“Despite the elemental nature of Argent Energy as the primordial paraphysical force of extradimensional realms, it is understood that there are more1.

The UAC has confirmed the existence of at least two other paraphysical forces, both currently unnamed and focused around two distinct artifacts, code-named artifact GR001 and ST001.

Artifact GR001 takes the form of a disk of unknown composition, bearing qualities of both stone and metal, and inscribed with a single symbol not recognized as an infernal language. Artifact ST001 however has been identified as composed of strange matter, and is designated the first extraterrestrial strangelet discovered. GR001 is contained within a Level 4 module in Lazarus for security purposes, but ST001's portable containment has been deemed sufficient to declassify it as Level 3 and make it available for ARC superphysics research. Both artifacts have been observed as bearing violently anti-demonic properties, and are likewise extremely hazardous towards human personnel.

1. Proponents of Spiritual Energy Field Theory assert the existence of a dark paraphysical force identified as 'Metakaos,' the 'Null Force,' or more commonly 'the Void.' Proponents believe this force embodies the primordial chaos, metapsychic emptiness and nothingness. Pure metaphysical inexistence. The UAC has not documented any instance of this Null Force, and it is ironically not believed to exist. However, certain parties within the Lazarus Project assert that the Null Force has already been studied and even harnessed for the development of the [FILE CORRUPTED]."

- UAC Report File “Paraphysical Forces”

E1M15: Hell's Angel

TO SURFACE

“ Keep going!” Colonel Johnson urged. “ You’re almost there!”

Finally!

I rushed towards the sign in relief, ecstatic to finally leave the maddening subterranean complex when I heard a rattling growl and a red humanoid marker directly in front.

“ Rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!”

“No! NO!”

I reached towards the gate but was tackled by an attacker that decloaked and immediately phase-shifted, bringing me along within its phase field as we quantum-tunneled through the floor and exited to slam me on the ground.

CRASH! “Oww!”

I rushed to my feet and barely caught sight of a tall skeletal figure before I was assailed by a barrage of crackling beams that bypassed my overshield and hacked away at my health.

“NO!”

I fired my flak cannons but the figure phase shifted through the wall and vanished, prompting me to follow after it. I triggered my blur artifact and rushed through the walls as I pursued the ghostly after-image of my attacker.

“FUCKIN DIE!”

I switched to and fired my Argent Lances at the attacker as we phased through the structures of the Tei Tenga complex, managing to land several stunning beams on the entity which howled and faltered as we exited phase shift, revealing a translucent skeletal demon with a red polymer harness, two Vortex Cannons atop its shoulders, and two ghostly green eyes.

“Ghouls. Phase-shifting UAC Revenants.”

“Mixom has stolen Revenants too?”

A blue laser sight settled on me from the side and I dashed out of the way as vortex beams from a second Ghoul seared through the walls towards my position. I cast my hand out and had barely launched a flame wave when the first Revenant tackled me and phased the two of us through the exterior wall and into the icy ocean outside.

NOOO!!

The Ghoul carried me further and further away from the complex until its lights had all but faded, stranding us in a flooded ice cavern too thick for the surface light to penetrate, barely illuminated by green Filter Feeders.

Get the fuck off-!

I drew my Bronze Knife and stabbed the Ghoul, but the demon’s hand glowed a ghostly blue and struck me to bypass my shield again and reduce my health to half.

AAAAHHH!!

I blasted the demon off with a missile barrage, keenly noticing my ammo pool wasn’t regenerating in the water. Targeting lasers settled on me and I dashed through the darkness before launching homing volleys.

Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!

I was shooting blind. The hissing missiles curved and tracked their targets even if I couldn’t see them, but only one volley hit its mark as a sudden flash and the relocation of the Ghouls on my radar indicated they were teleporting to avoid the missiles. Long-range was ineffective.

Fuck!

I looked around to assess the situation when I spotted a Filter Feeder floating by the entrance to a tunnel in the ice, my radar indicating a maze-like interior.

I’ll pick them off there!

I swam towards the tunnel as the vanishing lights of distant Filter Feeders closing indicated the Ghouls were getting nearer. Targeting lasers settled on me and I dashed into the tunnel as vortex beams seared through the water.

It was dark. A faint white glow from my body illuminated the caverns, but I rushed through the hollowed interior of the ice shelf without knowing where I was or was heading. The caverns were spongy and consisted of smooth rounded tunnels criss-crossing each other, large enough for me to pass through comfortably, and I dashed to avoid the incoming vortex beams that passed directly through the ice.

I’ve got to split them first!

Knowing my mana did regenerate, I cast a Void clone and watched the shadowy reflection tread in place as the Ghouls drew closer, directing it to attack before it phased through the ice and vanished. Flashes of flame reflected off the walls, and one of the Ghouls on my radar trailed off after the clone.

Yes!

The other exited phase shift directly in front of me.

No!

The demon tackled me and dragged me along the ice wall. I threw a punch with my Scorpion Claws to hitstun it before I clenched my other hand over its chest and Drained it to recover health. The Ghoul opened its mouth in a silent scream of agony before it blinked away and aimed its lasers again.

I phase shifted away in the direction I’d come from, keeping an eye on the two Ghouls around me as a third blip appeared on my radar.

Huh?

I couldn’t see it. It was a fleeting shape, a shadowy figure that darted and slinked rapidly through the water in my pursuit even as I passed through solid ice. There were black tentacles, flashes of sapphire light, but I couldn’t see clearly in my distorted phase vision.

I exited phase shift and came face-to-face with a pale long-mouthed black-eyed shark.

AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!

The figure was lying still in the water, roughly four meters long with wrinkled sickly gray skin. A number of small fins extended from its body, and its long snout drooped lazily before ending in a hooked bill. I had the eerie sensation that it was alive and staring at me, but I could sense no thought or intent from its elongated black eyes.

The Ghoul teleported behind me, and I Subjugated the hookmouthed creature and dashed away.

You serve me now! Attack!

The pale shark did not move or react, and it floated limply along as the Ghoul blithely rushed past and charged me.

YOU USELESS SACK OF SHIT!!

Dashing away to avoid the second Ghoul, which teleported to flank me with its spectral melee attack, I cast another Hellfire flame wave and equipped the Argent lances again.

Wrr POWW! Wrr POWW! The seeker bolts bounced between these before flying off into the caverns. Seeing one Ghoul critically injured, I blasted the other away with my flak cannons and charged the other to Drain it.

AAAAAHHH!

The screaming Ghoul disintegrated in a flurry of embers that were absorbed into me, restoring my health, mana, munitions, and ingraining a new rune upon my mind.

Whoa, that’s powerful.

The last Ghoul charged to attack, and I channeled my Third Eye spell through my blur artifact to bewilder the demon before rushing towards the exit tunnel. I vaulted along icy columns with vortex beams searing past me and striking my health, watching the unknown blip appear ahead as a dark tentacled shape blocked the exit.

WHOAAAAAA!

I dashed towards the creature, which by my new rune became a blink that teleported me through it. I entered phase shift and rushed into open water as quickly as possible, turning around to find the Ghoul had been captured by the entity, barely discernible as a pitch-black octopus with bright blue tips at the ends of its tentacles and a gaping maw lined by a ring of electric blue eyes. The Ghoul thrashed and clawed at the larger creature, but it wouldn’t budge and only grasped tighter.

It’s…not escaping? It’s not teleporting? Why doesn’t it just teleport away?

Rows of small lights suddenly blinked along the octopus’ body before what appeared to be the head clasped onto the Ghoul and released a flash obscured by its own tentacles, the demon releasing a howling shudder and then lying still. Dark blood bloomed in the water.

What?

The creature then slinked back into the cave, Ghoul in arms, as my phase shift wore out. I never managed to get a good look, but I was certain I didn’t intend to.

That thing was a predator. Cunning. Smart. It set a trap for us, and it hunted a demon? It actually went after one? And killed it?

Did it suppress the Revenant’s Argent energy? Did it have psychic powers? Was it a Void entity?

What the hell was that??

An aquamarine glow to my right drew my attention. Far in the water, in the opposite direction from the submerged Tei Tenga facility and standing at the edge of an ice cavern, was a group of four glowing translucent entities looking at me. I almost thought they were jellyfish until I spotted their four globular eyes, their pulsating brains visible within large squid-like bodies, and their sharp clawed and segmented limbs. There were spears in their claws.

Without another gesture, the four Crabsquids became enveloped in swirling portals and vanished.

I floated silently for a few moments, processing what I’d just seen and what its implications meant before another thunderous earthquake broke me out of my stupor. I turned around and swam back towards the UAC facility.

* * *

“YOU INSOLENT, IMBECILIC, IRRESPONSIBLE IDIOTS!!”

The Warden roared at the five men in her native tongue, the crowd of confused Forsworn warriors backing away from the livid commander as the air itself boiled around her and the Jericho ’s floor cracked at her feet.

“Does she know we don’t speak Japanese?” Grimm asked Tiger beside him, who simply shrugged.

“YOU WOKE UP A GODBEAST AND BROUGHT IT HERE? IN THE MIDDLE OF LOCKDOWN??

FLAYNITHERE, what could you have POSSIBLY BEEN THINKING??

AND WOLF! …I expected this from the others, but I sincerely thought you’d be better.”

The shinobi lowered his head in shame.

“WE WERE IN AN ASSEMBLY WITH THE BLACK FLEET!

WE ARE LUCKY THE BLACK COURT HASN’T DECLARED WAR ON US!!”

“We’ve reached an accord,” interrupted the approaching Imperator.

The Warden turned around in surprise. “What?!”

“The Black Court will uphold the armistice and pardon this incident, if we grant them assembly.”

“With who?”

“ With him ,” a new eerie voice spoke behind the warlord, and the crowd stumbled back in shock at the tall and pale being that manifested from a shimmer of golden resonant energy. A shimmering black robe, slow deliberate movements with fading afterimages, deathly-white skin, deep eyes of midnight space, and a plume of strange visaged smoke rising from its head. Behind, four gigantic alien enforcers with monolithic scythes accompanied their master.

A seething Warden stepped back, and the Witness came to a halt before them.

“You made it.

Long have we watched. Long have we waited.

And at last we meet, Slayer of legend.”

A wary Marine frowned in puzzlement, slowly stepping towards the eerie entity.

Do I know you?

“Don’t you recognize us?” The entity curiously asked as it elegantly raised its arms in presentation. The distrustful Marine tilted his head back.

“We are not your friend. We are not your enemy.

We are your…salvation.”

It was subtle, but the Marine recognized the unique aura of the being in front of him. It was concealed, almost masked by the Imperator’s dominating presence, but induced the same chilling sensations of emptiness and despair within him. Cold. Silence. Darkness. Death.

You’re a Voidwalker.

“We are the Voice of the Black Court.

Your judgement. Your Witness.”

Why do you look like that? The Marine asked in disgust. The entity ignored the question.

“We have heard your cries for help, and we have answered.

Your soul cries out for salvation. The celestial ones promised you life, but delivered only death.

Endless. Ceaseless. Meaningless.

A nameless grave left empty. A restless soul wandering the world.

We’ve seen enough. Enough death. Enough life.

The game is over.

Do not be afraid.

Your dark heart holds the key-”

Are you supposed to be a Dark Lord? The Marine suddenly interrupted. Because if you are, I’m really not impressed, he continued as he crossed his arms.

The present Forsworn were taken back as even the Witness lowered its emoting arms in surprise.

A fucking dress? Really?

Fingerless gloves, all black, white makeup and black eyeliner?

Are you a fag or did you get lost on the way to a goth convention?

He wasn’t sure if the entity understood what he was saying, but judging by the Witness’ brutal henchmen growling and tightening their grip on their scythes, his intent was clearly evident. Keeping his gaze firmly on the taller Witness, its gaze narrowing in response to his hostility, the Marine caught his companions and Forsworn whispering amongst themselves in concern.

I’ve seen real Dark Lords. Challenged, fought, and defeated countless across Hell, the Mortal Realm, and beyond.

Mighty warriors. Fearsome tyrants. Conquerors. Champions. Legends.

But YOU…you do not hold a candle to any of them.

Is this all the cosmos has to offer now? If it is, the world has certainly devolved since my time.

“You are a fighter. An opposer, a negator. But your fight is misplaced.

You raise your weapons. Weapons of war, weapons of will.

You do not need them. We offer only truth.”

Truth? What truth? How to look like a fucking hermaphrodite?

I can’t even tell if you’ve got a dick or a cunt.

The sounds of appalled gasping hissed from the crowd. The alien monsters behind the Witness stepped forward, but their master held them back with one gesture from its hand. With gaze darkened and brow furrowed, it bent down towards the Marine.

“We are what Fate decreed us to be. As is everyone.

As are you.”

The Marine refused to be intimidated and stood his ground.

You don't know anything about me.

“No. YOU do not know who you are.”

WAIT a minute! The Marine exclaimed in realization. Wait a minute…I know exactly what you are. Took me a while but I see now.

You’re not a Dark Lord. You don’t command legions, those ships out there are unmanned constructs. You didn’t come with an army, just these fuckers which I don’t even think are your own. I see no vanguard, no congregation, no entourage behind you.

You don’t lead the Void, you serve it.

The Marine emphasized “serve” with the highest and most contemptuous tone of repugnance, but something changed in the Witness’ expression. It raised itself to full height and clasped its hands together.

You’re nothing but a bottom bitch, a middle manager for the Black Court, whoever the fuck they are.

“The Black Court’s will is its own. It acts and graces on its own accord.”

You’re nothing but a pawn of the Void!

You have no vision, no identity, no soul! You don’t stimulate! You don't inspire! You don’t create! You’re just an ephemeral proxy of faceless overlords, devoted entirely to the annihilation of the cosmos!

You’re a fleeting memory, a passing fad!

“And you are a relic of the past.”

[https://i.imgur.com/W3M3TN5.jpg]

What?? Inquired the Marine in genuine confusion.

The Witness turned its gaze to the rest of the Forsworn, disquieted by the Marine’s statements but agitated by the foreign entity. “ This fortress, this…militia. It is a bygone of ages past.

The war between Heaven and Hell is one of antiquity. New powers surge throughout the cosmos to enact their sway, defying devil and god alike.

Wars are no longer waged by nations, but ideas. Service is not measured in loyalty, but by contract. Glory is no longer a pursuit, only gain.”

What the FUCK are you talking about?

“We mean that one day, all of this will fade into obscurity,” the Witness turned around to face the Marine, gesturing widely to the Jericho and those within. “Heroes. Villains. Monster hunters. Dark Lords. There is no place for them anymore.

The world has changed. You either follow in the new order, or be left behind.

The Final Shape awaits for no one.”

The Marine recalled Grimm’s words, ‘...the world just moved too fast…I couldn’t keep up.’ Glancing back at the soldier, he saw Grimm’s face drop with a heavy expression of regret, causing ire to surge inside him.

If the world has changed, it’s only changed for the worse. We will stand, and we will remain.

“Do you really believe the world was much different in your time? That it was better?

How do you think this fortress came to be? Nobility and solidarity? A unified mission? This citadel was a prison. A pointless battleground where slaves fought eternally for the amusement of their Arena Masters.”

Those mysterious Arena Masters again.

I never knew the Vadrigar.

“But the Empty One did, your Imperator. You believe him noble?

It was he who left the Black Court.”

Sounds of gasping and shocked murmuring rose again. The Marine raised his eyebrows, looking back at the Dark Lord behind the Witness who only crossed his arms. Even the Warden, High Three, and other Forsworn commanders seemed surprised.

