HuniePop Space Adventures

Chapter 3: Shores of Hell

The halls were filled with the screeching of the Imps as we made our way to the survivors. Despite the overwhelming odds, the creatures were no match for us. Amki's sheer strength scattered the group while Odango targeted them individually with her arm cannons. After we killed the whole group, we opened the door to reveal the survivors that they were after.

"Everyone, clear out! We're getting out of here!" I said. As the scientists cleared out, another Imp rounded the corner and spotted the feast. However, Eva had spotted the Imp and blasted it with a concussion blast which I followed up by decapitating it with my katanas.

"Hey, uh, Celeste. I know that we were supposed to save the survivors, but aren't we also supposed to be saving Max and Nikki too?" Amki asked.

"We will, Amki. Taking the survivors out of here is what we were assigned to do. Max and Nikki should be able to hold out until we get them to Outpost 13," I replied.

"Oh, sure. Because being on a destroyed planet with a bunch of Infernites isn't a big deal."

"They have weapons and experience. But after we drop off the survivors, we're headed straight for Gaia Prime!" I said. I immediately turned on my comms and radioed Max as we started teleporting onto the Centurion.

Max's perspective

"Another one! On your left!" I yelled out to Nikki. She turned and blasted another Imp in the face while I was busy warding off a Pinky. It's strength nearly overwhelmed me, but I reached down and slit its throat with my arm blade, killing the creature. After the Pinky went down, a Cacodemon spewed a plasma ball at me, but I fired my grappling hook at it, reeled myself in, and punched it straight through the eye. The Cacodemon then exploded, blue blood spraying all over the place and I finally got to relax. Surrounding us were the bodies of the previous Infernites that tried to kill us. One wave was bad, but we got hit by at least 6 ever since we arrived on Gaia Prime. Nikki was panting extremely hard, not just from the heat of battle, but from the heat wave that was passing through the area.

"Nik? Do you need to sit down?" I asked.

"I'm good. It's just the heat's getting to me," Nikki said, sitting on one of Infernite bodies. I rubbed the sweat off of my head and looked out over horizon. While the sky looked very beautiful, the rest of the landscape didn't match at all. The land was scorched by volcanic and Infernite activity and instead of birds, a few Cacodemons were flying out across the sky. After a few minutes, Celeste checked in over the comms.

"Max, are you there?" she asked.

"Yeah, we're here. And we've been up to our necks in Infernites ever since we got here. But we're fine," I replied.

"I apologize for the delays. I promise that we will be there once we have dropped off the survivors."

"We're fine. We've been holding our own, but we're running out of options."

"Could you guys PLEASE come get us? I don't know how much more we can handle," Nikki said.

"Just hold your position and wait until we are able to find you," Celeste said.

"I don't think we can. This place keeps shifting around like the land's alive," I said.

"Alright then. See if you can keep moving and find a place where you can stay. We'll be there soon."

"Copy that. Over and out," I said. I sat beside Nikki as we both looked up at the sky, the moon of Gaia Prime just looming in the distance.

"You know, you were right. This place is Hell," Nikki said.

"Well, maybe it is. But, hey, we get through this, were gonna have some stories to tell," I replied.

"Yeah, IF. I'm beat. If we get jumped by another group of Infernites, I'm pretty sure that we'll get either hurt or killed," Nikki said. I suddenly heard the earth beginning to crack, signaling that we had to move again. I strapped the BFG around Nikki's body, and then picked her up and positioned her onto my back.

"Max, what are you doing?" Nikki asked. I turned back and smiled at her.

"You're gonna need your strength for later. But for now, I'll carry you," I said. Nikki immediately began to blush.

"Omigosh. This is so embarrassing."

"Well, you're lucky that there's no one around!" I said before running forward and grappling onto one of the floating rocks.

Celeste's perspective

By the time we reached Outpost 13, the paramedics were at the landing pad, ready to take the survivors in. As soon as we opened the cargo doors, the paramedics rushed onboard to help the injured. Amki and Eva helped with escorting critically injured survivors while Odango checked the status of each injury.

"Please exit it an orderly fashion. Do not rush. Please follow the paramedics to the med bay," I said. As I was directing the survivors, one of the scientists pulled me aside.

"Listen, there's something that you must know. That red haired girl… she is…" she started to say.

"An Infernite. I have seen her power in action already," I said.

