Someone was shaking the soldier, and his head was ringing.

His eyes snapped open, squinting in the unexpected green light. Daisy was bodily holding onto his right arm, the only part of him she could move, and was trying to pull him. He wasn't sure why.

Shaking his head, he sat up, and she gasped in immense relief, throwing her arms around his neck. She tried to say something, but it came out as a wordless babble as she collapsed into tears, shaking as she clutched at him. The soldier was surprised by the reaction - she hadn't known him all that long, after all.

He cautiously patted her head, unsure of the situation at hand, and she slowly calmed down. Backing away, she rubbed her eyes and choked, "Sorry. I - you looked like you were..." Coughing, she sat down and timidly finished, "I'm glad you're okay."

Getting to his feet, the soldier looked around and was surprised to find himself on the other end of the dome where he'd been fighting Envy a moment ago. There was a smoking crater where he'd remembered firing the BFG. The top half of Envy's head was sitting next to it, an expression of blatant disbelief on her face. The lower half was nowhere to be seen.

Well. That was easy.

Raising an arm, he found his armor smoking and charred, rapidly repairing itself even as he watched. He held it a little closer to his face, finding the quick-moving reparation to be mildly satisfying.

He blinked hard, trying to shake away the green spots floating in his vision from the BFG's blast. Tugging at his other arm, Daisy said, "I can't believe you actually killed Envy. She's - well, she was - one of the more powerful guys down here. Are you planning on taking on the other eight?"

The soldier nodded, and she stared at the ground for a moment. Shaking the worst of the dust off his armor, the soldier started heading back to the hole he'd blown into the wall.

"Doom?"

He turned around to find her staring at the ground, standing still. He'd nearly forgotten that her feet were unprotected against the rocks, and considered being worried about that. Before he could make up his mind, she quietly said, "You know they're going to come after you, right?"

He gave her a thumbs up. That wasn't really part of the plan, but it'd make it a lot easier for him if the other eight did end up looking for him - then he could kill all the main ones at the same time. Granted, it'd probably be a bit more difficult than his short-lived battle with Envy, but with a BFG and his motto, he was confident he could win.

She looked up at him, trying to meet his eyes with hers. She looked worried. "I don't want you to die."

The soldier walked over and rubbed her head-fur again. "I don't die." He meant it, too. He'd spent years in his Hell without dying, after all, and he was even stronger here. With enough guns, he considered himself to be practically immortal.

She didn't seem to believe him all that much, and kicked at the ground silently. After a moment, she asked, "Have you ever lost - oh, who am I kidding, they're not lost. If you've ever cared about someone - and I think you did, maybe..." Daisy trailed off, and Isabelle gave her a lick to the back of the head. The Lepori was anxious enough that she didn't notice. "Did anyone you know... die?"

The soldier paused. Yes, he knew people that had died. There were few faces that he remembered from before his descent into Hell, but he would never forget theirs.

She folded her legs and carefully sat down on the stony ground, her tough shorts doing a good job of protecting her from the hostile terrain. "I don't remember my actual family. Born into slavery, ya see. But there was this one turtleman I knew, really old guy. Closest thing to parents I had. But, like I said, he was ancient. So when he stopped moving around so easily, stopped being able to lift stuff, the slavers killed him."

There was a long silence where Daisy watched the rocks moodily and the soldier wished he'd blown that man to a different dimension. She continued after several seconds. "I didn't even notice at first - couldn't, really. Didn't want to figure it out. But then they started using his shell as a soup cauldron, and that's when I ran away." She looked up at him, a grim expression on his face. "That's when I ran into you. Didn't have a clue what I was getting myself into, obviously. But... to be honest, Hell is better than staying in that city for a second longer."

The soldier couldn't exactly relate to it. But he could try to understand it.

Rubbing her head again, the soldier picked her up and set her on Isabeld's shoulders, patting her back, and she faceplanted into the fur. "I, uh..." Her voice was muffled, but he could still make out the words. "I really killed the mood there, didn't I? Bad timing and all."

It was not bad timing, the soldier knew. Mental injuries were often more crippling than physical ones. It was why he'd decided that slaying demons was both therapeutic and a game, as opposed to decades of constant, endless gory battle. Which it really was, but he'd conditioned himself to enjoy it.

That, or he was just the sort of person who just really enjoyed slaying demons.

Probably the latter, in all honesty.

Once they left the building, the soldier noticed the cocoons were still there, with a darker, rougher color encasing their outside. They were no longer transparent and had grown somewhat. The soldier briefly considered blasting them to... well, they were already in Hell. Somewhere deeper. He opted not to think about it too hard.

Something distracted him, a blue board hovering in the corner of his vision. How long had that been there?

Pulling it in front of him, the soldier raised an eyebrow.

as a reward.>

He shrugged. He'd never turn down a free ability, after all.

The moment he saw the options, he froze. Daisy noticed immediately and looked alarmed. "What is it? Doom, is everything okay?"

Everything was better than okay. It was excellent. He pushed the second option, ignoring the top one. Waiting for a moment, he felt the familiar sensation of information infusing his brain, seeping in through the cracks and settling in comfortably.

A new board appeared. A familiar one.