“He didn’t tell you. How many other lies do you think he withholds from you?

Even now, his fortress remains a prison. A prison for the lost and broken to wage war against his enemies.

In his service.

In his dominion.”

The Imperator looked away somberly, but with no intention to interject. The warlord’s indifference caused the Marine’s rage to reach boiling point.

I’ve heard enough.

Get out of my sight! Now!

“Hellwalker,” the Warden warned as the crowd grew nervous and the Tormentors drew closer. “That’s enough…”

GET THE FUCK OFF THIS SHIP!

“ You are afraid. Afraid of the truth.”

FUCK OFF BACK TO THE NOTHINGNESS WHERE YOU BELONG!

“All A-class personnel and below, evacuate this chamber,” the Warden quietly and hurriedly dispersed the Forsworn crowd as she, the High Three, Typhon, Cygnis, and Tyri lay their hands on their weapons, but Grimm and the rest of the team remained.

“Soldier, I commanded you to go,” the Warden told Grimm.

“I don’t take orders from you.”

“LEAVE! NOW!”

“I’M NOT LEAVING MY FRIEND BEHIND!”

“You fear loss, Slayer. Your fear brings you pain.

We know pain. Our purpose is its end.

You have no purpose because you fear to seek one.

That fear is your failure.”

The Marine drew and raised his super shotgun directly at the Witness’ face. The Tormentors roared in alarm and raised their great scythes, but the Forsworn warriors raised their weapons in reciprocation as even Grimm, Tiger, and the others stepped forward to the Marine’s defense.

“HEY, you big bitch!” Yelled Grimm with his Dark Matter Gun aimed at a Tormentor. “That’s my bro you’re threatening!”

“HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!” Grimm excitedly yelled as he aimed two shotguns, an auto-shotgun and his octuple-barreled Ironblast, at two separate Tormentors. “ I’ve got a long barrel and a hair trigger, and I ain’t afraid to unload on your face!”

We don’t like your kind around here, freak , the Marine emphasized. Get out, now.

Unless you want to see what the Final Shape of your guts looks like.

“ You do not have the strength to challenge us.”

I’ve killed bigger and worse than you.

“Our patience is waning.”

The Marine’s shotgun trigger lightly clicked. Mine is done.

The Witness’ shimmering robe shifted its scales one final time and lay still.

“This won’t bring them back.”

The Marine stood still for several seconds, before weakly lowering his shotgun which fell to the floor, looking away as if in pain. The Forsworn’s postures relaxed in relief and they lowered their weapons.

Quick as lightning, the Marine flashed with incandescent rage as he threw a punch at the Witness, which casually raised a hand and halted the punch with an invisible force. The chamber erupted in violence as the Tormentors and Forsworn broke their standoff and leapt upon each other.

Huh! The Marine grunted as his fist quivered millimeters from the Witness’ unwavering palm amidst the flashing chaos. Not bad.

“ Did you expect anything else?”

I dunno. Were you expecting this?

The Witness’ wide eyes immediately flicked to the Marine’s fist as it focused Argent and Void power for an imperfect Sundering Blow.

Whoosh BOOM!!

The chamber darkened with a focal point of white light between the Marine and Witness, and then a thundering detonation of emerald energy threw them and everyone back, leaving the chamber illuminated with eerie strands of ethereal green matter.

The Tormentors and Forsworn rose to their feet and set upon each other once more, and the Marine drew his roaring chainsaw and charged the stunned Witness.

“ ENOUGH!!”

With a harrowing roar and the sound of shattering glass, the Witness released a forceful burst that halted the motion of all beings within the chamber, suspending them within a dilation field of frozen time.

Casually walking past sharp vertices of shattered space-time, the Witness approached the frozen Marine and stopped in front of him.

“ We offer only the truth, and yet you refuse it like a petulant child.

Your tenacity would be admirable, but in your idiocy, it is pathetic.”

The frozen Marine’s eyes flicked to the Witness, whose own widened in something that could only be described as shock.

…aaaAAAHHH!!

With echoing grunts amidst the shimmering field, the Marine freed himself from the time dilation and stood furiously in the same time frame before the Witness.

“How did you manage that?”

Fuck you, that’s how.

“That is not possible.”

You really think you’re the first fucker I’ve met with time manipulation? I used to eat assholes like you for breakfast.

This is it. Just you and me, the Marine urged as he raised his fists.

Let’s go.

“No.”

The Witness closed its eyes and lowered its hands into a non-combative stance.

… What?

“We did not come to fight. We do not wish to fight.

We offer only truth.”

FUCK YOU AND FUCK YOUR TRUTH! I WANT YOUR ASS!

“ The Imperator left you to the Godkillers.”

For the first time since meeting the Witness, the Marine’s stomach sank in chilling unease.

How do you know about-?

The Witness’ eyes opened in a somber expression of pity.

“ Do you think he could not have saved you from their thrall? That he could not have saved your friend from the Nightflyers?

That he could not have pulled you from that darkness? That he could not have stopped your fall in the Umbral Plains? That he could not restore your power even now?”

What are you talking about-

“The Empty One allowed you to fall, knowing it would bring you within his sway.

He allowed your friend be endangered, knowing it would invoke you to his rescue.

He allowed the Godkillers to break your soul, knowing it would test your resolve against the Void.

Everything you have done, everything you have accomplished, everything that has happened to you - upon setting foot in the Umbral Plains - is because he’s allowed it.

Even from our distance, we can see it. We’re surprised…you cannot.”

You’re lying.

“He allows this moment…even now.”

The Marine quickly turned to the Imperator, seeing the warlord frozen within the same dilation field as the others-

No, not frozen.

The shattered space-time lay suspended around the Imperator’s motionless figure but did not trap him in it. He did not move, but his cognizant eyes followed the other two figures.

Watching. Studying. Waiting.

The Marine was aghast. Why?

“ He tests you,” responded the eerie figure as it approached beside him. “ It’s all been a test, to see if you will overcome all threats to his authority.”

The Marine shook his head. He wouldn’t believe it.

He’s my ally. He wouldn’t do this!

“He’s been using you. Using you to be another soldier in his army, another weapon in his arsenal, another asset in his own quest against the Dark Realm.”

He helped me reach a deeper strength, showed me how to harness the Void within!

“ Of course,” the Witness remarked as it walked behind him. “ That is his goal.

A warrior of fire and shadow, Argent and Void, serving in his command. Waging his war as none other has before.”

The Imperator looked away. If he had any objections to the claims the Witness was voicing, he would not speak them.

The Marine sighed weakly, his gaze falling to the ground. What do you want?

“ The infernal ones want you destroyed. The celestial ones want you a servant.

Your people want you forgotten. And the Forsworn want you like them: a lost broken tool for the Empty One’s purposes.”

Why are you really here?

“We offer salvation.

We offer…an alternative.”

You want me to join you?

“Join us.

Embrace your emptiness, and take your rightful place with the Null Kings of the Black Court.”

Why would I want to join the Void?

“Why does the war between Heaven and Hell persist? Dogma? Control?

Does any even know who started the war? Who wages it? Why?”

Everyone knows who wages the war. The Five Heresiarchs and Nameless One of Hell, and the Twelve Dominions and High Khan of Heaven.

“But do you know the origins of Heaven and Hell? Who the Nameless One is? Why they lay frozen in that black sea of nothingness?

If existence is Creation, where is its Creator?”

The Marine remained silent. If those questions had answers, he did not know them.

“ Existence lacks answers. It lacks meaning and purpose. All beings search for purpose in their life, but are cursed to never find it.”

The Witness circled around and approached in front of the Marine.

“You asked why we had no followers, no army, no congregation. Because in existing, in defying, in fighting, every being across the cosmos IS our follower.

We are Witness to all seeking purpose in their existence.

Every soldier, every warrior, every sentinel, every guardian, struggling futilely against the grain of fate, grinding pointlessly against the lathe of destiny, is testament to the meaninglessness of the cosmos, and the capricious, consuming powers that govern it.

Good, evil. Right, wrong. They’re all illusions. All meaningless. The universe makes us all victim, and perpetrator, of its infinite cruelty.

And you, more than any, suffer both fates.”

The Witness stopped in front of the Marine, who did not respond or even raise his gaze.

“You were right. We are not the first to harness the power of the Void. But we SHALL be the last.

What we seek is finality. The end of suffering, misery, and anguish. The end of tyranny from higher powers, and the end of their ageless conflicts that devour us all.

The Void’s promise is not one of annihilation, but preservation.

You need not smother the emptiness within you. Need not restrain it in service of the Empty One. You’ve seen what your Void Heart alone is capable of. Embrace the Void, and you will receive power like none other.

Join the Black Court, and we will help you reach your true potential. Together, in our reach lies the greatest power in all existence.

The power to unite the Void. The power to end both Heaven and Hell, and remake the universe unto its Final Shape-”

No.

The weary Marine’s sudden reply interrupted the Witness, and the entity stared in sheer shock for several moments, unable to process the incredulous response.

“In a world beyond controlling, you would deny the savior in front of your eyes?!” It asked in rising fury, the chamber darkening and the shattering of space-time accentuating further.

“In your grasp lies power beyond containing!

Will you remain a slave for the rest of your life?!”

I will be no slave, the Marine declared as he finally looked up and approached the being in defiance. Not to Heaven, not to Hell, not to the Forsworn, not to mankind, and certainly not to the Void.

Lost and broken as I am, I will not trade the lies of one religion for another. Will not trade the tyranny of one god for another.

I will wander aimlessly rather than march in service of another. I would walk alone, lost but free, than serve another master ever again. Better the freedom of ignorance than the chains of another’s truth.

I am my own man, and I walk my own path.

That is MY truth.

MY destiny.

MY finality.

“ You make a grave mistake.”

But it is MY mistake. And like all my others, it’ll be MINE to own.

Not yours. Not anyone’s.

The Marine clenched his fists, bracing for another confrontation, but the Witness’ furrowed brow relaxed and the entity floated back in defeat.

“ As you wish.”

With a gesture of its hand, the dilation field within the chamber vanished and returned to normal, unexpectedly dropping the Forsworn warriors caught in its reach. The four Tormentors roared in agony as their forms collapsed into shimmering golden fractals, but they were disintegrated and reabsorbed at the Witness’ command.

“Farewell, Slayer.” The Witness spoke as it strode past the Marine and confused Forsworn. “We hope you find whatever it is you search for.

And we hope…”

The Witness stopped and glanced back at the dejected Marine, its eyes glaring with cosmic rage and its form resplendent with resonant fire.

“...you’ll STAY OUT OF OUR WAY.”

[https://i.imgur.com/DKfKzaK.jpg]

In a swirl of resonant energy, the figure of the Witness dissipated and vanished. The Forsworn murmured confusedly, picking themselves up as the Warden turned to the Marine and the Imperator remained as still and silent as before.

Grimacing in disdain, the Marine turned and left the chamber, walking past the strange shimmering masses of ethereal green strands produced by his attack on the Witness.

“Big guy-” Grimm reached out for the Marine but he stormed past, paying the soldier and his companions no attention.

* * *

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

Elena and Romero followed close behind the Skullhacker, whose heavy footsteps produced the only major sound throughout the foggy hallways. The ceiling lights were dim but SAM provided illumination in the form of a digital blue searchlight.

But it seemed like the dark was growing. The shadows were longer, and the ceiling lights eventually faded to nothingness as only SAM’s beacon remained. If not for Romero at her side, and Skullhacker’s footsteps in front, Elena would have thought herself alone.

“ ...is it really true…what they say about it?...”

That thought, that whispering again. It drifted upon her mind again, like a familiar scent on a faint breeze.

“... it’s what they built the Sawcubi and Chainstrosities from, but…you don’t really believe the stories…?”

She could almost grasp it. This imprint, this memory must have been something important. She widened her senses, becoming duly aware of the surrounding environment and the faint energies lingering in Lazarus.

There were screams. Shouts. Pain, terror, anguish. They echoed distantly and fleetingly, and Elena stressfully sifted through these as she attempted to locate the memory.

“... I heard it comes from before Argent…back from the first Mars colony…”

The screams became louder. There were sacrifices, possessions, horrific acts performed upon living victims.

“... the first Chainsaw…from the Doom Marine himself…”

I’ve almost got it, she thought to herself as she strained her mind, the energies become louder, wilder, and more frantic as she struggled to fixate on the target imprint. Just a bit further-

Elena froze in place.

Everything was silent.

Her body stopped moving and her breath caught in her throat. To her shock, she could see SAM’s searchlight and the two men continue without her.

“P…please,” she strained to mutter. “Come back…”

But the men were unaware that she hadn’t followed, and their footsteps faded and were gone.

Elena was alone in the dark.

“... You should not be here…”

She shivered. It was cold, and yet she felt blisteringly hot. Her skin burned and a cold sweat spread all over. Her hands clenched and she struggled to even breathe in the suffocating darkness.

Something was wrong. The whole world was wrong. It didn’t feel real, more like a mirror’s reflection.

What had she done?

“... you do not belong…”

A voice. The same voice. Detached but intrigued. Gentle yet harrowing. A closest friend and the vilest enemy.

Something moved behind her, and Elena’s eyes flickered in fear, straining futilely to look behind as something’s breath blew upon her hair.

“ Return where you came, lest the darkness devour you whole.”

The hallway lights suddenly snapped on with a harsh glow, a cursed red that felt like burning Elena’s skin. As the thing slowly slid forward to face her, she let out a gasp of pure terror.

The creature was two meters long, a viscous black body suspended from the ceiling bearing six long tentacles, a prominent mass at the lower end that formed an elongated lemon-shaped head. Row after row of reddish flat teeth with exposed roots burst from the surface of the eyeless head, forming a long lipless mouth. The creature’s surface rippled and bubbled, a choppy wave on the sea of irreality.

“ Why would you let your delicate mind expand this violently?

Have you forgotten the stains it leaves in your psyche?”

Elena was paralyzed in fear.

“Your fragile existence cannot grip this reality.

Leave now, before you are unmade entirely.”

The creature spoke slowly, enunciating every syllable and its bloodstained teeth clicking as a slimy tongue passed over these. Somehow, Elena found it in herself to look away and even speak in a frightened whisper.

“W-what are you?”

“ I am real, yet I’m not. A voice in your head.

A forgotten superstition hanging by a thread.”

“P-please…I just want to go home…”

The creature swapped the positions of its tentacles on its fluid body and spun its head a full hundred-eighty degrees clockwise.

“ Answer my riddle, since you care for your fate…

Why follow a Blackwatch Trooper if you wish to escape?”

Still shivering, Elena raised her gaze in confusion.

“ Do you’ve any idea what they are? What their kind has wrought?

The yawning abyss that lies behind those eyeless thoughts?”

Elena gulped and struggled to get her words out.

“H-he saved our lives. Saved m-my life. I believe in him.”

“ To walk with one, one must be remiss their true nature.

Ignorant or naive is what you are, Lightbearer.”

“...L-Lightbearer?”

“ You attempt to conceal, and yet your soul shines bright.

I didn’t know humans were still capable of such light.”

Something clattered at Elena’s feet. She looked down to find a small pearly object glinting in the cursed light, and could taste something metallic flowing down her mouth.

The entity cycled its tentacles and spun its head once more.

“ But not bright enough. You are rotting away.

You must leave now, lest you lose your face.”

