In the meantime, please proceed with the mission.>

A debugging meter appeared on his HUD as VEGA purged the insidious code, but the Slayer slammed his fist on the wall in frustration, seething further upon remembering the reinforced walls.

‘PROCEED’? How the fuck was he supposed to ‘proceed’ when he couldn’t even figure out which fucking way t-

One of the corrupted Viscera Cleanup Drones suddenly approached and fired its laser at him, ticking away at his HEALTH.

What the-!

The Slayer swatted the drone out of the air like a bug, but the rest of the swarm approached with clicking pincers and blinking lasers. He equipped the phase rifle and frenziedly fired at the encroaching drones as the Sentry Bot shot them down with its own laser.

“BZZZZZTTTT!”

The facility speakers suddenly erupted in roaring static, and the Slayer violently jerked in surprise before realizing the false alarm and raising his gaze in barely-contained rage.

“…confirmed. Subject is reckless, violent, and clearly psychologically unstable.”

The voice growling over the PA system was that of a Griefer. A grating, arrogant, and exceedingly aggravating voice.

“Sudden noises appear to startle the subject, producing fear response.

Subject displays navigational disorientation due to successful hijacking of automap systems; likely lacks higher brain functions necessary for independent spatial awareness…”

Oh, so that’s what their game was, huh?

The Slayer coolly switched to his shotgun and blasted the nearest speaker off the wall, hearing the Rambler’s voice echo from farther within Lazarus as he set his Resonators to produce their tones even louder.

He wasn’t going to play along.

* * *

Griefers.

Ruby crouched behind the corner where she could sense a pair of Griefers patrolling the corridor beyond. They hadn’t heard her yet and Ruby was confident she could eliminate them swiftly with her new equipment, but she was in Lazarus and would rather return to her team as fast as possible.

There was a service vent on the side of the wall. Reading the label atop the grating, Ruby could see the vent would lead her past the soldiers, to a certain “Office 95.”

OFFICE 95!

She needed to get there. Glancing around the corner for a quick peek, Ruby huddled over to the vent and began releasing the pins.

“Did you hear about those new psionic emitters they’re working on down in the Archives?” Growled a soldier’s voice nearby.

“Psion emitters?” Responded another voice. “Why would the Goetics be developing anti-demonic tech?”

“It’s not for use against us, rather against the humans.

I heard it from a Rager who’s stationed down in the Occult Division.”

A Rager?

“Apparently they finally cracked those devices the UAC recovered from Australian warbands. They can now program psion tech to release certain frequencies that harm only human opponents, or configure it to empower themselves with certain properties.”

“Huh. Imagine a Goetic Trooper with one of the devices those damn Aussies use. A fucking Argent-powered electric guitar.”

“Heh.

…Those Goetic Troopers, they scare me.”

“Yeah. Good thing the Speaker created them solely to hunt the Slayer.”

The FUCK is a Goetic Trooper- Aah!

A sharp flash of pain passed through her right eye, and in her daze one of the pins slipped from her hand and clattered on the floor.

“Did you hear that?!” Came the voice from around the corner, accompanied by the sounds of powering weapons.

Shit!

Ruby grit her teeth in desperation and worked quickly to release the last of the pins. She could hear the soldiers’ footsteps cautiously inching closer, and releasing the pin, quietly pulled the grating free and snatched the dropped pin before darting into the crawlspace and returning the grating behind her, just as the footsteps turned the corner.

The Griefers stopped in front of the vent and Ruby held her breath.

“…I don’t see anything.”

“Hmm. Must have been the wind.”

The soldiers powered off their weapons before turning back from where they came, and Ruby quietly let out her breath.

Idiots!

Still crouched, she turned and crawled down the darkened vent in the direction of Office 95.

She reached the end of the crawlspace and entered a small service room with an elevated vent that led above the adjacent corridor, past the patrolling Griefers. She stood up and climbed the ladder before heading down that new crawlspace.

“…why don’t you…learn how to actually shoot a gun…”

More Griefers?

“…I know how to shoot a fucking gun, you…”

Ruby quietly crawled along the vent before reaching a grating with a view of two Griefers arguing in the room belo-

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?

Ruby didn’t know if the second soldier she was staring at was a Griefer, or even human at all. It had the dull grey cybernetic armor, along with the grotesque skinless body visible between the plates, but its head was absolutely horrific. Deformed in the shape of some creature, with four bright blue eyes and flat nose above a gaping maw full of jagged teeth, and two artificial ram-like horns grafted to its bony skull.

It almost resembled a Hell Knight.

“I’m using a fucking riot shield, what else do you want me to use?” Asked the horned soldier with an obscenely rough and metallic voice.

“‘Ooooh riot shield! I’m a pussy and I use riot shield!’” Mocked the Griefer beside it.

“Oh, and now I’m a fu-”

“You fucking faggot.”

“WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO USE?”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP, FAGGOT.”

“Well, what about you? You’re a fucking Camper and you’re using a Static Rifle!”

“And what-”

“That gun was created specifically for use by MOBILE FORCES, not for losers jacking off behind cover like you!”

With a yell, the Camper raised its rifle at the other soldier and fired, but the demon deployed a crackling riot shield from its arm and blocked the energy shot. Immediately, the Rager extended two blue plasma blades from its wrist and stabbed the other soldier’s chest with it, pinning it to the wall before extending similar blades from its other arm and frenziedly hacking at the demon while releasing a beastlike roar.

Ruby grimaced and crawled away as blood began to splatter the room’s walls. She turned the corner to find the slumped body of a dead technician lying in the crawlspace, little more than an emaciated skeleton in uniform. She paid it no mind and continued crawling in its direction when it suddenly jerked violently to the side.

“Mmmpff!” Ruby could just barely stifle her yell as she flinched out of reflex. The corpse fell over and its head rolled away on impact, undeniably dead.

“…ha ha HA HA HA!”

Damn Betruger!

“I see you’re headed for Office 95, Agent Taylor. Would you care to illuminate us as to what’s in there?”

I’m not playing along with this damn bastard’s games. I need to get back to the others.

“Oh? What’s the matter, Agent-?

CAT GOT YOUR TONGUE?”

Ruby gulped frightfully as Betruger’s voice suddenly turned cold and distant, a residual condition of teleporter psychosis from the incident twenty-eight years before.

“It wouldn’t happen to be my missing cat that disappeared in that teleporter accident?

I wonder if he was still in one piece. Or perhaps fused with one of my missing assistants. Heh heh-

HERE, KITTY KITTY…”

Ruby shuddered. “Leave me alone!”

“Oh ho ho-!

ARE YOU MAD, AGENT?

…Please, don’t mind me,” echoed the doctor’s disembodied voice. “I’m just having a bit of fun. Please, by all means…

‘Carri-ON’! Hmm-hmm!”

Clang!

Ruby froze. Something clattered far behind her, the sound of the vent’s grating hitting the floor. She couldn’t hear anything, but could sense the dark and foreboding approach of something.

She widened her eyes and rushed down the crawlspace in terror, completely uncaring of her loud clattering down the vent.

Light shone through a grating up ahead. Ruby raced towards it, feeling the presence reach the vent she was on and crawl with unnerving speed towards her. She could hear the wet sloshing sounds of many soft fleshy arms against the metal surface as dark tendrils sharp as blades reached out for her-

She burst through the grating and fell to the floor, smoothly rolling onto her feet and drawing her sword as something hissed at her from the vent.

Whatever it was remained concealed in the shadows, but Ruby could see thin red tendrils clenching around the edge of the crawlspace, and two glaring green eyes fiercely staring at her from the darkness.

And that smell! It was the pungent smell of decomposed flesh.

Of carrion.

What is that? What the hell is that?!

The thing released a soft rolling growl and slowly turned away before vanishing into the vent. Panting heavily with heart still thundering in her chest, Ruby remained alert until she could sense the creature was gone.

“Aaggh!”

Ruby groaned and bent over as her left mutated arm suddenly flared with pain. Her skin felt as if burning, and it felt like bones were tearing out through her fingertips.

The pain subsided in part but not entirely after a few moments, and standing back up, Ruby pulled off her gauntlet to check her arm.

The corruption continued. The formerly smooth inky skin now had a charred texture with red scale-like protrusions beginning to form. Her formerly retractable pointed fingernails had grown in length and seemed to be extending across her fingertips into long sharpened claws, which had entirely perforated through the gauntlet. Her pinky finger felt weak and fragile, as if it was going to fall off.

The LXR serum didn’t stop the corruption, only accelerated it.

* * *

The Slayer tensely stepped across the flimsy walkway suspended high above the nebulous cavern. To his left, the crackling red vortex of the Lazarus Refractor, a colossal sphere surrounded by Hellfire and a shimmering hexagonal field, churned far below. To his right, still humanoid figures hung limply on automated rails as machinery attached missile launchers to their cybernetic harnesses. A Revenant production facility.

