Chapter 6: - Something Worth Suffering For
As he fell through the portal, Helltaker could feel his body be pulled through time in space. It felt like the sudden acceleration of a rocket ship blasting off, except amplified to an impossible extent. By all means, the G-Force he was feeling on his body should have killed him instantly. Finally, the portal spit him out and still feeling wildly disorientated from his trip, the Helltaker fell flat on his face.
After forcing the bile to remain in his stomach, he noticed his face felt warm and was getting hotter by the second. Pushing himself off the ground, the Helltaker saw that he was laying on dark red and black rocks that were slightly sizzling. Brimstone, if he had to guess. That was a good sign he was in the right place he supposed. Looking around, he saw that he was surrounded by several stone walls with large rocks blocking the path through them. More worryingly were the buff skeletons standing in front of him.
"Hello fellas, do any of you boys know where a guy can find some demon girls for his harem?" Helltaker decided to try peace, sensing an inevitable ass-kicking otherwise.
The three skeleton knights looked at eachother, before one of them spoke to the Helltaker, "Sorry, no one's ever really… asked that. I suppose if you continue through this path, you'll reach customer service. You're in luck pal, because Monica's on shift right now. Had you come a few weeks earlier, it would have been her break day and Azkelon would have been there, and let me tell you, what a fucking tool that guy is. So yea, you just have to traverse this path to make it to Customer Service. Good Luck though, you're going to need it."
Helltaker was honestly surprised that worked. "Well then, much thanks fellas, but I'll be on my way now. If you'd just let me squeeze past you there… WOAH!" Helltaker had walked up to the group, and upon trying to walk past them through the tight hallway, the skeleton on the right swung a right hook at him. Helltaker barely managed to block it with his arms, but he was pushed back a ways, "What the hell, man?"
"Oh, I forgot to mention, we're not allowed to let you through. You see this is Hell, and if you're not a demon or a skeleton knight like us, you're supposed to suffer in Hell. Nothing personal, of course, but if you want to get anywhere around here, you're going to have to go through us." The three skeleton knights all adopted fighting stances.
'This is probably going to hurt, like a lot, but as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.' Helltaker let out a roar as he rushed the group. He threw a punch at the one
who had first punched him, and it landed. The only probably was that he had just punched a giant buff skeleton, and he was pretty sure he broke a few fingers. The skeleton on the left grabbed his arms from behind as the one he just punched began pummeling Helltaker with inhuman punches. He tried to jump off the ground and kick his assailant, but the knight holding his arms threw him to the ground. The last thing he saw was the knight he had talked too holding its foot above his head, "Sorry pal, but this is just business. I'm sure you understand." The foot came down and crushed the Helltaker's skull.
The Helltaker lay dead on the ground for a few moments before a blinding beam of light struck his body, disintegrating it. In another flash of light, the Helltaker appeared in the exact same place he started from, although this time he had some bruises and a pounding headache, "AHHHHHHHhhhhh… wait, I'm still alive?"
The talkative skeleton knight responded, "Oh yea, we probably should have mentioned that before, it's all part of the suffering gimmick. You die a painful death and then have to do it all over again until you finally succeed. Neat, right?"
"I'm not much of a fan if I'm being honest." Helltaker felt his headache fading quickly, but still remembered the short instant of pure agony he felt as his skull was caving in. He didn't need a repeat of that, but he was starting to wonder if that was going to be the new norm.
The skeleton knight he had punched spoke up, "Hey man, if it's any consolation, that was a pretty good try. I think you managed to give me a hairline fracture, which is better than what most people can do, so keep trying and know that I believe in you!" Helltaker was surprised at how cheerful this skeleton knight was, considering it was literally hellbent on stopping the Helltaker.
"Uhm… thanks I guess." The Helltaker considered his options for getting through them. He didn't like his chances of taking them all on, but they were completely blocking his path. He supposed he would just have to exploit the weakest link. The knights on the left stood in a column of two, but the knight on the right had nothing behind it, except for a jagged stone wall. Perhaps instead of brawling with them, it would be best to create an opening and run for it.
With this in mind, the Helltaker let out another roar and charged them again. This time, instead of throwing any punches, he gave a running Spartan Kick, sending the knight flying backwards into the wall. As it hit the rocks, it actually collapsed into a pile of bones. As the other knights reached for him, Helltaker scrambled out of the way.
As he rounded the corner, he felt himself becoming unreasonably exhausted. Now that he thought about it, he was beginning to feel dehydrated as well. It even felt like it was getting harder to breath. That was strange, but the Helltaker carried on regardless. Around the corner was… a dead end?
There was a massive boulder blocking the path and the Helltaker didn't see anyway around it. "Dammit! Now what do I do?" Angered by the rock, Helltaker gave it a childish kick, but to his surprise, it slid backwards, "Oh… Is this thing made out of styrofoam or something?" He kicked it again, harder this time, and it slid back far enough for him to slide past it into a bigger chamber.
Seeing that there were more boulders blocking his way, the Helltaker kicked yet another in his way. It slid back, but he still didn't have enough room, so he kicked it again. This time however, it didn't budge. He peeked through the small space between the rock and the wall and saw another rock behind it. Maybe he would just have to use more force? Helltaker began kicking the rock harder and harder, but it still didn't budge.
The feeling of exhaustion, dehydration, and asphyxiation from earlier was still building up and Helltaker could feel himself getting weaker. His knees were even starting to shake and air was barely trickling through his bone dry throat. He tried pushing with his full body against the rock, but then he was gasping for air and didn't feel himself getting enough. In moments, he collapsed as a dry husk of a body onto the brimstone ground.
Another beam of light, disintegrated corpse, and a flash of light later, and the Helltaker found himself standing in front of the three skeletons again. Helltaker gulped down air as the talkative skeleton decided to explain things once more, "Seems I totally forgot to tell you about the effort limit. In order to traverse Hell as a tortured soul, you have to go through individual trials of suffering. In order to make them more hellish, with each action you take, your body degrades until you finally succumb to death. This way, you have to repeat your suffering over and over again until you use the perfect amount of actions to reach wherever you want to go. Our CEO really did devise quite the system, huh?"
"Still don't think I'm a fan, but I think I'm starting to understand. And didn't one of you die?" Helltaker noticed there were once again three of them.
The cheerful skeleton, the one who was crushed against the wall, spoke up, "Oh yeah, you might have defeated me, but by now you should have realized the trials are all about repetition and it wouldn't work if I wasn't here every single time. And don't worry
about us knowing your next move or anything, we react the same exact way if you repeat your previous method. And let me say, finding the way past us on only your second try is truly amazing. Remember, I believe in you!"
It really was strange receiving a small peptalk in Hell of all places, but Helltaker felt he needed all the encouragement he could get, "Thanks pal. And remember, it's nothing personal, just business." Helltaker charged at the cheerful skeleton once more and shattered its body into the wall before kicking his way past the first boulder. This time, he analyzed the three rocks in front of him and used all those skills he got from playing turn based strategy games to plan a course. After finding the shortest possible route to success that probably wouldn't trap him or suck his lifeforce dry, he acted.
Kick rock number one, double back to rock two and kick it to where rock one previously was, move forward and kick rock three into the perfectly boulder sized hole in the wall, and continue on. He came across a small office building in the middle of Hell, which was a little surreal, but he shrugged it off as he went inside. He froze as he found himself face to face with an honest to god Demon Girl. He had half expected that demon girls were going to be some kind of hellish abomination that vaguely resembled a female and his dream was going to be all for naught, but here she was. A sophisticated looking woman with bushy, curly white hair and demonic features such as small black horns, a pointed tail, and tired red eyes.
She yawned upon seeing him, and spoke in a dispassionate mumble, "Name's Pandemonica, Hell's customer service. How may I serve you?"
Helltaker struggled to collect himself in the face of an actual demon girl. 'Come on man, get a hold of yourself.' He made to speak, but he froze with his mouth open, not knowing what to say. 'If I'm being honest, I really didn't think I'd get this far. What to say, what to say…? Maybe I just give her a witty little one-liner?' Helltaker slicked back his hair and said, "We can figure something out at my place."
Pandemonica stared at him in confusion for a second, before scoffing, "You really think you're getting out of Hell alive? You're delusional. Here, let me show you what I mean." Pandemonica reached across her desk and grabbed the sides of his face. "I apologise, but this should only hurt a bit." With professional gentleness, she snapped his neck, killing him instantly.
Beam of light. Disintegration. Flash of light.
"Dammit Helltaker, what kind of line was that. Seems I've been out of the game for too long."
The talkative skeleton knight replied, "Eh, don't worry about it man. Considering your goal is too woo Pandemonica, this trial is set up specifically for that task, meaning that she's also repeating. She'll remember your previous interaction, but whatever you said ultimately won't affect your chances in future interactions. You'll get as many chances as you need pal, but realize that she'll be stuck in this time loop with you until you either win her over or give up, so let's not waste the lady's time, eh pal?"
The Cheerful knight also spoke up, "Try analyzing her to find out what might work to win her over. I'm sure you can do it, and remember, I'll keep cheering for you. You've got this!"
"Thanks guys. I really appreciate it." Helltaker charged the cheerful knight again.
A few carefully planned actions later, and Helltaker was back at Pandemonica's desk.
"Oh, you're back again." She sighed and repeated the line, "Name's Pandemonica, Hell's customer service. How may I serve you?"
Helltaker took the cheerful skeleton's advice and tried to analyze her to find out what specific line would entice her to join his Harem, or at least consider it. Well… she was smartly dressed and she had an ID tag… not particularly useful. He noticed she had a mountain of paperwork on her desk and also that she had dark bags under her eyes. Maybe that was the key to winning her over. Now for the witty one line, "Maybe I can serve YOU instead?"
Pandemonica seemed to consider it for a moment. She dropped the professional posture and slouched over, revealing just how tired she was, "Sweet of you to offer. I could really use some coffee. I'm not myself without it."
Looking around the office, Helltaker found a coffee maker and a few minutes later, Helltaker returned with the perfect blend of creamer and sugar in the coffee cup, "There wasn't much around the office in the way of ingredients for me to use, but I think you'll like it."
Pandemonica took the cup and after taking in the aroma of coffee, took an experimental sip. Her eyes lit up, "Oh my, that's not bad actually." She took another sip, "It's honestly even better than what I make. I'm impressed."