Something heavy pressed at her legs, and Elena looked down to find slimy black tentacles coiling around her feet.

“H-how do I get out of here? How do I escape?!”

“Leave the Trooper behind, if you must know.

They do not think, they do not feel, and they do not hope.”

Elena’s teeth continued to fall from her mouth. Her fingernails soon followed suit, and even her hair began to fall off in thick bunches. Her heart was beating out of her chest, and incessant tears poured from her eyes.

“Tell not a soul, for none with listen, care, believe.

Keep those moments locked inside, until the day you grieve.”

Elena’s blistering skin felt as if coming loose from her body. As she stared, her skin flaked off in dry patches to reveal dessicated flesh and bone beneath.

“ You’ve been here too long, your demise will be soon.

You better wake up, before you forget how to.”

Tentacles coiled firmly around her legs, and as thundering blood roared in her ears, the creature came closer and spread its mouth wide open to reveal two glassy black eyes staring from the darkness inside.

[https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/068/389/651/large/infinity-pilot-lemon-3.jpg?1697679784]

“ WAKE UP.

WAKE UP.”

Her tearful eyes began to melt.

“WAKE UP-”

“AAAAAAAHHH!!”

“Elena! Elena, wake up!”

The scientist blinked herself awake. She was lying on the floor, a frightened Romero kneeling beside her as the battle-alert SAM and Skullhacker stood guard above them, anxiously flicking weapon beams across the shadows.

“You’re okay, you’re okay, it was just a bad dream…just a bad dream.” The gunslinger tearfully assured her as Elena checked herself. Her fingernails were still attached, as were her teeth and hair. Her skin had not sloughed off and her eyes were not melted. She was real. The world was real.

The gunslinger was real. She could feel his relief, his grief, his concern. He was real, with her, right now.

Elena began to cry. She sobbed bitterly and tightly clutched the gunslinger, ignoring the smell of ozone, the ash on his suit, and the scorched corridor they sat in. Romero returned the embrace and wept too.

* * *

The Marine aimlessly stormed down the halls of the Jericho, the heavy footsteps of the Warden approaching swiftly from behind.

“YOU…are an absolute disgrace.”

Leave me alone.

“I have tried to be patient. I have tried to be understanding.

But you are an ARROGANT, INCONSIDERATE ingrate that doesn’t care who or what he endangers in his egoistic self-destruction!”

YEAH! You know what, I AM!! The Marine furiously retorted as he turned around and stared down the taller Warden. I AM A SELFISH DESTRUCTIVE BASTARD THAT ONLY CARES ABOUT HIS FUCKING SELF!! SO WHAT??

“YOU THINK THIS ABSOLVES YOU?? YOU THINK ADMITTING YOUR FAULTS REDEEMS YOU OF THEM??”

Grimm, Cygnis, and the others rushed down the hall and stopped where the Marine and Warden were arguing, and he hissed in aggravation as everyone kept following.

The fuck do you care?!

“Because through it all, I’M the one that has to clean up your mess!”

The Marine came to a seething halt.

“I’M the one tasked with maintaining order, and you have caused nothing but problems since the day you arrived!

You think you’re an inspiration? All you’ve done is brought everyone down to your PATHETIC LEVEL!!”

The Marine flashed around with Argent-Void in his fist and fury in his eyes.

POWW!

With a swift kick the Warden raised a stone wall from the floor to block the Marine’s attack, but his imperfect Sundering Blow shattered the barrier and struck the Warden in the chest, smashing her into the wall where she fell to her knees and gasped in pain, her oni mask cracked and fallen to the ground. She tried standing and to follow with an earthbending stance, but she lightly stumbled as the lingering Void seeped into her body and negated her powers.

I see…you have no resistance to the Void. You’ve fought Hell, but have never confronted your own emptiness.

Rage boiled within the Marine’s heart as the Warden firmly stood up, revealing the older but untarnished face of the same elemental guardian who’d banished him from the Eastern lands so long ago, contorted in fury and her dark freckles stained from her bloody nose. His Berserk fury was beginning to grow.

I’m gonna fucking TEAR YOU APART.

The Warden raised a salvo of stone spikes and launched them at the Marine, but he switched to the Gauss Cannon and fired a siege blast. PSHEWW!! The outer beam vaporized the barrage but missed the Warden, his opponent dodging the attack and tackling him into the wall.

BOOM! 82 HEALTH. The Warden pulled him back to slam him again, and he switched Void Heart to Boiling Blood as he sensed she was going to imprison him in the stone wall. BOOM! 71 HEALTH. She slammed him again but the damaging blast threw her back and the Marine rushed and tackled her.

BOOM!

The two crashed through the wall and rammed through a dozen Forsworn warriors on the other side, leaving bloody smears and corpses disintegrating for resuscitation.

“ Get everybody out!” Cygnis yelled at the others. “ Those two are gonna tear this ship apart!”

“Shouldn’t we try to stop them?!” Grimm asked.

“ Just fall back!”

“Do you know what you are, Hellwalker?!” The Warden snarled as she pinned him to the ground and bound his body with stone cuffs. “An empty vessel of revenge, who deserves to be unloved and alone!”

And you know what you are?! A sad peasant girl with abandonment issues, who can’t decide between hating the world, he yelled, blasting himself free with a burst of audiopsionic energy from his Argent Metal suit before focusing another imperfect Sundering Blow, and hating herself!

POWW!

The attack blasted the Warden off with the Void seeping into her body, and with Berserk halfway charged, the Marine freed himself and charged her once more.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The Warden’s earthbending instinctively tunneled them through the walls as they penetrated the ship and crushed countless Forsworn in their path, but the Marine was single-mindedly focused.

Need to get her off this ship! Stone’s her native element! With so much rock, she’s gonna crush me!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The two broke through the outer wall and flew into the empty storming Hellscape beyond, and the Warden returned to her senses only to find the Marine aiming a rocket launcher at her.

BOOM! The blast struck her directly and blasted her even further from the Jericho , and as he switched to and fired his chaingun while propelling himself on his forceboard, she cast a flame shield to block the barrage, but the Marine could tell her bending was becoming sloppy and imprecise.

FWOOSH!! She suddenly cast a roaring flame wall and cast two spiraling flame dragons towards him, which swept him in their scorching maws as the Warden soared towards him with flame jets, slamming him against a mass of floating boulders that she forced together behind him. 54 HEALTH.

“All you Apollyons, all you men, see yourselves as forces of nature!” She yelled with a stone grip around his neck, crushing his throat. “You all think you’re inevitable ends, but you’re not!

Your depths are all false, you twist the meaning of justice to absolve yourselves of conscience! You’re just like every other man I’ve ever met!

There are no men like me!"

“Every man is like you!

Arrogant yet self-pitying! Greedy yet worthless!

Architects of endless systems of oppression, who cry when the same machines they built throw them down and grind them to dust! Always thinking you are above authority, without judgement or consequence!

What would a man know about companionship?! What would a man know about emotion, loss, humanity?! What would a man know about love ?!

You think you know love ?! All you’ve ever known is lust and control!”

And you’re just like every woman I’ve ever known! The Marine countered as he freed himself with another audiopsionic blast and struck the Warden with an imperfect Sundering Blow, following after to punch at her anguished form. 42 HEALTH but Berserk was almost fully charged.

Vain! Hypocrite! Narcissist! Entitled! Unaccountable! A psychopathic BITCH! He kicked her away as she returned to alertness and strafed to evade the cluster of crystals she hurled at him. He switched to Taylor’s Hellshot and opened fire, the soulfire projectiles burning her robes and pummeling her spirit.

A victim and tyrant of convenience! Always comparing yourself to those above without ever considering those below as even human! You would depose authority just to replace it with yourself!

“What would you know about being a victim?!” The Warden suddenly yelled as she bent the spiritual projectiles to her will and collected them in five fireballs around herself.

Oh SHI-!

“Did you scavenge garbage for food?!” She launched one fireball at him, which curved in its path and he swerved to avoid it. “Did you fear if the shaking after untreated sickness would ever go away?!” She hurled another, and though he strafed it struck him and seared at his body and soul. 19 HEALTH. “Did you scrape your head against frozen ground for relief from fever?!

DID YOUR FAMILY LEAVE YOU TO DIE??!!”

The Warden fused both fireballs together and hurled them at the Marine, too close and too low-health to dodge. Moments before they struck, there was a flash of scarlet lightning and a blazing incandescence as the Marine went Berserk and charged at the Warden, his vitality fully restored and radiating scorching heat.

The Warden clasped her hands together as her eyes shone white.

FWOOOSH!

The Berserk Marine was forced back by a torrent of flame as the Ascendant Warden rushed back and drew great quantities of material from the Jericho, bending the four elements to form a colossal golem around herself with body of stone, rings of wind and water, and animated from within via fire.

RAAAAAAAAHHH!!

The Berserk Marine swerved as the elemental golem rained great burning meteors from the infernal sky, bending the Hellscape around it to form spiked ice fields and lava waves, but the Marine’s Immolating heat, acquired after the Godkiller battle, melted the ice and he leapt and blazed over the lava to climb onto the golem.

AAAAHHH-!

POWWW! POWWW! POWWW! With single mighty kicks and punches, the Marine shattered the golem’s arm beneath him and tore through the construct with his Berserk strength alone, leaping and strafing as it cast firebreath and rained hails of lava spikes. It didn’t compare to his Slayer Berserk, but he was strong enough to pummel the golem apart.

With a final punch the construct’s arm shattered and he rushed at the glowing core where the Warden resided. The crumbling golem roared and cast a howling gale to push him away, but he cast an imperfect Sundering Blow and pierced through the winds to break through the golem like a bullet, the Ascendant Warden in hand.

Lightning flashed in the thunderous infernal sky. She swung her battle mace at him, and with one move he clasped the weapon and crushed it in his hand, but she was already throwing a right hook at his face.

POWWW! POWWW! POWWW! POWWW! The two punched and struck at each other as they fell back towards the Jericho, the Warden surprisingly resilient as she tanked several direct Berserk blows and landed her own punches that pummeled the Marine’s flesh and bones, even as her robes began to burn away from close proximity to his Immolation.

The Jericho was drawing nearer, and the Warden swiftly grabbed hold of the Marine and held him in front so he’d take the blunt of the impact, and he winced as their crash tunneled them through the fortress’ walls before the Warden kicked him away and sent him reeling on the floor as his Berserk burnt out.

The Warden was bruised, bloody, and singed, but she held herself aloft and extinguished her robes with a gesture as her radiance ceased and her eyes returned to normal.

The Marine groaned as he picked himself off the floor. 44 HEALTH.

Get the fuck over yourself.

“I was born into a broken world,” she began as she strode towards him. “Corrupt, ravaged, guideless. The man who came before me should have guarded it but abandoned it for his own vices, leaving ME to pick up the pieces. I never wanted this role, I never wanted this power, but unlike you…” The Marine equipped his super shotgun, causing her to scowl. “...I know duty!”

With a gesture she tore a great chunk of floor and threw it at him, crushing him against the wall.

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“I know justice!”

She raised the floor beneath him and crushed him against the ceiling, dropping it again to leave him lying on the floor. 27 HEALTH.

“And I know selflessness!”

He raised and fired his rocket launcher, but with a flick of a water whip she deflected the rocket back at him which erupted at his feet. 19 HEALTH, and before he knew it the Warden had rushed through the blaze and pinned him against the wall, managing to raise him with just one hand at his throat.

“I was meant to protect my Four Islands, but instead, I defended all of Earth! The seven continents and the seven seas, keeping peace and upholding balance, because YOU didn’t!”

Ugggh, the fuck are you talking about?

“The one who came before me was YOU!”

CRASH! She slammed him against the wall, ignoring the damaging blasts from Boiling Blood, and the Marine’s vision was starting to go red.

“You’re the original Apollyon!”

CRASH!

“YOU returned to Earth many times over thousands of years! YOU could have guarded it, but each time you left for your vain crusade in Hell!

Wars, tyrannies, genocides, invasions, endless suffering could have been prevented by you, but I had to fill that void!”

I saved Earth from a million demonic incursions! The Marine grunted and strained to release her grip from his throat. I am a hero!

“YOU’RE A MISTAKE!”

CRASH! The Warden threw him through the wall, and the Marine weakly coughed up blood as the startled Forsworn on the other side fled in panic. 11 HEALTH.

“Every time you left was a DISASTER! Tyrants rose to fill the power vacuum, warlords rose to defy them, and demonic incursions continued anew. Heroes rose to stop them, and fell every time. Millions of innocent lives lost!

And all this time…!” The Warden rushed once more at him, this time crushing his helmet within her iron grip and slamming him against the floor. His vision was starting to fade to black.

“... I have been the only one holding it all together! How many Forsworn do you think reside here from lands that were destroyed in your absence?! You think yourself worthy to stand with them?! To lead them?!

You don’t belong here!

You never did!”

BZZZZT! “ AAAHHH!”

The Warden was thrown off by the stun bomb the Marine detonated against her metallic armor, and as he painfully struggled to his feet, he saw her a distance away recoiling in electrified agony.

Electricity.

He switched to the lightning gun and opened fire.

BZZZZZTTTT!! “AAAAAAAHHHHH!!”

The chamber doors opened and Grimm, Cygnis, Hennya, and the others rushed in, stopping in horror as the Marine coldly focused the lightning stream on the thrashing Warden, her body smoking, the smell of burnt flesh filling the chamber, and the flashing blue bolts illuminating their horrified faces.

BZZZZZTTTT!! “AAAAAAAHHHHH-!!”

She suddenly thrust a hand out and stopped screaming. The Marine’s eyes widened in shock.

The Warden was rising to her feet, the lightning from his weapon focusing on her fingertip as her eyes glowed white again but a strange circular aura appeared around her head and wrists, her complexion glitching with the ghostly impressions of a thousand other faces.

Oh, no.

The Marine watched helplessly as the Warden channeled his lightning through herself before redirecting it back at him.

BZZZZZTTTT!! The lightning struck and stunned him, throwing him back and leaving him electrified on the floor. The Warden stormed forward, summoning Wolf’s flask from his belt and crushed it in hand to drench herself in healing water before suddenly tackling the Marine to the floor, raising her ghostly hands above him and bringing his Argent Metal armor under her control to leave him completely immobilized.

Metalbending?

CRRAAACK! SMASH! RIPPPPP! The Warden was tearing his suit apart with her own hands, clawing away at the plating and framework to reveal the Marine trapped inside. She tore his helmet away, exposing his face before bending gnarled spiked gauntlets out of the metal and clenching her fists.

POWW W! POWWW! POW POW POW! POWWW!

“STOP!!”

A desperate Grimm called out, pulling the Warden out of her blood frenzy with a bloody fist in the air and a red pulp beneath her. The pummeled man breathed weakly within the shredded armor, turning over to cough a splatter of blood.

“Pick him up,” she directed to the High Three standing at the back of the chamber. The three warriors briefly glanced at each other but stepped forward. Grimm reached out in protest, but a firm hand from the Imperator stopped him.

The High Three picked up the almost unconscious Marine and bound his hands and feet with thick metal cuffs inscribed with runes.

“Hellwalker, you are under arrest for your actions against the safety and authority of this ship,” the Warden declared.

… it’s your ship…do something…

The Imperator sighed.

“Forgive me, Slayer. But when it comes to the administration of this citadel, the Warden’s authority exceeds my own.”

The warlord clasped his hands behind him and turned to leave.

That’s it? You’re just gonna walk away?

