**Author's Notes**: Greetings Rippers and Tearers!
Wow, been a while, huh? So this next chapter was shaping up to be the longest because we couldn't quite find a good place to stop. But after some discussion we decided to split it. Hopefully that means the next one will come out sooner. Hope you enjoy the bloodshed!
Yang followed the Slayer past the now opened gate, watching him grab another weapon mod drop, this time adding something to the newly acquired rocket launcher.
"The Slayer has added the Lock-On Burst mod to the rocket launcher. It can fire up to three homing rockets at a target after a few seconds of calibration," VEGA explained.
"Nice, that'll come in handy," Yang nodded and followed the Slayer down the path to the right. 'Hm… maybe I should upgrade my own weapons when I get back… maybe something he gets will give me some ideas?'
There was a slope down the tunnel and they saw five soldier zombies with energy shields start to approach. Before she could even act he launched a grenade into the group and while waiting for it to explode fired the plasma rifle at the shield closest to it. It overloaded and erupted right as the frag grenade denoted, taking them all out in seconds.
'Gods… What I wouldn't give to be that good.' Watching him slay these demons with absolute ease was just such a spectacle to watch. Yang followed, but much to her surprise instead of walking down the slope he jumped up and to the left, smashing down a breakable wall she had missed. After a moment she leapt after him, just in time to watch him drop down into a room made entirely of metal, a glass door nearby opening as well. They both exited into a larger room, and Yang took a moment to observe her surroundings. In the center there appeared to be some kind of large pillar in the center of the room, and nearby she saw a grate blocking a path outside. She approached and looked out to see a large fortress-like structure in the distance, and closer seemed to be an unfinished bridge. "I see. It's some kinda checkpoint. But how do we get-?"
She was cut off by the sound of a thud, a screech, and a clang, making her whirl around seeing the Slayer had knocked a large block out from the central pillar, making a hole to walk through. He quickly hoisted himself up it before leaping to a nearby ledge, then jumping onto a catwalk above where the block was. 'Jeez, let me take in the scenery, huh guy?' she snarked in her head before using her gauntlets to rocket herself up to his level. In front of them both were two massive chain links, both which appeared to be cracked. He punched through the first one, causing chains in the nearby wall to lurch forward and the drawbridge in front of them to fall, only to stop after traveling some distance. He quickly walked forward and destroyed the other, making the drawbridge lower completely and the gate to open.
"Checkpoint, done," Yang joked and the two dropped down to the floor below to walk across the bridge. Yang observed the outdoor courtyard area, noting the wide open spaces and the three levels and ramps leading up and down. "Okay, yeah, I've seen enough so far to know where this goes," she muttered, readying her gauntlets. Just as she said that another holographic image of the Hell Priest appeared in front of them.
"The Beast draws near to me my brothers and sisters, but he is weak. Your hate must match his will, only then will you be truly saved," he decreed just as demons began to gather.
"Psht, weak my ass. Keep talking shit behind a hologram, asshole." She noticed a mancubus jump onto one of the floors along with some shield zombie soldiers. "I'll go low," she said as she dropped down, watching the Slayer pull out the Heavy Rifle and snipe the arm cannons of the mancubus.
(Play "Infiltrate the Cult")
As she hit the ground she sprinted forwards, heading for the underneath of the platform she saw the mancubus jump up to. Before she could, one of the shielded zombie soldiers dropped down to fight her. 'Okay, don't have any plasma weaponry to overload the shield. Let's try this!" She launched herself straight at the shield, grabbing the sides and flinging the soldier over her shoulder, shield and all. Even though she touched the shield for barely a second she could still feel the burning, stinging sensation on her hands. After slamming the zombie onto its back she blasted its head off with her gauntlets. After that she tried shaking the stinging feeling out of her hands. "Okay, energy shield hurts to touch. Keep that in mind." Thank gods for her Aura, she wouldn't know what she would do with singed hands. Or worse yet, burn to a crisp if Aura was broken.
Nearby a Mecha zombie dropped down and turned to fire at her. She rocketed at it and slammed her fist into its face, making it stumble back. Remembering how the Slayer fought, she grabbed its clawed hand while it was dazed and stabbed it through the side of its head, killing it instantly. She heard the sounds of gunfire and explosions above her and looked up, seeing a Cacodemon that hadn't noticed her, likely focusing on the Doomslayer. Flaring her semblance, she rocketed up and slammed into it from below, managing to pierce the skin with her fingers as she grabbed it before hurling it at the ground. When it hit dirt she rocketed down, slamming her first into it, forcing it to vomit out blood and guts. Amazingly, it still wasn't dead and as it tried to get up she reached forward, grabbed it's face and pulled back before slamming her fist through its eye and firing, killing it instantly.
