After a while of wandering and fighting Demons, Vali and Ludmila finally arrived at what looked like a Temple of sorts, one which looked to have been ransacked quite heavily in the past. As they walked forwards, before topping at what it looks like a demon stone on the top of the building, two doors, one yellow and one blue. Upon going forward, Ludmila spotted some green stuff on the bottom of the ledge and there was another one there on the right.

"Those are demonic teleportations of where the portal is set for each location."

Fortunately before any of them could wonder what those were, Albion chimed in and gave the necessary explanation. He did so after manifesting Divine Dividing on Vali's back, the Sacred Gear closing its wings similar to how birds tucked theirs in over their bodies when not using them for anything. Sometimes it felt good to have a knowledgeable Heavenly Dragon partner. "Ok….. but can we even find the crucible here?" Vali wondered, tilting his head while pursing his lips.

"It's simple, see those colored doors? Those mean that these are the passages where you can find the crucible, however since there's multiple ones here I suggest you split up."

Vali nodded his head at his comrade's words, holding out his Yamato in his right hand in preparation for potential battles. If his instincts were correct, then this place likely won't let them get to the Crucible without at least a few challenging fights, something which he found himself looking forward to actually. Shaking his head to suppress his building bloodlust for the time being, he looked on over towards Ludmila through the visor of his Helmet. "Alright Ludmila you take the one in the right while I go for the left." he told her.

Ludmila nodded, saying something else before she jumped on over. "Ok, good luck Vali you really gonna need it."

For a moment, the silver haired Hybrid wondered if he would need any luck, but then he remembered just how twisted, tenacious and unpredictable this Hell had been so far and soon figured that those words may have more truth to them than he'd care to admit. "... Maybe I will." he admitted in the end, jumping to the opposite passage.

"Hhhhaaa."

"What is it Xun Er?"

A small sigh escaped her lips as a certain young teenage woman did so in slight dismay, prompting her friend who was another teenage woman but with crimson hair and snake like eyes opposed to the first woman's blue hair and blue eyes. The two of them were currently walking around by themselves throughout the streets of Japan's capital city of Tokyo, since they couldn't go back to Uminari, Nanoha's hometown. It didn't matter what anyone said, since she grew up there these two would always consider it as such, even if the auburn haired girl believed the Kure Clan to be her new home, Uminari now being a source of painful memories for her due to the events that shaped her into being what she was having transpired there.

Speaking of her, ever since the group had separated Nanoha, Fate and Siegfried had decided to remain at the Kure Clan village so that they could train and hone their skills. Magic may be all well and good and all, however if they didn't have anything to rely on once they found themselves in situations where they couldn't use magic anymore, then they'd be at a bit of a disadvantage. Well, in Nanoha's case she wanted to learn as much as she could whilst staying there, her dream/goal being to 'become the demon queen under the sixth heaven' as she had referred to it as.

Xun Er and Medusa meanwhile, had stayed in Tokyo so they could shop around and experience things normal girls their age should instead of anything involving the Supernatural world. Right now, they were headed to one of the City's shopping malls, a clothes shop to be more exact, to see what the latest fashion trends were. They'd been doing so for a while, so they had a bit of a selection going on, though as they had done so Xun Er couldn't stop reminiscing about the past. Call her an idiot, but since life had slowed down for her after a while of fast and intense pacing… she just felt a bit lost inside, she guessed. Not to mention a little lonely as well. "Oh, nothing much. It's just that without Vali and the gang here….. I feel like I'm missing the good times we had."

At this, Medusa tilted her head whilst looking at her with a look which basically said 'are you serious right now'. Essentially like she'd seen her friend suddenly grow a second head… though perhaps that wasn't the best example since said friend could summon a spectral arm out of her demonic one. "Good times? You mean the times where you had to go with Vali to collect the Jewel seeds, get your arm cut off, get a new one instead, prevent the qlippoth tree from growing and making the fruit were good times?" she questioned incredulously.

The way she said it made Xun Er think back to what she'd said… before she sweat dropped. "... Maybe not those times, but I missed them Medusa." she eventually claimed, sighing once more. Sure there had been MANY hectic times back then, times where they had to be filled with tragedy, drama and the like. They weren't exactly the best times back then, nor were they ones which one would like for their children to have had if one looked at it from a parent's perspective. However, if she were to be asked if she hated those times then Xun Er would say 'no' immediately, no matter how many times one asked her that question. Mostly because it was only due to those times that she had become the way she was now and had met a BUNCH of her current friends.

There were always two sides to every coin, and just as how conflict could be twisted, it could also give birth to new possibilities.

Whilst she thought about all this, Xun Er's eyes when she felt a hand rest itself on her shoulder, prompting her to look to the source and as a result, she saw Medusa giving her a supportive smile. "Don't worry Xun Er, we'll meet them sooner or later, it's pretty much inevitable at this point. Not only are we part of the same group, but we've fought together like those soldiers I often heard my parents go on about in their old war stories. Anyways enough about that, right now let's check out these clothes we got."

At the mention of the clothes they had recently gotten, Xun Er gave a wide grin. "Good idea!"

They both entered the woman's changing booth to check out the clothes theft picked before the crimson haired princess (no, not Rias she's not part of the story… yet) spoke. "You know, my mother told me that when you get older, you start to get interested in boys." She mused, before shaking her head. A rueful smile formed on her lips as memories of her childhood played themselves inside her mind. "My father did not want that to happen, but was beat up by my aunt when he said no one would marry me especially to an incubus."

Yeah, she could understand that. Xun Er had heard once that girls started getting interested in boys when their teenage years hit, something which both of them were currently going through. Plus, Xun Er wasn't too bothered that Medusa had started bringing this up with her now of all times, due to having known her for a long enough time to understand that this was just how she was: straight to the point with little BS. "I get what you mean Medusa…" she began to say, before an idea as to why she had brought this up hit her causing Xun Er to look at her curiously. "By the way, have you become interested in boys?"

This wasn't something unusual for girls their age, but back when they were kids Medusa and Xun Er had been approached by many members of the opposite sex, usually seeking their parents for marriage proposals or 'claiming' to want to be their friends for their own gains. Fortunately, their parents had already warned them and taught them how to see these things coming a mile away so little progress got made there. Plus, it happened more with Medusa due to her status as a Princess of her Clan than Xun Er due to her mother's infamous reputation, though as a result they hadn't really wanted to have much to do with boys. Not to mention that Xun Er had wanted nothing to do with them since usually they dissed her mother, someone whom she looked up to and loved very much.

Medusa nodded her head after a couple seconds worth of contemplation. "A little… though, they first need to prove themself to this princess like Vali did." she remarked offhandedly.

"Still have that at-wait you said Vali how can he interest you Medusa?" For a moment, Xun Er processed that simply like anything else in her brain that her friend said. However, when it REALLY sank in, Xun Er experienced what would be commonly referred to as a 'hold up' moment, the sound of disk records screeching to a halt filling her mind somehow as she turned her head towards Medusa fast enough to have given her whiplash… if she hadn't been so absolutely stunned by those words.

However, on the other side Medusa didn't seem even nearly as affected by her casual admission of being interested in someone like Vali. In fact, she didn't even seem even remotely embarrassed either, save for the slight tinge of pink on her cheeks as she examined some of the clothes she had chosen. "He is strong, stubborn, a battle maniac, and has a powerful aura that he interests me a lot. Think about it, people of our world are attracted to those with power, right? Dragons even more so since they're considered as masses of power in physical form." She explained like it was the most normal thing in the world, and in a sense she wasn't really wrong. Xun Er just didn't expect her friend of all people to be one to say such things.

"I see…"

For a moment, Xun Er remained silent, trailing off as she entered her own little world to process those words. Medusa meanwhile, glanced at her friend and noticed the faint frown on her lips. Her brain quickly worked something out after examining her body reactions, as well as thinking back to the past interactions she had with the topic of discussion here, and as a result a slightly teasing smile formed on her lips. "Are you perhaps jealous Xun Er?" she questioned like her personality: straight to the point like a blunt sledgehammer.

In response, the blunette practically snapped to attention with a slight squeak escaping her lips, sort of like a fresh recruit being disciplined by a drill sergeant in a military base. "Wha-me, jealous? Nooooo,no-no-no I'm not, I'm perfectly fine!" she tried to say in a flustered voice, said voice breaking slightly as she stammered her words out.

All in all, a pretty flimsy defence if one were to ask Medusa, so she simply smashed that fort down with her own battering ram. "Xun Er….. it sounds like you like Vali, don't lie to me I can tell." she stated with a tone which pretty much stated that she wouldn't be tolerating any kind of BS from her, not even her friend would escape such treatment right now.

"... fine, I like him. Happy?"

"Please, you know as well as I do that Vali will attract a lot of women with his power."

"I'm pretty sure that Vali won't be interested in women with his attitude."

"True, but I'm sure later on he will, we'll just have to wait."

"... ok."

"Oh which reminds me my family contacted me that the greek faction are beginning to summon those Cardinal Heroes."

Xun Er's mind stretched when she heard that before she yelled. "WHHHHAAAAT?!

"Alright, you got the key?"

"If this human colored skull is the key then yes I do."

After going through their respective passages, Vali and Ludmila rested by a wall, having been considerably tired from fighting all those demons. During that time, Vali had managed to restore one piece of BFG ammo to make 2 in total that he could fire. However, considering how much he had to expend to make it, made him decide not to use it save for only the big boys like the Baron of hell, Hell Knights, or in a big enough group that Vali needed to break before he could be overwhelmed.

Though, interestingly enough out of the two of them, Ludmila had been the one to get out first, due to having found herself in a small arena. By the end of it, most of her ammo had been almost completely depleted due to the Mancubus and a variant of the same Demon but with green energy. That angel really wanted to destroy the underworld, she figured, though for what reason Ludmila wasn't as sure about.

They pull out their keys to the gate, Vali having a yellow skull whilst Ludmila had a blue skull as they walk to their respective gate before putting these keys into the door's respective slots. As a result, the skulls started to glow for a bit, before disappearing as the gate then turned before opening two switches. Vali pulled the stone lock before it broke as he then turned the switch before he felt it can't go any further. Afterwards, Ludmila destroyed the stone lock by punching it before turning it the same way as Vali had, to which they heard some gears opening below them as they went down to the bloody floors, paying no mind to it.

As they walked and entered something underneath it they saw a path that went downwards, so they followed it. It didn't take them to note on how quiet it was, as well as note how the fall which soon presented itself could have killed a normal human.

But Vali and Ludmila were not in any way like normal humans, as they both jumped down before they landed on their knees as they put their hands on the floor before getting up. There was another one before they jumped down and landed the same way. They landed on hell's floating island which is beneath them which made Vali curious. "Huh….. you know hell maybe a nightmare but they have some nice landscapes." he mused to himself.

Ludmila noted a similar opinion as she nodded her head, even if this place had been an infernal place there was a sense of… beauty, albeit a perverted sense, to it. "I can agree with you on that Vali." She mused.

"Alright hold on to me." As he said that, Ludmila put her hands on Vali's neck as he activated his Divine Dividing. Following this he flew around to the bottom of the place, spotting another skull which belonged to a giant demonic skull with a pentagon on its forehead before a demonic voice was heard.

"THE TRAITOR MUST NOT RETRIEVE THE CRUCIBLE."

A curse escaped his lips at that one. "Shit they know where here." Vali muttered under his breath whilst the two floated in the air thanks to the silver haired male. The movement that Vali had said that Cacodemons(Records that Samuel gave them on what they are called) spawned as they floated, spewing out plasma energy blasts towards them which Vali quickly evaded by strafing about, before he unsheathed Yamato. Gripping Ludmila by her waist, Vali made sure he had a good grip on her before he flew to them and sliced them in half, killing them. An Argent ray hit on Vali.

"Argh!"

He almost lost his balance from flying as Ludmila held on tight to Vali before he recovered..Not one to be a damsel in distress, Ludmila quickly set to pulling out her HAR in one hand and rained bullets on the hell Razer that had hit Vali earlier with it's laser. Initially, she had missed some but eventually her bullets began connecting resulting in her managing to kill it.

