Beyond Doom's Gate.


"They are rage..."

A wave of impure blood stained his visor yet again.

But at this point, he couldn't care less about such petty trifles; After all, he had bathed in the blood of the slaves of Doom for centuries: Down below in the darkest and deepest abyss of hell, the demons swarmed him like the common locus, eager to put an end to his unstoppable onslaught and his endless thirst for violence. But they were fools; Primal and stupid creatures that believed him no different from the other warriors that had fallen in their clutches. They believed they could break him, they believed they could corrupt him, they believed they would finish him...

They were wrong...

"Brutal, without mercy..."

Behind his impenetrable armor lied a blazing maelstrom of fury. A force of nature that could and would not be stopped... Perhaps delayed, but his glorious anger would surely thwart those pitiful attempts of rebellion against the very definition of power. His holy crusade would leave a trail of brutalized corpses and unrecognizable remains of the monsters hiding in the shadows. Wielding impossible weapons, he would slaughter anything that dared cross his path without a second thought.

No matter how many he killed, no matter how many came after him. He would never tire, he would never sleep, he would never rest. His righteous fist would crush any opposition and obstacle in his wake... There was no purpose behind his actions, no objective following his rage...

Nothing but the demons and his undying wrath.

"But you, you will be worse..."

But maybe there was something else behind the terrifying green suit, perhaps there was something in those eyes concealed by the visor. Maybe, just maybe he was not only chasing after the slaves of Doom in a deranged crusade. Perhaps he was running away from the things he did before he became the Doom Slayer.

The most ancient demons could remember the glorious day when they finally succeeded and brought down the brilliant city of Argent D'Nur: They could still feel the exhilaration when they began to drain the Wraiths: Siphoning their powers, feeding on their desperation, and enjoying the pain of every soul that was being consumed by their brethren. It had been a crushing victory: Argent D'Nur had completely merged with hell and there was nothing the Night Sentinels could do to return everything to normal. They cackled as the poor bastards fell into the pits of the damned, relishing in their delicious screams of agony.

That was until they heard it: It wasn't a terrified scream or a desperate shriek. No, it was a furious roar that made them shake to their very core.

And from the darkest pit, he rose to never stop...

"So rip and tear, until it is done..."

And now, he walks the path of eternal torment, chasing after the unholy creatures that destroyed his home, slaughtered his comrades, and defiled the only thing that made him human in any shape or form. He abandoned his old self, buried beneath his endless rage and fury, and became the perfect predator that would hunt and brutalize every single one of them.

His unadulterated wrath became impossible to corrupt. He felt neither fear nor pain. Mercy had been forgotten alongside the remains of the man that he used to be... And as such, he forgot what drove him to this point. He forgot what created him in the first place. He forgot what he promised to avenge. He forgot his sins and his regrets... And the things he loved a long time ago.

But in the end, it was necessary.

He became the only thing neither the slaves of Doom or the emissaries of Light could stop: The Seraphim blessed him with unlimited endurance, impossible stamina, and tremendous strength. The Wretched gifted him his unbreakable armor and powerful weapons to sate his endless bloodlust.

He became a force every demon learned to fear. He chased them to the very core of hell, a place were things made little to no sense. He witnessed things that would drive any lesser man mad... But little he cared for such things: So long as there were demons to kill, he would walk right into the end of the world without a single care in the world.

So he ran after them; He ran and he killed as many as he could get his hands on. He ran until the pits of fire became frozen lakes of betrayal. He ran until the rivers of ice became an endless darkness. He ran until there was nothing but him and the Void...

He ran in the nothingness...

Until blue flames flared all around him...

And for once in centuries, he stopped at the sight.

He had ended in some sort of gigantic throne room with a massive chair right in front of him. Around, he could see ancients banners depicting some sort of terrifying family crest; The head of a horned creature surrounded by blue fire. Behind him, he saw a pair of humongous wooden doors cladded in rusted iron with dangerous spikes adorning its surface. Above, he saw some sort of ancient chandelier, lit with the same strange blue fire.

All things considered, he found himself greatly confused with the current state of events: He had seen weird... But this was above that, it was bizarre: He remembered running all over hell until he began descending into whatever lied beneath the Blood temples. He had passed the Cocytus and even the Event Horizon... But now, he simply had no idea where he was.