Helltaker proudly watched her finish her coffee, but then her tired expression suddenly morphed into a frightening grin and her eyes became sharper. "That's much better. Now, you said you were going to serve, right? So how about you sit down and help me finish this paperwork and then we can continue working towards your little 'Harem' thing you so desire. Otherwise, I'll have to break each one of your fingers before snapping your neck, understand?"
A bead of sweat trickled down the Helltaker's forehead, "Oh, ah, y-yes ma'am." Just what kind of monster did he create just now?
"Oh dear, just call me Monica. Now stop squirming and GET TO WORK!"
Doomslayer awoke in a bed that was not his own. Instead of panicking, he quickly remembered the events of the previous day. Being trapped in the abyss, killing a big fly, working together with a demon girl, giving Satan an absolute ass-whooping, the revelation that this world's Heaven and Hell weren't twisted versions of themselves, but instead the real deal, and remembering his strange journey through this world's Hell and then having those memories wiped by Lucifer. An eventful day, all things considered. So now he was in one of the guest bedrooms Beelzebub made.
Rolling out of the bed, he walked out of the simple dark room into the hallway. He thought he could hear music downstairs, so he went to investigate. Once entering the mainroom, he saw Beelzebub playing a violin made of, you guessed it, the very fabric of darkness. She had her back turned to him so the Slayer simply walked in the room and watched for a few seconds. He was no expert on violins, but he thought it sounded decent enough, if not a little hollow sounding, but that was probably due to the violin's material.
Beelzebub was doing some sort of performance as she was gracefully moving around the room. Every Once in a while she would turn in his direction, but her eyes appeared to be closed and so she didn't see him. Despite having her eyes shut, she flawlessly navigated between various furniture, such as the pool table or the couches. The Slayer figured that this must have been a routine she memorized to fight off boredom during her imprisonment. As she made her way around the room, she eventually danced over to where the Slayer was standing.
He didn't expect this part of her routine to involve her kicking her leg up and twisting her body around like a ballerina or perhaps an ice skater. Unfortunately the Slayer was in the way and he shot his arm up to grab her ankle before she decked him in the face with what amounted to a more graceful version of a roundhouse kick. The music suddenly stopped and Beelzebub's eyes shot open with a scream, "EEEEK! Oh, it's just you. Whew. Uhm… Good Morning Slayer. Could you release me now?"
He let go of her ankle and she took a few steps back. "Sorry if I almost kicked you there. You see, living alone for as long as I have, I might have forgotten how to act with other people around. I didn't even consider that my violin solo might have awoken you. Oh! I suppose this was my first live performance! One day, when looking into the human world, I discovered the violin and I was absolutely taken by the sound it produces, so I just had to make one. I'm self taught of course, but I've never had anyone critique it, so I'm not sure if I'm any good though. So, how did it sound?"
The Slayer decided to be honest and granted her two thumbs up. Beelzebub simply looked at his hands in confusion before her eyes lit up, "Oh! I've seen that before. If I remember correctly, some human cultures use it to show a positive reaction. I guess that means you liked it? Wonderful, so those centuries of practice weren't wasted afterall. I mean, of course I, Beelzebub, the Crimson Queen, would have mastered the violin. It is only natural."
"You know, I only brought you here to combat Satan's horde, but I can't believe how nice it is to finally have someone to talk to other than various tentacle monsters or my petunias, even if you're just an intimidating mute brute." Her eyes suddenly widened in fear, "Ah, Good Slayer, I didn't mean for that to insult you. I meant that you're just surprisingly good company… despite your… shall we say, limited conversation skills?"
The Slayer who hadn't been even remotely insulted simply nodded his head. It was clear she was still somewhat terrified of him, but he didn't particularly care. They stood there awkwardly, the Doomslayer not knowing of anything in particular to do with his time and Beelzebub waiting to see what the Doomslayer would do.
After a while, Beelzebub broke the silence, "How about I actually show you around the castle. Last time the tour was interrupted by story time. You in?" With literally nothing else to do, the Slayer nodded. "Perfect. Let's start with the utility rooms so we can finish on the entertainment section."
And so the Slayer followed Beelzebub throughout the winding hallways. She pointed out various rooms, such as the Kitchen which had a stack of tentacles on a counter, and
she also pointed out the occasional trap room. To her dismay, Doomslayer carved an 'X' into the door of each trapped room with his doomblade. She clearly didn't approve of this, but was too scared of him to ask him to stop. Next they came to a room the size of a small warehouse, filled to the brim with various materials, such as darkness bricks, for expanding her castle. It was the next room that peaked his interest the most however: The Armory.
The wall was lined with various weapons, all made of darkness, the vast majority of which were swords and daggers, although the Slayer noticed a preference for small Sabers like the one she carried the previous day. Sadly, there were not two handed blades like the Slayer preferred, but he did take what appeared to be a gladius and add it to his pocket dimension. This being neither a UAC facility nor Texas, he wasn't sure how he was supposed to stock up on ammo, so he felt it might be prudent to arm himself with another melee weapon. Among the swords and daggers, the Slayer noticed a bow and arrows and some throwing knives. "Ah, I see you chose the gladius. I suppose that fits your image far more than it does mine, so it's fine if you keep it."
The Slayer continued expecting the room and was honestly impressed with her assortment of arms. He found some pots in the corner of the room with the lids tied on. Upon seeing his questioning glance, Beelzebub picked up one of the jars and untied the lid, revealing a bubbling purple liquid, "This right here is my homemade poison. I've always prefered more shadowy tactics to fair fights. You can coat your gladius with it if you want. The fabric of darkness holds up well enough to its corrosive qualities, but I don't suggest putting in any human made blades."
She handed the Slayer the pot of acidic poison, and he immediately stuck his finger in to test its strength. "Wait! Stop, you'll lose the finger if you're not careful!" Slayer rubbed the acid on his fingertips and saw it corroding away the paint to reveal grey metal underneath. Seeing as the acid burned no further, Doomslayer flicked the poison off his fingers and left it to sizzle on the ground. "Hmm. That suit of armor isn't made of any standard material, is it?" The Doomslayer shook his head.
"Fascinating. Well then, that's most of the utility rooms now, allow me to show around the other, more enjoyable section of my castle."
Helltaker had finally finished the mountain of paperwork and it felt as if a week had passed. Actually, he was pretty sure it had. He made himself another cup of coffee and an extra for Pandemonica. Using him as a constant supply of coffee, she had remained in her sadistic state for the entire week, "I suppose you've served me well enough that I
must now repay my half of the bargain. If you want more demon girls for this halfwitted harem of yours, we're going to want to head to the capital city of Hell, Tartarus. That is where you'll find the highest concentration of Higher Demons such as myself. I warn you though, it will be an arduous journey full of suffering for yourself."
Helltaker downed his coffee in one go and said, "Don't worry, I'm ready for anything that comes my way if it means achieving my goals."
Pandemonica gave a sadistic laugh in response, "You sure are stubbornly idealistic, but I suppose that will make watching you suffer all the more enjoyable. Let's head out, shall we?" And so, Helltaker and Pandemonica set forth for Tartarus. Personally, Helltaker was just happy to get Pandemonica away from that damned coffee machine.
As they were walking, Helltaker was taking in the sights around him. All over the place there were canyons of rock, but closer inspection revealed many of them to be hollowed out and full of smaller, red demons. He supposed those were the lower demons as opposed to the higher demons that Pandemonica mentioned. As they were walking, Monica decided to give an informational speech on the surrounding area, "This all used to be a wasteland around Tartarus, but in nearly a hundred thousand human years, it became necessary to expand outwards. For a period of time, souls in Hell were actually tormented by being forced to hollow out the giant boulders into living areas with nothing but their fingernails. To think that when the CEO arrived in Hell, there was nothing but endless wasteland in all directions, full of wandering souls and the occasional demon. Now we've become the perfect company that sells our product of eternal suffering to the masses. I only wish I had been there in the beginning to support her along the way, but I only came into existence some fifty-five thousand years ago. I'd probably be considered among the younger of the old breed, but there aren't many other demons from that time that have survived as long as I have. Despite that, there are a couple of truly ancient demons out there who have survived since the dawn of Hell."
Helltaker couldn't even begin to imagine what it was like to have lived for that long, especially considering that some of the demons were apparently more than twice as ancient as her. He was distracted from his thoughts when Pandemonica pointed to the entrance of a cave, "That's our destination. If you really want a demonic harem, she's your girl. Be careful though, she might be more than you can handle. You will have to go at it alone however due to the nature of trials, but when you inevitably reset, you can ask me for advice."
"Thanks, but I think I'll go at it blind for now." Helltaker bravely said before venturing into the cave.
Doomslayer was starting to become impressed at the sheer complexity of the castle, especially knowing that it was made out of the fabric of darkness, the process of which he had since learned was akin to magical knitting on the molecular level. "Now this is my tennis court, although now that you're here, it might be time to move the net away from the wall. I usually just ricochet the ball off the wall to simulate another player, but that gets old fast. So, do you fancy a tennis match?"
The Slayer gave a quick shake of the head. He'd never played tennis in his life and he wasn't going to embarrass himself in front of a demon. It was strange enough having half a conversation with one, not to mention getting buddy buddy on the tennis court.
"That's too bad. Despite your lack of enthusiasm, I think you'll like the next room on the tour. It should be right up your alley." As they were leaving the room, Doomslayer noticed a pair of ping pong paddles laying on the ground by the tennis net without any actual tennis racquets to be seen. 'I suppose it's the effort that counts.'
A beam of light. Helltaker's disintegrating corpse. Another flash of light.
"Hmph, it looks to me like you're encountering trouble. Are you sure you don't need help?" Pandemonica asked. It was his third attempt by now and she had been standing awkwardly outside the entrance of the trial with nothing to do but wait.
"No thanks, Monica. What kind of man would I be if I couldn't beat a simple turn-based strategy puzzle without outside help? And besides, how was I supposed to know that there would be more spikes under the boulder?"
"As entertaining as this used to be, I think I'll rest my eyes. Good luck." Pandemonica, still standing, leaned against the cave wall and slumped her head down. She was out in seconds.
"Damn, I wish I could do that. Oh well, back to the grind." Helltaker turned back into the trial, developing a new plan for this run.
Shortly later with some bleeding holes in the bottom of his shoes, he stumbled into an open cavern. From a hole in the cave roof, a beam of light shined down onto a demon
girl curled up in what appeared to be a massive pile of blankets and pillows on the cavern floor. She looked surprisingly cute. If he had to guess her personality, he would assume she was the wholesome type.