“Yes.”

The Marine couldn’t believe it.

You’re gonna let this FUCKING SLAG outrank you?! You let her command your warriors, direct your fortress, without a word of opposition?!

Where’s your fucking dignity?! Where’s your fucking self-respect, your worth as a man?!

The Imperator came to a halt but did not turn around.

You’re not the same man I once knew. You’ve changed.

“We’re meant to, Slayer.”

I thought you were strong…I thought you were fierce, and proud, like the great Dark Lords of old.

But you’re not! You’re nothing but a weakling! A figurehead, a coward! You’ve done literally nothing since I came here, and you let these women boss your men around?! Boss you around?!

What do you have to say for yourself?!

The Imperator did not respond.

SAY SOMETHING, YOU BASTARD!!

Yell, crush me, kill me! Imprison me yourself, throw me off this ship, do something to show me you have an ounce of manhood left!

FIGHT!!

FIGHT, YOU FAGGOT, FIIIIGHT!!

His psychic screams echoed in the silence. The Imperator stood deathly still, his head bowed and dust swirling off his muscular back in the stark light, seeming more and more to the Marine like a mountain crumbling before his eyes.

He looked over his shoulder and glanced solemnly back at him.

“I’m sorry.”

…

Without another word, the warlord strode heavily away and vanished behind the open gate, the stunned High Priestess glancing from him to the others before hurrying after her master. The Marine stared incredulously, his ragged breath the only thing he heard.

“You will be judged, and the high commanders will decide your fate,” the Warden continued. “Now throw him into the hold.”

Should have known.

The Marine’s low and distant tone caused the Warden to blink in surprise, as even the High Three stopped to face him.

The man-hating, the victim complex, the despotism…

Your partner was a chick. You’re a fucking dyke.

The Warden made a sharp breath.

Heh heh heh, what’s the matter? Didn’t want anyone to call you a muff diver? Didn’t want the Forsworn to know you were a clam eater? So long spent eating garbage…I bet the smell of fish just grows on you.

That explains your battle mace. Penis envy, much? Did it remind you of her strap-on? What’d her DICK taste like, Warden?

She told you you were perfect, that you deserved the world, but women have a way with words, don’t they? They lie as easily as they breathe. Tell the fat girl she’s beautiful and she’ll never be a threat. Tell the ugly girl you love her, and you’ll have a carpet muncher for life.

And if I was half as ugly as you, I’d also cover myself with a better-looking oni mask. You had the right idea with the kabuki paint.

White looks way better on you.

Nobody said a single word.

The Forsworn stood still as if time itself had frozen within the chamber. The only movement was the flicking of horrified eyes from the Marine to the Warden and back again, and the only sound the dripping of blood from his mouth, as if his very words were vitriol dripping from his lips.

Looking up in sick satisfaction, the Marine saw the Warden’s bloody face turn grotesquely pale, her lip trembling as her eyes became bloodshot in an indescribable fury.

“Get this animal out of my sight.”

The order was a hushed, ragged whisper hissed out of clenched teeth, but the High Three broke out of their stupor and dragged the glaring Marine away from the commander. He turned to his companions in a futile search for anyone that might help, but none of them met his eyes.

Grimm, Cygnis, Hennya, Tiger, Typhon, all of them were looking away with pained expressions of shame and disgust.

Heh. Heh heh heh heh heh…

The laughter came slow, a silent yet cruel presence emanating from him that would have chilled the most hardened of warriors to the bone if it had sound.

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Useless. Worthless! PARASITES! Every last one of you!

It was ironic. After everything he’d done for them, when the moment of truth came, they turned their backs on him and left him to rot.

Fuck them. He didn’t need them. He didn’t need any of them.

Fuck them all.

HA HA HA HA HA HA!!

* * *

“Run it by me one more time, what exactly is he?”

“ He’s a Godbeast,” Cygnis explained to Grimm, cigar in mouth. “A type of primeval life-form native to the Mortal Realm and to many planetary ecosystems.”

“And why exactly are we helping it?”

“Apparently it and Master Wan have history.”

The soldier and dragonoid watched as the Forsworn Verimor assembly stood atop the resting colossal beast, using strange and arcane structures to mend its ancient scars and miasmas, while Hallowed mystics stood by its head in attempts to appease its tormented mind and commune with it. The Jericho had repositioned to stand guard above the beast, and the Black Fleet had long since departed.

“I think the big guy told me about these. He said his old world of Argent D’Nur was once populated by great creatures like this one, which seeded it with life and even dragons in their image.

They called them Ancestrals.”

“ Everyone has their own name for everything,” the Guncaster sighed while crossing his arms. “ The more you travel, the more names you have to keep up with and everything just becomes confusing.

Do you know how many things I’ve come across are called ‘Titans’? ‘Void’? ‘Crucible’? A big pain in my ass, is what it is.”

Grimm stood silent for a moment before reluctantly raising the question bothering him.

“Cygnis, what do you think is wrong with the big guy?”

The monstrous Guncaster took on a low and remarkably soft tone as he puffed out a cloud of smoke.

“ Ohh, man. Don’t worry about it, bro. It wasn't because of you.”

“I thought he was getting better.”

“You have to understand, these things take time. Recovery isn’t linear. It rises, falls, levels, spikes and dives for all sorts of reasons.

It’s difficult enough to see it. Even more difficult if you’re the one living it.”

“I saw the fire in his eyes again. I thought he’d found his purpose again.”

“ Maybe, but perhaps he wasn’t ready for it yet.”

“Huh?”

“ He flew too close to the sun, Reaper. He exposed himself to an experience he wasn’t ready for and suffered from it. Forced himself to recover too fast and hurt himself doing so.

The same fire that reignited his soul ended up burning him.”

“That wasn’t like him. I know what he’s like but…I didn’t think even he’d say those things.”

“Maybe he meant them. Maybe he didn’t. Either way, he said them because he was hurting, and he wanted others to hurt like him.”

“But why?”

“ Because sometimes, Reaper, you don’t want someone to bring you into the light.

Sometimes, you want someone to share the darkness with.”

Grimm hesitated before making his next question.

“Cygnis, you’ve been around for a while, right?”

“Ohh, bro. Don’t do this to yourse-”

“I need to know. Did you know him before…all this? Before that sarcophagus?”

The dragonoid sighed and put down his cigar.

“ I never actually met him. Not many did. But I heard stories. Rumors. I saw the aftermath. I hate demons as much as the next guy, and I’ve seen what they do to mortals and to themselves. But the things he did to them…

I only ever saw him once. From a distance. Real far.”

“What was he like?”

“... Different.”

“How?”

The Guncaster grimly looked into his friend’s eyes and shook his head.

“I don’t think you wanna know.”

The soldier crossed his arms.

“Do you think he can only recover when, well, when he's like that? Is that the source of his power?”

“I direly hope not. I know what a life fueled by rage and pain is like. No one deserves that, especially not him.”

“I wish there’s something I could do. If I hadn’t made everything about myself-”

“Hey! Listen to me.

What happened wasn’t your fault. It was his and his alone.

Give him some time. He’ll come around, and he’ll be looking for you when he does.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Then it’s your job as his friend to say goodbye.”

Grimm looked down heavily, but nodded in agreement.

“Thanks, Cygnis.”

The Guncaster held a fist out, and the soldier fistbumped him back.

“So, why was this Godbeast attacking us?”

“ Good question,” the dragonoid replied throwing his cigar away, Grimm close behind.

“Any luck?”

“None,” replied the High Priestess while lowering her enchanted staff, the nearby Master Wan and Warden standing by the creature, the latter still surrounded by a small team of healers. “Its mind appears uncorrupted and retains sapience, but it refuses communication.”

“ That power…I’ve never seen one of these do that. It took on an entire fleet and shrugged off battleship attacks like they were nothing. I didn’t think they could even survive here.”

“Its body must have acclimated to this reality. Harnessing its great power and dimensional energies, but without becoming demonic itself.

It’s been here a long time though. It must have an unbreakable will.”

“Poor old guy.”

The sleeping beast huffed and the Verimor on its back whirred in surprise. There was a loud cracking sound and two giant aquamarine eyes slowly opened to gaze tiredly at the group.

“ Ha. Hey there, big fella. Didn’t mean to wake you up.”

The Godbeast made no response. Its eyes lightly flicked across the group and the Forsworn warriors around it, but apart from breathing it made no other movement. The Guncaster remained staring intently at it.

“Is it communicating with you?”

“ He. He’s saying that he’s on a quest, looking for something. Someone.

An enemy.”

“A demon?” Inquired Grimm.

“ No. Not a demon. He faced plenty of demons and always dealt with them.

He’s saying this enemy fell from the sky. A devil from the stars that scorched his world. It slaughtered the life in his care, and massacred his family. He’s the only one who survived.”

“Jesus.”

Grimm looked up at the giant aquamarine eyes. They were focused with primeval rage and ageless wisdom, but they also carried a deep grief.

“There were a people in his world, also in his care. Different and strange, but they respected him, and he guarded them. They managed to cast the devil into Hell, but were lost in the process.

In his rage he followed after it. He’s searched for it for ages but never found it. He thought he’d found it here, which is why he attacked us, but whatever that was is gone now.

I think he’s feeling a bit lost.”

The great beast huffed and let out a billow of dust from around them, staring at them with its great aqua eyes. After a moment of pause, the monk stepped forth and placed a hand on its snout, keeping his face down and eyes closed.

“ Goodbye, old friend

Your peaceful breath slows,

Your eyes gaze upon your world

I offer to you

My strength”

The song came low, surprising everyone present and even causing the Godbeast’s eyes to widen.

“ Goodbye, old friend

May your temples outlast me,

So you remember my worship

I offer to you

My honor”

It was a hushed whisper, a long-forgotten hymn sung by voices long gone. A brief image flashed in Grimm’s mind, of sun-warmed temples and loving hands raised in praise of a distant sapphire mountain.

“ Goodbye, old friend

Keep watch over your kingdom,

When the world forgets my name

I offer to you

My memory”

Something changed in the Godbeast’s eyes, two blue moons in a storming face, weathered and beaten by the cruelty of time. Grimm ignored the Warden looking away with a peculiar expression. The warrior monk looked up and sang louder in adoration.

“ Goodbye, old friend

My hand reaches forth

Striving for divinity

I offer to you

My love”

With a great creaking sound, the Godbeast shut its eyes and lay still, exhaling one last time before breathing no more.

“Goodbye, old friend

At the steps of your kingdom

We become one

I offer to you

My life”

The monk let the final note ring in the air before stepping back and joining the others. The group stood silently with breaths held and hearts tense, waiting for something. Anything.

The ground began to shake.

“WHIRRRR!” The Verimor assembly shrieked as the living mountain on which they stood quaked and turmoiled, warping away from the monster in fear. A giant foot fell and crashed against the Hellscape, and the great beast began to stand up. The Verimor and Hallowed retreated from their work sites as the monster’s wounds regenerated and sealed shut with howling steam and great sapphire energy contained within.

“Bring the Jericho ’s shields to max!” Shouted the Warden. “Full power!”

A blue glow began rising up the giant’s tail along its dorsal spines and standing at full height, the Godbeast looked to the heavens as a halo of energy rose around its form. Grimm and Cygnis looked up in pure wonder as the halo focused into a beam of pure sapphire radiance.

[https://i.imgur.com/NgS8iOy.png]

WrrrrRRRR… FWEEEEEEOOOOHH!!

“WHOAHOHO!! DAMN!!”

“That’s one HELL of a monster!!”

“Not just any monster…” murmured the awed Master Wan. “The greatest of them all.”

The beam sliced through the crimson sky with great rings forming around as it pushed the hellish storm apart, to them seeming bright and sharp enough to pierce the heavens.

The radiance ceased and the great beast lowered its gaze. Bringing another foot down, the Godbeast turned and began walking away into the Hellscape.

“Get everyone back to the citadel,” the monk urged. “I must follow him for a while.”

“Wan, are you sure?” The Warden asked.

“Haha! Sure! Just gotta make sure he doesn’t hurt himself now. I’ll catch up soon.”

The Warden nodded and the monk turned and quickly raced off after the Godbeast, leaping and twirling off the Hellscape before landing atop its great tail and rushing up its back, disappearing from view as the great beast headed for the horizon.

Grimm frowned and made up his mind.

“Cygnis, I need your help with something,” he declared, marching assertively for the extraction portal opening behind them.

“ Whoa! I like that energy! What are we doing?”

The soldier turned around and glared with determination.

“You’re gonna help me build one of those fancy power armors.”

* * *

The Warden and High Three stormed into the High Hall, followed by an army of Terracotta Knights and Soldiers. The marching footsteps thundered off the smooth stone in the tall and impossibly wide chamber as they made their way to the far dias where the Imperator sat atop a monolithic seat of smooth black rock. The high chair of the Jericho and ruling seat of the Forsworn, the Onyx Throne.

The High Priestess rushed down the steps to meet the intruders.

“What is the meaning of this- AAH!”

“Out of my way, alien,” the Warden hissed coldly as she threw the High Priestess aside, the High Three stopping at the base of the dias as she made her way up the steps and stood face-to-face to the Imperator.

“Your command has been nothing but absent and ineffectual.

I administer this fortress, I oversee the missions, I direct the Forsworn, and now I lead this army.”

The Warden gestured to the troops behind her, as her hands reached upward for the two Mortal Swords atop her back.

“And now I challenge you, for sole authority over this citadel.

Step down, or be-”

“It’s yours.”

“...What?”

The Imperator stood up and crossed his arms behind him. “The Jericho . It’s yours.”

The lying High Priestess gasped in disbelief. As the warlord strode forward and passed her, even the Warden stood still in utter shock.

“Good luck.”

She turned and gazed after the Dark Lord as he calmly stepped down the stone steps and passed the High Three, the warriors glaring in empty contempt at their former commander yielding his throne without a fight or hesitation.

As she stared after him, the Warden realized he didn’t seem as tall as she’d previously thought.

Perhaps he was smaller than her all along.

The High Priestess stood up and hurried after her master, the two passing through an aisle between the Terracotta army. They passed through the gates at the far end and vanished.

The Warden humphed and turned to approach the Onyx Throne. It was carved of smooth pure black stone at perfectly straight lines and right angles. Hard, imposing, orderly, unyielding. She grabbed the armrest and settled into its stone clutches.

It fit her perfectly.

The High Three fell to their knees and the Terracotta Army slammed their weapons in reverence.

“Seize all corners of this ship. Gather everyone in the Arena. All human Forsworn that pledge their loyalty to their one true commander may stay to prove their worth.

The heretics that do not will be banished to the wastes.”

“What about the aliens, commander?”

“Exterminate.

Suffer not the xenos to live.

Kill them all.”

“As you wish.”

“As for you… ”

The Warden addressed the unseen fourth warrior before her, who materialized into view in a wisp of smoke and knelt before its commander with a metallic thud.

“I do not tolerate your kind, but your situation makes you unique. Despite your transgressions, you are given the honor to serve your master yet again.

Do you yield?”

The muscular figure looked up. It wore a green suit of armor built by the Night Sentinels of Argent D’Nur. Blessed by Heaven, tempered by Hell. The Praetor Suit bore no helmet, revealing a reddish brutish face with short dark hair in a side-shave, yellow-orange eyes, two bony horns swept back atop the head, and a red symbol on the forehead. A cruciform sword striking down the fires of Hell.

“I do,” Dahlia spoke in a deep and gravely voice.

