“The existence of a native Martian civilization once inhabiting the red planet has been known since the first manned colonization in 2022, with the UAC’s monopoly of Mars established shortly after to prevent vandalism or third-party expropriation.

Little is known about the ancient Martians, and few of their relics or technologies have survived in viable states or accessible locations. It is thought that the Martian biosphere was well-developed by 4 BYA, long before life on Earth had even begun. Early Mars had a stable magnetic field and rich atmosphere that allowed liquid water to flow on the surface, thus allowing the evolution of multiple intelligent Martian species. One developed spaceflight and likely sent exploratory missions to other planets in our solar system, though their frail constitutions and unique biochemistry prevented them from colonizing other worlds. Strangely enough, they avoided the Jovian moon Europa in their travels, claiming the moon ‘screamed in the night.’

The ancient Martians are known to have possessed certain soul-manipulating magics, which they used in conjunction with their fairly advanced technology to survive their harsh world and extend their short lifespans. When their planet lost its magnetic field and life-bearing capacity by 3.8 BYA 1 , some Martians sealed themselves within their vast subterranean colonies, but most fled the Solar System in search of habitable worlds. They are presently considered extinct.

These events correlate with a major demonic invasion known to have occurred on Mars during this time period. The Martians claim they were forewarned of this imminent invasion by an alien warrior that arrived ‘from worlds and ages far.’”

- UAC Report File “Ancient Martians”; dated 2114

E1M8: And Hell Followed

“Where are the others, Marine?” Asked Osborne as he pulled his axe free from the monster’s corpse. “Where’s Ashford?”

The others were dead. He had tracked down their signals only to find death and butchery. But Ashford’s signal was nowhere to be found. Even if she was dead, they’d still be able to track her down, but her signal was just… gone. As if she just vanished into thin air.

“…I see,” came the sullen response.

Something screeched from deep within the Phobos Labs, and the two of them stared in alarm in the direction of the noise.

“It’s a trap…it’s a goddamn mincer. They knew what was here, what we’d find.

They sent us here to die!”

Osborne punched the wall in frustration, cracking the thick concrete with the blow, but the Marine wasn’t surprised anymore.

He knew. He’d seen the monsters and already killed dozens of them. Their platoon hadn't been sent for recon, they were sent as disposable test subjects. Rather than study their reports, their superiors wanted to learn more by watching them die.

He reached out and placed his hand on Osborne’s shoulder, and the exhausted soldier looked back. Their superiors may have abandoned them, Earth may have abandoned them, but they still had each other. If they stuck together, they just might make it through. They’d done so in a Martian prison colony, and they could do so again.

Osborne steeled his expression and firmly clasped the Marine’s hand.

Brothers in arms…

“Brothers till the end.”

* * *

The Slayer grudgingly sat on a bench aboard the corporate tram, busily configuring the Praetor Suit’s system settings. The Sentry Bot happily chirped beside him as it watched the landscapes rush by, but he paid the bot nor the scenery any mind. He was finding himself increasingly short on munitions during battle, and the increasing number and strength of the legions required immediate repair of his storage matrix. He was attempting to delete irreparable weapon files from the Suit’s database to free up storage space, but they were almost at the Advanced Research Complex and he’d made no progress so far.

INSUFFICIENT DPMI MEMORY!

He knew there was insufficient memory! That’s what he was trying to solve!

COULDN’T READ FILE %S

Then just fucking delete it!

ADMINISTRATOR PERMISSION REQUIRED TO DELETE THIS FILE

HE WAS THE FUCKING ADMINISTRATOR!

BOOM! A distant crack of thunder cracked in the distance.

“Weeeooo!! Weo-weo!!” The Sentry Bot screeched beside him.

What now?!

The Slayer angrily turned to the bot, but his frustration soon turned into alarm as he realized the situation through the window. Quickly grabbing the bot, the Slayer leapt from the bench and rushed down the tram as pulse cannon fire tore apart the car he was sitting in.

PEW!! PEW!! PEW!!

Spotting the dropship soaring overhead, the Slayer raced to the back of the tram and ran straight through the thin metal hull. He secured the Sentry Bot on his shoulder and skidded across the rocky Martian landscape to reduce his speed while equipping the rocket launcher, but Hayden soon countered.

“No! You must return to the tram! You will not be allowed access into ARC if you do not enter via the line!”

The Advanced Research Complex was only a few kilometers ahead, but the tram was getting away and the dropship, a small military craft bearing a triangular A logo, banked around for a second fly-by.

PEW!! PEW!! PEW!!

GOD DAMN IT!

Seeing he had a train to catch, the Slayer increased his speed and strafed around the bolts as they soared past him or struck the landscape. One plasma bolt exploded near him, swathing him in scorching blue plasma and bringing his HEALTH down to 83. Frowning, the Slayer took aim and fired a rocket. BOOM! The rocket struck but missed the craft’s engines, only damaging the hull.

FWOO-OOSH!

The dropship reduced velocity and opened its side doors to reveal a half dozen demonic Pilots staring at him, three of which then leapt off and attempted to chase after him. The Slayer knew he could outrun them and paid them no mind, until the sentry bot turned and shrieked at something behind his back, firing its laser as he heard a shrill buzzing not far behind and felt rifle fire hit his back. 76 HEALTH. The three Pilots were catching up to him with sleek exoskeletons that left a bright blue trail. The Slayer sideslammed the one at his right and sent it tumbling across the surface before grabbing the one on his left by the neck and throwing it onto a rocky scrag, watching the blue burst of flame fade far behind. Sensing one more behind him as the craft prepared to fire at him, the Slayer switched to the Gauss Cannon and leapt while turning around, eliminating the Pilot with a precise shot while boosting himself out of the ships’ pulse barrage.

Catching up to the tram, the Slayer leapt and landed on top of it as the dropship once more. The Slayer raised the rocket launcher and prepared to fire, but before he could pull the trigger, a bright green bolt of plasma hurled from afar and destroyed the aircraft, the smoldering rubble crashing far behind as the train sped away. Looking to the horizon, the Slayer could see the approaching structures of the Advanced Research Complex and its towering arrays of perimeter plasma cannons, opening fire on the demonic hordes and ATLAS mechs advancing across the surface towards it as soaring bomber drones rained fire from above. Cacos and Revenants and Hell Knights, Pulsars and Falcons and Firebolts rushing through the landscape attempting to breach the Complex’s perimeter, but all were overwhelmed and shot down by its impenetrable firewall.

Hurrying back into the train, the Slayer ducked through the open ceiling and found three demonic Pilots inside the tram, who raised their weapons as their combat suits began to shimmer with electric fields. The Slayer equipped the HAR and fired.

RATATATATAT!!

To the Slayer’s surprise, the rifle rounds reflected off the Pilots’ force fields and flew back in his direction, leaving the demons untouched and chipping away at his HEALTH. 71. 66. 62. The Pilots must have been wearing electroactive kinetic armor. Furious, the Slayer switched to the pulse rifle. POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! The middle Pilot’s force field did not block the heavy plasmoids and broke, killing the operative with a small surge that faltered the two Pilots. The Slayer switched to the rocket launcher and fired it at the ground in front of the second Pilot, unsure if its force field would reflect the rocket’s blast. BOOM! Two down, one to go.

Recovering from the concussive blast, the last Pilot aimed and fired a burst of electrified rounds from its rifle, perhaps some type of energy actuated firearm. Wincing from the shots, the Slayer equipped the Gauss Cannon, charged a siege blast, and vaporized the third Pilot with a single shot. PSHEWW!! He looked through the window and saw the Advanced Research Complex quickly approaching, but the train wasn’t decelerating. The Slayer rushed into the tram cabin to find the control panel completely destroyed, pulverized by a Gauss Cannon siege blast.

The Slayer ducked and dug his hands into the floor as the train slammed through the tram airlock, veered off its rails, and crashed into the tram station in a tumbling mess of metal and fire, cleaving a fiery path of destruction through clean white benches, glowing kiosks, and blinking screens before coming to a grating halt.

“Welcome to the Advanced Research Complex,” spoke the upbeat holographic Spokeswoman.

* * *

I blinked and rubbed my eyes, making sure I wasn’t seeing things.

It was still there. A goddamn lamppost in the middle of Hell, bearing an undeniably human design. As the thick reddish fog cleared, the post’s yellow light cast a better view of my environment.

I stood in what appeared to be a town, tall and plain red buildings standing brightly before the black sky, with more lampposts at irregular intervals casting a drearily heavy glow.

I cautiously walked forward, careful not to make a sound on the flat stone ground between the buildings, keenly glancing for any sign of movement or life, but the town appeared empty. It did not seem hostile, but the atmosphere was unbearably foreboding and uncanny.

The buildings were situated without pattern throughout the town structure, bearing only a few pitch-black windows at random positions across their stoic faces. Their dimensions were similar but likewise varying without pattern, with some buildings taller or wider than their neighbors for no discernible reason. Some stood alone, others huddled together, while others were joined by long and straight arch bridges. There were no words, no signs, no color besides deep red and sickly yellow.

Something fluttered from the corner of my eye. Spinning around, I found what appeared to be a pale white sheet drifting in the wind, until I realized there was no wind, and upon taking a closer look I found the humanoid shape beneath the white garment.

My blood ran cold as I opened my mouth in a soundless scream, and I stumbled back in terror but quickly gained a hold of myself.

“Damn,” I whispered. “Whoa. Scared the shit out of me.”

I didn’t attack yet, partly because I was terrified but partly because the figure hadn’t moved. Was it perhaps a statue?

“Colonel, what should I do?”

“If you’re going to reach the gateway station, you need to go further in, soldier. Keep moving.”

Shivering in apprehension, I took a step forward, and another, priming my Skullfire spell and making sure my munitions were ready as I approached the figure.

It was a slender figure standing roughly up to my chest, wearing a pale wispy cloak that clung to its ethereal form.

A woman.

Her body seemed almost transparent in the dimness, revealing an eerie skeleton beneath ghostly skin, but undeniably a human woman.

And she was looking right at me.

I took a step to the side, and her head turned to follow my movement. Not a statue at all.

I had no idea how to proceed. This was Hell, she was obviously a demon…but, she wasn’t attacking. I didn’t know how, but I could sense no hostile intent from her person.

“Umm..hi.” I blurted out.

The woman made no response.

“I’m…John. I’m not looking for trouble, just…passing through. I’m gonna squeeze by you, and then I’ll be on my-”

The woman then turned away and slowly walked off, each step a calm, methodical stride as her cloak gently billowed behind her. I looked on as she softly drifted into the distance.

“Nice girl.”

“That was…odd.”

“Don’t let your guard down even for a moment, John. Remember you’re still in Hell. The fact that some demons would rather mind their own business doesn’t make them any less demonic.

Reminds me of these bats that would roost in the old barnhouse. Kept to themselves but stir one up and the whole swarm would fall on you. ‘Vespers,’ we used to call them.”

“‘Vesper.’ That’s a good name.”

“What, for the bats?”

“For her,” I motioned towards the distant ghost-like woman as she passed under a doorway and finally vanished.

“Vesper.”

“John…”

“What? Don’t give them names so I don’t start getting attached?”

“You’ve got company!”

I had already seen them. My motion tracker display lit up with numerous white dots all around me and I could see countless pale humanoid figures, likewise draped in billowing white cloths. They appeared from shadowed doorways, calmly and gently floating in my direction. They didn’t seem hostile, but I wasn’t going to stick around to find out.

“Your four o-clock!”

I turned around and found a gap between the approaching figures. Understanding, I rushed through the crowd and headed deeper into the town without looking back.

* * *

“After everything that’s happened and everything we’ve seen,” Romero started, “I didn’t think we could be surprised yet again.”

Ruby vaguely nodded.

Inside the biological containment cells were three enormous avian creatures Ruby could not identify. They stood as tall as a person and appeared as heavy muscular eagles with long necks and legs, covered in thick feathers and bearing horrific talons and razor-sharp beaks, returning the survivors’ studious gazes with cold black eyes. Their short but broad wings fluttered lightly at their sides, and their glossy black feathers contrasted starkly with the bright clinical laboratory.

“What are they? Demons?” Reeves warily asked.

“They’re not covered in blood and fire,” Rogers bluntly replied, “so I think not.”

No, they’re not demons, Ruby thought to herself. They don’t…feel demonic. Could they be-

“They’re chimeras.”

Everyone turned to the gunslinger.

“Chimeras?” Reeves asked incredulously. “Bioengineered recombinant life-forms?”

“Bah,” Rogers exclaimed. “I’ve served in the colonies for fifteen years and never once seen a chimera like that. Military biotech isn’t anywhere near this advanced.”

“Maybe not for others,” Romero affirmed as he closed in towards the glass, “but from what we’ve seen, the UAC’s on a whole ‘nother level.

These birds’ claws and talons have clearly been emphasized for use in combat, and their eyes have predatory stances. They don’t seem to have any additional weapon nacelles or armor, but I imagine the UAC was planning on demonizing them.”

The avian creature he stared at suddenly snapped at the glass, cracking the inner layer and prompting the mercenary to jump back in surprise. The chimera roared and leapt at the glass, revealing rows of small white teeth and prehensile claws on the wrists of its wings.

“Though I don’t imagine they needed it much.”

“We have to keep moving,” Ruby insisted. “Time is running out and we still have to go through Lazarus.”

The team picked up their weapons and turned to leave the containment lab. Ruby watched the first three leave when she noticed the quiet scientist remained in front of the glass, not having said a word and calmly studying one of the chimeras, whose predatory gaze appeared somewhat softer. Approaching the woman, Ruby watched as she reached out and placed her hand on the glass, upon which the creature reached forward and rested its head against. Gently placing her hand on the woman’s shoulder, Ruby met her eyes and wordlessly motioned towards the exit. The scientist took one last glance at the beast before withdrawing her hand and following the Elite Guard to rejoin the team.

The team walked quietly down the bioengineering deck, keeping their exhausted gazes down and unfocused. Ruby turned to face Romero at her side, and the two shared a knowing glance before Ruby spoke up.

“You know, those birds somewhat reminded me of Argenta Gryphons.”

“What now?” Reeves piqued.

“Gryphons. Tall flying half-eagle half-lion hybrids the Argenta people would ride into battle. Big beaks and bigger talons, though it’s written their songs would shape the very elements.”

“Who’s the Argenta?”

Ruby cracked a small mischievous grin within her helmet.

“An ancient medieval civilization the UAC discovered, the extraterrestrial human kingdom of Argent D’Nur.”

“You said human?” Romero prompted.

“Socially, culturally, biologically. Undeniably human.”

“Extraterrestrial?”

Ruby pondered for a brief moment before responding.

Should I tell them that their ruined colonies were found in Hell? No, I can’t do that.

“We’ve found their remains and relics deep within subterranean Martian caverns, sealed off far beneath the surface and untouched by time. What relation they had with us Earth humans, if any, is still unknown. But we do know that they faced the forces of Hell countless times over the span of centuries, and survived.”

Reeves exclaimed in elation.

“Ah, that’s amazing! So that’s the source of all the UAC’s tech! The dimensional gates, the blockade! It all makes sense now!”

“If they were so good against the demons,” interrupted a pained Rogers, “where are they now?”

Ruby glanced at the lieutenant, still cradling his injured hand after their encounter with the two-headed demon. She gulped. If she told the team what truly happened to either the Martians or Argenta, they might all lose hope of escaping, but she already passed the point of no return.

Crap, I did NOT think this through.

“When Mars lost its magnetic field, it lost its capacity to support life. No magnetic field means no atmosphere, no surface water, no stable climate. So they packed things and left. Evacuated the solar system to search for greener grass somewhere else. Their bodies were adapted for the Martian environment, so they couldn’t survive on Earth or our other planets. Plus, they didn’t quite have the technology for large-scale colonization.”