To feel anything but fury... Utterly refreshing, in his opinion.

- YOU -

- WHO ARE YOU? -

Suddenly, a torrent of blue flames ignited the room, colliding with each other and forming some sort of vortex as the howling wind screamed in agony and pain. From within the storm, a gigantic and dark creature emerged, coated in the blue fire as its eyes looked down on the Doom Slayer. The monster scowled and proceeded to roar, causing a flare of blue fire, washing over the entire room and launching the Doom Slayer into the nearest wall, causing it to shatter beneath the force of the attack. Satan snorted and looked at the small crater where the feeble creature was currently embedded into the stone. He did not know how a lowly being like that managed to sneak in his private quarters; Maybe there was some sort of anomaly in Assiah, causing random gates to open and drive whatever was unfortunate enough to be close to the phenomenon into Gehenna. It made him curious as to why such gates would open in his personal chambers and he made a mental note to appoint a few demons to investigate the event and find out how to control-

But then, his train of thoughts was interrupted when the lowlife easily got itself out of the crater and dusted his green armor with no apparent wound. The King of Gehenna found himself shocked at this: As far as he was concerned, nothing could survive the purest state of his fire; He had seen a few of his vessels dying to its overwhelming power...

- FEEBLE CREATURE -

- I IGNORE HOW OR WHY YOU CAME -

- BUT I WILL MAKE YOU REGRET EVER SETTING FOOT IN GEHENNA -

- FOR I AM SATAN, KING AND RULER OF...

But as Satan was speaking, he saw something slowly making its way towards him: It was a small silver marble. If it weren't for his heightened senses, Satan wouldn't even notice the little thing. He found himself curious and wondering what could that be... The marble finally reached his face...

And proceeded to explode right in front of his nose, spawning a cluster of smaller spheres that exploded once they made contact with his skin.

The King of Gehenna roared painfully as he staggered backward, clutching his smoking face and feeling confused: As far as he was concerned, there was little to nothing that could actually harm him in his original form. Sure, some holy and blessed weapons could give him a hard time but those annoying items would disintegrate upon reaching Gehenna; That was the little trick regarding the balance between Heaven and hell: Demons cannot invade Chelus and angels cannot attack Gehenna. As such, their war was waged on the middle-ground, Assiah, where demons attempted to corrupt as many humans as possible and the Angels countered this by saving or smiting those corrupted humans. So by definition, Satan was virtually invincible in Gehenna...

And yet, something managed to hurt him.

Rubbing his pained face, he could feel some relief as his skin and flesh was quickly regenerated. Once he was fully healed, he scanned the room, looking for the origin of such painful attack...

He only found the Green armored humanoid thing holding a long silver stick in his hands.

- YOU?! -

- WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! -

- HOW DID YOU WOUND ME?! -

- ANSWER ME, YOU LESSER BEING! -

The armored man simply cracked his neck and rushed Satan. The King of Gehenna roared in fury and unleashed another maelstrom of blue fire against the Doom Slayer but just like before, he simply powered through the flames without any injuries. Aiming his shotgun, he shot another explosive shot from the mod but this time, Satan was prepared. The demon engulfed himself in a thick coat of his fire as some sort of makeshift armor, successfully halving the damage of the shot. Satan smirked mockingly as he ignored the cluster bomb and laughed in victory; The Doom Slayer simply grunted in annoyance and brought forth his HAR, proceeding to fire bullets and run around Satan. Just like before, the bullets did nothing against the blue-flamed armor, only managing to annoy Satan even further. The dark lord lunged against the Doom Slayer with his large claws, tearing the floor and almost clipping the marine in half but to his surprise, the Doom Slayer was faster than he looked. The Marine noticed he was doing no damage with the bullets so he decided to unleash a volley of micro-missiles; The projectiles flew fast and true but once again, exploded against the flame armor without dealing any sort of damage. At this point, the Doom Slayer was getting frustrated and irritated: He hadn't met a single enemy that was so damn hard to kill... Well, maybe the Cyberdemon but that bastard was among the biggest demons he had killed.