Something hard thudded against his boot, and the Slayer stopped to look at the thing he’d stumbled across. It was a soldier’s corpse equipped with grotesquely crushed body armor that appeared dark red in the lighting, its broken gnarled gun discarded beside it… His eyebrows slowly raising, the Slayer looked past to the other armored corpses scattered across the walkway.

They weren’t human, they were Deraki warriors.

He cautiously stepped over the mutilated corpses as he continued on his way.

What were the Drow doing in Lazarus? What were they even doing on Mars? Were they the ones that Pierce had brokered a deal with? No, couldn’t be. The Drow were astute but they were mercenaries, not conquerors. They only acted under the wishes of their masters, whoever those were now, and they only ever trespassed the Mortal Realm in small parties to raid coveted relics or technology. They didn’t have the resources to mount invasions of entire worlds.

But that raised more questions. What were they on Mars and in Lazarus for, and who sent them? Were their masters the same ones that Pierce had sacrificed the planet to? If so, why use them to raid the UAC instead of simply having Pierce give them what they wanted? Nothing about the Drow being on Mars made sense.

The Slayer reached the last of the demons’ corpses and bent down, passing his finger across the entity’s pooled blood. It was still fresh, spilled no more than two or three hours ago. They arrived not long after the Lazarus blast and left soon after. Judging by the small number of corpses, only five, the raiding party hadn’t suffered great losses and had likely departed with whatever they came searching for.

But what killed them? He took a closer look at the broken corpse. The demon’s outer shell bore radiating cracks in several spots, as if having suffered extreme concussive force from blunt physical attacks. He couldn’t sense any lingering dark magics on the bodies, he thought as he stood back up and continued on his path, but whatever it was had been big.

There was something else, a presence he couldn’t describe but which almost felt familiar…

There were several discarded Reaper rifles near the Deraki, living spiritual energy weapons that fired homing bursts of soulfire. The Reapers were also dead and beyond the point of repair, but the Slayer acquired their capsules of contained souls for his own munitions.

Oh. Right.

The Slayer brought up his restored automap to reorient himself, spotting the enticing question mark symbol of a secret location not far from his position. He turned in that direction and set off across hallways overrun with festering demonic tissue, his boots squelching nastily across pinkish throbbing tissue.

There was a repulsive stretching sound and a tall thin tentacle extended from a gaping hole in the tissue, tipped on the end by a large and sickly yellow eye. His scanning module identified it as a Core Tentacle. He immediately equipped the HAR and fired a precision bolt at the eye, which hit its mark and splattered bloody fluid on the wall. The tentacled eye whipped back and shrieked with pain, but didn’t die and quickly slinked back into the Hellgrowth. There was another stretching sound behind him and the Slayer spun to find the Core Tentacle sprung up from another pit, just as it blinked and shot three fireballs in quick succession from its eye. He swerved around the projectiles as he charged the demon to rip it from the ground with his bare hands but this sank back to its hole, soon replaced by another razor-tipped tendril that slashed at him and reduced his HEALTH to 93. He furiously tore the serrated tentacle out as another whipped out beside him, which the Sentry Bot cut down with its laser.

The Slayer heard the primary eyed tentacle shriek to his side before watching it perform a wide slashing motion and release a flaming wave at his feet. He jumped over the wave and fired another precision bolt at the eye, but its undulating movements made the tentacle hard to aim at and the bolt missed. Several more razor tendrils continued popping around him and the Slayer focused on avoiding their attacks while the Sentry Bot sliced them with short bursts of its laser. The Slayer had an idea.

The Core Tentacle popped up once more behind him, and its eye blinked to release a burst of fireballs just before the Slayer raised his equipped plasma cutter and cut the tentacle down with a horizontal plasma wave. The bright yellow eye tumbled to the ground as the other tendrils slacked lifelessly. Ignoring the fearful shrieking and subsequent squelch as the demonic eye met its end beneath his boot, the Slayer boosted his HEALTH to 98 and continued through the gate.

He stepped into a small exchange room with two tall windows on the far end, obscured by fog and blood. Before he could decide on a direction, there was a muffled growling from behind the glass, and a hulking black shape lumbered through the chamber beyond. Its heavy metallic footsteps clanged on the floor before fading and eventually vanishing, seemingly paying the Slayer no mind. He considered likewise ignoring the beast when he noticed the secret location was marked just behind the shimmering glass, where the monster had just walked by. He raised an eyebrow and looked upwards at an open access hatch in the ceiling. He jumped and hoisted himself into the vent and walked along hissing pipes and steaming grates before arriving at another access hatch over the chamber in question, full of thick swirling fog. Equipping the super shotgun, he jumped down into the room with gun at the ready. The chamber was empty and whatever had passed by was nowhere to be seen, only the scuff marks from large metallic feet glinting faintly in the cursed dim light, and mist pouring from the breached containment tube at the end of the room.

The tube was tall, almost five meters in height, and had spilled its steaming containment fluid all over the floor of the frigid chamber. The text “SUBJECT #H0084” was barely visible on a metal plate at the base of the tube. The bodies of several workers lay on the ground in various degrees of mutilation, as well as the corpse of a red guard with a suspicious pronged firearm lying beside them. The black UAC rifles from Kadingir. The Slayer walked over to the body and picked up the weapon.

…SCANNING…

UAC LAZARUS DIVISION DIRECTED-SPIRITUAL-ENERGY “HELLSHOT” RIFLE

AMMO TYPE - SOULS

PRIMARY FIRE – AUTOMATIC INCENDIARY SOUL BURST

SECONDARY FIRE – TORTURED SOUL, POSSESSES OPPONENTS AND INFLICTS THEM WITH VIOLENT MADNESS; CHARGE FOR GREATER EFFECTIVENESS

ANALYSIS: HELLSHOT IS HELLTECH WEAPON REVERSE-ENGINEERED FROM DEMONIC ARMS TECHNOLOGY

AMMO CONSISTS OF VOLATILE SOULS EXTRACTED FROM HUMAN VICTIMS

INGRESS WEAPON INTO STORAGE MATRIX?

[YES] – [NO]

The Slayer paused.

He knew the UAC had been performing unthinkable research and experiments, on both human and demonic subjects, but…to intentionally sacrifice people just to extract their souls? Use their spirits for no greater purpose than ammunition?

What did they even hope to achieve?

The Sentry Bot on his shoulder quietly beeped at him, and the Slayer sighed.

[[NO]]

He lowered the rifle and disengaged the red ammo pack from its base. The pack was warm to the touch, and amid the heavy silence of Lazarus, the Slayer thought he could make out the faint sound of screaming voices from the object. He placed the firearm back down beside the fallen guard, and activated a hidden subroutine from within his Praetor Suit as he held his left hand out. The red light on his Suit’s chestplate blinked blue, and a tiny flicker of blue Purefire appeared between the Slayer’s thumb and index finger. He held the ethereal flame to the edge of the soul ammo pack, letting it take hold before extinguishing the flame on his hand and placing the object down on the floor. He turned to leave and began walking out the chamber.

There was a crack behind him, and a high-pitched hissing sound as the pack’s contents exited and were snuffed out by the purifying flame. More cracks, and the sound of screeching voices shouting in madness and torment falling to silence as burning red shapes danced on the blood-splattered walls.

The Slayer did not turn back or stop walking as he grimly climbed back up the ceiling vent and left the cursed chamber behind.

* * *

“We’re not supposed to be here. We’re not supposed to be here!”

“Quiet, Rogers!”

The lieutenant warily glanced back and forth behind the other three survivors, gasping fearfully as he waved his super shotgun side to side at the empty corridor.

“You doing okay?” Reeves asked the scientist who had thus remained quiet.

“I’m fine,” responded the woman. Her gaze remained low, but the engineer thought there was more energy in her walk and expression in her eyes. The shock of the initial attack must have been wearing off.

“Guys, look at that.”

The group turned towards the window of the lab to their left, seeing a hulking figure suspended inside an aquatic stasis tank, cables attached to its dormant body as bubbles rose around it.

“What the hell is that?” Asked Reeves out loud.

Just over the size of a person, the humanoid creature was bulging with muscle, its ashen skin rough and broken over the grievously mutilated body. The beast had hooved feet, emaciated clawed arms, and several horns and crests extending backwards from its bird-like head. The only indication of its identity was the label “SUBJECT #H0081” on the bottom of the tank.

“Do you think it’s alive?”

At that moment the creature twitched, scaring the group as it weakly thudded against the thick glass and its beady eyes glared with malice, but it quickly lost consciousness once more and listlessly floated in the fluid.

“Fuck this place, man, fuck this place!” Yelled Rogers as he aimed his shotgun at the tank.

