One nondescript day, in a nondescript location in the rather negatively descript land of Hell, a more positively descript angel would arrive. This angel would go on to be the temporary father of three demons, before taking on the vigil of the god of death.
This is not his story.
This also isn't the story of "Doomslayer" Ordan Veron, High Templar of the Night Sentinels and sole testament to the glory of the desecrated Argent D'Nur, though he is a major character.
This is, instead, the story of his Reckoning of Lead, and the repercussions of it which live on to this day.
Ordan awoke from his slumber.
It took him only a few seconds to examine himself, and his armory. Full health, armor and suit intact, weapons present, plenty of ammo. Good- even if that fool Hayden was too shortsighted to see the error of his ways, even after Pierce's rebellion, he had still considered what Ordan would require on his mission. Getting up and dusting himself off, his hand went to his side and brought up the flash drive which currently contained VEGA's core program.
VEGA... Ordan could not find it in him to fault the AI for his assisting Hayden. Though it was incapable of questioning the cyborg's actions, it interpreted them to the best of its ability, and its diligence had been a key factor in preventing Earth's energy crisis. If only he hadn't had to sacrifice his storage facility to return to his corrupted homeland and eliminate Pierce's blight.
He looked down, to the module port on his Praetor suit. While the AI would never live up to its former power without proper hardware, it may serve to his benefit in the near future. The soldier brought the flash drive to the port, plugging it in and waiting as the data transferred itself to the computers stored within the suit.
After a minute, the HUD VEGA had supplied him with reappeared, and the AI's synthesized voice returned to life in his comms channel.
"...Doomslayer. You restored me?"
Ordan smiled as the AI returned to life.
"Yes, VEGA. There is yet work to be done."
"The readings I am detecting are... odd, Doomslayer." As the two looked over the small village of abnormally animalistic Demons, Ordan quirked an eyebrow under his helmet.
"How so, VEGA?"
"Among other functions, I am equipped to detect and denote levels of demonic-energy-induced malevolence. My current readings indicate that the more diminutive Demons-" here VEGA highlighted the more child-like among the hellspawn "-have far lower malevolence ratings than the bare minimum for any ranked Demon or Possessed. Their rating is more comparable to a mischievous pre-pubescent than to a hellspawn proper." The Doomslayer frowned. He knew why they seemed like children- they likely were- but he had only ever encountered adult Demons. If they weren't even demonic enough for VEGA to register them...
"VEGA, from here on out mark every Demon that follows your description of their malevolence rating as non-combatants. If they are not evil enough to register, they are not worth my attention."
"...confirmed, Doomslayer. May I assume that we will begin the assault shortly?"
"Indeed, VEGA. Load the Haste and Berserk PUs, and activate them on my mark."
"Confirmed."
With that, Ordan crouched and leapt off of the cliff edge, landing some yards from the village.
As the children yelled in surprise and the adults whipped around to gauge the source of the impact, the two groups were given pause by the intimidating presence of the Doomslayer, even as he picked himself up from the crater he had caused.
After a moment of the soon-to-be-combatants staring at each other, one of the Demons made the first move, charging in with flaming hands and screaming deprecations at him in typical Demonic fashion, the others following suit.
Ordan simply shrugged, indicating to VEGA to activate the PUs, then moved into a combat stance with his plasma rifle as the demonic boons began to surge through his veins, his signature battle cry blaring into the hellscape with enough volume to send the eardrums of the Demons ringing.
"RIP AND TEAR!"
Then, the Night Sentinel was lost in a tornado of lead, plasma and gore.
It seemed he really had crippled Hell. These Demons were nothing to him.
While the Doomslayer supposed that this particular section of Hell should have been something of a break, he could only manage to feel... disappointed.
Either the power standard of the realm these Demons had to torment was depressingly low, or this section was where they dumped those too weak to live. Either way, they never stood a snowball's chance in, well, Hell against his assault. Most altercations never lasted more than half a minute.