"She's more than that. This data chip, it has everything you need to know about her and her experiments," the scientist said, handing me a data chip. I smiled and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Thank you for your help, my friend. I promise that you are all in good hands now," I said. The scientist then rushed off with the others as I examined the chip.

"Experiments?" Eva asked, walking up to me.

"Perhaps there is more about this Info-chan than we realize. Odango!"

"Yes ma'am!" Odango said, running up to me.

"I need you to see what's on this chip. Perhaps maybe we might find some useful information on our Infernite," I said, tossing the chip to her.

"Yeah, but what if that thing's rigged?" Amki implied. Odango stared at the chip for a minute and then a ding sound went off.

"Scan complete! This data chip is 100% free of viruses, worms, trojans, and explosives!" she said. Amki just gave her a confused look.

"You have anti-virus software?" she asked.

"Of course! What computer doesn't?"

"Enough chattering. We have friends on a dead planet that need our help!" I said, boarding the ship.

"I'll get to crackin' the code!" Odango said. Before long, we set a course to Gaia Prime and blasted off. On our way there, Odango had finished unlocking the secrets of the chip and sent them to the main HUD.

"A lot of interesting stuff on there. That scientist must've been obsessed with Info-chan," Odango said.

"Dangerously obsessed," I added. I began to read the data as we sped our way to Max and Nikki.

Max's perspective

The constant shifting of the land was a bit unnerving and disorientating, but me and Nikki were getting through it all right. Well, granted, I was carrying Nikki through most of it but the air was starting to get a bit cooler. As we moved along, I spotted a peculiar looking ruin and made my way to it. Once inside, I set Nikki down on the rocks and stretched a bit. There weren't any Infernites around so we could relax for a little bit before moving on. Looking around, I saw that the ruins were some kind of temple. There was a half-destroyed shrine sitting in the middle of the place, but other than that, there really wasn't anything. That is, until I turned around and saw a mural on the wall. It showed some sort of alien with the face of Ultron, but it had slightly long hair, was dressed in robes and clawed hands wielding some sort of energy.

"What the hell?" I asked myself.

"What's wrong?" Nikki asked, having woken up.

"Nothing. Just this mural. Something feels… ominous about it," I replied. Nikki walked closer to inspect the wall.

"Some kind of prophecy?"

"Maybe."

"About what?"

"Probably some being of infinite power or something like that," I said. Suddenly, my comms crackled to life and Celeste spoke up.

"Max, Nikki! We're making our final approach to Gaia Prime. I need you both out in the open!" she said. Nikki and I both bolted outside into the open and looked up. We couldn't see past the dense clouds, but we saw the faint glow of the Centurion for a brief second.

"Celeste, can you see us?" I asked.

"I have a fix on your location now. Odango, fire up the teleporters!" Celeste said.

"Uh, about that…" Odango said.

"That doesn't sound good," Nikki replied.

"Yeah, the teleporters aren't working."

"What the hell do you mean they're not working?" Amki yelled over the comms.

"No, the teleporters are working, but they can't get a fix on your location," Eva said.

"Is it the circuit board?" I asked.

"No, everything on the ship is working. But I am getting readings of an electromagnetic field coming from the surface of the planet," Celeste replied. I looked out into the distance. Coming out of the storm were a few bolts of red lightning. But I noticed that here was some kind of pattern. A few bolts struck some random parts of the landscape, but I noticed that there was one spot that the lightning was striking constantly: between two mountains in a valley area.

"There," I said, pointing to the valley.

"What?" Nikki asked.

"That's gotta be where the field is coming from."

"How do you figure?" Celeste asked.

"Lightning never strikes the same place twice. Assuming this place has the same rules as Earth," I replied.

"Well, good news, it seems you're right. That area's got a lot of electromagnetic interference," Odango said.

"And the bad news?" Nikki asked.

"That place is LITERALLY crawling with Infernites. Whatever's down there, they must like it a lot to be hanging around it in a large crowd."

"So, if they head there, there's a possibility that they'll be overwhelmed?" Eva asked.

"I predict a 50-50 chance that they'll survive. Sorry for the bad odds, guys," Odango replied sheepishly.

"But they have the BFG in their possession. If it's as destructive as they say, their chances should be greater," Celeste said.

"Yeah, but I've never seen the thing fire, so I can't give a higher percentage!"

"How many shot does the BFG hold?" Amki asked.

"Four. But I'll only need one to wipe out however large that group is," I said.