As he began walking towards her, he saw her nose begin wrinkling. The closer he got, the more she started to sniff the air, before her eyes shot open and she was wide awake. He watched her pupils slowly adjust to the light shining on her, but then to his surprise, they morphed into hearts. She stood up lighting fast, "I knew I smelled a man."
Helltaker was slightly taken aback, "What-"
"You and me. Now."
Well, after the past week of doing Sadistic Pandemonica's paperwork, he supposed he wasn't averse to a tussle in the sheets, and besides, Monica was asleep, right? "Deal, no questions asked."
She briefly became excited, before her face morphed into suspicion, "...They always say that… and they always try to run away…"
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, I'm not like other guys I swear- Hold up, what's with the sledgehammer, that's not necessary, it's really not like that- AAAAAHHHHHH!!!"
*Consecutive Meaty Wacks*
Beam of light, disintegration, flash of light, oh joy, Monica's still asleep.
Helltaker sighed to himself as he rubbed his kneecaps. Was it weird that he could feel phantom pain despite currently having reattached legs? No matter, this was a small misstep on his journey. "Here we go again…"
…"You and me. Now."
Quick on the draw, wasn't she? Now then, what to say this time to keep his legs intact? Something to show her that he was dedicated, more than the other guys. 'Ah, that might work.' What showed his dedication more than the very dream that drove him to come to Hell in the first place?
"No time. Busy gathering girls. Demon Harem. I'm sure you understand." Helltaker said, trying to act vaguely disinterested in Modeus.
"...Demon Harem? You poor fool. They'll rip you to shreds…" She began chuckling to herself, "Oh, I just HAVE to see this! I'm in… at least, for as long as you are, though I doubt that will be very long at all. I'll have you know, demon girls are leagues above anything normal girls can do, and I, Modeus the Lustful Demon, am in a class of my own."
"That awaits to be seen, but first we need to return to Pandemonica and begin searching for yet another demon girl." Helltaker was getting excited. He didn't think two girls were considered harem, that's just a love triangle afterall. But three girls… it was tantalizing to have his ultimate goal in reach.
Modeus' face lit up in surprise, "Wow, you already got Monica? I would have never suspected she would be the first member of a harem. Seems like after all these years, she's finally growing out of that antisocial shell of hers. She never accepts the invites to my orgies."
As they left, Helltaker had to wonder how she said that with the last sentence so nonchalantly. What a freak.
Doomslayer had to admit, Beelzebub had been on the mark with this one. This was right up his alley.
"Impressed? This one took a long time, but a batting cage seemed far more enjoyable for a single person than a tennis court." Beelzebub stepped onto the plate in the middle, having donned a batting helmet and a wooden baseball bat, or at least a close imitation of wood made from darkness. She had also magically transformed her crimson suit into a red and white baseball uniform, similar to the Redsocks, and on the back it said 'Beelzebub' and her number was'666'. How original..."Let me show you how it works. See this bell here?"
Doomslayer looked and saw that above the plate was a string connected to a bell on the roof. He nodded, "Alright, you ring this bell to wake up Clarence." She reached up to ring the bell and a few moments later an octopus-like tentacle arose from a hole in the center of the floor on the other side of the batting cage. On each of its suction cups was a black ball, similar enough to a standard baseball to be passable, "That would be Clarence, It would have taken far too much time to try to understand how a human batting cage works, not to mention forging all the parts, so I just trained Clarence to
throw the ball instead. He's gotten far better at it over the years and I bet he'd give any ball throwing machine a run for its money. Oh, here he goes now."
Doomslayer was somewhat astonished at how accurately the tentacle, Clarence he supposed, managed to throw the ball. It was a perfect pitch, and Beelzebub managed to hit it well enough. The floor of the entire room appeared to be slanted so that the ball rolled towards Clarence after hitting the net.
"A rather ingenious design, no? Now, before you bat, you have to be conscious not to hit Clarence with the ball, otherwise he might not come out of his hole for a few weeks. You want to give it a go now?"
Doomslayer gave a nod before stepping up to the plate and taking the bat from her. Opposite from him, Clarence reeled back its body and threw the ball towards the Slayer. Doomslayer calmly watched the ball speed towards him and waited until the perfect moment to swing the bat. The ball connected perfectly in the middle of the bat and with a loud *CRACK* and a few splinters flying through the air, the ball rocketed towards Clarence. Clarence, blind as a brick, didn't make any attempt to dodge out of the way, and a small chunk of his flesh was torn off as the ball skimmed his left side. Clarence dropped all the baseballs he was holding as he violently squirmed down into his hole. Meanwhile, the baseball that Slayer had hit had torn a hole in the net and lodged itself firmly in the wall.
"AAAHH! SLAYER! I specifically told you not to hit Clarence! He's going to be down there for months with an injury like that. Not to mention you damaged my net, ruined one of my few baseballs, and even put a dent in the bat!" Beelzebub had unconsciously morphed back into her crimson suit and was shaking her hands in anger at the Slayer. It seemed she could forget her fear of the Slayer when it came to her few possessions.
The Slayer simply shrugged. He hadn't meant to hit Clarence, but it was in his nature to attack tentacles on sight ever since they annoyed him to no end on Earth-Two.
Beelzebub took a deep breath as she attempted to calm down, "Next time, maybe just don't swing so hard, please? You can't even begin to imagine how much work it took to make all this." She genuinely looked saddened by the damage and Doomslayer was beginning to feel a little guilty, but he wouldn't let her know that. He just gave a slight nod.
Helltaker, Pandemonica, and Modeus had set off into the waste once more, although this time Helltaker noticed they were moving towards a massive city with a modern skyline peaking out above a five sided wall. "So what's this city we're heading towards?" He directed his question at Pandemonica, as modeus seemed to have other things on her mind.
Pandemonica looked up from her tablet at him, "That would be the Tartarus, the Capital City and center of Hell. As human civilization advances, it follows the modern trends of human architecture. Currently it is designed to look like an urban metropolis, except for the Great Spire, which represents the exact center point of Hell and is where Hell's ruler's reside. It has been unchanged since its initial construction, a towering black spire with an inspired design from the Tower of Babel, another famous sign of sin. Our destination is Tartarus because naturally, that is where the highest concentration of higher demons reside. Your first trial will likely be to make it past the Guardian of Tartarus. It will not be easy mind you, she doesn't just let anyone into Hell."
Helltaker wasn't sure how long he had been walking for, but it felt like days, maybe even weeks. The scorching heat and lack of water were getting to him, but he supposed this was Hell, so what did he expect. He wouldn't let such things as suffering across the massive expanse of Hell stop his dream. Besides, he only needed just one more girl to technically have a harem. Eventually though, they reached the walls of Tartarus.
At the base of the giant black walls was a massive cast-iron gate, but before one could reach the gate, it appeared they would have to first pass through a series of canyons.
Modeus seemed puzzled, "Huh… Those weren't here before? Where'd the road go?"
Pandemonica answered her, "It would appear another trial has appeared. Perhaps you've encountered your next harem candidate. Good luck, Helltaker. Once again, we'll be forced to wait for you to finish the trial.
"Yep! If who I think is at the end of this, you better hope you manage to woo her, otherwise she'll rip you apart. She likes to play with her food by the way." Modeus said with far too much cheer on her face.
"I wonder how many times I'm going to die this time… Oh well, it's not like I have much choice."
Helltaker wandered into the trial.
Doomslayer was struggling to keep track of time. Beelzebub had mentioned that one day on Earth was equal to one month in the abyss and one week in Hell. So far he had been trapped here for three months. It seemed impossible that only three days had passed on Earth. How did Beelzebub manage to stay remotely sane after all this time?
He had mainly spent the time holed up in his room, doing maintenance on his guns. Although, now that he thought about it, this was the second time today he had cleaned Lucifer's Bane. He supposed he needed to get out more, but that usually meant interacting with Beelzebub. A few times he had tried to sneak down to the batting cage (Clarence had finally calmed down last week), but whenever Beelzebub noticed he was out of his room, she stayed glued to him like white on rice. He still wasn't very comfortable with the fact that she was some ancient demon criminal, or something along those lines, and she was still clearly nervous around him. Still though, that didn't stop her from following him like a lost puppy, but he supposed she was simply starved of sentient interaction for just about forever.
He was interrupted from his train of thought as a rumble was felt throughout the castle. He hastily put his super shotgun back together and flung open his bedroom door. Beelzebub's voice called to him from downstairs, "SLAYER! SATAN'S BACK!" Sprinting down the staircase, Doomslayer was still assembling the shotgun, quickly reattaching the barrel to the stock. Luckily for him, the Super Shotgun was of a relatively simple design. As he entered the mainroom, he saw Beelzebub had once more acquired her saber, "Slayer! They're already in the courtyard, you need to get out there right now!"
Slayer gave a sharp nod before walking over to the heavy wooden doors and opened them with a powerful kick. There were already two dozen demons in the courtyard and they all jumped back in fear with the appearance of their great enemy. They could only watch as he loaded the shotgun with malicious intent. Shortly after, their hatred surpassed their survival instincts and imps, hellknights, pinkies, and revenants charged the Slayer. Doomslayer met their advance with a charge of his own as he jumped into the midst of them and emptied both barrels of his shotgun.
Surrounded by numerous hostels, the Doomsayer's mind was moving a hundred miles per hour. 'Imp in front. Reload, and kick the knee backwards' CRACK 'Unload' BANG 'Exterminated. Another imp on the right.Punch it. Again. And again. Good, it looks dead enough. Reload, sidestep fireball, remove third imp from equation, Pinky charging, unload shotgun' BANG 'Leave it to bleed, ignore group of possessed, for now. Reloa- DODGE! Hell Knight, too close for comfort, unsheath doomblade and stab it, now stab it again, again, and again, its dead…fuck it, stab it again.'
As the Doomslayer removed his doomblade from the Hellknight's brand new eye socket, he saw an arrow stick itself in the head of an unsuspecting imp approaching him. A quick glance over his shoulder revealed Beelzebub standing in the castle's entrance with a longbow. She seemed to be sweating nervously, but still resolute in defending her home as she knocked another arrow onto the bow. 'Not totally useless after all.' He gave a very quick nod before turning right back to the action. As he slaughtered his way through his prey, he would occasionally notice an arrow bury itself into a demon. The accuracy wasn't perfect and some would be left with only minor injuries, but he was still grateful when a revenant dropped out of the sky with an arrow embedded in its head.
