Ducking underneath the doorway leading into his home, the soldier tossed the detached arm into the corner, and Eld pounced on it happily, gnawing on it blissfully.

Glancing around as she entered, Aliss was halted as her shield snagged on the sides of the doorway, and had to twist it sideways in order to walk in. Rotating it back into a comfortable position, she looked around, raising an eyebrow as she did. "You live here?"

The soldier shrugged. 'Doom' wasn't exactly an appropriate response to that question. Thankfully, she seemed to pick up on it and waved her hands awkwardly. "Right, sorry. Is 'Doom' really the only thing you can say?"

The soldier nodded in response, and she filed the information away thoughtfully. "It's... well, I'm used to a castle, so I honestly can't really judge it all that well, but it seems functional. A good temporary base." Seating herself on a pile of dirt, she swiveled her shield onto her lap and pulled a clean rag from her knapsack, then started polishing its silver surface.

Leaning against the wall, the soldier summoned his pump-action and started reloading it, sliding the red slugs into its underbelly in a smooth, repetitive motion. It was borderline therapeutic for him and was almost as satisfying as slaying demons endlessly.

After he was done, he flipped it into a comfortable position and racked the slide with a loud schh-CHK, and grinned behind his helmet. A moment later, he realized that Aliss was staring at him with a look of mild confusion, and sat back down, dismissing the gun.

Leaning over her shield, she pointed at him and asked, "Why do you do that? Can't you reload it with magic?"

He nodded, and her forehead scrunched together. "Then why..."

Resummoning the shotgun, he placed the butt of the stock into the crook of his arm and racked it again. Her face spread into a slow smile, and then she shook her head, blinking. "Whoa. Yeah, I see why you do it manually. Why is that so satisfying?"

Grabbing it by the top of the barrel, the soldier tossed it over to her, and she caught it with a startled gasp, fumbling for a moment. "Whoa, it's got some weight to it!" Rotating it a few times, she observed it from a few angles, appreciating its curves. Glancing up at the soldier, she asked awkwardly, "Uhhh, do you mind if I..?"

He nodded silently, and she flipped it into her elbow, grinning. "I don't know what it is about this weapon, but man I really want to use this! What's it called?"

Retrieving it from her, the soldier sat back down and stared at her. Facepalming, she said irritably, "Right, you can't talk. At least I know you can understand what I'm saying."

There was a long silence as she went back to polishing her shield, rubbing the rag on it in careful, experienced circles and ensuring that none of the crimson dirt that was so common in Hell was sticking to it. Dismissing the shotgun, the soldier laced his bulky fingers behind his head and laid down.

It wasn't five minutes before his knee started jogging up and down. He was aware of the faint squeaking sound of Aliss' rag, the dull crunching and squishing of Eld chewing on the disembodied arm, and the sound of far-off demons going about their daily business.

He couldn't take it. He was so used to constantly being on edge, locked in a perpetual war for who knew how many years, that inactivity was practically insanity-inducing.

Jumping to his feet, the soldier summoned his shotgun, then paused. He could use a different gun every now and then, after all. Allowing it to fade into blue sparks of energy, he thought for a moment. What was a gun he could use reliably, one that would be good at both short and medium ranges? He didn't want one as bulky as the minigun, and the sniper rifle was a bit too cumbersome for indoor combat.

After a moment's thought, a heavy weapon formed in his hands. With a stout barrel poking out from the end of a thick foregrip, a small spike protruding from the tip, the gun measured about three and a half feet long. The stock was relatively short, but the rectangular magazine looked as though it could hold about thirty, maybe forty medium-caliber bullets. With a switch on the side to differentiate between safe, semi-automatic, and fully-automatic, the soldier was pleased to find that the heavy assault rifle appeared to be fully functional.

Flicking the switch to full-auto and making a mental note to seal it there, the soldier started heading out of the cave, and Aliss glanced up, startled. "Wait, you're leaving already? Why don't you wait for them to respawn first?"

The soldier stopped dead and pivoted on a dime, directing his incredulous stare at her, and she backed away. It was remarkable how much expression could be conveyed even without her being able to see his face. "What? What'd I say?"

Pacing towards her, he aimed a finger at her, and she tripped on her own words, back-tracking as she did. "Leaving already? Waiting for them to respawn?" He jabbed the finger in her direction, and she asked frantically, "Respawn? The respawning thing?"

Relaxing somewhat, she asked curiously, "You - you didn't know that the demons respawn?" He nodded vigorously, and she continued with a slightly concerned smile. "Yeah, this is Hell! Even if demons die in the Overworld, they're gonna come back here just fine, to regroup and get their stuff back together."

The soldier sat down, putting the heavy assault rifle on his lap and steepling his fingers under his chin. Apparently his efforts hadn't been nearly as effective as he'd thought they were.

Clearly a bit worried, Aliss leaned forward. "Wait... were you trying to kill them permanently?"

The soldier nodded, and her eyes widened. "That's a terrible idea! Even if you managed to end them forever, the Nine would hunt you down!"

He stared at her, and she frowned. "What, the Nine?" Blinking in realization, she asked incredulously, "You don't know who the Nine are? How long have you been down here!?"

Leaning down, the soldier drew four straight lines in the ground, and then a question mark at the end. He wasn't totally sure how long he'd actually been in this new Hell, but he figured it was around four days or so. He was pretty sure had mentioned it at some point, but now he was a bit less certain.

Frowning, Aliss squinted at the lines, and back up at the soldier with a nonplussed expression. "Four... months?" He shook his head, and she tried, "Weeks?" Once again, he shook his head, and her shoulders slumped. "There's no way you've been down here for four days, right?"

He gave her a thumbs-up, and she put her head in her hands. "You're a , aren't you. Why am I surprised? I should have guessed it earlier from the freaky armor, and the weird weapons - yeah, that makes sense."

The soldier raised an eyebrow in his helmet, and Aliss righted herself, shaking her head. "Well, no time to worry about it. The Nine Sins are the ruling force in Hell, aside from Satan, obviously. They consist of..." She paused for a moment, frowning. "I swear, I went over them a hundred times before I came down here. Give me a minute."

Staring at the ceiling, she mouthed words silently, then grinned. "Right, got it. The Nine Sins are made up of Pride, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Jerry, Gluttony, Sloth, and Karen, who's the mother of Greed. They're hands-down the most powerful demons in all of Hell, and it doesn't matter which region of it you're from, you've got to pay respects to them at some point. Here in Brimstone, I'm pretty sure the Sin here is... Envy, I think."

The soldier nodded. This was incredibly valuable information.

Standing, he hefted his assault rifle again, and she gasped. "You're going out there again? Were you listening to anything I was saying!?"

He had been listening, quite attentively. Instead of pointlessly killing demons that would keep coming back, he now had an objective. Get more levels until he acquired an ability that would let him kill them permanently, and then go after the Nine.

Starting with Envy.