AN: A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one? Or: HERE BE TAYLOR SHOOTIN' DEMONS! The error with the broken statistics seems to be a known, yearly problem by the way, so I guess it will fix itself in some time? Also: 1 - 2 Chapters after this one and we shall be in Worm.
Probably.
I think.
My muse keeps changing stuff and makes me write things that were not planned like that! Not my fault, I swear!
PS: There have been quite a few ideas from people what exactly is happening with Contessa and stuff, which is fun to read, but I will not spoilt it :P
Greedily gulping down some water after making my way back to the base, we discussed the best move going forward. Checking out the location from the note seemed important, but the further I would leave the compound behind, the greater the danger.
Supposedly.
I had two cans of beans in my pockets. That was all. No container for water – at least nothing robust enough to survive me fighting.
Putting an open, water-filled can into my Suit was not an option. I had no desire for it to soak my stuff and be still useless to me.
(I had tried it little bit, as an experiment. The only result I got from that was the fluid probably ruining some of my shells. Military grade stuff or not, the product was not supposed to get wet.)
So my journey had a time limit. My Stamina was pretty inhuman or beyond at this point in time. I still did not know how and why powers worked.
But I still got tired, hungry and thirsty.
Starvation was not too much of a concern, especially with the beans. Dehydration or the need to sleep? Those were tougher challenges.
The rough plan we made was simple and straightforward:
I was gonna sleep for around eight hours, with Vega as my alarm. Then came the preparation of a simple meal with the last can of beans in storage. After tanking up on water – yes, drinking straight from the tap, sue me – I would then start my treasure hunt.
Good, detailed plan, am I right?
Decision made and drowsiness slowly setting in anyways, I decided to enact that plan immediately. Lying down on some tables that had been shoved together, I wished Vega a good night and closed my eyes.
The Suit made everything pretty comfortable, honestly.
The bare tabletop somehow felt softer than I had imagined.
After a dreamless… night? Nap? I awoke to the sound of my friendly alarm clock.
"Wake up please Taylor!"
"Morning. Or a good day to you too.", came the mumbled reply.
"I hope you slept well!"
Groaning I sat up and stretched myself.
"Yeah, just fine. Uninterrupted sleep, I had no idea how much I missed this."
"It is gonna be important for you to sleep with one eye open once you are outside. I will of course assist you!"
"Thanks buddy.", I yawned. "Let me take a quick shower first, who knows when I will have that luxury again."
And it was a luxury. Even the small shower at home, with only the small amount of hot water it had, seemed like something decadent to me now. And even with only Dad and me, we ran out of hot water frequently.
Thinking about hygiene reminded me that I had not brushed my teeth in what felt were ages. That was not actually the case of course, this 'life' was definitely not older than two days.
I still hoped my return to Brockton Bay would not be accompanied by rotting teeth, depending on how much of the journey was still ahead of me.
At least my hair was doing better! Without cutting it!
And the… problematic smell was completely gone as well.
Finished with the necessary tasks, I returned to the small kitchen. That place had become something like my mini-quarters.
Checking my equipment over once more, I nodded.
"Alright, time to go."
On a veeery long walk.
Joy.
The south-side of red rocky hills was similar steep and annoying to climb, but my growing experience sped up the task considerably. The wasteland was just as ugly as in the north, sadly.
Setting a decent pace (old me would have called it a jog at least) I set out onto the long and boring journey. Vega kept me company, we quietly talked about diverse topics, played all the classic "car-travel-games" we could and tried to kill time in general.
It was not so bad actually, the company helped a lot.
The monotony of the dreary landscape was only broken up by our quiet chatter and then occasional fight with demons. At first I slaughtered them with my heavy weaponry, but that baited more and more enemies into appearing. I did not truly mind – I quite enjoyed the spectacle – but those encounters dragged on and slowed me down considerably.
Trying to maximize my speed, I only grabbed to my firearms when absolutely necessary. If the roused mortally challenged (the UAC had a sense of humor?) was a creature I could kill bare-handed – like an Imp, or one of the weaker zombies – I chose to do so.