This allowed them to finally land where the giant goat demon skull was located, as two Mancubus appeared via red flashes. Not wanting them to get a head start on them with their rockets, Vali promptly flew forwards with Divine Dividing, then promptly killed one of them via decapitation as Ludmila dodged two streams of flames that the other launched her way. She then switched to her Rocket Launcher (Vali having let her keep it for the time being) before she managed to headshot the Mancubus with a single rocket round.

Afterwards, she put her Rocket Launcher back and brought out her minigun when Hell Knights appeared. One of them tried to shoulder tackle her, but she dodged by jumping backwards, landing on solid ground again before rain bullets on it as it's limbs were cut off by her rounds. Just as she had been about to end it, her instincts began screaming loudly to dodge as she did so, dodging to the right by diverolling and raining bullets on the second Hell Knight, cutting off its legs before she switched to her staff and pierced its head.

On his side, Vali dealt with two Barons of hell, continuously dodging their green energy attacks before he spotted an opening. Taking the chance, he slashed the left leg of one of them before cutting that same one's torso. He then had to jump to the right to avoid an overhead smash from it's partner, rolling across the ground before he stood up and pulled out his Combat Shotgun, his Sacred Gear flaring outwards as he shot at its legs. Thanks to this, one of the legs was blasted off as the Baron it had been attached to screamed in immense pain while falling to the floor before he headshotted the demon, killing it. It didn't take him long to repeat the process with its brethren either, resulting in two dead Barons of Hell under Vali's belt.

As he finished, Ludmila walked up to him before the gate opened as they looked at it before walking into it. They entered the halls as they saw a few what it looked like… parasites, which disgusted them and also made them wonder why there were parasites here. Whilst they proceeded forwards they saw the green pentagon on the top was the demonic sigil before they looked at the pentagon.

"Looks like we're close to the goal, Ludmila. I can feel it."

"... may the allfather give us strength."

They both put their hand forward to the pentagon as they were teleported before arriving at the place where Vali had seen in his visions before in front of the altar was the crucible, the only weapon that can stop the hell portal. The altar went down as an enemy appeared on the fire as they saw the demon: a tall, menacing figure which resembles a humanoid creature with no head or neck. It had hooves as feet, sort of like the Baron of Hell and its legs were light brown and flesh red like the rest of the exoskeleton. The chest area had a green radiant rune embedded on it and opened as the parasite they saw before as it slithers there like a snake. Its shoulders possessed one shield-like extension covered with spikes on each side to protect the joint that connects the body to its bulky arms which ended in claw-like, red hands. The left hand possessed what looked like some kind of Stave like those which Magicians would use, whilst the right sported what looked like some kind of mallet. Slate-coloured bumps covered the dome on top of the Demon where its head would otherwise be, resembling eyes as the parasite entered the chest area and coiled inside of it. It then screamed before the chest closed up...

Signalling the fight's beginning.

"Looks like the Parasite is the main controller and the exoskeleton is like a puppet which it controls." Vali noted as the construct proceeded to rush towards them, coating itself in what looked like an orb of green energy. Quickly, Vali and Ludmila jumped to opposite sides of the circular rocky platform, the latter quickly pulling out her Minigun and unloading into the construct's back. However, the moment they hit that energy orb the bullets seemingly evaporated, much to her shock whilst Vali frowned further. "Add in a makeshift forcefield like thing which seems to disappear when it attacks, and we have a Demon that knows how to switch between swords and shields… like a Knight."

Ludmila scowled as she saw the same things which he did. "Looks that way, any ideas on how to beat it?" she shouted over to him whilst dive rolling to avoid an overhead smash. Though, what she didn't expect was for it to swing it's Stave at her, which wound up releasing a wave of fiery energy which slammed into her, sending her tumbling across the platform with constant curses escaping her lips. Mostly due to the fact that the energy burned a good portion of her side through her clothes, leaving the skin exposed as well as a bunch of reddened flesh. "Ugh! Fuck! Any ideas at ALL would be nice right about now!"

"Well first, can I have my Rocket Launcher back? I'll need it for the fight." Vali easily countered with, grimacing at the damage. That would take a while to heal especially with their limited magic here, he thought as Ludmila tossed the said weapon up into the air, allowing Vali to take to the airspace and catch onto it. He also had to spiral around to avoid multiple energy blasts launched in his direction by the construct, but he had more luck than Ludmila in avoiding them. 'Well, firing back right now wouldn't be too good since it's barrier is up…' Vali thought noting the green field surrounding the construct…

Just as it went to strike at Ludmila once again prompting him to act on reflex.

PSHEWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

BOOM!

Once he pulled the trigger, Vali unloaded a rocket down onto the construct as it thrusted it's mallet forwards towards Ludmila's gut, the girl having barely gotten to her feet and thus wouldn't have been able to dodge in time. Fortunately, Vali's little attempt to help her had worked out in the form of the rocket crashing into the side of it's head resulting in it stumbling to the side and clumsily falling to the ground beside her.

"?!"

For a moment, Ludmila gaped at the sight in disbelief over what had happened, before her brain clicked it into high gear once again as she quickly figured out Vali's tactic. She then looked up at him with a few tick marks on her forehead. "So, I'm to be the decoy then, I take it?!" she yelled up to him, but before he could reply the brunette ust shook her head with an audible exhale escaping her nose behind her helmet. "Whatever, it worked so I guess we'll keep at it till this bastard goes down completely."

'Glad she's more goal-orientated…' Vali internally thought as he noticed the construct having gotten up with its barrier in place, though that wouldn't be for long since it had begun lifting it's stave to the air above it whilst a large sphere of yellow electrical energy formed in front of it. Before Vali could react in time however, it quickly smashed the sphere with it's Stave, launching it in the form of 3 saller spheres towards Ludmila who barely managed to roll out of the way in time.

Afterwards, Ludmila got back up to her feet to the sight of Vai proceeding to shower the construct with rockets as the barrier started up again. As a result, they only exploded harmlessly against it in a shower of fiery explosions leaving no smoke behind. However, the construct used this chance to jump into the air with it's mallet raised for an overhead strike, one which Ludmila quickly dashed forwards then jumped into the air to not only avoid it when it came down, but also the wave of flames which erupted forth from it upon the mallet's collision with the hard ground.

It didn't help that the construct practically moved just a second after colliding with the ground, thrusting it's Mallet in Ludmila's direction once it had closed the distance. Fortunately though, the blunette in her countless battles against the forces of hell managed to develop some good reflexes for this sort of thing, and as a result she quickly tilted herself backwards to the point where she'd bent her back so much that she looked like a literal upside down 'v'... though with her Combat Shotgun out in her right hand which she raised and fired towards where she'd predicted where the construct's head would be.

BOOM!

A couple rounds escaped it from a single burst of the Combat Shotgun right after the attack had ended and before the barrier field could be activated, causing the construct to stumble backwards as the field activated once again. However this time, Vali quickly scooped Ludmila up in one arm like a sack of potatoes and flew her across the platform, letting her drop onto all fours on the ground again when they had reached their destination. "You ok?"

"I've been better… but getting the timing right for our counterattacks is proving to be a bit of a taxing experience…" Ludmila replied as the two glared at the Construct as it recovered from the previous instance and set up its force field. "We need something which could immobilize it long enough for us to be able to get at the parasite within." she admitted.

Something which Vali could understand and agree with. Before he could say anything again, the construct quickly leapt to the centre of the platform they were on, and proceeded to spin around whilst spewing jets of flames from its feet which served around in a somewhat circular formation. Of course this attack remained easy for the duo to avoid in the form of Vali picking Ludmila up while ascending up into the air. "Looks like that barrier maintains itself during that spinning trick…" the male mused, before both noticed the construct stop moving as its barrier vanished. "Quick, lets go!"

"On it!"

Both Vali and Ludmila INSTANTLY descended on the construct like a pair of hungry wolves, Ludmila blasting away with her Combat Shotgun and Vali doing the same with his rocket launcher. As a result, a whole shower of rounds fell onto the construct, draping across it like some kind of curtain of lead that caused it to almost groan painfully, stumbling onto one leg whilst its barrier… it didn't reactivate? To their surprise, Vali and Ludmila noticed how it began constantly spasming and twitching violently like it were having some kind of panic attack…

Or maybe perhaps being compared to a machine being hit by an EMP Pulse would be a better comparison.

Instantly, Vali took his chance by switching to his Yamato and shoulder tackling the damn thing, knocking it onto its back before raising his weapon up in a reverse grip like it was a ceremonial knife. He then brought the weapon down and stabbed it RIGHT through the chest, hearing the faint and dying cries belonging to the Parasite inside before it fell silent, the construct no longer moving. Just as it died two more appeared as one raised its mace on the air while joining with its fellow guardian as it smashes its mace on the floor a few times before roaring out to them.

"They don't have the force field… which means it will be easy now."

"Indeed so, you take the left while I take the right."

"Got it."

As he said that, the two Constructs then ran to the teens to which Vali responded by taking out his BFG and shooting a single plasma ball at one. As a result, it was knocked back being stunned before it could recover. Vali then used this chance to close the distance between them with his Sacred Gear's mobility enhancement, his BFG switched to the Yamato which was then used to cut the Construct in half. The Parasite within screeched with a faint and dying cry as the two parts fell down to separately.

On the other side, Ludmila with her experience dodged the various attacks launched by the other Construct as she rained bullets upon it without end using her Minigun. During this time, it sensed that its fellow guard had died prompting it to spin around as Ludmila ran to get in close range, continuously raining bullets at the Construct all the while. Finally, it stopped its spinning before going down to the floor which served as her opportunity. Being one to take her chances when they presented themselves before her, Ludmila took out her staff and forze the Construct's limbs in place just for a while for Vali to finish it. "Now Vali!"

Over on his side of things, Vali ran to the downed Construct as he got on top of it and pulled the cover real hard. It didn't last very long against his superhuman strength, eventually pulling it off as the parasite within screamed angrily at him, though that wouldn't save it from what would soon follow. Vali then took the parasite and pulled the creature which kept trying to stay still, before he managed to pull the damn thing out of its makeshift cockpit and pulled the parasite in seperate directions, utterly ripping it in half.

The battle now over, both fighters took a moment to regain their breathing, their lungs burning for air as if they had forgotten the ability to breathe during that battle. With how focused they had been on winning, that may have indeed been the case. "That took a while, damn they really don't want the crucible to be taken huh?" Ludmila mused to her companion.

Said companion could only agree with her there, proven by how he nodded in her direction. "You can say that, since it's obvious that none of them would want the weapon that killed Satan to be taken from them to be used against them. But there is one thing that bothers me, why is this thing here in hell of all places? Shouldn't it be with the christian god?" he wondered, frowning behind his helmet.

Though that frown got mirrored by Ludmila after she too pondered on that good question for a bit, not liking the possibilities opening themselves up to her. "I don't know, but speaking of the crucible..."

After she trailed off, the duo then looked at the middle of the platform where they could see a familiar Altar rising up from its former prison. Both of them then looked to one another, nodded, before they went to the altar as Vali gripped the Crucible before pulling it out of its confines, he admired it before green energy appeared before them as it took the appearance of….

"The crusaders!"

Ludmila said with a whisper loud enough for Vali to hear it, as he looked at them with wide eyes. What the hell? Weren't they supposed to be dead? One of them walked forward and stopped as he put his hand on Vali's shoulder, almost as if he were showing gratitude to them… but neither of them could ponder this for long as the tether activated, pulling them out of Hell once more.

They felt like they were floating in space for a moment, before Vali and Ludmila dropped down to solid ground at long last. However, this time they were prepared unlike their last portal travelling experience which resulted in them landing on all fours. Once they stood up and looked around, they found that they had returned back to Mars.

From their HUDs, Samuel spoke.

"YOU HAVE THE CRUCIBLE, AND WITH IT THE MEANS TO CONTAIN THE POWER OF THE WELL."

Not only his, but Phineas's voice broke through too, and he sounded absolutely elated at the moment. Not hard to figure out why with what he soon said.

"My word… this is amazing. To see the legendary weapon in front of our eyes, I can't describe the feeling of how excited I am... The supernatural would do anything to their hands on the crucible."

"INDEED PHINEAS, ANYWAY WE HAVE A PLAN TO SEND YOU TWO THERE. VEGA WILL WALK YOU THROUGH THE PROCESS."

