangs. She plunged her hand into a Hellbat’s chest and ripped its heart out before devouring it, savoring the sweet warm meat that still beat and drenched her face in blood.

How dare these lesser creatures raise their claws against her?! How dare the Maledict challenge her?!

“VEXILLA REGIS PRODEUNT INFERNI!”

With the horde closing in, Ruby dashed around the Maledict’s energy waves and focused additional crystal shards into her wings before firing them in ringing volleys at the Hellbat swarm. PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW! The flying shards lacerated the mob and dismembered the winged demons in one or two strikes while the Maledict recited a new incantation.

“IBIS REDIBIS NON, MORIERIS IN BELLO!”

An array of smaller portals blinked in and out throughout the space. One of them focused on a Hellbat and caused it to simply vanish, leaving nothing but the tip of its clipped wings, a trickle of blood, and an echoing screech.

Ruby soared away from the portal minefield as her crystal resource slowly regenerated. She fired another volley of shards to clear her path through the swarm while swerving around the transient portals. The remaining Hellbats swarmed once more in a whirlpool formation towards Ruby, and she had an idea.

They shouldn’t be serving the Maledict, they should be serving her.

She pointed a finger at the dragon and commanded, “ATTACK!”

The Hellbat swarm immediately fragmented and flew wildly in confusion before turning around and charging the Maledict. The demon released a soft grunt before roaring and thrashing wildly as its minions turned on it, spitting fireballs, tearing its flesh, and clawing at its face.

Ruby spread her wings and channeled her entire crystal pool to fire ringing shards at the Maledict. The projectiles couldn’t penetrate its armor but they pierced its skin and kept the wounds open to drain its blood.

“PULVUS ET UMBRA SUMUS!”

The Maledict suddenly released a deafening psychic roar that reduced the Hellbat swarm to ashes and blasted across the Hellscape to even strike the distant Ruby, who yelled as the roar screamed in her mind and lacerated her body.

BZZZZZT!!

The monster charged and released another lightning stream, which Ruby couldn’t block as her crystal resource was spent from the shard rain, but she dashed out of the way of the attack and passed the Vorpal Sword through the stream before deflecting the bolt back at the Maledict.

CRA-POWW! The bolt exploded on the Maledict’s chest to electrocute it and blast away more plating, but Ruby focused a Power Slam and blazed towards the monster like a crimson comet.

BOOM!

Even the Maledict was pushed back through the void by the force of the impact as the red shockwave pulsed through its body. Ruby seethed with a steaming fist as the staggered Maledict recovered and presented Betruger’s head to address her.

“YOU THINK YOU’VE WON?!

NOW, YOU WILL SEE THE TRUE POWER OF THE DARK COSMOS AND THE NINE HELLS!

…EX NIHILO NIHIL FIT!”

A colossal inverted triangular sigil ignited in the air behind the Maledict and three gigantic black spheres, glaring with bright outlines even as their bodies were pitch-black, manifested and roared ominously from each corner.

Black holes.

“YOUR DUTY HAS ALWAYS BEEN TO DIE, MORTAL!”

The Maledict directed the first of the three black holes at Ruby and swiftly sped away even as she could feel herself being pulled by its tremendous gravitational force. She escaped its pull but the passing singularity attracted the boulders and broken landmasses suspended in the void and sent them flying across the region. The demon directed the second and Ruby narrowly ducked under a speeding boulder as the black hole approached but she was closer and struggled to escape its grasp, feeling her flesh tearing and bones cracking from the sheer tidal forces. The singularity passed and she gasped in relief as she sped away to safety. There were few supplies left from the Lazarus facility, but she summoned a medigel syringe to her hand and injected it as she desperately searched for a weapon.

There! A launcher roughly a hundred meters above her, but the Maledict had already directed the final black hole at her. If she flew straight up she’d fall directly into the singularity…but if she flew at an angle in the black hole’s trajectory, she could skate along its gravitational well and sling directly to the weapon. It’d be close and exceedingly dangerous, but it could work.

The Maledict closed the triangular sigil and charged at Ruby, and she rushed into action. The black hole loomed behind and she could already feel it pulling her into its thrall. She tilted her wings and thrust alongside the singularity’s edge rather than away from it. The gravitational forces were immense and Ruby strained to the limit of her capacity as her vision tunneled and blood roared in her ears, but the black hole passed and Ruby slung away of its reach directly towards the floating weapon. She summoned and crushed a nearby medikit to recover some health before grabbing the bulky Thunderbolt plasma launcher and aiming at the Maledict.