“But,” Reeves continued, “they survived, didn’t they? Against the demons. They fought against them and won.”

“They did,” Ruby said, digging herself deeper into her lie. “Hell sent its legions and they fought them off every time. They were good at it. Real good.

They got even better when the Doom Marine arrived.”

“…What?”

Ruby turned to look at the group. Their faces bore mixed expressions of surprise, amazement, or confusion, but she noticed they didn’t seem as exhausted or sullen as before.

“The Doom Marine,” Romero thought out loud, “met these extraterrestrial human people?”

“He did,” Ruby affirmed. “Landed on their world as an outlander. Climbed through their ranks, fought alongside them as brother-in-arms, became their mightiest champion against the demons.”

An enthusiastic Reeves continued.

“Can we meet him? If he’s here on Mars, could we find a way to join him? He could help us evacuate!”

Ruby’s eyebrows widened. She hadn’t considered the possibility, but now that the engineer suggested it, it didn’t seem an entirely unfavorable plan.

“We’re too pressed for time to find him before we reach the teleporter deck. We’ll have to get there and go through Lazarus by ourselves, but once we shut down the Refractor…We might be able to make contact and convince him to join forces.”

Reaching a sealed gate, she placed her palm on the access reader and stood back as the door slid up with a low hiss.

It might be best if we find him quickly. His skills might be great, but I don’t know how much longer even he can survive this planet on his own.

* * *

With a thunderous BOOM, the Slayer punched his way through two tons of compressed metal and concrete rubble, indignantly freeing himself from the train wreckage and stepping out into the demolished tram station of the Advanced Research Complex. He was none the worse for the wear and neither was the Sentry Bot, which had ingressed itself into the Praetor Suit’s systems and was now protected by it, though getting pinned in a train crash of his own doing was hardly an illustrious experience.

“Thank you for traveling with the UAC,” exclaimed a service kiosk at the foot of a staircase leading to the ARC lobby. “On a scale of one to ten, how enjoyable was your-?”

SMASH! An irate punch from the passing Slayer turned the kiosk into a shower of fine glass and metal shrapnel, and the Slayer climbed the staircase as the PA system announced the station schedule.

“Trams D193, D294, D304 are on time, and Tram D416 is arriving. Tram D519 is delayed, and passengers will be transferred to D520.”

“My office is on the second floor of this facility,” directed Hayden as a new objective marker appeared in the Slayer’s HUD, marking a location deeper and higher within the facility. “It’s time we met in person.”

He huffed and continued. Passing by heavy blood trails leading towards a pair of restrooms, the Slayer spotted several puddles of radioactive green nukage spilt on the floor before making a right corner into a baggage check area and coming across a trio of grotesquely mutated zombies. They were equipped with what seemed to be yellow radiation suits, but their bodies were horribly swollen and contorted, bearing tumors and ghastly extraneous limbs, and their clear helmets were full of swilling green fluid through which corroded disembodied skulls could barely be seen floating in.

The hurried Slayer equipped the .45 and shot at the nearest of the zombies, whose torn radsuit began leaking viciously steaming nukage onto the floor. With a final shot the zombie finally crumbled into a puddle of melting flesh and rancid matter. He switched to the combat shotgun and shot the second zombie in the chest, which instantly erupted in a cloud of caustic fluid that splashed the Slayer and ate away at his HEALTH. 60. 58. 56. The corrosion soon stopped, but he wasn’t expecting to take damage from the nukage splash. Contact with demonic essence must have amplified the fluid’s corrosive effects. Turning to the last radsuit zombie, he equipped the HAR and backed away before aiming at the demon’s nukage-filled helmet and firing. POWW! The zombie’s helmet likewise erupted in a burst of nukage, but this fluid appeared more subdued and milder, seemingly mundane and not having contacted demonic essence. The demon’s body took a few shambling steps before dropping to its knees and collapsing, and the Slayer noticed that the zombie’s radsuit remained intact and kept the contaminated fluids from spilling.

As he studied the liquefying corpses before him, the Slayer turned to a soft whirring noise approaching from a nearby security station. The gate opened to reveal a UAC supply drone carrying a package flying toward the Slayer, which stopped in front of him and held its cargo out towards him. The Slayer crudely snatched the package from the drone and opened it, ignoring the sentry bot’s indignant beeps to reveal a medikit and coiled bullet belt.

explained Hayden’s computer.

The FUCK is a Griefer?

The Slayer thought as he collected the med pack and munitions, turning and leaving the drone behind to pass through an open gate leading towards the ARC lobby. The walls on both sides of the corridor were lined with row after row of digital photographs and nameplates, and the Slayer was about to climb the staircase into the lobby when one of the names caught his eye. Doubling back, he walked towards the left wall and approached the photograph in curiosity.

SAMUEL HAYDEN – HEAD OF UAC MARS

FOUNDER’S MEDAL OF ACHIEVEMENT

He raised an eyebrow at the middle-aged man pictured on the display. Square face, stern but studious complexion, wide forehead and receding grey hairline. He knew that Hayden had once been human, but he didn’t know what he’d expected for the cyborg’s appearance while alive.

As he stared, a voice recording of the Spokeswoman played from the display.

“Director Samuel Hayden was born in the year 2016 to the affluent Hayden family,” explained the bothersome woman.

2016? Thought the Slayer. The cyborg was only twenty-three years younger than himself. At least chronologically.

“Since childhood he always showed prodigious leadership skills and scientific talent, but before he led the UAC, he was General Director of the Global Science Council. His influential position allowed him access to experimental life extension treatments in his fifties, and by the time the Argent Fracture was discovered, Doctor Hayden was forevermore middle-aged. He took leadership of the UAC soon after the discovery of the Fracture, and immediately put the Argent Tower into production.

Unfortunately, during construction of the Tower, prolonged exposure to unrefined Argent plasma deteriorated his condition and inflicted him with stage four brain cancer.”

Damn.

“Despite this, Samuel did not give up and dedicated his last months of life to finding and developing a radical solution to his mortal condition: cybernetic transference.”

He could have just found a cure for cancer.

“He used the power of Argent Energy to create a new, more powerful body for himself: A bionic automaton with plasmatronic processing core, powered entirely by Argent Energy. Samuel was still Samuel, but he became so much more. His personality, memories, reasoning and comprehension remain as they were in life, but his perception and calculation were supercharged beyond mortal constraints.

While it can be disconcerting to see Samuel now, remember that Samuel never gets sick, never tires, and is never afraid - and what do we have to thank for that? Argent Energy, of course!

When his decision to choose such a mammoth mechanical physique was questioned, Samuel responded ‘Dedicating the future of mankind is dangerous work. You never know when we may need a hero.’”

Pompous prick.

“Samuel Hayden has ‘existed’ for over a hundred and thirty years now, and it is presumed his lifespan will be indefinite.

It is said that his body has long since passed but his soul will live on forever.”

The Slayer frowned as he cursorily glanced at the other names and faces displayed on the wall.

BRYAN FLYNN – HEAD OF PRODUCT DEMONSTRATION

COLIN GELLER – HEAD OF ARCHITECTURE

JON LANE – HEAD OF WEAPONRY DIVISION

ALEX PALMA – HEAD OF DEMONIC RESEARCH

EMERSON TUNG – HEAD OF ARMOR DIVISION

The Slayer turned back towards the staircase when he spotted another name on the right wall.

OLIVIA PIERCE – HEAD OF LAZARUS DIVISION

THE ECHELON AWARD

The photograph showed a slim woman in her forties: short blonde hair, prim white suit, and a cold razorlike expression.

The Slayer nodded. Just as he’d expected.

Hayden’s transmission icon appeared on his HUD.

“Olivia was my life-long protégé. I sponsored her formal education, promoted her to the Global Science Council, gave her a small loan to jumpstart her private company. Her career blossomed, and I eventually offered her a personal laboratory in the UAC, which she initially refused, until I sent her images of the Helix Stone. She quickly accepted the offer and took leadership of the Lazarus Project, working directly under and answering only to me.”

The Slayer scowled. Why such the close relationship between the two?

“Soon after arriving, she was diagnosed with acute idiopathic scoliosis. Her options were being permanently wheelchair-bound or undergoing an experimental augmentation procedure.

She chose the surgery.

A titanium exoskeleton grafted to her spinal column lets her stand and walk, but it also causes excruciating pain. She refused any pain medication for fear it would cloud her mind. I fear that’s how they got to her.

Olivia was always deeply spiritual, more so after serving as missionary in South America during her youth.”

South America? Oh, psychedelics.

“I always hoped she could rise above their influence, I was wrong.

She proved to be weaker than I expected.”

If the Slayer didn’t know any better, he would have thought the cyborg sounded almost lamentful.

He mindlessly glanced at the other displays besides Pierce, which to his surprise showed the faces and names of only women.

JESSICA CUDOT – HEAD OF HUMAN RESOURCES

LIFETIME SERVICE AWARD

An elderly woman with a tired, almost familiar face and grey hair in a ponytail.

JOAN R. ██████ - HEAD OF AI RESEARCH

SERVICE AWARD WINNER

The Slayer stopped. The display showed a middle-aged woman with short tucked red hair and a warm expression, but her entire nameplate was cracked and glitching, and her last name wasn’t showing properly.

Eh.

He continued to the next display.

BRITTANY MILLER – HEAD OF MEDIA RELATIONS

ASCENDING ADVOCATE AWARD

It was the Spokeswoman. Young, prissy, and with that tell-tale smile of smug self-importance.

He was honestly expecting the holographic figure to simply be a digital avatar or perhaps an AI, but she seemed to be an actual person. Or at least based on one.

‘Brittany.’ Ugh.

JACKIE R. PEREZ – DIRECTOR OF EUGENIC-

DIRECTOR OF WHAT?

The Slayer did a double take before reading the display again

DIRECTOR OF EUGENICS RESEARCH

MEDAL OF DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

He paused. He supposed that with the UAC performing human experimentation, sacrifices, and demonization, that they also dealt in eugenics wasn’t surprising. Deplorable bastards.

The Slayer arrived at the last display.

ZOE THOMPSON – RESEARCH ASSISTANT

THE BLIND COUNCIL AWARD

He frowned in suspicion. The screen showed the picture of a young woman with a lab coat over her prim black-and-red suit. She held her long white hair in a ponytail, and wore a slim metallic device circling her head, perhaps some sort of neural amplifier.

But…there was something about her.

White hair on such a young person was always a red flag, but there was something undeniably malicious about her playful smile, and the pronged device atop her head almost resembled a pair of horns.

And... her eyes…

Were they red?

The Slayer hoped it was just a trick of the light or perhaps digital contact lenses.

He read the award title below her name again.

THE BLIND COUNCIL AWARD

The Blind Council. He remembered the Spokeswoman mentioning that back in the Foundry. ‘The Blind Council is always watching.’ He didn’t know yet what the Council was, but considering the UAC’s nefarious affairs, it was likely something to do with their occult division rather than their executive board of directors.

Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.

“The UAC, innovation you can trust,” hoarsely croaked a new robotic voice from within the lobby, prompting the Slayer to suddenly turn in its direction.

He raised the HAR and cautiously climbed the staircase into the ARC lobby, a wide reception deck with spacious windows overlooking the burning Mars nightscape, dimly lit in the glow of emergency lights and distant fires. The once luxurious deck was littered with ravaged lounge chairs, broken corpses, and twisted vines creeping out of pots that the Slayer assumed were once decorative plants. The walls and ceiling were lined with bullet holes and plasma scorch marks, discarded shells and rifles lying near their fallen wielders.

“A step above the rest,” continued the voice at the end of the lobby. “Building a better world.”

He spotted it. Directly in front, at the foot of the abandoned reception desk, was a twitching white sphere slightly larger than a human head. Approaching it, the Slayer found it to be a robot, resembling a sophisticated robotic gyroscope with numerous components attached to its hull. There was an unfamiliar circular logo on its surface besides a company name: Iris Solutions.

, explained Hayden’s talking computer.

This one is an OCULUS: Optic Cerebral Unit and Logic Utility System. Standard line of operator cores from Iris Solutions. They are commonplace throughout higher research divisions of the UAC due to their remarkable intelligence, but are known to exhibit unusual behavioral patterns, even without Argent exposure. I recommend caution.>

More computers. Great.

The Slayer warily tapped at the Oculus with his boot, which to his surprised rolled over to reveal a great robotic eye staring frenzily at him. The eye was a vivid electric blue and formed the center of the operator’s structure, occupying the greater part of its face.

“Welcome to the UAC Advanced Research Complex,” it spoke in a raspy metallic voice, opening and closing components of its chassis to resemble blinking. “Where we understand the sanctity of science and the science of sanctity.”

The robot’s eye suddenly blinked wide open and began scintillating, playing a holographic recording of two figures facing one another. The Slayer stepped back for a better look.

It was Hayden and Pierce.

“We are not advancing enough applicants and our faith is nothing without believers,” stated the hologram of the gaunt woman. “We cannot conduct our work without them.”

“And what kind of work is it that you’re doing, Olivia?” Replied the holographic cyborg. “I haven’t seen a report from your team in months, now have I? Can I trust that you can maintain your distance and control of the situation?”

Not even Hayden knew what Pierce had been doing. That couldn’t possibly be good.

Was the hologram turning yellow? The Slayer tightened his grip on his rifle.

“Of course. I believe in our work.” Pierce continued. “But…in order to make progress, we will have to make even greater sacrifices.”

The hologram was definitely yellow and beginning to glitch on the edges. The Slayer shifted his stance and readied himself for a confrontation.

“This isn’t progress, it’s madness.” The recording of Hayden exclaimed. “The board understa- HSSS peculiar nature of your work- no one IN THE DARK on what those- BSST SACRIFICE mean for mankind.

But your judgement is no longer considered sound-”

The hologram cut out as the Oculus’ bright yellow eye stared directly at the Slayer.

“The future is now.”

The operator shut its eye as its chassis began to incandesce, and the Slayer rushed out of the way before the machine erupted in a bright flash of Argent plasma.

FSSSSSST!!

Turning to a hissing sound on his left, the Slayer found a glowing line of molten metal appearing on the locked gate leading to a robotics division, as if something was cutting through it.

SLAM!!

The sliced section of door fell on the floor to reveal the bright glaring eye of another corrupted Oculus gliding through the opening, hovering with glowing levitation modules.

“Containment PROTOCOL currently in progre- live WEAPONS test to commen- NOW,” it spoke before channeling energy into its eye and releasing a searing laser beam. The Slayer rushed out of the way to line up a precision shot with the HAR and pulled the trigger. POWW! Direct hit, but a translucent overshield activated around the robot and blocked the shot. A frustrated Slayer switched to the Gauss Cannon and fired. PEWW!! The flechette penetrated through the shield, shattering the Oculus in a burst of glass and metal.

“Last REMINDER for HAPTIC workshop,” another Oculus droned through the opening as a swarm of black compact military drones poured into the lobby. “Obfuscation through MISINFORMATION seminar NEXT.”

The Slayer threw a grenade at the swarm and rushed through the right gate into the conference deck, a spacious multi-floor junction connecting multiple corridors and facility sectors. The grenade exploded and hit several drones with shrapnel, blowing off their outer shells but not killing them, which then flew into the deck and spread out across the numerous levels and walkways. He only counted a dozen, each about as fast as Lost Souls, but these were tougher and shot at him with machine guns, and they were coordinating to reduce his available cover.

“From simulation- to LIVE ranges, we test our WEAPONS- ensure maximum lethality and efficiency.”

Moving swiftly, the Slayer killed one Oculus with a Gauss Cannon shot and blew off the armor of another two assault drones in the blast, switching to the combat shotgun and killing these with a shrapnel shot. RATATATATAT!! 48 HEALTH. Charging a Blood Punch, he leapt across a balcony to the adjacent level and released it directly onto the culprit drone, destroying it and another one, but he only recovered ARMOR from meleeing robots and couldn’t find any discarded medkits in the area.