If push came to shove, I knew that, fueled with rage, I could kill far greater demons with my fists. But that was not something to rely on, I was working under the assumption that death was permanent once more for me.
Another discovery: Hell had something resembling a day-night circle. The red sky blotted out everything, so I had believed this plane to be in a permanent state of twilight. A bloody haze of a satanic shimmer radiating over everything under the sky.
That proved to be false.
Not only got the color more and more washed out the more time passed, until the sky was more a weak orange instead of the furious red. No, in the distance it seemed to get completely replaced by a black sky.
The red area was not, in fact, the sky. It was a gigantic field of clouds, or an everlasting smog, glued over the grey wasteland. How or why did this phenomenon happen? Neither Vega or me had any plausible ideas.
Anyways, as said orange further lost its shine, we decided on taking a break. Traversing unknown terrain in the dark, surrounded by hostile forces, was very risky. It was irritating and felt like a waste of time, but I just had to endure my desire for sustenance.
Turning around, I had to admit that I already traversed quite the distance. It did not seem like it, because Vega had put a marker on my visor that told me I still had 190 kilometers to my destination. Looking at the rocky piece that had somehow been ripped from Mars, or swallowed by Hell, it reminded me of a gold-tooth, stuck in the jaw of a rotting skull.
Well, it was a red tooth then, but still. The jaw was the mountain range to the west in this case. The red mountain that housed the Test-side seemed tiny in comparison to the giant black cliffs it was adhered to.
How small I was in comparison to even that…
This sight hammered home once again how alone and far away from home I was. For all my bravado, all my weapons and violence, in the end I was not even a gain of sand in the grand scheme of things.
Subdued, I formed myself a small bump of grey rubble to lean against. This would be a restless night, I would try to sleep with one eye open – no matter how much Vega was looking out for me. Relying on only one thing was foolish.
"Good night Vega. Wake me after six hours at the latest, alright?"
"Of course partner, get some sleep. I will keep watch as good as I can."
I nodded off to soft humming in my ear.
There were no interruptions.
After waking up and forcing down a can of cold beans – yuck – I was once again on the road, so to speak. The sky was brightening up again, the greyish orange changing first to a rich color and then slowly turning a bloody red once again.
I could not wait to see the actual sky in Hell. I was not only curious, I also thirsted for something at least marginally more cheerful.
The demons kept coming in irregular intervals, and a handful of times I had to use my weapons to get rid of them – I confess to using the chainsaw even when it was not the optimal choice.
I just really liked it!
They did not.
I think.
Vega also marked possible compounds and caves after collecting Data from the bigger battles. We chose not to investigate them, the last cave had been empty of anything useful for me except the (non-demonic) note and I could not waste time. Already an uncomfortable permanent thirst made itself known.
My wariness considering the danger of dehydration had been very justified.
Vega seemed concerned about my pace and condition too, but I was determined and refused to turn back now.
The second night seemed to go no different than the first, meaning uneventful, but my hopefulness for some more rest had seemingly tempted fate.
Of course.
I snapped awake and into a standing position right as my AI was calling out for danger. In the next moment I took a fireball to the chest that made me stumble.
Hastily grabbing and then firing with my heavy cannon into the general direction of the attacker – it was hard to make out much detail – I felt something slip off my back. Diving away in a hurry, I identified my attacker as a tall demon that seemed surprised it did not squash me with a single punch.
I was a bit surprised too.
The creature seemed of similar size as the first demon I had ever killed, perhaps a bit smaller at around three meters. It had no horns, instead sporting greyish armor-plates. It gave the effect of a skinless head staring at me. Its jaw sported sharp, pointed teeth, that were not covered by any lips. The rest of its body was also built for battle – a theme for the bigger demons in general – with bulging muscles being visible everywhere where no armor blocked my sight. It had clawed feet – so no hooves like the Minotaur from my first battle – and hands, the black tips nearly invisible in the dim light. Honestly, that I had taken the hit without dying (or at least taking heavy damage) had to have been a sheer stroke of luck, similar attacks had carved me up with ease in previous battles.
Or maybe it was actually a very weak demon, trying to compensate with its fearsome appearance? An amusing idea, but not a sensible one.