Just as it faded away a Hell Knight dropped down and roared at her. She clenched her fists and charged and it leapt at her, ready to bring its energy charged fists on her. She intercepted by rocketing herself at it, slamming her fists into its chest and knocking it out of the air. It landed on its feet but stumbled and she saw her opening, rocketing herself under its legs before turning around and wrapping her arms around its midsection. With a flare of her semblance and a battlecry she suplexed the demon, cracking its skull against the ground and killing it. Yang got up and took a moment to admire her handiwork...
And was sent flying by three explosions hitting her from behind, sending her tumbling into a wall. Her aura flickered as she strained to open her eyes, seeing a Revenant bearing down on her. She saw its cannons aim at her and launch another volley of missiles.
"Oh fu-" was all she could mutter before her aura broke and the top half of her body was blown to bits.
Yang woke with a gasp, seeing the Slayer stab the Revenant in the back before kicking it away, the demon exploding a moment later.
"GODS DAMN IT!" she shouted as she hopped back to her feet to continue the fight. In a rage she charged at the nearest enemy, another Shielded Zombie Soldier, her Semblance flaring as well as some familiar red electricity sparking from her. With a feral growl she swung a haymaker at the shield, hitting it with enough force to send the monster flying backwards, hitting a nearby mancubus hard enough to splatter against its body and dazing the larger demon. Without a break in her stride she lunged at the demon, aiming for the sac in the center of its chest. She effortlessly ripped it out and shoved it down the demon's throat, before kicking it in the face and knocking it onto its back. Done with the monster she leapt off it and at a normal zombie nearby, slamming her fists down on its head, turning it to paste as the mancubus exploded behind her.
Like a feral animal she saw her next target, an Arachnotron on the ramp leading down towards her. She charged only for a familiar sound to catch her attention from the side. She launched herself back, avoiding the missiles and turning to see another Revenant. She roared and charged it as it rocketed up into the air to prepare another volley. She launched herself under it and towards the vent launcher nearby, sending her up into the air and above the demon. She launched herself down at it, arm raised, hair glowing with both her semblance and the red energy. "DIE, YOU FUCKER!" she shouted, slamming her fist into its face, annihilating its upper body into gibs before landing. She snarled as she looked for her next target, looking back to where the Arachnotron was, only to see the Slayer stabbing it in the eyes with its own clawed hands. She looked around for more targets… only to see they were gone. The battle was finished.
"OH COME ON!" she shouted and sighed, powering down. "It felt like I barely got to do anything before getting killed!" The Doomslayer looked over to her with his glaring, yet stoic look, studying her outburst momentarily.
"Maintain your composure, Miss Xiao-Long," VEGA chided. "You must not allow yourself to be overcome by emotions."
"Ugh, you sound like dad," Yang groaned before noticing the high sloped drawbridge that had risen, allowing them passage into the nearby building. "Let's just go."
The two hiked up the drawbridge before entering the citadel before entering a short hallway leading to a large metal door with glowing green lights. Yang was about to continue when the Slayer held his arm out to stop her. "Hey, what's the-?" she asked only to be cut off by him firing a sticky bomb round up… at the Cacodemon she didn't even notice coming from the side. Like so many others it swallowed the explosive and was stunned before the Slayer jumped up, stabbed his gauntlet blade into its eye and ripped it out, letting the demon drop dead.
Yang just blinked at the display and then the Slayer pointed up. She blinked for a moment and then she saw another Extra Life hovering high above them.
"You must be more observant, Miss Xiao Long," VEGA chided.
Yang sighed. "Yeah, I get it. I've got a lot of work to do to not let my guard down," she admitted. She then launched up the wall of the room, kicking off and then launching herself back for more height. She did this twice before leaping off the wall and absorbing the energy and then landing. She looked to see the Slayer giving her a somewhat curious look. "... Well, how would you have done it?"