While he was fighting the first wave of demons rushing through the gates, the demons outside the walls had been putting up ladders along the wall. Already imps were climbing onto the ramparts, and only imps because they were really the only demons here that could climb. Still though, the Doomslayer was busy fighting in the courtyard and the imps on the walls were haphazardly throwing fireballs at him. Many fireballs hit the demons around him, but a few still impacted his armor. Beelzebub was doing her best job taking a few imps out with her bow, but for each that fell, another two would quickly replace it. It wasn't normal behavior for demons, but with the actual devil commanding them, he supposed he should have expected something like this.
Satan's army was manageable when forced to climb through the wreckage of the wrought-iron gates in small numbers, but now he was quickly becoming overwhelmed. Beelzebub realized this as well and she was also running low on arrows. She needed to act or Doomslayer would eventually be overwhelmed by the ever increasing rain of fireballs that he was currently doing his best to dodge while still slaying the demons in the courtyard. She called out to him over the sound of chaos, "Don't worry Slayer! I'll run up to the ramparts and deal with them. If it's only imps, I should be ok!" She didn't see him give any indication of having heard her, but he was far too busy staying alive to respond.
Slayer briefly caught a glance of her running back into the castle from behind his headless meat shield that used to be a hell knight. He could feel the force of every fireball exploding onto the demon's chest and could feel the head through his hold on its back. He was taking fire from three directions and he could see in his hud that his armor integrity was becoming startlingly low. It wouldn't be long before the constant assault started doing some real damage to him. Another problem was that while the walls were pretty much full of imps, even more were still climbing the ladders and these newcomers
were immediately jumping down from the wall. Something needed to change or he would quickly be overwhelmed.
As the corpse he was taking cover behind began to melt onto his hands, Doomslayer knew he had to move. He threw the flaming, melting corpse towards an oncoming imp and could hear its screeching as it became trapped under the weight of a superheated hell knight. Doomslayer threw a grenade into the oncoming horde of imps as he dodge yet more fireballs, a few of which still managed to hit. As his grenade exploded in the middle of the hoard and at least five mangled corpses flew through the air, Doomslayer jumped right into clearing he just made. Hopeful being closely surrounded on all sides would give him some cover from the constant rain of fire. With his doomblade extended, he was frantically slicing into the imps around him as they also frantically clawed at him.
By now, his helmet's hud was flashing red and he was becoming a little concerned to say the least. With his vision filled with fire and the screaming faces of endless demons, he didn't notice that Beelzebub had emerged onto the ramparts from a door leading into the castle. She had her saber in hand and it was already bloodied as she quickly moved through the imps on the wall. With a dancer's grace and speed, she wove through the demon's claws, finding every opening she could to lunge with her sword.
Still though, most of the imps were completely focused on their continuous bombardment of the Doomslayer. This allowed her to easily stab several demons who hadn't even noticed her presence on the wall yet, preferably through the neck. Due to the lack of space on the wall, no more than two or maybe three imps could attack her at once. Despite this, she wasn't moving through them as fast as the Doomslayer might have. She was being cautious, considering she didn't have armor or magic and would actually die for good if one of them got a lucky strike on her. More of them had noticed her presence and she was now having to dodge the occasional fireball while trying to gain an opening against a group of imps.
She managed to fight her way to a ladder, which she immediately kicked away from the wall with all her might, content to allow the imps climbing it to fall into abyss. Eventually, she had made it to the corner of the wall, with two more sides to go. "This is what you savages deserve for trying to assault MY CASTLE!" She swung her saber at an imps neck, slicing it open and reveling in the sight of blood spurting out of an artery.
Meanwhile, the Doomslayer was finally beginning to feel the pressure decreasing as more and more imps on the wall were either distracted by Beelzebub's appearance or had been slain. He was once more able to get into the killing zone and effortlessly mow down his enemies, now only having to dodge a third of the fireballs. Still though, the
ordeal had cost him. He had no more grenades or shotgun shells, and he was definitely injured to some extent. His armor's integrity was broken and every attack that landed was now doing some form of real damage. He could feel areas of his skin with third degree burns that would need some attention later, but for now he would have to fight through the pain.
As he fought his way to the gate, Beelzebub was almost done mopping up the enemies on the wall. With a powerful blood punch, Doomslayer had made it to the gate and could now funnell enemies to their death with ease. Beelzebub sidestepped a fireball before lunging forward and stabbing her saber through the last imp's heart, and with a flick of the blade, the imp fell off the ramparts. Taking a moment to catch her breath, Beelzebub saw that the ladders she had knocked down were not being replaced and that her work was done. Looking down into the courtyard, she saw that the Doomslayer was easily taking care of what few demons were still trying to come in through the gate. She was surprised that he was still standing, as certain parts of his armor were glowing red and actively on fire or looked as if they had been reduced to molten slag, but the man underneath seemed impervious to the pain. The courtyard was completely filled with demon corpses, most of which being from the seemingless endless horde of imps. She worried about cleanup, but was fortunately surprised when she noticed the older bodies beginning to disintegrate. That was convenient.
She was about to call down to the Slayer when she felt a powerful presence appear behind her. With a curious glance, she found herself face to face with Satan with a shit-eating grin on his face, "That was a most impressive display, dear little Beelzebub. My plan of overwhelming that bastard might have worked… He would have been buried under endless waves of imps and cooked to perfection, but no… Instead… YOU… JUST HAD TO GET IN THE WAY YOU CONNIVING BITCH!"
Beelzebub began taking wary steps backwards with her saber pointed towards Satan's face, but he didn't seem particularly scared and she knew why. She was currently no match for his power, even diminished as it was. "Stay- Stay back! I SAID STAY BACK!" Beelzebub found herself backing towards the wrong edge of the wall and with a quick glance behind her, saw Satan's hordes waiting at the base of the wall. When she looked up, it was too late. She swung her saber as Satan lunged towards her, but he didn't even seem to notice as it buried itself to the hilt in his shoulder.
Satan grabbed her and twisted her around so that she was forced to look into the hungry eyes of the horde of demons below. She felt his claws poised around her throat, ready to kill her in an instant, "Despite ruining the plan, you gave me a new opportunity by leaving yourself alone on the wall. As much as I might want to see the Doomslayer
dead at my feet, my ultimate goal was to take you alive so I can use your sacrifice to escape this damned abyss. Count yourself lucky, you will at least get to live a little while longer. HAHAHA. It's almost funny, I expected to use a massive horde of imps to overwhelm the Slayer and then have to fight our way through the castle to get to you on the chance that he retreated inside. Instead, can you imagine my surprise when I saw you standing on the wall, only a few steps from falling into my grasps? That accursed Slayer will be unable to do nothing but watch from below as I take you into my horde. HAHAHA, forced to watch his little whore be ravaged by countless demons before dying a most painful death, all for my plan to eventually take over not just Hell, but also the human world and even the very heavens themselves. ALL BECAUSE HE FAILED YOU! HAHAHA- wait… what the hell is that sound?"
crunch crunch Crunch Crunch CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH*
Like any good villain, Satan's monologue had gone on long enough for the hero to intervene. As Satan looked down the wall into the courtyard, immediately he froze in fear. Beelebub managed to twist her head enough to see what had shocked him so. The Slayer was climbing the wall at shocking speed. Not just climbing, no, he was actually digging his hands into the impenetrable stone bricks and he seemed to be doing it with ease. As he reached the top and was about to pull himself onto the ramparts, Satan finally pulled himself out of his stupor, "NO, IT'S TOO LATE! YOU'RE TOO LATE! ALL YOU'VE DONE IS GIVEN YOURSELF FRONT ROW SEATS TO HER SUFFERING!"
Satan turned and took a running jump and practically flew off the wall with Beelzebub tight in his grip. Beelzebub was screaming as she watched over Satan's shoulder Doomslayer rush to the edge of the wall. She and Satan began their descent into the horde when she saw Doomslayer pull out his double barreled shotgun. He was probably preparing to jump into the horde after her, but even he must have known that was a death sentence. Outside the castle, he would easily get lost in the darkness of the abyss and with so many demons who had already grown used to maneuvering through non-physical space, he would be torn apart.
"SLAYER! PLEASE, SLAYER, DO SOMETHING!" Despite knowing there was nothing he could do for her, Beelzebub found herself screaming for him to save her. As she closed her eyes in panic, she suddenly felt herself, and Satan be jerked to a stop. As she felt whiplash go through her body, she managed to catch a glimpse of the Doomslayer on the wall, with his feet dug into the stones as he held the shotgun tight in his hands. She noticed a steel cord leading from the end of the shotgun to somewhere in Satan's back. She realized the Doomslayer was practically reeling them in as if he was fishing.
"NO, NO, NO NO NO NOOOOOO!" Satan was writhing in pain as the meat hook was planted somewhere in his spine. He found himself quickly flying away from his horde and towards the Doomslayer and he knew it wasn't going to end well. As they reached the wall, Doomslayer lunged forward and grabbed Satan by the neck and quickly twisted it upside down with a sickening crack. Satan dropped Beelzebub and she would have fallen down the wall into the screeching horde of demons, but she suddenly felt an armored gauntlet grib the back of her collar and hold her in place. As the Doomslayer pulled her up, Satan layed on the ground motionless before slowly moving his hands to his horribly crooked neck. Beelzebub was back on her feet when both of them heard another sickening snap as Satan righted his head.
"Why… WHY… WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS RUIN… EVERYTHING!" Satan suddenly pushed himself off the ground and in his rage he left a small crater behind in the stone as he rocketed up towards the Slayer. Doomslayer quickly threw a shell-shocked Beelzebub into the courtyard right before Satan slammed into him with the force of a bomb. Doomslayer was being shoved towards the edge of the wall, so he brutally stomped his foot into the stone below him and pivoted, throwing both himself and Satan into the courtyard after Beelzebub.
Beelzebub meanwhile, could do little more than lay on the cobblestone in pain. When the meathook halted their fall into the horde, Satan had accidentally dug his claws into her throat, not enough to kill her, but she was still left writhing on the ground, clutching her throat. Still though, she could feel the vibrations in the air as Satan and Slayer were fighting in the background.