My quick scan had only taken moments, for an outsider observer I barely paused at all in my movement. Concentrating my fire on the big guy, I had to dodge a charge at blistering speed. My experience with the bigger demons made a quick sidestep not too difficult. Considering myself in a save spot for a moment, I fired once again into the general area where the Imp was hopefully located.
Only to get blindsided by another fireball, this one not the molten red I was used to, but instead a poisonous looking green. And this one hurt. Weakly stumbling out of the way, I coughed wetly and fired a grenade to give me some cover.
The Suit had spread out the punishment, so it felt more like a hammer had hit my whole left side at once, instead of something getting blown off that I maybe needed – like my arm, for example. Only now being able to translate the babbling from Vega into useful information, I listened while trying to get a better angle. The dust and smoke that got kicked up covered me enough to not instantly take another hit.
"Where did that attack come from?", I interrupted raspy.
"That was the lesser Hell Knight Taylor! Don't get fooled by their brutish appearance, they are able to attack at range with their green plasma bolts!"
"I noticed."
That was the first time an opponent was specialized into attacking at different ranges. The Imps were pretty shit at melee, frail and fast, obviously meant for ranged combat. I had unconsciously classified this creature as melee only, like the first demon I had killed and the Pinkies I had met since then: They were all big, bulky and armored, so doing so was natural.
A mistake that had cost me dearly.
Also, Vega had called the Minotaur resembling flesh tank a Hell Knight too, what confusing bullshit was that? I would keep calling it Minotaur.
"Do you think I have broken something?", I muttered, erratically searching for the big guy.
Where did the Knight go?!
"No, but you will feel pretty sore after this probably."
I could live with that, pain was something I had a lot of time getting used to.
Pain meant I was still alive.
There he was!
The green glow as he readied another one of his ranged attacks betrayed him!
Launching another grenade, this one directly at its feet, I rolled out of the way of the green comet heading my way. Ignoring how the ground shook behind me from the explosion, I swapped to the cannon and unloaded into the big bastard.
The explosion of the grenade did barely faze it, but the slight stumble allowed two dozen more bullets to find their mark. Seemingly giving up on ranged combat or considering itself at a disadvantage, the creature charged me again. I held my weapon on it as long as possible, before lunging backwards.
My shotgun answered the challenge of close quarter combat. Now that I was fully awake and focused on a single enemy, the battle got a lot easier. The thing took a lot of punishment, but it's attacks were slow and clumsy.
All the power in the world was useless if you only hit air.
Satisfied with the damage done to its armor and flesh, I swapped to my chainsaw and truly went into melee.
The satisfying roar of my loved device was answered with pained screams, as I first cut off the arm reaching for me, then rammed the blade straight into its stomach and pulled down. Sidestepping the demon as it fell forward, I pushed against its neck until the head parted from the body with a wet rip.
Sinking to the ground, I propped myself up on my arms.
That had been close.
Too close.
And holy fuck, my side hurt. Now that the adrenaline was slowly fading, the pain worsened.
"Well done Taylor, how are you feeling? I am sorry for not warning you faster, but you somehow noticed them at the same time as me. I need to install better sensors somehow."
Vega sounded truly upset about 'failing' me like this.
"It is fine", I soothed him, "I am still alive and kicking. But sleeping in pain like this is gonna be a challenge."
What I did not mention was my fear considering my injury. This time I had been lucky, but now I was wounded. Another ambush on this level, and I could be totally immobile afterwards.
A death sentence.
"I am detecting no other movement, you should be safe for now."
I gave a tired nod. The exhaustion hit me like a wave.
Looked like getting some shut eye would not be a problem after all, at least not because of the pain.
I woke up with a groan that was partly pained, partly confused.
The pain was because of yesterdays excitement of course. The confusion came from the fact that I already felt a lot better. I still hurt, but a lot less than I should after getting knocked around and blown up twice.
"Good morning Taylor. I have to say, your enhanced regeneration is quite marvelous! I was afraid to bring up the possibility of further wounds yesterday, but now I see that you had things well in hand already!"
"Vega, I have no idea what you are talking about."
"You don't? This is not something you are familiar with?"