The Slayer looked down the hall and found a switch. He punched it and two swing bars came out, one a little above where his head was to one side of the door, and another much higher up on the other side. He leaped up to the first, quickly swung towards the other, having to double jump and dash to make it. He then swung up higher, having to do another double jump and dash to make it to grate on one of the arcs near the ceiling, reaching it just as the bars retracted. He then leapt off and dashed to where the Extra Life was before falling, turning to look at her before landing.
Yang just stared and blinked for a few moments more. "... I'm more mobile than you?" she thought aloud, almost not realizing she had spoken those words. The Slayer gave a barely noticeable roll of his eyes before moving towards the massive double doors, which opened as he approached. 'At this point I kinda figured he was better than me at everything,' she thought before following.
The large doors opened to reveal a long, imposing hallway barricaded by several grates, the floor far away from them. However, there was a metal platform with a growing green symbol on it. The two got on and the platform began to move forward, the grates lifting to allow them passage. "Your salvation lies in his destruction," she heard a familiar voice preach. Looking forward she could see another hologram of the Hell Priest in the distance. "The myth of the Slayer is exposed now to us, can you see it brothers? He has lost the will to continue." The platform had reached as far forward as it could go and now moved down. Yang looked down to see a group of zombies that appeared to be… praying? "Eat his soul. I must survive this. Protect me in my time of need, and you will secure your place in the new world." With that they reached the end of their platform journey and the hologram disappeared.
As Yang and the Slayer entered she saw the room was massive, more like a chapel with how it was arranged. The massive metal area was surrounded by large, metal skulls on the walls with glowing yellow hologram symbols in front of their foreheads. The center platform was held up by massive, spiked chains, and it was surrounded with small metal pillars with skull insignias on them. In front of her looked like a podium that she could easily see housing a statue if the space wasn't used for a hologram. Looking up she saw the domed ceiling high above, and spherical lamps hung up by chains.
The sound of an explosion knocked her out of her observations. She looked ahead to see the remains of the demons that had been blown apart on the left. The Slayer then fired a sticky bomb into the remaining ones, blowing them up before turning around and launching a grenade into the other group. They made no attempt to react and were blown to pieces, the Slayer cleaning up the rest with another sticky bomb. This all happened in less than a second, too quick for Yang to do anything about it.
"... Holy shit." was all Yang could muster to say as she blinked in a dumbfounded expression. Was the hatred within this guy so strong he would kill almost anything demonic? It's not like she had seen any "friendly", since most of them have been doing nothing but trying to kill her since she first got here. At the same time however, it also didn't sit right when they weren't fighting back,. Maybe they would've transformed into one of the stronger demons if left alone? '...Gah…just…don't think about it. Move forward! Don't let this slow you down!'
Only much to her surprise, the Slayer was waiting for her. Standing near the center of the podium. A glowing green rune was on the center of the floor, but more eye-catching was the floating orb above it. It was blue and had a ghastly face on it, an expression somewhere between agony and anger. "... The fuck is that?"
"That is a Soulsphere, Miss Xiao Long. Absorbing it will restore stamina and armor durability to their optimal state," VEGA explained.
Yang blinked. "... So it's a health pickup." The Slayer shrugged in a "sure, why not?" manner. "Okay, so why are you… You wanna see if I can absorb it, don't you?" The Slayer nodded. "Why not?" Yang walked over and reached to touch the-
"WHOA! HOLY FUCK!" she shouted, panting heavily. Every single inch of her body was tingling, and she had never felt more awake. In fact, she felt like she'd had about 20 cups of coffee mixed with energy drinks. "... Is this what drugs feel like?"
"Your body no longer shows any sign of injury. The absorption was a success," VEGA chimed in.
"Got it, I can use health packs too," she said, her body starting to relax a bit but still feeling very much awake. "Okay, let's get a move on." The two headed across another hard light bridge to the right towards another glowing green platform, which rose after stepping on it.
"Your Super Shotgun is nearby," VEGA announced. "A relic from your past - the Priests have kept it hidden from you in this remote location."
'... Super Shotgun?' Yang thought as the platform stopped. They walked forward to enter a large room, stained with blood all over the floor. Three other hallways led into the room, all grated off, and a cage-like box rested in the center, held in place by chains. One of the links was cracked and as the Slayer moved towards it Yang readied herself. As soon as he punched it the cage rose to reveal three of the flaming demon heads. Before they could react the Slayer nailed one with a sticky bomb while dashing back, which then exploded and took them all out.