Hearing that quickly made the two perk up since, thanks to that, their bodies felt re-energized at the thought of finally stopping all this once and for all. Still, when Vali looked around at the setting that the two found themselves in, a question blossomed within his chest that soon left his lips. "Ok speaking of which, which place are we on?"

|This is Mars polar caps, where my proto-plasmic circuitry temperature exceeds 1.2 megakelvins, 173 hotter than the surface of the sun. To contain this, Dr Hayden and the wielder of Unknown Dictator had built this place to contain the heat.|

"...Hooolllllyyyy shit. Hotter than the sun, damn!" He didn't know what he would feel when hearing the answer, but Vali nearly dropped his jaw within his helmet at what Hayden had told him. Heck, if he didn't have his helmet on he could bet that his jaw might have dropped to the floor allowing all kinds of bugs to fly in.

Though, he didn't remain the only one affected by this revelation as Ludmila had been in a similar boat to him. "Odins testitcles and his majestic wisdom, it would take hundreds of years to even create you!" she proclaimed in stunned amazement. There were few things which could impress Ludmila since she usually focused on the implications and possibilities she could use them to further her own goals, however this would turn out to be one of the exceptions.

|It only took years to build me by two geniuses madam, and you're going to destroy it.|

However, just as they soared high in their amazement at the marvels that the AI had presented before them, VEGA's following words served to douse their joy and replace it with confusion… as well as a SUBSTANTIAL amount of dread. "... what? Destroy it? What do you mean VEGA?" Vali questioned cautiously.

|My primary core power takes about 2.4 terawatts of power to sustain my operational capabilities, but it has been decided to use that power to send the two of you to the source of the portal.|

VEGA'S explanation did not help them settle their emotions, if anything they sounded more like a death sentence… which they were, in a manner of speaking. Ludmila became the one to ask the following question as Vali remained speechless. "Won't… won't that destroy you?"

|Yes, I will not survive the procedure and unable to self terminate so I will walk through the process.|

The two of them couldn't believe what they were hearing, with Vali taking a step forward as if the AI were right in front of him. He had to wet his dry lips with his tongue whilst his stomach felt like it was trying to strangle itself. "... why would you sacrifice yourself VEGA?"

|Halting this incident requires greater sacrifice sir, Hell must be stopped by any means necessary should we wish to prevent it from claiming the lives of the Underworld and worse, the humans on earth. If it requires me to sacrifice myself, then I must follow the procedure.|

"... dammit fine, show us."

"My lord, my lord!"

"What is it Grav, this better be important."

A frown marred the lips of the Archangel Raquel, or rather the holographic image of him, in front of a male demonic-looking figure who kneeled before him while looking like he were a schoolgirl being harassed by the local bullies. Looked like the archangel hadn't expected to be called like this either, and looked rather irritated as a result though the figure remained in his position as he delivered the recent report that he had received.

"My lord, the wielder of Divine Dividing and his companion has managed to get the crucible!"

"What!? That should be impossible for the Hell Guards make sure no one can get that damn thing!"

Just as the demonic figure had anticipated, Raquel quickly became more alert and furious when he had told him this news, news of the retrieval of the Crucible that the Archangel himself had stolen from his father's vault under everyone's nose then stored it in Hell so it could not be used to stop it's inevitable return. For it to suddenly be taken from where it was meant to lay forever as Hell's trophy, that was a MAJOR problem for them, for its theft would potentially mean that it would be used against them in the future.

"But they managed to do so, they have the means of closing the portal on Mars!"

"... damn you Albion, you're becoming a thorn in my side just like back then."

However, Raquel figured out QUITE quickly who could have stolen such an item from Hell, having recollected the past reports… and he did NOT like what he had realized. Once again that damn Heavenly Dragon was getting in the way of his grudge, just like back then! He should have ignored his sister Gabriel back then and butchered that damn lizard's host like he had originally intended! Then he would have found a way to lock onto Albion's emergence whenever it happened so he would kill his host again and again to stop him from being a pest to his future plans.

Sadly, that wasn't what had happened and he had allowed his petty sentiments towards his kin get in the way. A fact which right now was biting him right in the ass.

"What should we do sir?"

"... gather the hell priests. Have them amass an army to stop them. We're not ready for our assault on the Underworld yet, the retrieval of the crucible will halt things greatly. Let alone THEM too, should they find THEM in there then preparations will be SEVERELY affected."

"At once my lord, but if they can't stop him… do we have a backup plan?"

At the figure's questioning, Raquel pondered for a moment, knowing that there would likely be a need for a backup plan in case everything else failed. Soon, an idea came to him and he gave his subordinate a nod.

"Yes, it is time for Olivia's payment. We no longer have use for her, but if they get to one of the procedures of the core, you and the other Hell Priests are to act personally to stop them."

"Yes, my lord."

"... and that's the fourth one."

|Thank you, you can now move to where my core is located to complete this process.|

As he said that he marked to where the location to his core is when they destroyed the coolant generator, but neither of them were very happy about the idea, since despite being an AI he helped Vali and Ludmila a lot with how they can stop Hell from absorbing Mars, he is a great companion, a being that deserve credits for all of this and now they're going to destroy him. He even said it was a great pleasure of serving them which made Vali gripped his suit hard enough to almost pierce it. As they arrived at the ice area(it was almost so damn cold that Vali could feel it from his suit (Ludmila too despite being an ice mage). Oh! Vali also found a double barrel that is so powerful than the combat shotgun. VEGA spoke.

|The train below will take the two of you to the entrance.|

The train began to operate as it goes to where the core is as they both jumped down as they both were led to where his core was . As they arrived at the entrance the demons were there but Vali didn't have time as he brought out his BFG and killed all of them. They then got off the train and went to the lift before it went to their location.

|I… a-a-a-a-ammm los-s-s-s-s-sing my me-me-me-me-memory capab-b-b-b-bilities… con-t-t-t-trol of neutrrraallll fuuuunnnctiions aaaarrreeeee…..minimal.|

"ONCE VEGA'S CORE IS DESTROYED, THE VACUUM OF ENERGY WILL PULL YOU BACK THROUGH TO HELL. WE HAVE YOUR DESTINATION SET TO THE WELL'S LOCATION, NOW USE THE CRUCIBLE TO POWER IT DOWN AND THE PORTAL ON MARS WILL BE CLOSED….. PERMANENTLY. I'M SURE THE ARCHANGEL RAGUEL WILL NOTICE THIS, THUS THEY WILL NOT ALLOW ACCESS TO THE WELL WITHOUT A FIGHT. BUT I'M SURE THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR ISN'T IT?"

They finally arrived at the core as they walked to the entrance, which promptly opened before them. This allowed them to bear witness to the AI's core(VEGA's core bears a resemblance to the mother brain from classic Metroid coincidence maybe?) as they walked up to it. Vali went to the left and Ludmila went to the right as they both pulled the neutral processors and threw it away as they both went to the terminal.

Along the way, Vali remained somewhat hesitant in destroying it considering all that VEGA had done for him, therefore before he could press 'initiate core's destruction' on the top right… he decided to pull a fast one.

As in, fast enough so that only himself and likely Albion would know.

He did so by saving VEGA as a backup on a data chip already installed inside the console, as he pressed it and VEGA's logo went to the backup screen before it went to the storage computer chip. Once the process was done, he took it out from the console and put it in his storage.

|The process-process is complete-complete.|

"THANK YOU VEGA."

"And here I was starting to like you."

|I have many-many regrets-regrets.|

Vali pressed initiate cores destruction, and verified ID as the core began to be so bright they had to cover their eyes before it exploded destroying the facility on Mars polar cap.

They uncovered their eyes and saw that they are back in hell, though this time they saw the Well: the source of unlimited power produced by it. Around their surroundings, the Vali and Ludmila saw that they were what looked like figures of the crusaders, but different which confused the heck out of them, however Vali shook his head and had a determined face as he activated his Divine Dividing. He wanted to get this over with at last so he could go back to the TSAB already to explain his findings. He could only imagine how Lindy must be feeling at the moment. "Let's finish this once and for all."

"Indeed, Vali." Ludmila replied whilst putting her right arm around Vali's neck as he took to the skies, flying on forth past the various statues and Hell's landscape as he hacked and slashed away at many Cacodemons that had been in his way, before they reached where the energy from the Well was being produced. Though, they likely wouldn't be getting there quickly like they'd internally hoped, since there was an army of Demons there, waiting for them. Seeing that they would be fighting momentarily, Ludmila promptly got off her makeshift ride and pumped her Combat Shotgun and Vali put ammo on his own HAR. After this, the two jumped down and ran to the Demons as they ran to them.

"KILL HIM."

Vali opened fire on two Imps that were about to launch some fast fireballs his way, before he ducked his head to dodge an Argent Ray from a nearby Hell Razor. Raising his HAR, Vali opened fire and killed the Demon, shredding through its flesh with bullets. Afterwards, he ran to where some more Imps were, each of them hanging by a wall and killed them before a Cacodemon floated over his position, looking like it would fire a blast of energy at him momentarily. Not on his watch though, as Vali put his HAR away for his Minigun as he rained bullets upon it before the plasma ball could be fired.

After dealing with the now thoroughly dead Cacodemon, Vali glanced to the side when he heard booming footsteps, seeing that A Hell Knight had begun charging at him like an angry bull. To respond to this, he rained bullets upon it which resulted in its limbs being torn off, the Hell Knight falling down to the ground where Vali commenced killing it by basting its head mush. Instinctively curving his Sacred Gear around him, Vali found it protecting him from various rounds to his face before he moved them aside so he could see the culprit.

This turned out to need to be changed to the plural form 'culprits' when he spotted two Mancubuses stomping on over to him, firing away at him, prompting Vali to switch his Minigun to his Missile Launcher and fired rockets at them before one of them exploded and the other lost one of its guns as a result of his efforts. Two Revenants fired rockets at Vali as he dodged and fired back missiles at them, causing one of them to explode and the other losing half of its body. Finally, Vali switched again to his Yamato before he killed the other Mancubus via a beheading.

A faint green entered his peripheral vision before Vali looked to see a Baron of Hell spawning into the battle before running to him. In response, Vali ran to the Baron of Hell, and right before the two could collide Vali dodged a green energy covered fist by power sliding beneath it, during which he cut off the arm in a reverse upward slash which caused it to scream in pain. Not allowing this to be a wasted opportunity, Vali got up once he had halted his movement, before he ran back in and cut off its legs with two slashes, one for each leg before he ended it by reverse horizontal slashing at it's head, beheading it as it died while in pain.

Over on her side, Ludmila killed some Imps that were running away to get some distance while firing fireballs at her, which she dodged whilst managing to reach them. She trusted her instinct as she jumped forward, dodging a Hell Knight, before she opened fire on the Demon. Afterwards, she dodged some attacks and headshots the Hell Knight before seeing two Hell Razors aiming their weapons at her, looking like they were about to fire... before firing two Argent rays at her.

A curse escaped her lips as she got into cover and waited for the right time when she could see the rays stopping before dashing out of her cover, running to them as she switched to her HAR and rained bullets at them. These bullets tore off one of their laser rifles attached to their arms, as well as a few of their legs before they died. She didn't get a moment's respite though, for she soon saw two green lights in the corner of her visor, prompting her to turn and notice two Mancubuses headed her way, to which she switched again for her Minigun and rained bullets upon them while dodging their green energy attacks before killing one of them. To deal with the other Mancubus, she switched again to her Plasma Rifle as she fired plasma energy at the Mancubus before its guts were torn off, then it's head which signalled to her that it was dead.

Not a second later, a loud roar occurred to her right, where she glanced at to see a Baron of Hell running at her like a rugby player about to do a shoulder tackle. Switching to her Minigun again, Ludmila once again rained bullets upon the Demon, the stream of bullets ripping off its arm as it screamed in pain before ignoring it as it continued to run at her. To respond to this threat, she switched to her Combat Shotgun before she opened fire on it, dodging its wide swing before she managed to shoot at its eyes, causing it to become blind. Whilst it stumbled backwards whilst holding its face with it's remaining hand, Ludmila fired the final bullet barrage at the Baron of Hell, managing to shoot through its guts.