FEWWW!!

A large crackling white sphere shot from the weapon barrel and sped towards the demon. The projectile missed but electric bolts arced from the fireball and lacerated the Maledict’s body as it passed.

“ROOOAAARRR!!”

The demon launched quick energy bursts at nearby boulders which were enveloped in golden fields and soared towards Ruby at great speeds. She ducked below and around the masses before firing another lightning ball. FEWWW!! The projectile struck and erupted against the Maledict’s wide wing, tearing the thin tissue and releasing great arcs of glowing fluid.

Betruger’s head emerged from the beast’s jaws to recite another malediction while symbols blazed onto the monster’s wings.

“VEXILLA REGIS PRODEUNT- AAAHH!!”

Ruby tossed the Vorpal Sword at Betruger’s exposed head, interrupting the malediction and stunning the demon long enough for her to carefully aim and fire a lightning ball directly at its chest.

FEWWW BOOM!!

“ROOOAAAHHH!”

The Maledict was at the limit of its being. Its wings were tattered, its horns broken, almost all of its plating was blown off, and its mutilated body bore the gouges and scars of a thousand cuts.

It then held its arms in front of itself and focused power into a growing crackling violet sphere between its hands.

“TEMPUS…EDAX…RERUM!!”

The violet sphere began to incandesce and the Maledict flew upwards as it detonated. It produced a violet field pulsating with arcane energy that expanded at a tremendous rate and reduced the boulders and landmasses within to dust. Ruby’s eyes widened and she sped off after the Maledict.

The demon paid her no mind and continued flying upwards, but Ruby fell in and gasped as the field permeated her entire body, feeling as if eroding her very atoms. Holding her hand out, she saw her armor cracking and her skin flaking off like dust. She clenched her fist and grit her teeth before thrusting forward at even greater speed, blazing within the violet field until her hand breached the barrier and she pushed through.

“AaaaaAAAAHHH!!”

She sighed in relief once leaving the dilation field and hurried after the Maledict.

“BETRUGER!”

“SO…YOU MADE IT THIS FAR…”

Ruby clasped onto the monster’s dorsal spines and maneuvered towards the second blood module on its back. She anchored herself and raised the Vorpal Sword to stab it into the component.

“THIS ENDS NOW!”

Shink!

Nothing happened. The module was dark and the sword did not charge.

“What?”

“HAHAHA HA HA HA HA!” The Maledict looked back and presented Betruger’s head. “DO YOU SEE NOW, MORTAL?

YOU BLED ME TO THE LAST DROP, AND YET, YOU COULD NOT STOP ME!

YOU FAILED, MORTAL!”

The Maledict snapped at her and she withdrew the sword to sidestep the attack and grab onto its last horn. The monster thrashed back and forth but Ruby did not let go.

What do I do now?! There’s no heavy weapons or blood left to charge the sword!

“IN NOMINAE SATANAS, PORTA INFERNI APERTA!”

A new swirling vortex appeared ahead but this one was different. It roiled and thundered violently with a bright light shining from its distant end. Ruby gasped as she recognized the red landscape visible through the portal.

Mars!

“NOW, WITNESS TO WHAT WILL BE UNLEASHED ON EARTH!!”

Ruby stood and anchored herself to the back of the Maledict’s head and hacked at its exposed neck with the Vorpal Sword, but it was too thick and she’d never sever it in time.

The Maledict spread its wings and laughed as bolts from the approaching Hellgate arced and flew past them.

I need one last power slash! I need some blood-!

A drop of blood fell from her mouth onto the blade, which absorbed it and glowed faintly.

…Any blood.

Ruby quickly shifted her grip on the sword and pointed it at her own stomach before pausing for the briefest moment.

“Elena…

I love you.”

Shink!

Betruger’s head extended and looked back at the sudden noise. “WHAT?!”

Ruby groaned in pain with both hands firmly clenching the Vorpal Sword, which was sunk up to its hilt in her stomach and stuck out from her back. She dropped to a knee as the sword absorbed her blood and glowed brighter, before with a great yell pulling it out in a wide spray of blood to reveal the fully charged crackling blade.

“NOOO!!”

“AND THUS FELL THE JABBERWOCK!”

SLASH!!

Ruby lost her balance as the Maledict’s head separated from the rest of its body. The Hellgate to Mars sputtered and closed but the rift remained, and as Ruby and the monster’s head fell in, she weakly looked back to see dark shapes immediately descend upon the demon’s limp decapitated body and tear it apart before the rift closed and it disappeared from view. A barren rocky Hellscape rushed at the two and Ruby could only muster the strength to cover herself with her wings as she landed.