“Then rise…Doom Slayer.”

AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!

“FUCK!”

“AHHH!”

“Shit!”

“ROAAARR!”

The prison hold erupted in chaos, the inmates shouting in panic as the Marine woke up psychically screaming from the nightmare.

“At ease, soldier!” The Black Knight slammed the clear barrier that comprised the cell’s front wall. “It’s just a bad dream. Go back to sleep.”

The Marine’s frantic breathing relaxed. The Black Knight was not blindly serving the Warden’s imaginary coup, he was sitting outside the cell after volunteering himself to guard the arrested Marine.

Just a bad dream, just a bad dream… He thought as he picked himself off the floor and sighed, sitting against the wall in his cubic cell of white stone.

Why did muscular chicks look so much like guys? And why did they always have that haircut?

The Marine thought back to Dahlia’s masculine voice in his nightmare.

Uggghhh… He recoiled in a full-body shudder.

“Bad dreams, marine?” A gruff voice in the opposite cell asked. He turned to find a man sitting against his own wall cell just like him, a trooper in a dark brown jumpsuit. He didn’t recognize the making or ranking, possibly a ranger of some kind.

He nodded. He was done talking to people, vocally or otherwise.

“Same. I still get those. Haven’t been the same after ‘Nam.

You’re from Earth too, aren’t you? What deployment you from?”

The Marine gazed down and turned away.

“Hmm, I see. A man of few words.

I get you. Talking is tiring. Sometimes…it’s easier just to not say anything at all.”

“RELEASE ME, HERETICS!”

“Ugghhh,” the ranger sighed. “Wish this guy would get it through his head.”

“YOU CANNOT CONTAIN A HOLY KNIGHT OF GOD!

GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH, BUT DO NOT KEEP ME HERE LIKE A COMMON CRIMINAL!

I AM PROUD TO FIGHT AND I AM PROUD TO DIE!”

The booming voice came from the cell immediately beside the Marine’s. The solid stone wall kept him from seeing its occupant, but the ranger in the opposite cell angrily yelled at the inmate.

“Nobody’s trying to kill you, you big oaf!” The ranger yelled. “Shut up and get some sleep!”

“YOU CANNOT SILENCE A HOLY KNIGHT OF GOD!

I AM THE POINT OF HIS BLADE, THE EDGE OF HIS SPEAR!

I AM THE WRATH OF GOD-!”

“All right, tough guy, sound off,” the Black Knight muttered as he hit the panel beside the mysterious inmate’s cell.

“I AM AN ANGEL OF DEATH-!” Silence. Sweet blissful silence.

“Ahh, much better,” the ranger sighed. “You gonna hit the sack too?”

The Marine turned over away from the ranger.

“At ease, soldier.”

The Marine tried to close his eyes, but he realized sleep was out of reach now. Not because of the nightmares, he hadn’t had those in a while, but because of the thoughts storming in his head.

After his fight with the Warden, they’d removed the scraps of the Argent Metal armor and equipped him back in his training suit. He didn’t mind but…so much spent on the Argent Metal suit and it was all for nothing. Just like everything else.

Uhhh, not this again.

Well, here was the emptiness again. It’d been a while since he felt like this. The hollowness, the coldness, the loneliness. Like a splash of cold water, waking him up to reality. In a way it felt comforting. Reassuring, familiar, like a comfortable resting spot, or a long-time acquaintance he hadn’t seen in forever yet hit it off immediately upon meeting again.

Ahh! So that’s what “hello darkness, my old friend” meant!

Heh heh heh. His own cleverness humored him, distracting him from his tired and aching body. His head was pounding. His left forearm, used to unleash the imperfect Sundering Blows, felt cold and drained. He felt exhausted, wrung out and burned out, like five pounds of shit on a ten pound skeleton. He didn’t think that’s how the saying went, but he didn’t care.

Hmm. ‘Angel of Death.’ If that title was any more tired and worn-out, it’d almost qualify to be his .

And was he dreaming again? It’d been a while since he last dreamt. He wished he could dream of something nicer. A field of calm grass, a river at sunset lit by fireflies, or of her.

His breath caught in his throat as he thought back on her. What was she doing all this time? What would she think of the things he’d said, the things he’d done?

He turned to face the small “window” on the far end of his cell, a screen illuminating his cell with the light of a simulated night sky. He’d first met her on a night like this, under a full moon just like that.

Uhh, Hennya was right. “Gloom Slayer” indeed. Thinking had never been his strong suit, and yet he was torturing himself with overthinking. He turned to face the wall, away from the other cells and from the window too. He pressed his forehead against the wall, desperate to stop thinking.

Ugghh. He leaned back and softly smacked his head against the wall.

Thud. Oww.

Wait, that was it! He had an idea!

… Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud…

* * *

Duende boisterously sang as rock and debris from the tunneling Orbb flew past them, illuminated by his stark headlight.

“Soy enano y estoy cavando!

Cava-cavando!

Cava-cavando!

Soy enano y estoy cavando!

Cava-cavando!

Caavaand-”

“Master Dwarf, this area is not structurally safe!”

The dwarf slapped the cyborg.

“Don’t interrupt my singing, ya lanky git! After those hijos sumadre tore this ship apart, I bet I’m-a find that shiny treasure now in one-a these hidden cracks!

And don’t call me Dwarf!”

“Were you not addressing yourself as ‘dwarf’ in your song?”

“What a man sings is between him and Dios, so mind yer own- AAAHH!”

The ground beneath Duende and Orbb crumbled and dropped the two into a pitch-black pit.

“AAAAHH- oof!”

Duende came to a halt after a surprisingly short fall, landing on his back with his rucksack taking the blunt of the impact, though still having his wind knocked out.

“Uggh. I should have brought Molly instead...” He painfully groaned out.

The stocky man picked himself up as a glowing Orbb gently descended via a propeller atop his head, landing beside him as he coughed and brushed himself off.

“ Desgraciado infeliz, why didn’t youse tell me there was a hole here?!”

“ Apologies, Master Dwarf. This area does not exist in this unit’s records. This should be solid rock.”

“Didn’t yer sensors see it?!” Duende yelled as he pulled a terrain scanner from his belt and slapped it to get it to work.

“ Negative. Sensors do not detect any anomaly…or anything else, for that matter. Sensors are blank.”

“Huh? Que raro, mine are blank too.”

Duende smacked his terrain scanner again, but the device that should have displayed a 3D interface of the surrounding area only displayed a black screen. The screen had a white dot in the center and radiating circles to indicate it was on and the ultrasonic waves were being emitted, but no signal was being received.

As if the scanner was floating in empty space.

Duende looked up and peered into the distance. He could make out a small red glow through the darkness, a glimpse of infernal sky through the Jericho ’s breached hull.

“ Fortress-ship has breach. Masters must be alerted.”

“And yet, this place should be buggin’ with demons. Should have torned us to shreds soon as we landed, unless…”

After a brief distant stare, the dwarf pulled a yellow flare gun and fired it upwards, sticking a flare that erupted in a brilliant burst of light as he pulled a Thunderhead heavy autocannon and held it aloft. Orbb understood and switched his propellers out for a rotary machine gun and the two stood back-to-back ready for the ambush.

Nothing. They flicked their weapons left and right across the illuminated crevice, breathlessly shaking as they expected a swarm of horrific monsters to suddenly descend upon them, but they stood alone in the trench with nothing but jagged shards of rock.

Very jagged, in fact. Lowering his autocannon with a sigh of relief, Duende stepped forward and passed his hand along a crag’s shorn surface. It was clean and dusty, having been fractured very recently as if from exceedingly powerful and sudden kinetic force.

He looked down the tunnel to the hull breach. The far outer trench had the smooth burned signs of thermal damage as if an energy beam had sliced through the Jericho’ s hull, but these suddenly became the jagged straight tunnel they currently stood in.

As if something had shattered its way through the exposed thermal breach into the ship.

Duende and Orbb slowly turned their gazes up and back, their eyes widening and the dwarf’s jaw dropping as they found the culprit.

It was a smooth octahedron ten meters in length, the light from the ceiling flare shimmering off its dark metallic surface and one of its edges cracked to reveal throbbing red flesh beneath. A ring of spikes formed and descended along its surface from one of the object’s vertices, revealing it was actually covered in a layer of liquid metal.

Apart from the occasional pulsating wave of spikes and the throbbing exposed flesh, the anomaly made no signs of activity, or even signs of acknowledging the two’s presence.

“One-Eye, do your comms still work?” Duende asked in a low tone.

Whirr-whoor! “Yes, this unit can still connect to the comm network.”

“Call…call the law. This is bigger than us. Tell them we haves an emergency.”

“What should this unit say?”

Duende looked at Orbb with quivering dread.

“Tell them we have a stowaway aboard.”

* * *

Romero half-carried a distraught Elena to the med station as Skullhacker and SAM covered the rear. Opening the gate and carrying the half-conscious scientist inside, the drone and Blackwatch Trooper took a last survey and closed the door behind them.

Romero helped Elena down in a lobby seat. Her breathing was ragged, she was sweating heavily, and her eyes were unfocused and distant.

“Hey. Hey!” The gunslinger snapped his fingers in front of her. “You still with me, soldier?”

“Hiro, I’m fine,” her eyes drifted over to him but remained far away.

“NO. No you are not.”

She bobbed her head and hazily looked away. “I’m sorry.”

The mercenary looked down and sighed.

“Ugghh. Look, this isn’t what I do. I’m not good at the whole ‘taking care of others’ thing. I’m not Taylor.”

Elena said nothing.

“Huhhh. I was worried back there for a sec. Thought you might have been possessed. Or that you’d turn into a gateway for more of those things to come through.”

“That’s…not how it works.”

“Ha. I hope you’re right,” the mercenary hollowly laughed before heavily standing up. “I’ll take a look around. See if they have anything to calm you down. Here.” He pulled a nutrient bar and water bottle from his pack and placed them in the scientist’s hands. “Get your strength back up.

You. Watch her.”

Romero ordered a wary Skullhacker who had stood back thus far, before turning the corner into the pharmacy, the sounds of rustling papers and packages emerging soon after.

The trooper looked down at Elena. Slowly walking towards her, he slung his Burst Rifle over his shoulder and sat beside her.

“Ahh, I’m fine, Skull. Really,” the scientist insisted. “Just a little shaken up.

Please, don’t worry about me. Not everyone needs to worry.”

The trooper looked away. If his posture or body language betrayed any thoughts, Elena could not sense them.

Suddenly, Skullhacker reached out and snapped a corner of her nutrient bar off. She watched him bring the piece up to his helmet where his mouth might be, and crush it against his visor. Crumbs fell on his lap as his skull display depicted a second fanged jaw in a chewing motion. He then tapped his stomach in satisfaction, as if his appetite had been satiated.

The gesture was so ridiculous and unexpected that Elena burst into laughter.

“Pffft ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

“Hey, what’s going on back there?” A concerned Romero asked nearby.

“Ah sorry, Hiro! Skull is…showing me something funny.”

“Hmm. Well, keep it down, you two.”

Elena stifled her laughter before Skullhacker took her water bottle and lightly splashed it against his visor, nodding smugly as he pointed to the bottle with a thumbs up.

“Heh heh. Sure, Skull. I’ll remember to stay hydrated.” She muttered as she took the bottle back and drank from it. She felt better already. Her sudden outburst left her loosened and giddy, the recent events already fading from memory, but her head still hurt somewhat. She took a bite from the nutrient bar and felt the savory flavor spreading like a warm honeyed wave.

“Mmm. It’s been forever since I had these.

I used to live exclusively on these as a grad student. Heh. These, caffeine, and ramen. I remember those nights. Poring with my roommates over holoscreens and old textbooks. Letters, numbers, symbols, all blurring together. I always liked the sciences. Biology, physics, medicine. Economics and politics, ehh. Not so much. It feels like forever since that happened. Feels like forever since I remembered.

Hmm,” she sighed as she drank from the bottle again, catching the soldier paying close attention. “Thank you for being a good listener, Skull. Not many people care. Especially soldiers. They always seem so gruff and scary-looking.

Agent Taylor was different. She was tough, but she was also nice. She was hurting. She hid something painful inside…I think she was running away from it.

I bet you don’t meet civilians often, do you?”

The soldier looked away in a weary pose.

“Who are you, Skull?” She asked as she reached for his shoulder. “What’s your story? Where are you from?”

The Blackwatch Trooper sat with his elbows on his knees. He looked down slightly, and remained silent.

Elena sighed, bringing her hand back. “That’s okay. We all have secrets, I suppose. I won’t trouble.

Ahh..!”

Elena suddenly hissed, bringing her hand up to her temple in a pained expression. Skullhacker looked up in alertness.

“Ugh, it’s nothing. Just some stinging left over from…back there. It’ll be okay…” Elena trailed off as the Skullhacker turned to face her and reached for her. Gently pulling her arm down, he held his other hand out and pressed it against her forehead.

“Ahhh…” She shuddered and closed her eyes. The hand was cold. Very very cold.

But the pain was gone. Elena felt…drained. Slightly. The giddiness was gone. The agitation was gone. Her mind felt somewhat sullen and darkened, but also focused and clear. It was comforting. Relaxing. Familiar, even.

“Hmm,” she sighed and opened her eyes again. Skullhacker drew back and cautiously studied her. “Thanks for that, Skull. I think I needed that.”

SAM, which had stayed quiet so far, whirred loudly to communicate with Elena. The drone informed her that even if the Trooper thought she was tougher than he expected, SAM herself didn’t see it.

“Hmmph. Thanks for that, SAM. I knew I could count on you.”

“Wheeoh!” The drone whizzed away with an irked beep.

“Elena!” Romero rushed the corner with several white packages in his arms. “I couldn’t find sedatives, but I found more medpacks. There’s painkillers in them, I figured it’s better than nothing.”

“That’s fine, Hiro,” Elena exclaimed as she stood up and helped the mercenary pack them. “We’ll need as many as we can.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m doing better. Skull helped me-”

The Skullhacker jumped to his feet in alert with a finger over his “mouth,” bringing Elena and Romero to a dead halt.

The three stood completely still, listening for distant sounds of screeching or growling. None came. Elena could sense no presence, no demonic forces ambushing them.

Her eyes glanced over to a puddle on the lobby desk. It was quivering, shaking with the increasingly rumbling ground.

Something long and metallic burst through and drilled through the floor behind them, blocking them off from the gate.

“This way!” Romero yelled through the thunderous chaos before another metallic snake-like thing tore the ground in front of them, razor-sharp two-meter-long metal legs clambering through the air and passing through the ceiling like butter. The pinned survivors huddled close as another colossal metallic centipede drilled through the shelves beside them, and another through the wall itself.

There were passing screeches of fire amidst the chaos. A swooping blue growl. And a low resonating hum emanating from a single glaring triangular yellow eye, which faded in the dust as the drilling centipedes parted and revealed the horror beyond.

The Lazarus Labs beyond had been completely destroyed in a mass of concrete and metal. Rubble crumbled around the quivering bodies of a dozen horrific metal centipedes, two meters across in their rusted carapaces covered in spikes and grinding drillheads, though their length spread far into the sparking darkness.

The three stalking entities revealed themselves. A small and hunched demon with an orange-brown shell and flaming hair. A tall and feminine humanoid hovering above the ground, her body covered in brick-red bioarmor, blue tentacles around her pale face, and a segmented jaw beneath her single glaring green eye. And a pale ghostly figure that manifested from wisps of smoke, a single triangular yellow eye with green and red piercing into their souls.