It took a while before demons stopped appearing as Vali joined with Ludmila before they almost dropped their knees.

"(PANTS)... (PANTS) ….(PANTS) ….. Fuck, our stamina. If this keeps up… we might not make it."

"(PANTS)...(PANTS) …. We must not give up Vali….. Or else Hell will consume us!"

"... your right, let's go. I'll be damned if they could even consume me, I'm not finished with my goals until then."

With that said, they went to where the energy is produced as they went up the stairs before seeing something that made them baffled: a single, strange bat-like creature, with enormous wings stretched between six crab-like legs and a number of tentacles trailing from its lower body. This creature had a somewhat human-like head, but lacked most features associated with human skulls, only having a large mouth and a set of ram-like horns.

Vali became the first to speak after they witnessed this sight, however that didn't mean it was his usual tone. "This… is what the well is producing….. An…. alien?" he muttered in confusion.

His words were picked up by his companion regardless though, who also shared his confusion regarding what they were seeing in front of them. "What… an alien you say, how can you be sure Vali?" she questioned.

"Because its appearance does not look like anything demonic or even any records we saw when Samuel showed us the description about the demons. Doesn't look like a Stray Devil either, and even if they were these things must have been in here for a long time, long enough to be corrupted by Hell's influence." Vali replied as they slowly took a couple cautious steps forward.

"I see."

After this exchange, Vali walked to the strange creature as he inspected it before taking out the crucible. For a moment, he stared at before shaking the object in an experimental manner to make it do something, only for nothing to happen as he stares at it… before shrugging his shoulders as he rammed the Crucible right into the floating orb, hearing what sounded like screaming sounds whilst he twisted the Crucible before the thing exploded, knocking Vali back until he landed on the ground beside Ludmila. However, once he recovered and looked again, Vali noticed that he must have done SOMETHING right, for there wasn't any energy being produced by the well anymore. "Huh….. one down, two to go." he muttered, sensing two more presences akin to the one he had just freed.

*Thank you.*

For a moment, Vali blinked owlishly a couple of times behind his visor, shaking his head before looking around. "Huh? Who said that, Ludmila?" he questioned whilst turning his gaze towards her, thinking that she had heard what he just did.

However, judging by the way she looked at him through her own visor, it became safe to say that she didn't, which became ESPECIALLY evident with the dry, 'are we really doing this?' kind of tone she used in her following sentence. "... I think we've been spending too much time in Hell, it makes us hallucinate." she stated.

Something which he could indeed agree with as he turned to walk away though he could have SWORN he had heard something. As someone who usually conversed with voices in his head(no, he wasn't insane… not completely, anyways), he just KNEW something had to be up. "... must have been my imagination."

*Look behind you.*

"... ok I'm definitely not losing my mind, who-huh?" Vali turned around and saw that it was the creature that spoke to him, likely in his mind since that's where he felt it originating from. Not only that, but he could tell that this creature had been the one who had spoken to him due to its limbs that were moving, almost as if they were saying 'look at me' or something along those lines. "... uhhhhh, your welcome I guess?" he tried to say, rather awkwardly due to not expecting this to happen.

*You have freed me from my eternal torment. I thank you for this.*

THIS time, Ludmila had heard it as well, prompting a confused look from her whilst she walked back to Vali's side, the said male staring into the sockets of the creature. "Uh huh….. Who are you?" the silver haired hybrid questioned, frowning behind his helmet's visor. He did NOT expect this to happen, but it didn't feel like he were conversing with a Demon (though to be fair, he never really talked with Demons since they were all trying to absolutely murder him) nor did it exude any intent to harm him, either.

*I am one of the Elemental Wraiths or the Firstborns. You could say that we are aliens to your kind.*

"I see…" Vali muttered in understanding since he had encountered aliens before, making him wonder if he had a knack for encountering extraterrestrial life or something. However, this didn't last for long as he quickly thought of something which made his eyes widen behind his visor. "Wait, if the energy is produced by you, then those two are the same as you?" he questioned, prompting a wide eyed stare from Ludmila, too.

*Yes, our powers are special. Because we produce unlimited energy to those we gift to, we were kidnapped from our worshippers that died trying to protect us. Hell forced us to fuel this accursed Well for eternity.*

There was a strong sense of anger coming from the creature now, though neither of the two fighters could really disagree with its sentiments there. Nobody here liked Hell all too much, all things considered. "I see…. Wait are you gods or something?" Vali once again asked, arching a brow. If these were Gods, then they looked NOTHING like the ones he was used to though he could understand why.

*Maybe we are, maybe we aren't, because despite being immortal we can still be killed by any means.*

Well, at least if they WERE Gods, then they were much more humble with their weaknesses than the ones which he had heard about back on Earth. "Huh…. makes sense." he mused.

*For freeing me I give you this energy to use.*

As the Wraith said that, one of its limbs went down to Vali as it put its limb on Vali's helmet. When this happened, Vali could sense his Demonic Power being restored…. Although, much to his shock it also felt like it was changing on a fundamental level, like a serpent shedding its own skin. By the time that a couple seconds passed the whole of his energy felt completely new…. As well as utterly familiar at the same time. He quickly figured out why when he compared it to the Argent Energy he had felt during his absorbing of it on past occasions using Divine Dividing, to this energy feeling… and finding an exact match. "This….. I feel… how?"

*Like I said, we give energies to our worshippers in order to protect them, you earned this.*

Whilst disbelief still flooded him as the limb was retracted, Vali gazed up at the Wraith for a few more seconds, as it retracted it's limb. However, with the amount of power now flowing through his demonic-no, his ARGENT ENERGY reserves caused him to snap to reality. Quickly, and quite enthusiastically, he lowered his head in gratitude for this gift. Not only did this gift seem useful in ALL sorts of ways, but it also further separated him from his damn sperm donor as well as his grandfather, which was something which Vali would take ANY day. "... thanks, I owe you one."

*I need to go and find a way of of this cursed placed before-*

"I'm afraid it would be impossible, Wraith."

Just as it made to leave with it's brethren however, Albion appeared on Valis' back as he spoke out loud the wraith.

*What do you mean?*

"Hell is a tricky and cunning place. It made some evil gods from this place, therefore I doubt you can get out of here and, even if you could, it wouldn't be long before you would be brought back to be a producer for the Well again."

*... what should I or my brothers do, I have been stranded in hell for many years and I worry for my worshipers.*

"Hmmmmm, there is one thing."

*What is it?*

"Vali can have you and your brothers be a familiar to him."

*A…. familiar?*

"Beings who have been magically bound to a Devil as a servant or ally, it's the only way."

*I see…. Then do it, make me and my brothers a familiar.*

"What….. are you sure about this?" Vali asked in shock, shock at the rather simple method Albion had used to convince the Wraith as well as how it had agreed without much of a fuss. Normally, Devils would have had to persuade or force their familiars to obey them or go into the Familiar Forest for such things where the residents weren't aware of how twisted the Devils truly were. Not only that, but the Wraith before him had just been freed from being a slave to an entire DIMENSION, so it stunned him to see it giving that up so quickly.

*If it means to reunite me, my brothers and worshippers then I will take the risk. Please.*

After hearing it's reasons, Vali once more mentally became stunned at the devotion that these 'Gods' had towards their followers, a devotion which many Gods he had heard of lacked since they would prioritize the bigger picture over taking action when disasters occurred. Still, the being's devotion hit home with him, and so Vali relented to this decision it had made. "... alright, let's do this."

Whilst Ludmila stepped back, opting to not take a stance in this conversation or the following events, Vali then put his hand forward like a palm strike as he felt his Argent Energy reserves within him, flowing like a violent electric current without any backlash or corrupting him, sort of like a paradox Vali internally mused as Albion guided him. "I, Vali Lucifer bind you elemental Wraith, as my familiar!" As he said that, a magic circle appeared on Vali's hand which then floated towards the Wraith. Once it touched the being's form, it proceeded to glow, passing into the Wraith before it stopped, marking the wraiths as Vali's familiar.

*Thank you Vali Lucifer, I will not forget this.*

"I always repay my debts no matter what or how long it will be." Vali then pointed at the Wraith before a magic circle appeared on the top of the Wraith before it went down as it disappeared with the Wraith also. Now, whenever he wanted to, Vali could call his familiars to his side and, when he didn't need them, he could put them in his Storage Dimension like any other item or object. Once he did this, Vali then put away his various guns, and performed a few stretches…

Just then, something came to him, causing Vali to pause his motions as a pondering look formed on his face behind his Helmet. Now that he had his Argent Energy replacing his Demonic Power, would it be possible for him to summon his Devil Arms? This Argent Energy felt WAY more powerful than his former Demonic Power, so it COULD be possible, not to mention that this energy didn't feel like it was being affected by Hell's influence which could possibly mean that he had become the FIRST Devil to be potentially able to survive in Hell. Basically becoming this place's worst nightmare.

Still, he wanted to test this theory out for now, so after shoving thoughts of absolutely MASSACRING Demons aside (which was quite hard to do with him being a battle maniac), Vali reached out as if he were grabbing something from out of thin air for a few seconds… just when things seemed like they would be hopeless, Vali's eyes widened behind his Helmet when he saw a red flash appear in front of him, his hand reflexively grasping a weapon's shaft. As such, feeling a familiar feel, weight and power in his grasp caused Vali to grin so much that he pretty much rivalled Raian from the Kure Clan, his eyes shimmering brightly as he gazed upon one of his old weapons…..

[Glavenus].

Over on her side, Ludmila made an intrigued expression behind her helmet when she saw Vali summoning something she didn't recognize.

[Finally, you found a way to summon me boy.]

Suddenly hearing his Devil Arm speak to him after so long of being silent filled Vali with so much nostalgia that it wasn't even funny. Not to mention the feeling of being able to summon his Devil Arms again thanks to this 'gift' that the Wraiths had given him made him all the more grateful to them, as well as aware of how versatile his options truly were at this point. "It's good to see you again [Glavenus]. You have no idea how much I struggled to reach this point..."

[I do actually, while you were off fighting Demons Albion and Gammoth already told us the situation within your soul boy. Anyways, it would be best to hurry along, now. Time is of the essence]

For a moment, Vali guessed that Albion was able to talk to the other Devil Arms in his Soul in ways which he wasn't, something which did cause a bit of jealousy within him but Vali crushed it in favor of savoring the familiar no nonsense tone of his very first weapon. "... alright got it." Vali stated as he held [Glavenus] in it's Axe Mode, ready to showcase to Hell and it's residence just what he could TRULY do with this bad boy. Now that he didn't have to worry about his Energy being sapped by this place no more, Vali also felt like he could probably unleash his Devil Trigger, too. His possibilities were ENDLESS right now!

"Hey Vali, what's that weapon you summoned?"

Of course, his reverie was interrupted when he remembered that he wasn't alone right now, but Vali didn't care at the moment. Instead, he turned towards his companion and walked towards her, holding [Glavenus] in one hand. "I'll tell you later, let's go!" As he said that, the teenage Hybrid reached out with his free hand and grabbed onto Ludmila and held her to him by her waist, the said girl holding onto Vali as he activated his Sacred Gear before taking to the skies. He soon shot off, flying on to where the next wraith was.

What followed… could only be described as a living two-person WAR.

Throughout their journey to rescue the remaining Wraiths, two of them according to Albion, the duo hadn't spent long flying through the air before a MASSIVE horde of Demons forced them to land by shooting away at Vali, preventing him from continuing. This ended up forcing them to fight on the ground which was something that suited the Demons just fine, since it let them flood their positions en masse like an unstoppable tide. If the two had thought the fighting before had been intense, well by the end of THESE continuous battles, their bodies would be HOWLING in agony from all the strain that they would be putting them through.

Battle after battle, Demonic ambush after Demonic ambush, there had been literally NO end to these demonic monstrosities. There had been nowhere for them to safely take a breather and recover their strength, the Demons kept on harassing them wherever they had gone with not even the air being safe from their reach. All kinds of beasts came at them like bloodhounds with their scent memorized: Imps, Hell Knights, Mancubuses, Cacodemons, Hell Razors, Pinkies, Barons of Hell all kinds of these crazy fuckers kept coming at them from out of the woodworks, making them feel like they were fighting in one of those ancient battles where armies of soldiers physically clashed against one another.

