Back on Mars, from out of nowhere a red energy beam appeared from a pentagram symbol on the ground. One which lasted for a few moments, before from within the beam emerged Vali, Ludmila and Phineas. Though, their return was hardly as smooth as carpet as they fell unceremoniously to the ground.
"Ugh… not going to lie, I had hoped that we would have had a safe trip for once…" Vali muttered as he groaned afterwards, planting his hands on the ground for support so he could lift himself up.
Something which Ludmila and Phineas soon followed suit in doing with the former hissing slightly, internally rather thankful that this spacesuit protected her from the environment as otherwise she might have gotten some light cuts from all this tumbling she'd been doing. She didn't want to think about the possibility of Hell's corruption somehow getting into her through those wounds after all. "Nothing's ever going to be straightforward, Vali. This stuff with Hell will be no exception…"
"Your words carry much truth to them, young lady…" Groaned Phineas who looked to be the most affected by the fall out of the trio which was likely due to the Devil being the oldest and frailest of the bunch. "You must have seen much despite your youth. That's both interesting… and saddening at the same time, for such youth to have matured so quickly…"
"Comes with being a Vanadis, Phineas. But enough of that… looks like things are still not over yet."
After getting to their feet, the trio looked up and around at their surroundings, quickly becoming dismayed with what they saw which was the whole facility looking to have been utterly WRECKED by Demons. They could tell this had happened due to the Argent Tower now sporting a single beam of Argent Energy, crackling dangerously above them whilst forming what had looked like some kind of spiralling storm. The final nail in this coffin took the form of a projection of a large orb floating there.
"What the…?"
Before any of them could wonder what the fuck was going on here, Samuel suddenly spoke through Vali and Ludmila's HUDs.
"THE ARGENT TOWER IS DESTROYED, THE PORTAL CAN NO LONGER BE CLOSED FROM THIS SIDE. THE HELL ENERGY FLOWS FROM THE LOCATION IN THEIR WORLD WE CALL THE WELL, THE MAIN SOURCE OF HELLS ENERGY. IT IS AN UNLIMITED ENERGY SOURCE FOR HELL, BUT YOU TWO OR THREE I SHOULD SAY, RETURNED. THE ONLY FLESH AND BLOOD TO WALK BETWEEN DIMENSIONS. HAHAHAHAHA SO THERE MAY BE A WAY."
Hearing this caused Vali to narrow his eyes. Looked like that bitch Olivia Pierce had indeed done something stupid, as well as accomplished a part of her plan despite their destruction of the Tower. Made their efforts seem pretty much useless in stopping her, which didn't sit well with him nor did it sit well with Ludmile or Phineas either, although he lacked the information he and her had about the situation. "How can we stop the portal to hell that's coming to Mars Samuel?" he questioned, putting his own frustrations aside in favor of forming a plan of action regarding their next move.
"VEGA IS TRYING TO ACCESS OLIVIA'S FILES, IF YOU THREE GET TO THE NEAREST TERMINAL, WE WILL PROVIDE YOU THE WITH INFORMATION. I SUGGEST YOU GET A SPACESUIT TO BREATH ON MARS."
With his piece said, Samuel cut off communication whilst the group quickly realized that Phineas indeed didn't have a spacesuit to breath. Probably had been forming nutrients for his body using Demonic Energy like Vali had done when he had been a kid, nevertheless this issue needed to be dealt with before they could continue. "Crap, he's right. Before I got this suit, I had to use my Demonic Power to help breathe in this place, and considering Hell's growing dominion over this planet that's a gradually bigger issue. Alright, let's go find a spacesuit like Hayden recommended. Can't have our resident tactician croaking out on us."
Quickly, Vali grabbed Ludmila's waist and pulled her in close. Even though he had done this several times before during their journey, it hadn't lessened the girl's surprise, embarrassment and anger over it though she'd quickly developed a tolerance for it due to the necessity behind those actions. It wasn't anything like many of the Norse men she had the displeasure of knowing, that's for sure. Whilst he did this, Vali also pulled Phineas in close by his shoulder as he used his Sacred Gear to take to the air space.
A while of looking around from the skies followed after this, before Ludmila noticed something and pointed down at it urgently. "Look!"
Vali looked and saw a broken opening mechanic there as he quickly flew there before he looked around and saw a dead man with red armor, the lenses being red too. He let go of them and dragged the dead man's body to Phineas as they both got into the door where the terminal room was. "Here, use this Phineas." he stated, no it sounded more like a demand than anything.
"You… sure about that young man?"
Still, despite things going on the old Devil looked unsure as to whether or not this was a good idea. Not like Vali cared though as he pressed further into the matter at hand. "It's either that or you can't breath here on Mars. shifting your energy into nutrients for your body will only work to your disadvantage here, since Hell's gradually taking over."
"... Good point, though I will need some help putting on this armor. This looks a bit too advanced for me." At this, Vali blinked as he suddenly remembered something. Thanks to being in Hell for so long, Phineas will likely have learned next to nothing about the current world as well as the way things worked. Therefore, he would be pretty much a fish out of water, something which would be REAL bad in many scenarios. He could really see the man getting used quite a bit by various factions for his knowledge, but for now all this meant was that he had to learn a LOT and learn QUICKLY.
|Don't worry sir, I can guide you on how you can put on the elite guards armor and follow my instructions.|
"...Okay, just how many years have I missed these days?" Phineas muttered as he went to a private location where Ludmila and Vali won't see before he went to the terminal computer as he pressed the screen on it. It showed an image of a lab and an unusual stone which has a pentagon sigil on it.