Rushing towards the gigantic demon, he decided to try something else: If that bastard was going to hide behind fire, the Doom Slayer might as well burn that fire with something more powerful; Within his hands, the Plasma Rifle materialized and he left a salvo of ultra-heated argent powered rounds of pure energy. To his delight, the plasma rounds began eating the blue flames until they penetrated the armor and began melting the flesh of the demon. Satan suddenly found himself screaming in agony and shock as the green armored human had managed to wound him yet again; This time, defeating his armor of blue fire with seemingly ease. He roared in anger and dug his long nails on the floor, lifting a portion of the floor and hurling it at the Marine who managed to dodge it by throwing himself to the side. Satan huffed as his wounds regenerated again and even though the pain had left, his mind was a storm of questions and confusion; He was no stranger to defeat as he had been bested in more than one occasion but eventually, he would always rise victorious as his powers and status as the King of Gehenna gave him an abyssal advantage over any being, including heavenly beings.

And yet, here he was: Cornered by none other than a weak human.

Satan clenched his teeth hard and gripped hard, digging his own nails on the palm of his hands; He had enough of this nonsense. This human had humiliated him for far too long... And if his immeasurable strength was not enough, then he would simply overwhelm the armored man with numbers. So with a wicked grin, he allowed a bit of his blood to fall on the floor, creating a pungent pool of darkened liquid. From within, dark creatures began stirring to life: Lifeless puppets inferior to other demons, but far stronger due to Satan's blood. Soon, Satan had a small battalion of a hundred minions. These were bonny creatures with long tendrils and sharp teeth in their disfigured mouths. Satan barked in amusement and snapped his fingers, signaling his abomination to tear. As he had expected, the armored human had stopped moving and simply watched as the small army of dark terrors ran at him, howling with unnatural voices and snarling like deranged beasts...

But if he could see behind the visor of the Doom Slayer, Satan would surely find himself falling in great despair...

For the Hellwalker was actually smiling.

Calmly, he returned his plasma rifle in his strange pocket dimension and brought forth his second favorite weapon: The Delta-12 Chaingun.

And in the blink of an eye, Satan's battalion was reduced to a black mist as more than two hundred, twenty thousand tungsten slugs cut through his minions as if they were nothing but wet paper. But it didn't stop there, the bullets pelted his blue armor and began penetrating his flesh, damaging his organs and clipping his bones. The King of Gehenna once again screamed in agony and was forced to use his vast powers to defend himself against the hailstorm of bullets. His armor strengthened and he even summoned a few shields around him... And finally, the bullets were unable to harm his body any further.

After a few long seconds, the hail of bullets finally stopped and Satan sighed in relief. Lowering his barriers just enough to peer through them and realize the green human was gone.

At his side, he heard a whistle and Satan turned around just to received three consecutive rockets in his face; The first explosion surprised him, the second confused him, and the third managed to devastate his nose, making him roar in pain. As he screamed in agony, he felt something land on one of his hands and run along his arm. He managed to focus his eyes just in time to see the Doom Slayer right in front of him, prying open Satan's mouth, and introducing the King of Gehenna to the ol' Trusty and the Doom Slayer's favorite weapon of choice:

The Super Shotgun.

Suddenly, Satan's left cheek exploded from the inside as sixteen pellets turned his flesh and teeth in a disgusting paste.

At this point, the Demon King found himself wailing like a wounded animal, desperate to get away from whatever had damaged him this badly. So with all his might, he screamed loudly, creating a shockwave of blue flames that pushed the Doom Slayer away from him but unlike the first time, the Doom Slayer was prepared and managed to reposition himself midflight and landed properly. On the other side of the room, Satan was grasping at the open hole in his face, feeling the burning pain and slowly losing his mind. His healing factor had kicked in but the damage was so extensive it would take a long while before he was fully healed.

He couldn't believe it... It was simply impossible. How did a lowly human manage to harm him in such way? He had only felt a similar pain during the holy wars against heaven when the Seraphim pierced him with her flaming sword. He was in his domain, in the heart of Gehenna where he was virtually invincible; He couldn't count the times when his subjects had tried to dethrone him, just to find their efforts were in vain as the Demon King was impossibly strong...

And yet, here he was, whining like a common mutt and dragging his wounded body through the ground.