Satan was pummeling Slayer with punches backed by unnatural speed and power, but every once in a while the Slayer managed to land a punch of his own backed by pure mass, earned strength, and metal, studded gauntlets. Still though, Slayer was feeling the pressure. His earlier battle with the imps had left him injured and his armor severely weakened. Slayer would have leveled the playing field, but he had run out of ammo for his guns and knew that the BFG needed to be reserved for critical use only. He was feeling the pressure, but it wasn't critical, yet.
Doomslayer knew he was getting his ass kicked, but he was thinking calmly as he always did. Despite the pain and the fast-paced combat, he was analyzing Satan's attacks and working up appropriate counters. As powerful as Satan was, Doomslayer found that his attacks were sloppy and were little more than furious haymakers, one after another. It made this next part easy. As Satan's left hand winded up for another predictable punch, Slayer's right hand was already moving to catch a fist that wasn't
even coming yet. To his satisfaction, he felt his arm shake as the tremendous punch landed flat in his palm and he gripped down tight, breaking every bone in the fist. Satan's eyes went wide and he winded back another punch with his other hand, but Slayer ducked his head as the punch soared past.
The doomblade ejected from its sheath and the Slayer rammed it upwards into Satan's elbow. Yanking the fist in his hands to the right and the doomblade left, Slayer was satisfied to see Satan's left arm be severed.
Satan reeled back in pain, but the Slayer continued his assault with the intent to finish the fight here. He lunged forward and grabbed the handle of Beelzebub's saber, still lodged deep in the shoulder above Satan's remaining arm. Doomslayer activated the double-jump boost in his left foot and with the propulsion, rammed his knee into Satan's side, throwing his body to the right as the Slayer yanked the saber to the left and pulled out Satan's entire right arm, also shattering much of the remaining shoulder blade.
Satan stood there with only half of an arm as blood shot out of both severed stumps, "GOD DAMN YOU! AGAIN AND AGAIN, YOU RUIN… EVERYTHING! "
Doomslayer dropped the saber and lunged forward with his doomblade, but Satan jumped to the side and began sprinting towards the gates. Doomslayer pursued, but found that with his own injuries he couldn't quite keep up with Satan's own ridiculous speed. Satan tried his best to climb through the jagged remains of the gate without causing more injuries to himself, two hellknights managed to struggle into the courtyard as a group of imps worked to pull Satan free.
The closest Hellknight made to swing at the Slayer, but died immediately as the doomblade tore into its skull, getting stuck halfway in the thick bone. It was quickly removed with a brutal punch, sending the corpse careening to the side as blood spurted out with the doom blades removal. Doomslayer rushed the second hellknight and met its punch with one of his own. He felt several of his own fingers break, but was pleased to see several of the hellknight's fingers fall to the ground, its fist impaled on the doomblade. Surprisingly, the hellknight managed to keep up the attack despite the pain and Doomslayer narrowly dodged into its guard as he felt its other fist graze the backside of his helmet. Pulling the doomblade out of the fist along with severing its two remaining fingers, Doomslayer punched with all his might into its skull, crushing bone and brain matter alike. Still alive somehow, the hellknight could do little more than scream as the Slayer shoved the doomblade into the new hole in the skull. The hellknight stood still for a few moments before falling face first, dead on the stone floor.
Doomslayer resumed his sprint towards the gate, but was enraged to see Satan already free on the other side. Materializing his only gun that never ran out of ammo, the Slayer began firing his plasma pistol through the gaps in the gate into Satan's retreating form. Unsurprisingly the pea shooter did little to no damage, but he felt better regardless as he saw Satan's back with several plasma burns melting the flesh. As Satan retreated and his horde followed, Doomslayer realized it was over. In his eyes it had been a stalemate and that truly angered him. He hated when his prey got away from him. It reminded him of when Olivia Pierce teleported to Hell just as he finally caught up with her. But in the end, he did catch up to her, and she died brutally. Satan would reach a similar fate as far as Slayer was concerned. 'Next time.'
As he turned back towards the castle, he saw that Beelzebub was slowly trying to get to her feet, but wasn't having much luck. Quick analysis showed that one of her ankles was broken, she was bleeding from the neck, but not too badly, and she had shallow claw marks all over her body from her fight on the walls. As he approached, he noticed that her crimson suit was a darker red than usual. It seemed she was covered in almost as much blood as he was. She looked like shit, but he found himself respecting her for what she went through to get those wounds. He likely would have died had she not stopped the endless barrage of fireballs and imp reinforcements. He supposed he could have just retreated into the castle if push came to shove, but he didn't want her to be sad when her furniture inevitably got destroyed. He wasn't sure why he cared though.
"Oh… Hey Slayer. Thanks for the save there, I thought he had me." Beelzebub forced the words through her damaged throat. She looked up and saw that he had extended a hand for her, "Thanks… Wow… You know, you look like shit." Doomslayer's chest shaked lightly as he silently chuckled. "Was that funny or some-ow ow!" She had taken his hand, but when she went to stand, she stumbled back down to the floor. "Wow, that actually hurt. Being weak sucks. I don't know how you humans live like this." She rubbed her ankle, which was swelling up, "You can just leave me here for a while, I'll heal pretty quickly." Doomslayer shook his head, and Beelzebub let out a yelp as he kneeled down and picked her up.
Beelzebub found herself being carried bridal style and found herself thankful for the blood covering her face. Without it, he might have seen her blushing. "Ah! You- You didn't have to do that!" Doomslayer apparently disagreed. She had gained many of these injuries defending him, so it was the least he could do, even if the only reason he was here at all was because of her. If there was one thing the Doomslayer respected, it was people who fought by his side. Egocentric demon girl or otherwise.
He walked through the already open doors of the castle, not bothering to shut them behind him. As he entered the mainroom, he looked around, before gazing down at Beelzebub and tilting his head. "Oh, just take me down the utility hallway, I'll direct you to the infirmary. I never really thought I'd need it, but I built it just in case. I always like to be prepared." Beelzebub tried her best to distract herself from the fact she could feel his massive biceps pressing into her. How could so much muscle be so tight?
Once she led him to the infirmary and he set her down on the single cot set up in the middle of the room. Beelzebub stayed mostly silent as he bandaged her many injuries and cleaned her wounds, but noticed that he had suddenly stopped. She quickly realized he was awkwardly staring at her chest and the injuries in the area. She realized for the first time that much of her suit was torn up. It didn't reveal too much, but it still was far more than he needed to see. "Oh, don't worry about that, I can do the rest on my own, thank you… Oh, um… if You need to repair your armor, there's a forge just down the hall I use to make the weapons in the armory. I don't know if it will help, but it's worth a try, right?"
Doomslayer considered it before nodding. He handed her the bandages and walked out of the room. She let out a deep breath of air when she thought he was out of ear shot. "I didn't think he could be so… delicate?" That word seemed horribly out of place when describing him, but he had actually carried her all the way here and bandaged most of her wounds. She half expected him to drop her on the floor and walk back to his room. She was even more surprised that he hadn't collapsed himself. He looked pretty bad.
The little skin he revealed in the form of his rippling biceps… Beelzebub shook the thoughts from her head. His biceps were covered in burns and bleeded from several claw marks. Most of the armor above his waist seemed totalled. One of his pauldrons had mostly melted, the metal cooling along other parts of the armor and creating strange growths of metal, and there were dozens of small craters of superheated metal all over the armor. Luckily for her, it had mostly cooled when he picked her up, but she had still been singed slightly just by the armor. How on earth was he even alive under there? He should have burned up, almost like being cooked alive in a furnace. He certainly wasn't a normal mortal, that was for sure.
Doomslayer had found the forge Beelzebub had described to him. Most of the equipment was archaic, but he didn't really need it. The Praetor Suit would repair itself, although based on the damage he saw, it would take much longer than usual, especially without the constant supply of argent energy it was used to. Still though, he was glad it had that mysterious function. He could do basic repairs and knew enough to modify the
suit, but how the hell was he supposed to un-melt it? One part of the repair process he knew about though, was that it worked much faster when he wasn't wearing it.
This produced new problems however. While he trusted Beelzebub more after the recent battle, he still didn't feel entirely comfortable around her. Besides, he could tell the abyss was a dangerous place by nature and he wouldn't feel safe without the armor. Still though, it would likely be necessary. He didn't want to imagine what would happen if Satan managed to regenerate and bolster his forces before his armor was repaired. Looking down, he supposed he wouldn't have to take it all off though. He resigned himself to the arduous process of taking the armor off.
Some twenty minutes later, and Beelzebub had finally finished bandaging her torso. Looking in the mirror, she saw that the bandages across her chest made her look like some two-bit yakuza thug, but she didn't really care at this point, even though her breasts were straining against the tightness. It was necessary to hasten the healing process. She wasn't wearing anything except for the bandage wrap and her pair of bloodied crimson pants. She had taken a boot off due to the swelling in her ankle and she took the other off so that it wouldn't upset her balance.
She had surprisingly well developed abs, evidence of the amount of exercise she got fending off boredom. She was absolutely covered in scratches on her pail skin, with a deeper cut here or there wrapped up in bandages. She didn't look like her usually classy self, that was for sure, not with the blood and the sweat heavily coating her skin. She also was blushing furiously. At least, this is all what the Slayer noticed as he entered the infirmary.
"AH! What- What are you doing? And why are you shirtless!?... Woah..." Beelzebub couldn't help but stare at him as he calmly walked into the room and grabbed yet another roll of bandages. He had taken off his damaged armor in the forge, but deemed his leg armor and boots to be undamaged enough to keep on. Beelzebub was busy taking the opportunity to memorize the sight before her as he began wrapping bandages around his own wounds.
'But why does he have to face me while he does it?' Beelzebub faintly aware that she was staring and that she was blushing madly, but those thoughts took the backseat to soaking up his appearance. He had the most chiseled body she had ever seen in her life. Not to mention the muscles on his arms, or how badass he looked with all the scars criss crossing his body. And also… 'HOLY SHIT, HE'S NOT WEARING THE HELMET! The legends didn't mention he was kind of handsome!' By this point her cheeks were
cupped in her hands and she was slightly drooling. She barely managed to stop herself, but she was pretty sure the Slayer noticed. No, there was no way in Hell he didn't notice. She was mentally cursing the very nature of demons for having so little control over their emotions as she struggled to pull her gaze away from his abs. And his biceps. And his sharp, tantalizing, intense, brown eyes. Damn, she was staring again, wasn't she.
