The closer they got to the portal the more Robert saw its hellish influence. The strange red mold started to cover the surroundings with a thin layer. Radiating heat, it was slightly moving on its own towards any source of flesh, no matter its state. Rob didn’t notice it at first, but the disturbing feeling raised his attention to the details. And there was plenty of food for this plant as the place was littered with corpses of unlucky guests, who appeared near the epicenter. Seeping through the corpses, the mold emerged in different spots, definitely trying to spread itself everywhere it could.
Some of the scenes were quite horrible, once again testing Rob’s mind's ability to keep his cool in different situations. Especially when he saw how this hellish plant made its way through the opened mouth of the man, forever frozen during its final scream. John seemed to be better at ignoring such gruesome pictures, clearly showing that it wasn’t the first time for him. Another opportunity to distract Robert from the surroundings was granted by the demons themselves. The constant stream of creatures was the best sign that they were going in the right way. Luckily, the former space ranger gave Rob an effective weapon to deal with the enemies without the need for melee combat.
“To the right!”
John’s warning came in time. Turning to the threat, Robert pulled the trigger of his oversized shotgun. Having a thrice thicker barrel, it was very short and looked ridiculous to the point of being similar to a toy gun, which was meant to show futuristic weaponry. However, such appearance was the only thing to be criticized as each shot sent half of a dozen metal balls at insane speed. Those tiny projectiles had barely enough force to pierce the reddish skin, not even near to go deep inside. But it wasn’t needed. The special material of these bullets made them splash like a liquid upon impact, shredding the inners of the demons into formless meat.
The Imp, who was jumping out from the room, met its portion at a peak point. The power of the blast wasn’t enough to counter all the force that sent the small demon into a lunge. Still, it somehow mutually compensated for its physical strength, stopping the hellish creature midair and making it fall clumsily onto the floor. The demon, whose monkey-like face had lost a big chunk, tried to growl despite the injury but the following shot had ended its misery.
And no ricochets. Nice thing! As far as I can remember, there were such forbidden bullets before the alien’s invasion. I guess, this realm doesn’t have the same laws.
Noticing the motion from the far side of a corridor, Robert aimed his weapon and patiently waited. A few figures of Hounds were already running to them, but for the effectiveness, he had to shoot from a very close. The defensive properties of their skin were insane. Even a ten-meter (33 ft) distance was already enough for the bullets to lack the needed force to penetrate a natural red leather layer. John, on the other hand, didn’t have such a problem.
The metal disk pierced the air, in a mere blink shortening the distance to the demons. The first Hound tried to avoid it, but despite its fast reflexes, it wasn’t fast enough. The circular projectile had cut through the arm, which the demon tried to put in defense out of instinct. Not stopping on that, it went through the long ear only to sever the neck of the hellish creature behind. Losing its inertia, it paused but John was already pulling it back, using the nanomachine to control his hi-tech chakram.
The reverse flight literally gashed its way, disabling another demon. Obviously, it didn’t stop others. However, Rob’s shotgun did. The several waves of tiny bullets created a really deadly wall of fire, tearing the bodies from inside. There was only one enemy, whose outlet exploded its skull when it got the portion of metal right into wide open mouths. Most of the demons had only tiny holes from the shot, visually leaving them almost intact. Still, it was enough to turn them dead.
Shooting a few more times, Robert had to throw himself to the side, avoiding the lunge of the Imp. Missing the hit, the creature paused on the wall, piercing its surface with its claws before repeating its assault. However, John’s disk was already entering his chest. Rotating under the influence of nanomachines, it splashed the purple blood everywhere, dirtying Rob’s bathrobe and covering his eyes for a moment. This moment almost led to dire consequences as one of the red-skinned werewolves, who earlier played dead, tried to bite his leg. The timely conjured steel took the hit instead. The last shot had finished the monster.
“Be careful!”
“Sorry, man,” releasing the disk from the mutilated corpse, John apologized, looking at him with an innocent expression for a few seconds before breaking into laughter, “You indeed look fabulous. Especially after adding a purple. Do you use it in the Heavens? Or is always white?”
“Hey, I joked. Once. And you just can’t stop pointing at it,” Rob exclaimed.
“Of course, Mr. Archangel. Will gladly accept your holy request,” making a few odd waves with his palm, John bowed his head, clearly parodying an unknown to Rob ceremonial gesture.
“Oh, fuck you. Aren’t you worried? You asked me for help, but not even trying to be serious. My clip is almost empty, and those hellish bastards just don’t want to end,” Robert frowned, not understanding such attitude of the ally.
“Okay, sorry man. This time I really mean it,” scratching his back head, told John, after noticing Rob’s annoyance, “I am always like that when I am nervous. My protective mechanism. You know – I locked Riley and her brother, which might add problems to my ass. It was always easier for me to deal with demons and not women… However, the situation is currently not that critical. We do need to close the portal to avoid it worsening, but together it is not hard. Especially after you took down the Jaeger. I don’t think the portal can handle another medium-level demon. It had to be the highest-grade scroll, and the Cult would never send such a thing with a single courier. Too valuable.”