"OLIVIA HAS AN ARTIFACT, WE CALL IT THE HELIX STONE, IN HER PRIVATE LAB WE'VE BEEN STUDYING FOR YEARS. I BELIEVE YOU CAN USE IT TO FIND THE ANSWER YOU SEEK."
"And how is this going to help us?" Vali asked as Phineas now donned in the dead man's body armor, now possessing the resources to breath on Mars.
"I'LL TELL YOU SOON, VEGA SHOW HIM WHERE THE HELIX STONE."
The screen changed as it showed an image of a building and next to it says entry lock.
|Olivia's personal laboratory is not part of the registered facility's database. Alpha level clearance will be required to locate it…. Granted.|
"YOU CAN ACCESS HER LAZARUS FACILITY FROM THE NORTH SECTOR OF THE ADVANCED RESEARCH COMPLEX, ABOUT 80 KILOMETERS AWAY. BUT THAT MATTERS NOT TO YOU SINCE YOU HAVE A SACRED GEAR CAPABLE OF FLYING THERE... I THINK IT'S TIME WE MEET IN PERSON."
Hearing THAT little bit really got Vali smirking, liking the inevitability of meeting this robot in person rather than just talking behind a screen. Next to him, Ludmila admitted that she too had a bit of curiosity about Hayden's true appearance, though she remained silent and kept her thoughts to herself as Vali spoke through his grin. "Finally, alright show me the location Samuel."
"GRANTED, BUT BE CAREFUL. THE DEMONS ARE APPEARING ALMOST EVERYWHERE THANKS TO THAT PORTAL."
With Hayden's warning, Vali saw a mark on his hologram map on his helmet before he looked to the right and saw a weapon, a gear for some kind of a multi purpose Rocket Launcher, though in his eyes it just looked to be another weapon for his arsenal. Grabbing it and looking it over, Vali noticed that it had a rocket loaded into it's barrel, ready to be fired. (Doom 2016 rocket launcher.) He put it in his storage as he took out his Combat Shotgun. Now, between the two of them, their weapon loadouts were as follows:
Vali: Yamato, Combat Shotgun, Heavy Assault Rifle (he'd found spares of weapons he'd lent to Ludmila lying throughout the room), Plasma Rifle, Gatling Gun and now the Rocket Launcher.
Ludmila: Combat Shotgun, a futuristic-looking Pistol (she'd found it in the room but Vali had no interest in it, so she had it instead), Heavy Assault Rifle and a Gatling Gun of her own. Again, one which she'd found lying about in this room but she wasn't going to complain, since it simply allowed them to expand her arsenal.
They got out of the room and, upon Vali stepping up to them from behind, knew IMMEDIATELY what would follow. "Grab on, you two. Like what Phineas said, it's going to be a bumpy ride." With those words said, both Ludmila and Phineas held onto Vali as he bent his knees, activating his Sacred Gear before shooting upwards into the air like a bullet, then proceeding to fly forth towards the location where Samuel was.
As they flew to the air the mark showed that Samuels office soon became right below them, close to what looked like some kind of building. Not a few seconds later, did the roof begin to open up for them, informing Vali that Hayden had likely anticipated his arrival via this form of transportation. Something which the silver haired Devil figured would be the case considering how Hayden apparently was one of the few pragmatic Devils out there. After adjusting his position, Vali slowly descended downwards through the opening, his feet and that of his passengers touching metallic ground a few seconds later.
"I will never get used to that…" Ludmila mumbled under her breath as Vali let go of her and Phineas, who didn't seem too bothered by the experience. As she recovered from the flight, Vali walked to a nearby screen to press open some sealed areas before an energy wave swept across his form, causing Vali to nearly belch at the sensations washing over him. He didn't get why himself, but he felt similar to the times when he had been transported using the device on the TSAB ship, as he clenched his fist. Eventually, Vali noticed something on his helmet screen, a box which had the words 'tether activation' displayed on it before it vanished, the door opening following this.
Though, this also wound up showing Samuel in the flesh… or metal.
"Do not be alarmed by the system update, it is a prototype of our interdimensional tether, a means for me to pull you and the others back from hell as long as you wear the armors."
After explaining that, Vali frowned behind his helmet whilst Ludmila and Phineas went through similar procedures. "Then why didn't you do that sooner then Samuel?" He questioned in irritation, thinking about how useful that could have been in getting them back here before things could have gotten this bad.
"Because you were in an uncharted place in hell where I could get your coordinates there, I couldn't find you or any of you in hell."
Ah, that made sense. "I see." Vali stated, nodding his head in understanding. Whilst this happened, Hayden turned to the armored Phineas whilst his robotic head looked him up and down.
"And speaking of which, wants your name Devil?"
Upon hearing that and figuring out that he was being addressed by the… thing in front of him, the old Devil jumped lightly in surprise. "Oh, m-my name is Phineas a scholar and inventor." he stated, stammering a bit at the beginning since he wasn't used to being addressed by a robot of all things.
"Phineas… ahhh you mean the teacher of Leonardo Da Vinci."
However, his nervousness QUICKLY disappeared when Hayden mentioned THAT detail, something which also took Vali and Ludmila by surprise. "Yes, that's my student! It seems someone at least knows me, tell me how is he?" Phineas questioned hopefully.
"I'm afraid it's been 500 years since you were trapped in hell."
Though, sadly those hopes got dashed moments later by the ever-pragmatic robot. If his face could be seen right now, then the crestfallen look would have actually made him look… somewhat precious. One could say that perhaps Phineas may have some kind of innocence similar to childish innocence due to being stuck in a place away from the world for so long, meaning that everything was as new to him as things were to a newborn baby. "Oh… it's been that long, huh?... Hhhhaaaa, looks like I couldn't be there for your achievements Leonardo."