"There's something else you should know. We were handed a data chip concerning Info-chan from a scientist," Celeste said.

"Wait, Info-chan isn't human?"

"She was a scientist from Gaia Prime who was known for her extensive research of Infernus and its inhabitants. Mainly their ability to survive in hostile climates. But her research took a deadly turn when she injected herself with the blood of an Imp. After Gaia Prime was destroyed, she was sent along with a few others to look for any suitable planets where the refugees could live in peace. Unfortunately, her experiments finally took over her and she killed the seekers she was with."

"So, Info-chan is half Infernite?" Nikki asked.

"Correct. The scientists on Ares did not know that she was like that until it was too late. It says here that she took a small handful of humans with her to Ares and did tests on them," Celeste said.

"And I'm guessing that Ayano was among them?" I asked.

"She was. Info was testing out a new strand of Infernite DNA, but this dossier doesn't have any information on what effect it had on Ayano or what exactly her end goal was."

"Well, look, I appreciate you bringing this to our attention, but we'll worry about that later. We need to get to the valley and destroy whatever's making the pulse wave," I replied. But before me or Nikki could move a muscle, the ground began to shake and the earth began to crack.

"What's going on? Is everything alright?" Celeste asked. As the ground continued to crack open, I heard the growling of a large creature coming from the ground, steam coming out of the cracks.

"Respond! What is it?" Celeste asked again. The cracks moved past me and Nikki and opened up an enormous hole in the ground. And what came out of that hole defied all logic and horrified us. It was an incredibly large Infernite, at least double the size of a Baron of Hell. It had pale, pinkish skin that was covered in a natural armor that covered the majority of its body. Its large head had four small, beady eyes and a large, gaping mouth and on its head were two large, sharp horns. The creatures right arm has a large blade-like bone that is located on the wrist and its left arm has been replaced with a rocket launcher. The foot looked like it had been repaired with mechanical components and the creature stood about 20 feet tall. It stared down on us menacingly and gave a large growl.

"Cyberdemon," Nikki said in horror. The monster roared and aimed its cannon at us, shooting a powerful beam that knocked the two of us back. We hid behind a rock at began shooting at it, but the shots proved to be ineffective against its armor. The Cyberdemon then inhaled deeply and breathed fire at the two of us, but the rock we were hiding behind provided us with protection.

"I don't remember it ever doing that in the games!" I said. The Cyberdemon then slammed its fist on the ground, which caused the ground to crack even more. Nikki almost fell into the ravine below, but I grabbed her hand and pulled her back up. We tried to shoot it again, but all we managed to hit was the soft skin of its face. The creature roared in pain and swung with its blade, creating a wall of fire that just missed us and nearly pushed us over the edge.

"OK, this whole 'shoot it until it dies' thing isn't working out for us! Do you have plan B?" Nikki asked. While the Cyberdemon continued to shoot at the rock we were hiding behind, a bunch of Cacodemons came floating out of the cracks.

"We hitch a ride," I said, holding onto Nikki and firing my grappling hook at one of the Cacodemons. The chain yanked us up into the air just as the Cyberdemon finally destroyed the rock, but it soon turned its attention to the Cacodemon herd. It tried in vain to shoot us down, but we got too far out of its range for it to shoot and it roared at us in frustration. For a few miles, it was smooth flying. Unfortunately, another Cacodemon spotted us and immediately attacked. We jumped off just as it sank its fangs into the Cacodemon we were on. I launched my grappling hook at a nearby floating island, but the Cacodemon circled back around at us. Before it could bite us, the Cacodemon we were riding on came back and began attacking the second one. Both began fighting among themselves as we landed a ways away from them. Nikki was a bit shaken but she regained her composure after a short while.

"That was.. awesome," she said. I smiled at her.

"Max, are you still there? I lost you for a second," Celeste said.

"We're fine. We just got jumped by the mother of all Infernites," I said.

"Is that a figure of speech?"

"Er… never mind. Also, can you look up something for me on that chip? An Infernite with metal parts and a rocket launcher on its left arm," I said. There was a short pause and then Celeste broke the silence.

"Found it. It's called 'Subject 01'. Apparently, it was Info's greatest creation. It's an extremely large Infernite that she found on Gaia Prime during the invasion. The creature was hard to take down, but after it was killed, Info pieced the creature back together and turned it into a living weapon. When the scientists deemed it to dangerous, she put it back in the very place it had destroyed," she said.