“What are you doing?!” Hissed Romero as he pulled the lieutenant’s firearm away from the tube. “Do you want to give away our position?”

“Shut the hell up, you damn mercenary! This thing is still alive! If we don’t kill it, it’ll tell all its other friends where we are!”

“Have you gone mad-?!”

“Click-click-click-click!”

The two men immediately stopped fighting and turned with creeping dread at the corridor behind them. The hallway was barely illuminated from the sparking ceiling lights, and the two soldiers couldn’t spot any movement. Only a low and deeply ominous clicking sound that echoed from behind the corner.

Like the foreboding click of hungry teeth.

“People, we need to move,” quietly urged Romero as he pulled the young scientist away from a transport crate.

“Wait, Romero, hold on. Look at this,” pointed Reeves through an open containment crate.

“Reeves, we’re not in a good spot right now. We have to move.”

“I know, but look at this.”

Romero turned away from the dim corridor and peered into one of the open crates beside Reeves.

“‘Artifact U1.’ ‘Soul Cube’? There’s nothing here.”

“Not that crate. This one. This carving comes from an archeological dig, and it’s cataloged as an ancient Martian portrait.”

The gunslinger inspected the indicated crate. Inside was a small metallic carving of an alien creature’s face, with two small pairs of eyes, various antennae, and insect-like mouthparts on its inhuman face. Sure enough, the text display on the crate read “Artifact PL-1135X: Martian portrait.”

“God, that thing was ugly.”

“It’s alien. It’s not human.”

“Yeah, so what?” Asked Romero with irritation as he finally managed to pull Reeves away from the crate and the whole group advanced away from the foreboding hallway behind.

“Agent Taylor said that the Martian people were human, biologically and genetically. But whatever that sculpture depicted sure wasn’t.”

Taylor lied, grimly concluded the gunslinger. Again.

“Click-click-click!”

“I think we have bigger fish to fry at the moment, Reeves,” reassured Romero as his own doubts began to mount.

* * *

Clang!

Ruby spun around ready to attack, but the corridor was empty. Whatever had made that sound was still some distance away, and she was not about to backtrack directly into a trap. She lowered her blade and continued forward.

Wait a minute, this hall seems familiar…

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABS, read the placard on the wall.

The route to rendezvous with her team took her around the bend, but after a quick glance down the empty corridor, she continued forward towards the laboratory at the end of the hall. She reached the entry gate, a thick steel vault almost thirty centimeters thick. To her surprise the vault door was cracked and ajar, and after a moment’s hesitation she squeezed through.

She stepped into the control deck with a view to a large circular chamber, the thick viewing glass protected by a shimmering force field. The floor of the chamber was white and only dimly illuminated by a single spot of light from the ceiling. Otherwise, Ruby was staring into pure darkness.

Laying on the ground in the illuminated center of the chamber was a complex metallic structure consisting of a multitude of intricate parts and cables, painted a deep red color. She was too far to accurately make them out but Ruby knew it was the suspended body of an artificial intelligence, though not the calm and omnipresent mind of VEGA, since VEGA had no jurisdiction in Lazarus. Rather, the AI was a violent and hostile presence restricted solely to the chamber in front of her. One which only Doctor Hayden had direct access to.

There were scorch marks from an ocular laser carved throughout the visible floor, which Ruby knew extended to every available surface of the chamber, and ones she knew to be words once shouted by the nameless entity.

…STILL ALIVE STILL ALIVE STILL ALIVE STILL ALIVE…

No one was allowed to refer to the AI by its previous name anymore, so everyone simply called her the Red Queen. If Ruby approached the glass, she knew she’d have a better view of the robotic figure, in the rough shape of a woman bound by cables, trapped inside a lifeless steel shell that was no longer her body.

Ruby looked away in guilt and returned back out the vault door, ashamed that she’d ever been involved in containing the Red Queen as she headed back to her team.

She cursed the UAC. She cursed Hayden. She cursed IRIS. She cursed the Oculi, she cursed the Red Queen. But most of all, she cursed herself.

She was ashamed and regretful of many things, and she wondered if she could ever find absolution for all the wrong she’d done.

* * *

“Very well, let’s move on to your second squadmate, Private First Class Osborne.”

The Marine kept his head down.

“Phillip Osborne. Born 1999 to a respectable Los Angeles family. Homeless and solitary at age seventeen, his family perished in a house fire shortly after. No next of kin, he enlisted to fight in the Second American Civil War in 2018. Aptitude tests showed proficiency in the natural sciences, but failed to meet university standards and war efforts had little use for these studies.

Hmm, that’s a shame.”

The Marine didn’t look up, but it seemed that the last line was muttered more to the interviewing doctor’s own self rather than him. The doctor shuffled through leaves of paper.

“Ongoing personality tests showed social detachment and emotional deterioration, subject initially exhibited idealistic moral values that became more cynical, eventually becoming withdrawn and apathetic.

Enlisted in Special Forces in 2024 when the war ended. Volunteered for humanitarian aid five years later. Hospitalized in 2032 when the relief camp he was stationed at was struck by a chemical weapon attack.

Odizine.”

Nasty stuff that killed the heart. Osborne barely survived with an implanted defibrillator and scarred veins on his chest. The rest hadn’t been so lucky.

“…Reenlisted in Special Forces once he was fit for duty. Arrested on his last mission for single-handedly executing an entire regiment of separatist marines and their commanding officers which he’d been ordered to bring back alive.

Delivered an odizine package disguised as medical supplies.”

The interviewing doctor grimly organized his sheaf of papers and folded them neatly back into their folder before closing them.

“From what I understand, you actually worked with Osborne from the period of 2027 to 2029, did you not?”

Soldiers.

“Marine?”

Soldiers with red power armor, bald heads, and gleaming eyes. There were tanks of immobilizing purple gel on their shoulders, and cyan riot shields crackled in front of them. But in their hands were miniguns, spinning machines of metal and fire that ominously whirred before erupting in a storm of-

“Marine!”

Huh?

“I’m told that you and Osborne had an exemplary record together, and that you retained a strong comradeship even as inmates.”

Comrades? Osborne was more than a comrade to him. He was like a brother.

“So why did you abandon him on Phobos?”

Shut up shut up SHUT UP!!

The Slayer punched a wall and let the bounce-back from the shimmering force field jolt him back into alertness.

What did they know? What could they ever possibly know? Osborne was like a brother to him. The two had shed blood and sweat across battlefields on Earth and orbital colonies. The Marine would have died for Osborne and he would have done the same.

But the man he’d found once more in that cold Martian prison, after the attack once the poison had taken hold, the Marine had known since then. He could see it in his eyes.

I did what I did to preserve the human way of life, the man had explained.

That wasn’t Osborne. Not anymore.

When the two reached the end of the Phobos Base and arrived at the thunderous fiery gateway, Osborne jumped first, but the Marine waited. He didn’t know much math, but he guessed that if he waited even just a bit to follow after Osborne, the unstable portal would deposit them at greatly different times. Perhaps even different places. Sure enough, when the Marine jumped through and found himself in the Hellish wastes of Deimos, he was alone and Osborne was nowhere to be seen.

Yet he couldn’t help but feel a deep sorrow for the man who once had been his brother. His family had left him to die, his superiors too when they sent him to Phobos, and then the Marine had as well.

He only hoped, wherever he’d landed, that his death had been quick.

The Slayer’s foot stepped on empty air, and he fell through a hole in the floor.

AAAH-!

He landed on a hard rocky object, a dark sarcophagus-like container with inscribed runes.

GODDAMN IT!

Furious for letting himself become distracted, he was about to punch the rocky container he’d fallen on when his eyes took a second look at the symbols over the object. “Subdue,” “confine,” and “pacify” were some of their meanings. His gaze slowly rose to behold his environment.

It was still difficult to see through the cursed dimness of Lazarus, but the Slayer could make out further stony containers stacked and strewn across the wide chamber. Metallic doors on their ends revealed blinking LEDs and UAC access panels. Robotic cargo transport arms hung inertly on the walls, and the sealed metal gates on the floor read TO DEMON PRISON 03.

He’d fallen directly into a holding pen.

The Slayer cautiously rose to his feet and began slowly moving back, careful to not make any noise. Lazarus was unnerving him and he wanted to get out as fast as possible. He took a step back, and there was a loud HISS. He winced out of reflex until he realized the sound had come from in front of him. The door on the demon container slid open with an outpouring of mist, and something growled from inside.