Doomslayer was awkwardly aware of this as he finished rubbing some strange, cooling cream onto his burns. He didn't know how to react to whatever was going on in her head right now, so he tried his best to ignore it by looking away. Too bad he could hear her breathing heavily and fidgeting on the cot. He eventually decided to confront her with a small raise of one eyebrow questioningly.
It took Beelzebub a few moments to knock herself out of her stupor. She awkwardly cleared her throat and could feel nervous sweat on her palms. She nervously diverted her gaze, but couldn't stop eyes from roaming back to him before tearing her gaze away once more, "Ah- um… Sorry, Good Slayer, but, uhm, Demon girls… you see… we don't really have much control over our emotions and… and… uh… well, being demons, such sights…. tend to excite us… you know? Er, sins of the flesh and all that... And you're like, super jacked." Now her blushing had only gotten redder as she buried her face in her hands and began mentally panicking, 'DID I REALLY JUST SAY THAT! BEEL, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU! HE'S THE DOOMSLAYER, NOT A PROSTITUTE! YOU CAN'T SAY THESE THINGS TO HIS FACE! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!'
The Doomslayer honestly wasn't too surprised, her being a sinful demon and all that, but it was still incredibly embarrassing for both of them, especially with her over the top reactions. He didn't really have any experience with this kind of stuff himself and it didn't look like she did either. He felt his own cheeks begin to slightly heat up, which he was sure would have looked ridiculous if Beelzebub wasn't ten times worse. Still though, it had been two thousand years since he had encountered such feelings as second hand embarrassment or even sexal tension.
That's what made the situation worse. Him, a two thousand year old warrior and her, a demon who has existed since the dawn of humanity, blushing like teenagers. It didn't help that they were both half naked. It also didn't help that for some reason, seeing her wrapped up in bandages and covered in sweat and blood made her look badass in a sexy sort of way, a fact he was entirely uncomfortable with.
Doomslayer managed to unfreeze himself and intelligently made a beeline for the door, before stopping and looking over his shoulder. Beelzebub was looking at him through slits between her fingers as she covered her face and squirmed under his gaze. "Oh Yeah...Good… Work… Out… There...Today…"
She was glad Doomslayer chose that moment to turn and finally leave the room because she immediately fell off the cot in surprise and began rolling around in embarrassment. "AHHHH! That was so embarrassing! Oh God! I'm worse than Modeus right now! And he spoke! HE ACTUALLY SPOKE!"
"Ah- AHCHOO!" Modeus let out a cute sneeze.
"Don't tell me you've gone and caught a cold in Hell… That would be ironic to say the least." Pandemonica said as she and Modeus sat outside the trial and waited for the Helltaker.
They didn't have to wait long as a flash of light marked his sudden reappearance with an expression of pain across his face.
"Wow, that's seven deaths so far. You did much better with me and Modeus." Pandemonica jotted this down in her tablet for some unknown reason. Perhaps she simply wanted to keep records of his suffering, being the sadistic demon and all that.
"Yes, I'm beginning to notice they get more difficult. Like a video game, except I'm slowly getting used to the feeling of my body disintegrating. Joy."
"So what did you do this time?" Pandemonica asked, fingers at the ready to record data on his suffering.
Helltaker sighed before turning back towards the trial, "It was nothing more than a bad judgement call. For your report or whatever it is the hell you're doing, I ran out of time and died as a shriveled husk. You know, like last time. The spikes don't help, but the skeleton knights are friendly enough, if a little thick skulled. And no, I didn't mean to make that pun, but I will gladly take ownership of it."
Modeus voiced her own displeasure, "Just hurry up, Helltaker. I'm not exactly known for my patience."
"Don't worry, I've got a solid game plan down. This should be the last one, but I still have to convince the demon girl to join the Helltaker Harem and that might take a few deaths." Helltaker began walking back into the trial.
Modeus grinned and yelled after him, "Good Luck!"
Quickly maneuvering through the spike and bashing any skeletal knights in his way (nothing personal Hubert) Helltaker finally reached the end of the trial and began hearing voices, "We all smell that, right?" "That smells… like a human!" "And they have a familiar scent?"
Before Helltaker could turn the corner, three figures came sprinting around it, barely skidding to a stop in front of him. Helltaker wasn't sure what he was seeing, 'Are those dog girls? No, well actually yes, but they're also demon girls… And there's three of them. Actually, that would put our numbers perfectly in line with a harem.' They were bounding around him excitedly with their tails wagging. It was super cute. Almost too cute.
"You're definitely a human!" "A real one, not a human's soul either!" "But what is that familiar scent we smell on you?" Then they all spoke at once, "It smells like a friend!" Their tails were wagging extra fast now. "Oh, you just have to take us with you!"
Helltaker collapsed on the ground. "Ahh! Is he ok?" One cerberus knelt down and rolled him over before taking his pulse. Another cerberus closed her eyes and concentrated, "No, He's not. He's dead as a doornail." The tail wagging stopped. Suddenly with a beam of light, the body disintegrated, leaving them all to jump back in fright.
Meanwhile, Helltaker meanwhile appeared next to Modeus and Pandemonic. Pandemonica grinned and held out her hand towards Modeus. Modeus was pouting as she took what looked like a twenty dollar bill, except the president had horns, and gave it to Pandemonica. Modeus turned towards Helltaker and said, "I expected better from you."
Monica once again booted up her tablet, "Now, how exactly did you die this time, let me guess, savagely torn apart by three dog girl's sharp teeth?" She didn't have to look so happy about it.
"No, I had a heart attack. It was just too cute." Pandemonica didn't have to look so disappointed by that either.
Modeus on the other hand brightened up immediately, "I guess I can forgive you in that case. It happens to the best of us. You just want to pick them up and take them home and cuddle them for weeks, don't you! If I remember, that incident was the 437th time I was thrown into horny jail. But don't worry, I always find my way out."
Confused by those implications, Helltaker returned to the trial.
A few minutes later, he had just made it to the end of the trial when he heard several sets of feet scampering around the corner. "YAY! He's alive!" "We weren't going to nibble on your corpse, we swear!" "Now take us with you!" The three demons ran up to him and started running circles around him to contain their excitement.
Helltaker clutched his heart as he felt it beginning to give, but after a few moments, it passed. "Then let's get out of here. Do you girls like head scratches?"
All three began yelling affirmations as the Helltaker felt his heart stop briefly for a few moments. They really were going to be the death of him. He rubbed his hand through their hair, scratching their scalp and the base of their ears. As two of them practically shut down from pleasure, the third one seemed to also be feeling the effects despite not getting her head scratched, but managed to stay conscious enough to speak, "It seems we forgot to introduce ourselves. We're Cerberus, the Triple Demon, the guardian of Tartarus. And we need you to take us with you so we can finally corrupt the human world!"
He wasn't too sure about that last sentence, but he was fine with anything as long as they were coming with him. Once he stopped giving them headpats though, they were a little disappointed, but once he led them to Modeus and Pandemonia, all three cerberuses (cerberi?) happily pounced on Modeus, who greeted them with further head scratches much to their enjoyment.
While they were all rolling around on the floor, Pandemonica approached Helltaker, "Now that you've secured Cerberus, there should be nothing stopping you from entering into the city. If I'm correct, the closest higher-demons would be Malina and Zdrada. They live between here and the spire, which is convenient because that will likely be our next destination."
Helltaker was pumped as they continued on their long march through the capital. He had actually done it. He had a demon girl harem and it was still expanding. All the suffering he went through down here was worth it and he was willing to endure far more if it meant meeting more of these terrifying women.
As another month passed in the abyss, Doomslayer found himself spending far more time outside of his room. He supposed it stemmed from his newfound appreciation of Beelzebub as a trusted ally instead of being a highly suspicious demon who trapped him here. It was a sort of appreciation that was only gained by fighting alongside someone and knowing that they could be trusted to have your back. Doomslayer's armor had eventually mended itself and he was glad to be wearing the full set again.
Beelzebub certainly appreciated the extra company since Satan's second attack. She hadn't said anything, but she had been disheartened when Slayer had previously kept all their interaction to a minimum. Her own wounds had fully healed and she now wore a more casual version of her outfit that lacked her long blazer and had with her red waistcoat on full display and the sleeves of her black shirt rolled up just below her elbows.
They had just returned to the main room after spending some time in the archery range. What had begun as archery practice evolved into the Doomslayer teaching Beelzebub how to shoot the plasma pistol. Slayer had been more than happy to induct another unsuspecting individual into gun culture. Beelzebub had been more than happy to have him hold both of her hands as he wrapped his arms around her while he taught her proper grip and techniques. She also was pleasantly surprised to find that shooting guns was just as fun as archery, and she suspected the Doomsayer's other weapons would be far more enjoyable to shoot if they had the ammo to spare.
Now though, they were looking for something else to do to keep the boredom away. Beelzebub noticed her little dining table that often went unused and quickly came to a decision, "Perhaps we could share a meal together? I understand that food is not necessary in the abyss, or Hell for that matter, but I've always wanted to share my tentacle calamari with another person. I used to enjoy cooking, even with criminally limited ingredients, but it quickly became boring doing it for myself. I'm sure it would be far more enjoyable to eat together, no?"
The Doomslayer only considered it for a moment before nodding his head. He wasn't sure about tentacle monster calamari, but he had eaten far more suspicious flesh during his first venture into Hell, before he acquired the Divinity Machine's blessing and no longer needed to eat. Still though, he liked food, a fact which became violently apparent when he tried Helltaker's pancakes. He couldn't wait to get back.
"Wonderful! Let's go to the kitchen. You can even help me cook, wouldn't that be fun?" Beelzebub's eyes were wide with hope and the Doomslayer was not cruel enough to deny her. Besides, he was interested in the cooking process in a place that completely lacked ingredients. With another nod, he followed her down a hallway towards the kitchen.
Once they arrived, Beelzebub surveyed the scene before turning to him, "It's actually not really complicated enough that I would need help cooking now that I think about it. Really, I just cut up the tentacles into sizable chunks and roast them over a fire. I haven't yet figured out how modern ovens work, but I believe an open fire works just as well, if not better. I suppose you could cut them up and I could do the actual cooking, considering I know the perfect temperature and time to cook them. That way, we're at least sharing the work."