"Yeah, we just saw it. Guess it was starving all this time," Nikki said.

"There's more. It says here that it was sent there on a mission. The objective was to 'locate the artifact'," Eva added.

"What artifact?" I asked.

"It doesn't say. But I'm willing to guess that this 'artifact' is the root cause of the electromagnetic field," Celeste said.

"Whatever it is, Info seemed to be obsessed with it," Amki said.

"How so?" Nikki asked.

"She keeps mentioning some sort of 'Master'. As if she was working with someone who really wanted the artifact."

"Wait, do you mean to tell me that-?" I started to ask.

"The invasion on Ares was a feint. Info stated that the portal was so her Master could get the artifact from her home planet, but…" Celeste said.

"It was from Gaia Prime," Nikki finished.

"Well, listen, we're almost there. We may lose reception, seeing as were headed into the storm. We'll contact you once it's down," I said.

"Understood. We'll keep the comms open. And Max?" Celeste said.

"Don't die?" I finished. I heard Celeste chuckle.

"That. But also, keep Nikki safe," she said.

"Always. Over and out," I replied. Nikki and I made our way closer and closer to the valley until we finally came to a large stairway. At the top was the entrance to our destination where there was a large wall of clouds swirling from the storm.

"Ready?" Nikki asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I replied. We started making our way up the stairs, combating the strong winds as we got up halfway. But as we got there, I saw another mural. In fact, it was a whole set. The first one showed the robed person from the mural before, except he was now holding a sword of some kind. The second showed a completely different person in armor holding a different sword. The third showed the two individuals locked in combat. As I was curiously inspecting the murals, Nikki came back down and grabbed my arm.

"Max! Are you OK?" she yelled, trying to talk over the wind.

"Yeah, I'm alright! How about you?" I said.

"I'm fine! Come on, we're almost there!" Nikki said, as we continued up the stairway. As we reached the top, the winds were blowing so hard that they nearly knocked us off the stairs and into the rivers of blood below. Nikki held onto me to avoid being blown away by the wind. Unfortunately, the winds were proving to be too much and I fired my grappling hook into the wall above so we could avoid getting blown away. When we did finally reach the top, the winds immediately died down and me and Nikki stopped to catch our breath before staring out into the valley.

Nikki's perspective

No words. There were absolutely no words to describe the scene that was in front of us. In the valley below, the place was crawling with Infernites of every type that we had faced, from Imps to the Barons of Hell. In the middle of the entire group was a stairway leading to a pedestal. In the side of the pedestal was some kind of large dagger with a handle that looked like a skull and lower part modeled after some kind of creature's eye. Every now and then, a bolt of lightning struck the dagger which seemed to build up its power. But what was most disturbing was that not a single Infernite was walking near it. They were just walking around the base of where the dagger was, as if they were guarding it.

"Well, we found the artifact," Max said.

"Yeah, but how in the hell do we get to it?" Nikki asked. Max just grabbed the BFG off of my back and smiled.

"We have this, remember?" he said. He got up and took my hand as we slid down the hillside and stood in front of the entire horde of Infernites. He pointed the BFG at the horde and as soon as one saw us, Max fired. A burst of green plasma energy shot from the BFG and the second it got into range of one of the Infernites, several beams shot from the main shot and vaporized each member of the horde as it passed through, turning them to nothing but blood and ash. The shot finally landed a direct hit on a Baron of Hell, turning it to ash and creating a shockwave which vaporized the Infernites behind it. Max immediately grabbed my hand and the two of us ran up the stairs towards the artifact. However, we heard the sound of cracking coming from behind. Both of looked back and saw the Cyberdemon breaking through one of the mountain walls, another horde of all sorts of Infernites charging toward us. Max and I immediately began firing at the horde, killing several before they even got to us. However, the Infernites had numbers and the sheer size and strength of the Cyberdemon on their side and they caught up with us in no time. Max fired another shot from the BFG which again vaporized the horde before the shot landed on the Cyberdemon, which caused it to fall backward and flatten some of the members of the horde behind it.