"No. It is a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one, I guess. But I am staaaarving."
"So your body still has to use the resources at its disposal for the advanced healing?"
"I guess? You have just as much knowledge as me Vega, probably more actually. But if so, my strength speed and stamina should have the same cost, right? But they do not."
At least I did not think that they costed me anything.
"Well spotted! This inconsistency is not making things easier to understand. Exciting!"
"Whatever makes you happy. Tell me when you have figured something out."
In the end, there was nothing we could do about our questions, so I just ate my last can of beans – this time with less forcing involved, beggars can't be choosers.
And I was really hungry.
And then the journey continued.
My growing thirst kept egging me on and I finally got out from under the smog after a few more hours. In the distance, I could already see my next obstacle.
"Vega, are my eyes deceiving me, or is that a cliff?"
"That seems to be a plateau, yes. But we are still on the correct path."
I groaned.
"So I have to climb up there, is what you saying?"
If there were no stairs or elevator of some sort, then yes, the AI agreed, I would have to climb once again.
Because things could never be too simple for me.
The tableland got quickly closer and at the middle of the fourth day I reached the bottom of the cliff. There was no sign of anything living, no caves, stairs, anything. So with a grunt, ignoring the growling of my stomach and my parched throat, I started to climb.
The climb was not too bad actually. My expertise had grown a lot already, and the stone was 'soft' enough that I could sink my fingers into it without much problems. Creating my own handholds this way, I quickly ascended and made it to the top at the end of the very same day.
Resting at short distance from the edge – and taking away one possible angle of attack – I slept exhausted and weary, under a black sky.
But my destination was close now.
The plateau was a welcome change in the landscape. It did not look like a healthy place per se (I had the feeling nothing in Hell did), but there were grass and weeds growing, softly swinging in a weak breeze.
I was tempted to pull off my helmet – Vega told me, that the atmosphere on Hell was something I could breath for short periods of time without any ill effects. My asphyxiation in the loop had probably been a mix of Mars and Hell atmosphere that did me in. Mars not having anything breathable in the first place. (I had just nodded and grunted, no idea what exactly he was talking about)
I refused to risk it without the facility in very short distance however. If something unforeseen happened to me I was screwed otherwise.
On the fifth day of my travels, I made it to my destination!
Any joy over doing so got overshadowed fast by something that was very difficult not to notice:
My destination was horrible and disgusting.
Beneath me opened up a smallish valley. Down there, the plants got replaced by what seemed to be dead bones and flesh, the latter somehow not rotting away. Small rivers of a red liquid, which I hesitatingly identified as probably blood could be spotted at multiple spots, sometimes disappearing into holes in the flesh just to reappear a bit further away. "Natural" bridges made out of larger bones (maybe giant ribs?) seemed to allow passage over the gross phenomenon.
In the middle of the disgusting mess was a building made out of snow-white stone.
Or polished bone.
The entrance seemed to mock me.
I really did not want to go down there.
"Vega?"
"Yes Taylor?"
"Do you really think this is worth it?"
"Maybe it is not, but now we are already here. You don't want to turn back now, do you?"
I did not, true.
But, rivers made of blood with a building crafted from bone by some weird corpse-fetishist?!
This was going to suck.
Sighing – I did that a lot lately – I carefully descended. The ground was not too tricky to traverse, but the sounds the flesh made as I walked over it were disgusting. It was a mix of wet, soft tissue being squeezed, combined with the creaking of hidden bones getting put under pressure.
Yuck.
It did not smell too bad in my Suit – thank god, otherwise I would be busy gagging or throwing up – but the sound alone was enough to make my stomach churn already. I even forgot how hungry I was for a moment.
The horde of demons streaming out of the entrance to the strange temple-like structure once I closed the distance came as a relief. Blasting them to pieces, I could distract myself from the sickening surroundings.
By creating my own bloody flesh covering!
Some may say that this could not have been any better, but I disagree: It was clearly raining demon guts now and I was the one doing it!
I was not a violent person!
A messy room always seems less messy if its your own mess, and not that of somebody else, right?
At least that's how I felt usually.
That was the only reason this was better!