"... Well then," Yang could only mutter. With them destroyed a skull switch was revealed, which the Doomslayer pressed. It descended and the double doors in front of them opened. Yang could make out a weapon, looking like a sawn-off double barreled shotgun, floating on a pedestal that was hovering in the air off in the distance. "... Is that it?" she asked. Before anyone could answer the double doors slammed shut… and Yang suddenly felt weightless. It took her half a second to realize she was falling, the floor below having rapidly descended. "OH FUCK!" she shouted, reacting just in time to fire her gauntlets, halting her momentum long enough to land safely below. As she caught her breath she noticed the walls had grown spikes and clicked into place. 'Looks like something for a cage match for pro wrestling,' she thought. Just as she did, two identical demons appeared. They both looked like zombies, except… bloated. They seemed to have welding masks on their heads, and their bodies seemed merged with machinery that spewed fire from holes and pipes in their bodies. Without a thought Yang dashed forward and blasted the nearest one… only for it to go flying like a rocket in the opposite direction and explode violently. She blinked, processing this… "... Whu?"
"Attention all personnel. The Slayer is inside the base," announced the calm female voice from before just as the cage in the center of the room opened to reveal zombies and Mecha Zombies. "Please proceed with aggression."
Before she could respond she heard a thud come from behind the group, followed next by a gunshot. Instantly after an explosion annihilated the tightly packed group, revealing the Slayer and his shotgun. "Cueball demons are helpless, but can be used as explosive projectiles," VEGA explained. "Be cautious with shot placement."
Not getting a chance to even commit to a thought on the new information, more demons showed up, Zombie soldiers both with and without shields. "Yeah, got it," she muttered and charged the nearest target, smashing its head off with one clean blow. At this rate, it was just becoming second nature, to kill these demons without a thought. They were just another obstacle for her to overcome, a stepping stone to continue climbing through the literal hellhole that this world became. It was genuinely a scary thought that it became so easy for her so quickly. She wasn't even taking in some of the details anymore. Rush forward, uppercut a zombie's head off, dash back away from the plasma fire of another one, launch herself at that one, ducking under the next barrage, blast that one's head off with a hook. She skillfully avoided the ones with shields, leaving them to the Slayer and his Plasma Rifle, which made their shield blow up.
Within less than a minute that wave had been taken care of, and she noticed a couple of Cueballs had warped into existence. They mostly just stood there help-
'... Cueballs. Oh gods, I just got it. I feel like whoever named these things was having too much fun,' she thought. What was next on the list of names? Slinger? Slice and dice?
As she processed that she noticed some Gargoyles descend and attack, and a Lasher appeared as well. 'Great, those assholes. Better let the Slayer deal with-' Her thoughts stopped as she saw the Cueball again. 'Well… I can lighten his load a bit.' She smirked and launched herself at the living bomb, diving down and grabbing it by the legs as the Lasher scurried low to try and catch her off guard. Instead it was met with the body of its fellow demon slamming onto it. The demon exploded, annihilating the Lasher and sending Yang sky high with cheer! "YEAH! SUCK IT, SNAKE!" She took a moment to look at the arena from her high vantage point and noticed an Arachnotron had sprung into existence, aiming its stinger cannon at her. She used her gauntlets to launch herself behind the central pillar and out of its way. As she did she saw the Doomslayer hit the other Cueball with a single rifle round, sending it flying through the hole in the central pillar and exploding on the Arachnotron. She smirked at the enemy being easily defeated.
"WHOA!" she exclaimed, a ball of flaming acid passing right in front of her face. She looked down to see the Gargoyle who had just fired it flying up towards her. She quickly responded by launching herself down at it, slamming it in the chest with her feet before sending both of them to the floor, landing on it and crushing its ribs, killing it instantly. 'Right, don't get distracted. That's how you got killed last time.' Just as she was about to move, pain surged in her legs. "AH! WHAT THE FUCK!?" She leapt away to the side, noticing there was a field of red, electric energy radiating from a device in the floor. She looked and noticed there was one in each corner of the room. "FUCKING REALLY!?" she shouted in frustration. She saw another Gargoyle leap straight up, ready to fire a barrage of acid blasts at her. With sparks in her eyes and her hair blazing she launched herself at the demon, hard enough to smash it into the spiked outer wall behind it, crushing it to paste. "EAT SHIT, FUCKER!" she spat before hopping down.