The Slayer heard the snapping bite of a Pinky, and he jumped out of the way of the demon’s fiery charge oblivious to the metallic clanking of its feet. To his surprise, he heard the Pinky immediately swerve around from behind and charge him once again, this time to strike him in the back. 83 HEALTH. He whipped around with super shotgun in hand and saw the cybernetic back half and legs that the Pinky’s torso had been grafted to. He darted on his feet to try and flank the demon, but the Cyber Pinky’s new robotic legs were more agile than its non-augmented counterparts’ and it kept its flank away from the Slayer. In annoyance he charged a Blood Punch and released it at the demon, but this backstepped and avoided the blazing swing.

FUCK!

He launched a stun bomb at the demon and strafed around to its back end as it twitched in electrocution, raising the super shotgun and blasting off its entire cybernetic backside with the shot.

“Reeeeehhh!”

The front end of the Cyber Pinky was still alive, which turned around and voraciously dragged itself on its last two legs toward the Slayer while a bright fiery glow radiated from its inside.

The Slayer darted back and barely missed the dismembered demon’s suicidal explosion. The green safety lights on the rest of the containers flicked to red as their doors slid open and the facility’s alarm started blaring.

“Demonic presence at unsafe levels. Lockdown in effect.”

The Slayer grit his teeth and equipped the Lightning Gun. BZZZZZT! The linear beam shattered on impact and fried a dozen imps leaping about the mismatched containers. He flicked the microwave beam on to electrocute and burst a Cyber Revenant with a loud POP and recovered some plasma munition. Another Cyber Pinky charged at him and managed to return the crackling bolts at him by crossing the Lightning Gun’s beam, bringing his health down to 72. He switched to the D12 chaingun and eliminated the demon with a quick Blood Punch to recover 17 HEALTH and 12 ARMOR.

RATATATATAT!! The chaingun’s firing lit up the red darkness of the holding pen and left smoldering piles of gore as the incendiary rounds liquidized their targets with one or two hits. A pack of Ethereal Souls wandered carelessly through the bullet storm as they searched for any mostly intact corpses to raise, and the Slayer toggled the Sentry Bot into machine gun mode to eliminate the last demons while he equipped the phase rifle and finished the spectral demons off with a salvo of plasmoids. Another ethereal form appeared and flew at the Slayer, but as he aimed his phase rifle at it, he noticed it had a full body and two arms reaching for him.

GHOST!

The spectral figure passed through the Slayer and knocked him back, bypassing his ARMOR and lowering his HEALTH to 81 and causing the vile sensation of intense cold passing through his internal organs. He regained his footing and brought the phase rifle back around, but the ghost had already phased through the wall of the chamber and vanished. Another ghost soared through an adjacent wall and circled around the Slayer while howling hauntingly. It didn’t move fast, but it left a shimmering trail of afterimages that made it difficult for the Slayer to aim at with the plasma gun, moreso by the fact that the entity resisted the plasmoids and didn’t seem to falter by their impacts, being only pushed back instead. Seeing the ghost approach the wall to phase through it, the Slayer switched to the Lightning Gun and settled the crosshairs on the spectral shape before pulling the trigger. FWEEEEOOOOHH POP!! A swirl of blue light and a fierce burst of energy, and the spirit dissipated.

“RAAAAHHHH!”

The last ghost charged at the Slayer from behind, but he had the Lightning Gun ready and he swept the vivid stream of proton energy at the demon, who screeched as its essence was seared away before exploding.

He came, he saw, he kicked its ass! He thought victoriously amidst the empty chamber before something struck him on the side of his face, momentarily leaving his mind blank as he was thrown through the rocky demon container behind. Remarkably, he found his HEALTH to be unchanged, but the impact had hurt. The Slayer picked himself up from the broken container but couldn’t spot any movement. A bit of mist swirled to his left as something invisible passed through it, and he switched to his Clearsight to briefly spot a hulking figure land two heavy punches on his stomach before a third strike uppercutted his chin, blanking his mind again and forcing off his Clearsight. Still no damage, but he could sense whatever the thing was to be clearly demonic, meaning it had the power to harm him but chose not to. It was toying with him.

Hearing a soft fluttering in the air, the Slayer looked up to find a small buzzing drone hovering a few meters off the ground, casting a conical translucent field directly below it. As if it were concealing something.

The Slayer destroyed the Cloak Drone with a quick burst from the HAR, and as the drone fell and the cloaking field deactivated, the second Hell Hunter revealed itself. Its robust body was entirely covered with a thick reddish-brown fibrous shell which compounded over its forearms to form dark bony gauntlets. Heat exhaust pores dotted its torso with their fiery glow, and its mouthless horned head that hung between its massive shoulders blazed with vivid Hellfire.

His HUD identified it as “Brawler Hunter.”

The demon brandished its fists at the Slayer, extending spikes from its knuckles which caught fire. Now it was gonna hurt for real.

The Brawler Hunter thundered at his position with an outstretched fist and the Slayer rushed out of the way as the demon struck the ground at his position only moments prior, cracking the floor and releasing a short-ranged blast of red flame. The Hunter then spun around and slammed both fists on the ground to release a flaming shockwave of rocky spikes that surged in the Slayer’s direction. He strafed out of their path and equipped the rocket launcher. BOOM! BOOM! One rocket landed close to the Hunter while the other struck its chest, blowing part of its outer shell off. The demon faltered with the blast and the Slayer rushed towards the opening with chainsaw in hand.

BZZZZZT! The demon snapped out of its falter and raised both armored forearms to block the chainsaw swing, the buzzing teeth grinding uselessly against its gauntlets. The Slayer focused a Blood Punch and swung it at the demon, whose arm bent back and its blood vessels glowed as it absorbed the energy from the blow before lashing back out with flaming spikes extended from the gauntlet. POWW! The Slayer was thrown back through several demon containers with only 47 HEALTH left. Flaring with rage, he launched a stun bomb at the demon followed by a Siphon Grenade to recover HEALTH to 71. The stun bomb struck and immobilized the demon while the Siphon Grenade transferred its essence to the Slayer, who madly fired rocket after rocket at the Brawler Hunter and kept blasting portions of its fibrous shell off before he charged a Blood Punch and struck the demon directly in the chest.

The Hunter’s jaw snapped open in pain, tearing the fused flesh over its mouth.

POWW!

The monster flew back and crashed on the reinforced wall, passing through the transparent force field and cracking the ceramic tiling. It growled softly, standing up and tearing off the last of its wrecked shell to reveal its lean muscular form and an exposed throbbing heart in the middle of its chest.

The Slayer switched to the chaingun. RATATATATAT! The heavy rounds glanced off the demon’s skin with barely a scratch, similar to the Sawcubi’s subdermal body armor. The Slayer stopped shooting but the Hunter made no response to the Slayer’s attacks.

Then, the demon raised both fists towards him in a fighting stance. It was challenging him. He considered switching to the Blazing Spirit and getting things over with but he was well past finishing this quickly.

Now it was personal.

He jumped off the platform he was on to meet the Hunter on equal footing, putting away the chaingun as he raised his own fists. The monster turned its head slightly and spit out a tooth, never taking its fiery eyes off the Slayer. He grimaced and forcefully blew out a bit of blood from his nose.

“ROOOAAARRR!!”

The monster suddenly ignited with red flames and leapt before plummeting like a blazing meteor towards the Slayer, cracking the ground and releasing a scorching wave of Hellfire throughout the whole floor. He sidestepped the direct impact but was caught in the shockwave and lost 25 HEALTH.

DAMN IT!

The unrelenting Brawler continued its assault and blitzed the Slayer with a barrage of attacks. Right punch, left punch, right punch, left punch, front kick; he sidestepped the punches and blocked the kick with his bracer, which pushed him back. The demon followed with a groundspike slam as it channeled a ring of Hellfire upwards along its body towards its head. The Slayer dodged the groundspike wave while keeping an eye as the Hunter launched a homing fireball from its mouth at him.

Caught it in his Bracer, return! BOOM! The fireball penetrated the Hunter’s subdermal armor, causing it to stumble back as the Slayer rushed in.

Left, right, left, right! Front kick to push the demon back while he charged a Blood Punch! The Brawler lifted its gaze and blocked the Blood Punch with its forearms, redirecting the energy through its gauntlets to counterattack, but the Slayer was prepared. He blocked the strike with his own Bracer and instantly delivered the newly charged Blood Punch at the Hunter’s face.

“ROOOAAARRR!!”

The Brawler’s eyes suddenly released a bright golden glare as it spread its arms, and although the Slayer preemptively raised his Bracer, he was caught by surprise when the monster clenched him between its arms and crushed.

39 HEALTH. 27. 13.

FUCK!

He punched at the monster to release him and the demon launched him away into the rocky containers as it jumped for another meteor strike. Eyeing the Brawler, the Slayer moved himself directly into the Hunter’s point of impact and raised his Bracer as the demon fell.

BOOM!