“And you want to use your heroic deed to fix your exile?” Looking at the man, it wasn’t hard to guess it. The nervous behavior didn’t have any signs of fear of death, instead showing the worries before important events. It was like he wouldn’t fail no matter what, but the goal wasn’t just to do it, but to do it perfectly, above all peers. That eased Rob’s mood a lot.
“Yeah,” shrugged John.
“Clean your reputation, get a girl, save the world. Good plan,” nodded Rob with a smile, “where to?”
At this point, they reached the intersection and paused, while the former space ranger was checking the plan of the ship. He only managed to raise his hand to point in the direction, when a new portion of demons appeared from all sides. The following minute went in standing back-to-back, while they were dealing with the threat. This time there were too many enemies. So many that Rob had lost a count of them. Emptying his weapon’s clip, he smashed the shotgun into the forehead of the nearest Imp, before proceeding with the steel constructs.
“Apparently, there will be no demons left alive when we reach the portal. They sense the death of others and immediately try to eliminate the danger. It’s their common pattern,” commented John, when there was no movement around. The corpses littered the corridors, making the task of walking quite a challenge. Still, that didn’t stop their steady approach to the goal. Fortunately, it didn’t take long before they stepped in a pathway, similar to where Robert had appeared. Only several minutes and two short fights.
From a single glance, it was obvious that the place was a source. The red mold was covering every single spot in the surroundings, creating a feeling of a bathhouse just from the raised temperature. Moreover, the working lights were barely penetrating the hellish plant, almost as if putting a dark red filter on everything around. Surprisingly, there was no motion in here. No sound. However, the air itself felt hot and viscous, demanding a noticeable effort even for a single breath.
Stolen story; please report.
“There. The room number is C133,” pointed John, quietly whispering from the side. Robert moved first. Going around the corner, he immediately noticed the opened door, from which the intensive heat was emanating. Carefully looking around and not noticing any immediate danger, he stepped forward. The tight grip turned his finger white as snow – so strong it was on a hammer’s handle. Then he saw the portal.
Looking like a dark crack in reality, almost as if the mirror surface was broken, twisted, and painted, it was floating in mid-air. There was a huge, unrolled scroll with odd symbols and geometrical figures made with red ink. Or blood, as it was the most obvious choice for a Cult, that worshipped the Hell. The corpse of its member, the courier, was lying near the bed with a burned hole in his chest, which was a result of a plasma ball. Another dead, female, was leaning on the wall. Her closed eyes, resting expression, and a bloodied wound over her stomach from a dagger near her told Robert everything he needed.
“Amelia,” John said, glancing with said look from behind Rob’s back, “Okay, we need to be fast as the demonic energy that emanates from the portal can taint your body. That is not healthy at all. And don’t come too close to it. The portal has a spherical shape and is bigger than you think, being partly invisible,” looking around, the man started to search the room.
“What are doing? And how we will close it?”
“It is not hard in fact. We just need to move the scroll from its place. It is the point of focus, the anchor that sets the coordinates. So, any change will interrupt the process, effectively stopping its work. And I am looking for a stick or something similar to push it. There is a small gap between the dimensional crack and the scroll, but if you are not careful enough to touch the sphere, you will be sucked in a couple of seconds. So, it is recommended to use any object that you can drop immediately just in case. No nanomachines. Unfortunately, I can’t see anything remotely useful… Okay, the disk it is. Didn’t want to lose the weapon.”
Nodding to himself, John dropped to the floor before stretching his hand with a circular chakram and aiming at the scroll. Looking from the side, Robert barely managed to hold his laugh as the sight was quite funny. The portal into a hellish dimension inside a small room, the walls of which were covered by an odd red plant. Two bodies around. The whole oppressing atmosphere that created a disturbing feeling of something dangerous lurking around. And in the middle of it, there was a man, who was leaning to the floor right in front of a crack at least a meter away from the closest point from shattered reality, while another man was calmly standing just near the entrance and overviewing everything. The scene might look ridiculous for outside observers, who didn’t know what was happening.
Taking a closer look at the portal, Robert finally noticed how the air was waving around the portal. It looked quite similar to the effect of high heat, but the effect was much stronger. However, the limited red light had made it hard to see it clearly, slowing John's movement to a crawl as the former space ranger carefully readied for a throw. The red mold was partly obstructing the way and Rob’s quick checkup had confirmed his suspicions. The plant appeared to be even more resilient to the cuts, and while it was not enough to stop the disk, it could change its trajectory.
If he misses, I can try with my steel. It’s not a problem for me to change the shape.