As she landed she noticed two more Cueballs had warped into existence, and a second later the room brightened up when the walls were covered by jets of flame shooting up from the floor. 'Damn, those are some concert-worthy pyrotechnics,' she thought. As she did she heard the screeching of Imps that dropped down. She readied for a fight before a loud thud caught her attention, seeing a Mancubus had dropped in as well. "Great," she muttered before launching herself forward towards an Imp running at her, punching through its chest and then kicking it off. She heard the thoom of the Mancubus shooting fireballs at her from behind and dove for the Cueball, tackling it to the ground, the balls of fire sailing overhead. She rolled over to hurl the demons at each other, only for another Cueball to come screaming by her and explode into the morbidly obese demon, reducing it to a pile of flesh. She saw the Slayer go right back to blasting away a nearby Imp with his shotgun. Another thud alerted Yang to the arrival of a second Mancubus, and she quickly got up and dragged the Cueball along with her. When she saw the demon it roared at her, and she quickly responded by punching the Cueball, the firing of her gauntlets sending it hurling at the mass of flesh and taking care of it instantly. She smirked and turned, slamming her fist into the face of an Imp trying to jump at her from behind.
A third thud caught her attention from the opposite end of the pillar where she was. She rushed to the other side, leaping over the floor trap that had activated, and saw the Doomslayer frying the Mancubus with the Microwave Beam mod on the Plasma Rifle. As the large demon convulsed she saw two Imps charge at the Slayer from behind. With a battlecry she launched herself at them, unleashing a shockwave of red electricity that annihilated them into paste just as the Mancubus exploded into chunks of flesh.
After the last demon was dealt with the flames and electric traps cut off and the floor began to rise, but only halfway to where it was before. The Doomslayer walked over to Yang, extending his fist out at her. Yang flinched for a moment… then realized he was offering her a fist bump. Somewhat hesitant, she bumped him back, and much to her surprise he twiddled his fingers for a moment before moving on. Yang just blinked for a moment, processing this. "... I don't have a response for that," she muttered with a chuckle.
The two headed for the only open gate, which led to a room with a barred window outside, allowing snow and ice to flow inside and coat the floor. The Slayer headed to the left, nabbing an auto map before turning around and heading the other direction. Yang followed and they looked down over a ledge to see what looked like a pool of blood crackling with electricity. She noticed a climbable wall at the end of the hallway. "Ah, another platforming puzzle. I got this." She readied to jump, but the Slayer grabbed her by the shoulder and held her back. "What? It's just a loop to a switch, right? I can do that easy. I'm more agile than you, remember?" The Slayer stared at her for a moment, close enough that she could see the raised eyebrow of his questioning look behind his visor. After a moment more he let go of her. She smirked and nodded back before rushing forward and leaping off. As she dropped below the grate of pointed bars she grabbed their ends and swung herself forward towards the climb able wall. With only a second to check the path around the corner she blasted herself further down the path, using a combination of wall jumping and mid-air blasts of her gauntlets to stay airborne. She soon reached another climbable wall at the end, making sure to miss the glowing energy traps before leaping up onto the platform behind her. She landed and sighed, dusting herself off before walking over to the skull switch and forcing it in. All of the gratings in the room opened up, and she walked into the main room where the Slayer was waiting. "Piece of cake," she gloated.
The Slayer simply turned and walked into the next room, which was completely metallic. In front of them was a large metal wall with a grate above it, showing the room separated in two. Looking up, there was also a mesh floor, showing there was more above. To the left and the right were two large metal segments moving up and down in regular intervals with large holes in them. The one on the right had a metal grate on the outside making it inaccessible. The one on the left had one hole with a grate on the inside on top, and the one on the bottom was completely open. When they moved down, the bottom hole was completely submerged in the floor. When it rose, the one on top was hidden by the ceiling. Yang moved forward, but was stopped by the Doomslayer grabbing her shoulder once more.
