We took the first available tin can that could fly us to Mars. Had to rip out the seat for myself, otherwise my ass wouldn't fit in there. As the other two joined me, I glanced at the nearest 'ship. Saw the controls and glass covered in some kind of reddish slime that could as well be the some poor bastard's meat, as if boiled alive or something. Suddenly this thought came into my mind; that we probably weren't the first group who went up there, that more people have been thrown into the maw of the beast, and that it was all covered up. I had no way to prove that, obviously, but it did leave me with something to think about.

My teammates activated the engines in complete silence, none of them willing to open their mouth first. I could understand him, it was her I didn't get. Maybe her abnormal experience fucked up the brains. No matter the case, she was yet another victim of a tragedy I couldn't prevent in time. I try not to think about that, but those thoughts creep up on me whenever I'm not killing demons, whenever I can sit down and calm myself. It's one of the reasons why I'm always on the move. Don't ever stop moving, I say to myself like it's a mantra, don't or you might die.

We lifted off and set our coordinates for the surface of Mars. As we did, my ears exploded with a high-pitched vibration as someone tried to establish a mental link with me.

"If you think that going to Mars will change anything, you are dumber than you look."

It was the head honcho, the motherfucker who led his personal army of deranged puppets. The idea of my hands squeezing that fucking neck made my legs shaky.

"I have an infinite supply of meat on my lap. I can give life to my loyal subjects with the flick of my fingers. This planet is my kingdom! My throne!"

Its voice went full poetic at that point.

"And yet... and yet, it all pales in comparison to the might of the one who gave birth to… me. The Almighty. I can feel his blessed gaze upon myself. My heart aches in anticipation for the gift I sought for so long; my redemption."

But then it seemed like he was brought back into reality, because he said, and very angrily at that:

"Nobody can stop me. Nobody! Not you, not my brothers, not these pathetic Humans, nobody! I have the power! I have the gifts! The Almighty is on my side. You cannot win. Do you understand that, meat sack?"

The remaining twenty minutes of our flight passed in silence. We reached the surface of the planet quickly and without problems. Honestly? No idea what I expected to see. Maybe an abandoned facility or two, maybe a whole colony left in ruins. But what I ended up staring at was much, much worse.

Mars was red, as it always was. The dust-like pile of red pebbles was the turning point of my life, so it made sure to burn itself into my fucking eyeballs. If there was one thing that was always the same, that thing would be this fucking planet. But, that time, things were a bit different. I paid no mind to it as we slowly descended into the atmosphere. Past a certain point, however, it became way too obvious to not see it.

Among the ruins of some factory or whatever, there was this… red tendril, redder than the desert. It was so red, it hurt to look at. It stuck out from the ruins and burrowed itself into the ground, only to jump out like a dolphin into the horizon. We went in the same direction, as the big idea was to reach the heart of that chaos. And, out of nowhere, I began noticing more and more of those worm-tentacle-whateverthefuck, jumping like rabbits, all towards the same place. And they were long, you know. Never actually left their "nests". My teammates said something about getting closer to the spot or something like that. I was far too focused on the goddamn things to give a damn. I can't- Hell is home to a lot of messed up shit. I've seen really bad stuff. But... I may not be an Einstein or well read, my eyes work just as fine as everybody else's, but... this.

We reached something resembling a city, with this mountain of pinkish, rotten flesh in the distance. It had tendrils extending from hundreds of eyes and mouths, like the roots of a tree, only livelier. None of us could say a word the whole time. We kinda flew near the ground to avoid getting hit by a swarm of meat insects that turned some of the skyscrapers into large hives. What struck us as odd though was the very scarce presence of demons on the streets, totally focused on exterminating the monsters, before being overwhelmed. The voice came back after I saw a Baron tearing through a horde of Filth.

"Just look at them! Look, at the brutishness of my savage brethren. They want to shut it all down, fools that they are. Never have their fingers done anything to repair their miserable existence… But they want to drag down those who are more successful than them!"

Something resembling a boar-sized elephant hit that Baron like a cannonball, smacking them both through a building.

"You are just like them, Doom Slayer. All you ever did was to destroy what others tried so hard to build. You deserve the exact same treatment."

As it said that, the fucker sent a swarm of pinkish, bug-winged, one-eyed, bird-shaped things at our ship. Their screams were childlike and high-pitched and it really grinded my fucking gears. Couldn't do anything though, because those fuckers had teeth that would grind through the meat of my two pain-in-the-ass pals in, like, seconds. Thankfully they couldn't do shit against the hard exterior of our flying mailbox.

But few of them had the bright idea of throwing themselves inside our engines. Shit blew up behind our asses and we started hitting the inner walls, not without cursing like sailors.

"Can't you stabilize the damn thing?!" Derek panicked way more than I expected. Must've been because he was still fucking traumatized from losing Andrew. Our wizard girl muttered something I didn't quite picku up, before forming some kind of white energy barrier around our spaceship. We were still falling, by the way.

Our magical defense didn't last long. The things outside still kept banging against us, which seemed to put a strain on Christina, as she proved with her next words.

"I cannot hold for much longer!"

The shield went out just as we were approaching a building. We crashed into it so hard that we would've fallen out from the cabin if it weren't for our seatbelts (or in my case, the two seats in front of me). Couldn't see shit through the whole thing. My head was like a fucking bobblehead's; one painful moment after the other.

After what seemed like an endless car accident on drugs, we punched through the building and landed into a crater filled with debris. My ears were buzzing like crazy. Christina tried to say something but I my head was spinning way to much to care. When my brain finally got its shit together, I understood what she was saying.

Derek was impaled.

Like, really impaled.

Took me a moment to see it at first. Two metal rods were sticking out from Derek's seat, right at my helmet. Shit.

"He is bleeding too much. His death is coming."

Derek was still alive. My hands grabbed the rods. Had to force them away. Pulling them out would only make things worse. He was wheezing and coughing. One of his hands tried to find consolation from Christina, who only stayed back and watched as emotionless as ever. I held it, making sure to give her a good look. She didn't look back. It seemed that my message went over her head.

I made sure to look at Derek, who tried to so hard to spit out some final words.

"Get… them…"

"Answer: your wish is safe with me."

He smiled, then closed his eyes. I put the hand on his lap. Christina remained silent as I ripped open the hull with my chainsaw. Unlike me, she gently and quietly floated outside with her hocus-pocus bullshit. "That would be unwise" she said as I fired a shot into the ceiling with my new double- sorry, the Mega Shotgun. Gotta get them right. Always.

"Answer: fuck off."

Those who were I supposed to protect were gone. Mars as a colony was gone. Same for the moons. My hands needed to snap a few necks. My mood was fucked up. My victims were approaching me from beyond the ruins. It was time to fuck some shit up.

And fuck shit up I did.

It was a day like any other, where my daily struggle kept repeating itself. I was born a farmer. I would die like one.

On that day, I went to give some food to my sheep, when the skies opened themselves in front of me. Thinking it was a divine sign. I fell on my knees and lowered my head.

One of his messengers, bright as the sun, appeared in front of me.

"Do not be afraid. I was sent here by the order of the Almighty."

He showed me a stone. It looked like one of those that the nobles like to wear on their clothes.

"You are to guard this sacred item more than your own life. You alone will know what it is and where it is. If someone comes to you, and asks you about it, no matter who they are, you are to curse them immediately."

As soon as my fingers touched the stone, I was overwhelmed with a sensation I never felt before. I suddenly knew things I never even heard of. It became clear why I had to keep it safe, for it contained knowledge that only the Highest of Gods could possess. As soon as his messenger was gone, I dropped my daily duties and returned home. My life changed on that day.