POWW! CRASH!

Ruby landed hard at an angle and skidded across the rocky surface. There was a thud, a crack of breaking bones, and a harsh shattering sound as red crystal shards flew past her eyes. She then came to a halt and lay motionless face-down on the ground.

BOOM! “AAAAAHHH!!”

The Maledict’s head landed and roared violently as it came apart in a screeching blaze. Its metallic components melted and its skull vaporized in cinders to leave Betruger’s thrashing head at the end of its cyber-organic proboscis. Ruby looked up to see the cybernetic apparatus decay and unravel as Betruger’s head gargled and rotted away to leave only an ashen human skull.

The skull lay still for a few moments before cackling silently and crumbling to dust blown away by a soft wind.

“And the mome raths…outgrabe…”

Malcolm Betruger’s disembodied voice echoed for a few moments, and then silence. The doctor and the Maledict were no more.

Ruby sighed. She tried to lift herself up, but her left arm was broken and couldn’t hold her weight. She weakly dragged herself along the ground with her right arm, listening to the soft flickering of nearby embers and the scraping of her suit against rock. Her right leg trailed limply behind, and the remains of her last wing came apart and fell off her shoulder with a soft clinking sound. A thick trail of pooling blood trailed behind her.

Reaching a small rocky outcrop, Ruby grabbed onto it and painfully hoisted herself onto it. Each movement sent a lightning bolt of pain through her body. Her limbs, her back, her stomach, but she grit her teeth and quietly hissed as she flipped over and sat against the rock. Placing her hand on her stomach, she pulled it away to find it drenched in blood. The wound was not closing.

The Vorpal Sword lay a short distance away on her left side. She tried summoning it to her hand, but she couldn’t lift her arm and the sword didn’t budge. She glanced around to find the Hellshot lying on her right side. She raised her arm and summoned the firearm to her, which scraped against the ground and came to a halt beside her leg.

I’m fine, just…gonna catch my breath.

Gonna take a break, walk this off…find a way back to Mars.

Just gotta…catch my breath…

* * *

CRA-POWWW!!

The Slayer stuck the landing and looked up.

The change in realities was immediate. The barren wasteland he was in was one of looming darkness, with an arid fiery wind blowing amidst an empty desolate sky.

He was in Hell once more.

The coast was clear. Just him, the Sentry Bot on his shoulder, and the mammoth corpse of the slain Cyberdemon.

…

Oh, fuck.

KSSSHHHTTTT!!

A jagged bolt of lightning struck the demon lord’s body and suspended it into the air, which squirmed before roaring and releasing a brilliant beam of power into the infernal sky. The beam manifested a colossal flaming sigil overhead as the reanimating Baalgar Lord called upon the deepest of the Archdemons.

NOT CLEAR NOT CLEAR NOT CLEAR!!

The Slayer ran away as fast as he could while bringing up his ancient weapons cache. He desperately selected the invalid weapon names as lightning cracked and a roiling black storm roiled overhead. The event horizon of a microuniverse formed in the far distance, created by the awakening Cyberdemon to confine him within a pocket dimension, a personal Hellscape of its own dominion. An Iblis Realm.

The Astral Voltride, a dimensional resonator, a scalar wave cannon, the fucking Gunlance, ANYTHING BETTER THAN WHAT HE HAD NOW!! But the ancient cache did not respond and all the weapons remained useless.

“ROOOOAAAAHHHHWWWWRRRR!!”

The Sentry Bot on his shoulder screeched in alarm and the Slayer looked back to find a colossal flaming figure thundering across hundreds of meters directly for him. He brought up his power-ups cache and equipped one Mega Charge to raise his HEALTH and ARMOR to 200 each.

OHHHH SHIIIIIIIIT!!

POWW!! The regenerated Cyberdemon swept its blade through the ground and threw the Slayer like a bullet through the air, raising a series of mountains through which he thunderously broke and passed through from the sheer force of the blow. 200 ARMOR gone.

The Baalgar was much taller than it had been on Mars. It stood almost thirty meters tall with a complex and violent demonic halo behind it. Its body was fully restored from the battle in Lazarus and its cybernetic components were infused with infernal metal, its eyes blazing with livid fury as the demon’s soul had fully returned to its ancient vessel.

The charging Cyberdemon hunched forward and fired a series of missiles into the sky from its back which arced back down and carpet-bombed the wasteland, each with the power of a tactical nuke.