The three figures stood in front of a mass that rose through the driller centipedes, a hulking monstrosity of beating cerebral tissue, four robotic legs beneath it, and a giant human skull for a face with two gleaming eyes and a plasma cannon extending through the open mouth.

The Prototron.

“Aaaahhhh!” Romero and Elena suddenly exclaimed. “AaarrrAAAHH!!”

Something had seized control of their bodies, their limbs and torsos clenching and jerking of their own accord as the three demons growled and their cerebral master glared at the survivors with psychic energy radiating from its eyes.

“Hiro!”

“AAAAHHH!”

Elena struggled to reach for the mercenary, but her arm froze and snapped to her side as the gunslinger yelled, his thoughts struggling to remain coherent as the demonic presence overpowered his mind-

WOOOSH!!

Both survivors suddenly fell to the ground, the force over their bodies relinquished but Hiro was unconscious, and Elena wished she was too.

Something was terribly wrong. Her body felt as if being ripped apart. The world was freezing, darkness spreading over her vision and draining any light from the environment and her mind, leaving her feeling horribly cold and empty.

Skullhacker remained standing and took a step towards the Prototron and its three thralls. The darkness was focusing around him, swirling unto his body as the metal centipedes withdrew and the three lesser demons shrieked and stumbled back. Two mechanical structures assembled beside his helmet and over his left “eye,” an ocular targeting array and a long blinking tube. The soldier looked down at her, and she realized her…life? Energy? Breath? Something was leaving her and being siphoned through the Skullhacker's suit and collected in the long receptacle, but it was being drained from the saturated environment and the shrieking Prototron too. It felt as if her blood was being ripped out of her very veins and her mind being drained through her skull.

Elena realized she was no longer staring at the kind soldier that had humored her minutes before. She was staring at something else. Something darker and more terrifying than any demon could ever be.

The Prototron released one final roar as it backed away, and turning to face it, the Blackwatch Trooper slowly raised his arms as the demon lord’s cannon spun and prepared to fire.

But Skullhacker fired first.

ROOOOAAAAHHHH!!

His hands snapped together to form a channel in front of his visor, and the targeting array released a roaring beam of pure darkness that seemed blacker and emptier than anything Elena would have thought possible.

A void in reality itself.

The shockwave was too much for Elena to bear, and her eyes shut and her consciousness faded as the Prototron screeched in agony and terror.

* * *

Dahlia quietly made her way down the prison, and although there was no risk of the inmates escaping, she made sure to walk as far from both rows of cells as possible.

She passed a large mining automaton with a heavy industrial chassis and a glaring knowing red eye. A muscular man with cybernetic implants and an entirely robotic lower body, following her as she walked by even through the eyeless metal visor grafted on his face.

“I...see…you…,” came the synthetic voice from the cell.

A reptilian humanoid that hissed hungrily, baring its lips and licking twisted knife-like teeth. A lanky malnourished cyborg with spiked hair that jumped at her and bounced off the clear barrier.

“OHH!” She yelled in shock.

“Hey there, little lady,” the twitching cyborg whispered as it threateningly pressed its body against the barrier. “What’s a pretty little thing like you doing in a place like this? We should go back to my place…I’ll stuff you full of dynamite and throw you screaming down the incinerator.

Heh heh heh heh heh…”

“God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, protect me,” she whispered as she clenched the star hanging from her neck.

“Heh heh heh heh.

Do you know what we did to little grubs like you before the Warden arrived? What true anarchy is really like?

Free for all. Survival of the fittest. Only the strong survive.

Scraps, crack, and frags all day long.

Heh heh heh HEH HEH- AAARRGGHH !!”

The Black Knight stormed forward with electricity in his fist and struck the imprisoned cyborg with a burst of power. The inmate was thrown off the clear barrier and lay an unconscious smoking mass on the far end of the cell before the Black Knight struck the cell panel and drove the barrier dark.

“What are you doing here?” The warrior asked coldly, keeping his distance from the nymph. Dahlia looked down and avoided the man’s gaze.

“My mistress sent me here,” she lowly said. “I come with aliments and…medicine for her patient.” She held out the silver platter inscribed with glowing symbols in her hands, but the Black Knight stepped back. He gestured to a cell besides another fully obscured one, a cell from which moonlight could be seen and a soft repeating thudding could be heard. Standing in front, she saw the Marine sitting facing the wall and repeatedly smacking his helmeted head against the stone.

She offered the platter to the Black Knight but the warrior gestured towards the cell, placing his hand on the panel to make the barrier semi-permeable. Gulping in unease, she stepped forth and passed into the cell, looking back as the Black Knight took his hand away and obscured the barrier entirely, leaving her alone with the Marine.

* * *

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

“My lord?”

Thud.

“My lord? It’s me. My mistress sent me. She-”

Shh! Shh-shh! The Marine interrupted, holding a finger out as he suddenly stopped his head-smacking without looking at the nymph.

Wait! He quietly insisted. I’ve almost got it down. This is the tricky part.

… Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

“My lord, please. I bring medicine and food.” Dahlia brought her finger around the silver platter in her hands, manifesting a flask of health potion, a flask of water, two bread slices with vegetables and a slice of beef between them, and several other items the nymph didn’t recognize.

Hmm, the Marine emphasized as he stopped smacking his head on the wall. Why didn’t you say that first? I’m starving!

Dahlia flinched as she expected the man to slap the platter from her hands, but to her surprise he took the platter, opened his helmet mouthport, and dunked the health potion directly in.

OHHH!! He leaned back against the wall in relief. That’s much better. Ahhh.

“How do you fare?”

Enjoying isolation-induced insanity.

“You’ve been here for…two hours.”

You’re just jealous because the voices. Only. Talk. To me.

The nymph stared in uncertainty as the Marine took another swig of health potion.

You sure Valeria didn’t send you here as dessert?

Dahlia clasped her hands and bowed her head.

“Forgive me, my lord, but I am not on the menu.”

Shame. You look like the sweetest treat I’d ever laid eyes on.

For reasons she couldn’t explain, Dahlia’s heart fluttered and her cheeks flushed red-hot.

You okay there? You look a little…redder than usual.

“Ahh…the inmates, my lord. They were…not very kind.”

Achh. Fucking animals. Utter filth is what they are. Why they’re still here instead of rotting in Hell is beyond me.

Here, sit.

“Sit…with you, my lord?”

Come on, have a rest. Take a load off. I’m not gonna have you standing there.

Dahlia obliged and took a seat on the right hand side of the Marine, close but with a respectful space between the two. She sat primly and gazed quietly at the Marine as he began eating the strange foodstuff through his helmet.

You religious?

“My lord?”

That necklace. I’ve seen plenty of demon chicks with crucifixes, upside up or upside down. I’ve even seen one or two with a crescent moon, in the second before they blew up in my face. Never thought I’d see a demon with the Star of David.

Been a long time since I seen any of those, truth be told. The old religions all died when the world was set on fire.

Dahlia clasped the star in her hand.

“This necklace is not mine. My mistress gave it to me. She said it’s the mark of the God of…of a man I once loved. I pray to it, hoping his God would forgive my sins but…

That God remains silent.”

Yeah, the Marine took a gulp of water. He does that.

Dahlia let go of the star.

“But I must believe in God. I must believe in something.”

Whatever rocks your cock.

The thought to ask the Marine a question crossed Dahlia’s mind, but she shut her lips beforehand.

You want to ask me if I believe in God?

The nymph stared as the Marine coolly laughed.

Heh heh heh. If I ever did, I sure as hell don’t anymore. Not after what I’ve seen and experienced.

God abandoned me…so I abandoned God.

He took another swig of health potion.

Same for the world. Same for the backstabbing bastards who call themselves your friends.

“My lord, your companions love you.”

They let me be imprisoned without a word of complaint! When I needed them most, they weren’t there for me!

I don’t see Grimm here, just you!

“They couldn’t come. They all respect and admire you, and your words and acts caused them great anguish.”

All they wanted was my strength and power. Why should I care about anyone else? They never cared about me.

“My lord, when you were in that stone prison, that darkness after fighting the Godkillers,” Dahlia insisted on the verge of tears, “lord Grimm begged for the Imperator to save you. He kneeled, sobbed, bitterly, crying for our great lord to rescue you.”

And he didn’t. None of them did.

Everything I’ve been through, I’ve had to figure out and solve on my own.

“How can anyone save you,” Dahlia whispered through trembling lips, “when you push everyone away?”

Huh? The Marine turned to face her, and she looked away, clenching her eyes shut.

“My lord…you’ve inspired the Forsworn to become better…and strive to be the best versions of themselves. For you, and for others.

Is that not enough?”

…

What a bunch of gay shit.

The exasperated Marine looked away and returned to his meal, turning in startlement as he heard a soft sniffling beside him. Dahlia was weeping, keeping her eyes and mouth shut as beads of moonlight rolled down her cheeks.

Ohhhhhh, ffffff…

He carefully put the platter down in the window’s glow, casting light on a wolf ears attachment, the mask of the Argent Metal suit, and a small Slayer plush that had laid hidden in the dark.

Look, he said as he gently pulled Dahlia’s face towards him. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for saying those things. I’m sorry for being a bad friend.

And I’m sorry for making you cry. He passed his thumb beneath her eye and wiped her tears, her wide orange-yellow irises warming him from within. That was never my intention.

Dahlia nodded in understanding and he let go, returning her to her seat as she wiped her face. The Marine thudded his head against the wall one last time. He didn’t know he could feel as big a pile of shit as he did at that moment.

“Lord Grimm cried. And you cried too,” Dahlia said suddenly, causing the Marine to face her in confusion. “I’ve only known strong men. Stoic men. Cruel men. Villains enacting their will or heroes defending justice.

I didn’t know a man could cry.”

I wasn’t crying.

Dahlia blinked the last tears out of her eyes.

If you’re talking about that night, I wasn’t crying. I hadn’t had any sleep. My eyes water when I’m sleep deprived, perfectly normal.

But I wasn’t crying.

Dahlia nodded. “I see.”

The Marine looked at the platter again, but he realized he wasn’t hungry anymore.

“I didn’t expect you, my lord, to have relations with a demon.”

He turned to face her again, seeing her gazing at him with a peculiarly intrigued expression.

Pshht, he shrugged.

“The other ladies rumored you were virgin-”

Hmmm! He grumbled.

“-or not interested in women. But I can see that’s not the case.

You are surely wise in the ways of love.”

Yeah well…I’ve spread my ‘love’ to many women, back in the day, he recalled, gesturing widely.

“If I may ask, what sorts of relationships did you have?”

… It’s complicated.

“Did you have bad experiences?”

No.

“Were you afraid of commitment?”

What? No!

“Did you hate them?”

Of course not.

“Do you hate me?”

The question caught the Marine off-guard. He turned to Dahlia, seeing the nymph staring at him with a concerned expression.

I don’t hate you.

A look of relief washed over her face.

Look, I’ve known a lot of chicks. Fearsome warriors that fight just as well as a man, and I’ve always respected that. At best, nothing happens between us, and we go on our own paths.

At worst, someone attempts something more, and someone always gets hurt, because I just don’t connect with others. Not because I didn’t want to, didn’t try to, or chose not to, but because in spite of it all, that’s just not who I am. I’m good at lots of things, but people were never one of them.

It’s not that I thought they didn’t matter but, simply…I couldn’t make them matter to me. Nothing did.

I’m good at fighting, and I’m good at war. That’s all that’s real to me. Everything else is…fake. An illusion. A lie.

Dahlia quietly nodded in understanding. It seemed she wasn’t going to press further, but the Marine grinned as he recalled distant memories, picking a leg over his knee.

You know, there’s only two girls that really stand out. Ashford, and Valkyrie.

Ashford was this…crazy chick from my world. She came from a land ravaged by war and…cursed by arcane weapons. She was as insane as they came but…somewhere beneath all that, she had a good heart. And she was fun. I think she liked me. I think I liked her.

One night- heh, a New Year’s party, the two of us got drunk and banged. Absolute animals, jungle-style. We wrecked the room we did it in. Smashed walls, cracked floor. The bed was gone. There were bruises, cracked ribs, I ended up with a concussion, she couldn’t stand for a week.

The Marine chuckled fondly, and Dahlia paid close attention.

This other girl, Valkyrie…damn. We never did it and…we weren’t like that. She was the High Herald of Argent D’Nur, I was just an Outlander. Eventually I became the Doom Slayer but…there’s not a lot of women like her.

The daughter of the Argenta King. A holy paladin by grace of Heaven. And the chosen Dragonborn of the Ancestrals. Princess, Knight, and Dragon.

She was fierce. Elegant. Wise. Shone like the sun. Her spear carried an actual sliver of the Argenta sun, and her armor was gold and ivory. Flew on burning wings and cast searing rays of solar fire. Heh, pretty hot.

Valkyrie was immortal, just like me. She…was blessed by the Divinity Machine long before I arrived. We served together, fought together, and led together. Neither of us talked much but, we didn’t have to. We understood each other. I always held her in deep regard, and I…think she was relieved to know someone like herself. Someone who carried all that responsibility and duty.

She disappeared a long time ago. Ashford did too. I wish I could see them just one more time because…I don’t think I’ll meet anyone like them ever again.

The Marine deeply sighed, and Dahlia gazed at him as he turned to look at the moonlight.

“My lord, have you given up on love?”

… I’ve given up on a lot of things.

“Why?”

I’m the shell of a human being, that’s why. A husk of what I once was, and a shadow of what I could have been. What’s left in me to love?

“I don’t believe that. And I know you don’t either.”

It’s one of the few things I do believe.

“You think yourself incapable of change? Incapable of learning to love again?”

The Marine gazed long at Dahlia. She couldn’t see his eyes, and she blinked in wonder of what they would be.

I think…the greatest thing I ever learned…was how to live with regret.

He looked down at himself, lost in thought. Dahlia clasped her arms around herself.

I’m not the strongest there is.

I’m not the fastest, smartest, craziest, or angriest. I’m not the first faceless badass in armor facing off against hordes of monsters.

I’m not even the first to use a shotgun and chainsaw. Heh, this…crazy uncle of mine did it before me.

He brought his right arm close to his face and faced Dahlia, mimicking the mechanical motions of a robotic hand.

Groovy.

Heh, I just… He sighed and brought his hand down again. I want to find my place. Know who I am. Matter to someone.

I want to feel that it wasn’t all a waste, that it…wasn’t all for nothing.

I want to be a man that I can be proud of.

[https://i.imgur.com/nm1YAXq.jpg]

“But you are a man, my lord.”

Yeah but…it’s not like that.

“What makes a man, then?

Huh?

“What makes a man?”

…What makes a man?

…

I don’t know.

Dahlia stayed silent, and repositioned till she knelt facing the Marine.

“My lord, if I may be so bold, I have one…humble, selfish, impertinent request to place before you.”

I’m flattered but I’m not banging you again. Not that kind of night.

“Would you be so kind as to…allow me to see your face?”

…

The Marine was taken back. Even the nymph looked down, seemingly ashamed by the boldness of her request.

“A single time would be enough. Would you…grant my request?”

… Here? Right now?

The nymph lightly nodded. Oddly enough, he felt strangely nervous. Flustered and apprehensive. He didn’t want anyone to know what lay beneath his helmet. He didn’t want to know himself.

But what difference would it make? Could his face be any uglier than his words and actions?