"Max, get the artifact! I'll hold them off!" I said, firing shots from my arm cannon. Max immediately grabbed the artifact and struggled to pull it out of the pedestal as I continued to shoot down the Infernites. But, as I fought on, the Cyberdemon got back up and fired a blast from its arm cannon at the ceiling above, causing rocks to fall all around the pedestal. As I stumbled, one rock fell on my left arm, leaving me with only one arm cannon left to fight with. The lightning in the air was becoming more and more consistent, striking everywhere around the pedestal and killing Infernites left and right. I tried to get free of the rocks using my other arm cannon, but a clawed hand grabbed it and forced it down to my side. It was Ayano, looking more scarred and bloodthirsty than she did before. I tried in vain to shoot her, but she crushed the machinery in my right arm, disabling me from creating any weapons to use. As the Infernites ran past us to try and grab Max, Ayano grabbed me by the neck and raised her claws into the air, looking at me with a gleeful smile.

"Don't worry. I'll take good care of him when you're gone," she said with a slight chuckle. But before she could bring her claws down, Max finally wrenched the artifact free of the pedestal and unleashed a large electric shockwave which vaporized the Infernites close to him and blew Ayano away from me. However, a bolt of lightning came down and struck Max and caused him to collapse on the ground next to me. Only a few Infernites aside from the Cyberdemon and Ayano remained and they charged toward us, baring their teeth. I still couldn't move and my suit's right arm was rendered completely useless. I felt like this was it. We were going to die on this hell-ridden planet and the only trace of our existence would just simply disappear. But Max suddenly jolted to life and stood up with the artifact in his hand. However, as I looked up, I saw that he was a bit different. His hair had turned white, his eyes were now red with black sclerae, and some of his blood vessels were poking through his now pale skin, flowing with electricity. As the Infernites got closer, he stared at the artifact and grabbed it with both hands and bright red blade with runes on it sprang up from the artifact. As soon as he collided with the first Infernite, all hell broke loose. Max used the sword to slash, rip, and tear through the Infernites, crushing a few with his hands and decapitating several others. It felt a bit… unnerving. Sure, it looked like it was still Max, but it felt like he was an animal, unchained and ready to kill everything in front of him. Like he had no conscience and no shame in what he was doing and he was willing to destroy everything. When he got to the Cyberdemon, the beast fired a bunch of rockets at him, which directly hit him, but they barely even left a scratch on him. Max then jumped up and sliced the creature's right arm off, causing the Cyberdemon to roar in pain. It then inhaled and breathed fire at him, but Max just simply brushed off the flames, not even flinching. The Cyberdemon then attacked with its left arm, its bony claw narrowly missing Max. He then ran up the creature's arm and dove into its chest, the sword easily slicing through its skin and cutting a hole through. The Cyberdemon gurgled a bit before it collapsed to the ground while Max stared at it, as if he was admiring his handiwork. But, Ayano came up from behind him and knocked the dagger out of his hand. Unfortunately, Max simply punched her away and drew his arm blade. Ayano furiously screamed and charged at him, but he drove his arm blade into her stomach, causing her to cough up blood. Max stood between me and Ayano, relentlessly protecting me from Ayano's unyielding rage until he finally wrestled her to the ground and put both of his hands in her stomach wound. He suddenly started to pull as Ayano screamed in terror and flailed in vain to get free. But her punches did nothing against Max and after a while, Ayano quit screaming all together as Max tore her completely in half. He dropped both halves of her and began panting heavily, his hair, eyes and skin returning to normal.

Max's perspective

I have no idea what I just did, but it felt wrong. I stared in horror at the carnage all around me: the hundreds of dead Infernites either crushed or decapitated, the Cyberdemon missing its arm and most of its chest, and Ayano completely split in half. And yet, I was conscious for the entire thing. What in the HELL was going on with me? The sound of footsteps broke my thoughts. I looked behind me and saw Info-chan holding the artifact and looking around at the carnage.

"Well, I must say, this is quite an interesting development," she said.

"What… the hell… IS that thing?" I asked, pointing to the artifact. Info-chan just smiled held it up.

"The people of my old world called this trinket 'The Crucible'. In the right hands, one could easily use this to vanquish their enemies. Of course, it's power is so destructive, my people foolishly thought it would be best to hide it from those who would use its power for evil.," she replied.

"Like you?" I asked. Info smiled again, activated the Crucible, and used her foot to flip me onto my back. My energy felt completely spent, so I didn't have the strength to get back up.

"Well, no. Not me per se. My master was meant to retrieve this himself. But you've done the honors for him."

"Who is he? And what does he want?"