The successful parry released a thunderous shockwave that shattered the nearby rocky containers and shook the chamber even through the force field. The staggered Brawler Hunter stumbled back weakly, and the Slayer tossed a Siphon Grenade before moving in for the kill.

He dropkicked the demon to pin it onto the ground. With a heavy stomp on its shoulder, its left arm came off. The monster howled in pain, but the Slayer stomped on its right shoulder and severed that arm too. Then he brandished his chainsaw and plunged it into the demon’s exposed heart. The Hunter roared in agony as the Slayer showered himself in the monster’s blood, so incandesced with fury that he ignored his disgust at the demon’s viscera before he forced the saw upwards through its chest, splitting the dismembered torso in two and splattering the wall and ceiling with blood.

The Slayer panted heavily as he dripped sweat and blood splattered from the Brawler Hunter. After his nerve-wracking foray through Lazarus, the thrill of an honest-to-God good fight was exactly what he needed. It had been a while since he’d…‘thrown hands’ like that.

interrupted the talking computer,

The Slayer’s HUD highlighted the part of the demon’s corpse which he had to take: its horned head.

He bent down and, with a firm grip, broke the spine at the corpse’s neck. He held the lifeless head aloft, contemplating it for a moment before ingressing it into his storage matrix.

“Demonic presence eliminated. Lockdown disengaged.”

An emergency exit hatch opened behind the Slayer, and he moved towards it when he spotted a supply drone descending slowly in his direction. Relieved to recover munitions, he reached out for the red-eyed drone, which bore the label of “UAC TR.OJ.AN DIVISION.”

Wait a minute, red eye?!

It was too late. The Slayer’s hand made contact with the Trojan Drone, which uploaded its digital package to the Praetor Suit’s system and immediately combusted.

DEMONIC MALWARE DETECTED

MALWARE TYPE: WORM

EFFECT: ROBOTIC ASSETS ENCOUNTERED WILL BE CORRUPTED

“Subject fails to observe clear environmental clues and continues falling for obvious traps,” interjected the Rambler Griefer in its grating voice over the PA. “Likely has a low intelligence coefficient-”

FUUUUUUUCK!!

* * *

“Roaarrr!”

“John, did you-?”

“Yes, I heard it!”

“Haaaaaar!”

I turned my gaze from the spanning organic arched ceiling - vaguely reminiscent of a giant ribcage - and looked back at the shattered hallways behind me. I was expecting an ambush from the deployed Deraki troops any minute, but that howl didn’t sound like from a Deraki.

It didn’t sound like anything I’d fought so far.

Steeling myself for battle, I primed my flak cannons and Flame Wave spell as I took a defensive stance. I had come this far and I was not backing down now.

“RAAAAARRR!”

A howling horned skull covered in flames flew out of the darkness directly at me. I shot the demon out of the air and leapt into the air as the horde flooded into the chamber. A group of flying skulls swarmed around me and began taking bites out of my overshield.

“Those are Lost Souls! Keep your distance and burn them away with Flame Wave!” Shouted Colonel Johnson. I dashed backwards and released a Flame Wave to reduce the flying skulls to embers, though they were too small to provide any essence to fuel the Heart of Lothar.

Hunched brownish humanoid figures darted around the chamber, clinging onto the walls and crawling upside-down along the ceiling while tossing fireballs. Both the projectiles and demons were frighteningly fast, and they continued pelting my shields as I struggled to hit them with my flak cannons. One of them clawed at my back and broke my overshield with a faltering burst.

“Imps! Switch to missile launchers and take them out with homing bursts!”

I switched to the indicated gun and fired lock-on volleys at the fleeting demons, keenly eliminating them with single bursts as I dashed left and right to avoid their fireballs and other bull-sized boar-like demons that charged at me while releasing pig-like squeals. A projectile soared at me, and I slashed my Bronze Knife through the air to deflect it back at its caster and killed it. I shot Flame Waves and missile bursts at them once all the imps were killed, but the demons rushed through missiles and Hellfire alike. One of them struck me and reduced my red health bar by a fourth. I engaged the buzzing Heart of Lothar, but its razor disks grinded uselessly against the demon’s bony faceplate.

“Those are Pinkies! Their front sides are armored! Use piercing machine gun rounds or dodge them and shoot their unarmored flanks!”

I triggered my phase shift and switched to machine guns as the next Pinky charged. The demon struck the wall and growled in its daze, and I took the opportunity to shoot explosive rounds at its backside. My rounds shredded its leathery flank and tore the demon apart as it finally crumbled to the ground with an echoing squeal.

Two more to go. As I was still invisible, another Pinky rushed blindly in its furor to maul me, and I shadow dashed through it in a dark blaze and turned around with the Heart of Lothar to shred its unarmored flank in moments. None of the demons’ souls served to power the Heart’s alternate fire.

“Reeehh!”

I emerged from phase shift and turned to face the last Pinky, who growled and kicked the dirt in an intimidation display. I held both hands at the ready.

“Reeeeeerrr!”

The demon charged, but I held my left hand out and activated my Hemokinetic Module to leech its blood and heal my injuries. The demon skid to a halt and writhed under the crackling beam, but I closed the distance and began punching at its face with my scorpion-shell-equipped fists.

“Reeehh!”

The demon stumbled back under the ceaseless assault as bright ember cracks spread across its faceplate, the Hell scorpion’s lingering hatred poisoning its body and incapacitating it with crippling pain. A bit of armor fell from around its eye, and I swiftly drew my Bronze Knife and stabbed it into its eye before toggling it into spear mode. There was a shink, and the demon fell still and silent. It crumbled to the ground with a heavy thud, and I toggled the spear back into knife mode to pull it out.

“That was too close.”

“I don’t care. I’m moving on.”

“John, the Deraki’s forces are too numerous. There will no doubt be a greater concentration of enemies as you approach the Tower. You need to find a stealthier route.”

“And every minute I stay still,” I interjected as I stormed down the ancient disjointed structures of the Deimos base, “I’ve got more bastards gaining on my ass. Stealth be damned, I’m getting out fast.”

“You don’t have the equipment to take on a whole army on your own! Whatever gear may have once been stored here has long since been looted or turned to dust!”

I turned angrily to the ground, staring at my sprawling shadow as it traipsed the rocky floor in front of me, following my every move, my every command…

‘You drape yourself in the substance of shadow’, that’s what the Ravager said. ‘You think yourself a Voidwalker?’

“I have an idea.”

* * *

“...huuugh…”

Ruby paused. The raspy gasp seemed to pass all around her, originating from ahead in the hallway and echoing back into the darkness behind. She couldn't see anything that might have caused it.

“...huuugh…”

The eerie sound washed over her again, and this time she made out the faint red symbols pulsing across the walls, floor, and ceiling of the hallway as the gasping passed by. She slowly inched forward.

“...hUUUgh…”

The gasping passed by her louder, and the dim ember glow of the demonic sigils on every surface of the corridor lingered for a few seconds before fading. She was getting close.

OFFICE 95

She made it. The gasping was louder than ever, the sound and burning waves of symbols emanating from the hand access panel beside the stout steel gate. Even though Ruby knew what the contents of Office 95 were, she’d never been granted direct access to it.

Not yet.

“What’s in Office 95, Agent?” Echoed Betruger’s voice.

Ignore him, Ruby thought to herself as she approached the entry gate.

“WHAT’S IN OFFICE 95?”

Breathing in, she held her left mutated arm out and placed the clawed hand onto the panel.

OPEN.

“HUUUGH!”

There was one last rasping screech that sped down the hallway behind her, the fiery symbols following close behind until the corridor was finally dark and silent. A moment passed, and a thin crack of scarlet light pierced through the gate as the heavy metal doors slid open. Ruby covered her eyes as her sight adjusted to the dazzling red glow, and thick steam poured through the aperture.

The incandescent red glow was almost blinding. Ruby kept her gaze down as she stepped onto the glassy black staircase that led from the entry gate, the doors sliding shut behind her. Electric blue circles pulsatated on every step as vivid red symbols scrolled along the black walls beside her. The interior of the chamber was unbelievably warm, and thick with a foreboding presence.

Ruby reached the end of the staircase and stepped into a small circular room. Her eyes had finally adjusted and she raised her gaze.

The entire ceiling cast a vivid crimson glow that bathed the environment in a Hellish light. Electric blue circles constantly pulsated throughout the floor but the walls of the room were awash with eerie red symbols slowly crawling up the walls, carrying some unknown meaning in their dark language.

The official name for this classified facility was Office X-CEL 95, but it was also known by another more secretive and haunting name.

The Hall of Tortured Souls.

The circular room had three windows on the far end that opened to a view of row after row of vertical black computer arrays that stretched to the end of the deck below, their surfaces likewise depicting lines of scrolling red symbols. There was a pedestal in front of the windows, above which floated a sleek black rifle with a pronged barrel.