"Huh? Wassup?" Yang asked. The Slayer pointed up and she looked, seeing a small climbable wall on an arc above her. "... Huh? So that's where we need to go, right?" The Doomslayer pointed to her, then the wall above, then over to the higher hole in the moving wall to the left of her. It took a second for it to click and she looked surprised. "Are… You're telling me to go ahead if I can make it?" He nodded. Yang's heart beat a little faster at that, and she couldn't keep herself from gulping. "A-Are you sure I-?" He cut her off with a hand on her shoulder. It was firm, heavy… and yet, assuring. 'He… has faith in me,' she realized. Her expression hardened and she nodded… then realized she wasn't sure if she could make the jump. She looked around for something that might help, when another whirr of the walls moving up and down caught her attention. An idea forming in her head, she took a runner's position and tried to get the timing right. When the wall started to move down she sprinted at it. By the time she reached it, the bottom hole and sunk under the ground. She continued her sprint up the wall, racing up it at the same time it rose, giving her some more height. She then launched herself off at the climbable wall behind her, her gauntlets helping her barely make the jump, pulling herself up high enough that she could hold on with her hands and her feet. After a few moments chuckling she looked down to see the Slayer had already moved to the lower hole. He looked back at her and nodded before the wall went down, taking him with it. She saw the top hole lower and leapt to it, landing inside just in time for it to take her upwards.
Yang exited the makeshift elevator into a new floor and turned left. She was immediately confronted by a Mecha Zombie on each side of the small hallway in front of her, and a Revenant further back. Yang activated her Semblance and rocketed herself forward, wrapping her around the waist of one of Mecha Zombies and using her momentum to hurl it at the Revenant, the body intercepting some of the missiles it launched, making the weaker demon explode. She dashed at the demon both to capitalize on the opening and to get away from the other Mecha Zombie, only for two more of them that she didn't see to spray flames at her. Unable to dodge, she grit her teeth and powered through the pain before slamming her fist into the Revenant's chest, its armor denting from the blow as it got knocked back into the wall behind it. Not wanting to lose momentum, she leapt forward with a battlecry and slammed her fist into its skull, crushing it between her attack and the wall behind it. She immediately turned around to face the other three enemies, only for a fourth to hurdle over a large hump to her right she didn't notice before: another Revenant. 'These things just kept appearing like cockroaches; kill one and all of a sudden a few more show up out of nowhere before I can even catch my breath!'
Thinking quickly she rocketed herself towards the wall away from the Revenant. She had watched the Slayer fight for a while and was beginning to understand a bit more of how he fought. More important than his variety and amount of weapons, his suit abilities, his aggression or his stamina, the key to the effectiveness of the Doomslayer was mobility. And as she'd proven not long before, that was the one area she seemed to have an edge on him, so she'd have to lean into that. Hitting the wall she rocketed up high enough to hit the ceiling. The demons all tracked her movements and fired, just like she expected, and she rocketed herself again, this time straight down. Hitting the floor just as the missiles and plasma blasts struck where she was a moment ago she rocketed towards the Revenant and hit it with a liver shot, blowing some circuitry and gore out it's back, before following up with a cross to its face, sending it to the ground. Not wanting to let it recover, she stomped and crushed its skull before turning to face the last few enemies.
As one of the Mecha Zombies fired at her with plasma she went low and charged at it. Rather than strike or shoot it, as she rose she grabbed its arm cannon and pushed it back. The demon wasn't able to stop firing before it shot its own head off. 'Two left.' She turned to see the other two were close together and rocketed up and at them, flipping as she did and bringing her heel down on one of their heads, stunning it. As the other turned to use fire against her she wrapped her arm around the cannon and forced it to aim at the stunned one, lighting it on fire. As it tried to claw her she let go and ducked, then grabbed it's clawed hand and shoved it into its face destroying it's eyes. Not destroyed yet she shoved it back against the wall before jumping up and kicking it in the head, forcing it's claw deeper and killing it. 'One more.' She turned to face the one on fire, who was clearly not that inconvenienced by it as it aimed its cannon at her. With a shout of effort she slammed both her fists into its chest and fired, blowing a hole out the back. The demon dropped to the floor and soon vanished, dissolving into red sparks like all the others.
Yang dropped to her hands and knees and panted, the adrenaline fading as she struggled to regain her strength. After what felt both like ages and no time at all she heard the threatening click of a shell being racked. Her blood ran cold as she looked up to herself staring down the barrel of a familiar shotgun. She blinked and the Slayer moved the shotgun away from her, looking at her disapprovingly. She sighed. "Got it... Don't drop… my guard, even… after the… fight's over." He replied by extending his hand out and she took it, letting him pull her to her feet. As she took a breath she looked up… and nearly freaked out when she saw a Revenant above her. She took a ready stance… only to realize that it wasn't moving, just… floating there. After a moment more she realized it wasn't floating, but hanging on some kind of assembly line winch. She noticed another one and came to a realization. 'Dear gods… this a freaking demon-factory! They're churning the demons out like dust bullets!' She turned to see the Slayer walk out the nearby pathway. 'We gotta tear this place to the ground… or at least cut the power.'