Would the darkness behind his helmet be more repulsive than that within himself?

He sighed in resignation and unfastened his helmet.

There’s not much to see, there’s…not much of me left.

He shuddered at the sudden cold air as he took off the helmet, keeping his gaze on the floor so he wouldn’t see Dahlia’s face of disgust. Or horror. He felt strangely exposed. Vulnerable. Naked.

What do you think?

Against his better judgement, he looked up and met her gaze.

Dahlia was staring intently at him with a neutral expression. Intrigued. Curious, but not disgusted or horrified. She held a hand out but stopped from reaching him.

“May I?”

He breathed out and leaned slightly towards her. She positioned herself closer and gently took his face into her hands, causing him to sigh and close his eyes at the warm touch.

An eternity passed as she passed her fingers over his brow, over his eyelids, down his nose and over his lips.

He still had a nose? And lips? Hmm, at least he wasn’t a skeleton.

Dahlia’s sudden breath on his lips caused him to flinch, and she paused before turning his face and kissing his cheek.

His eyes opened in surprise.

She turned him again and kissed his other cheek, his forehead, his nose, but took care to avoid his lips.

“I think my lord looks brave. Fierce and noble.”

He exhaled humorously and looked away, his cheeks burning self-consciously.

You’re just saying that to make me feel better.

“I mean it.

If my lord lived in my homeland, he would have been a mighty warlord. Loved by his people, feared by his enemies, revered as a god.

With a hundred armies, and a thousand women.”

Hmm. That’s a lot of women.

“Everything for my lord. Palaces, riches, power, the love and worship of many.”

I don’t think I’d need all that. Armies, servants, women.

I think the love of one would suffice.

“Just one woman, my lord?”

He reached up and gently clasped her hand on his face.

Just one.

She smiled and looked down flusteredly, looking back to pass her hand along his cheek one last time.

“I think a smile suits my lord far better than a frown.”

He exhaled humorously, gently putting her hand down before leaning back. Grabbing his helmet and spinning it to wear it again, he placed it over his head and secured it once more.

Back in uniform.

He sighed and leaned back against the wall, as did Dahlia, but he noticed she sat closer to him than before.

“My lady told me how in the great Warden’s land, there’s a custom to fix broken things with gold. They believe imperfections create beauty, and damage doesn’t make things worthless. It makes them unique and historied.

If I could cover my lord’s scars with gold, he’d be the most beautiful in all the realms.”

Whoa.

…I don’t think there’s enough gold for that.

“If my love could turn to gold, there would.”

He grinned within his helmet, looking back to gaze at the moonlight.

“If my kisses were made of gold, I would kiss my lord’s scars a hundred times over. I would kiss all his pain away.”

Like true love’s kiss?

Dahlia blinked in confusion.

It’s a fairy tale thing where I’m from. The kiss of true love has the power to…undo curses. Wake a princess from eternal slumber. Turn a beast back into a prince.

“Is there such a thing, my lord?”

Dunno. I usually don’t let girls kiss me on the mouth.

He chuckled at his raunchy joke before crossing his arms behind his head.

Dahlia, tell me something.

“Of course.”

Do you…ever feel sad?

The nymph tilted her head as her mouth slightly opened.

About…I don’t know. Over what could have been, what you could have done, but can’t now?

She looked down and pulled her legs close.

“Every day.

I bear this curse as punishment for my crimes. I bear the weight of all my sins.”

She reached up and grabbed the star hanging from her neck, which the Marine keenly followed.

“I wish I could go back, to change and take it all away. I pray that God may one day grant me the chance but…sometimes, I fear God does not listen anymore.

And I fear that I deserve this Hell.

I cannot give, only take. I can’t give life, only take it. I can’t give pain, only take it. Take other’s hate, take other’s suffering.”

The Marine glanced down at her hand. Her knuckles were turning white from how tightly she clenched the star. He quickly changed the subject.

Tell me more about you, what do you like to do?

“My lord?”

For fun. There must be something you like to do.

She looked away for a moment, but smiled and released the star.

“In my home, I was a dancer. A court dancer, who performed for kings and champions. I was courted by many, fancied by all. There were feasts. Wine. Music. Love.

I saw many masters,” she sighed as she rested her head on her knees. “Men and women. I was their fluttering flower, the jewel in their crown.

But through it all, I really loved to dance.

When I danced in those courts, I felt like the brightest star. More power than any king, and more beauty than any queen. My ribbons were the wings on which I’d fly. When I soared through the air, there were no chains on me.

When I danced,” she looked up with a distant expression of rapture, “I was free.”

… Whew. Sounds like you really enjoyed it.

Dahlia came back down to earth, sheepishly smiling at her daydreaming.

I think I'd like to see that someday.

She humbly nodded. “What about you, my lord? What pastimes did you partake in?”

Me? Hmm… He scratched his head. Can’t really remember.

I guess I always liked action figures. You know, miniatures. Figurines. Models. I liked collecting them. I liked assembling them. And I liked painting them.

“Toys, my lord?”

Ehh, so-so. Not ‘toys’ in the normal sense. You collect 'em. You build ‘em and paint ‘em. And you kinda just display ‘em.

“Ahh.

So dolls.”

What- No! Not dolls! ‘Action figures’!

“What you just described, my lord, are dolls.”

I can assure you, ‘action figures’ are a VERY manly, VERY respectable, and VERY honorable hobby for proud warriors like-!

“Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm.”

…What.

The Marine stood in shock as Dahlia's shoulders shook, holding a hand over her mouth to hide her laughter.

Are- did you…are you teasing me?

“Hmm-hmm-hmm noo hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm!”

The Marine was astonished.

Huh. Look at you. Look at me! I’ve been outdeviled by a girl!

The nymph burst out in laughter. “Ha ha ha ha ha!”

You’re having fun, aren’t you? He playfully teased as he gently pushed against her temple, causing her to lean to the side but pulled back afterwards, still laughing.

“Nooo! Ha ha ha ha ha!”

Hmmph. He leaned back and crossed his arms. Well, good to know you’re having a good time.

But he was amused too. Seeing Dahlia heartedly laugh with her full body, mouth open and eyes closed…that smile alone was bright enough to light up the night.

“You know, my lord,” she began as she simmered down, “I think you’re the nicest man I’ve ever known.”

He cast her a devilish side-eye without turning his head.

That’s really fucking sad.

“The other men aren’t as kind as you. Aren’t as gentle as you.”

He looked straight ahead with a deadpan expression.

Through his peripheral vision, he saw Dahlia getting closer. She reached for his right arm but again stopped short. He sighed and uncrossed his arms so it’d be closer.

The nymph reached out and embraced his arm with her full body, resting her cheek on his shoulder and curling her knees onto his thigh.

She was warm. So warm.

Grimm needed help , he suddenly thought. I could see it in his eyes, his words, his posture. He’d been asking for help this whole time, I can’t believe I didn’t realize it. He didn’t know how to reach out and I…I just turned my back on him. He was there for me, but I wasn’t there for him.

And the Warden…His jaw dropped as he recalled the things he said about her.

How could I possibly tell her that? How could I tell anyone that?!

Was Taylor not like her? Would he say those things about Taylor? He grimaced and placed his free arm over his visor.

God. I’m the biggest piece of shit in the fucking universe.

“Your thoughts are troubled, my lord…” Dahlia murmured.

Do you think I should apologize?

“Does my lord wish to?”

… Yeah.

“Then my lord should,” she drowsingly muttered.

He had to apologize. To the Warden, to Grimm, to all the others. It wouldn’t fix anything and his fate would be unchanged. They’d hate him all the same and throw him off the Jericho, but it was the right thing to do. And he’d deserve whatever happened next.

He looked down at Dahlia.

And what did you do, while I slept in that stone prison?

“...Wait for you to return.”

He blinked at the answer. The nymph had closed her eyes, and by her slowing breaths was fast asleep.

Hmmph.

He looked back at the forgotten platter beside him. After a moment’s hesitation, he reached out with his free hand and grabbed the wolf ears attachment, raising a reluctant eyebrow as he stuffed it into a belt pouch. He grabbed the Argent Metal suit’s shredded mask, a rusty metal skull with a fanged red muzzle around it.

It was gnarly and demented and savage but…it wasn’t him.

He quietly hung it on his belt. Someday, he’d go back to Earth and bury the mask in Ashford’s home. He didn’t know where or when she was now but…she would have liked to have been laid to rest in the wasteland.

He turned lastly to the Doom Slayer plush, picking it up and glaring at it.

So. You think you’re tough shit, huh?

The toy did not respond.

You put up a tough act but I know what you are. You’re just a sad pathetic poser.

But me? I’m the real deal.

The toy’s minuscule body was held almost entirely in his grip.

You think you’re the man? That you’re a bad man? Well guess what? I’m the baddest man there ever was.

I’m going fucking crazy! The Marine suddenly exclaimed as he realized he was talking to a doll- A TOY!!

He looked back at the plush as if it had been the one to mock him.

Ah I see, he continued. You like to play mind games, don’t you? You think you’re in my head. Well guess what, I can play those games too.

He brought the plush close to his visor and bared his teeth in a cartoonish grimace.

Groovy…

The Marine placed the plush back on the platter. His foe would live to fight another day. But he? He needed to rest.

His arm.

He looked down at his left forearm. Even in the shadows, he could tell there was darkness spreading from his hand, taking the skin from his fingers to elbow in a dark gray. Cold. Empty. Dead. The Void.

Eh it was probably nothing. He wasn’t about to pussy out by asking Valeria to check it. Not that he could or would likely get the chance to. It would probably go away on its own.

He turned to face Dahlia once more. Deep asleep, her furrowed brow was relaxed, and her lips still bore the grace of a smile. When she was with him, he didn’t feel as much pain anymore. When she was with him…he felt real again.

What am I gonna do with you?

[https://i.imgur.com/8qPn3zG.jpg]

She was his immaculate dream, made breath and skin. The one he'd been waiting for.

She breathed out in her sleep, pushing on a lock of hair that hung over her mouth. He reached out and pulled the lock back over her ear, inadvertently touching the tattoo on her neck.

Woosh.

His eyes widened. Dahlia remained asleep, and he reached for the tattoo again.

Woosh. An ethereal collar manifested around her neck in the shape of the tattoo, tied to bindings that spread out from it but faded in the air.

What is this?

Holding two fingers out, the Marine pulled upon the collar and revealed it was the binding point of an ethereal mesh that spread over the entirety of Dahlia’s body. Her arms, hands, torso, legs, feet, even her head and mouth were all bound within the fiery glowing filaments.

The Marine could tell it wasn’t a protective seal, it was a harness. A muzzle. Chains holding back a wild beast.

The restraints that suppressed her demonic nature.

So that’s how she does it. He took a closer look at the bindings. He couldn’t tell who’d cast them, but whoever they were had been a far better spellcaster than him. The magic was too complex for him to unravel and…if he tried freeing her with brute force, it would kill her.

But what did free mean? He couldn’t forget, she was still a demon.

The bindings dulled her mind but gave her sapience. Made her docile but pacified her aggression. Kept her a slave but kept her human.

Had he forgotten what real nymphs looked like? Twitching forms, fleeting shadows. Twisted claws, rattling teeth. And those eyes-

Dahlia exhaled loudly in her sleep, clutching his arm tighter as his mind stormed. For now, she was asleep. Restrained. Harmless. But what would happen if those bindings were to break?

There are things a man is meant to be in a woman’s eyes, and there are some things she is never meant to see. Expose your vulnerabilities, and she’ll use them against you.

You like to live dangerously. Play with fire. I just hope for your sake, your own fire is hotter.

And he’d just told her, a demon, everything.

His eyes began to droop in sleep and exhaustion. He’d worry about it in the morning, though he suspected he’d have more urgent matters to worry about. Tomorrow’s problems for tomorrow’s him. He settled in a more comfortable position, gazing at the moonlight as his breaths began to slow.

Dahlia was a slave, a defect, a monster, a mistake.

Was he really so different?

Can you hear the silence?

Can you see the dark?

Can you fix the broken?

C…can you feel…my…

* * *

The three Ironsbane Guardians studied the mysterious green strands of energy dispersed through the chamber, produced after the Slayer’s attack on the Witness.

“A paracausal superposition…?” Aloofly inquired the kneeling warlock as he tugged a tangle of strands between his hands, like a cat’s cradle.

“I don’t get it,” remarked a tall woman in a Hell Titan’s helmet as she poked the filaments with a retractable armblade. “What is this stuff?”

“It resembles that darkness beyond existence,” muttered another man as his personal AI analyzed the energy, a hunter’s rope-dart on his forearm. “but…this aura is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

The warlock sighed and released the strands from his hand.

“I have a theory…”

The other two guardians paused and turned to face their companion.

“For so long, we considered darkness and Argent opposites. Darkness negates Argent, and Argent overpowers darkness.

Darkness is the force of nullity. Inexistence. Death. A force of entropy and pure metaphysical annihilation. It heeds no master, serves no will, and brings forth the end of all.

Now consider Argent. Argent is the energy of the Aether, the life force, the mana. It is the fuel of spells and the substrate of the Immortal Realms. It permeates Heaven as much as Hell. It is wielded by mortal and angel as well as demon. This should have been our first hint.

The domain of Argent is the domain of the physical.”

“But, there are the Darkpaths,” noted the titanic woman. “Beings that wield the darkness. We’ve all fought them! Aliens can do it as well as people. Isn’t one of the Elder Hell Gods some chick associated with this darkness?”

“That was my next point, Aisa,” grumbled the warlock. “The darkness can be shaped, given form, wielded by sapient will. There is a fundamental psychocognitive aspect to it.”

The titan and hunter glanced at each other as the warlock continued.

“This darkness can manifest in different aspects.

For some, this negation erodes their soul, drains their life, their will insufficient to counter the emptiness. For us, these would be the Taken.

For others, they arise as warriors. Conquerors. Tyrants. Beings of indomitable will who impose their own brutal purpose upon an empty world. This would be our Imperator, before his time in the Forsworn, or even our own power of Stasis.”

The warlock clenched his fist to manifest icy crystals from it, prompting Aisa to look up with piqued interest.

“There is one more aspect,” the warlock continued as he unclenched his fist and dissipated the crystals. “Some do not fall to the emptiness or attempt to fight it, but accept it. And in so, overcome it.

They do not seek purpose from or impose their own upon the world, but create their own purpose for themselves. They find meaning within themselves…and within others.”

“Lifeblood!” Interrupted the hunter. The two others frowned at the interjection.

“The…Hallowed elixir?”

The hunter nodded. “A friend told me about it. They said that this darkness once manifested in their realm as a physical substance. They named it Void, and those that wielded it Voidwalkers.”

“Pshht,” scoffed the warlock.

“I know, Klo. But hear this.

This darkness originated from a single location in their realm. An ancient Black Kingdom that worshiped the darkness and its sinister gods.

But within this Black Kingdom was a sanctum devoted not to the darkness itself, but a higher being thought to be the origin of Lifeblood.”

“You’re talking about the Hallowed’s health potion?” Aisa asked.

“Lifeblood is more than that. It can generate life forms, be harnessed as a tool, even form a collective psyche!” The hunter excitedly asserted. “Not a central caste hivemind like the Hallowed usually have, but a stream of conjoined consciousnesses! A- a river of souls!”

“So darkness begot Lifeblood in the Hallowed’s realm…” Klo began.

“...and it formed Strand here,” finished the hunter. “From the collective psyche of the Forsworn, triggered by the Slayer’s attack on the Witness.”