But then, he heard something that filled his already terrified mind with primal fear: The wheezing sound of something charging itself. He lifted his eyes to see the Green armored human holding a long metal stick with a blue core at the center. An in a single second, Satan understood what this madman was trying to do; So with his entire power, Satan raised his hands and summoned his strongest barrier: A wall of pure magic fused with his hellish blue fire. Any other day in any other situation with any other enemy, the barrier would have been impenetrable. A condensed shield capable of even negating holy attacks.

But right now, this was but the last sad attempt of a demon that knew the end was near.

The Doom Slayer felt the siege mod reaching its peak and with a toothy grin behind his visor, he unleashed a single steel flechette accelerated by the magnetized chamber and surrounded by a layer of ionized Argon gas, creating a supercharged and unstoppable plasma laser that was able to pierce through anything and reduce the biggest demons into chunks of meat...

And this one was no different.

The shot shattered the barrier and cut Satan's left arm cleanly. The dark lord watched in slow motion as his barrier began disintegrating followed by his left arm comically flying away from him until it fell on the ground with a soft thud. Grasping the bloody stump, Satan fell to the ground with a mute scream on his face. His whole anatomy was collapsing on itself by the sheer amount of pain that was bombarding his nerves; He had never been wounded this way. And for the first time in many centuries, Satan feared for his life...

Slowly, heavy steps made their way towards him. He lifted his eyes to see the Doom Slayer walking his way with the Gauss Cannon resting on his hands, the huge weapon glowing eerily with a blue hue. With each step, Satan could feel panic rising in his chest. With each step, the King of Gehenna could feel his remaining limbs trembling in fright. With each step, the Demon king came to realize that the Armored Marine hadn't appeared in his room out of coincidence...

The Hellwaker was sent to finally finish Satan once and for all.

"MY LIEGE!"

Suddenly, the huge doors were roughly opened and Satan sighed in relief at the sight: His ten strongest generals appeared with their weapons at the ready. A peculiar breed of demons born under the star of Abaddon, given the task to guard Satan against anyone and anything. Trained under Satan himself, the children of Abaddon were just as powerful as the eight Demon Kings. Creatures of wicked arts and with a bottomless pit of hunger for conflict and violence, loyal to Satan and nobody else, they were the diabolic guardians of Gehenna. Cladded in black armor and sporting a variety of cursed weapons, the children of Abaddon roared in anger at the intruder, some of them even gawking in shock upon seeing their immortal king in such sorry state.

On the other hand, the Doom Slayer found himself sighing in annoyance. He was close to executing the blue-flamed bastard and now, a bunch of nobodies had simply shown up and interrupted him. Truly, he had grown tired from playing with this creatures; The Demons he knew would relentlessly attack him with brute force, not with shady tricks and third-rate magic: He was sure the argent plasma produced by Demons could nick and even penetrated his Preator Suit. But this blue fire couldn't even heat him a bit; Sure, that big bastard had shown some neat techniques but it was all for show. The Doom Slayer simply wanted to be done with these small fries and move onto the next Blood Temple or wherever he was... So he decided to finish it all.

The Gauss Cannon disappeared and instead, he brought forth the strongest and most powerful weapon he had in his arsenal: A weapon so powerful there was only one on existence. A gun so big it couldn't be handled by a single individual but him. The reason why the BFG Division was created, exclusively to study and develop the prototype he currently had in his hands.

It was the BFG-9000.

Aiming the humongous gun at the ten generals of Abaddon, he pulled the trigger and felt how the packet of Argent energy was charged, compressed and Ionized. The BFG-9000 shone brightly with a green glow, stunning the Guardians of Abaddon slightly. Once the shot was ready, the Doom Slayer released the trigger and an orb of Green Argent energy sailed through the room towards the Guardians. The children of Abaddon watched the green orb with curiosity until it unleashed a stream of green lighting, the lighting made contact with the first Guardian and proceeded to electrocute him, boiling his blood and fatty tissue until the demon exploded without leaving any sort of remain behind. The other Guardians watched it with wide eyes but were too late to act; The orb passed over them, launching streams of Argent and reducing them to bloody pools on the floor. The shot kept going down the corridor, striking any unfortunate demon that happened to be there until it collided with the wall at the other side of the hall, breaking down the stone easily and producing a huge hole on the castle.

- I-Impossible!? -

Satan yelled in disbelief.