However, throughout all the combat that these two underwent, Vali DID have to admit that being able to fight so many Demons allowed him to test out his new dominant energy source, his Argent Energy… and he LOVED it. Argent Energy proved SO much more effective in not just its usage in empowering his body, but its use in creating more ammo for himself and Ludmila took nearly half a second, with a full 4 seconds for the BFG Ammo which had previously taken 10 minutes worth of time. He felt that it was even more potent as well, having much more of an effect on the enemy as it left various dastardly wounds in its wake evenever Vali used it on the Demons.

He could SO imagine himself blasting his grandfather apart with this power.

Of course, the main goal had been the remaining Wraiths, which Ludmila had to remind him of whenever he was about to go a bit too crazy with his Devil Trigger or other demonic powers. Blasting away or cutting and smashing, Ludmila had gotten a front row seat to Vali wielding MULTIPLE Devil Arms at once with his arms being supplied with the power needed to do so by his Argent Energy reserves, seen as a crimson aura with crackling lightning-shaped energy around his arms as Vali hacked away like a madman. Thus, by the time that they had finally got to the Wraiths, which was one at a time, Vali managed to both set them free as well as make them his Familiars, the aim of this being so that he could take them out of Hell safely. Sure he could have stored them in his storage dimension as they had been, however Albion had reasoned that they were weak at the moment, and thus the Wraiths wouldn't have been able to escape Hell on their own so, with a source of Argent Energy (Vali) around, they would be able to recover their strength whilst stored in his storage dimension. It had been as good a reason as any to have them as his Familiars, he supposed.

Finally, after freeing the last Wraith, making it his Familiar and storing it inside his storage dimension, Vali heaved a sigh with Ludmila right beside him. Not long now, all that was left for them to do was to get out of here, and back to their companions back on Mars. However, before they could do so, both Vali and Ludmila tensed when they sensed someone and turned back and saw someone blocking their way out: a hunchback humanoid demon with priest-like clothes (oh, how he could imagine those fools in the church wanting to smite this Demon immediately, Vali mused internally with dark amusement) on it as it held a demonic-looking cross-shaped Staff. The Demon seemed to just be upwards at the skies above where the two could see MANY Cacodemons floating around, before looking back down at them, revealing itself as a male as he held a sneer. "So….. you two were causing problems for our lord."

"Hmph look what we have here, an actual demon that can speak. this should be a prize for an ugly demon like you." Vali snarled, internally being surprised and somewhat impressed that something like this had happened at all.

Not like the hunchback figure had any tolerance for this, though. "Insolent fool you dare mock me, Deag Ranark the hell priest of lord Raguel?!"

Vali shrugged his shoulders in response. "Maybe I am, Priest. Considering that you do look like you came from an ugly parent, wouldn't you say so Ludmila?" he questioned, glancing towards the blunette companion that he had.

Said companion took one look at the creature before them… a look which lasted a second before she nodded in agreement. "Yes, even monsters can produce cute spawns." she stated bluntly, which arguably made her words sting worse.

"Grrrrrhhhhh… hmph, no matter wielder of divine dividing. You will not free these creatures for they are useful for our plans to invade the Underworld and kill those devils that don't belong to Earth!"

Narrowing his eyes at them, Vali spoke with a deadpan, holding [Glavenus] at the ready. "Over our dead bodies." he stated, pressing a button on the Shaft which shifted the weapon from Axe to Sword Mode.

"Why do you protect them, these… sinners that killed the great god of the Bible?! WHY?!"

Ludmila's eyes widened at that. "What…. The christian god is dead?" she exclaimed, though got ignored by the other two.

"It's not like I care for those Devils, but even I know that when you kill all of the Devil's in the underworld, you and your Angel master would just cause disorder to Earth causing the supernatural world to be exposed before the humans." Vali replied evenly.

"If it's the price to kill them….. So be it, then."

As he said that, the demonic Hell Priest lifted his staff and brought it down. Following this action, Vali and Ludmila's eyes widened when they saw a bright glow beneath their feet, their last warning that something bad was going to happen being the sick smirk on the Hell Priests's toothy maw before each of them vanished from the scene. The Hell Priest chuckled darkly, cupping his mouth with his free clawed hand. "Ahahahaha, how I wish I would be able to see their faces at what we put in their path…"

"Ugh… did someone get the license plate on that truck…?"

"What are you… talking about Vali…?"

By the time that they could see again, after what had been one of the roughest rides through what had FELT like something akin to the tether which Hayden would use to pull them back to Mars, Vali and Ludmila finally found themselves at their unwilling destination… roughly 15 feet above what looked to be ground covered in an ocean of blood. They'd only had about a second to realize this, before they'd plummeted right smack down into it, with the two of them landing on all fours just barely, avoiding a much more painful landing thanks to their respective suits compressing the impact.

Still, after getting up and looking around to find out where they were, Vali and Ludmila found themselves to be in… some kind of cave, of sorts. A large cave, too with a bunch of bones scattered throughout its edges, bones which looked like they had once belonged to various large creatures, creatures large enough to rival double story buildings at their smallest and towering skyscrapers at their largest. Additionally, with all the blood around there was a thick, heavy scent of iron in the air which caused the two to grimace, Vali looking to the side with a twisted snarl escaping his lips. "Ugh, now that stinks…" he muttered under his breath, before looking back to Ludmila. "Anyways, wherever we are, we need to get the fuck out of here. We need to return to Mars before-"

"Wait Vali, look!"

Before he could continue, Ludmila interrupted him whilst pointing towards something ahead of them. Internally irritated at this, Vai indeed looked to see what all the fuss was about… only to blink in slight surprise at what they both saw, or rather, who: Olivia Pierce. She seemed to be standing like a hunchback in the centre of what looked to be a massive pentagon sigil, carved into the ground and glowing like it was a living organism. Furthermore, the woman herself didn't look too good, though she hadn't looked good since the beginning. There was blood over her entire body, with her legs looking like they were one step away from finally breaking under the strain of her whole being, the woman herself moaning and groaning whilst seemingly being pain… something of which Vali held NO sympathy for, and would have just left her to her own devices had he not heard her voice echoing throughout the cave.

"They….. Promised me soo much…..." she muttered, and when she raised her head both of them became witnesses to the sight of her eyes lacking any irises, sort of like the various Possessed which they had the displeasure of meeting… yet the pleasure of slaying, so it was a bit of a paradox really.

It was then, that a Hell Priest appeared above them, chuckling in that twisted tone that he had. "Hahahahahah and you shall be rewarded Olivia." He declared whilst he pointed his Staff at Olivia. In the following seconds, a burst of red lighting flew out from the Staff's tip and hit her straight on without giving her a chance to reply… nor resist what would happen next.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

By the time the Lightning vanished, Olivia fell to her knees onto the centre of the pentagram... which began sinking as if it were an actual ocean or something before she fully sank into it. From there, Vali and Ludmila saw blood spew out, similar to a splash one would make when stepping on a puddle… though in the following seconds they'd change their comparison to something trying to burst OUT of the ocean surface. Out of the bloody splash, a mechanical-looking spindly leg burst out before stabbing into the ground outside the pentagram, followed by another, then a large body, until it finally revealed itself in all of its entirety… prompting Vali and Ludmila to grunt in disgust as they held their weapons at the ready.

It appeared in the form of a huge brain with various facial features, such as menacing eyes and teeth, mounted atop a cybernetic chassis with four mechanical legs and a Chaingun, making it similar to a spider at first glance. It looked at the two of them, before it reared itself backwards and then screamed.

SCCRRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

Vali narrowed his eyes at the beast behind his helmet, as he decided to have it make the first move, wanting to see what it could do and how he could exploit possible weaknesses. As such, the Spider-like creature's Chaingun made the first move as it repeatedly fired a burst of energy spheres at him that were cracking with electrical energy, prompting him to summon Divine Dividing and used its wings like shields to block the barrage, all the while Ludmila jumped up into the air and switched to her Minigun, promptly peppering the Spider-like Demon with bullets aimed towards its brain.

However, their level of effectiveness could be best described as pebbles slamming into a brick wall, for the spider-like Demon easily shook them off before it dashed to the side, avoiding a slash towards its face made by Vali's [Glavenus] which he then switched to Axe Mode and proceeded to fire MAG SHOTs at it. Once again however, it kept on dodging those attacks and retaliating with its own Chaingun, though after a couple of seconds it changed tactics by opening several slots on its body to expose multiple… orb-like devices, which then spewed out continuous streams of lasers all over the place, lasers which also came from it's Chaingun.

Lasers which had stopped Ludmila who had just landed, from continuing her assault before she jumped to where Vali had landed with the two eyeing their opponent once it stopped its laser barrage. "Looks like its a ranged specialist, Vali…" Ludmila stated grimly as she switched to her Staff. "Additionally it moves pretty quick as well. Projectiles may not be the smartest play here."

"Oh, don't be so sure. You may be right, but don't count projectiles out just yet, Demon or not…" Vali began to say, before grabbing onto Ludmila again and taking to the skies to avoid more Chaingun rounds that had been launched at them whilst they had been talking. Looked like this thing wasn't stupid enough to just wait till they were done with their conversation, then. Worse still, was that it then seemingly flipped itself over by lifting its right set of legs and then tilting sideways, resulting in it's brain facing the ground and its Chaingun to now be upright, allowing it to aim at them and start firing energy blasts at them. Vali quickly proceeded to fly throughout the airspace above, countering its attacks with MAG SHOTs of his own before he decided to switch [Glavenus] out for [Valstrax]. "It's a bug all the same." He stated while aiming at the Demon when they were directly above it, a blind spot which he had noticed during that exchange. "And bugs can only be squashed by boots."

A bit of a disgusting analogy, but Ludmila could understand it all the same, as Vali proceeded to fire rounds upon the Demon's Chaingun from his new position, something which it seemed to sense as it flipped itself to the side to avoid them resulting in the missile-like rounds hitting the ground and detonating as medium-sized explosions. Vali then glanced at his companion in his arm, an idea entering his mind. "By the way, think you could do a little magic?" he questioned.

"Not much, but some."

"Alright then, see if you can stop that thing from moving, even if slightly. I have a plan."

"...Alright." With that said, Vali then proceeded to toss Ludmile RIGHT down towards the Spider. Internally she cursed the hybrid out for this, but she didn't focus too much on that in favor of flipping forwards and landing straight into a kneeling position on the ground in front of the Demon… with the rear end of her Staff touching the ground before her. A moment later, a Magic Circle appeared around her, moving slowly in its formation as Ludmila gritted her teeth whilst the Demon snarled at her, almost mockingly at her attempt to cast Magic as its Chaingun, now on the bottom with its brain upright, aimed itself at her. One didn't need to be a rocket scientist to tell what it intended to do next.

However, just before it could fire…

CRACKLE-CRACKLE-CRACKLE…

The sounds of ice forming were heard as various bushes of it began to sprout from its 4 mechanical feet. They only managed to enlarge themselves to the point where a quarter of them was encased through until Ludmila gasped with beads of sweat rolling down her forehead, unable to exert any more Magic to fuel the Ice formation. However, what she'd done was enough, for the majority of its movement had been inhibited which was something that the Demon also seemed to notice if the bloodthirsty glare it aimed at her whilst its Chaingun proceeded to fire was any indication.

PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW!

"Gaaaah!"

Ludmila cried out in pain as each of the rounds connected with her Spacesuit, causing her to go flying across the room and land in a heap on the far side. Various holes had been punctured through her spacesuit and had even breached her skin, causing FURIOUSLY crimson-colored burn marks to form where she had been hit whilst various cracks had formed across her armor including her visor. Her form remained steaming like she had been a meal heated up in an oven, yet even so Ludmila had done her job.

Her job is to distract it long enough for Vali, who had dismissed [Vastrax], to slam RIGHT on top of the Demon with enough force to cause its center to crash into the ground beneath it. The sounds of metal being crushed were also heard during this, which was a telltale sign of its Chaingun being smashed to bits thanks to the collision which was something that Vali took pride in as he pulled out his BFG. 'Only 2 rounds are in this baby, so let's make them count…' he thought, aiming down at the Brain of the creature… and firing.