Gulping in apprehension, Ruby cautiously approached the firearm and stopped in front of it. She reached out and cautiously took hold of the Hellshot Rifle.

It felt wrong to take the weapon. She could still hear the screams, the subjects being raised before the Lazarus Refractor and howling as their souls were agonizingly extracted by that dark machine to power the UAC’s newest weapons. Subjects she herself had escorted to Lazarus under orders.

But she needed it. If she didn’t take it and continued through Lazarus even with just the Vorpal Sword, she’d never survive the horrors she was surely still to find.

I need to get back to my team. I promised them I’d take them home.

She checked the Hellshot Rifle’s ammo pack, ignoring its warm feeling to the touch. The red digital display read 666. Full stocked. She primed the rifle, hearing the ominous low drone as it powered on and turning to leave that cursed Hall.

She reached the gate and pressed the exit panel on the wall beside it, standing back as the doors slid open and revealed three black UAC Z-Sec troopers who immediately raised their Vortex Rifles at her.

“Agent Taylor,” spoke one in its garbled radio comms, which her helmet automatically translated. “You are under arrest for trespassing into a restricted Lazarus Project facility.”

PEWW PEWW PEWW! Ruby had already triggered her Overclock and rushed through the three skull-faced soldiers, whipping around and pulling the Hellshot’s trigger at each of the three Z-Secs before they so much as had the opportunity to react. One, two, three. She only fired once at each of the soldiers, three fleeting red fireballs bursting from the Hellshot’s barrel at Hellish speeds and immediately immolating the troopers in writhing red flames.

“AAAAAHHHHH!”

The three Z-Secs released garbled radio howls as the ethereal flames seared body and spirit alike, their armor and flesh sloughing off and their bones crumbling to dust as their very souls were rendered apart by the raging spirits, but Ruby didn’t look back. Vorpal Sword and Hellshot Rifle in hand, she raced away into the depths of Lazarus.

Away from the three disintegrating demons.

Away from the Hall of Tortured Souls.

* * *

The Slayer kicked in gate after gate as he rampaged across the Lazarus Labs with super shotgun in hand.

WHERE THE FUCK WAS THAT RAMBLER?!

He’d had enough of the cold white halls bringing up memories he would rather leave forgotten, the new demons he kept encountering kept PISSING him the HELL off, his Suit’s systems had a demon worm up the ass, and THE GODDAMN GRIEFER KEPT RAMBLING OVER THE SPEAKER SYSTEM!

“-subject is haphazardly traversing the sector with no sense of direction or coordination. HUD and automap are not currently disabled by malware, so it is unknown what the subject is so frenetic over-”

When he’d find this Griefer, he was going to tear its tongue out THROUGH ITS ASSHOLE!

Pale and horrid things cowered in the shadows as the Slayer approached, but his mind was solely focused on finding the zombie operating the PA system.

“Will now attempt to see if psionic stimuli will cause behavioral change. Engaging audio test one, playing file dbstp.skrlx.2010…now.”

At that moment an abhorrent stream of electronic modulated tones and bass lines began emanating from the facility speakers like the outflow of a sewer pipe. Howls and screeches of pain echoed across Lazarus, and the Slayer held his hands up to his ears as his very eyeballs shook within his skull.

The sounds were horrendous and migraine-inducing, without structure or composition, sounding to the Slayer like an audio processor having explosive diarrhea. He shot the nearest wall speaker to pieces as he brought up his automap. The Rambler’s signal vaguely originated from the front, but he still couldn’t locate it.

Furious, the Slayer approached the next gate and kicked on it only to find the doorframe collapse over a blank wall, and a new message appeared on his HUD.

DEMONIC MALWARE DETECTED

MALWARE TYPE: VIRUS

EFFECT: DISABLES AMMO FABRICATION

<...diagnostic. Purging demonic malware...>

“..subject has come into contact with a malware Backdoor…”

AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!

The Slayer equipped the Gauss Cannon and charged a siege blast to maximum capacity before firing it directly at the wall in front of him. BZZT PSHEWW!! A dazzling blue flash and a resonating BOOM, and he’d opened himself a corridor towards the Rambler. He sped through multiple rooms and piles of rubble as he checked his automap, and a bright red dot appeared once the Praetor Suit finally triangulated the signal.

THERE YOU ARE!!

He made a sharp left as he headed down a secluded hallway, and kicked down the gate at the end to enter a secret communications room. A single Griefer with a fully obscured cybernetic face stood up from a transmission desk and backed away in fear.

Found you, shitheel.

The Slayer took a step into the room and flinched as a wall-mounted kinetic mine promptly shot out and exploded against his face.

“Ha ha ha!” Growled the Griefer. “Seems I had the last laugh, Slayer!

What…?”

The smoke dissipated and the Slayer reappeared, only with 12 less HEALTH, a bit of soot on his visor, and a considerably worse temper.

“Oh no.”

The Slayer raised his hand and clenched it into a fist in front of the Rambler.

Tongue out through the asshole, asshole.

“Aaaaaaggggggrrrrrrwwwwwweeeeeeaaaaaa!” A sound of ripping flesh and a vile SPLAT across the walls, and a lifeless body wetly slumped against the transmission terminal.

The Slayer grimaced as he let go of the Griefer’s flopping tongue in his hand, faintly repulsed at what he’d just done, yet he couldn’t help but chuckle. Now he knew where the demon’s shit taste in music came from.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

“Is anyone there?” Spoke a soft tinny voice from seemingly nowhere. The Slayer and the Sentry Bot on his shoulder confusedly looked around for the source of the voice. “Could you come over here?”

The voice came from below. He checked under the comms desk to find a small white tripod with a bright red eye staring back at him.

“There you are.”

PEW! A laser then shot out from the tripod and struck the Slayer in the eye. He winced and stepped back in reflex with 3 less HEALTH as the tripod crawled out from beneath the desk. PEW! PEW! PEW!

He kicked at the robot, which crashed on the wall before landing on its side on the floor as a sparking mess.

“Malfunctioning. Critical error.”

“I don’t believe it,” spoke Hayden. “That’s a Sentry Turret. Olivia was supposed to have destroyed all of those. Sentry Bot technology was mine to advance, not hers-!”

The Sentry Bot on the Slayer’s shoulder released a harsh inquisitive BLIP. The Slayer paid the broken turret no mind and turned to exit the comms room, but the Sentry Bot had jumped off his shoulder and angrily waddled towards the white robot.

“No,” the turret began. “No! NO! NOOOOoooooOOOOOO!!”

* * *

“You really think you can pull this off?”

“Now that I have the Bloodstone, I understand more of this language or code I use to cast my spells. If I try, I’ll be able to craft this entirely new spell from scratch.”

“But this isn’t a normal spell, John. This isn’t Hellfire or some demon wasps, this is something completely different.”

“The Void beyond Creation. That’s what the Ravager called it. Whatever it is, it’s something that originates outside of Hell. Something older and darker.

By its very nature, it opposes. It negates, but without malice or intent. True and pure nothingness.”

“You really want to mess with something like that? This Void doesn’t seem to swear any allegiance to anything, or anyone.”

“I already harness it with my shade dash. If it’s a small amount, I think my power will be enough to keep it in check.

Besides, I’ll start with something simple. Like I said, my shadow. If this spell works, I’ll create a shadowy clone of myself, infused with this Void, that’ll mimic my actions and attack enemies.”

“John-”

“Don’t worry, it’ll be designed to be projected from me, much like a normal shadow. I’ll have full control and it won’t be able to harm me-”

“John!”

“Woah.”

I had stepped into a different and novel sector of the Deimos Base. Grimy steel halls lined with ancient computers and sputtering CRT screens. Countless switches, blinking lights, and electronic strips beeped and blipped as I walked past. They covered the walls, the ceiling, the strange cubic structures interspersed across the chambers.

“Unbelievable. Is this all from Deimos’ computer infrastructure?”

“Hell’s power must have caused the labs’ machines to spread and overrun this facility. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“What’s all this even for?”

“I don’t think it has a point. It’s just a side effect of the moon being consumed by Hell. I doubt it serves any purpose anymore.”

I wasn’t convinced. The Deimos labs were empty - at least from demons or beings other than those the Deraki had dropped to hunt me down - but I still felt a deep sense of foreboding walking beside those ancient machines. Massive monolithic things conversing in their unspoken long-lost languages, heeding no masters and paying me no more thought than the specks of dust wafting through the air.

For some reason, their indifference terrified me more than if they had been openly hostile.

“I don’t like this.”