I swear!
Whatever this place was, it seemed a least partly important to some demon kind. The flood of creatures did not ebb, even after I had killed close to a hundred already. Mixed in with the usual Zombies came Imps, Pinkies, some of the ranged Hell Lords and even one of the Minotaur looking ones.
That may sound stressful – and it was no cakewalk, I can assure you – but the horde worked together with me in a sense: the all funneled through the same exit, which I had positioned myself a good step away from.
Meaning, every bullet I shot hit at least one target, and most things died long before they became a threat.
The ranged creatures also tended to stop moving the moment they could attack me, blocking the way for those behind them until I blew them to bits. That included the Hell Lords. The only ones able to close the gap were the Pinkies (the tenacity they had when taking fire from the front was honestly terrifying). Without the Pinkies, this would have been no challenge at all.
So I had to keep firing at the entrance, reloading as fast as I could. Every time a Pinky broke through, I had to barely sidestep them, to minimize the time I was moving. If the entrance was getting blocked enough by ranged attackers to slow down the advancing enemies, I combined the dodge with a swap to my shotgun and an aimed shot at the weak tail end of my short ranged opponents.
If I felt especially daring, the grenade launcher attachment instead did that job.
After firing, I cleared the enemies at the entrance with either another grenade, or a rocket.
Rinse and repeat.
The hardest part was the precise aiming – even after hundreds of hours I had spent with firearms, especially while fighting the chained demon at the Test-side, moving while shooting was still tricky – and looking out for the Pinkies charges when there was more than one of them at once.
This makes it sound harder than it actually was, but after completing this chain of tasks a few times, I was already optimizing my strategy.
That does not mean I succeeded without any close calls! I ate multiple fireballs (mostly glancing blows) and once a Pinkie actually hit and tackled me.
It took a lot of my firepower and risky moves to gain the upper hand again after that, but I managed.
Finally, after I seriously feared my bullets would run out before my foes did, the flood slowed down to a trickle and then completely stopped. As my aching body welcomed the break in blessed relief (enhanced stamina or not), another demon stepped out into the open. He (he seemed like a he) mustered me for a moment, letting the gaze of his glowing red eyes swipe across the bloody battlefield and the remains of his fellow demons.
He was not much taller than me, clad in actual armor that was not biological armor plates. His skin was pale, with curved horns coming out of his skull. In his right hand he held something like a staff with a skull on top of it, at his left leg a shotgun was dangling from a holster.
Giving something of a scoff, he gestured behind him for someone.
Another demon appeared.
This one was a bloody red and strongly reminded me of the Minotaur I had fought (I was not calling them also Hell Knight, that would get way to confusing). Except this one was taller, reaching definitely over four meters in height. It looked like the middle child actually, with the first Minotaur being the youngest, and the chained demon being the oldest.
What crushed that assumption was the audible hiss Vega gave as the demon stepped forward.
"That is a Baron of Hell, Taylor. This is not going to be easy at all."
"A tough one then?", I murmured back.
The leader pointed at me, grunted something, and then walked back inside the building, seemingly done with me.
I felt vaguely insulted, honestly.
The Baron gave a snort through his nostrils and started walking up and down in front of the entrance.
"Yes. The UAC has never actually sighted one of them, but we found tablets and scriptures that paint a grim picture. They are called Barons, because the Knights you have faced until now are their underlings. That includes the one you fought inside the vault."
So one of the big boys then. And I was already slightly exhausted. Not a good starting point.
"Does it have a ranged attack then too?"
"That is a fair assumption."
"If that is the strongest of the Knights, then what did I kill that was trapped inside the Test-side?"
"I do not know, you are the only individual to have ever met such a creature and lived to tell the tale. We also have no idea how the energy saturation may have affected the trapped entity."
"The Baron does not seem to want to attack.", I pointed out.
"It was probably commanded to guard the building. If you turn back, it may not follow you."
"I am not willing to take that risk", I replied hotly, "and after coming so far, I refuse to back down without anything to show for it. This thing is going down."
"It is your choice Taylor."
Shouldering my rocket launcher, I took careful aim. The demon just stared back defiantly. Mentally shrugging, I pulled the trigger, already grabbing for another missile.