BRRRRRRRRRR-PCHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

A loud WAIL of pure pain echoed throughout the cavern as the Demon howled, agony coursing through it thanks to the point-blank BFG shot. Its form spasmed like crazy with all the green colored electricity sparking through it, utterly fraying some of its internal mechanics if Vali had to guess as he jumped off it, switching out his BGF for his Minigun which Ludmila mirrored after getting back to her feet. "Alright Ludmila, rip into it!" he bellowed after spreading out his wings and halting himself in the air.

"Got it!"

RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!

This time, the sounds of Minigun fire filled the air as Vali and Ludmila took their chances like hungry wolves seeing the moment to pounce that they had been waiting for, utterly RAVAGING the Demon before them as they peppered it with their respective weaponry. White-hot lead flashes lit up the surrounding darkness as bullets tore away at the Demon's various pieces of armor, blood splattering beneath it alongside bits of brain matter thanks to the bullets shredding through whatever lay in their path, and all the enemy could do right now was to lay there, its body still recovering from the BFG shot that had scrambled it so bad.

After a couple of moments however, its eyes flashed with fury as it roared, fully recovered from the BFG shot as it burst free from its wounds, jumping into the air (and exposing its utterly wrecked Chaingun which wouldn't be used anymore in this fight, it seemed) before it landed on the ground opposite the duo. Fury riddled its gaze as its form shuddered, various openings appearing on its body… before it swished its left and right sides forwards to launch what looked to be some sort of volley consisting of glowing red spiked balls.

"Uh oh!"

"Not good!"

Instinctively however, Vali and Ludmila knew those to not be friendly and as such, the former grabbed onto the latter before taking to the skies once more. This allowed them to escape what appeared to be a bunch of destructive mines that blew up seconds after landing on the ground around the space they had once occupied earlier. "Shit… those look like they could hurt. What now, Vali? A repeat of before…?" Ludmila questioned her companion, referring to their previous plan of her immobilizing the enemy whilst he went for a move that would temporarily render it mobility useless so they could rain hell upon it… no pun intended.

However, Vali shook his head. "No, its armor is too thick and this thing seems to be quite resistant to gunfire though the Miniguns aren't our strongest weapons on that field either. In any case, what we could use is a way to deal with that thing's weapon systems… hmmm… oh, I got it!" His eyes widened behind his helmet when he remembered something: the new Devil Arm [Gammoth] which he had acquired from Hayden. Sure it was no cutting weapon, but it could do a good job dazing it if he landed a hit in the right spot!

Thus, Vali summoned the said Devil Arm into his free hand, wincing at the slight altitude drop that he experienced thanks to the weight whilst also lamenting the slight decrease in his speed. "Ugh, looks like the weight of this thing will be a bit of a problem, though…" he mused, before his eyes widened once again, and this time in panic instead of realization. "Oh, come the fuck ON!" He bellowed in anger and slight dread.

When Ludmila looked in the direction he did, she figured out why… as the Demon had literally LEAPT into the air again, landing on one of the cavern walls. It then began leaping from one wall to another like a spider, resulting in them being unable to see where it would come from to attack… that is, until it came down on them from a diagonal angle above and behind them… something which Vali cursed at as he quickly threw Ludmila to the side right before the Demon slammed on top of him, causing both of them to plummet down into the ground.

Though, the Demon wasn't done there as it raised its central body above the downed hybrid… and then smashed it right back down like it was one of those piledriver things humans used, ramming down on top of Vali as fast as those Miniguns they had used on it previously.

BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!

"Argh! Mother-BAM-FUCKER!" Vali cried out, immense pain flooding his system like lightning as he felt much of his Armor being heavily damaged by these strikes. This wasn't counting how he kept being pressed further and further into the ground as if he were being forced to merge with it. Even so, he still kept a hold on his Devil Arm [Gammoth], refusing to part ways with it despite the beating that he was currently going through.

DIVIDE!

Eventually, however, he managed to gain just enough mental clarity to use Divine Dividing's ability on the Demon right as it smashed on top of him once again, the Demon almost squawking in surprise at the sudden loss of half it's strength causing it to stumble slightly. However, that was just enough for Ludmila to come in and deliver a good few blasts on one of its legs with her Combat Shotgun, causing it to lose its balance and tumble to the side.

"Vali, you alright? Can you continue?" The blunette asked as she pulled him to his feet.

The said Hybrid looked to his comrade and nodded. "I'll live." he replied, though the same couldn't be said for his Armor since it now looked like it was going to fall apart at any second with all the cracks over it, not to mention various error signs on his HUD which displayed the total shutdown of everything save for its core functions. Vali feared that, if that had gone on any further then his Armor would have completely deactivated, rendering him helpless and unable to fight on since he didn't know how to unequip this thing. It wasn't like any of his Devil Arms after all.

Still, he had a job to do, and goddammit he would do it! With that thought in mind, Vali turned towards the still downed Demon which was almost able to get back up… and promptly stopped doing so when the silver-haired Hybrid quickly dashed forwards using Divine Dividing to boost his speed before raising [Gammoth] and SMASHING it right into the creature's head.

BONK!

SCRAAAAAAA….

"Yeah, you like that bitch?!" Vali yelled furiously, utterly becoming ruthless beyond 100% as he constantly bashed away at the creature's face with his Devil Arm, blood splattering across the ground from every hit. In his rage, Vali refused to let up on his barrage, lost in his outrage at being smashed into the ground like he had so he just wanted to deliver some sweet ass karma to this fucker. It didn't help that those various attacks earlier had damaged his Armor either, he'd grown quite fond of it after wearing it all this time after all.

Eventually he took a few steps back, allowing Ludmila to come in with her weapon of choice being her Rocket Launcher, which she then used to blast off 2 of the Demon's legs at a point-blank range which earned her even MORE cries of pain from the Demon in question… though as a tradeoff, it fully recovered from Vali's pounding enough to ram it's large head into her and knock her down. Ludmila didn't say down however, switching her weapon to her Staff and thrusting it's tip right into one of its eyes out of reflex, causing the Demon to howl in agony whilst stumbling backwards.

Seeing his chance, the silver haired hybrid charged in forth,rushing past his comrade in order to swing [Gammoth] like a Baseball bat, smacking it right in it's left jawline to knock its head upwards. Part of him felt impressed at the fact that its jaw didn't come off, but then he attributed it to him not putting his full oomph into it to which he rectified it by bringing [Gammoth] down on top of its head after jumping upwards. The Demon grunted at the impact its head had with the ground post this attack colliding, and before it could recover its bearings…

"Last one."

A cold, dark set of words reached its consciousness causing the Demon to look… right into Vali's cracked visor whilst he stepped on its jaw, grabbed its upper jaw with his free hand and forced it open. He then jammed a newly summoned BFG into the maw within ([Gammoth] having been switched out), before charging up the last shot… and blasting the creature's face to nothing but mush. The resulting impact created a shockwave which made Vali take a few awkward steps backward, but nonetheless the Demon, now with a long fissure replacing the majority of its brain to allow them to see inside it, fell to the ground utterly dead and defeated. It was over, Vali and Ludmila had won.

As they rested for a bit Vali used his Argent energy to repair his armor as it had some use when it absorbed those Argent Energy orbs. However, probably due to the damage it had already sustained, the boy found that he could only repair it to apoint where about 80% of the damage was fixed, leaving the Armor whole but with various scars adorning it's person as a reminder of what it had gone through while being worn by him. Similar circumstances adorned Ludmila's Spacesuit, although unlike his hers didn't have the ability to be repaired by Argent Energy, much to their dismay upon realizing this. It was then a hologram appeared before them, showing the archangel. Well, only his upper half, and that was enough for Vali to make a disgusted snort. "Raguel…" he spat.

"Well well, it seems she wasn't enough after all."

"Raguel, we meet again. Look at you... I should've told my wielder to kill you despite Gabriels pleas."

Behind him, Albion spoke through Divine Dividing's wings with his tone conveying no small amount of contempt. Not only that, but with the way that [Gammoth] trembled in his grasp Vali felt like the spirit within felt similarly to the Heavenly Dragon…which was understandable, considering the circumstances.

"She will never understand my pain of losing father to those rebellious children! Now they will feel EVERY bit of my pain!"

"By killing those Devils in the underworld? Back then, your father knew how dangerous Hell truly was and you're disobeying him by unlocking something that should be sealed forever! With everything you've done, I'm surprised that you are not a fallen angel by now."

"Your words mean nothing to me Albion. Soon I will make my father happy by avenging him. That moron Michael is weak and a deserter, he would rather have peace with those….. Things that killed father?!... No more will I tolerate him with this world."

Hearing that caused Vali to groan in annoyance. The big bad's reason for doing all of this was something so pathetic and so simple… as well as so cliche to him that it made him want to bash his head against the ground so he could wipe such useless data from his brain. "Oh great, daddy issues. Hmph I heard enough of this, come out and face me like a man you are one... unless you're too much of a coward?"

"You and your wielder have been a thorn in my side. Fortunately, I have something prepared in case that woman couldn't kill you. Enjoy."

With that said, the hologram disappeared before the ground began shaking which almost caused them to fall over, had Vali not used his Sacred Gear to balance himself in time. Quickly grabbing onto Ludmila who commenced holding on to him, the silver haired male spread his wings as far as possible before flapping them, allowing him to ascend upwards through the top of the cavern. Vali eventually stopped his ascension into the airspace above, before he looked around to see what the cause was… something which caused him to gape. A giant demonic hand was going to Vali as he was about to dodge it... before on his HUD a message appeared. One saying that the Tether had activated before him and Ludmila were teleported out from Hell.

It happened the same thing when they teleported before they dropped down to the ground. Before they could properly regain their bearings, Samuel ran up to them with Phineas right on his tail.

"QUICKLY, THERE ISN'T THAT MUCH TIME! A COLLOSSUAL DEMON HAS APPEARED ON THE OUTSKIRT OF MARS!"

"Ah Shit, it must've been teleported too when the tether activated, come on Ludmila!"

As he said that Ludmila grabbed Vali on the neck before flying to where the demon was located. They landed on the Mars desert mountain before the demonic hand appeared and out came its full body, looking to absolutely TOWER over the duo. Finally, the whole body got revealed, looking mostly humanoid in stature, featuring goat-like legs and hands akin to a bat's. It had a massive, goat-like Skull which looked to be made of primarily bone, with a bloodied gaping hole in the center of what was presumed to be its forehead. Large misshapen teeth were located on the bottom of the upper and lower jaw, encrusted with a brownish substance whilst the upper teeth showed signs of decay. Several of its bones were visible, mainly its ribs and shoulder blades. It looked to be very muscular in build, several red markings being visible across its body. It also seemed to have far more color to its flesh overall.

Whilst they examined the creature, the said being pounded its fist on the mountain before building up and letting out a loud, monstrous roar.

RRRROOOOOOOOAAAARRRRRRRRR!

Its roar caused both Vali AND Ludmila to quickly cover their ears even though their Armor (as damaged as it was) mostly protected their ears from the roar's volume somewhat. By the time that the roar had stopped, the two looked back towards it seeing that the creature had begun preparations for an attack, not like they planned on running away in the first place though. Still, the two just HAD to wonder just what it was that they were dealing with, formulated by the question that left Vali's lips. "Okay, I'll bite: what kind of creature are we dealing with here?"

"Definitely doesn't look much like the Demons we've faced so far…" Ludmila added as she remembered the past types of enemies they had encountered. Not only that, but the creature before them looked gargantuan, much larger than ANYTHING that they had encountered back n Hell.

"No…. it can't be!?"

[Who is this….. Monstrosity, Albion?]

However, it seemed that this was one of the MANY times where Albion, the white dragon of supremacy, had the answers for them. Though, judging by the horrified tone of voice that he sported, Vali felt for CERTAIN that this wasn't going to be something that they would have liked.

"... the original demon and the counterpart of YHVH…. Satan."

His thoughts became proven by that answer, and both teens soon became paler than ghosts. The fact that a storm had started gathering around the skies of Mars alongside the sight of various areas seemingly being bent in ways that no law of physics could explain, therefore being attributed to some kind of reality warping ability in their minds, pretty much confirmed Albion's claim for them.