"Speaking of hell, let's talk at my office where we will discuss the rest there. I have supplies in there too, this way please."
Deciding that time was of the essence, which in a way was correct, Samuel then gestured to follow him as they did. Whilst they followed him, the trio noticed that this place looked real... clean, especially compared to the rest of the facility. It was as if there weren't any demons invading it at all, and before Ludmila could ask about that they stopped when Samuel stopped by a door that declared a couple words in a blank monotone.
|Welcome Dr. Hayden.|
Afterwards, the door opened as they entered his office as he went to his desk and typed some stuff. Following this, out came a bunch of ammo supplies, an Argent Energy orb, and a medical machine there.
However, Vali's attention was not on that stuff unlike Ludmila whose eyes perked up at the sight of additional supplies, but at the corner of the room where a massive hammer could be seen inside what looked like a cylindrical container filled with a clear-looking liquid, one which sported a bunch of pipes connected to it. The Hammer looked to be similar to a mallet in terms of shape, its shaft long enough to be held by two hands. There were also two grip-like areas where one could grab onto it, with one being right beneath the rather large, ridged and rocky ends surrounding what looked like an iron ball.
'That Hammer… there's something off about it yet I don't know why…'
Whilst he stared at it, Samuel turned to Vali and noticed the thing he had been looking at to his intrigue.
"Ahh I see that your attention is this, isn't it Vali?"
Vali glanced behind him at Hayden who walked up to him, the height difference between them making the silver haired teen look up slightly. "... is that… a Devil Arm?" he questioned, frowning.
His question DID catch Ludmila and Phineas' attention, as evident by their stunned expressions on their faces. "A Devil Arm you say?!" the latter exclaimed whilst the former looked like her brain was struggling to process that revelation.
"Yes it is, a Devil Arm from a species of an almost extinct mammoth: Gammoth."
Vali blinked in confusion when he heard that. "Huh, how can a mammoth turn to a devil arm like that if it's related to elephants?" he questioned, furrowing his brows.
"True, but Gammoth belongs to the fanged beasts, they're also known as Pelagus and Primatius monsters, beastly mammalian creatures that operate with only legs, and no wings. They are often much faster than other larger threats, you could say that they adapt to different environments like Wyverns."
"Another type of species….. Small world we live in….. Or the planet we are on." the silver haired male remarked as he scowled, thinking about this. If only he could consult [Glavenus] about this information, but thanks to Hell's influence on Mars he couldn't even call on any of them. Meaning that he wouldn't be able to even talk to them, much to Vali's dismay since he liked listening to their war stories.
"Hahahahhaha indeed Vali, but anyway Gammoth was on his deathbed when I found him. He'd been so close that I had to turn him into a Devil Arm to save his life, but since I am in a robot body I could not wield it as I am not strong enough. As such, I have been keeping it in the stasis pod that you see before you, after figuring out how to give it an alternate power source to latch onto. That is until I met you, for I could tell at first glance, that in your soul there were multiple beings in there that normally shouldn't be, which means you possess Devil Arms."
Weren't Devil Arms supposed to have very few people who knew of their existence? Why was he running into people who knew about them in such quantities? Though in this case, Vali understood that Hayden likely had access to all kinds of information if he was able to uncover the truth about the threat that Hell posed to the Underworld. It made sense that he knew other things about history that the common person didn't. Still though, his reasoning for knowing about his various Devil Arms wasn't enough to convince him to drop that subject, this Vali inquired further into his knowledge of him possessing them. "... how do you know that Hayden?"
"Technology Vali, this body is not only good for my everlasting life but it has some uses to it which my associate worked on."
That wasn't a satisfactory answer, Vali felt, but it did tell him that Hayden was smart enough to not reveal everything about himself to potential threats in the near future. Even though it grinded his gears like no other to be played around with like this. "... fine, yes I do have Devil Arms, several." he finally relented after a moment's worth of deliberating whether or not to tell Hayden. He had decided to come out with it since the guy had pretty much figured it out somehow using methods only he had known. How much he knew Vali wasn't sure, which only annoyed him all the more.
"Ahhhh, that would explain it. Why don't you wield Gammoth, then? Let it be a part of your soul, as I was waiting for someone strong enough who could wield it. Here, better be quick."
Samuel said as he typed something before the liquid inside the cylinder began to drain from the Devil Arm, the pipes connected to it separating whilst Vali walked up to it. Once within an arm's reach, he pulled his fist back before he broke the glass, grabbing it before his eyes widened. Following his grasping of its hilt, a scene played itself in front of his eyes, like a movie. It showed the visage of a snowy place which he recognized as his mindscape whenever Albions pulled him in for a conversation between the two of them.
'This place…'
As he looked around, a booming step was heard behind him to which Vali looked to the source behind him. Upon doing so, the silver haired hybrid nearly lost control over his jaw when he beheld the sight of… well, what looked to be a real-life Woolly mammoth. The fur covering its huge body was mostly bluish, although it also had white and red markings on its trunk, legs, back and underside. It had brown plating covering most of its head and feet, as well as two tusks seemingly made of the same material.. The underside of its trunk seemed to be covered in a scaly hide, and is lined with numerous spikes. Its eyes were small, beady and black, positioned on the sides of the head. Interestingly, the creature sported clumps of snow over it's legs.
"HMMMMM SO YOU WERE THE ONE WHO AWAKENED ME, IS THAT CORRECT?"