Sure enough, his generals were considerably weaker than him... But for them to be killed so terribly easily...

Something was definitely wrong.

And then, he hard it: The sound of a machine being rev. He focused on the armored monster again and what he saw made the King of Gehenna shiver in fright:

In his hands, the Doom Slayer was holding an industrial chainsaw. The Marine pulled on the string until the blade came to life, roaring and spinning its many teeth at a terrifying speed. Satan stared at the blade and then at the cold visor of the Doom Slayer... It could have been a trick of his mind, but Satan could have sworn the Doom Slayer was grinning wickedly behind his concealed helmet. And with a cold shudder in his back, Satan knew what had to be done:

He had to escape; Get away from this creature as far as possible; Run away without looking back.

Forgetting his missing arm, Satan attempted to turn around and escape but to his horror, the Doom Marine was faster: With lightning speed, the Doom Slayer was already at his back and with malice, he struck Satan's left foot at the base of his heel.

If Satan believed he had already felt the worst pain in his entire life, he was proved wrong: He felt the metal teeth of the Chainsaw bitting and cutting through his flesh. The worst part came when the blade finally reached his bone: He could feel the reverberations across his entire skeleton, a sharp pain extended across his entire being and the King of Gehenna couldn't help but scream in agony, like many of his victims had done in the past. He began begging to anyone to stop the unbearable pain, tears formed in his eyes and the blue flames vanished from his body while the Doom Slayer severed his limb painfully slow. After a few agonizing seconds, the Chainsaw finally cut Satan's left foot completely, making the demon fall and wiggle as he tried to stop the cascading blood from his wound. His powers had stopped working all altogether and he began feeling sick.

He had never experienced anything like this; To feel utterly defenseless against an unstoppable force. To be at the receiving end of such brutal slaughter. To beg for mercy or for the pain to go away... To feel weak and scared.

But then, he felt something land on his belly. Primal fear took over his mind and he froze in place, feeling someone walking over his chest until HE was right over his face: His green armor was now bathed with the unholy blood of the demon king, stained with several fluids and a few chunks of bone and marrow. His cold blue visor concealed whatever he was feeling or looking at, hiding whether a man or a monster hid inside the monstrous suit. His Chainsaw twitched slightly as if the machine was thirsty for more blood and hungry for violence, ready to brutalize whatever poor bastard came across it.

Satan never knew who this man was or what was his objective; He believed the Marine was sent to deal with him... But now, the Demon Lord was sure there was something else behind his actions: The Doom Slayer had struck him with savagery, ignoring his attacks and destroying his defenses. Brutalizing his minions and slaughtering his generals... There was no purpose in his actions, no objective, no end...

There was only fury and a psychotic delight in the suffering of the Demon Lord.

And now this man... No, this Monster was standing atop of his broken body; Rising his deadly chainsaw, ready to carve and gut the King of Gehenna as if Satan was nothing but a common swine. A mere obstacle in whatever his true objective was. A simple annoyance that he could have easily finished quickly but decided to take his time for the sole sake of torturing the Demon Lord.

The Doom Slayer brought down the Chainsaw... But the Satan proved to be more tenacious than the Marine had expected.

Using his last energies, Satan stopped the Chainsaw with his remaining hand, coated in a thick layer of blue flames and other barriers. But it was useless in the end: The blade began cutting through the flames and shields until it finally reached the flesh and bones, making the Demon Lord scream in agony yet again. The Doom Slayer grunted but he continued cutting through Satan's hand, severing each of his fingers and cutting the palm in half until he yanked the chainsaw to the right, cutting a large chunk of Satan's hand. The bloodied thing fell while Satan screamed and trashed at the pain, the Doom Slayer simply snorted and guessed Demons never changed: After a cut or two, they all cried like the wimps they were. He lifted his Chainsaw once again and kill the bastard...

But was unable to move.

- FOOL -

Turning around, the Doom Slayer noticed large tendrils of dark matter latching onto his armor and restraining him. Above, he as greeted with the disgusting sight of some sort of portal made entirely of fleshy constructs and nightmarish creatures. Two pairs of bloody red eyes popped out of the gate and glared directly at the Doom Slayer while the sound of a hundred creatures screeched in the background. The Marine was then pulled towards the gate and plunged into it; He roared in anger and fought to free himself from the grasp of the creature but it proved useless. Slowly, he began sinking in the gate while blue fire surrounded his armor.