Med packs where ARE THE MED PACKS?!

Something whirred behind him and he heard the buzz of an Oculus preparing to shoot at him, but the sentry bot on his shoulder fired its laser and promptly dispatched the operator. He made a quick glance at the robot before advancing.

The remaining six drones and two Oculi veered away from him and attempting hiding behind the pillars connecting the multiple levels. He equipped the phase rifle and popped one Oculus with a plasmoid stream, stunning two assault drones with the burst and immediately destroying these with a rocket remote detonation.

“Activating- HSST live fire TARGET holograms.”

The last Oculus’ eyes scintillated and produced stationary blue holograms in the shape of demons throughout the exchange deck, formed like imps, soldiers, and pinkies. The Slayer inadvertently passed through one which harmlessly dissipated in a cloud of luminous particles, but the vanishing cloud momentarily obstructed his vision and blocked the sight of an assault drone flanking and shooting at him with machine gun fire. 39 HEALTH. He scowled and moved back in the direction of a sealed conference wing when he came across a shimmering particle field blocking the passage.

The Slayer frustratedly grabbed the Oculus with his free hand and threw it in the direction of the incandescent force field, watching it immediately crumble into black ash as it passed through the translucent barrier. Hearing the remaining two drones flank him from opposite directions, he spun and vaporized one with a precision bolt while the sentry bot finished the other with a laser pulse.

“Hrrr…”

Before the Slayer could take a moment to assess his surroundings, he heard a low growl from behind a closed gate leading to another deck. The gate slid open, and from the darkness he could see the bright robotic eye of an Oculus glaring at him, but this one was orange instead of yellow. Irked by the appearance of another corrupted operator, the Slayer tossed a grenade through the doorway and switched to the HAR for the killing shot, not about to waste any more time on demonic robots. To his surprise, the grenade came to a halt immediately below the bright orange eye, keenly caught between a wicked maw crackling with crimson electricity, and the eye maliciously squinted before rearing back and spitting the grenade back at the Slayer.

Reeling back from the shockwave of the returned grenade, enhanced by the demon’s essence, the Slayer recoiled as the demon revealed itself in the flickering facility lights. Round floating body, leathery red skin, compound jaws lined with tiny razor-like teeth, cybernetic steel-grey armor grafted to its flesh, and an Oculus core implanted in place of its single eyeball.

A cyber cacodemon.

The Slayer switched to the rocket launcher and fired a round at the demon, but it fired lateral thrusters from its implants and dodged the rocket, focusing energy within its maw and spitting a volley of red lightning balls at the Slayer. He jumped over the railing and narrowly avoided the crimson blasts exploding against the bloodstained surfaces. Cracking the floor below as he landed, the Slayer swerved around blasts of red fireballs as they burst on the ground around him, noticing the pools of crackling red energy they produced on impact. He switched to the HAR and lined a precision shot on the eye, but the bolt harmlessly fizzled against the translucent force field surrounding it.

Upon attack, the cyber caco’s eye suddenly shimmered and produced holographic images of demons throughout the chamber much like the Oculi had before, but these were yellow instead of blue, and when the Slayer passed through one he winced as the luminous particles seared like red-hot embers. 32 HEALTH. Furious at the hazards the cyber caco was filling up the conference deck with, the Slayer switched to the Gauss Cannon and fired shot after shot at the demon, tossing grenades left and right to clear out the obtrusive and hazardous yellow holograms. POWW! POWW! Two bolts struck the cyber caco’s armor and blasted parts of its plating off, faltering it with the strikes. He quickly equipped the pulse rifle and fired at its eye, overloading and bursting its protective particle field. Reeling back from the attack, the cyber caco scowled at the Slayer and released a beckoning howl, opening a series of summoning circles throughout the deck to release a wave of imps and soldiers.

Surprised at the sudden influx of demons, the Slayer cleared a path with the HAR while moving towards a lift pad formed from a malfunctioning gravity panel. Soaring high above the mob, he switched to the rocket launcher and rained fire from above, landing on an elevated walkway and racing around the chamber as he cut the horde down with the HAR, leaving only the cyber caco alive, which appeared up ahead. The Slayer focused energy into his fist for a Blood Punch but before he could release it, the demon suddenly dashed forward and delivered a devastating bite onto the Slayer, knocking him back and bringing his HEALTH down to 12. The demon mockingly guffawed in hoarse laughter, but the Slayer finished charging the Blood Punch and released it back on the monster, maiming its body with the shockwave and blasting off its entire armor with the single blow.

Lurching back with the strike, the cyber caco shook its body and furiously riled back to maul the Slayer again, when suddenly there was a squelching sound and the demon froze in stunned silence. The Slayer stared in confusion until a black robotic hand tore through the front of the demon’s face and ripped its robotic eye out from behind. The cacodemon immediately exploded in a burst of flesh and gore, splattering the bodies of Hayden and the Slayer in bright blue blood.

“The functions of both the eye and brain of a cyber cacodemon are performed by the implanted Oculus core,” declared the towering bloodstained cyborg to a stunned Slayer, holding the frantic robotic eyeball of the deceased demon in his hand. “Common cacodemons are able to survive the destruction of just their eyeballs, but their cyberized counterparts…”

Hayden held the screeching core towards the Slayer and crushed it, which immediately powered off and stopped moving.

“…cannot.”

The cyborg tossed the crumpled mass of glass and metal to the ground and raised his hand to his chest in introduction.

“I am Doctor Samuel Hayden. I have supplies in my office.

This way, please.”

* * *

“They had plasma lances, axes, swords, warhammers, even plasma whips!” Ruby enthusiastically described ancient Argenta weaponry to her attentive companions. “Those ones were quite rare: a flexible white-hot plasma stream inside a variable magnetic field. Tricky to produce and even harder to wield.”

“All of it infused with magic?” Reeves asked in wonder.

“All of it. Every Argenta citizen, from the peasantry to the monarchy, had some measure of magical ability. It constituted every part of their society, from combat to architecture to transportation to agriculture.

They didn’t even think of it as ‘magic,’ simply as another aspect of reality that formed an integral part of their world. No more ‘magical’ than the force of gravity or electromagnetism is to you and me.”

“That’s amazing…”

“How big did their guns get?” Romero asked.

“What?”

“You mentioned earlier their siege artillery. How big did those suckers get?”

“What kind of question is that?”

“What? It’s a legitimate question.”

Ruby scoffed and shook her head.

Men.

“Well, they had ion catapults, lava trebuchets. They had strange vehicles called Scorpion Tanks with accelerator cannons.

Though for biggest, that would probably be the Aether Bastion.”

“What’s that?”

“Basically a mobile fortress built around a hundred-meter long gun. It worked by siphoning power from the Aether to send a devastating shockwave across dimensions, sundering both physical and psychic reality.”

Kind of like the UAC’s Apsinthion Torpedoes, but…not as messy. If the Bastion was a precision missile strike, the Apsinthion system is a dirty bomb.

The gunslinger whistled.

“Whew, now that’s a big gun.”

“You should see the ones we’re working on here. The Argenta were masters at working plasma with magic, but their society wasn’t as advanced as you might imagine. Their mindset and culture seemed firmly entrenched in a medieval level of development.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Almost as if they’d been technologically uplifted by a more advanced race.

But we developed a weapon system based on the Aether Bastion. The original idea was for an orbital beam cannon, completed and now in use on the Martian Starport and Phobos, but the unrivaled efficiency of Argent made infantry applications possible.

The first lines were viable only on ATLAS platforms, but the latest iteration can be carried on military vehicles and is theoretically safe for human operation. Unlike previous versions which fired only plasma, this version fires dimensionally-resonant streams of Argent Energy, capable of bypassing any known demonic shielding or defense. The perfect fusion of technology and arcane understanding.

Only one prototype was finished, and it’s housed deep within the Advanced Research Complex. It was developed by Doctor Hayden himself, and it’s called the-”

Ruby felt a tug at her arm. It was the young scientist leaning close to her.

“It’s them,” she spoke softly so only the Elite Guard would hear. “The soldiers with voices but no faces.”

Ruby felt an indescribable chill shake her to the core as an unmistakable sensation set off her alarms. They were being followed.

But by who?

She could hear whispering. Whispering not just in her mind, but behind them. Behind and above them, closing in from every direction.

They were surrounded.

Reeves turned around in puzzlement, and Ruby immediately raised her finger to her lip. The engineer’s eyes widened in alarm but she stayed quiet. Tapping Rogers and Romero, Ruby directed them to watch the walkways above them. The two men immediately understood and raised their firearms in opposite directions as the sound of many footsteps echoed down the halls.

A dozen humanoid forms leapt over the rails and landed around them. Ruby avoided pulling the trigger at the last second as she beheld the figures’ raised postures and UAC armament, but her heart sank to her stomach when she saw their faces.

“Oh, no...” Mockingly growled the figure with electric blue eyes, leathery skin over its skull-like complexion, and a grotesque tongue coiled behind fanglike teeth, speaking in a gratingly harsh metallic voice. “Looks like they heard us coming.”

Ruby was horrified. The soldiers wore cybernetically-grafted suits of armor, bearing the UAC logo, over their skinless bodies, which Ruby could see grotesquely exposed between the armor plates. They appeared identical, with similar bulky implants and cybernetic right eyes, except for the first one, which had slimmer implants and two organic eyes. Some carried Vortex Rifles or Heavy Assault Rifles, while others carried grenade launchers. The leader bore a Static Rifle, a belt-holstered Smart Pistol, and a robotic arm coming over its shoulder mounted directly to its weapon. She recognized it as a powered stability rig for the rifle.

They almost look like Revenants, Ruby thought. But they’re normal-sized, and…they can speak? Are they demonic Pilots? No, demonic Pilots don’t speak. What the hell are they?

Are these…are these the Griefers?

“Just to be clear,” Romero started, “I’m not crazy, right? You can hear him talking.”

“Oh, they can hear me just fine, buddy. And we could hear you.

Strange that we couldn’t sense your life energies, but how nice of you to give away your position so clearly. My superiors will be so happy to receive such fine survivors.”

“Sir,” one of the subordinate Griefers pointed at Ruby. “They are already being transported by an Inquisitor.”

What did he say? Ruby wildly thought to herself. An Inquisitor? What…me?

“Oh,” the leader softly exclaimed while turning to the Elite Guard, addressing her in a more deferential tone. “I didn’t expect to find an Inquisitor here. Sorry if we startled you, commander. We didn’t mean to intrude upon your prizes.”

My prizes?

“I’m surprised at the number of your captives, though it might be hard delivering them all for processing by yourself.

Please, let us accompany you.”

Ruby said nothing. She kept her pulse rifle raised while taking deep, controlled breaths, struggling to keep her panic from overpowering her senses. The Griefers couldn’t possibly see her terrified expression or panicked breathing through her suit, but she wondered if they could sense her terror, as their mere presence seemed to fill her mind with numbing fear.

Come on, implant, come on. Don’t fail me now, don’t fail me now!

The expression on the leader Griefer’s face suddenly changed ever so slightly, and it raised its head in quiet realization.

“What is this? Your mind is still feebled by mortal thinking. The unholy light shines upon your soul, but has not consumed it.

You have not been enlightened.

…You are not an Inquisitor.”

Nobody said anything. Ruby kept aiming her rifle at the leader’s face while the demon stared wordlessly into her soul. The other soldiers quietly glanced from her to their leader, awaiting a command or for someone to make a move.

“Seize them.”

Before Ruby could pull the trigger, two Griefers had thrust her pulse rifle’s barrel upwards and wrenched the rifle from her grip, pulling her arms back and bringing her to her knees. The shocked screams behind indicated her teammates had been apprehended too, and she turned to find a Griefer holding a shouting Reeves while Rogers screamed on the ground, struggling in pain from the soldier stepping on his injured arm. Romero managed to shoot one Griefer with his Vortex Rifle and swung it like a bat to strike another, but he too was struck to the ground and pinned beneath the boots of three Griefers.

“Did you really think you could escape?” Sneered the leader at a restrained Ruby, uselessly struggling to free herself from her captors’ clutches. “You belong to Mars.

The UAC owns your soul.”

“Sir,” shouted the Griefer holding the young scientist. “This one is dying. Her aura is mortally dim.”

The leader turned to the other soldier and approached them, taking a closer look at the silent woman in its grip.

“She’s covered in blood,” noted the leader, “but not injured. She’s clearly alert, but I can’t sense any emotion or thought from her.”

The leader suddenly reached out and grabbed the scientist’s face, prompting Ruby to shout and quickly be struck by a Griefer rifle, painfully whipping her neck backwards. The other woman made no response.

“Her aura isn’t fading, it’s hidden.

She’s concealing her own presence.”

The Griefer let go of the young woman, leaving bright red marks where its hand had gripped her skin.

“Send word to the Inquisitors,” instructed the leader to another Griefer beside it. “Inform them we will deliver one live unconverted Elite Guard and one Type Omega survivor.”

“A Type Omega?!” Anxiously exclaimed one of the soldiers holding down Romero, licking its fangs in anticipation. “We should slit her throat and drink her blood. Her essence will give us strength!”

“We will not!” Replied the leader in anger. “She’s too valuable to be wasted on low-rank garbage like you! She’ll be delivered alive and unharmed to the Diabolist Lord himself!”

“The only garbage here is you!” The soldier let go of Romero and charged its leader with murderous fury, but the Griefer stepped aside and swung its arm at its opponent’s face, breaking its jaw off before raising its Static Rifle and firing a red energy beam at the soldier’s back. The left and right sides of the demon’s body crumbled into scorched soggy messes on the floor.

“Sir?” Indifferently asked another Griefer as it pulled Reeves’ hair to reveal her terrified face. “What do we do with the others?”

“Do what you want with them. But we must bring these two to the Hell Lords.”

“No!!” Romero shouted and pulled himself free from the demons’ clutches.

“Hiro, no!” Shouted Ruby, but the gunslinger had already drawn his katana and swung it to slice both of his captors in half. As the Griefers shouted in alarm, Rogers reached with his free hand and pulled his super shotgun to blast the soldier above him in the crotch. Ruby struggled with great ferocity, triggering her suit’s servos to full power as she slipped from her captors’ grips and almost freed herself, but a swift punch to the stomach knocked the wind out of her and another to head finally brought her down. Even through the helmet, her head was struck with blinding pain as her vision turned red, and deep down, Ruby horrifyingly realized her implant had just shorted out for good.

Her mind was immediately flooded with a ceaseless barrage of primal, nightmarish terror that seemed to pierce at her soul. Raucous voices shouted in her ears as searing runes danced on the corner of her vision. She caught sight of the Griefers’ faces, and with a mere glance her limbs went limp and numb at her sides, her mouth hanging open in a silent scream as she struggled to even breath with a diaphragm frozen in fear.

Not far away, the lieutenant’s shotgun was ripped from his hand, and the leader demon ducked under Romero’s sword and kicked him face-first into the wall, causing him to fall unconscious to the ground.

“Don’t hurt them!” Shouted the young scientist suddenly, but the leader soldier spun around and cruelly slapped her across the face, causing her head to twist painfully to the side and leaving an abrasion on her cheek.

Ruby’s heart dropped.

No.

NO!!

The pain and terror immediately evaporated from Ruby’s mind, replaced with a sensation she had no words to describe. Her skin became awash with boiling heat as a blazing feeling erupted in her heart, filling her entire body with scorching fire. Her lips peeled back in a grimace as her eyes widened in abject fury, every thought and hesitation replaced with a single word.

KILL.