The Slayer skidded along great fragments of the shattered mountains but regained his footing and switched to the chaingun to frenziedly fire upon the Cyberdemon, but the missile bombardment loomed closer and he turned around as the fiery shockwaves chased at his heels.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! 125 HEALTH. 75. 25. 0.

He felt his body be vaporized by the attacks but his soul did not escape the barrier of the Cyberdemon’s Iblis Realm. As he felt himself rematerialize with 100 HEALTH and the Praetor Suit reforming around his being, he sensed a great surge of power as the Cyberdemon restored itself to full health and prepared to attack once more.

POWW!! BOOM!! PSHEWW!! HSSSS!!

WHAT THE HELL?!

The Cyberdemon assaulted him with a four-stage combination attack that didn’t give the Slayer time to react. A devastating shockwave with its left foot that shattered the landscape into flaming spikes, a step forward with a short rocket burst from its cannon while it charged a laser blast, a halt as it braced against the recoil of the laser blast that split the sky and ground, followed by another step forward and a flaming sword swing that launched a slicing energy wave at his torso. The Slayer was struck by the initial groundspike attack and lost 40 HEALTH while evading the subsequent rockets and laser blast but he was struck by the energy wave and lost another 35 HEALTH.

And the Cyberdemon was still not done. Following the same motion from the previous attack, the Baalgar Lord stepped forward and unleashed a low energy wave at his feet before following with a groundspike attack, a rocket volley, and laser blast.

HSSSS!! POWW!! BOOM!! PSHEWW!!

The Slayer jumped over the energy wave but couldn’t escape the groundspikes or rockets, which reduced his HEALTH to 1 as his Saving Throw power took effect. He launched an echo drone to distract the monster but the Cyberdemon ignored it and vaporized him with the laser blast.

HE DIDN’T EVEN DAMAGE THE CYBERDEMON ONCE!

The Slayer’s body reformed and he was thrust again into battle.

The more he died, the deeper he sank into the demon’s dimensional prison! He couldn't escape until the Annihilator was dead!

As soon as he hit the ground he equipped the chaingun and opened fire at the Cyberdemon’s cannon. The demon unleashed the first of its four-hit-combos and he leapt over the groundspike shockwave but was struck by the subsequent rocket attack. He dodged the laser blast but was struck by the first high energy wave and lost 80 HEALTH. RATATATATAT!! POWW! The monster’s cannon shattered to drop an ammo surplus and a familiar resplendent green orb.

The Cyberdemon bent over and channeled another missile bombardment and the Slayer blazed across the wasteland towards the clear zone around the Cyberdemon to collect the BFG core. He equipped the BFG-9000 and fired at the monster’s chest to stun it and turned his attention to its arm blade. He switched to the Gauss Cannon and fired a siege blast. PSHEWW!! The supercharged bolt hit but the blade didn’t crack! He charged another blast. PSHEWW!! CRACK! The blade finally shattered in a burst of armor fragments, and the Slayer rushed to collect these and the discarded ammo before he equipped the Screamer and opened fire on the stunned Cyberdemon. He landed several shots of the howling spirits and collected health-restoring essence but the demon quickly broke out of its stun and crushed him underfoot with a single stomp.

Fuck it, it was fucking slaughtering him!

The Slayer resurrected once more and manifested a distance away from the Cyberdemon as he formulated a strategy.

Its attacks were too fast for him to react to! Learn their patterns and avoid its combos before they even began! They did too much damage to make recovering HEALTH or ARMOR viable regardless!

And forget disabling its blade or cannon! Just shoot the damn thing till it dies!

Three BFG shots! Make them count!

He thundered into the wasteland for the fourth time and equipped a second Mega Charge from storage before aiming the BFG-9000 and firing. PSSHT FEWWW!! BOOM!! The dazzling green fireball exploded on the Baalgar’s chest to stun it and the Slayer opened fire with the Screamer.

“RAAAAAAAAAHHH!!”

He held the trigger down on the demonic unmaker and unleashed a shrieking volley of blazing souls at the Cyberdemon that bypassed its armor and scorched at its body and spirit. The lacerated demon bled enticing HEALTH-restoring essence but the Slayer stayed his resolve and kept his distance to fire the Screamer until the cyber-organic chaingun hissed emptily.

With 75% health, the Cyberdemon broke out of its stun and braced to bullrush the Slayer but he was already anticipating the attack. The demon charged in a thunderous blaze that split the ground and released tremendous explosions but he had already run out of its destructive path. He equipped an Iron Sight power-up to boost his tactical cognizance as he fired the chaingun and ensured every fiery round struck the demon’s body.