When he heard that, Vali took a deep breath and nodded, standing up straight and completely facing the beast before him, "Yeah you could say that Gammoth." he stated brazenly, staring deep into the creature's eyes without fear.
"SO YOU KNOW MY NAME, DO YOU YOUNG HYBRID DEVIL? WOULDN'T HAVE EXPECTED AS MUCH WHEN THE ROBOT HELPED ME."
Yeah, Vali could see why [Gammoth] would mention that, considering the overall arrogance behind the species he was half related to. "Uh huh… by the way, why did you turn into a Devil Arm anyway?"
"IT WAS BECAUSE I HAD NO CHOICE. ONCE, I OVERHEARD THAT AN ANGEL WAS PLANNING ON UNLEASHING THE TRUE HELL INTO THE UNDERWORLD. NOW NORMALLY, I WOULDN'T CARE FOR THOSE DEVILS BUT I BELIEVED THAT THE DEMONS WOULD INEVITABLY GET OUT OF HAND, AND IN THAT CASE THE PLANET WOULD END UP BEING ABSORBED BY HELL ITSELF. I DIDN'T WISH TO ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN, SO I CHALLENGED THAT DAMN ANGEL. HOWEVER, IN MY ARROGANCE, I DID NOT REALIZE HOW WEAK I WAS AGAINST THE SERAPH AND HIS SUBORDINATES. AFTER THEY SOUNDLY DEFEATED ME, THEY LEFT ME TO DIE WITHIN THE COLD CLIMATES OF MY OWN HOME, KNOWING THAT I WOULDN'T SURVIVE FOR LONG. FORTUNATELY, THE ROBOT SAVED MY LIFE BY TURNING ME INTO A DEVIL ARM."
"I see…. looks like we both have the same enemies we are looking for."
"SIMILAR ENEMIES YOU SAY…. THAT MEANS YOU KNOW WHO IS THE ANGEL DO YOU?"
"Yeah I do, it's Raguel."
"... THAT MAKES SENSE. AFTER ALL, AFTER THE GREAT WAR MANY ANGELS WANTED TO GO WAR AGAINST THE DEVILS SINCE THEY CAUSED SO MUCH DESTRUCTION TO THE WORLD, BUT MICHAEL FORBID IT SINCE THEY WERE THE WEAKEST IN THE FACTION. RAGUEL IS THE ARCHANGEL OF JUSTICE SINCE HE WOULD DO ANYTHING DO GET JUSTICE ITS FITS HIS NAME. IN ANY CASE, SHOULD YOU ENCOUNTER HIM MAKE SURE TO USE ME TO CRUSH HIM INTO PASTE."
"Well, here's the thing, we are at mars as the hell portal opened there and the magic density is low there. I can only use my sacred gear."
"I SEE…. IN ANOTHER PLANET YOU SAY, IT WOULD MAKE SENSE SINCE NO ONE INHABITS THAT PLACE THAT MAGIC CAN'T BE PRODUCED SO QUICKLY… FINE, BUT MAKE SURE THAT ANGEL WILL DIE."
"Oh, I will Gammoth."
With that said he was brought back to the real world as the devil arm began to be absorbed into Vali's body.
"Looks like you are suitable to wield those devil arms, young man. Let's discuss the situation."
"I see, so the entire operation on hell is caused by the angel Raguel, correct?"
Vali, Ludmila and the inventor Phineas nodded their heads, having told the robot of what the third member of the trio had spoken about the situation revolving around Hell. Needless to say, it wasn't a good feeling since the atmosphere had become quite tense. "Yes it is Samuel."
"... this makes the situation more difficult now. I may no longer be a Devil, but the Underworld is my home too, since I was raised there."
Phineas nodded his head in agreement with the robot whilst Vali and Ludmila frowned thoughtfully. "I….. get the feeling you have there, Samuel."
"Still, we have to focus on the situation. For now, we can close the portal using this."
Samuel showed the image of what looked to be some kind of stone, before continuing his explanation.
"I found this while searching for information on Hell, all of our work and how we can make Argent energy bend to our will, take advantage of their resources in hell. The helix stone showed how to harness the power of the Well. I believe it can show us how we can shut it down."
"So….. all we have to do is find this rock and have it show us how we can close the portal, how can we find this so-called 'Helix Stone'?" Ludmila asked, crossing her arms under her chest.
"For years Olivia has kept the helix in her private office in the Lazerus labs which is only accessible through a secure elevator from the advanced research complex across the chasm."
Vali nodded his head at this, already thinking about what to do about this as well as the likely chance that they would be going back into Hell. "Got it…. Is there anything else I need to do Samuel?" he questioned.
"No, but your affinity for guns is apparent, I'm confident you'll find something useful there as well. The service elevator is at the end of the hall."
As he said that, Vali and Ludmila started preparing to head out. Phineas had decided to stay with Hayden for safety purposes, helping him with the programs that he was starting to slowly understand which expressed his level of intellect quite well. Not only that, but he didn't have a place on the front lines like the rest of them since he was both old as well as a strategist/tactician rather than an actual soldier. Something which the two had understood upon him explaining to them his decisions.
Once they left the office and entered the elevator, Vali pressed the down button. A few seconds later, they arrived at what looked to be the entry room to some kind of laboratory as, on the top of the door, there was a pate which had said 'BGF Labs'. Glancing at one another through their helmets in confusion, they looked through a window to which they saw... some kind of ray gun that was in the middle of the room. After glancing at and nodding to one another, Vali and Ludmila went around and, eventually after being ambushed by a bunch of Demons, arrived at a door which they could enter to get the gun. However, a problem arose when they discovered that it was locked up, showing them that they needed something to open it.