With a deep breath she thrust herself off the ground throwing off the four Griefers holding her down, rushing forward to kick the demon leader away from the young woman. The demon growled in alarm and went flying down the corridor, but she had already spun around and seized Roger’s stolen shotgun to bash the nearest Griefer’s head apart with it. She aimed the weapon and blasted the two Griefers holding Rogers down to shreds, loading the other shell and swerving around incoming enemy fire before sending another one back to Hell. With the firearm empty, she swung it like a bat and crushed the skulls of one, two, three Griefers, keenly dodging their weapon fire as she closed in and killed them in a single blow, taking fierce revelry in the satisfying crunch of bone and splatter of blood.

In the turmoil, Rogers grabbed Romero’s rifle and fired a razor-thin ray of energy through the hearts of two Griefers as Romero painfully reached for his Power Colt and raised it at the demons. POWW! POWW! POWW! Three headless Griefer bodies fell to the ground.

Ruby saw the Griefer leader returning with Static Rifle in hand, and quick as lightning she drew her Vorpal sword and slashed it in front of her, the searing beam reflecting off the sword’s shielding and bisecting another Griefer across the torso.

“A Vorpal Sword!” Exclaimed the leader in horror as it beheld the crimson blade in Ruby’s hand. “You don’t deserve to hold a weapon like that!”

The only other Griefer left was the leader’s second-in-command, and as it aimed its phase rifle, Ruby pulled her EMG from her belt and aimed it at the demon, who immediately halted.

While the three were locked in a standoff, Ruby address the lieutenant.

“Rogers, get Hiro and the others out of here. I’m right behind you.”

“You’re crazy if you think you can escape, the Hell Lords have control of the entire planet!”

The lieutenant helped the gunslinger to his feet before leading Reeves and the young scientist down the hall.

“You’re heading…to Lazarus?!

No one is allowed within Lazarus! That is the Seamstress’s base of operations!

She assigned the Speaker himself on an invaluable task, critical for the completion of this invasion!”

Seamstress? Speaker? Who the hell is this guy talking about?!

“Then we’d better head down there,” replied Ruby, “and kill both of them. Where you can’t follow.”

The Griefer growled as it raised its Static Rifle.

“Oh, you fucking brass-balled BITCH-!”

“Leave us.”

The demon flinched for a second from Ruby’s soft but deathly tone, its eyes quivering for an unmistakable moment.

“You really think I would listen to a mere-!”

“LEAVE US.”

Ruby spoke once again, this time her words resonating with chilling authority as the two Griefers stepped back in evident fear.

“You won’t make it out alive,” the Griefer threatened through gritted fangs before breaking into a full-blown sprint, its subordinate close behind.

“You won’t make it out alive!!” The shout echoed down the hall as the demons fled into the facility, their footsteps striking loudly before fading away into silence.

Ruby let out the breath she was holding in, sighing deeply as she lowered her weapons.

That…worked? I didn’t think it would actually work. Why…why did…

With a horrifying realization, Ruby recognized the tone of voice she had commanded the demons with.

It was the same condemning tone that Pierce had used in that meeting.

* * *

Signaling towards the executive wing of the conference deck, the cyborg turned and calmly walked towards the open gate he’d arrived from. The Slayer turned to the sentry bot on his shoulder, which made only a small indecisive beep before lowering his weapon and following close behind. Near the door, the upper half of a zombie gurglingly groaned, its lower half pulverized after a glancing strike from 30 mm chaingun round. The zombie painstakingly pulled a pistol from its belt and raised it at Hayden, but before the Slayer could react, the cyborg held its hand out and blasted the zombie with an energy pulse without even looking, the scorched sidearm falling and clinking on the ground amid a cloud of swirling cinders.

“Save your ammunition,” coolly assured the cyborg in the same composed tone, and passing through the gate, the Slayer watched as the shimmering particle field softly vaporized the dripping demon blood and gore on Hayden’s chassis, leaving his body spotless clean.

What was the cyborg doing out in the Base? The Slayer wondered, and what other abilities was he hiding from him?

He mentioned his body was powered by Argent Energy, and considering the enormous technological advancements made by the UAC, the Slayer was confident the director had spared no expense or restraint when designing his new form, he thought as he passed through the gate into a luxurious corporate waiting area leading towards a sealed door at the end of the corridor. There were coffee tables, lounge chairs, windows with a view to the Martian landscape, and holographic television screens displaying transmissions from Earth.

“I think this is all being blown out of proportion,” spoke a smug Brittany Miller, the physical reference of the UAC Spokeswoman, from behind a UAC conference podium on the television screen. The Slayer stopped to listen. “Communication blackouts are nothing remarkable even for a state-of-the-art facility like the Mars Base. This incident could be nothing more than a misaligned satellite dish, or an intern used American rather than International units of measurement.”

The young woman took a moment to briefly giggle from her own supposed clever joke. The Slayer reached forward for the television remote lying atop a coffee table and used it to raise the screen’s volume. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hayden turn around and approach to join him beside the screen.

“Ha ha!” Miller continued. “Wouldn’t be the first time that happened!

Trust me, there is no crisis on Mars.”

The male news anchor she was talking to on the opposite screen quickly responded.

“I think we are all aware, Brittany, that technical difficulties are nothing new even for the UAC, but not even the most severe comm blackouts in recent memory have lasted upwards of six hours.

As of now, the main communication satellites to Mars are down, the emergency q-com channels are down, but most importantly, the Argent Distribution Matrix is down. You can understand why everyone from stockholders to company executives to government officials are nervous at this point. The wellspring and singular source of energy for the entire Solar System has gone dark for the first time in fifty years.

At this point, we have all sorts of theories and wild guesses flying around. There are valid concerns such as terrorism, sabotage, or perhaps a demented public demonstration from Mars Director Samuel Hayden…”

“Demented?” Asked the cyborg incredulously.

“…to the downright wild and ludicrous such as alien invasion or some cataclysmic transdimensional event. There are even those who say an ancient machine dragon buried beneath the surface of Mars for thousands of years has finally awoken.

With people becoming desperate and so much on the line, many are asking why the UAC is remaining silent on the matter.”

Dragon? The Slayer thought. There were no fucking dragons on Mars.

“Well, that’s just not true,” Miller politely insisted. “I’m here talking to you, aren’t I?

I can assure you the UAC does care, and we are doing everything within our power to get communications and Argent back online.

Rest assured, there is no crisis on Mars.”

What sort of fabricated nonsense was this interview?

The Slayer puzzlingly turned to Hayden for an explanation.

“We have thoughtfully planned media responses in the event of major catastrophes in our Earth or Mars installations,” clarified the cyborg, “and interviews with major news outlets are carefully scripted.

The public is told only what they need to know.”

The Slayer was astounded. They actually did that? The people of the twenty-second century were more deranged than he expected.

“Without accounting for unforeseen circumstances or human error.

‘Demented’ is an unfair description. I prefer to think of myself as unconventional.”

The news anchor continued.

“Fair enough. And what does the UAC have to say in regards to these new photos? We’re receiving unsettling reports, Brittany, that the ARES Array in orbit around Mars has been activated and is now moving into position.”

ARES? ARES. The Slayer had heard that acronym mentioned several times now. What the hell is ARES?

“The Allied Nations is mobilizing its fleet as we speak, Brittany, and they will no doubt be directed to Mars if communications don’t return.

The biggest question on our minds now is what will happen if the Array fires a single shot, so what is the UAC’s comment on the rapidly evolving situation on Mars, Brittany?”

The Spokeswoman clasped her hands, pursed her lips, and made the most sickeningly polite, self-righteous, and abjectly punchable expression the Slayer had ever seen.

“Jacob… I just think it’s important to remember that…

There is no crisis on Mars.”

What the fuck…

“All right, that’s about as much time as we have tonight for this interview. Thank you for joining us tonight, Brittany.”

“Thank you, Jacob. Always a pleasure to be here.”

The Spokeswoman’s transmission ended, leaving only the male anchor on-screen.

“Coming up, we have an-”

All of a sudden, the display changed to depict a baffling scene.

A dark room illuminated solely by dim red candles atop a sculpted steel platform, flickering lightly beside silver platters holding suspicious red masses. A neon pentagram glowed from the face of the table while a flaming inverted cross carved from brutal steel blazed ominously behind.

There was a figure standing between the table and cross, its features dimmed by the overwhelming brilliance of the burning cross, but the Slayer could see their outline. A slim and svelte woman, with flowing shoulder length hair, raising her arms in unholy adoration. The Slayer could tell from their outline that both arms were mechanical.

“ALL HAIL THE DARK LORD.”

The Slayer was too utterly dismayed to exhibit any more surprise.

As suddenly as it appeared, the transmission cut out and the screen returned to the scene of the news anchor.

In her last frame of transmission, the Slayer thought he could spot two long horns atop her head and a long thin arrow-tipped tail through the blaze, also mechanical.

“Sorry about that,” the news anchor casually remarked. “We seem to have lost our signal for a moment.

Coming up next, we have an exclusive interview with a Miss Zoe Thompson, more commonly known by her social handle ‘Zeta,’ acclaimed feminist and distinguished acolyte of the Final Days Church of Penance...”

Ohhh…

“…who will be joining us to share the Penitent Church’s thoughts regarding the ongoing events on Mars, and hopefully share her organizations’ prayers in the hope that all our friends and family on the Red Planet are safe and sound.”

A religious organization. Zoe Thompson. The UAC. A Blind Council.

He unconsciously brought his hand to his face and wiped his helmet in exasperation.

Now things were making sense.

The news channel then transitioned from the anchor to a text box reading MYSTERIOUS VOLCANIC ACTIVITY CONTINUES ON EUROPA; EXPERTS DUMBFOUNDED before finally fading to black.

Hayden flicked his hand at the holographic screen, which switched off with a soft click. The Slayer crossed his arms and inquisitively stared at Hayden.

“The UAC holds long-standing and mutually beneficial partnerships with a number of organizations!” Defended the cyborg with mild indignance. “Including the Final Days Church, who’ve been our closest partner since the Argent Fracture was first discovered. Among other arrangements, they provide us with occult expertise and personnel, while we allow the distribution of their media and assets on UAC channels!”

That much was painfully clear. The demon-worshipping division of the UAC might have started with Pierce and other seduced researchers, but the Slayer doubted even they had the manpower and metaphysical know-how to establish an occult operation of this magnitude by themselves.

But an independent religious establishment might. And with the Hell Gates being rediscovered and demons returning to Earth during the Second World War…that was two hundred years of research. Plenty of time for an institution dedicated to the demonic. And now they were working with the UAC.

“Please,” insisted Hayden, walking back to the nondescript gate at the end of the hallway, presumably his office. “There is much to do and not enough time.”

The Slayer scowled and sullenly followed after the cyborg. It seemed that whenever he thought things couldn’t get any worse, the universe always found a way to one-up him.

The gate slid open into a luxurious but wrecked corporate office. The spacious windows were shattered, glass shards and fine Martian dust littered on the floor. Decorative plants, wall fixtures, and books from low bookshelves were scattered throughout the whole space, including beside the central desk, two business chairs, and…three life-size Argenta effigies of two Night Sentinel warriors and the Doom Slayer standing between them. The sentry bot on his shoulder whistled in astonishment.

Oh fuck, he thought. The UAC found Argent D’Nur.

Oh, fuck.

“Ready when you are,” spoke Hayden close by. Turning to face him, the Slayer saw him standing atop a wide glowing ring positioned where he would normally sit, presumably a secret elevator to his personal bunker. The cyborg stood on one side of the ring, leaving the other side free for the Slayer to accompany him.

Too numb from recent revelations to even begin contemplating the logistics and implications of the UAC arriving on Argenta territories – recent Argenta territories, considering their relics of himself – the Slayer sighed and walked over to the glowing ring on which Hayden stood, clearing his mind of the countless questions running through it and just hoping to get things over with.

With a soft hiss, the circular segment spun around and sank through the floor, taking the Slayer and Hayden into the cyborg’s underground bunker.

* * *

“They weren’t chasing you,” observed Colonel Johnson. “They were all headed for that building.”

I peered over the edge of the balcony at the ghostly multitude below, unhurriedly gathering into a tall ornate building that almost resembled a cathedral.

“What the hell are they doing?”

“…They’re coming in at random, not organized into any structure or procession.

This might be a stretch, but they remind me of people going into Sunday Mass. Casual but still attending some important ceremony.”

I watched them soundlessly passing through the tall gates leading into darkness within the cathedral, and shuddered.

“Don’t think I wanna know what kind of Mass they celebrate in there.”

“Mmm.

Hey, this is good!”

“What’s good?”

“With all the townsfolk headed to church, you’re free to take a leisurely Sunday stroll around town.”

“And head to the gateway station without any trouble,” I finished.

“Affirmative!”

I looked away from the edge and turned to the dreary corridors beside me, dim red passageways leading into the building I had ran into in my hurry to escape.

“This town gives me the creeps, Colonel. I don't like this one bit.”

A white dot appeared on my motion tracker, and I quickly spun around in its direction.

“Wait, someone’s coming.”

The white dot was one corner away from coming into view. I steadied myself, took a deep breath and prepared to open fire…

…at the ghostly form of Vesper as she stepped onto the balcony, carrying what appeared like a silver domed platter in her hands.

“Oh,” I said. “It’s you.”

Standing down, I switched off my guns and ended the spell, bringing my arms down to the side. Vesper made no reaction, continuing to stare silently at me.

“…Um, I don’t really know what to say. I don’t know if you can even understand me. But, it’s nice to meet someone that’s not trying to take a bite out of me. Ever since I woke up, seems that’s all everyone’s been trying to do. Bet I’m just that appetizing, no?”

“Are you even listening to yourself?”

“I guess I’m not good with jokes,” I continued. “I’m not good with words, either.

What I’m trying to say is…”

Before I could finish my thought, Vesper calmly lowered to the floor and placed the platter down on the ground in front of me, before standing up just as softly and leaving without another word.

“Huh. She has your manners.”

“Why did she leave?”

“Better question: what did she leave?”

I looked down at the silver tray before me, which definitely appeared to be some sort of platter.

But why did Vesper leave it to me?

What’s in it?

“Are you going to open it?”

“Do you think I should?”

“Ugh. Even if I told you not to, your stubborn ass would still do it. Your call, soldier.

But whatever you choose, you better be ready for whatever happens next.”

Colonel Johnson was right. While the most evident danger was whatever lied beneath the dome, I didn’t know what would happen if I came across Vesper again after refusing her offering.

“If she wanted to hurt me, wouldn’t she have already done it?”

“Don’t be too sure, John. Folks in Hell don’t reason the same way we do.”

“Hmm. I’m opening it.”

“Be careful.”

Bringing my guns back up, I drew and activated my Bronze Spear, stepping back as I brought the point closer to the mysterious silver offering.

“Uhhhhh…” I lowly winced in anticipation, bringing the point under the silver lid before breathing in and pushing it off.

Nothing happened.

There was something in the center of the platter, a dark and rough object a bit smaller than my hand, which appeared slightly translucent with a deep red tinge.

I was relieved it wasn’t an organ or some horrible beast, but my relief quickly turned to disappointment.

“That’s it? All that just for a stone?”

“…No. Not just a stone…

A Bloodstone!” The Colonel shouted with elation.

“Bloodstone?”

“John, this is great! You have no idea how great this is!”

“WHAT? What’s so special about-!”

“Pick it up! Pick it up!”

Annoyed, I bent over and carefully grabbed the rough crimson gem from the platter. It cast no light, but felt warm to the touch and vaguely energized.

“Oh, yeah. It’s the real deal. Now the trick is just to install it.”

“…AND WHERE EXACTLY ARE WE INSTALLING THIS IN ME?”

“KEEP BEING A SMART-ASS AND I’LL STICK IT WHERE THE SUN DON’T SHINE!

Here. Make yourself useful and hold it up to your chest.”

Confused, I did as I was told and held the Bloodstone in front of my chest.