With HEALTH ticking down the Cyberdemon channeled another missile bombardment but the Slayer was anticipating the strike zones and swerved at breakneck speeds around the edges of the shockwaves before they even impacted. He kept the trigger held down as he approached the towering Cyberdemon with an eye on its exposed reactor wound and his own rapidly dwindling bullets. He maneuvered himself into position while charging a siege blast from the Gauss Cannon and fired the piercing shot through the Cyberdemon’s arm cannon into weak spot on its chest.

“ROOOAAAWWWRRR!!”

The Cyberdemon buckled from the critical hit but the Slayer repositioned himself and charged another siege blast.

PSHEWW!! BOOM! The monster’s arm cannon exploded in a burst of ammo and the Slayer raced through these before recovering his distance. 50% health.

The Cyberdemon roared and slammed its right foot onto the ground to shatter the entire barren Hellscape into flaming fissures and rising mountain ranges that exploded into roaring volcanoes. Brimstone rained from the sky and lava violently rushed down the mountains in channels to form ardent pools and lakes. The Slayer rushed through the scorching rain and atop the lava channels with his ARMOR gradually melting away - 127, 92, 58 - but he kept his focus on the Cyberdemon. It attacked with a new three-hit combo of a high energy wave, groundspikes, and high energy wave again. He ducked under the first attack and leapt over the groundspikes before plummeting again and ducking under the final wave all while shooting the rocket launcher. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! He moved too fast to make conventional aiming with the slow-moving rockets possible but the Iron Sight power-up honed his senses and caused the missiles to curve through the air and find their mark on the monster.

The Cyberdemon’s cannon was almost fully regenerated but it attacked with another three-hit combo of groundspikes, high energy wave, and groundspikes.

Leap! Duck! Leap!

The Slayer raced to outrun a volcano’s lava flow as the Baalgar’s cannon pulsed in full operation and he aimed the BFG before it could attack. PSSHT FEWWW!! BOOM!!

His Screamer was out of soul ammo, he only had one BFG shot left, and Iron Sight was almost expired!

He equipped the Gauss Cannon and aimed at the critical chest wound while firing siege blast after siege blast at the stunned demon. PSHEWW!! PSHEWW!! PSHEWW!!

“ROOOAAAWWWRRR!!”

The Cyberdemon broke out of the stun with a cracked horn, bloody eyes, and a deeply mutilated body. Iron Sight expired and the Slayer felt his boosted senses return to normal, but the monster was at 15% health.

It was now or never!

The Cyberdemon raised its right hand and formed a blazing rune within its palm as giant spots of fire appeared in the sky. The Slayer blinked in confusion until he realized they were meteors plummeting straight to the rocky Hellscape.

Oh, great…

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The Slayer rushed forward and held the trigger down on the chaingun as the world exploded in fire and thunder. He rushed directly for the Cyberdemon with burning mountains crashing throughout the wasteland and both ground and sky vanished in a blur of ash and rubble.

0 ARMOR. 173 HEALTH. 148. 91.

IT’S OKAY! TANK IT JUST TANK IT!

The looming shadow of the Cyberdemon roared and continued firing rockets. 45 HEALTH. 23. 1. The Slayer entered Saving Throw and the monster grinned as it focused four targeting lasers on him. He equipped the BFG and fired.

PSSHT FEWWW!! BOOM!!

The Cyberdemon’s chest erupted in a tremendous emerald explosion and it collapsed to its knee, clutching its heart as green slag dripped through its fingers. The meteors ceased falling and the Hellscape lost some of its volatility. It weakly raised its cannon but the Slayer charged a siege blast and fired directly into the barrel to destroy the entire arm in a great booming explosion. The monster then projected a flame sword from its other arm but the Slayer aimed the Gauss Cannon at its elbow and fired a siege blast to sever the entire forearm in a single shot. Putting the railgun away, the Slayer leapt and caught the falling forearm by the exposed bone before staring the shocked Cyberdemon in the eye and swinging the arm at its face.

CRA-POWWW!! Great fragments of bone, brain tissue, and horn went flying amidst a geyser of black blood as the Cyberdemon fell back with a colossal crater where its head had been. The bloody forearm landed blade-first into the ground and the Slayer skidded to a halt as the demon lord’s decapitated body fell back with a heavy CRASH and a plume of smoke.

Try coming back from that, shithead.

It was over. With the Annihilator dead, the demon lord's apocalyptic microcosm of distant thundering volcanoes and meteors dispersed into the surrounding Hellscape as the dimensional barrier disintegrated.