The doomslayer found that to be acceptable and unsheathed his doomblade and approached the severed tentacles with malicious intent before Beelzebub waved her arms, stopping him. She had a cleaver in her hands, "Please just use this instead. We need clean cuts, not jagged tears. Your… wrist blade thing is a little too… extreme for what we're doing."
The Doomslayer gave a dejected shrug before sheathing his doomblade and taking the cleaver from her. He immediately went to work on the tentacles, cutting them with perfect speed and precision into usable sizes. As he worked, Beelzebub took the finished cuts and stuck them on a spitroast of the fire and slowly turned them over with a crank.
It didn't take long before they were walking back towards the main room with a plate of calamari. Beelzebub sighed, "I suppose that was more enjoyable than cooking by myself, but I admit, the limited ingredients do make it a struggle to have fun here."
Doomslayer gave a shrug in response. He didn't personally care about the cooking process half as much as the eating part. They reached the main room and Slayer set the plate down onto the small dining table in the middle of the room. They both sat on opposite sides of the table and Beelzebub quickly materialized forks and knives for both of them. Beelebub couldn't help but stare when Doomslayer reached up for his helmet and hesitated. She hadn't realized that dining together would mean seeing his face again, but she was more than happy to. After a moment, the Slayer finally twisted the seal on his helmet and took it off.
Beelzebub immediately soaked up every detail she could. She first noticed that his face overall looked… weathered? He had rough skin marked by numerous scars. His forehead was characterized by prominent frown lines from years of anger. His eyebrows seemed to be constantly furrowed despite him actually being quite content at the moment. His eyes were intense as ever and sat above dark bags of skin showing exactly how much sleep he got: None. His lips remained impassive despite how the rest of his face seemed stuck in an emotion of anger and disdain. Every Once in a while, the muscles on the left side of his face would twitch, displaying yet another sign of stress. Beelzebub realized it was quite literally the face of man who had been through Hell. She could instantly tell that despite living far longer than him, she had only seen a fraction of the horrors he had. It was insane to think that a mere human had seen more hellish horrors than a demon who had been around since the very creation of Hell, but it was clear in his eyes that they had seen some serious shit.
Despite all of that, the Doomslayer looked quite plain. At the end of the day, he looked entirely human. Brown hair, cut short, probably military regulation if she had to guess. Brown eyes, sure they were intense, but they didn't glow or anything. He had an admittedly chiseled jawline, but that was probably just his genetics. None of his scars were shocking, they all looked like they could have been acquired from normal means. He had a bit of a five o'clock shadow on his chin as if he had just woken up before a long day at the office. There certainly wasn't a glowing halo above his head or horns or even any cybernetics. Just a normal man, with a rough cut face and features you might find on any veteran soldier who had seen their fair share of combat. It was shocking how… not shocking his face was. She had expected the legendary Doomslayer, the Hellwalker, the Unchained Predator, to look more abnormal than just a particularly angry buff dude.
Still though, she had to admit, she didn't dislike what she saw. Perhaps in her younger years, she would have preferred a face fit for a prince, with perfect features and unparalleled beauty. A face with fair skin and eyes full of charm that could be described as hot, handsome, heroic, charming, sexy, kind, and obedient. She would have preferred her partner to be nothing more than an obedient slave, preferably with a nice face and a cute butt. A boy toy that would bend to her will and respect her for her power and dominance.
Instead, sat before her, was a face that could be described with adjectives like wartorn, strong, ruthless, tough, unbreakable, bold, capable, and experienced. Her experiences in her long, tormented life had robbed her of her arrogance. She still acted with ego and narcissism, but it felt more and more like an act as time went on. She was no longer the powerful prince of Hell, Queen of Crimson, The Great Fly, or the Warden of Decay. After
suffering many defeats and a hellishly long imprisonment, she was just a lonely, vulnerable woman without her powerful magic or the strength of the Great Fly. Now, after countless battles against Lucifer and Justice, she needed a man with attributes such as strength and cunning, not charm and good looks. After an eternity in the abyss, she wanted an equal, someone who she respected enough to be valuable company, not a subservient slave. After having her life threatened by the hordes of Satan, she needed someone who could protect her from her newfound vulnerability, someone who was more powerful than even Satan, but still valued her despite her apparent weakness.
With a blush, she realized that the Doomslayer had fit himself perfectly into her new preferences for a man. He was about as far from the bottom bitch she had desired in her 'youth' as a person could be, but he was just the person she needed. A little twink might have made her feel powerful in comparison, but they wouldn't have helped make her more powerful. Had the Doomslayer been by her side, she might have been the queen of Hell by now. She certainly wouldn't have been exiled, and even if she had been, he would have made much better company than some shitty sex slave. Beelzebub was happy to realize she had matured from her younger, more foolish self, but that still left her with the terrifying realization that she was eating dinner with the man of her dreams.
While Beelzebub wondered if this counted as a dinner date, Doomslayer had dug into the meal. He wasn't impressed, but he didn't blame Beelzebub. All she had to work with was Tentacle Monsters and fire. They might have been better with some form of seasoning or sauce, but as it was, they were annoyingly chewy and tasteless. Beelzebub finally snapped out of her blushing stupor that the Doomslayer willingly chose to ignore, "Well, how is it Slayer?"
With a noncommittal shrug, he explained that it wasn't bad, but it didn't taste good either. "That's a shame. Still though, it's much better than what you can find in Hell. They put way too much hot sauce on everything, and I mean about ten million Scoville units hot. I'm pretty sure most of the ingredients would be lethal to the average human, much less taste good. But I agree, tentacle monster calamari is somewhat lacking in flavor."
They continued to eat, but by the time they were both finished, there was still plenty of calamari left over. "Sorry if the meal wasn't very good, but as you know, it's all we've got to eat."
Doomslayer seemed to be thinking about something. After a few moments Beelzebub started to leave the table, "I guess I'll clean up now if we're not going to eat the rest."
As she went to grab a plate, she was startled as the Slayer grabbed her wrist, "Wait…"
Beelzebub did her best to hide her surprise, "Is… is something wrong?" Doomslayer tilted his head towards her chair, beckoning her to sit back down. "Um… ok?" Beelzebub sat back down and looked at the Slayer in confusion, while he remained silent for a while longer.
"Tell me… Why… Why were you… Imprisoned here? I might be able to… Improve this meal… A reward for… Honesty." The slayer's voice was still gravelly as all hell, and it clearly pained him to speak, but pain never stopped him before. He was happy to see his own improvement in speech, now able to string multiple words together. He still wasn't able to get out a whole sentence in one go, but he was getting better.
He had seen how disheartened she had been by the mediocrity of their dinner. Even though she was a demon, he felt bad seeing her be depressed by something as small as a meal gone wrong. He had a way to cheer her up, but for some reason, he wanted to mask his care for her by using the pretense of an exchange of information. He didn't know why he felt the need to hide his act of kindness, but he thought it might have something to do with the slight nervousness he felt around her after her 'episode' in the infirmary. It was an entirely different kind of nervousness that he felt when he was cautious of the fact she was a demon.
"Oh, I suppose I could tell you. I'm just surprised you asked. I didn't think you would strike up a conversation. Well, my imprisonment in the abyss was caused by my defeat at the hands of Lucifer and the High Prosecutor, Justice. But before that… well, it all began with my creation I suppose. You see, when original sin struck the world, Hell was quickly created by God for the coming sinners. Demons are born of sin itself. For example, when Cain murdered Abel, it was the first murder and several demons came into existence, each one representing a specific sin, such as murder or betrayal. A demon becomes more powerful the more a specific sin is committed, but their power is also determined by how sinful the sin actually is. To explain this, a demon of murder and a demon of lies are of similar strength. While murder is a much more grave sin than lying, far more lies are told than murders are committed. Therefore, their power evens out. Understand?"
The Slayer nodded, it was far different from the demons he was used to, but the system made enough sense. It was strange to think however, that every time a person sinned, a demon somewhere got slightly stronger.
"Good, now this is where it gets personal. You see, my sin was 'Decay', thus the title, 'Warden of Decay'. The act of taking something good and worsening it until it is ruined, much like rotting fruit. Such events that give me power include the burning of the Library of Alexandria, the Fall of Rome, acts of arson, and the US Government fueling the crack epidemic in the 80s. Decay, either physical or societal, empowers me. This is important, because original sin was the single greatest act of decay the world has ever known. You see, several demons popped into existence directly because of original sin, such as the seven deadly sins and a few others. I was the most powerful among this first batch of demons and I became the de facto ruler of Hell from the start. Unfortunately, during my early reign, there wasn't much to do. There were literally only two sinners and maybe 15 demons. Of course, as time went on, my power grew, but not at the same rate as my fellow demons. Nothing humanity had done even approached levels of decay from original sin, but lust and murder, or pride and envy for example were becoming far more common the more humanity expanded. There weren't many good things to be decayed during this time period, it was pretty much balls to the wall insanity until the whole Noah's Arc ordeal. Before that however, the other demons rebelled against my reign. I was able to hold them off easily enough despite the accelerated growth of their power because I had simply started off with just that much power from original sin. Things were going well enough all things considered. But that's when Lucifer and Satan fell and everything was ruined for me. Lucifer decided to aid the rebellion and planned to replace me as ruler of Hell. My forces were pushed out of the center of Hell, which would later become Tartarus and even back then was considered the seat of power. This fight continued for eons. I was always on the back foot. Lucifer crowned herself as Queen of Hell despite me not having stepped down from the position, but there was little I could do about it. I was busy just trying to survive her prosecutors. Oh, the prosecutors were demons, but they weren't born from sin like most of the others. They were made from Lucifer's divine power as a fallen angel, allowing them to act as forces of good despite being demons in Hell. This is around the time Satan caused an invasion of your demons, the Horde. You and Lucifer put a stop to it and soon after that, Justice, the High Prosecutor who would retire soon because of the blindness you caused, managed to defeat me with the rest of the prosecutors because most of my forces had been killed fighting off the Hordes. Because I had been the biggest thorn in Lucifer's side ever, except for maybe Satan, she decided I deserved to suffer a fate worse than death and exiled me to the abyss. And that's the story of how I came to be here. I've tried to make the best of the situation as a means to spite Lucifer, but I doubt she cares or even knows."