“All right, don’t get scared. I’m going to open your chassis, and I’m going to install the Stone inside your chest.”

“…Okay, but what will that do?”

“Just trust me.”

I nervously exhaled.

“All right. Go ahead.”

Bracing myself, I looked down at myself as I heard a soft hiss and my chestpiece slowly unfolded, the exterior plates coming apart to reveal my interior components.

“Ugh.”

I couldn’t see inside myself. My vision started to glitch as I tried to look into myself, only vaguely making out a bright central core through the static.

“Eyes up, soldier! You are critically exposed right now!

Keep your guard up in case you have company!”

I looked up at the corridors beside me to watch for movement, but still managed to see the Bloodstone from the edge of my vision. As I watched, the Stone came free from my hand and floated weightlessly in front of my chest, washing the room in strange figures as it refracted the light from my core. Then, it shattered.

“Huh?”

“Relax.”

The Stone came apart into three components of equal size, arranged in the shape of an inverted triangle that placed themselves within my chest, presumably beside the central core. There was a clear psheww, and a faint humming sound as the stones channeled energy. With another hiss, my chest plates folded back shut, and my chassis was once again solid.

“Okay, you installed the Bloodstone. But what’s this upgrade do?”

“How do you feel?”

“Hmm. I feel somehow…freer. With less restraints. More potential.”

“Check your Argent pools.”

I checked the HUD display for my mana reserves. The vertical green bar remained there, but there was now a thin white line bisecting it into a top and bottom half.

“What, what’s that line mean?”

“It means your Argent Energy pools have been doubled.

Bloodstone is an exceedingly rare and incredibly efficient conductor of Argent.

You can now store twice as much mana as before.”

I was at a loss for words.

“Can I?”

“Of course. And all thanks to your new lady friend.”

I thought back to the mysterious Vesper.

Who is she, and why this gesture to a complete stranger?

“Guess you’re not that unappetizing after all.”

* * *

Duuun dun. Dun dun duuun dun.

Duuun dun. Dun dun duuun dun.

The Slayer stood quietly beside Hayden in the lift, listening to the faint mechanical buzzing of the elevator as it plunged into unknown depths, and to the soft tones produced by his Suit’s Resonators.

Duuun dun. Dun dun duuun dun.

Hayden remained silent as well, standing up straight with arms behind his back, and like the Slayer, seemed to be staring emptily at the sealed doors in front of the two, no doubt also waiting for the elevator to land.

Duuun dun. Dun dun duuun dun.

“The Praetor Suit,” started Hayden. “It is from Argent D’Nur, is it not?”

The Slayer stared quietly at the wall for a moment before softly bobbing his head side to side in a ‘more or less’ gesture. The Praetor Suit’s history went deeper than that.

“I guessed as much. I…studied the Praetor Suit while you slept. Despite my commitment to the practical applications of science, I still hold a deep respect for pure learning.

Knowledge for knowledge’s sake.

Even just studying the Argenta’s relics was a deeply humbling experience. They had accomplished feats I never would have thought possible, with a society we might label as medieval, but the Praetor Suit is…something else entirely.”

The Slayer indifferently nodded, still not meeting Hayden’s eyes.

“You don’t talk much, do you?”

The Slayer scowled and crossed his arms.

“If I may ask, is there a reason for that? A communication disorder?”

…I CURSE YOU, AND I DAMN YOU…

…FOR YOUR CRIMES, SLAYER, YOU SHALL SUFFER…

…IN SILENCE…

The Slayer snapped the cyborg a reproachful glare.

“Apologies,” replied Hayden. “I did not mean to intrude.”

The Slayer turned away from Hayden and stared sourly at the wall.

Just how fucking deep was this bastard’s bunker?

“Though I understand. I know what it’s like to lose something dear in the pursuit of a greater truth.”

The cyborg almost sounded like he was talking to himself, and out of the corner of his eye, the Slayer saw him clasp his robotic hands.

“I knew about World War Two. About the Crusade artifacts, the Germans’ research, and the sealed Hellgates.

And I knew about the The Fall. That fateful day, in 1984, when the bombs fell, and our world knew oblivion.”

The Slayer knew of those events. They were circumstances close and personal to him, and he didn’t need Hayden bringing them up.

“It had been so long, but the demons had found Earth once more. They were barely thwarted twice, but so many lives were lost, and I knew it was only a matter of time before they returned once more.

The day we discovered Argent D’Nur was the most exultant and most sorrowful day of my life. An entire people, a human people, that fought and triumphed for so long against Hell, yet too fell in the end.

I said that wouldn’t happen to Earth. We would learn from the Sentinels’ triumphs and defeats, and we would fend off the Dark Realm. I devoted myself to unraveling the secrets of Argent, to learn and harness it where the Argenta could not.

And it was my zealotry that was my undoing. Though I guess, not just mine.”

The Slayer made no response, but he pondered over Hayden’s words. When hearing his robotic voice and seeing his imposing form, it was easy to forget that the cyborg was once a man of flesh and blood. Just as he himself had been a different man in another life, likewise changed by his journey and choices.

“If you must know,” Hayden spoke softly, “we didn’t loot those statues from Argenta tombs. They were decorations aboard Sentinel starships we found lost in Hell, still preserved by the Argenta’s magic.”

The Slayer knew. The two warrior statues bore the design of common Argenta architecture, and his likeness had been frequently used with reverence by the Sentinels, as a symbol of strength and worship of the powers that graced their people.

But that had been a long time ago. So much had changed since then.

“The people of Argent D’Nur were a remarkable nation. Proud, resilient, loyal. Strong in both body and soul, and wise beyond their years.

To know their light has faded from the universe…is the gravest of tragedies.”

More than the cyborg would ever know, but he accepted Hayden’s condolences.

DING! The elevator stopped and the doors slid open into Hayden’s bunker. The cyborg and Slayer stepped forth into a spacious multi-level chamber covered wall-to-wall with screens and terminals of every shape and size. Every screen showed different displays, all of them changing and updating simultaneously, and the Slayer guessed Hayden was controlling them all cyberpathically.

Hayden led the Slayer to a series of tables loaded with all sorts of supplies, ranging from weapons to munitions to med packs and armor plating. There were firearms, grenades, tactical knives and even unusual high-tech swords that seemed to have togglable arc- or plasma-based edges. Small round mines that the Slayer identified as gravity traps. There were even suits of next-generation combat armor of different makes and styles, apparently designed for orbital warfare or atmospheric entry. High-Altitude Low Orbit, as read on the tables. And not bearing small resemblance to the Praetor Suit, the Slayer noticed with mild annoyance, but the sentry bot on his shoulder chirped gleefully.

“Take whatever supplies you need,” gestured Hayden as he continued to a nearby holodesk, leaving the Slayer to his own devices at the veritable armory. Not that he needed the cyborg’s permission. The sentry bot leapt off his shoulder onto the table, and the Slayer immediately set about restocking his HEALTH, ARMOR, and munitions. Hayden began typing at the holodesk.

“I trust you recognize what this is.”

The Slayer turned towards the image projected from Hayden’s desk, a hologram of a short lobster-like creature with raised torso, two sets of prehensile arms, and a small lowered head with multiple eyes and sensory antennae.

How could he forget? The creature was of the dominant intelligent species that once ruled the Red Planet, the little green men of Mars. He nodded as he tapped the download prompt on a map station to complete his automap.

“We call them the Praeleanthor.

It was their relics that led to the creation of teleportation, gravity control, and portal tech a hundred years ago, and to the Hellgates that brought about the Phobos Event.”

The Slayer examined a revolver, a carbine, and a semiautomatic marksman rifle before coming across an unusual weapon, an energy rifle that seemed to charge with user movement. A ‘Static Rifle,’ as read on its surface. Intriguing, though its semiautomatic nature undermined its utility. He ignored several grenade launchers that fired various types of ordance: A grey Skulltag launcher that fired frag and smoke grenades, a green Super launcher that fired magnetic grenades and proximity mines, and a silver Vinson launcher that fired…huh, four-round bursts of plasma grenades. That was new. There was even a rocket launcher that fired energy-propelled plasma grenades, faster and more ammo-efficient than regular rockets. Neat, but too weak for his liking.

“Lazarus is not just a laboratory.

It is a subterranean installation built into existing Praeleanthor caverns, reaching two kilometers in depth and five kilometers in diameter, home to the most experimental and classified UAC projects.

Most of the subterranean caverns are isolated facilities and are not connected via tunnels, accessible only via secure teleportation. One of our and the Praeleanthor’s security measures.”

The Slayer grabbed another peculiar firearm, a sleek blue-grey rifle with three metallic prongs at the end and a plasma pack in its stock. He primed the rifle and electricity sparked from the barrel electrodes. An electric discharge gun! While he had a proclivity for old-fashioned lead, he found incomparable satisfaction in weapons that made demons POP.

LIGHTNING GUN ACQUIRED

MUNITION TYPE – PLASMA CELLS

PRIMARY FIRE – LINEAR AOE HITSTUN BEAM

SECONDARY FIRE – HARDLOCK MICROWAVE BEAM; RELEASES CONCUSSIVE BLAST ON DEATH

NOTE: WEAPON DELIVERS SUSTAINED STREAM OF ARGENT PLASMA; POSES RISK OF SELF-DAMAGE IF FIRED AT CLOSE RANGE

“The crown jewel of Lazarus – and our most closely guarded asset – is a large stone artifact we found near the Fracture shortly after its appearance in 2095.

We call it the Helix Stone.”

A revolving projection of the same enigmatic stone relic appeared above the holodesk, and the Slayer moved in for a closer look. Behind him, the sentry bot waddled over to a heavy assault rifle, grabbed the firearm with its front legs, and set to work.

“It is the foundation of all of our work and understanding of their world. Olivia was obsessed with it.”

The Slayer planted his hands on the desk as he closely studied the hologram.

Its design bore no resemblance to any ancient Martian culture he was familiar with, and its inscriptions were written in lowly demonic glyphs. It was certainly Hellish in origin.

Beyond that, its nature was inscrutable. The Stone appeared carved from fellrock, a medium that was somewhat uncommon in the Dark Realm but not enough for the Slayer to trace its source. And that the inscriptions were in a lowly demonic language meant that any infernal civilization might use such a dialect. The Carnifex, the Scrag, the Drow, the Illithids…The list was endless.

“From it we learned how to manipulate Hell’s energy, bend it to our will, take advantage of their resources.

It also led us to you.”

The only useful thing the Slayer could glean from the hologram was the intent with which the Stone was created. What few glyphs he could decipher from the image were instructions on the collection, refinement, and applications of Argent, from energy to medicine to interdimensional travel to weapons.

And in the center of it all, the Slayer’s Mark, accompanied with a warning of the terrible power contained within a stone sarcophagus in the Black Pyramid of the Kadingir Sanctum. A warning that said calamity would befall any and all who wielded Argent, be they mortal or immortal, and that such terrible power must never be released.

There was no doubt. Someone built and sent this Helix Stone to Mars to be found by the UAC. To enable their corruption by Argent, open the gates that would unleash Hell on Earth, but above all, so they’d never release the one being that could save them.

“The Helix Stone showed us how to harness the power of The Well. I believe it will show you how to shut it down.”

Hayden pressed a button and turned off the Stone hologram before turning to a large looming display of the ruptured Tower, solemnly standing before that blazing spear of damnation.

“The loss of Argent is a tragedy. The loss of the Tower is…devastating. But, our priority now is to close the portal.”

With HEALTH, ARMOR, and munitions full, and with a new weapon in storage, the Slayer walked over to a table full of secondary combat equipment to search for anything of use. Echo drones? Already had one. Aim-Assist weapon rig? What was he, a fucking jagoff? ActiVision sonar goggles? Garbage.

“For years, Olivia has kept The Helix in her private office in the Lazarus Labs which is only accessible from a secure teleporter deck in the Executive Research Division across the chasm. From there, you will require on-site alpha-level clearance to override the lockdown and take the teleporter to Lazarus.”

On-site clearance? What did the cyborg mean? The Slayer thought as he grabbed and crushed an Argent Cell from the desk, absorbing the energy surge and briefly staring at the Suit’s diagnostic map before selecting a damaged subsystem to repair.

VANGUARD BRACER UPGRADED

KINETIC REFLEX RESTORED

PARRIED BLOWS FROM MEDIUM-TIER ENEMIES AND HIGHER WILL CHARGE ONE BLOOD PUNCH

“I cannot come with you. There is much happening on the surface and I must attend to dire matters. Plus, you might appreciate me being out of your way.

However, I have devised a solution to get you into Lazarus.”

Hayden input a command sequence into the panel, and the Slayer heard robotic whirring start to buzz behind the cyborg. Hayden stepped aside and revealed a humanoid robot, roughly the Slayer’s height, walking stiffly towards them. The robot was a clean clinical white, though to call it advanced would have been a mistake. Its body segments were flat and slightly curved as though it was meant to fold into itself for storage. Its joints were simplistic ball-and-socket, and its “head” was nothing more than a blank rectangle of white glass. There was a large O6 on the robot’s shoulder and a “SPENC_R” in small font on its chest beneath the UAC logo. It was covered in dust and had a general atmosphere of obsolescence about it.

It stopped in front of the Slayer. Then it spoke.

“Hello Friend!” It said in synthetic, facsimile welcoming tone while waving stiffly at the Slayer. “My Name Is Spencer! Nice To Meet You!”

The robot then held its hand out at the Slayer as if to shake his. The Slayer looked at the hand and then at Hayden, too stunned to even be angry.

Was this a joke?

“I apologize,” Hayden confessed in a sincere tone. “Spencer is…an antiquity. He is the last of the UAC Service Droids, which haven’t seen use since we signed the OCULUS partnership with Iris. I’m guessing some researchers found him and secretly altered his programming, perhaps as a joke.

He has no tactical capacities and can only be given simple instructions, but our military droids were not designed to interface with our security systems, and operators are presently unreliable for such a delicate mission.

The Advanced Research Complex is equipped with a large-scale space-time barrier grid. That is how we are currently preventing unauthorized teleportation, but that field must be deactivated if we are to warp Spencer in. As soon as that happens, every demon in this sector will converge on this facility. Perhaps to claim the Complex for themselves, perhaps to destroy it and keep you from reaching Lazarus. Whatever they want, they must not achieve it.

Spencer is the only way I can configure the teleporter from here to take you down. You must neutralize all demonic presence within the Complex, infiltrate the Weapons Division, and bring the defense system into maximum alert mode before I can send him in.”

What sort of contrived bullshit was this?! Screamed the Slayer internally. Was he playing tower defense now?! Laying down a red carpet for an autistic fucking robot?!

“The times are desperate, Slayer. This calls for desperate measures.

As of now, three Praeleanthor war constructs that were awaiting relocation into Lazarus storage have already been resurrected. Code named: Triceratoptrons.”

‘Tricerato-?’ Was it the fucking Rustmongers?

Hayden brought up a new display from deeper within the Advanced Research Complex. The image was grainy, but he could recognize those ancient Martian war machines burrowing through the topsoil anywhere.

Yup. The ffffucking Rustmongers.

“They are not the first piece of technology the demons have compromised, and they will not be the last.

Like the legions outside the perimeter, they are trying to breach into the Executive Research Division, and I’m guessing the demon lords won’t be far behind.

There is one weapon prototype that we’ve been developing for many years now, one with enough power to raze legions and even kill a demon lord.”

…Really?

“If they take control of that prototype, this invasion is all but complete.

But if YOU managed to come into possession of it…heh heh heh.

I’m certain you’d find it most useful against the horde.”

The Slayer felt his irritation evaporating into intrigue.

Hayden then reached for his waist and pulled out a small round device before presenting it to the Slayer.

“This is a Hack Module. Few were ever produced and fewer still remain.