A golden sigil suddenly formed upon the Baalgar Lord’s ravaged torso. The Slayer turned in confusion to face the shimmering and leapt onto the great corpse for a closer look.

It was a pentagrammic rune marked with the names of countless dark lords and infernal gods of the Fallen Hosts, inscribed within the encompassing names of the five Archdemons. The Five Elder Hell Gods, the Heresiarchs. Spotting the name of the fallen Baalgar Lord, the Slayer realized it was a sort of rune-key that proclaimed the demon lord’s authority and rank within the infernal hierarchy.

Now that…would come in handy.

The Slayer bent down and focused the rune’s power into his own hand, collecting the golden energy and compressing it into a glaring orb barely larger than his palm.

ELDER SIGIL ACQUIRED

THE DARKEST DOORS WILL OPEN

That wasn’t terribly specific, but the Slayer knew what it meant. The Elder Sigil wouldn't transport him back to Mars or even his universe, but it might open certain doors he came across in his journey.

The Slayer breathed in and rushed into Hell.

* * *

A lone figure quietly walked down the Refractor control room in the Lazarus Labs. The ground was littered with the corpses of Rager Griefers, Chainstrosities, and Goetic Troopers, all of them dead from the single bullet hole between their eyes.

There was a thud, and the lifeless twitching body of a Glitcher fell to the floor while casting a faint blue glow from its fried nervous system. The Blackwatch trooper standing above it calmly holstered its Neural Knife back into the sheath on its shoulder and moved on.

They had all passed through here. The Doom Marine, the Elite Guard, and the soldier were gone, but the mercenary and scientist were still alive. They had evacuated and taken the elevator back to one of the upper Lazarus levels. If the Trooper hurried, it could still catch them.

There was a soft whirring and a small egg-shaped robot chirped as it studied the fallen Glitcher, its sleek casing a deep black and its single large eye a bright glassy blue. It beeped to confirm the commando was dead and then rose into the air and floated beside the soldier.

The Blackwatch trooper nodded at the levitating Sentry Drone and turned towards the idle terminals on the control deck. It synced the Hack Module on its hip to the computer and input a series of commands before standing back to read the display.

LIFE SIGNS DETECTED - 2

…TRACKING LOCATION…

Two dots appeared on a map display to indicate the position of the two individuals. The trooper stared coolly at the monitor through the holographic skull display on its helmet before inputting a new prompt.

…TRACKING LARGE DEMONIC PRESENCES…

CYBERDEMON: TERMINATED

MALEDICT: TERMINATED

PROTOTRON: ACTIVE

GORE GOLEMS: 5 6

DEMON LORDS DETECTED: 1

WARNING: UNKNOWN MECHANIZED ACTIVITY DETECTED AT VEGA PROCESSING

The trooper stood back from the display and readied the Burst Rifle in its hands, primed the two psionic emitters on its shoulders, and gestured at the Sentry Drone to dock onto its back.

The Skullhacker then triggered its phase shift module and disappeared in a blue stream through the facility walls as it headed in the direction of the last two survivors.

* * *

The Slayer slowly walked through the dreary red Hellscape. The air was thick with smoke and embers softly flickered by. There were deep gouges on the ground from battle, shattered ruby crystals, and a thick trail of blood that led into the gloom. Human blood.

The Slayer stepped through the smoke and found the wounded Elite Guard lying against a rock.

It was the same Elite Guard he’d previously detected leading a group of survivors on Mars. Her suit was gravely damaged with marks of battle and drenched with blood both hers and demonic. One of the vile Hellshot rifles and a strange black sword with a single red edge lay beside her. Her right leg and left arm were broken, she was hemorrhaging from the stab wound in her stomach, and her helmet was partially ruptured to reveal her pale exhausted face.

The Elite Guard groaned as he approached and weakly turned to face him. He immediately frowned and took a step back in aggression.

“You...you came,” the Elite Guard muttered. “You’re here, and alive. You beat…you beat the Cyberdemon.

Heh heh,” she hoarsely chuckled but then coughed up blood. “Urrgh…You really are strong, aren’t you?”

The woman’s face was partially fused with her helmet, revealing a twisted black horn, jagged metal fangs, and a glaring red eye on the right side of her face. The Slayer took another look and found her left arm to be covered in scales and ending with four vicious talons. Demon’s blood…her blood.

She was in the process of becoming a Lazarus Inquisitor.

“I…I heard the rumors. Everyone said you weren’t real, that you weren’t strong, but…

I knew. I always believed.”