Vali only said one word in response to this. "VEGA."
|Understood sir, overriding the controls to the room… granted.|
After the AI said that through their HUD's, the room began to glow green before Vali entered it, Ludmila entering after him. However, seconds into the entering both of them widened their eyes behind their helmets when some kind of force field activated which got followed by an automated voice, one which said the following in a robotic monotone.
*An unmatched personal has entered the room. Expulsion to commune in 5..*
Immediately, Vali and Ludmila sensed that something would go wrong, but before she could do anything Ludmila saw her companion jump to the top of the ray guns container in the centre of the room. Following this, the floor opened as deadly rays of lasers appeared surrounding the space where the floor had once occupied. A curse escaped his lips when Vali saw some stuff was cut clean from it, to which Vali looked around for anything to use before he saw a ledge on the room. Quickly, he jumped to it before the controls spoke again.
*Activating laser security system.*
The lasers on top activated as they started descending downwards to the roof of the gun's container, covering it before going upwards in a hexagon shape. Looking upwards, Vali saw some red fuses at the bottom of the laser security, something which resulted in him deciding to take out his HAR and fire a bunch of times, destroying one red fuse before it went down again. Vali had to wait for a bit till the lasers rose back up again, before he once again aimed his HAR and destroyed three more. Again, the laser began to close up and quickly fell down to the gun's room as it destroyed its container.
Jumping downwards to get the gun, Vali landed in front of the weapon with all sorts of debris scattered around the cylindrical-shaped room around him. Behind him, he could hear Ludmila jumping downwards though he didn't put too much attention on that in favor of examining the new Gun, one which had little resistance when he pulled it free from… what had looked like some kind of stand. Upon doing so, it seemed to serve as some kind of signal like the last support for a building finally collapsing, taking the building along with it. This metaphor had been used to describe how, upon him grasping the Gun, the floor proceeded to tremble before it collapsed in on itself, falling down to the ground and taking Vali along with it. Ludmila too, however she again landed on her feet whilst Vali fell onto his back, much to his chagrin as he groaned before getting up.
As he stood up, a light moment of dizziness passing through him, the silver haired teen looked down at the new Gun… and for some reason, he felt like just looking at this baby would make any normal man grow a full beard, moustache, develop insane muscular bodies and grow hair in every masculine place for all the testosterone this Gun exuded. The whole thing looked like a fusion between multiple different weapons, from Vali's limited gun knowledge. The handle looked to be similar to a futuristic pistol, with there being like a large canister at the bottom whilst the top part looked to be shaped like those hypersonic railguns some people in China were close to developing. The railgun part also glowed a bright green color, which wasn't something Vali particularly liked but didn't see any way to change that.
Still, as he held the weapon in his hands, the male still felt his breath get stolen from him. He didn't understand it himself, but this weapon… for some reason, its appearance just brought a small smile onto his lips. "Huh it feels so… powerful, maybe I'll keep this." he mumbled.
Hearing footsteps behind him, Vali glanced in the said direction to find Ludmila standing there, her eyes analyzing him through her helmet. "You alright Vali?" she questioned, prompting him to nod at her
"Yeah I'm fine, a little fall won't do any damage to me." he stated confidently, not to mention that this Armor really impressed him with how it could reduce the impact force into near nothing allowing one to drop from tall heights. He wondered if he could keep this thing for future challenges since this Armor could be used against his grandfather.
Ludmila meanwhile, shrugged her shoulders at him. "If you say so. Pretty impressive gun you have Vali, are you gonna keep it?" she questioned, pointing towards the gun in the silver haired Hybrid's hands. She also noticed that he was holding it… slightly reverently, if she were to make a comparison. Even though it had been a bit difficult to tell thanks to the Armor he wore.
Looking down at the weapon, Vali shrugged his shoulders in a manner akin to how she had before, the teen seemingly unaware of what he had been doing before. "I don't know, lets see how this gun works."
They went to the door as it wasn't opening which means it broken. Vali put the BFG away as he grabbed the bottom of the door forcing it to open enough for Ludmila to enter the room before a swarm of the possessed as Vali pulled out the BFG.
"Wait Vali we don't know how that gun wor-"
Before Ludmia could finish her sentence, Vali fired the BFG, which promptly charged up and launched a large ball of green plasma which flew across the air towards the centre of the Possessed group. Upon touching a solid surface… the ball EXPLODED, triggering some explosions from nearby barrels at the same time, resulting in the deaths of the rest of them.
"..."
...Okay, NOW Vali could FEEL the wide grin on his face as he looked down in approval of this bad boy, now understanding JUST why he felt the way he had upon examining it earlier. "... I'm definitely keeping this baby, for sure."
As they walked to the big corridor door, on the other side of the door were two Demons of the same type: large, pink, bulky, muscular boar-like beasts with huge tusks. They each had similar beady, glowing eyes and gaping maws filled with sharp fangs. The Demons seem to have a thick layer of Armour on them, covering their backs, legs, arms, and foreheads, sporting pink colored flesh while the armour was a shade of reddish-pink with a knurled, almost chitinous appearance and ridged with tusk-like spines, giving them a very dinosaur-like appearance.
One was walking before running as Vali put back his BFG and unsheathed Yamato, before he sliced it in half before the other joined as Ludmila took out her staff and used her ice magic to freeze the demon. Well, she tried to and only managed to achieve a limited effect, likely due to the growing influence Hell had on Mars. Ludmila could not neglect her own abilities despite knowing that she had a limited amount of magical ability on Mars. After freezing it, she took out her minigun and rain bullets upon the demon whilst it struggled to get out of the ice before it finally died by those bullets.