One in particular, though, grabbed his interest. Namely, one pair of Demons foolish enough to attack him possessed what appeared to be an oversized egg cell, about the size of a human chest. Indeed, Ordan could just barely see a near-complete fetus in the near-opaque surface, and VEGA's DNA analysis matched genetic markers to both of the demons in possession of it.
Ordan cringed a bit at the fact that he had just orphaned a child before they were even born. Well, his parents were verified assailants, so he had done what he needed to. What disturbed him more was VEGA's report on the casing.
"It would appear that the embryotic shell sustained heavy damage from your shrapnel, Doomslayer. Without my intervention, this could result in prenatal mental inhibition once the child is fully developed."
Ordan sighed, carefully running a gloved hand over the egg. It was his fault that this child was damaged- he may as well fix it.
"...VEGA, see about reconstructing the shell."
When Darius happened upon the egg, he did not know what to think.
Iratu had found it standing unguarded, whilst they were playing hide-and-seek. The only thing near the egg to indicate who it belonged to was a note resting beside it, in a language Iratu could not read.
When Darius looked over the note, he instantly realized why- it had been written in neat, professional Angelic.
To whichever charitable soul finds this note,
When I encountered this child's parents, I knew not that they had a son. I knew only that they intended to rid me from this world. Because of my negligence, this child has been orphaned at my hands. For that, I am truly sorry.
Due to the circumstances above, I have granted a name to this child in his parents' stead- Bethuel. Please give him a good home, and a good family. No sins hang over his heart, and the Lords know that this world needs more charitable souls. I am sure that you will understand.
When Darius reached the bottom of the note, however, his heart stopped, and his hands began to shake.
Sincerely, Ordan Veron.
Ordan Veron. The Doomslayer. The same man who had mercilessly slaughtered Sakido's entire village singlehandedly, only to leave a mockingly formal note at the scene of the vile act. The same man, who, undoubtedly, intended to do the same throughout Hell. This man, this monster, dared to cast aside this child so frivolously?
When Sakido tried to get a good look at what Darius was reading, she recoiled when she saw her adoptive father's face, set in a rictus of fury.
For a long while after Bethuel hatched, Darius would spend most of his time embracing the infant, keeping the Demon's face buried in his chest to hide his glare of muted anger.
This changed when the very man he decried as a monster saved him from death.
Ordan shot awake in an instant as VEGA sent his warning processors into overdrive.
"I have detected a Demon assaulting a minor Angelic entity seventy-nine meters south, Doomslayer. Please respond immediately."
The soldier needed no more instruction.
When he arrived at the scene, he did so just in time to witness the bird-like Demon send his claws straight through the Angel's weakened shield, disemboweling him and cackling as the Angel fell.
The Demon's laughter stopped as a high-velocity round from Ordan's assault rifle splattered the rock next to him with bone fragments and grey matter.
Even as the Angel and the demonic children surrounding him yelled in surprise from the sudden death, the Doomslayer wasted no time in reaching the wounded Angel.
For the second time, Darius' heart seemed to stop- though, given that he was slowly dying from blood loss and would soon enter shock, it likely wasn't too far from the truth.
The man who had used some sort of magic to obliterate the attacking Demon's head towered over him- and the phrase "towered" was quite serious in this context, given that he was tall enough to stare a Wind Demon in the eye and seemed to have enough muscle to manhandle an Earth Demon. As the huge man gazed down at them, Darius felt as if he was being stared down by Syndel herself.
Then the giant swooped down, jamming a syringe into the defenseless Angel's chest cavity.
...it took a while for Darius to open his eyes again. The pain from the stab wound was gone.
He looked down as he realized that the rest of the pain had gone, too. Whatever was in that syringe had just restored him to full health within seconds. How?
Sakido didn't seem to share his awed sentiment. In fact, she was on the verge of bolting as she stared up at the giant, not noticing the dark streak running down her pant leg.
"I-i... it's... i-it's..." As Sakido stammered on, Darius became confused, then suspicious of the man. He knew that he was intimidating, but to have that kind of reaction even after he'd proved his goodwill?