The Elite Guard cracked a weak smile, but the Slayer merely scowled behind his helmet.

“Here,” the woman grabbed the black rifle with her right arm and slowly held it towards him. “Take this. It’s not much but…it’s all I’ve got. I’m sure you’ll make better use for it than I would.”

The Slayer made no reaction, and the rifle slipped out of the woman’s grip and her arm fell back down. She winced and hissed in pain.

“I think…this is as far as I go.

Ugh, we fucked up, didn’t we? We fucked up so bad. All those people, they…didn’t deserve it. They were innocent. They didn’t deserve to die.”

The Slayer looked down at the black sword at his feet. A cruciform blade enveloped in a deflective force field…and enshrouded with a blood siphon matrix. Manufactured by the UAC, clearly based on Sentinel weapons tech, and forged with dark magic.

A mockery of the Argenta’s arms.

“Listen,” the Elite Guard continued. “Can you…urgh, do me a favor?

This thing, this curse on me…it’s still fighting inside of me. It wants to regenerate, but I fear that if I let it heal…there’ll be nothing of me left.

I don’t…want her to see me like that…

Please…ugh, finish me off, will you? Help me go with dignity.

I don’t want…to become a demon…”

The Slayer grimaced with disgust and turned his back to the Elite Guard. He walked off into the wasteland and didn’t look back.

“No…wait. Please…”

The Slayer hardened his heart and scowled as the fire rose inside of him.

That Elite Guard, that Inquisitor, what right did she have to ask for a dignified death? Did the Mars Base workers have a dignified death? The subjects she led to their death in the Lazarus Labs?

She was selfish. Like the UAC, she was heartless, arrogant, and looked out only for herself. She had embraced that power only to save herself without regard to the lives that were lost because of her.

Was I so different once?

The Slayer came to a sudden halt as the question echoed in his mind.

Had he not done the same, all those years ago?

After both missions to Phobos, the Slayer was lost. He was hurt and broken with nothing and no one left to live for, choosing to fight hoping to find an end to it all. But the Sentinels found him. They and Samur had taken him in, given him a home and companionship.

And he threw it all away.

When the Betrayal happened and Argent D’Nur fell, the Slayer was not fighting beside the Sentinels but waging his Unholy Crusade deep within Hell. It was his duty to fight alongside his brothers and protect them from all harm…but he dismissed them and chose to enact his own revenge against the demons, leaving the Argenta and Night Sentinels to fend for themselves.

The Slayer shut his eyes and lowered his head as grief and a deep remorse rose within his heart.

He would never forget the night he returned to the Argenta homeworld. Their navies felled, their monuments shattered, their war machines wrecked and their temples burning. The draconian forms of holy wintherins lay slain throughout the mountains. The spaceports for their allies in Corrax were empty, and no soul walked the night.

The Slayer had shouted desperately for anyone that remained. He ran and searched long through the night, but no reply ever came.

Then he reached the capital.

The bodies of the Night Sentinels lay bloody and broken upon streets of marble and gold. They had fought to the last man against the ceaseless horde that still lay around them, but the city had fallen and only a crater remained of the Elemental Sepulchre where the Holy Wraiths once slept.

The Slayer had dropped to his knees and cried.

He cried long and bitterly into the night, but Argent D’Nur had fallen. Corrax had abandoned the Sentinels, Heaven had abandoned the Sentinels, but the blame wasn’t theirs.

It wasn’t Corrax’s fault. It wasn’t Heaven’s fault. It wasn’t Hell’s, the Deag Priests’ that sold their souls to Hell and made a bargain with Valen, or even Valen’s fault for accepting the bargain in a moment of weakness in vain hopes of reviving his son.

It was the Slayer’s fault.

The Night Sentinels were dead, because he abandoned them…

* * *

Ruby blinked weakly. Her vision grew darker and it was harder to breathe.

The Doom Marine had abandoned her. He hadn’t reacted to a single of her words and merely left her to die alone in that forsaken place.

Or he’d left her to complete her transformation into a demon, and he’d be back to finish her once and for all.

Why…why?

A sudden moving of rocks clattered in front of her. Ruby focused her eyes through the gloom and spotted a tall dark figure slowly approaching her. Her heart rate accelerated and sent a fresh spurt of blood out her wound. She grunted and feebly grabbed the Hellshot, but couldn’t muster the strength to raise it anymore.

This is how I die…

The figure stopped in front of her, and Ruby winced in anticipation of an attack. It then crouched down and Ruby found herself staring into the visor of the Doom Marine.