She followed the Slayer out of the room and it led to the center room they had been in before. They were now back to the top of the central pillar back where they started, but the floor hadn't risen back to that level. The Slayer jumped and dashed all the way to the other side and Yang used her gauntlets to follow. She looked below in the drop off in the hallway in front of them and saw another river of red electricity. She nodded to the Slayer and he took the lead, dropping down to the bar and swinging on it to fling himself around the corner. She counted five seconds and then followed, using the blasts from her gauntlets to make the obstacle course a cakewalk before reaching the other side. The end of the hallway was a dead end aside from a platform with a glowing green symbol on it: another elevator platform. The two stepped on it and it descended.
They exited into a small room, immediately met with a small podium of a yellow symbol on the floor flanked by two small pillars that glowed with some kind of swirling yellow energy on top. To their left and right were two iron maidens, frequently used by the blood seeping out of them. But what took up most of the room was some sort of cage with a clearly deactivated Revenant mounted onto a wall on the other side. The Slayer placed his hands on the pedestals, the force resisting for a moment before locking him in place. Once he did the bars of the "cage" rose up, the area around the dormant demon sparking with yellow energy. The structure it was mounted to folded in on itself, revealed to be an iron maiden of sorts. Metal bars unfolded and positioned themselves to either side of the container, whirring with power, before energy began to be forced into the iron maiden. The Doomslayer then lit up with yellow energy for a moment before something shot between them, startling Yang. After a moment the iron maiden unfolded, and the Revenant was now awake, observing itself. Yang tensed for the possibility of a fight.
"Neural connection successful," VEGA announced, catching Yang off guard. "You are now in control of the Revenant drone. You may use it to reclaim your property." As the A.I. continued the wall was rotated, pointing the demon in the opposite direction. Soon she couldn't see it and could only wait.
As she realized there was no threat for now Yang relaxed… only to be suddenly hit with the exhaustion of what she'd been doing up until now and collapsed against one of the nearby walls. Now that she got to process what she'd been through she started to realize the marathon she'd become a part of. 'How long have I been part of this crazy adventure? It feels like it's been days or weeks, but… It's only been a few hours, hasn't it? Gods… How am I gonna explain this to everyone when I get home? That I was in another world? More than one world? Outer space? I even died! More than once! Dad's gonna have a heart attack! And Ruby… well, she'd probably find it cool, to be honest.' Just then she processed what she thought. '... Ruby… Dad… I need to make it home. Make it back to them. I'm strong, I can handle myself, even here, but… these bastards, there's so many of them. Even with the extra-lives, I'm just barely handling it. The fact that I was tuckered out after just fighting that small group of demons proves it. I'm leaning on the Doomslayer hard.' She raised her hand, looked at it for a moment… then clenched it into a tight fist. 'Stronger. I need to be stronger. I will be stronger. I will make it back home. I don't have a choice.'
After resting a few minutes The wall rotated again, Revenant walking in and holding the fabled "Super Shotgun." Yang got up to look at the mythic weapon… and was less than impressed. It was a sawn off, double-barrelled shotgun. True, it was a pretty cool and kinda ornate one, having some design flourishes like engravings on the side, not to mention there was the large metal hook underneath the barrels, but other than that it was… remarkably simple. The Doomslayer ripped his hands off the pedestals, quickly grabbed the shotgun, breached it open and ejected the shells inside before loading it with new ones.
"So… that's it, huh? That's the thing that the demons decided to hide away?" The Slayer ignored her and checked the hook on the underside, which opened ready to clamp on something. "Just how s-?" she was about to ask only for him to level it at the Revenant's head and fire. A skull-rattling thud rang throughout the room, and in the next instant the top half of the Revenant was just a mist of blood and gore. In a practiced and fluid motion, the Doomslayer breached the gun open, ejected the shells, replaced them, and snapped the weapon closed in less than a second. As Yang stood stunned he turned on his heel and walked back towards the moving platform. "... Fucking shit," she muttered.