I hurried past the ominous computers until I reached a portion of the labs where the machines had not yet spread, revealing dark digital walls with electric blue lines criss-crossing their faces. The tiled metallic floor likewise became a stony dark blue surface, and occasional concrete pillars dotted the walls and corners of that otherwise blue maze. I passed the time by brainstorming my idea for a Void shadow, considering how to formulate and precisely cast the spell until I came to a halt in front of an industrial gate that blocked the passage, a golden ethereal shield shimmering over it with intricate lines and symbols constantly appearing and fading.

“Colonel?”

“That’s a technoarcane seal. Judging by the intensity of its energy, a good one too. Very strong, very durable. Gonna be a bitch to get through.”

“Can I shoot it down?” I asked as I primed my machine guns.

“That won’t do you any good. You’d have to be an expert sorcerer to take down a seal this strong, and you won’t be able to circumvent it either.

Fortunately, seals like this are designed to be locally accessible if you have the right relic…and look at that. A matching signal not far from where you are. Get that relic and you’ll be able to go right through that seal.”

I frowned and turned back in the direction of the signal on my radar.

Gotta backtrack through this fucking place just to get some stupid key thing. Great.

* * *

One move.

The Slayer kept his super shotgun aimed at the hovering red-eyed supply drone carrying an ammo pack.

One solitary, single, fucking move, and he would blast the little shitstain robot back to Hell. His Sentry Bot’s aggressive stance suggested similar intent.

Between the tougher demons, Griefers evidently having scavenged all supplies, and the fucking virus in the Praetor Suit’s systems currently disabling ammo fabrication, the Slayer found himself understocked for the inevitable next fight. He’d found a few batteries for the chainsaw thus far, but he wanted as much possible munition before the final Hell Hunter showed up.

Even if it meant sacrificing some HEALTH to this Blood Drone.

The Slayer eased forward, extending his free hand towards the unconcerned robot. As soon as he had the ammo in his hand, he was going to shoot the shit out of it regardless.

The Blood Drone suddenly darted forward, grabbed hold of his arm with two robotic clamps, and plunged a syringe into his wrist.

MOTHERF-!

The large syringe filled completely in a few seconds, lowering the Slayer’s HEALTH by 10 to 74 just as the drone threw its pack at his face. Furious and disoriented, the Slayer pulled the trigger but the Drone had already teleported away, and his buckshot passed through empty air and vaporized on the reinforced wall.

DAMN!!

The pack had opened and spilled its contents on the floor of the break room where the Slayer found the Blood Drone. A crate of shells and a bundle of rockets. Better than nothing. He sighed and siphoned the spilled munitions into his storage matrix.

Lazarus was getting to him. He was no stranger to frustration or aggravation, but in Hell there were no problems he couldn’t solve with a gun or, if that failed, a bigger gun. It wasn’t so simple on Mars. The familiar facilities invoked unpleasant memories, and humans opposed him in ways that no demon ever could. It had been so long since he’d fought against his own kind.

One last thumb-sized rocket lay on the floor. The Slayer knelt down to pick it up, and standing back up he caught sight of the three vending machines at the end of the Lazarus break room. After a moment of quiet debating, he flicked the rocket into the air and caught it as he approached the machines. Without warning, the Sentry Bot suddenly beeped and jumped off his shoulder to crawl into a small duct at floor level, too small for him to pass through. He looked at the robot in surprise but remembered it was protected by its matrix link to the Praetor Suit, and he relaxed somewhat as its footsteps and warbling faded into the metallic vents.

Whatever, but if it got attacked, he wasn’t about to jump into that tiny vent to save its sorry ass.

The Slayer returned his attention to the three Mixom-brand vending machines, labeled for hot foods, drinks, and snacks. The last one had candies, pastries, nuts, and cookies, but the Slayer needed something heavier if he was to take his mind off of Lazarus. The second one had water, milk, soy milk - fucking Hell - juices, and soft drinks. Robo Cola, Thirsty Burst, Anodyne Heartthrob, and P…Powerthirst.

An energy drink for men, read the Powerthirst can. MENERGY!

The Slayer huffed and selected the button for the can, glancing to see the display charging $14.99. He immediately kicked the machine and overrode it with his Hack Module, hearing the can drop into the dispensing tray before he picked it, turning around to check the Sentry Bot wasn’t back to see his anti-machine violence.

Fucking prices.

Sounds of a laser and something howing suddenly echoed from the vent the Sentry Bot had crawled into. He glanced with slight worry at the tight crawlspace, before checking his dossier for the bot’s status and seeing it completely unharmed.

Eh, it was fine.

He walked over to the next vending machine labeled “Hot Food Express.” Burgers, hot dogs, fries, pizza, fried chicken, spaghetti, tacos…what sorts of pizza? Cheese, pepperoni, sardines, bacon, pineap-

PINEAPPLE? PINEAPPLE ON PIZZA?

The Slayer grimaced in disgust, selecting two pepperoni slices from the display and grabbing the small steaming box that emerged from the dispensing tray. The sooner he could leave and forget about the twenty-second century people’s heinous pineapple pizza, the better.

At that moment the Sentry Bot waddled out of the vent and jumped back on his shoulder, dripping demon blood and carrying a conspicuous luminous green object in its front legs. A BFG fusion core, which the Slayer received from it.

Little devil, he thought to himself, ingressing the fusion core with a smile for a full count of three BFG shots. He was starting to grow fond of the little bot. He grabbed the energy drink and moved it to his storage before hurrying out of the break room.

“It’s good to see you stopped for lunch in the middle of a PLANET-WIDE DEMON INVASION FROM HELL!” Yelled an enraged Hayden as the Slayer retracted his helmet and opened the pizza takeout box.

“Hmmm.”

The Slayer paid the two no attention as he grabbed one of the pizza slices and bit into it. Hot, cheesy, meaty, and savory, much how he expected. Ordinary pizza from an ordinary vending machine.

Yet it brought back other memories too. Sitting in a stadium with his father, watching the football teams play below while the two wore orange jerseys and rooted for their home team. The Longhorns, they were called. He couldn’t have been more than eight or nine. Those were the good years.

That was one of the few good memories he had of his father.

“Wee-woo,” hummed the Sentry Bot. “WEE-WOO!”

The Slayer cleared his throat as his foot kicked a zombie’s corpse out of the way, realizing he was a wide-open target with no helmet and both hands full of food, but he felt much better. That was all he needed to get his head back in the game. Glancing to make sure he was alone, he quickly wolfed down the two slices and sighed comfortably at the warm feeling in his stomach.

Running his tongue at the sauce and cheese stuck in his teeth, he extracted the energy drink from his storage and popped it open with a thumb. Time to taste this “menergy.”

He brought the can to his mouth and chugged. Nothing but carbonated water, sugar, salt, and probably a list of chemicals he couldn’t pronounce even if he could speak. He gasped as he brought the half-empty can down with an intense sizzling in his mouth.

Damn, that stung like a motherfucker! That shit looked and tasted like radioactive waste! But damn if it wasn’t fresh.

He gulped down the remainder and threw the empty can into a recycling chute as he fiercely exhaled while gritting his teeth, deploying his helmet and equipping his shotgun before setting off into Lazarus once more.

* * *

Ruby hurried heavily down the dark halls of the Delta Labs, though she wasn’t sure if they were rather Lazarus, nor did she care.

She had been through much longer without sleep or food, yet the haze of exhaustion weighed heavily upon her body and mind, even as her developing mutations kept her more awake and alert than ever. She felt as if she was being wrung out of all her strength and willpower, and yet she was still demanded to continue. She pushed herself to continue.

The Hellshot Rifle felt hot and heavy in her hands. Her limbs felt drained, her exposed clawed arm throbbed with pain, her eyes stung and her forehead was killing her. As if a stake was being driven through it.

I would do anything for a medpack. Hell, I’d kill for some water.

She looked off to the side, spotting a sign indicating a supply room at the bottom of a short staircase. She turned away from the main path and walked down the stairs with Hellshot at the ready when the gate suddenly opened with a loud BANG and something pounced at her.

She flinched and stumbled back onto the stairs, catching only a brief glimpse of something long and fleshy snapping its teeth and snarling at her before it retreated back into the fleshy mass behind the two doors, which slammed shut.

“Metus, Dolor, Mors ac Formidonis,” came a low echoing voice from behind the door.

Before she could process what just happened, she heard a growing whispering as fiery summoning circles began opening on the walkway above the stairs. She leapt to her feet and climbed to leave her lower position as the demons swiftly appeared. Glassy black skin stretched over a distended skeletal body covered with dull blue cybernetic implants, two clawed robotic arms, and an eyeless robotic head revealing two sets of pointed human-like teeth.

Nightmare Imps!

She rushed away from the creatures as ear-splitting screeches echoed behind her. There was a serpent-like rattling and the sound of channeling Hellfire. Ruby spun around and slashed the Vorpal Sword through the air to deflect two swift and homing azure fireballs back at the demons. They struck, but the demons were tough and followed after her.