The thought of offering his help was backtracked, as Rob was sure it was better to leave an important task to the person, who had experience in dealing with it. Therefore, he patiently waited, while standing near the opened door and checking the corridor. At some point, Robert heard something, but despite the increased density of the heat haze in the surrounding area, there was nothing as if all demons had indeed perished at this point. Moreover, it wasn’t even a couple of minutes when they had entered the room and John was already summoning his nanomachines to make a throw, bringing the real end to the threat.
“Okay. Now or…,” the man’s words were interrupted by a painful groan when a horrible wound had appeared on his back. His body convulsed, making him cough a blood. Still, John tried to finish his task, following with a throwing motion. Unfortunately, his attempt was stopped by following injury, which had almost ripped his arm at an elbow. With wide-opened eyes, he muttered a “high grade” before going silent forever.
Robert’s mind lost a full second, while he tried to understand what had happened. The suddenness of the situation almost sent him into a stupor, making it hard to process everything. Then it clicked as concentration gave him a barely visible image of something invisible on top of John’s body, finally unfreezing him. In the next moment, Rob was lunging forward with widespread arms. The transparent figure of the unknown enemy tried to dodge, jumping to the side, but was caught in a mid-action.
Instantly using his ability, Robert created a thin steel layer around the creature, making it reappear. Not giving it a chance to hide and without even taking a proper look, he sent it onto the floor. The two long spikes that were protruding from the hands flew in the direction of Rob’s face. Tilting his head to the left and ignoring the cut over his cheek, Robert started to pummel the small demon. The hellish creature was much smaller than the Imp and not so agile or fast, obviously compensating it with invisibility and two natural blades. It could easily be a briefly mentioned Scout, which was labeled by John as a sneaky bastard. Rob didn’t care.
Pouring his frustration and rages with strong hits, he was slowly turning the demon into a meat bag. Its skin, resilient as ever, was still easily handling any piercing damage. That couldn’t be said about bones, which were shattered in no time. The purple blood soon found its way out, covering Robert’s fists with brass knuckles and making his punching sack quite visible. New and new strikes followed, as his torrent of emotions couldn’t simply stopped at will.
He screamed at himself because of not notice the demon. He screamed at John, whose relaxed attitude at the end and limited information about the demons led to such an outcome. He screamed at the morons from the Cult, who was responsible for the whole situation. He screamed at the demon, whose body was partly turned into a leather carpet, covered in filthy inners and blood. He screamed and screamed until all emotions had died out, leaving him empty inside.
Robert didn’t know why he had such an outburst. It wasn’t the first time he had lost a friend, and John couldn’t be named as one as Rob literally knew him for around an hour. However, towering above the killed demon and the motionless figure of a former space ranger, he once again felt his weakness, his vulnerability. The single mistake would lead to death, making all his previous struggles and hardships completely worthless. He hadn’t done anything important. He hadn’t even enjoyed a meaningless life, always fighting to prolong his existence.
I really need power. I need much more power so even if I am not lucky or make a mistake, I will live through it. I need more power in these fucked up realms so I can choose what to do and not follow the flow of events again and again, struggling to stay on the top of the wave and not being drugged deep down. I need power if I want to get my perfect world. The power is indeed an answer for me, and this is the first time I felt it not with my mind, but with my heart. And I will get it... But first, let’s close this damned portal.
The pull from the Wepwakor was getting stronger, but this time Robert didn’t want to resist it. He knew he couldn’t delay the meeting with the fake God and there were no opportunities to seek to get stronger. The nanomachines were interesting, but he wasn’t sure they would be easy to get if the former space ranger went for a crime to return his energy core back to the maximum. Fighting with an active member of this organization seemed to be a death wish just from the observation of an example of a 25% output without proper gear. And that without thinking about the effectiveness of local weapons by themselves.
Frowning from his unpleasant situation, Robert stood up and glanced at John. The man, who was one step away from achieving multiple goals, still wore an expression of disbelief. That caused another raging hit against the mutilated body of the demon, whose skin was still invisible despite the horrible state and complete lack of life. Kicking it a few times, he felt as if another transparent spike had penetrated his bare foot, making him stumble from the sudden pain. Trying to catch his balance, Rob had spread his hands to the side. The sensation of strange touch made him pause for a moment before he realized what was happening. Unfortunately, his body was already pulled by a portal, not giving him any real chance to do anything.
Well, shit!
With quite a pop Robert had disappeared from the room. The portal fluctuated several times before stabilizing. It stayed like that for days, slowly spreading its influence across the ship. Soon there was no chance to say where the epicenter was as the whole spacecraft was covered with a hellish mold, turning its inners in contest of a furnace. By the point when the ship was docked at one of the biggest ports and the emergency team was boarding it to check the situation, there were around a half of dozens of medium-level demons, ready to feed the pathway into their dimension with new lives as the last bastion with three humans alive inside had felt long before, leaving them without any source of energy. However, with a huge port and direct connection to the planet through orbital lifts, it would change quickly. The Hell was coming and nothing could stop it.