- I DO NOT KNOW WHO OR WHAT YOU ARE -

- BUT YOU HAVE PROVED TO BE A TERRIFYING FOE -

- I CANNOT KILL OR EVEN DEFEAT YOU -

- BUT I WILL NOT HAVE YOU STANDING IN MY WAY -

- SO I VANISH YOU TO THE ABYSS -

- SO NOW, HUMAN... NO; NOW, MONSTER -

- BEGONE AND NEVER COME BACK! -

Satan laughed maniacally while the Doom Slayer was forcefully dragged through Gehenna's gate. With one last furious roar, the Marine was finally plunged into the depths of the portal and the gate vanished without leaving a single trace.

The Demon King was now alone in his destroyed room, surrounded by a pool of his own blood and missing several parts of his body. He grunted as the wounds began slowly closing and his limbs were regenerated. He had somehow managed to teleport that monster while it was busy cutting his hand in half; In all honesty, he had almost lost consciousness by the pain in more than one occasion and he feared to think on what would have happened if he hadn't summoned the Gehenna gate in the last second. If he had to guess, he figured the monster would have killed him in the most gruesome way and proceeded to slaughter every single one of his subjects until he found his way towards the heart of Gehenna. He didn't know why, but he had the suspicion that the monster would have just continued to slaughter any demon that dared cross his path until the end of times in some sort of ridiculous crusade.

For now, Satan had managed to teleport it away from Gehenna and unless the monster had some sort of way to meddle with interdimensional teleportation, it would end up far away from Assiah, Gehenna, and Chelus. In all honesty, Satan had no idea where the portal led and in all honesty, it was better that way. The last thing he needed was for his rivals and the spies to discover there was a being that could and had defeated him and the ten Generals of Abaddon. He knew a few idiots who would summon that thing in order to control and use him against Gehenna... But in Satan's opinion, that monster was not the kind of being that could be bound or even reasoned with.

It was a relentless berserker that lived for the sole purpose of killing.

Satan sighed in relief and clenched his newly reformed hand, thinking about all the mess he had to clean... That was until something small fell on his face; The little sphere bounced on his forehead and Satan caught it midflight. He grabbed it with his nails and brought it close to his left eye to see...

A grenade.

...

...

- AH -

- SON OF A B...


The Doom Slayer found himself twirling and whirling uncontrollably in what appeared to be the disgusting throat of some gigantic beast.

It wouldn't be the first time some demon swallowed him and it certainly wouldn't be the last. But contrary to the popular belief, the Marine found Demon's innards absolutely disgusting. Even he enjoyed nothing more than tearing them apart, he would rather let his weapons do the deed instead of his fist. And to find himself inside the guts of some ugly creature made him angry. Sure, he was always angry but this wasn't the kind of angry he enjoyed. It was more like stumbling-your-small-toe-at-the-edge-of-the-table kind of angry.

Oh, by the way: He hated traveling through dimensions as well. After being backstabbed by that tin-can, jumping through worlds didn't sound like something he would do happily. Of course, he was willing to risk his confidence if that meant returning to Hell... But that didn't mean he would do it without throwing a tantrum or breaking a bone or two.

Now, the question was: Where was he going? Back to Hell? Back to Mars? Or some other dimension he hadn't heard of? Honestly, he didn't care. As long as there were things he could brutalize to vent his rage, he was fine with anything.

Suddenly, his HUD flickered with a familiar blue static. An alert triggered, letting him know the tethering system was once again working. How or why was beyond him but if he could get away from the disgusting innards of this demon, he would make the jump. The bar of the tether activation finally reached is peak and the Doom Slayer felt the all too familiar sensation of blinking out of existence before he was roughly thrown into another world. He rolled on the floor and what appeared to be a carpet before he managed to recompose himself, bringing forth his Super Shotgun and be greeted by the disgusting sight of...

A red-haired female human wearing a bikini, a brat glowing with blue flames surrounded by a bunch of priests, some clown with an umbrella, a pompous blonde, and a few figures wearing large and uncomfortable robes, sitting at the top of what seemed to be a podium for a court.

...

...

Well, he had seen weirder, honestly.