The only reason I left this bunker at all was to acquire this piece of hardware from the Quantum Division, a difficult decision with critical repercussions.”

Hayden turned to the feed of the ancient Martian Rustmongers taking fire from the Complex’s automated defenses. Tough and barbaric machines, their shielding shrugged off all but the toughest of blasts and their hides sliced through bedrock like butter. Confronting them was something the Slayer was not looking forward to.

“Once synchronized with the Praetor Suit, this Module will be powerful enough to override the lockdown and deactivate the barrier field. To bring the Complex into full combat status, allow you access to Lazarus, even unlock the weapon prototype, if you wish.”

The cyborg held the device out to the Slayer, who reached out and took it.

HACK MODULE ACQUIRED

SECURE DEFENSES WILL BE DECRYPTED

UNCORRUPTED ASSETS WILL BE REINFORCED

"Wee-woo."

The sentry bot chirped from the table, and turning to face it the Slayer found a miniature machine gun mounted on the robot’s side, seemingly built from the heavy assault rifle on the weapon desk. The robot leapt onto the Slayer’s shoulder and secured itself to his Praetor Suit.

SENTRY ATTACHMENT ACQUIRED – MACHINE GUN

STRONG AUTOMATIC FIRE CONSUMES BULLET AMMO

“Self-improvement software,” explained the cyborg. “The Sentries were designed to learn from their users and adapt to better aid them in battle.

I would advise you to make use of your allies, Slayer. You will need all the help you can get.”

Whatever. As long as they got out of his way afterwards.

“Do not concern yourself with ‘guarding’ the Complex. While you remain active, the demons will focus on you, and the automated defenses will handle the rest. VEGA and I will direct all remaining combat assets into the Complex once the field is down to aid in this invasion.

However, once the barrier is deactivated, it is imperative that you do not fall. If you do, the firewall will be overwhelmed, and the planet will surely be lost.

Much depends on the success of this mission, Slayer. We will assist you any way we can.

Good luck.”

The Slayer turned to leave, putting behind Hayden and his antiquated robot, its hand still outstretched in anticipation of his own.

“And Slayer?”

What now?!

“All remaining UAC assets on Mars are considered lost. The work contained within the Executive Research Division must not be acquired by the demons.

I trust you will see to it that any remaining sensitive projects are disposed of. The Hack Module can help you with that as well.

Otherwise…take care not to demolish the teleporter station. It is your only entrance to Lazarus.”

The Slayer scowled. He walked over to the surface elevator and pressed the door panel, immediately recoiling in pain as the Praetor Suit became electrified in a forced reformatting.

“Do not be alarmed by the system update – it is a prototype of our interdimensional tether. A means for me to pull you back from Hell.”

What?! Hayden dared tamper with the Praetor Suit?!

“I’m sorry for the…jolt,” he added sheepishly, “but I didn’t think you’d allow its installation voluntarily.”

Oh, he’d HAD it with the fucking cyborg!

The Slayer turned and charged at Hayden with fire in his eyes.

TETHER ACTIVATION

The cyborg made no visible reaction, but there was a bright flash of light and the Slayer was instantly warped out of the dim bunker, teleporting to a dirty industrial facility filled with crates and other equipment. Briefly staring around in confusion, the Slayer checked his automap and found himself on the ground floor of the Advanced Research Complex, past the corporate conference deck and near the chasm leading to the Executive Research Division.

‘Sorry for the jolt,’ his chiseled ass.

* * *

Ruby carried Romero on one shoulder as the group weakly passed through the empty corridors of Helix. The gunslinger didn’t appear gravely injured but she saw the way he hit his head on the wall. Behind them, Reeves and Rogers cradled their injured arms, and the scientist quietly trailed the others.

It was her, Ruby thought. She was concealing her own presence in the lab, and she must have been doing the same for us. The demons haven’t found us yet because of her.

But then, just how many demons are there in the Base? She was able to hide us from the little ones, but can she do the same with the big ones?

What if something happens to her?

“I…ugh, I saw your moves back there. Not bad, Taylor.”

Romero weakly spoke between painful coughs, and Ruby gently looked at the injured mercenary on her shoulder.

“Oh, you saw that?

I don’t know what came over me. I just acted out of impulse.”

“And it was amazing. I don’t think I’ve seen action like that since…oof, that bar fight in a seedy Mexican pub back in ’37.”

Ruby exhaled amusingly.

“Are all the veterans here like you?” Romero continued. “You got some pretty wild moves for an Elite Guard.”

“Well, keep acting smart,” she jokingly said, “and I’ll have to reprimand you for insubordination.”

“I love the kind of woman that can kick my ass.”

Ruby quietly giggled, shifting Romero on her shoulder and causing the mercenary to groan in pain.

“Hiro!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve…been through worse than this. It’s just a cracked rib or two, I’ll be fine.”

Ruby stared at the bloodied man as they slowly passed by a pair of restrooms.

“Actually, I do need a moment.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I have to go where the king goes alone,” Romero remarked while pointing at the men’s room.

“…I’ll come with.”

“No no, please. I still have my dignity,” the gunslinger joked while lifting his arm from Ruby’s shoulder and walking painfully into the room.

“Agent,” Reeves uttered from behind while clutching her arm. “I need a moment too.”

“Of course.”

The engineer walked off and disappeared into the other room. Behind her, Rogers sighed and threw down his phase rifle before leaning on the wall and sliding tiredly to the floor. Looking for the scientist, Ruby found her sitting solemnly on a nearby desk. With nothing else to do, Ruby walked up to the young woman and sat down beside her.

For a moment, neither of the two said anything. The woman made no reaction to the Elite Guard sitting beside her.

Then, Ruby spoke.

“How did you do that? Conceal your presence?”

“…I don’t know. I just wanted to hide. I didn’t want to be found. I hid myself, and no one ever came.

No one but you.”

“Demons always manage to hunt people down. Cut off their senses, their nerves even, and they’ll still track you down.

But you were there by yourself that whole time, and they didn’t find you. I think that’s pretty impressive.”

“Is it?” There was no sarcasm or mockery in the woman’s voice. Ruby heard nothing but honesty in her question.

“Yes. It is.”

The woman made no response, and Ruby looked away.

If the invasion had never happened, would we have ever met? If we did, and she’d been discovered as a Type Omega, would I have been sent to bring her to Lazarus? Like I did to all the others?

That’s basically what I’m doing now, no?

“Do you regret it?”

“What?”

“Do you regret it, having led those people to their deaths?”

Ruby was too tired to be cut by the woman’s words, and was barely even surprised.

“Can you read my thoughts too?”

“Not reading, more like catching. Feelings, impressions, sensations diffusing from you. Like embers from a flame.”

Ruby sighed.

“Yeah,” she finally said.

“Why’d you do it?” Sincere curiosity. The scientist asked without accusation in her voice, still staring at the floor.

The briefest thought about being a soldier and following orders passed through Ruby’s mind, but the idea quickly crumbled as she realized how pathetic it sounded.

“We were told that Type Omegas were dangerous. With their terrible powers and the omnipresent threat of demonic breaches, the consequences of one realizing their potential could be devastating.

They’d tear the Base apart just to kill the demons.”

“…I see.”

“…You probably think I’m a terrible person.”

“I don’t.”

Ruby turned to the scientist in mild surprise.

“Really?”

“That’s not my judgement to make.”

Ruby frowned in confusion at the young scientist. What does that even mean? She asked herself before shockingly realizing the woman could sense her thoughts.

“I know people,” the woman answered, pulling her knees up to her chest. “I know how they are.

People are flawed, and complicated. They make mistakes, and they do evil things. Even with good intentions.

At least you’ve realized that of yourself. And you’re trying to change it.”

Ruby looked back down at her hands and briefly pondered what to say next.

Paved with good intentions, she recalled.

“My neural implant’s completely fried now.

Any resistance I might have had against the demons’ influence is gone now. Without it, my combat training is useless, and I may not be able to resist becoming demonic myself.”

“And what will you do?”

“…I don’t know.

I really don’t know.”

Ruby’s right forearm still ached painfully, and she gripped it without thinking.

“What’s wrong with your arm?” Asked the young woman, turning in Ruby’s direction.

Ruby thought back to the gangrene spreading across her hand and the fingernail she’d lost.

“It’s just a rash, probably from exposure to the demons. It’s nothing.”

But the scientist had already moved closer and grabbed Ruby’s hand, gently and skillfully unclasping the armored gauntlet and pulling the armpiece off, much to Ruby’s surprise.

The corruption had already taken over Ruby’s entire right hand and was spreading below her wrist. The dry and cracked skin had become black and scaly, faintly red and incandescent between the segments. Sharp yellow claws were growing in the place of all her fingernails, and the entire hand had a gaunt and emaciated look.

Ruby was horrified. She put her other hand to her mouth out of reflex as she felt her heart catch in her throat. She didn’t know whether to shout, or laugh, or cry.

Her eyes began to water.

“You’re hurt,” the scientist whispered.

There was a long gash on Ruby’s forearm just below the wrist, where the corruption had cracked and broken the healthy skin.

The young woman reached into her lab coat pocket and pulled out a small vial of clear blue gel. She broke the seal and held it up to Ruby’s arm, pressing the plunger and applying the medigel into the Elite Guard’s wound. Ruby winced as the gel sizzled and bubbled at the tender flesh, but the burn quickly vanished as the gel’s painkillers took effect. At once, the substance began to harden and stitch together the broken flesh, and the scientist massaged the skin to assist the healing process.

Ruby looked at the woman in wonder as she held Ruby’s arm and massaged the infected hand. The scientist still wouldn’t meet her gaze, but there was no coldness in her eyes. No disgust, no contempt, no judgement. Just sympathy.

After a few moments, the woman pulled her hand away and let go of Ruby’s own. The medigel was already seeping into her skin, and the gash was closed in a thin pale scar.

Ruby placed her hand over the sealed gash. The skin still felt tender, but she thought the corruption had placated some, even if only a bit. She heard the footsteps of the gunslinger returning from the restroom, and she quickly slid her glove back on as Romero came into view.

“Taylor!” He exclaimed. “I think you’ll want a look at this.”

In his hands, the gunslinger carried a small black digital safe, bearing the red scarab symbol of the UAC Elite Guards.

* * *

“Colonel, I think I’ve already been through here.”

“Are you mad?! You’ve been walking in a straight line for the last ten minutes!”

“This place looks exactly the same as the one I was in ten minutes ago!”

I was attempting to navigate the interior of the building I had rushed into earlier, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of the location I found myself in.

“Colonel, do the buildings join and become a single structure deeper into the town?”

“What? Why do you ask?”

“Because this building is bigger on the inside than on the outside.”

“…That’s insane. I know about Hell’s metaphysics but this town is the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere! It’s too insignificant to have that sort of set-up!”

“Colonel, I’m telling you. Whatever building I’m in now has larger interiors than the one I walked into.”

“…So say you’re right. What are you gonna do?”

“Let’s see if I can backtrack and figure out where I got lost.”

I turned around and started heading back down the corridor I came from, but no sooner had I taken a few steps that I spotted the hallway bending to the right in a corner that hadn’t existed there a minute ago.

“My God, you’re right.

How are you getting out of this place?”

“I’ll find a way. I got out of that other maze, didn’t I?”

I reached the right corner and walked around it, finding a new corner not ten meters in front.

“It’s all right, I have good memory.”

I took the corner and found another one behind it.

“John…?”

Not paying attention to Colonel Johnson, I walked faster and rushed around the right corner. The dirty yellowish-red walls ended at another right corner.

“You’re going in circles.”

“Hrrrrrr…”

Something groaned past the corner in front, a guttural and hauntingly disturbing sound. Breathing rapidly, I turned around and rushed back. The short turn had vanished and was replaced with a long straight corridor lined with many low dark doorways.

“John, don’t go there!”

“I’ve gotta get out of here!”

I raced towards the nearest doorway but stopped on the threshold. It opened into a dead end. I approached the next door and almost fell into an impossibly deep pit that faded into pitch darkness. My foot actually slipped over the edge but I fired my thrusters and safely pulled back. Rushing to the next doorway, I looked through the threshold and caught sight of a lone humanoid figure sitting at a chair with its back to me. There was a low square device in front of it like a television set, filling the room with a stark yellow glow and flashing terrible blood-red symbols at head-aching speeds.

After a moment, the figure began to turn towards me.

My mind bleached white with fear, I sped away before I caught sight of the entity’s face and sprinted down the long corridor, catching sight of a long slithering shape as I jumped a staircase leading downwards to another level. I stuck the landing and hurried down a bright orange chamber, keeping clear of a dim room to the side from which I heard further groaning. As I ran, I noticed the strange pits gaping from the ground or ceiling, with no clear method of passing through.

Almost as if they were doorways and I was running along the walls.

I leapt over the last doorway and landed hard in a wide chamber with multiple staircases along the walls and several doorways leading to gaping darkness. There was an echoing growl and the things chasing me finally came into view.

They were horrific creatures whose slimy worm-like bodies slithered past the doorways into the enclosed chamber, trailing a thick reddish clear slime. The three worms, with bodies as thick as my own, raised their front ends towards me, and to my horror I found blank human skulls in place of the worms’ heads, staring right at me.

“I didn’t come all this way just to die like a bitch,” I growled while equipping my flak cannons and Flame Wave spell. “Come on! Hit me!”

One of the Skullworms howled and pounced at me, which I struck with a quick left from my scorpion knuckledusters and shot with my flak cannons. The monster groaned in pain but the buckshot didn’t break its skin. I hit the demons with a flame wave as I rushed back, but one of them rushed through the flames and slammed into me with brutish power. Their slime smothered and extinguished my fires, and my overshield burst immediately from its attack.

“Fuck! They hit like a train!”

“Behind you!”

Thinking quick, I triggered my shadow dash and passed through the Skullworm attempting to jump me from behind. There was a faint splatter of blood as my shadowy body passed through the monster’s head.

“That’s it! They can only be hurt with spells!”

I switched to Skullfire and lobbed one burning skull after another at the demons. The projectiles struck and exploded, but the monsters did not back down and began to cover the entire floor with their viscous, sticky slime.

“Yeah, but you’re not doing enough damage! Get out of there!”

With plenty of mana after my Bloodstone upgrade, I activated my phase shift and looked around for a thin wall I could phase through, but they all were too thick.

“The door!”

I turned and rushed for the nearest door, passing through a Skullworm on the way, but before I could react, another Skullworm raced to the doorway and released a blinding flash of energy from its head. I lurched to the floor as my head dizzingly spun, but looking up I realized the monster had forced me out of phase shift, right before it released another psychic blast from its eyes.

“AAHH!!”

The attack felt like a stake through my head and brought my health bar down to less than half. The floor of the chamber was ankle-deep in thick slime by now and my legs were practically stuck.

“John!”

Just before another Skullworm crushed me, I triggered my shadow dash to release me from the slime and fired my thrusters to soar into the air. While hovering, I stuck out my left hand and use its leech mechanism to siphon blood from the Skullworms and get my health back. I sighed in relief as my systems repaired themselves, watching my red health bar rise back to full. I released the siphon a moment after I was fully restored, but the beam coalesced into short red crystals on my forearm.

“Ah! Colonel, what is that?”

“John, your air fuel is getting low!”

I frenzily clenched my fist and the crystals were immediately absorbed into my body, filling me with a deep sensation of vitality as I watched my red health bar rise a bit beyond full capacity.

“It’s stored blood…my blood siphon can store excess blood now! Must be a side effect of the Bloodstone upgrade!” I shouted elatedly.

“You’re flying on fumes!”

“I have an idea!”

I drew my Bronze Spear and recited a new series of soundless words in my mind, feeling their esoteric meanings flash as I worked the magic into the spear. The spell took effect, and I immediately dove like a bomb with spear pointing straight down. I struck the ground with thunderous force, and all the slime and Skullworms were blasted away from the site of impact in a mighty gale.