Klo looked down at the emerald filaments weaving around his arm. “That explains the green, I suppose.”

“So this power can be harnessed…” Aisa murmured. “How do we master it?”

“That’s the thing,” replied the warlock as he tangled a new cat’s cradle from the matter. “We don’t master it. It’s not about strength or control. Determination or will. It’s like rubber bands. They stretch and pull, but if you pull too far…”

The tangle of Strand strained and split, disintegrating the warlock’s body in a burst of emerald threads.

The two guardians stared impassively as a small geodesic core manifested and gleamed from the warlock’s last position, reversing entropy to rematerialize the fallen warrior.

“...they’ll snap and recoil,” he continued normally, kneeling again to weave a new cat’s cradle in the shape of a needle. “Strand is about acceptance. Going with the flow. Letting go what weighs you down. Embracing the current. Following the threads of fate.”

Klo clasped the needle and slung it through the air in a deadly flash, which vanished down the hall in an emerald glare.

“Being free in the face of destiny.”

“Do you think Commander Zavala would have approved of us using Strand, Klo?”

The hunter’s voice was tinged with pain, a heaviness setting on all three’s faces.

“...Zavala would have wanted us to stay safe. To continue our mission. And most importantly, to stick together,” the weary warlock replied. “He believed in us. In all of us. Darkness or no darkness.”

Aisa looked down in grief.

“I miss the Commander. He always knew what to say, what to do. We could use his guidance right about now.”

“You know…!” The hunter exclaimed, startling their floating AI. “If we’re serious about this, I think I know someone here who can guide us in Strand! Someone who can help us unlock this power!”

The warlock looked into the distance for a moment, and stood up. “I believe we should heed them.”

Aisa looked up with dawning excitement. “You mean it?”

“Yes,” Klo replied as the others stood up. “There is change in the air. A great storm approaches. The Light may soon be eclipsed, leaving us in Darkness.

We’ll need all the help we can get.”

“Ha!” Aisa exclaimed as she punched the air and hurried towards the gate. “What are we waiting for, boys? It’s upgrade time!!”

“Heh, this brings me back,” the hunter reminisced as he and the warlock followed after their tall friend. “Remember that day? When we first stepped into Cydonia? That energy, that change, that excitement was palpable.

When was that? 2021, 2022? Man, I still have my UAC patch. Just like Mars all over again, eh?”

The hunter chuckled as he teasingly elbowed Klo’s shoulder, causing the warlock to groan and stumble.

“You and I remember Mars very differently, Lakh.”

* * *

I passed through the airlock and stepped out onto the surface of Europa.

There was snow. Wind. Clouds. Smoke.

“This…cannot be.”

“Europa’s tectonic activity has been rapidly accelerating. The atmosphere used to be non-existent, but it’s being pumped full of gasses from within the planet. Several volcanoes have broken through the ice and are melting the crust.”

I looked up at the snow falling from the cloudy gray sky, swept away by the freezing gusts of wind. An icy mountain range loomed in the great distance, an ember volcano leaking lava onto the ice from the peak.

“What do we do now?”

“Head west. Something big is happening among the Mixom personnel. I feel the Deraki may be involved.”

A new waypoint appeared on my HUD. I turned to find it leading through a marked gate bearing the UAC logo.

“‘Ritual Control’?”

“Precisely. Now get moving, soldier.

That’s an order.”

* * *

Elena blinked in half-consciousness, her mind hazy and body weak as she realized Skullhacker and Romero were helping carry her.

“Uhhhh…Hiro?”

“Sshhh, don’t push yourself. He’s got his shoulder emitters on. Get your strength back.”

“What…happened?”

“We were ambushed. Some skull-robot-brain-spider and its three bitches.

But your friend saved us.”

“Skull?”

The Skullhacker did not meet her gaze, and she understood why. Whatever the Trooper’s attack had been, it was powerful enough to fend off a demon lord in a single blast.

And it’d almost killed them.

He didn’t mean to. They were cornered, outmatched, outgunned. He had no choice. It was an unintended consequence.

But whatever the Skullhacker was, it was enough to drive back a horde of hellspawn and their demon lord, and almost kill them by proximity alone.

The sniper rifle. The knife. Precise. Exact. Restraints for the Skullhacker’s true force.

What are you?

They’d reached the teleporter array. Helix Labs, but restricted access. The Trooper pressed the same mysterious round device on the panel, and it let them pass. Elena drifted hazily as Romero went ahead to scout their arriving destination, returning moments later to signal the all-clear. The mercenary told the trooper something, he shook his hand in recognition and gratitude, and Skullhacker went ahead as Romero helped Elena into her own teleporter and her vision swam in a field of blue particles.

They were out.

Out of Lazarus.

Back to the surface.

* * *

The Marine stood alone in a field of tall grass which extended as far as the eye could see. The wind blew gently, causing the grass to billow and sway. The sky was a gray fog, and only a soft glow diffused its light through the mist.

He could hear nothing but the breeze. There was a faint yet nostalgic scent in the air, and white spots in the grass.

Did he…remember that smell? From the times when he still dreamt?

Flowers. A strange type of flower with a yellow center and many long white petals. He didn’t know their name. They seemed familiar. Did he know? He must have forgotten.

If he couldn’t remember, how could he love them?

He reached out to touch one, but the blood dripping from his hand withered it as he reached out. His scorched armor stained the ground at his feet, and the grass dried and became singed as he touched it.

He was the warrior in the Garden. And he was killing it.

His face sank as his heart ached with a deep and clawing grief.

What were these flowers called?

[https://i.imgur.com/y7G1LfK.png]

The grass rustled behind. Someone walked through the field towards him, but it didn’t matter.

Did he deserve it all? This pain going through his chest? The failure, the emptiness, the desolation?

The person reached him, turning the white flowers nearby into another, one with many interlocked florets and vivid colors of red, orange, violet, and pink, but it didn’t matter. Despite their warmth, he still felt as cold and alone as ever.

Two arms appeared at his side, from a shorter stature and bearing soft reddish skin, to clasp around and hold him in a gentle embrace.

The Marine remained in place, eyes closed in his weary solitude as she embraced him. She rested her head against his back, hoping to warm him in her company.

What were the flowers called? What was she called?

He placed his hand upon hers. His heart remained heavy, but the company was a small solace. No one else offered such kindness, except her.

He needed to turn around. He needed to see her face. He needed to know her name.

The arms tightened around him. She was begging. Pleading him not to do it.

If he looked her in the eye and showed the broken things inside, would she run away?

He took a step around. Then another. And another. Keeping his eyes low at the shadow beside him, taking her hands in his own, the Marine raised his gaze to see her.

She was barely visible. Her form was obscured and faded in the fog, and he could barely see her features. Long hair that billowed in the breeze. A gold collar around her neck, the apple and the snake. Two eyes looking down in sorrow, rising up to meet his.

Not Dahlia. That wasn’t her name. Before. Someone else. He’d known. How could he forget?

What were those flowers called?

Who are you?

The woman looked down as a tear ran down her cheek. She clasped his hands tight.

If she saw his darkest parts, the wicked things inside his heart…

Please. Tell me your name.

The wind blew stronger, billowing her hair away from him. The flowers were burning and drifting away as ash. The collar glowed red-hot, blood dripping as the snake coiled around her neck.

What were those flowers called?

Please. Don’t go! Tell me who you are!

He clasped her arm, but her skin bruised and bled at his touch. Her body was burning away, drifting into embers within his grip. He fell to his knees as the Garden reduced to cinders, her hand on his cheek as her weeping face was the last to crumble and vanish, leaving him alone beneath the burning Eclipse.

DON’T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE!!

* * *

The Warden frowned at the metallic octahedron as the small crew of Forsworn mages and scientists studied the foreign object.

“How could we miss this?” She asked, healed and recovered from her confrontation with the Hellwalker.

“ Object emits powerful energy-canceling field that nullifies most sensor systems ,” Orbb explained. “ Other than own senses, we cannot detect the object on any field or apparatus .”

“Is it jamming us?”

“ More likely selective camouflage. Is not directed effect, but confined to object’s vicinity. Object lets itself be seen up-close, but refuses to be detected afar. ”

The Warden frowned deep in thought. She glanced at the multitude of researchers studying the object with tools, spells, and probes, but not making physical contact with the object, its surface pulsating with waves of liquid metal spikes.

She made up her mind and strode towards the octahedron.

“ Master Warden! This unit strongly objects! ” Orbb warned.

“If I can’t resist its power, there aren’t many here that could,” she remarked. “Now stand back.”

The others backed away as she approached the metal object. She pulled off a glove, revealing a hand marked by faded lightning scars, and pressed her palm against the surface.

Hmmmm, a low metallic ringing thrummed through the air as the surface settled and lay still.

The Warden could sense no hostility, no psychic assault, no rising energy or response to her contact. Not even the unique aura of Hell. But the object was alive.

It was almost indistinct, a buzz against her hand and a resonating within her bones, but she could sense a tremendous force contained within the object, storming against the structure and subdued by the invisible nullification field.

There was something immensely powerful inside.

“ Master Warden. Message appears on surface. ”

The Warden stepped back and donned her glove once more as glowing runes manifested on every face of the octahedron, in many languages she recognized and even more she didn’t.

BEWARE

BEWARE

BEWARE

THIS MESSAGE MUST BE HEARD BY ALL

WE CONSIDERED OURSELVES A POWERFUL PEOPLE

WE ENCOUNTERED A FORCE FROM DEEP COSMIC SPACE

THIS FORCE WAS RUINOUS AND CALAMITOUS FOR US

THIS RELIC SEALS THIS FORCE

AN IMMEASURABLE IRRESISTIBLE POWER

THE SOUL SURVIVOR

THIS MESSAGE IS A WARNING ABOUT DANGER

THIS RELIC IS NOT ONE OF HONOR

NO HIGHLY ESTEEMED THING IS COMMEMORATED HERE

NOTHING VALUED IS CONTAINED WITHIN

WHAT LIES HEREIN IS AN OMINOUS FUTURE

A THREAT TO MORTAL, ANGEL, AND DEMON

THIS RELIC MUST NOT BE DISTURBED

THIS RELIC MUST BE FORGOTTEN

BEWARE

BEWARE

BEWARE

The Warden frowned as the other Forsworn uncertainly whispered among themselves.

“Does everyone read the same message?” She asked, and the others nervously agreed.

“ This relic is omen of danger. ”

“A threat to all that would disturb it.”

“The Soul Survivor.”

“An ominous future.”

“ Beware. Beware. Beware. ”

The Warden stared down the anomaly’s entrance tunnel as the Forsworn debated.

“It warns of a destructive force, perhaps it refers to some dark energy?”

“I don’t think so. I’ve heard of messages like this. Back on Earth, we placed generational warnings like that at nuclear waste depositories.

It could be a superweapon.”

The Warden took a few steps in the direction of the Jericho ’s hull breach. The outer breach was a thermal trench, incinerated by the Godbeast’s attacks. But the inner breach was the narrow tunnel perforated by the octahedron’s impact, pierced while the Jericho ’s defenses were still exposed. She recalled the Godbeast’s discourse, its great scars despite its resistance to their assault, and its sudden arrival.

“What about that wording: ‘Soul Survivor’? That makes me imagine some entity, a being or destroyer imprisoned inside. Like the Doom Slayer in his sarcophagus.”

“‘Sole survivor.’ The one thing that survived that calamity. The last soul still living.”

“‘Soul’ doesn’t rhyme with ‘sole’ in the other languages. It must be deliberate phrasing.

What if the being didn’t survive? What if it’s just the corpse, still animated or haunted by its power?”

“Look at the relic. It looks like a Blood Prism or…or a Black Pyramid. It’s a living thing!

What if the relic itself is the Soul Survivor?”

The Godbeast wasn’t attacking the Jericho , the Warden surmised. It was pursuing the anomaly, which evaded their sensors and penetrated the fortress for concealment.

This object was the enemy the Godbeast sought.

Orbb inquired from below. “ Master Warden, should this unit alert Master Imperator?”

“There’s no reason to think he doesn’t know,” someone remarked. “It’s his ship. He’s been here longer than anyone.”

“Not entirely true. Master Imperator may have constructed Jericho and founded Forsworn, but Arena and its great Masters came first.

This fortress still contains gladiators from original Arena. Still contains secrets.”

“Whether the Imperator knows or not is irrelevant,” the Warden declared. “The commander trusts me with the administration of this citadel, the one with operational authority here is me.”

The small crew of researchers glanced among themselves but stood silent. It had not gone unnoticed that the Warden was the only commander alerted to the anomaly’s presence, and she’d only summoned a small contingent of loyal Forsworn to investigate. A single troop of her Terracotta Knights stood guard, and the High Three and other great warriors were absent.

“What are your orders, commander?”

The Warden looked down at the ground and back at the octahedron, pondering intensely the portentous words blazing on its surface. A force that could oppose a Godbeast, strong enough to overpower the High Three.

A force that could be contained. Restrained. Perhaps even harnessed.

A weapon to rival the Hellwalker.

Soul Survivor.

Soul Survivor.

Soul Survivor.

She made her decision.

“Cut communications. Clear out a top-level research deck, and transport the anomaly there for further studying.”

“What??”

“We’re busting it open.”

The clamoring of Forsworn filled the trench.

“ Master Warden, you can’t be serious!”

“I am. We proceed at once.”

“MUST NOT OPEN,” came a sudden booming synthetic voice from behind, and the Warden turned to find the Verimor Blacksmith making its way towards them through the breach. The Terracotta Knights became alerted at the larger intruder, but the Warden waved them down with a gesture.

“Let it speak.”

The Blacksmith forced its giant body into the breach, but held its distance from the crew and mysterious anomaly, and began speaking.

“ RECORD LONG PAST. RECORD LONG HISTORY. VERIMOR EMPIRE SHATTERED. WORLDMINDS FORGOTTEN. VIRISTARS FORGOTTEN. ADMINISTRATORS FORGOTTEN.

BUT REMEMBER WYRMS.

VERIMOR ENEMY. STELLAR PREDATORS. CORE DWELLERS. SUN EATERS.

VIRISTARS FIGHT WYRMS. CREATE TESSERACT WORLDS. WYRM PRISONS.”

The Blacksmith raised a number of oscillating manipulator limbs towards the octahedron.

“ RELIC NOT VERIMOR. UNKNOWN ITS ORIGIN. UNKNOWN ITS CONTENT.

PRISON RESEMBLES TESSERACTS. OMEN RESEMBLES WYRMS.

HOLDS DANGER. PROCLAIMS ITS THREAT.

WARDEN SHOULD HEED. WYRMS GRAVE RUIN.

EVEN FRACTIONED POWER. JUST WYRM SHARD. AN OMINOUS FUTURE.”

The Warden glared and approached the Blacksmith, staring the larger robotic being down in one of many optic sensors.

“Knights, escort this alien back to its forge,” she stated coolly. “It is not cleared for this operation, and myths and superstition do not supersede a commander’s direct order.”

A dozen Terracotta Knights emerged from the rock and raised their staffs at the Blacksmith, but this backed away while keeping its gaze focused on the Warden.

“BEWARE. BEWARE. BEWARE.”

The Forsworn crew watched with apprehensive faces, and the Warden turned to address them once more.

“I want a deck prepped and containment on standby for a potential sixth Ontophage.

Transport this Cyber Prison there at once.

We open it in an hour.”

* * *