Making not effort to dodge, the guard just took the hit, gave an excited roar and charged right at me.
Holy fuck, it was fast.
If the only difference between this one and the other one were the rays of energy binding the latter (and the size of course) and this was their true speed, I may have a problem.
Cursing and narrowly dodging the opening strike, I had to immediately lunge again as a huge fist punched straight into the ground I had been standing on. Effortlessly ripping its claw out with a wet slurp, the Baron advanced again, tanking another rocket without even slowing down or flinching.
"Aim for the face Taylor! Its mouth has less armor than the rest of its body!"
"I am working on it!", I bit out, weaving between quick strikes. I had thought my stamina nearly limitless, but my muscles were already screaming at me.
This was intense!
Taking cover in one of the craters left by the earlier fighting (maybe form a grenade?) I left in a hurry as the huge beast vaulted over the edge with a single mighty leap. Making my way over the shaking ground, I fired one of my last missiles. The Baron did not even try to protect its head, instead being busy freeing itself from the trap it had created with its own weight: The hooved legs had crashed straight into the fleshy land and were probably stuck in some bone or another.
"My attacks don't seem to do anything? I am not sure if it even notices them at all?"
"I think I saw some chips of armor flying off from that last hit, keep it up! If you could not damage it, why would it bother attacking you only after you fired at it?"
A good point, and Vegas eyes (sensors? Cameras? Whatever he was using) were sharp: As the thing charged again at me, I noticed some missing teeth from between its fleshless lips.
So I had done some cosmetic damage at least, but now I was out of rockets.
Swapping to my heavy cannon, I fired at its head while always keeping a step ahead. That was easier said than done: The Baron speeds was actually greater than mine by a big margin. The destroyed terrain and its tendency to get stuck for brief moments after striking against said terrain kept me alive at first.
Realizing that its size and weight was the only disadvantage here, I kept jumping and climbing to different protrusions. They were mostly bone that got shifted into a different position by the shockwaves traveling ahead of our heated battle. They never held long either – especially when we fought on top or close to them – but they did their job. Every jump slowed the Baron down more than me, not only because it had a harder time doing powerful jumps than I did – I was light enough for the ground to work as a makeshift trampoline, while my foe was decidedly not – but also because my impact was a lot less violent.
Still, it was a close thing. The turning point came when the first fireballs came heading my way. Smelling the desperation of my adversary that had made it swap to ranged combat renewed my spirits and pushed me all the way to the finish.
I did not even execute it with the chainsaw, not risking getting too close. Instead I fired on its head until it stopped moving, the skull a ruined mess. Then I put in the last magazine I had.
After this, there were only my trusty shotgun and chainsaw left.
I hid in one of the craters, keeping one eye on the entrance, and tried to gather my strength. Vega was telling me to back off and return later, but I ignored the well meant advice.
"Taylor, if there is a demon capable of commanding a Baron of Hell, then you are in no condition right now to win a fight with them! Come back to your senses!"
"I know that it doesn't look good, but the base is out of food. My time limit is already way to tight. Even if I make it back, I will not be able to return here once again, I don't think my body can handle that."
"And what does going in there change? What do you expect to find that is worth this risk?"
"A demon powerful enough to command a Baron. I bet if I put him in the generator that would be more than enough energy for a portal out of Hell."
There was a moment of silence.
"That is probably correct", gave the AI grudgingly in, "but that would mean bringing him back to the base and keeping him alive for quite a long section of the way. After defeating him in combat. I am sorry Taylor, but I think you are grasping at straws."
"Is that not all we have been doing anyways? We traveled here because of a mysterious note in the first place! We are out of options!"
"I just don't want you to die here Taylor.", came the quiet, soft reply.
"I know. And I do not want to die either. But this is our last hope anyways. I rather go out fighting, than starving in the safety of the UAC facilities."
"Alright, it is not like I can stop you anyways. But please, please be careful my friend."
"I will Vega, partner, I will."
With that, the AI went silent.
After around an hour of recovery, I stood up, took a deep breath, and carefully made my way inside.