"Oh, Maxwell. He's the sole ruler of this galaxy. It's just that no one knows it yet. There's a war coming to the universe that will see the beginning of his rule. And, I'm so sorry to say, you won't be alive to witness it," Info said before she raised the Crucible above her head. But, before either of us could react, the sound of a blaster shot went off and Info's look of glee turned into a look of horror. The Crucible slipped out of her hands and I looked up to see that her forehead now had a giant hole between her eyes. Nikki still had a normal blaster on her and she used it to shoot Info through the head. Info's lifeless body slumped to the ground, dead, blood dripping from her forehead. I got up and moved the boulder off of Nikki's arm and the two of us hugged each other in relief. Nikki looked at me and put her hand on my cheek, giving me a slight look of fear.

"You scared the crap out of me," she said. I smiled and kissed her.

"That makes two of us," I replied.

"Max? Nikki? Are you there?" Celeste said suddenly.

"Yeah, we're here."

"Oh, thank goodness. The storm has died down and the electromagnetic field is down and the teleporters now have your location. We're ready to beam you up," Celeste said. I picked up my shotgun and the Crucible while Nikki grabbed the BFG.

"Hey, Celeste? I need you to prep the med bay for me," I said into my comms.

"Why? Are you injured?" Celeste asked.

"It's not for me," I replied, as Nikki walked over to see what I was talking about. Down the stairs a bit was Ayano's body. Somehow, inside that shell of the creature she was, was her own body, naked, fully human and unconscious. Celeste beamed us up and I took Ayano's body to the med bay, lying her in one of the beds. The heart monitor slowly beeped to life and a respirator attached itself to Ayano's face, helping her breathe. Celeste walked over to me holding a tablet.

"I found exactly what Info's test was. Apparently, some Infernites act as a shell to a host, trapping them inside," she said. I sadly looked down at Ayano's body and put my hand on her head.

"Hopefully she'll sleep better now," I said. Back in the cockpit, Odango immediately hugged me when she saw me.

"So glad that you're both OK!" she said.

"Heh. Me too," I replied, hugging her back.

"Nikki, is your arm alright?" Eva asked.

"Yeah. Except my suit's right arm is busted," Nikki replied.

"Not necessarily. The suit is capable of self-repairing itself. It should be fully repaired in an hour or two," Celeste said. Nikki breathed a sigh of relief.

"You know, it would have been a lot easier if we were down there with you," Amki said, stretching a bit.

"Well, it's not exactly a hot vacation spot down there," Nikki said, laughing.

"Yeah, you're right. But, hey, that jobs done and done!"

"Yeah… but this isn't over," I said, staring at the Crucible. Everyone turned to face me with confused looks.

"How so?" Celeste asked.

"Someone went to a lot of trouble to try and find this thing. Info said a war was coming to this universe. Whatever he's planning, it's bigger than any of us. And we need to stop it," I said. An eerie silence fell over the entire bridge. After a while, Celeste spoke up.

"Then so be it. Whoever this 'Master' is, if you wish to stop him, I will gladly follow you into battle," she said.

"Well, of course I will too," Nikki said.

"I mean, what the hell? If we're gonna take on a job to save the universe, then hell yeah, you can count me in!" Amki said.

"Plus, we're a team. And, as I recall, a team sticks together," Eva stated.

"I may predict a 40% chance that we will succeed in this fight for the universe, but I'm willing to bring that number up to 100 for you guys!" Odango added. I smiled and turned back to Celeste.

"So, where to now?" I asked.

"Wherever we're needed. The universe is a big place. And I'm sure that we'll find a way to bring peace to the universe. Whenever. Wherever," Celeste said as she pulled the lever and we zoomed off to our next destination.

3rd person perspective

Back on the planet of Gaia Prime, two Imps hovered over the dead body of Info-chan, cautiously examining it. Before they could react, a bright flash of light appeared behind them and standing there was a robed figure. The two Imps lunged at the figure, but the flash of his red eyes made the two back down in terror. The figure approached Info's body, staring at her wound.

"You have done well, Info. I am most pleased with your progress. Yet, I did not expect this sort of outcome. The human… he holds great power within his grasp. And yet, the path toward our goal has become somewhat easier. And thank you for that," the figure said. One of his clawed hands then reached out and telekinetically grabbed both of Ayano's demon halves, reducing them to blood. He then guided the blood to Info's body, which began to absorb it, clearing her head of her wound.

"Still, you are of no use to me if you are dead. So, rise my pupil. Rise for the sake of this universe and for the sake of our goal. The war has begun. And there is much to be done," the figure said as Info's eyes opened.

To Be Continued…