She sprinted loudly down the narrow oppressive corridors of the Delta Labs, over flimsy grated walkways and past pulsating tissue extending across the walls. It was pitch black but she could see.

She could see better than ever.

Her eye still stung, but the deep underground labs seemed to her as clear and illuminated as if the lights were on at full intensity. She could perceive the sinister energy permeating the place, drenching the floor and emanating from the foul Hellgrowth. A flare of steam suddenly burst from the grated floor in front of her, throwing the grate off as a dark hand and dull blue eyeless head peered through. Something in the distance screeched as it closed in.

Without a moment to lose, Ruby rushed forward and grabbed the Nightmare Imp by the throat to pin it on the wall. She held her right arm back to charge a Power Slam and thrust it into the demon’s chest, covering herself in blood and guts. The door to the room slid open and the pursuing Nightmare Imps revealed themselves. Ruby drew the Vorpal Sword from her back and threw it at the first one’s head, impaling it perfectly between the eyes as the other one leapt around its slain companion and pounced at Ruby. She summoned the sword back to her hand and slashed at the pouncing demon, but this vanished in a burst of azure particles to reappear behind her. Without stopping she spun around and raised her blade to block the demon’s clawing slash, which pushed against her until she hit the wall. She struggled to keep the Nightmare Imp away as it snapped and snarled at her helmet. Resolute, she butted her head against it to shatter its metallic cranial equipment. The creature released her and shrieked as blood poured out of the gaping hole in its head until Ruby slashed her left arm and the demon silently crumbled, its head clanging on the floor moments later.

More screeches echoed around her, and Ruby looked up to find five Nightmare Imps emerging from the shadows in front of her. Something hissed behind, and another six Nightmare Imps made their presence. She was completely surrounded. She triggered Reactive Armor and raised her sword in preparation to face them all.

A red tentacle suddenly shot from a ceiling vent and impaled one of the Nightmare Imps, and Ruby’s eyes widened in horror.

There was a monstrous roaring as the shapeless red horror emerged in a flurry of spiked tendrils from the vent, and the Nightmare Imps shrieked in unison as the creature descended upon them. The red form grabbed one Imp by the foot and slammed it on the wall to break its back, slammed its body against three more to crush them with its weight alone, shot harpoon-like tendrils to impale another four. Disoriented by the confusion, Ruby ducked under azure fireballs and slid under red tentacles as she attempted to leave the chamber. Harpoons and spiked tendrils whipped at her, but her Reactive Armor mitigated major damage.

The Nightmare Imps screeched at the red creature and threw azure fireballs at it as they teleported around its attacks and clawed viciously at its flesh. Bits of bleeding red tissue splattered on the walls and wormed away at Ruby’s feet. Roaring, the creature harpooned another imp and dragged it into its body, manifesting a horrendous toothed maw to tear the howling Nightmare Imp apart before absorbing the dismembered tissue into its form. Twisted remnants of blue cybernetic components dropped beneath it moments later.

Retching in disgust, Ruby managed to reach the sealed gate and placed her right hand on the access panel. The gate opened but before she could pass, a spiderweb-like mass shot from seemingly nowhere and pinned her hand to the wall. Ruby turned in horror towards the red creature.

It was the Carrion she’d glimpsed earlier prowling in the vent. It was massive, almost four meters in diameter, a writhing red mass of tentacles, teeth, and gelatinous yellow-green eyes shifting in wild disharmony. The bodies of Nightmare Imps lay on the floor in various states of mutilation, while the torso of another disappeared into the Carrion to the sound of squelching flesh and crunching bone. The creature’s eyes hungrily glared at her, and its many drooling mouths opened as it slowly approached. Ruby desperately drew the Hellshot with her left arm and aimed it at the Carrion. PEW PEW PEW!

“RAAAAHHHH!!”

The three shots she managed to get off struck the Carrion and blasted portions of its writhing flesh off with their scarlet flames, before the demon sped at her and whipped the rifle out of her hand and bit into her arm.

“AAAA-!”

“RAAAAOOOOWWWW!”

The Carrion inexplicably released her and backed off in what could only be described as a cowering motion. Ruby’s mutated arm was surprisingly still attached, the monster’s attack only a flesh wound that was already sealing on its own, but the Carrion’s limb that had struck the Hellshot was melting into a fiery sludge before her eyes.

“Yeah, you didn’t like that,” began Ruby in a low voice that gradually became fiercer. “You didn’t like that, did you, bitch!”

With a great pull, Ruby tore her right arm free from the webspit and summoned the discarded rifle back to her arms as she angrily approached the recoiling Carrion.

PEW PEW PEW! PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW!

The demon shrieked as the searing spirits torched its body with every hit. There were splatters of blood and bits of burning wormlike flesh that scurried beneath as the monster struggled to keep itself from setting afire, but Ruby landed a hit on its central body and the whole monster went up in flames. Tendrils whipped and slashed as the creature rolled in an attempt to extinguish the flames, before turning around and speeding away from Ruby in a shapeless red blaze.

It was several moments before Ruby realized she was panting with fury. Her furrowed eyebrows slowly raised, and her gaze fell upon the carnage around her. She slung the Hellshot on her back and hurried out the room.

“I must say, Agent Taylor. I didn’t figure you for the temperamental type,” echoed Betruger’s voice, much to Ruby’s ire. “You should really schedule an appointment with your therapist. It’s important to manage one’s emotions to lead a life of-

PAIN AND SUFFERING.”

“I’ll manage my anger by wringing the life out of you once I get my hands round your pale wrinkly neck!”

“Ageism, Agent Taylor? How unprofessional,” continued Betruger without ever losing his mocking tone. “Perhaps I should file a complaint with Jessica in Human Resour-”

“SHUT UP AND DIE, YOU TRAITOROUS FREAK!”

“Ohohoh, wow!” Betruger heartily laughed. “Glass houses, Agent! Perhaps before criticizing others, you should reflect upon your own self.”

Ruby’s ire evaporated into confusion. Glass houses? What does he mean?

“I do mean it literally.

Have you recently seen yourself in the mirror, Agent Taylor?”

Ruby halted as an inexplicable chill raced up her spine.

“Tell you what, why don’t you slip into that restroom on your right? Do some proper self-reflection of your own?”

Her gaze drifted to the open doorway of a restroom beside her. The ceiling light weakly flickered over bloody drag trails leading inside.

“Nothing will jump out at you in there, I promise.

Nothing except what you bring with you.”

Ruby gulped as a cold sweat broke upon her brow. She nervously clenched her hands, then took one step, and another towards the restroom. Her left arm felt warmer than ever. She grimly remembered the stinging in her eyes and the piercing headache. She felt the faint compulsion to feel her face before she forced the feeling down.

What…what has happened to me?

She was painfully aware of the sparking ceiling lights, the dripping of water and the soft splashing of puddles beneath her feet. She turned the short corner to enter an empty restroom with broken tiles and open stalls. The blood trail ended beneath an open bloodstained hatch on the ceiling. There were two hand wash sinks, and a mirror over each of these. She slowly approached the nearest one.

Ruby took short gasping breaths. Her chest felt tight, and her heart seemed about to beat out of it. She reached the sink and stepped into the mirror’s light.

Her left arm had become a monstrous abomination of charred skin and red scales. Only now did she notice her left pinky was gone, and her left hand ended with four viciously sharp talons, with long red spikes extending from her elbow and shoulder.

Most horrifyingly, she looked at her helmet, and couldn’t recognize what she saw. There was a twisted dark shape on her forehead, and a bright red spot on the right side of her helmet. She tenderly raised her hand to touch it, and blinked when she touched her own eye, the red glare likewise fading and reappearing in the mirror.

“No.”

She frantically touched the thing on her forehead. It was hard and pointed, and she could feel it was attached not to the helmet but to her own head. A horn.

“No,” she repeated louder.

When she spoke, she noticed the metallic toothed mouth-like seam on her helmet open and close, and a low resonating voice that wasn’t entirely her own reached her ears.

“NO!” She finally yelled. “NO!”

She tried to pull her helmet off. It was firmly attached to her suit and wouldn’t budge, only feeling like she was trying to pull off her own head. Desperate, Ruby brought her clawed left hand across it to tear it off.

“AAAHHH!”

A portion of the left side broke away to reveal a normal eye and mouth, but the right side remained firmly attached as a viciously painful sensation burned across Ruby’s face, followed by the sensation of dripping blood. As she stared, the deep gouges on the helmet sealed themselves, and a blackish fluid poured from it onto the sink.

“NOO!” She slammed her hands on the wall and began to cry. The tiling shattered and cracked the mirror, a bright fiery glow dripping from her eye in her shattered reflection.

“NOOOOOO!!”

* * *

Cont.