So… this was Satan, huh?

Judging from what they were seeing, the sheer power behind this beast put all of their past enemies to shame. Pretty much NOTHING in their past fights could measure up to the sheer POWER, the PRESENCE and the feeling of utter HOPELESSNESS that permeated through the air at this point. The cold, dark and biting feelings coming from the air itself that was a byproduct of its energy sent chills of despair down their spines, a feeling of helplessness overcoming the two as the ground surrounding it became a searing inferno as it spewed flames from its hands like two titanic flamethrowers.

Yeah…

They could DEFINITELY feel a sense of defeat overwhelming them right now…

Not like they had any other choice anyways, since they didn't want to even CONSIDER what would happen if this thing was left to roam free.

Vali became the first one to regain his voice after hearing this, although it had NONE of his usual confidence as he gulped at the sight of the massive monstrosity before them, a being which took all FOUR of the original Satans as WELL as the Biblical God to defeat. [Gammoth] had been dismissed right after Albion's claim, letting his arms securely wrap themselves around Ludmila's waist. "... Shit…. Looks like this might be our last battle Ludmila. it's been a pleasure meeting and fighting with you." he told his comrade this whilst glancing down directly at her. He probably would never have said something like this in other situations, but considering how much the two of them had gone through together and the fact that Ludmila had been one of the most competent women he'd met from the get go, he felt like she deserved such words.

On her side, Ludmila looked at him in sheer surprise, not having expected to hear this type of talk from him… although she could understand why. After all, from what she had seen of him Ludmila had Vali sussed out from day one: an arrogant, narcissistic battle maniac who only lived for his goals and rarely gave a shit about other people. However, in the face of what could possibly be certain doom, perhaps his inner compassion had decided to show itself and to her of all people. Ludmila internally got the feeling that she would be one of the few people who would get to see such things from him, something which… she actually kind of felt a bit flattered about. "... you too…. Vali." She replied with a nod as the two prepared to go into their possibly last battle in this life.

*You're not alone, Vali.*

Just before they could however, Vali blinked when he heard the voice of the Wraiths inside of his mind, followed by their appearance in the flesh via multiple silver magic circles. 'Wraiths…. What do you mean?' he questioned via his thoughts, learning through example was something Vali had found himself good at and personal experience had taught him that these things spoke through the mind only hence why he had responded in kind.

*We will not allow our saviour to die after what you and the girl did for us. we'll help.*

As the wraith said that the wraiths began to empower Vali as he felt more power going to him. He feels like….. He could finally match against his grandfather!

*This is only a temporary power up, it will last for about 4 hours at most. Hopefully, it will be of assistance to you. Good luck Vali.*

(Play two steps from hell - Victory)

Once they had said their peace, Vali saw the Wraiths vanish into his storage dimension once again the same way they had appeared. With them gone, the silver haired hybrid turned to the enemy they were facing, Satan. Looked like it was still lost in its destructive urges right now, so they had some time left to formulate a plan… exactly what Vali did as he leaned close so he could whisper into Ludmila's ear. "Alright, here's the plan. We're going to have to play a two-man role here Ludmila. You are the one who provides fire support, and I'll keep us from getting roasted. Looks like the legs aren't as heavily defended as the rest of the body, so we'll focus on them, limit Satan's mobility, got it?"

"Got it."

With Ludmila's simple reply, Vali nodded his head before he took a deep breath… then steeled his nerves before diving straight forwards, shooting straight towards the rampaging Satan. Their combined forms resembled less like two people and more like a silverish blue streak that shot through the air at high speeds.

Despite this, the monstrosity seemingly picked up their presence instinctively before turning it's goat-like head to their direction, allowing it to launch its pre-emptive attack in the form of its forehead beginning to glow brightly. The following second, a constant stream of fireballs ripped through the air from that glowing spot on its forehead, peppering them like they had done to the spider-like Demon that Olivia Pierce had become before. Each one had the size of a double decker bus too, and as Vali frantically rolled from left to right and vice versa to dodge them, the fireballs crashed into the ground below to create thes mushroom cloud shaped explosions which reached the heights of 4 to 6 story buildings.

RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!

The sounds of a Minigun being fired rang out as Ludmila opened up with her counterattack as Vali weaved them in and out of the fireball barrage. The Minigun rounds flew through the air as hot pieces of lead which were fired from the rapidly rotating barrels, speeding through the air with a fiery vengeance similar to a woman being scorned by her cheating spouse. Each shot impacted the creature's right leg or left leg depending on which angle Vali had to shift their flight path to in order to protect them from being incinerated. He had to focus, putting aside all other thoughts than moving through the air like those jets that humans used for dogfights.

"Oh, fuck!" Vali cursed however, when they saw a hand rapidly approaching them in a swiping motion, a literal vortex of flames gathering within the centre of the palm which forced the hybrid to quickly dive downwards beneath it then go straight between it's legs in order to avoid further attacks. He almost got them both scorched by the flaming ground beneath them too, but he had managed to ascend them both out of their reach in time. "That was… way to fucking close!" He remarked, scowling to himself at his idiocy.

Something which Ludmila wanted to reprimand him for since she was literally putting her life in his hands, however she figured this to not be the time as they made to circle around for another attack…

Only, for Vali to quickly ascend upwards to just BARELY avoid a beam the size and diameter of a freaking SKYSCRAPER launched from the monstrosity's forehead.

"Ugh!" Unfortunately, it wasn't a completely clean dodge as Ludmila had hoped, since a portion of Vali's left foot got hit by the flames and the outer edge of the boot literally melted off to expose the skin beneath it. Vali cringed as the searing heat of the atmosphere graced his exposed skin with it's scorching presence, wanting to repair the boot however he got distracted by an additional fireball barrage launched by the enemy which forced him to switch priorities.

Ludmila, seeing this, quickly shifted their positions around so she had a clear shot and, after switching to her Plasma Rifle, Began unloading on the creature's shoulders since they were the only things she could hit at this range and angle. Unfortunately for her, it seemed like the flesh on the shoulders looked to be MUCH more resistant to damage compared to the legs hence why there was so little effect on them. "Fuck… looks like Plasma Rifle won't be doing us much good…"

'This is bad… we're so freaking under equipped for this…!' Vali thought as he quickly brought them in closer whilst weaving in and out of a barrage of fireballs. A few times he almost got blown off course by the shockwaves generated by them upon their collision with the ground and sometimes nearly got caught in its reality warping areas which would have made them easy prey for Satan. However, he'd managed to get them in close enough for Ludmila to try and use her Staff and apply Magic to its legs… only for the ice to hardly be able to be formed thanks to the immense heat surrounding them.

"Shit!"

Seeing this caused her to curse again as they rose up from behind it and up on top of its head where Ludmila kept pounding away at it with Combat Shotgun shells. 'Ludmila is one thing, but because I'm holding onto her I can't really do much offensively! My Devil Trigger likely won't work well here since I'm still on Mars and I need this suit to breathe properly, thus if I DT then that would put that in jeopardy. Can't summon any of my Devil Arms in this state either. Isn't there ANYTHING I can do?!'

Unfortunately, no answer came to him since he didn't have the time to think of one, due to there being a flaming hand to avoid by the skin of his teeth. Up above, Vali could see the storm getting worse and worse by the second with various areas being filled with crimson lightning, just like the skies of Hell itself. So, this showed him that the longer this went on, the greater the chances that Mars would likely end up becoming just like Hell, or perhaps even be CONSUMED by it since back in Hell, he had seen areas which looked to have once been thriving, bustling civilisations. He didn't need to think much to figure out what had befallen them.

In any case, as Ludmila once again peppered the creature with gunfire from her HAR, which seemed to have the most effect on it as the creature put its hands in front of the rounds to block them, the two gasped when two flamethrower-esque beams of flame burst out from the beasts' palms. "Fuck, Vali!"

"On it!"

Knowing what to do, Vali dove downwards to try and escape…

Only to gasp in pain when one of the hands suddenly stopped spewing flames, clenched into a fist, and smacked into him in the form of a punch before he could react.

Both teens cried out at this as they got sent spiralling down towards the ground, although the silver haired male managed to quickly get himself back together, shake his head then regain their balance. All this happened in a couple seconds as he rapidly started ascending upwards once more, the silver haired hybrid mentally thanking the Wraiths for the power boost they'd given him since he figured that to have been the reason why he'd been able to recover so quickly. 'Sorry 'bout that! Didn't notice the fucker pull a feint on our asses!" Vali called out to his comrade who barely managed to regain her wits about her right as they started ascending.

"It's alright, but-Oh shit watch out!"

PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-PEW-!

Vali once again cursed up a storm in his mind as he quickly veered off to the left, avoiding another set of fireballs… ones which almost hit the lab facility where Hayden and Phineas resided in. 'Oh fuck, that was close! If those things hit the facility those guys will be toast!' Vali thought, grimacing at the images of the two males there as charred corpses, collateral damage born from this battle.

"Vali, can I have your HAR?!"

"Sure!"

After pulling out his HAR from his storage dimension and handing it to Ludmila, she now dual wielded them as she aimed them up high and began firing at Satan's body, the male constantly circling around the enemy to avoid its various flame attacks. As for the grabs that it tried to do to them, he would descend or ascend depending on the situation… though that didn't change the overall direness of the situation since things were rapidly becoming increasingly warped by the second. They needed more firepower if they wanted to have any chance at putting this thing down, but where the hell could they get it? Vali doubted that he could use Divine Dividing's ability to half this thing's power, because even a SHRED of this thing's power would be too much for him at this rate.

'Vali… I have an idea.'

'What?' Vali responded to the Heavenly Dragon whilst spiralling to the side to avoid a couple fireballs before rising up into the ski above and then performing a U turn so they could descend downwards like a falcon, Ludmila peppering the demonic Satan with rounds from the two HARs she had. 'Well, I'm all ears buddy, so best make it fast! Not sure how long our ammo's going to hold out.'

'Alright, first get your BFG and Plasma Rifle. Then focus on your Sacred Gear, allow it to do the rest.'

'...Alright, I'm trusting you here!'

Adjusting his grip whilst telling Ludmila of his actions, Vali summoned his Plasma Rifle into one hand, readjusted his grip so he could then summon his BFG into the other, before doing his best to raise the former up to his Sacred Gear. The odd angle he had proved to be quite an annoyance to deal with especially since he had to keep an eye out for grabs and fire attacks launched by Satan itself… but as he focused solely on his Divine Dividing, thinking aloud for it to do something productive, he felt something… a response. A trigger, somewhat like when he first activated his Devil Trigger of his own accord.

As a result, a bright light shone from the Sacred Ger itself, causing Vali, Ludmila and Satan to quickly cover their eyes or look away.

By the time that it vanished, everyone looked around to see what had happened… and Vali became the first to see it. "Holy…"

His eyes fell upon his two wings… well, the right wing in particular since it had what looked like a turret of sorts protruding out from where a 'thumb' on a dragon's wing would be. This turret looked somewhat like the Plasma Rifle he had once before too, looking rather stationary.

"Assimilation: complete!"

A proud announcement came from the Sacred Gear as Satan growled at them, already preparing to fire more fireballs from its forehead. Yet, just as it did so… Vali's right wing began to glow brightly before a barrage of energy projectiles burst forth from the wing like it were a machine gun, each one slamming right into the creature's face and causing it to stop its attack in favor of covering its face… though to its shock, the blasts were ACTUALLY chipping away at it's skin somehow, much to everyone's shock not just the beast's.

"What the… Albion, what just…?"

"Your Argent Energy reserves have been temporarily augmented for this battle, but you haven't been able to make use of that till now. All I did was fuse the Plasma Rifle into Divine Dividing, therefore giving the wing that has it its functions. Think of it like the culmination of your desire to help manifesting within the Sacred Gear, for that is what they respond to the most. Do the same for the BFG and you'll see the results for yourself."

Vali nodded at this explanation, repeating the process but with the left wing this time… which resulted in it now sporting a turret-like extension shaped like the BFG itself this time. Not only that, but various streaks of energy gathered at the space in front of the wing until they formed a large sphere, one which then got launched at Satan in a manner akin to the BFG's usual rounds. It hit, causing Satan to grunt in discomfort as it took a step back, MUCH more than what had happened before. "... Well I'll be damned, looks like I can do something after all."