Beelzebub who had maintained a thousand yard stare while giving her story suddenly whipped her eyes to the Slayer and chuckled, "Ha… Even though you nearly killed me, meeting you has probably been the best thing that ever happened to me. Ever since my creation, it's been a downhill struggle. I guess that's just part of being the Warden of Decay is that I was always destined to rot myself. I started out with so much power, from that moment onwards, my power has been taken from me, piece by piece. I used to be the Ruler of Hell, but now I'm nothing more than a prisoner, no stronger than a human being. By any definition of the word, I have decayed. Is that ironic or what?"
Her shaky smile didn't reach her eyes which were wet from holding back tears. For some reason, that expression on her face tore at the Slayer's heart like few things before it. "Thank you… For your Honesty… I am sorry to hear… You have suffered… For your very nature… Now… As promised… A reward… Something from Home…" Beelzebub watched as the Doomslayer pressed some buttons on his pocket dimension storage device on his belt. Without his helmet on, he had to do it manually.
"Oh? You brought something with you? I wouldn't mind some sweets. Demons love sugar by the way." Beelzebub was trying to hide her anticipation while also trying to wipe her previous sadness under the rug. She was surprised when the Slayer materialized another plate of food. She didn't recognize the food, but it didn't look sweet and it certainly wasn't her favorite dessert, chocolate pancakes. "Hmm? What are those? They look incredibly unhealthy." Despite her confusion, there was no way in hell she was going to deny a gift from the Doomslayer on their dinner date. At least, she wished it was a date. She grabbed her fork and knife and prepared to begin eating the meal which seemed to consist of bread, meat, cheese, a few vegetables, and some unknown sauce. Before she could however, the Doomslayer reached over and snatched the utensils out of her hands.
The Doomslayer took off his gauntlets as she tried to figure out why he wouldn't let her eat the food. As the Doomslayer picked up one of four burgers with his hands, he was pleasantly surprised to find that they were still warm, as if he had grilled them just a minute ago. He raised the burger to his mouth and took a bite. Delicious. He had almost forgotten once again what good eating was like after his months spent in the abyss.
"How strange, I thought most modern cultures used silverware, or perhaps chopsticks to eat their food. You never cease to surprise me, dear Slayer. I'm not going to let that stop me of course. Eating with my hands is nothing compared to some of the things I did as the Great Fly. Although, I do hate getting my hands dirty like this, I'm willing to go to such lengths for you." Beelzebub discreetly tried to gauge the Slayer's response to that last comment and was disappointed to find that he seemed lost in the sensations of the meal. Beelzebub gave up and decided to wait no longer to try the food. Repeating the
actions of the Slayer, she grabbed the meal by the bread and brought it to her mouth to take a bite.
She chewed for only a second before freezing. The Doomslayer was amused to see the euphoria of good food overtake her after eons of eating nothing but roasted tentacle monster calamari, which literally had no taste. This must be how the Helltaker felt when Slayer took that first bite of pancake.
Beelzebub seemed to swirl the food around in her mouth before swallowing it. "This is the best day of my life." She stated matter of factly.
Slayer smiled, "I make a… Damn good Burger… Don't I?" Doomslayer watched as tears began to fall freely down her face and she smiled. He knew exactly how she felt. He went almost two thousand years without a good bite to eat, and it had to be tenfold for her. She had been trapped here far longer than he could imagine, never tasting anything except the rubbery taste of tentacle monster calamari. It was strange, seeing the same emotions he showed at the Helltaker's dining table displayed on the face of a demon. It was fascinating how he, the demon slayer, and her, the demon, could react the same way to a single bite of good food.
Just like when he cried over pancakes, her tears of joy slowly morphed into tears of pain. He knew exactly what it was. The realization of the extent of one's one suffering. A single good moment to show you just how bad everything else until now had been. A single revelation of what could have been, but wasn't.
Beelzebub's meek voice could only just be heard through her crying, "Why… After hundreds of thousands… If not millions of years… Why is this the first time… something good has happened to me…"
The Doomslayer realized that perhaps she had it worse. He wasn't sure which life he would rather live. His life, two thousand years of constant agony, suffering, fighting, and rage, or her life, an incomprehensible eternity of solitude, boredom, silence, and a constant decay of both power and self-worth. His efforts saw him characterized as the hero, but she was only considered the villain, hated by even the devil herself. When he fought, he won, but she had only ever known defeat.
He had decided which fate was worse, so he stood up from his chair, took a single step to her side of the table, kneeled down, and pulled her into a hug. Suddenly, the trickle of tears turned into a flood, and the quiet sobbing turned into loud wailing. The Slayer
could feel the back of his neck becoming wet with tears and what might have been snot, but he cared not.
Between sobs, Beelzebub managed to cry out, "DON'T! Please, don't! *sniffle* You… You're just going to leave… and… and I'll be alone again… So… stop… or it- it'll hurt more."
Doomslayer was surprised to see her like this. Normally, she would have been far too egotistical to express such weakness and vulnerability to him. Multiple times she had expressed her gratitude at having company, but never did she hint that Doomslayer specifically was becoming important to her.
Although, he sort of understood that too. He hadn't acknowledged it yet, but he was starting to care for her. No, not starting, he definitely cared for her. The last time he had cared about anyone in particular had been his roommate back in Texas and before him, VEGA. Before that, by over a thousand years had been the Night Sentinels, Valen, or Novak. Farther back would have been his squadmates, the sisters, and… and Daisy. Most of those people were dead. Everyone from his original Earth were most likely dead considering the massive majority of humans died before he stopped the demons. The only one he knew was probably alive was Valen, but even then, was he ever going to see him again? All he had in this world were Beelzebub and that guy he was living with who made kickass pancakes. Why had he been holding them at arm's reach for so long?
He knew why. It was for the same reason Beelzebub had cried at him to let go of the hug. They were scared they were going to lose the only people they had left, so it would be safer to not get too close. But that was wrong, wasn't it? The Doomslayer was a brash, go-get-em type guy, so what the Hell was he doing protecting himself from the only people who cared about him in fear that he might lose them? What was the point of living if you couldn't hold onto what matters because you might drop it? What kind of bullshit was that?
"NO"
Beelzebub froze, he crying halting for a mere moment in surprise, "Wh-What?"
"I won't stop… I'm not leaving you…You can't bear… Being alone again… And neither can… I…"
Beelzebub's tears continued flowing, but the shuddering stopped, "Is… is that a promise?"
Doomslayer knew he couldn't make promises he couldn't keep. Sooner or later, his Hell would rear its ugly head again, and he would have to go fight them. Neither Beelzebub or his roommate could follow him there. He wouldn't drag them into his fight. He knew he wouldn't be able to keep that promise, but he was going to try, god dammit.
"Yes… I promise…"
"Don't make promises you can't keep, you fool." Beelzebub could tell by the silence before his answer that he was lying, but she didn't really care. The dark abyss of despair that was her mind for most of her existence was brightened just a bit by a small spark of hope that brought a smile to her face. This time, the smile reached her eyes. "Thank you… Dear Slayer. You can let go now. I feel much better thanks to you."
Doomslayer just hugged her tighter. Beelzebub wasn't the only one who needed a hug after all.
And that's a wrap.
Damn. If this chapter was a burrito, it would be one of those burritos that's waaay too stuffed and that I'm not really sure how to actually eat, but I try anyway.
It's been two, maybe three months since my last update. Mostly due to the fact that I had to focus on school or else I was going to fail English class. Funny how I love to read and write, but I'm almost failing English class. Also I was busy going to state for Track and Field. For the record, if you're into tomboys, the State Track and Field Meet is the place to be. Closest I've ever been to heaven, and I also get the joy of competing on the state level, which is great.
Alongside this chapter, I wrote several chapters worth of backstory and lore for this story, which I can conveniently copy and paste into the story when they become applicable. Big brain time, ayup.
This chapter was about Beelzebub mainly and the start of Helltaker's conquest. Much like how I wanted to show the humanity present in the Doomslayer, I wanted to show the "girl" in "Demon-Girl" for Beelzebub, and I decided to use the exact same 'Cry because single bite of food is just that fucking tasty' technique'
that worked so well for the Doomslayer. If you think about it, Beelzebub has probably never been treated with kindness, so I figured it would make sense for her to react similarly to the Doomslayer. Also, Beelzebub realized her image of the ideal man had become the Doomslayer, and on top of that, he can even grill burgers and give emotional support, while also slaying a fuckton of demons. A real jack of all trades. I also made Beelzebub into a sports loving, saber swinging, egotistical maniac, tomboy with abs. And I gave her a lot of lore. Biblical lore too. Good Shit. Damn, these author notes really are just me rambling without end, huh?
Also, I feel some of you might feel that I'm making the Doomslayer a bit of an emotional softy, but I want to explain that to me, the Doomslayer is like a good dog. Loyal to those who treat him with kindness, and downright vicious to those who endanger the people he cares for. A lot of authors, and probably the people at Id software, make the Doomslayer super act hostile to people who don't deserve it, and my vision of the Doomslayer is the exact opposite of that. You remember the movie 'Logan' about Wolverine? At first he treats the people he cares for with indifference, but as the movie goes on, he shows just how much he cares about them. Logan was jaded as fuck, but still had a softspot somewhere deep down inside his heart. Completely ruthless to his enemies, but then he does a 180 and becomes dad of the year. Despite how much he tries to hide it, he can't stop being a good person. That's how I see the Doomslayer.
Also, I had a bit of fun making the videogame mechanics of Helltaker make sense in this story.
Expect both the abyss arc and the Helltaker harem to be completed by the end of next chapter.
Now, about Ancient Gods part 2. My gaming computer is broken and I've only just started the search for parts for a new PC. Gonna take a while for me to play it, and I don't want too many spoilers, so when reading this, just pretend it hadn't come out yet. Cool? I'll probably tie it into the plot once I play it, but that will be a while.
Also, sometime after school ends, I'm probably joining the Marine Corp, or maybe the Army. So if I suddenly disappear, I'm probably getting my ass kicked in boot camp, or have died defending oil fields in Buttfuck Nowhere, Afghanistan. Even then, I still plan to finish this story sometime despite probably having most of my time taken up by the military in the future. Still though, expect several more chapters before any hiatus happens.
As always, I love reading your reviews. Even though I haven't updated in months, I check reviews almost every day. I smile every single time. Like usual, it's a Sunday school night, but believe it or not, it's currently 5:30 PM, instead of AM for once. I'm getting better at finishing these at a reasonable time.
Despite the fact that I won't be going to bed anytime soon, I just wanted to say:
Have a goodnight, readers, and as always, sweet dreams.