“Where did what come from?”

“What?”

“That spell! How’d you use it?”

“I thought it would work. What are you talking about?”

“You never learned that before!”

“I didn’t?”

Before I fully realized that I’d come up with a new spell literally on the fly, I noticed the Skullworms moving strangely around me. They circled and tried to close in, but backed away before reaching me.

“What’s wrong? What’s the matter!”

One of them howled in aggravation. I raised my Spear at it, and the demon flinched and backed away.

“What?”

I aimed the Spear at another Skullworm, which snarled and cowered behind its companion.

“You’re afraid…You’re afraid of this spear!”

POWW!

A scintillating flash of light sparked in the ceiling above and blinded me for a moment. Blinking to get my sight back, I saw the Skullworms leering at a pale figure standing at the entrance to the chamber, its raised hand still sparking from the spell it had just cast.

It was Vesper.

The Skullworms charged at her and I yelled.

“NO!”

To my surprise, the Skullworms stopped before reaching Vesper. One of them slowly rose in front of her and brought its head low before hers, strange golden sigils flashing in the air above its head. Vesper replied with runes of her own before raising her hand to the monster’s face and caressing it.

“Huh?”

The Skullworm brought its head down and slithered past Vesper into the doorway behind her, the other two following suit. Their slimy bodies vanished around the corner and soon I was alone with Vesper, who stared at me with deadly silence.

“Oh…were they your-?”

Vesper swung her hand and released another flash of light in my direction, blinding me again and throwing me to the wall. My overshield activated to protect me and I was unharmed, but the sudden action still caught me off guard.

I blinked rapidly preparing for further retaliation, but Vesper was already flouncing angrily out of the chamber.

“Heh, look at that.”

“Wait…wait!”

I rushed to my feet and raced after the ghostly woman, catching up to her skulking down the corridor at a rapid pace.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt your pets! Or your friends or-”

The figure snapped her head sharply in my direction, sending a sudden chill down my back and bringing me to a halt, but she didn’t attack or stop walking.

“…whoever they are. They came out of nowhere, I got scared…

I’m lost, okay?” I shouted after her. “I’m not here to hurt you, I’m just trying to get home! Show me how I can get to the gateway up there, and I’ll be out of your hair!”

Vesper continued walking down the corridor before coming to a sudden stop. She paused for a few moments, almost as if mulling things over, then resumed walking but at a slower pace. She took a few more steps before turning back at me.

Like she was waiting for me to follow.

I realized what she meant and rushed to catch up to the low pale figure. She barely reached to my shoulders, but I followed beside her as she guided me through the confusing labyrinthine chambers.

“So umm, thank you. For helping me out.

For saving my hide back there, and for the Bloodstone. It works really great.

And for helping me out of here.”

The ghostly figure looked up at me, met my gaze, and slowly turned back to the dizzying corridors.

* * *

INTERDIMENSIONAL TETHER STATUS: ACTIVE

So now Hayden could pull him out of Hell at any moment? The Slayer thought as he sulkingly marched through the service deck in the direction of the transport dock. He supposed it was beneficial. Neither he or Praetor Suit had interdimensional travel methods of their own, and the tether would be useful once he closed the Fracture from the other side and had to return to Mars.

Still, the Slayer had a bad feeling about Hayden being able to teleport him willy-nilly. He’d just seen Hayden warp him out of his bunker at the first sight of a confrontation, and he guessed that wouldn’t be the last time. No other extortioner the Slayer met had ever been able to hijack the Praetor Suit; the Slayer would have to be careful when the inevitable betrayal arrived.

Also, how did Hayden manage to reprogram the Suit? Not even the Argenta could do that; Hayden must have acquired technology from the other Corrax races, undoubtedly the Verimor.

Or, perhaps even…?

Nah, it must have been the Verimor.

With a sliding hiss, the door to the final airlock chamber slid open, revealing a pallet jack loaded with power cells, an opened crate from Mixom containing chainsaws, and four opened Argenta sarcophagi of Separatist making, bearing the symbol of the four marauding Zealots.

…the sky burned with siege projectiles and dragonfire…

…four figures rose from the mountaintop…

…their eyes blazed with hellfire, but their hands crackled with the divine…

…dull green armors, horned helmets…

…at their lead stood the fallen Royal Prosecutor, great horns rising over their accusing gaze…

…firewhip in one hand, plasma axe in the other…

Without thinking, the Slayer equipped the super shotgun and blazed to where the open sarcophagi lay. He aimed the shotgun at one’s interior, but it and the other sarcophagi were empty, their occupants nowhere to be found.

The UAC had found and woken the Zealots. He hadn’t sensed their presence on Mars, so clearly they weren’t on the planet anymore.

This was bad. This was really, really bad.

The sentry bot on his shoulder looked curiously at the sarcophagi and then beeped inquisitively at him. He sighed and lowered the shotgun. Wherever the Zealots were, they were out of his reach for the moment, and he’d have to deal with them later.

He stepped into the airlock and pressed the cycle panel before stepping out into the transport dock, a wide exterior deck with destroyed transport craft that opened to a wide canyon in Mars’ surface.

How the hell did the UAC even find Argent D’Nur?! The Slayer restlessly wondered as he walked towards the canyon edge. How did they ever wake the Zealots?! He’d put those bastards in those coffins himself!

More importantly, had they found Valkyrie?

Gleaming armor of ivory and gold, radiant Solar Lance bearing a sliver of the Argenta sun, and shining wings of light soaring with the strength of the Ancestrals, carrying her authority and power to all corners of the Argenta kingdom.

Firstborn daughter of King Novik, Holy Empyrean Knight of Exultia, and the current and last Dragonborn of Argent D’Nur.

Valkyrie never joined the Separatists, she fought ardently against the forces of Hell her whole life! Not only was she Argenta royalty and Voice of the Ancestrals, she’d been graced by the Divinity Machine long before HE ever was!

But that raised the question: where was Valkyrie? Both she and the Seraphim disappeared during the fall of Argent D’Nur, and the Slayer never found either after that. She likely followed the Seraphim into his exile. Valkyrie would never betray Argent D’Nur, but would she defy Heaven? He wasn’t sure.

Wherever she was, the Slayer knew she was alive. Unlike the Zealots, the Divinity Machine had granted her true immortality, just as it had him.

Brining his focus back from the past to focus on the present, the Slayer leaned over the cliff to gaze into the yawning abyss. Rather than a single continuous fissure, the canyon was a complex series of crests and ravines that stretched across the surface at varying heights and depths. Even with his Clearsight, he couldn’t see the bottom anymore in its deepest places, and his HUD marked the Executive Research Division more than two kilometers ahead. The peaks were too far apart to leap across them and reach the other end, and the Slayer was not about to fight his way through a pitch-black chasm filled with who-knows-what. A multitude of bomber and gunner drones circled high above in holding patterns, as if awaiting orders.

Where the hell where Hayden’s Scout Bots?

“Ha ha ha ha ha!”

The Slayer turned puzzledly towards the sound of metallic laughter closing on him from throughout the facility, catching sight of a dozen humanoid figures leaping across the rooftops of the Advanced Research Complex before landing in a semi-circle around him, cornering him with his back to the chasm. He equipped the HAR in preparation of a fight with Pilots, but he lowered the gun in confusion when he finally saw the figures up close.

“What’s this now?” One of the soldiers spoke in a harsh mocking tone. “A little green army man, lost and separated from his team?”

“Ha ha ha ha!” The other cyborg soldiers cackled around him, but the Slayer merely stared in mild bewilderment. Talking intelligent zombies? Were these the Griefers that Hayden’s computer talked about?

“What the hell is he wearing?” One of them yelled, a brutish soldier with a sniper rifle, deployable shield wall, and grapple hook. “That’s got to be the ugliest combat armor I’ve ever seen!”

“It looks like a shitty dollar-store version of those HALO suits!”

The Slayer’s surprise quickly soured into irritation. His Suit was created years before those flimsy HALO rip-offs and was INFINITELY more powerful!

“What’s the matter, trooper? Cat got your tongue?” Another Griefer with a grenade launcher and gravity mines on its waist asked, carelessly moseying closer to the Slayer who felt unusually bothered by the demon’s nonchalant attitude.

Did they not know who he was?

The Griefer then twirled the launcher around and slammed the stock directly into the Slayer’s visor, whose head sharply snapped sideways with the sudden strike, dropping his ARMOR to 198. A vein throbbed in his temple as he began trembling with rage, and the sentry bot on his shoulder whistled softly while worryingly shaking its head.

“Look at him, he’s shaking with fear! Ha ha ha! Did you piss yourself too, private?

Maybe the Hell Lords will be kind enough to give us your head as a trophy! Keep it nice and pretty within that helmet while it’s hanging ON OUR WALL!”

The Griefer threw its launcher stock again at the Slayer’s face, but this time the Slayer effortlessly slung the weapon past his face into the canyon below, grabbing the Griefer in his other hand and bringing him close to his face. The other Griefers exclaimed in alarm as they raised their weapons but didn’t open fire yet.

The Slayer stared down the demon in his grip, bringing it close to his helmet so it could see through his opaque visor and bear witness to what lay behind. The Griefer’s glassy eyes widened with mortal terror, and the Slayer knew the demon realized the truth.

He was.

The motherfucking.

Doom Slayer.

He then swung the operative into the ground while charging a Blood Punch, effectively vaporizing the demon on the rocks and covering the immediate area with fine red matter. He grabbed two more by the throat and tossed them into the canyon as the rest of the squadron mobilized.

Certain Griefers grappled onto the rooftop and shot sniper rifles while camping behind orange shield walls, others remained on the ground to spam grenades at him.

Some tried to flee.

One Griefer dove into the canyon and disappeared into the night. Another leapt past its companions on the roof and disappeared over the rafters. Two more tried vainly to force open the airlock gate.

“Can’t make it! Can’t make it, this shit’s stuck!

Out of my way! Door’s stuck!

DOOR’S STUCK!”

The cornered Griefers turned around and fearfully opened fire on the Slayer. Without looking, he kicked an enemy grenade in their direction to promptly hear an explosion and the sound of splattering gore.

The Slayer switched to the phase rifle and opened fire the Campers’ shield covers, bursting the shields and killing the operatives quickly with a barrage of plasmoids.

Too easy. Of the last four Spammer left on the deck, he killed one with a shotgun shrapnel shot before downing another two with explosive slugs. He turned to the last one to find it kneeling at the edge of the deck and pointing directly at him.

“Target marked! Bring the thunder!”

Huh?

The Slayer heard the rumbling of an approaching gunner drone as the last Griefer ran for cover, and he leapt into the canyon just as a barrage of explosive machine gun fire razed the dock he’d stood on, though not before getting nicked in the crossfire.

The Griefers could command the drones?!

Behind him, the last Spammer leapt into the canyon before firing its jump pack to lift itself over the gap. Like the rest of its companions, the Griefer was crude in its movement and did not possess the Pilots’ advanced jump pack or grapple hook, and he could easily outrun-

A cyber caco rose from the chasm in front of the Slayer with mouth wide open.

-FUCK!

He threw a proximity mine and charged a Blood Punch before approaching the demon, breaking its armor with the strike and finishing it off with a point-blank super shotgun blast. The Slayer could see more Cacodemons, lost souls, and imps rising from the canyon, disturbed by all the commotion.

“Calling reinforcements! I repeat, calling reinforcements now!”

The roaring of passing aircraft brought the Slayer’s attention upward, and he caught sight of several dropships airdropping multitudes of Griefers into the canyon.

They could call for backup?!

The Sentry Bot on his shoulder aimed and fired its new machine gun attachment at the operatives in a dutiful attempt to fend them off – which the Slayer noticed consumed from his own bullet pool – but the bot’s machine gun had limited range and only managed to kill two approaching Griefers, the others struck by its rounds mending their flesh wounds within moments.

The Slayer leapt onto a protruding crest and slid across its side before jumping off again, but a barrage of grenades and Cacodemon lightning bombarded his position and pummeled him with shrapnel. 165 ARMOR. The descending Campers deployed parachutes and pelted him with sniper rifles. 131 ARMOR. He fired a shot with the HAR as he leapt across the various rock walls, but he missed and the shot strayed far-off.

“With aim like that, you must make a fucking mess around the toilet!” A Griefer yelled.

Flaring with fury at the insult, the Slayer switched to the rocket launcher and fired a rocket into the operative’s vicinity and remotely detonated it, faltering the Griefer before switching to the combat shotgun and killing it.

Fuck sniper rifles, the shotgun was all he needed.

Coming into range of an airdropped squad of Spammers, which he noticed where pinned on an isolated crest, the Slayer loaded a shrapnel shot and fired it at the demons. To his surprise, the demons dropped explosive charges on the ground and jumped on top before detonating them, hurling themselves with the blast without suffering any harm. Sliding down the wall to avoid their hail of grenades, he switched to his new lightning gun and pulled the trigger.

FWEOOOOOOOHHH!!! The rifle unleashed a sizzling white stream of shrieking electricity that fractured on impact into a myriad of bolts that sought out and fried the Griefers within moments, popping in surges of plasma and gore.

!!WARNING!!

LOCKED ON

A laser sight settled on the Slayer as a volley of smart bullets rained on him. 97 ARMOR. A Griefer followed close behind while wielding a Smart Pistol that automatically targeted him. He quickly slid deeper along the walls of the canyon, dodging a Cacodemon’s bite in an attempt to find cover from the Griefer in the pitch blackness of the nighttime chasm.

SONAR DETECTED

Sure enough, the Slayer’s enhanced ears caught the high-pitched ringing of a sonar pulse coming from above as the message appeared on his HUD, marking his position as another warning flashed on his visor.

!!WARNING!!

LOCKED ON

There was a short whirr and a beam of searing energy found the Slayer in the darkness, striking him precisely in the back and lowering his ARMOR to 76. Looking up in the direction of the attack, he found the same Griefer with a Static Rifle and shoulder-mounted stability rig aiming the smoking weapon at him. The operative must have hacked that same stability rig into some sort of aimbot, reprogramming its active suspension systems into automatically tracking marked targets.

The Hacker raised and aimed its weapon again, and with no room to dodge the Slayer rushed to put distance between himself and the demon. He raced for the edge of the crest he stood on, took a great leap towards the next distant edge, and missed. His hand grazed against the surface of the rock as he plummeted into the chasm.

The faint ringing of metal against stone brought the falling Slayer’s attention upward, and he caught sight of two distant humanoid figures sliding down the canyon walls after him, leaving a bright trail of dust in their wake. Unlike the cyborg Griefers, these figures had clean white exteriors, and a quick glance with his Clearsight confirmed they were not demonic or even alive, but robots.

The figures deftly and nimbly leapt from one jagged rock surface to the next, sliding and running across the walls as they chased after the Slayer and the nearby Hacker. The Hacker aimed its Static Rifle at a Scout Bot and fired, but this teleported out of the way of the beam and launched a bright white projectile from its hand, catching the Hacker in the chest and warping it away from the Scout Bot. The Hacker reappeared thirty meters away before slamming on the side of the canyon, leaving a bright red stain on the rock walls.

One of the bots raised an arm and fired a fast blue projectile in the Slayer’s direction, but this flew past him and erupted into a swirling blue portal directly below him. The Slayer passed through the portal and immediately found himself catapulting through the air above the canyon, arcing back down to land on a solid rock surface away from the demons. Hearing the sounds of two metallic entities landing in front of him, the Slayer raised his gaze at the Scout Bots, who were keenly studying him.

They were unimpressive robotic androids, with the size and shape of a human, donning clean white UAC body armor. Their heads were entirely robotic and consisted of what appeared to be an OCULUS core with the rough proportions of a human head, revealing a large glowing central eye. One Bot had an orange eye and was labeled P3, while the other’s eye was blue and its ID was A7. The Slayer noticed their arms possessed intricate components, with palm emitters that glowed the same color as their eyes. Portal guns.