Continuing on, the two arrived at an elevator where Olivia's private lab was. Of course, another swarm of Possessed were there but Ludmila dealt with them using her Minigun. However, before they continued on, each of them noticed that the area around them had been red in color, meaning that a certain structure had to be nearby. Vali looked up and saw a Gore Nest, jumping up to it before trying to pull the parasite. However, just as he had made to do so, the half Devil got an idea, so instead of the usual song and dance he pulled out his BFG and aimed at the gore nest before firing at it. As a result, it promptly exploded in a shower of bloody gore and innards.
Quickly looking around, Vali expected a whole horde of Demons to appear, but none came due to this weapon being so powerful to even make no demons appear when he destroys the gore nest.
How come no one thinks of this instead of doing the same routine?
(Another universe where a familiar slayer was rip and tearing demons as he destroyed a gore nest before he sneezed which made him confused before shrugging his shoulders as he was continuing to rip and tear without a second thought)
Looking down at his new weapon, Vali's grin widened till it almost split his face behind his helmet. "I love this thing, I'm keeping it for sure."
"Well you're gonna have to put those thoughts away Vali, let's go and get the helix stone."
"Fine." Vali jumped down as Ludmila pressed the screen to call the elevator before the elevator arrived as Ludmila and Vali entered the elevator. He pressed the screen to go down before they went down.
After a few minutes they arrived at Olivia's office as they walked to the lab before seeing the Helix stone in person as they could feel the energy from it. "It looks so… ancient, I've never seen this in any of the archives in Asgard."
Vali nodded his head in agreement, frowning as he decided to ask for some help on this situation. "Yeah you can say that, VEGA how do we disable the barrier on the helix stone?" He questioned the AI and got an answer back in return.
|You will have to disable the containment manually as the security that Olivia has put in is not letting me.|
"I see, stay here while I disable the barrier."
"Got it."
Vali promptly headed off to the stairs and went through the hall before coming to a computer. As he went to it and pressed forced login, confirmed override and removed the security lock, the door behind him opened as he saw a light behind him before he went inside the room. Inside, the room looked like any simple labs but more on the futuristic side, though Vali didn't pay much attention to this in favor of a nearby computer, to which he approached it before he typed some stuff down on it, pressing disable helix stone barrier afterwards. Following this, he witnessed the energy field vanishing a bit, before he glanced at it a bit, seeing Ludmila still there before going back to the screen and activating helix stone.
This completely removed the barrier on the helix stone as he looks at it before he slowly put up his hand as he was about to touch it, as his fingers touched the helix stone suddenly he got visions of something as sigils appeared in his visions as it showed a giant demon skull, some areas, and a strange artifact.
"...li…...ali…..Vali…..Vali…...VALI!"
"Uhhhhhh….. What….. Happened?"
"You blacked out obviously! When you touched the Helix stone you suddenly fainted and I had to protect you from the demons that appeared!"
"Wait…. Demons?"
Vali looked around and saw corpses of demons around him as he quickly got up. However, he quickly cursed as a headache exploded within his skull, causing him to grit his teeth to bite back another curse whilst holding the side of his head, leaning on the circular device that once held the stone. "Fuck, that stone gave me a fucking headache!" he exclaimed
"Vali what did you see when you touched the helix stone?"
After a while, the headache lessened till it completely vanished, Vali breathing heavily until he regained his composure enough to reflect on what he had seen to his companion. "I….. saw a giant skull as it went through some areas, some sigils, but most of all it showed me a a strange artifact, a demonic weapon that I saw a stone slab that Samuel had on his office."
"...OF COURSE, THE CRUCIBLE. THAT'S WHAT SHE WAS LOOKING FOR."
Hearing Hayden's words cause both teens to blink in confusion. "A crucible, what is this crucible?" Ludmila questioned, frowning behind her helmet.
"THE CRUCIBLE IS AN ENERGY BLADE MADE BY THE GOD OF THE BIBLE. HE HAD CRAFTED THE BLADE IN A WAY THAT IT WOULD BE POWERED BY RAW ARGENT ENERGY, IT IS SAID THAT HE USED THIS BLADE TO KILL SATAN DURING THE GREAT WAR."
Hayden's words caused both teens to gape in surprise, although their helmets hid this reaction from view and Hayden wasn't around to see it, further rendering it moot. "I see, where can we find this crucible?" Vali asked this time.
"HOLD ON VEGA DID YOU GET THE LOCATION?"
|Yes. It is located on the uncharted region of the titans realm. But we need to rupture another Argent Accumulator to create the portal. The only accumulator in this sector is in specimen CD587.|
"Huh….. CD587, what's that?"
"A MANUFACTURER DEMON THAT OLIVIA HAD SAID COULD FIGHT AGAINST THE DEMONS FROM HELL, BUT ITS OBVIOUS SHE LIED. SHE WAS ONLY USING THE DEMON FOR HER OWN AGENDA, SO I HAD TO SEAL THE DEMON DEEP IN THE LAB. SHE CALLED IT A 'CYBERDEMON' DUE TO HAVING TO REPLACE PARTS OF IT WITH MECHANICS TO SAVE IT FROM DYING."
Frowning at the thought of having to fight a powerful Demon without the use of her Magic, ESPECIALLY one with cybernetics installed by a crazy bitch, Ludmila made to question Hayden again but her companion beat her to it. "... fine, but what will happen if we get the accumulator?"