"Their ammo relies on your energy now, Vali. Make this count."

At this, the silver haired male's lips curved into a slight grin. "Oh, you don't have to tell me twice."

Now sensing a change in the battle, Satan growled as it began charging up a beam attack, promptly firing it in the next few seconds. Vali responded by tilting to the side then veering downwards, descending beneath the beam before performing a U Turn to rise upwards, aiming the wing with the Plasma Rifle turret before pumping his augmented Argent Energy into it. As a result, the wing began to glow before it began releasing a quick flurry of energy blasts in rapid succession, each one aimed for its face which the creature raised its hands to block. "Ludmila, focus fire on its face! We'll shred through this fucker's defences without mercy!" Vali declared.

"Right!" After hearing him say what they intended to do and figuring that he had done something to give them an edge, Ludmila quickly raised her dual HAR's and opened fire, bullets once again peppering the monstrosity's skin. On it's end, the beast growled once more before it lowered its arms… right as it fire fireballs at the two with the hopes of burning them to cinders.

However, Vali replied with an energy blast barrage of his own, resulting in the two attacks cancelling each other out whilst Vali also kept up his own offensive. His wings flared as the one housing the BFG charged up a shot… one which became the size of the silver haired teen himself thanks to his augmented Argent Energy reserves that he felt a slight drain on, proof of the temporary boost he'd received from the Wraiths. 'Hope this fucking works!' Vali thought as he let the shot fly.

As such, the large BFG-like round flew through the air like a dart being tossed by a player towards a dart board. In an attempt to stop it, the creature howled, quickly charging up and firing a beam in the blast's direction. As a result, the two attacks collided, seemingly entering an animalistic struggle for dominance between the two. However, this struggle didn't last long for whilst the energy shot from Vali was powerful, it didn't have the constant energy supply that the beam possessed resulting in it being dispersed to allow the Beam to continue on towards its target…

Which wasn't there anymore.

"Surprise, motherfucker!"

"?!"

Looking upwards, Satan only had a couple seconds to note that a SECOND blast had already been fired, and this one looked to be TWICE as large as the first one. During the struggle earlier Vali had foreseen his strike losing out in the power struggle so, in an attempt to stop this fight from escalating any further, he had ascended upwards above Satan and had launched a second, larger BFG shot, pumping a LOT of his Argent Energy reserves into it.

Back with the monstrous Satan, those few seconds were all it took for the round to hit it smack right into the centre of its goat-like skull, causing it to HOWL in utter AGONY as constant electricity raced through its skull and down it's body, going down its neck, torso, shoulders arms and legs, ending right at the tips of its claws and feet. Not only that, but the electrical discharges also chipped away at a LOT of its flesh, pretty much reducing the creature's entire outer layer of skin to mush exposing the innards beneath. Not a very nice sight, and combined with the smell of charred flesh and both teens felt glad that they were in Armored suits right about now otherwise they'd be throwing up their lunch.

"Look, Vali, its brain is exposed!" Ludmila exclaimed, pointing forwards towards a hole in the creature's skull created by his BFG round earlier. It looked big enough for a person to fit through and stand atop of its exposed brain, something which Vali noted as well as he quickly darted forwards in his attempt to seal the deal. "How will you finish it off, Vali? This thing's supposed to be strong enough for the original Satans to team up with God after all!" Ludmila questioned.

'Use the Crucible, Vali. That'll shut this fucker up.'

"With what else? The Crucible of course!" Vali replied, pulling said item out of his storage dimension. Although he had no CLUE how to activate it, Vali guessed that Argent Energy could do something so he began channelling it into the object… which resulted in a long, large crimson blade similar in shape to a claymore with an 'I' shaped end to form from it. Glad that his hunch had paid off, the silver haired male quickly slammed into the creature's skull, landing atop its brain before raising the Crucible up… and stabbed it downwards after switching to a two-handed reverse grip. He REALLY dug it in there, too which allowed constant streams of energy to flood the entire creature.

Speaking of which, the monstrosity howled one last roar, one similar to a dying beast being delivered a fatal blow from a superior opponent. Slowly losing its balance, the creature began to fall backwards, with Vali ripping the blade off from the main artefact which he now deduced must have been some kind of hilt or something before he hopped into the air whilst keeping Ludmila safely secured in his arms. This allowed them to look down at the body, watching it whilst it fell onto its back with a loud BOOM sound accompanying it's impact…

It didn't get back up.

Yet, even so, both of the teens panted like crazy as they, in some sort of panic-induced sense of paranoia, cautiously kept their gazes locked on it in case it revived into some stronger creature like in video games recently. "... it's finally over…." Ludmila whispered, her body wracked with exhaustion.

"... not yet…. The underworld and Raguel." As Vali said that, he turned them around before he flew towards where Samuel and Phineas were, as they had exited out of the destroyed base. Looked like they had just barely managed to get out with their lives intact, though the base looked to have been ruined beyond repair thanks to the stray fireballs, Vali noted as he landed in front of the two whilst letting Ludmila go.

The scholar looked at them with utter delight and happiness. "You've done it children, you managed to stop hell from invading mars and closed the portal." He stated, grinning broadly behind his Helmet.

However, Hayden had more of a realist approach to this.

"But it comes with a price, VEGA, the entire corporation. Everything that I researched for…. Is gone."

"Not everything is gone Samuel." Vali walked to him as he took out a computer chip which he was confused before realizing.

"You managed to backup VEGA!"

At Hayden's slightly surprised voice, Vali gave a sharp nod. "After everything he has done for me and for all of us, he won't be easily destroyed." the silver haired Hybrid explained, defining his actions whilst putting the Chip inside his Storage Dimension for the time being.

"I see… and the crucible?"

Vali took out the crucible before he used Argent Energy as it was restored, he was looking at it before giving it to him which made him even MORE surprised.

"You… why?"

"You helped out a lot Samuel since you spent your entire life researching hell and how to stop it, you earned this."

Samuel was silent before he spoke.

"I….. will never forget this, if there's anything I can repay you."

"You can start by working with the corporation that I work with, they no doubt will not ignore this. They'll need an expert like you to deal with the demonic threat. You and everyone said it yourself, Hell can absorb any dimensions if it's not repelled… and if what we saw in there is any indication, even if that dumbass archangel is stopped I don't think we'll be seeing the last of that place." Vali explained, frowning.

"I see…. Alright, show me where I can start."

"You can start by letting us communicate with the organization, the TSAB."

"The base is destroyed and the EMP field also, you can contact them."

"Finally. Hold on, the captain will not like what she will hear."

"This is something which I should've not heard."

Back in the TSAB's command room within their ship, it had been exactly like what Vali had foretold as he took off his helmet, Ludmila and Phineas too as they stood together while Samuel was by Vali. Over on the other side of them, Lindy showed a horrified expression as she sat in her chair, or rather she had fallen down onto it as she comprehended the dangers of the situation with audible terror. .

She was not alone, the crew including Chrono was horrified by what Vali said. "If….. Vali said is true….. Then that means… the other dimensions that disappeared left a dark energy…" he muttered, unable to finish the sentence he'd started.

"Is from Hell, I assure you."

Although, Hayden didn't have that hesitation so he finished it instead, confirming what they all deeply feared.

"Sweet lord and all that is holy!"

"No wonder why no one is able to investigate the missing dimension, they're all dead!"

"Holy shit!"

"CALM DOWN!"

"BUT CAPTAIN, THIS IS SOMETHING WE CAN'T COMPREHEND!"

"I SAID BE QUIET! If what they said is true, then we can't panic now, if we do… then we are no better than cowards." After Lindy's harsh, stern yet slightly frantic at the beginning lecture, the crew slowly but surely tried their best to regain their composure as well. However, nothing could stop them from panicking internally, especially those who had lost precious friends and loved ones to those expeditions which had resulted in them being MIA… now KIA.

Chrono however, regained enough composure to ask in a voice which conveyed the urgency of the situation at hand here. "Mother…. What should we do?"

For a moment, Lindy thought about that. She looked hesitant when she finally gave her reply. "... We have no choice then, one of you will have to contact the base and inform the TSAB about the threat, this is something we can't ignore."

At this, the Crew looked to one another and it became clear to the onlookers that this wasn't a decision to be made lightly. "But what about proof? How can we say this is true when we have no visual proof?" Chrono questioned again, though he wasn't wrong to be worried about that. It would seem that they needed proof in order for this 'base' of theirs to believe their claims about Hell's existence.

Good thing then that they had someone who had that. "I have that covered." Vali said as he walked to one of the crew's terminals, looking for something before seeing a clip which he went there and took out the computer chip from his storage dimension. With that done, he inserted it inside the terminal.

Of course, seeing Vali insert an unknown object into their ship did not settle the crews' nerves any less. "Uhhhh what is that chip you just put in?" Chrono questioned.

However, Vali simply held a couple fingers up to tell him to be quiet. "Hold on."

|Backup restored, all function ready… Hello.|

Instantly, the crew became alarmed at the sight of what looked to be some sort of AI appearing on their screens. "What the, an AI?" One of said crew members exclaimed in shocked surprise, although Vali and the others had rather… different opinions.

|Hello, I am VEGA: the artificial intelligence of Mars.|

Meanwhile, Vali looked up at the AI on the main terminal with eyes full of relief and joy, a slight smile on his lips which was unlike the mocking, arrogant ones he usually exhibited. "It's good to see you again VEGA." he stated, and he meant it. The sight of the AI unharmed brought Vali a similar joy to when he could listen to his Devil Arms regal him with tales of their old exploits.

|It is good to see you again sir, thank you for backing my system, I am grateful.|

"VEGA, upload all hells file to their base so they have proof."

|Understood….. granted.|

Once VEGA said that, a crew member saw a file appear on his Terminal before opening it, which resulted in the Terminal showing images, videos and all the stuff they needed for proof of their claims. "This is!?" the Crew Member began to say, before paling and shutting up when he accidentally clicked on a folder which showed a few of the Demons which Vali and Ludmila had fought against.

Stepping back, Vali nodded his head in assurance, crossing his arms under his chest. "There, now you have proof."

"... thank you for that Vali, now we have means to show how dangerous Hell and it's existence is." Lindy stated with a grateful smile.

One which wasn't shared by Ludmila by the way as she wanted to bring up another topic of conversation. "But the underworld is now being invaded by Hell!"

Vali however, wasn't so worried. "Don't worry Ludmila, remember how strong those Devils are?" he questioned rhetorically, although he would just say that he didn't give much of a shit about them. The biggest threat to them had been that monster which Raquel had unleashed on his and Ludmila's asses back on Mars, so the rest would be a cakewalk for them if one asked him.

"Ohh….. but if their not strong enough…,, then-"

Looked like Ludmila needed more convincing, so Vali went and laid down the facts. "They have two super-class Devils, a couple of ultimate class Devils, and a bunch of other assets. I'm sure they can handle it."

"True….. alright, you got me." Finally, she seemed convinced as the nordic Vanadis sighed, nodding to herself.

Obviously, this pleased Vali as he turned to the rest of the onlookers. "Good, now let's talk on how we can repel hell, I'm sure the Devils won't have any casualties."

Oh how wrong Vali is if he was in the underworld.

AN: Hunter here, and welcome to this LONG ass chapter! Spent a whole night prepping this, so I hope you like it. There's a LOT of stuff which went down here, but there's likely going to be even more going ahead. So far though, Vali has a small arsenal of DOOM weapons that he can assimilate into his Sacred Gear like Issei can do with Ascalon. If a damn boob-obsessed perv can do something like that, then big daddy Vali can do it too if you ask me since Vali's better than Issei hands down. Additionally, there's a lot of stuff going on with Hell too, so look forward to it too. Hope you like the chapter, and look forward to the next one.

PEACE OUT!

HOLY SHIT, VALI DID IT! HURRAY!... my name is Darklord bringing you another chapter of the story! Now this is not the end of the arc DOOM, the next chapter will be the last as hell will invade the underworld, lots of death and despair will be there as important people will lose what they love the most. So after that, we will be introducing the next arc which will be on Earth. Alright thank you for reading our chapter, be sure to leave a review if you want and I'll see you next time!

GOOD LUCK!