I was scared of course, but that had not stopped me before and would not stop me now.
The inside was made out of grayish stone, perhaps harvested from the wasteland. The bony outside may have decorated the place, but there were neither flesh nor bone present in the building itself.
The grey material had been precisely cut and set into the ground, it would not be out of place inside of a middle ages castle.
Going further inside, red runes lighted the way after the daylight was unable to reach far enough. The path was leading downwards, the quality of the structure seemingly improving: Dull grey blocks made way for polished tiles, the air smelled cleaner.
Reaching the bottom, the path widened into a great chamber.
In the lowered middle was a pool filled with red liquid. It looked like blood at first, but the occasional crackle it gave contradicted that theory. There was no way to see the bottom, it could be knee-high or hundred of meters deep.
Around the pool, runes were carved tightly next to each other, coming closer to nearer they were to the pool. Directly at the edge, they intertwined and interlaced with each other.
Like a group of beggars, huddled around a lonely fire to gather as much warmth as possible.
There was no sign of the leader, so I closed the distance to the pond.
Once only a few steps were left, I whirled around, an instinctual reaction to a soft crunch behind me.
There stood the demon.
He seemed impressed and a bit surprised to see me standing there.
But he was not as shocked as me, when he opened his mouth and spoke:
"A beautiful sight, is it not? I admit, I did not expect you to make it here. To not only defeat the gathered horde of hungering demons, but to also defeat a Baron? You have done well. Unfortunately for you, your journey ends here. I was tasked with the supervision of this Temple and I can not allow you to leave alive."
His voice was male, a mix between the growling of an animal and the fevered exclamations of a madman. It had a deep grumbling undertone. The tone spoke of an easy confidence, an existence tinged with power.
He paused for a brief moment.
"Do not worry. I am sure as such a fine warrior, as a man of your caliber, you will fill the pool more than it has been in eons. Your soul will not go to waste."
I scowled at him, something he took note of. (Was my face that visible behind the helmet? I had never tested that.)
"Nothing to say? You seem a bit upset."
The bastard was amused!
"I am a girl!", I hissed back, pissed off by both his continuous arrogance and that he mistook my gender. Did I look so male that even a demon commander lord guy had a hard time identifying me as female?!
My angry declaration did something, that my slaughter and murdering of his fellow demons failed to do: It shut him up.
At least for a moment.
"A girl?! But… but I thought? But…?"
He stopped and muttered to himself. I only heard some shreds like "legends", "Slayer" and "not always male?!". Then he gathered himself.
"No matter! I am one of the Marauders and I will be your DOOM!"
That last word somehow sounded capitalized.
Swinging his weird stick twice, two red energy blades emerged right at the base of the skull, forming a large battle-axe. Before I got over my excitement of my enemy having a sort of lightsaber, he moved to attack me.
And when I say moved, I mean moved.
The Suit saved my life.
No, the combination of my trusty heavy cannon and the Suit saved my life.
I barely had time to lift the heavy gun in front of my face before the axe crashed into it. The high velocity impact pushed my arms and bend my back.
Because of that the energy blade ripped through my cannon but only carved open my visor from chin to forehead, instead of my face.
Kicking the Marauder with all my might to create some distance, I saw his sneering face directly through the jagged cut while I moved through the air.
Now there was one important detail I had not considered: The sheer power of the Marauder had made my arms collapse and more or less literally swept me off my feet. Me kicking him away was a reflex, born of heated melees with other similar sized foes. Making myself some room against multiple opponents was something I did especially often when I used my chainsaw.
They always crumbled and gave me an opening to strike.
The Marauder did not crumble.
He did not even move much.
It was like kicking off a wall, I was the one send flying. That would have been fine in most cases, but in my panic I forgot about the pool behind me.
Instead of bouncing off hard ground, I instead splashed back first into the red stuff. Maybe that would have been fine too, if not for the giant hole in my helmet. The pool was not just knee-high, I confirmed, as the liquid closed over me.
It rushed into my Suit, covered my face and flesh.
It burned like fire and an involuntary gasp, filled with pain and searching for air escaped me.
And then the real agony set in.
AN: ~ Ooops, I did it again ~