* * *

The Slayer examined the Elite Guard’s wounds wondering if there was anything he could do for her. Her injuries were grave and she’d lost a lot of blood, her regenerative powers barely keeping her alive.

But the Slayer could not heal her. He had no curative ability, and his limited capacity for spellcrafting only extended to basic applications that served him in combat. He was a warrior, not a healer.

But if he left her…She was too weak to survive her own regeneration. Her body would heal, but her mind would be lost and her demonic aspect would take over. Either way, she was gone.

…There was only one thing he could do.

The Slayer activated the Praetor Suit’s hidden routine and manifested a flicker of Purefire in his left hand. He held the blue flame close to the Elite Guard and presented it to her.

The Guard stared at the flame, at the Slayer, and nodded in understanding.

May your sins be washed away in these flames of purification.

image [https://i.imgur.com/xpxT5Xk.jpg]

The Slayer reached out and placed the blue flame against the Elite Guard’s chest. At once, the flames spread out and enveloped her entire being. The Elite Guard grimaced and squirmed in pain, clenching her eyes and muffling her cries as her armor cracked and her body and spirit burned away. Her memories and experiences, her thoughts and feelings, her name and identity… Drifting away like embers in the wind.

The Elite Guard suddenly reached out and with her human hand grabbed the Slayer’s own.

His eyes widened in shock. The Elite Guard was anguishing, she was dying, and yet she took his hand for comfort.

The Night Sentinels were all dead when he arrived. Their bodies were still warm but not one was alive. He wanted to embrace them. He wanted to assure them. He wanted to hold their hand and beg for forgiveness, but their eyes couldn’t see his tears and their ears couldn’t hear his cries.

The Slayer hesitated, then turned his palm and clasped the Elite Guard’s hand within his own.

* * *

Ruby was fading away. Feeling the pain suddenly subside, she strenuously opened her eyes and found the Doom Marine clasping her hand as he crouched stoically over her.

The light from the blue flames shone upon him and illuminated the eyes obscured behind the visor. They frowned in concern and bore the marks of a deep rage, but also the scars of pain. There was a warmth to them, and they remained affixed to Ruby’s own even as he held her hand.

She wouldn’t die alone.

He was here, with her.

* * *

The Slayer opened his heart and felt a flood of emotions inundate his soul from the dying Ruby.

He felt her pain, her fear, her helplessness. The griefs and regrets she held in her heart.

He also felt her relief. Her gratitude. Her hope. Her love. The lives she carried with her and those that would survive because of her sacrifice.

Ruby met his gaze and something changed within the Slayer. Despite his closeness to death, he had never stood at someone’s side as they died, and he did not recognize the sensation passing through Ruby or the expression with which she looked at him.

It was alien and bizarre…but familiar, like a half-remembered dream. It had a name, one he had forgotten long ago but now felt once more.

“…Make us pay, Marine.

Make us pay for what…we’ve…done…”

With a final sigh, Ruby breathed her last and closed her eyes.

Her hand relaxed on top of his own, and the remains of her body dissipated in a swirl of sapphire embers that drifted into the empty sky. He looked up to follow the embers until they vanished from view, and the Slayer was alone.

He remembered the name. He knew what Ruby had felt in her final moments. In the end, he’d given her the one thing he could never have.

Peace.

He looked down and picked up the Hellshot Rifle from the ground. Its pack of soul munitions was still loaded, and there were scratch marks on the grip from Ruby’s claws.

UAC LAZARUS DIVISION DIRECTED-SPIRITUAL-ENERGY “HELLSHOT” RIFLE

INGRESS WEAPON INTO STORAGE MATRIX?

…

[[YES]]

As the Slayer moved the Hellshot into storage, he felt something painful rising within his chest. He forced the feeling down before calmly grabbing the black sword on the ground and wearily standing up.

It admittedly was a clever design. Simple, durable, and effective. It was, in its own way, magnificent.

The Slayer raised the Vorpal Sword and plunged it into the ground with an echoing CLANG. It formed the shape of a cross and would now forevermore mark the place where Ruby fell.

A burial fit for a knight.

The Slayer let his hand and gaze linger on the sword’s hilt a moment longer before turning around and walking off into the Hellscape.

Behind him, a bonfire of sapphire flames appeared and softly flickered upon the sword's base.

* * *

CALIBRATION CYCLES - 26

SECRETS - 40

TIME - 55:00

I will fail you, of that I’m sure

I will remind you of the pain forevermore

And when my sins are just a memory

Faith restored

I will fail you

To the core