Then Bethuel squeaked with the happiness a newborn could only show to a parent and threw his arms around the enormous man's ankle, and the pieces clicked into place. His face took on the half-aware, enraged pallor that Iratu and Sakido had grown used to as Darius stood up, looking up into the giant's faceplate.
"...you."
The slaughterer seemed unfazed by the Angel's rage. "Yes. I."
Darius' hands balled into fists. "...how? How could you just... do that to them? To the children?"
It took a moment for Ordan to respond, his sigh showing that he seemed to share Darius' sentiment. "As I have stated earlier, I regret that this must be done."
"When why? Could you not just leave, and let these children lead their lives in peace?" Darius' rant was cut short as the giant's faceplate suddenly came within inches of the Angel's face.
"No. I could not." With the flick of his ankle, the Doomslayer dislodged Bethuel from his leg, before he began to pace. "What you do not understand, Angel, is that I do not take enjoyment from this crusade. I do not do this out of some sense of revenge, though that was the case at first. No, Angel." Again, Darius found himself staring into the inky blackness of the giant's helmet. "I do what I do because there is no second option. Because without me to stop the Demons, they will bring this existence crashing down."
Darius' rage was gone at this point. He recognized Ordan's reasoning, but... "...why must it be you, then? Why you, Ordan?"
With that, the giant paused in his pacing once more. "It is simple, Angel. I do this, alone, because no one else will. Because no one else can." Ordan threw his arms out, indicating their surroundings. "I have fought beings who could flatten this land to the bedrock, and there is not a thing you could do about it. I have lived through encounters which would have left a lesser man a gibbering wreck for the rest of his life. You simply do not understand the scope of my actions. This world needs me, Angel." The Doomslayer seemed ready to say more, but paused as he looked in the direction of the true city of Hell, lights flickering in the black of his helmet.
"Well, Angel, this has been an interesting discussion. Perhaps we will have it again. For now, I've more work to attend to." Before Darius could butt in, the Doomslayer took off, his sprinting quick enough to form a notable gust in his wake.
Darius gulped in apprehension, even as the indignant roars of Cerberus reached his ears.
For many Demons, the Reckoning of Lead is not a happy memory- a perfectly reasonable opinion on it, given its ferocity, which some claim would make Syndel himself pale in comparison.
The precise date of the event has, unfortunately, been lost to time. What is known is that Ordan's aptly-named rampage did not so much weaken Hell as it did snap every bone in its body and leave it to fester in a garbage heap. In only two to three days, the Doomslayer personally slaughtered every Demon old enough to join Hell's Army, their bodies left in tatters by metal and sheer heat. Even the vaunted guardian of Hell, Cerberus, did not know mercy from the one-man army- indeed, Death went on a minor rage of his own when he discovered his creation rotting outside the gate to Hell, its every head bisected to the clavicle by a serrated blade and its torso blasted to smithereens for good measure.
Without a proper Guardian, and no parent figures to guide and morph the orphans of Hell, all that the following Angelic expeditions to the infernal realm discovered were loose groups of pubescent to infantile Demons, some too traumatized to even notice the Angels' approach. Needless to say, the Angels showed sympathy to them, taking them under their figurative and literal wings as they quietly picked up the reins of Hell. Today, the sight of demonic immigrants in the more densely populated cities of Medius is a not-uncommon sight.
No comment on the event, or indeed any further actions, could be procured from the Doomslayer, as following the ruthless event he disappeared without a trace, barring some eyewitness acounts. Today, reactions to his campaign are mixed- some declare him to have been an avatar of Syndel striking down the Demons for their impudence, others decry him as a genocidal maniac with too much power for any one person to handle, and yet others elect to ignore him, seeing as his time has passed. Whatever their stance, all recognize that the Doomslayer's actions have irrevocably changed the order of the Four Realms forever.
Whether this change is good or not still has yet to be seen. Indeed, even as the former denizens of Hell lick their wounds, some say that Heaven's power grows by the day, especially with the arrival of their newest guests, the Archangels.