"ONCE YOU REMOVE THE ARGENT ACCUMULATOR POWERING THE CYBERDEMON, DESTABILIZING THE CORE WILL CAUSE A RIFT THAT WILL SEND YOU BACK TO HELL. ONCE THE CRUCIBLE IS IN YOUR POSSESSION, WE WILL PULL YOU TWO OUT. REMEMBER RETRIEVING THE CRUCIBLE IS CRUCIAL."
Ludmila nodded her head in acknowledgement, seemed like the time had finally come for them to go back to that accursed infernal realm, just like they had predicted upon their first escape with Phineas. However, this time was going to be different in that they would be WILLINGLY going back to that nightmare, not to mention they had some new weapons to their arsenal that they would be using against its many twisted residents. "Got it, lets go Vali." She called out to her companion, who nodded and promptly followed her out of Olivia's office area.
Later, Vali and Ludmila had just finished dealing with the Demons which had spawned from the gore nest. Unlike before however, Vali hadn't pulled out his BFG to deal with the structure preemptively like before, because shortly into the carnage Vali had discovered something: whilst the gun's destruction was great and could wipe out large chunks of enemies, it could only hold about 3 shots before he needed to make more rounds for it. Furthermore, it required MUCH more energy to create its energy blasts due to the volatile nature the rounds needed to have.
Thus it had taken them a while longer than necessary, but eventually they managed to arrive at the cargo area where they looked around before seeing a massive elevator. As they went inside of it, it closed its doors behind them before proceeding to head downwards. They waited a few minutes before the doors opened, and they walked through the halls before stopping by a massive door.
Before they could continue, Vali glanced beside him towards his companion. "... you ready for this, Ludmila?" he questioned.
,
In response, she nodded her head and cocked her HAR whilst sporting a determined face behind her helmet. "I am prepared to go back to the infernal realm Vali."
As she said that, Vali looked around before seeing something on the door as he pulled out the cover before it went out as he then pulled down the lever. In response, the door opened up briefly before something shot out. That something being what looked to be some kind of hand, one which grabbed a stunned Vali and Ludmila before they could react in time. Once it had them, the hand then threw them across the room that the hand's owner resided in, the two tumbling across the ground before getting up to their feet before looking at the cause.
"?!"
"So… this is the Demon which Hayden was talking about… big."
"Understatement, Vali. It's bigger than even those damn Barons of Hell!"
To Ludmila and Vali's shock, the cause turned out to be an incredibly large demon, at least double the size of a Baron of Hell. It had pale, pinkish skin that was covered in natural-looking armor that covered the majority of its body. It had four small, beady eyes and a large, gaping mouth similar in appearance to a Mancubus. The Demon also sported two large, sharp horns, the left horn of which looked to have been broken in half in the past, with the Demon's right arm sporting a large blade-like bone that was located on the wrist. For a left arm, the Demon looked to possess an orange futuristic-looking rocket launcher, with it's right foot being replaced mostly with mechanical components.
Looking across it's form, Vali and Ludmila found their gazes landing on it's chest, where they could see what looked to be the Argent Accumulator that they were looking for, meaning that this would likely involve some 'work' on their side. Something which they seemed to have no choice in since, the moment it looked at them, the creature growled under its breath before letting out a loud, furious roar.
"RRRRRROOOOOOAAAARRRR!"
Vali: Yamato, Combat Shotgun, Heavy Assault Rifle (he'd found spares of weapons he'd lent to Ludmila lying throughout the room), Plasma Rifle, Gatling Gun and now the Rocket Launcher.
Ludmila: Combat Shotgun, a futuristic-looking Pistol (she'd found it in the room but Vali had no interest in it, so she had it instead), Heavy Assault Rifle and a Gatling Gun of her own. Again, one which she'd found lying about in this room but she wasn't going to complain, since it simply allowed them to expand her arsenal.
Ludmila quickly took point, holding her Minigun up and proceeding to let loose a barrage of bullets onto the creature. In response, the creature which they at this point had figured to be the Cyberdemon, aimed it's left arm back and proceeded to fire rockets at her, prompting Ludmila to start circling around her foe whilst keeping her barrage up. Vali on the other hand, quickly flew upwards after activating Divine Dividing, snarling under his breath. 'Tch, this fight could drag on… I only have one BFG shot left before I would have to spend some time making new rounds for it. Looks like I'll have to make this one count, then…' the boy thought as he scowled further, not liking the thought of not being able to use this weapon when surrounded by hordes of enemies in Hell.
Whelp, one couldn't have them all now could they?
With his plan in mind, Vali took out his BFG and held it at the ready like he were holding an assault rifle. He then proceeded to circle around it, waiting for his opportunity to launch a disabling strike against the Cyberdemon as it constantly fired it's rockets at Ludmila who returned fire with her Minigun.
Eventually, the blue haired nordic native decided to resort to fighting fire with fire, or in this case rocket with rocket. "Vali, mind handing me your rocket launcher?!" she called up to him prompting Vali to toss her the said weapon from the airspace above that she soon caught. This interaction however, gave the Cyberdemon the chance to notice where the silver haired half Devil was residing, thus it prepared an attack just for him. It's back started to glow briefly, which served as the teen's only warning… all before a bunch of missiles got launched his way like they were rounds from an anti air gun turret on a Battleship.
"OH SHIT!"