The Slayer recognized their design. They were the same types of droids he found with the doomed UAC expedition in the Kadingir Sanctum.

“The latest and most advanced line of operator chasses from Iris Solutions, equipped with cutting-edge Mars tech.

The third generation UAC Scout Bots.”

The orange robot in front of him raised its hand to gleefully wave at the Slayer, making a chirpy metallic whirr that sounded vaguely like hello, which his sentry bot eagerly returned. The blue robot beside it kept its gaze on the Slayer. P3 suddenly elbowed A7, who looked back at its partner before warily raising its arm and giving him a small wave.

A baffled Slayer raised an eyebrow. These were the advanced droids meant to help him?

A frag grenade suddenly exploded on the ground between them. The Slayer winced as shrapnel struck his ARMOR, while translucent bodyshields appeared from the Scout Bots to block the attack. The horde was closing in, and the Griefers had followed via the robots’ own portals.

“Follow the Scout Bots!” Continued Hayden. “They will take you to the other side, but you must follow their directions!”

A series of marked linear waypoints appeared on the Slayer’s HUD to highlight a path through the canyon, but he’d had enough.

An infuriated Slayer ran and leapt off the rocky crest on which he stood towards the next nearest ledge, spinning around and firing the Gauss Cannon for a momentum boost to cross the gap as the Scout Bots wailed in alarm and chased after him.

He dropped several proximity mines behind to booby trap the canyon as he escaped the demons, and the sounds of several explosions and crumbling rocks indicated some had found their targets, but the mob behind him kept snapping at his heels.

SNAP!!

Lurching as something froze him in place, the Slayer looked down to find himself caught in the swirling well of a gravity mine, his ARMOR steadily ticking down from the tidal forces. 63. 60. 57.

Get the f- GET THE FUCK OFF!!

Unable to break the mine with his foot as he floated, he equipped the shotgun and destroyed the mine with a solid blast, which exploded and took another 13 ARMOR but dropped him. He leapt towards the next wall and Gauss-boosted to reach it just as a pair of portals from the Scout Bots appeared in front of him to help him cross the gap. He passed through the portals and made it to the opposite wall, not stopping as he leapt off again towards a flat outcropping to spin around and equip the HAR.

PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!! Three Griefers were torn to shreds by automatic 50 cal fire and plunged into the canyon. POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! A quick burst from the Pulse Rifle downed a Cacodemon. A Hacker leapt through a Bot’s portal and aimed a Vortex Rifle as an aimbot warning appeared on the Slayer’s HUD. He switched to the Lightning Gun and primed its alternate fire, letting the auto-targetting crosshairs settle on the Griefer before pulling the trigger.

BZZZZHHHHT POPP!! The crackling microwave beam surged from the weapon and found its way to the demon, electrifying it in the air before exploding it in a burst of sizzled flesh and superheated air. The concussive blast faltered two nearby Spammers, one of which was finished by his Sentry Bot’s machine gun and the other by a flicked shot from the Gauss Cannon.

Quick-scope? Make it no-scope.

As he raced away, the Slayer checked his ammo pools. He was full on rockets and still had bullets, but his plasma and flechette count was critically low. He could boost himself with the rockets’ blasts, but unlike with the Gauss Cannon he ran the risk of self-harm. Though he was almost across the chasm.

He leapt off the rock wall just as the Scout Bots launched another pair of portals that warped him to a nearby rock crest, switching to the rocket launcher to aim it downward and propel himself, but he mistimed the jump and merely blasted himself with an Argent explosion. 18 ARMOR.

“What’s wrong, newbie?” Shouted a Spammer lobbing incendiary grenades at him. “Don’t know how to FUCKING ROCKET JUMP?!”

Gritting his teeth to the point of pain, the Slayer spun around and fired a rocket at the approaching Griefer, hitting and killing the demon with the single shot.

At least he wasn’t a loser that spammed grenades just because he couldn’t aim for shit!

WARNING

!!LOCKED ON!!

The Slayer turned in the direction of the Hacker taking aim with a sniper rifle, but the Slayer broke into a Rampage to dodge the shot and the bolt missed him.

“Even with an aimbot, your aim is still garbage!!” The Slayer heard a Camper shout at the nearby Hacker.

“Shut the fuck up, you fucking faggot!!” Spat the Hacker.

“I’d call you cancer, but at least cancer gets fucking kills!!”

To the Slayer’s surprise, the Hacker turned and shot the Camper point-blank in the head, switching to its Smart Pistol to execute another three Griefers before pointing at the Slayer.

“Killstreak reached! Go for Hellstorm Missile!”

Go for what?!

Hearing the rumble of an approaching drone and high-pitched whistle of a missile launch, the Slayer and Scout Bots purposefully dived into the chasm below as the Hellstorm missile fragmented into cluster rockets that struck near their position, wiping out a portion of the horde and his remaining ARMOR.

So that’s how they did it. They could call in air support if they achieved a certain number of kills, these ‘killstreaks.’

SONAR DETECTED

The Hacker had chased after him, reaching into its belt for a ballistic knife before launching it at the Slayer. The Slayer reflexively caught the blade out of the air and mindlessly flicked it back the demon, surprised when it struck between the eyes and blew its head off.

Holy shit, he wasn’t expecting that throw to actually land.

He soared through the air after passing through the Scout Bots’ exit portal, turning to see A7 and P3 beside him before the three of them landed on a large flat clearing away from the war zone, the Executive Research Division visible in the distance and accessible from the nearby ridges. However, the remaining Griefers followed via their grapples and satchel jumps and landed around the trio as imps and cacos lazily followed. Assault drones hovered behind the Griefers, and bomber drones rumbled above. He turned to P3 beside him, who looked back at him before slyly closing its one eye at an angle while beeping sneakily. Almost as if it was winking.

He understood and opened fire.

P3 immediately teleported into the mob to engage in close-quarter combat while A7 remained with the Slayer. The orange Scout Bot blinked in and out of the demon horde, warping them off the cliff with its white orbs while killing them in single punches as the blue one opened portals around the Slayer to teleport charging demons away, all the while he and the Sentry Bot opened fire on the horde with machine guns. With precise and calculated teleports, P3 avoided enemy attacks while baiting the Griefers into shooting themselves, and A7’s portals redirected most of the demons’ grenades and fireballs back at them. 186 HEALTH. 162. 141. Low on bullets and plasma, the Slayer looked to a charging Griefer while drawing the chainsaw.

BZZZTT!!

The demon roared in agony as the Slayer thrust the blade into its abdomen, using its hands in a vain attempt to push the Slayer back before he slashed the saw through its head in a wide spray of blood. The bisected corpse fell to the ground and the Slayer had enough ammo for the Lightning Gun.

FWEOOOOOOOHHH!!! The crackling stream split into a short-ranged spray of bolts as it contacted the demons, electrifying and damaging others around them. He swept the beam across the multitude and threw proximity mines into their vicinity. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Noticing A7’s nearby portals, he fired into them as the Scout Bot opened and closed them, releasing lightning discharges and grenades all throughout the arena at angles impossible for the demons to predict. He leapt into one portal and warped to the other side of the arena, switching to the super shotgun to blast three Griefers to shreds before jumping back. A Blood Punch killed two Campers keeping their distance on the far end right before the Slayer reappeared twenty meters away and killed another three with explosive slugs. Cacodemon lightning balls and drone fire pelted him, as did the splashback of countless explosives. 114 HEALTH. 97. 73.

“Strike zone marked! Go for fire!”

A growing rumble on the horizon indicated the approach of a bomber drone, one the Slayer could see was equipped with three strike missiles. He turned to A7’s portals and had an idea. Waving at the bot to get its attention, he pointed in the direction of the drone before pointing back at himself and upward. The robot nodded in understanding and created two portals in front of him, one above the other. The Slayer jumped into the bottom portal and surged through the two in an endless loop, quickly reaching terminal velocity before A7 recreated the top portal fifty meters above the clearing, launching the Slayer high into the sky as he charged a Gauss siege blast, took careful aim at the drone, and fired.

PSHEWW!!

Direct hit. The drone exploded in a burst of flame and metal before having a chance to launch, and as he fell back down the Slayer equipped the rocket launcher. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Taking care to avoid the robots, he rained rockets on the horde and left their sizzling gore splattered across the rocks before charging a Blood Punch and releasing it on the ground in the center of the clearing. POWW! The last five Griefers were eviscerated by the blast and scattered into the canyon. The mob was gone.

PEW PEW PEW PEW! BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! Four plasma grenades stuck onto the Slayer and erupted, bringing his HEALTH down to 52. The Spammer raised its plasma grenade launcher once more and prepared to fire, but before the Slayer could react, A7 leapt in front of him and blocked the attack, the plasma grenades bursting its overshield and blasting at its chassis. The damaged robot fell to the floor and the Slayer heard a horrific metallic screech from P3’s direction. The Spammer turned its weapon at him and the Slayer rushed back, but not because of the demon. Without warning, an orange portal appeared behind the Griefer and an enraged P3 teleported into the demon, a faint orange aura surrounding the Spammer for a moment before the demon contorted in agony and P3 reemerged in its position, telefragging the Griefer and splattering its organs across the clearing and the Slayer’s Suit. He turned to A7 but the smoking Scout Bot was already picking itself up to tiredly give him a thumb’s up. He offered his hand to the robot and A7 took it, helping the bot to its feet before P3 stepped forward and brushed against his elbow.

COMPATIBLE ROBOTIC UNITS DETECTED

HACK MODULE ENGAGED

Suddenly, a green spark emanated where the Slayer touched the robots and they both warbled in alarm, green translucent shielding spreading across their chasses.

ROBOTIC UNITS SUCCESSFULLY REINFORCED

STRUCTURE AND PROGRAMMING FORTIFIED AGAINST DEMONIC CORRUPTION

The shielding faded and the Scout Bots looked to the Slayer in wonder, their minor damage mended and even A7’s chassis not smoking anymore.

So this was the power of the Hack Module. The Slayer understood why Hayden prized it so much.

RWOOOOMMMM!!

Three dropships were descending through the clouds headed directly for them. Preparing for another intense confrontation, the Slayer and two Scout Bots raised their Gauss Cannon and portal guns, waiting for the ships to come into range.

PEWW PEWW PEWW PEWW PEWW!!

A barrage of blue plasma bolts suddenly rained from the cloud cover and tore one dropship apart. The second dropship broke off from the charge and tried retreating, but a second barrage blasted that one to bits and struck the third one’s engines.

This time, the Slayer spotted the glint of white metal speed through the clouds.

The third smoking ship careened dangerously in the air and plunged straight for the trio. Just as the Slayer and Scout Bots warily stepped back, there was a sonic boom and the last ship exploded in the air, scattering smoking metal across the canyon and the clearing.

“BZTTTT!!”

A harsh blare preceded the arrival of three large spherical drones the size of Cacodemons, ominously descending from the cloud of flame and smoke. They bore white plating blazoned with the UAC logo and their central Oculus eyes were armored as well, flanked by two pairs of heavy pulse cannons on both sides of their chassis and faintly glowing ion jets.

‘UAC HUNTER DRONES,’ as identified by the scanning module on the Slayer’s HUD.

With a shrill ringing, the Hunter Drones projected blue scanning beams from their optic sensors and waved these across the group, the Slayer raising his hand to shield his eyes from the beams. The beams landed on him and turned red as the drones aimed and armed their cannons.

He raised his own Lightning Gun as the Scout Bots backed away in alarm.

Ding.

The Drones’ beams suddenly turned green and they disarmed their pulse cannons, turning to the horizon before flying off at thunderous speeds.

“I apologize for that,” explained Hayden. “Oculus-based assets have always been volatile, more so after the invasion.

Nonetheless, you have arrived to the Executive Research Division. The Scout Bots will now leave you to continue the mission on your own.”

He turned to the blue and orange robots beside him. For walking tin cans, they fought pretty good. P3 raised its hand to its head and gave him a quick salute before grabbing A7 by the arm and leaping off the cliff with an electronic woo-hoo!. Racing to the edge and looking below, the Slayer saw the robots pass through a portal before reappearing far ahead in the canyon, leaping and warping across the rock walls as they vanished into the distance.

Huh, he scoffed with amusement.

Crazy sons of bitches.

* * *

CONTROL LAB – USS LOTHAR

DEIMOS OPERATING BASE

I couldn’t believe it. I passed my hand over the heavily corroded plate on the wall, feeling the worn indentations of the engraved letters beneath my fingers.

Deimos.

This town…is built atop a manmade Deimos starship. The asteroid above us, the planetoid…

This is Deimos. Deimos! The lost moon of Mars! In Hell, after all this time!

Vesper stood beside me and remained as quiet as ever.

But, that means…these people.

Were they…?

Vesper suddenly floated up to the sealed gate and gently pressed her hand against it, and the door heavily slid open with a deep grinding rumble that shook thick layers of dust and grime off its surface.

Behind the gate was an uncannily mundane command room that seemed bizarre after I’d spent so long in such an eerie location. There were ancient panels and monitors that still faintly blinked and sputtered in the dark, corroded and rusty but still legible.

LOCATION: UNKNOWN

STATUS: OPERATIONAL

GATEWAY: OFFLINE

“Umm…”

I looked down at the mess of buttons, switches, and levers in front of me. I could read their labels but didn’t understand what they meant, and had no idea what to do to bring the system back online.

“Breathe deeply. Relax. It’ll come to you.”

“Colonel? What am I supposed to-?”

“Trust your gut. You’ve got this.”

I did as the Colonel ordered, breathing in and letting my mind go blank. As I did I could feel sensations, vague whisperings left over from the people that had occupied this vessel long ago. Their presence and thoughts still imprinted on this cursed place. The startup sequence.

Press this series of buttons, turn these switches on, bring that lever up slowly, checking the screen to make sure the energy levels stay balanced.

The ship began to shake, and looking at a monitor I saw interior footage of an access port opening on the surface of the ship, through which a tall cylindrical framework rose into the town above.

That’s it! The gateway!

“Bzzzt.”

Hearing a chilling buzz beside me, I turned to find Vesper holding a waspid in her hand, staring attentively at the hellish insect before it took wing and flew off into the hallway. She was holding the waspid eggsac I had been carrying.

“What are you…doing?”

She pulled one of the eggs free and held it aloft, which floated for a moment in her hand before she clenched her fist, and after unclenching it the egg was gone.

“Huh?”

She then extended her arm towards the hallway and invoked a small swarm of waspids from thin air, which were shot from her hand and surged through the door with a loud buzz.

“Whoa.”

Turning back to me, she plucked another egg loose and offered it to me. I took the egg in my hand, feeling the warm pulsating of the larvae as I wondered how to replicate her spell.

“What am I supposed to do?”

“Just do exactly what she did.”

“‘Exactly what-’? How am I supposed to replicate an entirely new spell?”

“You already did. Back with the Skullworms.”

I thought back to the flaming dive I’d performed with my spear against those horrific beasts.

“That was a heat-of-the-moment thing! They were chasing me, I just had an idea! I don’t think I can do that again!”

“Don’t think, soldier! Do!

Do whatever feels right, just act.”

“…All right, I’ll tr…I’ll do it.”

I took a deep breath and sighed. I closed my eyes and focused on the egg in my palm.

All right, absorb. I’ve got to absorb it. Maybe I…fuse its essence with mine? No, not fusing…I’m synergizing its essence with my own.

Incubating it within my being.

Okay, here goes.

I held the egg and focused on bringing its essence into myself. The firm membrane, the vitreous fluid, the gestating juvenile waspids. Part of but not of me.

ABSORB.

* * *

KILLS - 57%

SECRETS - 40

TIME - 30:00