Vali quickly cursed out loud, not bothering to suppress it as he twisted himself around and proceeded to fly throughout the airspace above in an attempt to frantically avoid the missiles. Whilst that was happening, the Cyberdemon rushed towards a surprised Ludmila, nearly smashing into her had she not rolled to the side in time as a show of her trained reflexes. Another show of said reflexes came when she promptly raised her Rocket Launcher and peppered the Cyberdemon with rounds from it. These rounds hit it in the back, close to where it had launched its own missiles at Vali earlier, although all this wound up doing was just piss the Cyberdemon off.
Proof of this came when Ludmila saw it aim it's left arm at her and, initially thinking it to be another rocket barrage, she nearly dropped her jaw when it began charging up for some other kind of attack, the sounds of energy building within it cluing her in to what would happen in the following seconds. 'Yikes!' she exclaimed mentally, discarding thoughts of attack for the option to dodge by rolling sideways. Good thing she did too, because Ludmila just BARELY avoided a beam of pure Argent Energy that got launched from the arm's weapon, one which pretty much left a single long gash across the floor and left a good portion of a nearby wall in a similar state.
'Shit, that could have been dangerous to hit! And I don't have the ability to perform any defensive magic at the moment, either…!' Ludmila mentally shouted whilst switching out the Rocket Launcher for her Minigun, once again resorting to firing bullets at its face to try and stop it from attacking. Initially, this seemed to work since the Cyberdemon held it's right arm in front of its face to block the rounds, however this then turned sour once it retaliated by firing rockets in her direction.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
The sounds of rockets exploding around her as she did her best to strafe away from them filled her ears as Ludmila once again traded rounds with the creature, which then broke the trade by throwing itself at her with its bone blade being reared back for a stab it seemed. Ludmila quickly dodged this by rolling forwards just as the beast came down on her, going through a faint gap between its legs resulting in the blade being impaled into the ground behind her. "Hah, wide open, bastard!" she bellowed, once again exercising her limited ability to produce magic by switching out her weapons for her Staff and aiming it at the beasts' legs. Afterwards, she shot out a stream of vapor from it's tip, one which promptly created a bunch of ice around its legs to stop it from turning around to face her...
"Thanks Ludmila, I got this."
… as well as give Vali the chance to dive in and attack as well, having managed to deal with the missiles on his own before. His BFG remained at the ready, but once he saw the Cyberdemon being immobilized, he swiftly changed his mind whilst switching his weapon out for the Yamato. As it's blade gleamed menacingly, the demonic sword of unknown origin and power quickly thrummed with it whilst Vali closed the distance between them, swinging it downwards after raising the blade which resulted in it slicing through the Cyberdemon's right arm like a hot knife through swiss cheese.
"GUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"
A loud cry of agony ripped through the Cyberdemon at the loss of its mechanical limb, something which both fighters attributed to the arm being connected to its nerve system which explained why it had been able to feel and manipulate it the way it had. However, that soon became a moot point when Vali, quickly exposing this moment of weakness, chose to slam into the creature's chest with all the force he could muster. This ended up with him shoulder ramming it whilst Divine Dividing activated it's ability, quickly absorbing the energy of the Demon and dispersing it so that it couldn't negatively affect its wielder… as well as weakening his opponent further.
The result: the Cyberdemon falling onto it's back which set its legs free from Ludmila's ice.
Though that last bit wouldn't have mattered in the next few seconds, since Vali quickly raised Yamato and proceeded to slash all around the Argent Accumulator within the Cyberdemon's right pec, ripping it free with his free hand afterward. As a result, the creature let out a weak,, dying groan before it slumped back down to the ground, a loud THUMP accompanying it's form as it lay on the ground, motionless.
'Hmmm… must have been powered by this damn accumulator…' Vali thought as he hopped off the Cyberdemon's body and walked on over to Ludmila, who responded in the same way. "Looks like we have out accumulator now. So, what do we…?" he began to say, before he accidentally pressed something on the object that was shaped like some kind of frag grenade. The whole thing then burst in an explosion of red light, blinding the two of them who each exclaimed with loud grunts as the light consumed them.
By the time the light died down and they were able to open their eyes, Vali and Ludmila lowered their arms. The blunette girl gave Vali an irritated stare whilst putting her hands over her hips. "Next time, watch where you put your hands, Vali! That could have been dangerous!" she stated, angrily.
Though the half Devil didn't see the point in that as he rolled his eyes behind his helmet while looking around. He noticed that they seemed to be surrounded by what looked to have been the ruins of some large building, from what he could see he guessed this place inside Hell might have been some kind of temple of sorts, as much as that biggled the fuck out of him. "Hey, we're in Hell now, so that's all that matters. Anyways, let's get moving, the sooner we get that Crucible, the sooner we can- oh, wait."
Before Vali could finish his sentence, he held the still-drawn Yamato in front of him and Ludmila quickly followed her instincts, stepping to the side as Vali made a bunch of high-speed slashes with it towards the Cyberdemon's corpse. After the final slash, Vali made a show of slowly sheathing the blade inside it's sheathe at his waist, until with a CLICK it had been put back inside its sheathe completely. Though, following that click Ludmila got her answer to the question of what Vali had been doing that she'd been about to ask him, in the form of the Cyberdemon's corpse becoming chopped up into various pieces by what had seemed to be a set of invisible slash waves. Likely launched from those slashes he'd done earlier. "A rule in zombie movies I heard from Siegfried: always double tap. Wanted to make sure that guy stayed dead." Vali explained, idly glancing at the corpse and noting the dispersing of Argent Energy in the atmosphere which proved him right.
"Sure, anyways let's continue."
With that said by Ludmila, the said brunette and Vali proceeded to head onwards towards their goal of finding the Crucible.