A/N: Before I begin this chapter, I would like to say RIP Queen Elizabeth II, April 21, 1926-September 8, 2022.

By this time, Shadow was really pleased with himself. Though he had yet to finish his goal of cleaning up Hell, the sexual experiences he'd gone through were giving him a great sense of relief. Thus far, he wasn't sure if he liked doing Modeus or Cerberus more. Sure, Modeus was the most attractive woman he'd met here, but there were three of Cerberus, which made for a hell of a time. At one point, he feared that no other women down here could possibly compete with either of them, but on the other hand, even if her enjoyed certain women more, he hadn't found a single one who was a complete dud in the sack, so he figured that he'd enjoy whoever else lived here as well. That aside, he took another meal break. The sandwich he ate was teriyaki chicken, and to him, it tasted like Rouge had made it with love, which caused him to blush. However, his enjoyment was disrupted when a Pinky approached him.

"Here, if you want to eat something, eat this!"

Shadow unwrapped a sandwich and threw it at the Pinky, who gobbled it up in one bite. While it was distracted by the homemade concoction, he whipped out his SPAS-12 and ended the monster with a single explosive shell.

"Don't EVER interrupt me when I'm thinking of my favorite person EVER AGAIN!"

After finishing his current sandwich, slugging a can of Pepsi and slamming some more shells into the SPAS-12, Shadow whipped out his M16 and moved on. The first group of enemies he came across in this section of hell was a group of Imps and Pinkies with a few Cacodemons mixed in. As usual, Shadow let loose on them, once again using the M16 for longer-ranged work and going over to the SPAS-12 if anyone tried to get up close and personal with him.

(I'll rip all of them a new one if I have to.)

After reloading again, Shadow continued on. Oddly enough, the particular stretch he was travelling down was devoid of enemies, but not once did he let his guard down. Based on past experiences, he had a gut feeling that someone – or something – was going to attempt to sneak up on him. The fact that this area was a bit darker didn't help matters at all. Sure enough, his Hedgehog Sense tingled, and he whipped around to see a couple of Cacodemons attempting to sneak up on him. Naturally, he blew them away, but when he attempted to proceed further, he got another nasty surprise ahead of him: a Pain Elemental. He did his best to ventilate it, but it released a couple of Lost Souls in the process. Fortunately, Shadow ended up the victor in this confrontation.

(I'd let God sort them out, but that would be an exercise in pointlessness.)

Proceeding on his warpath, Shadow wondered how much farther the next woman was. However, he tried not to let himself get too distracted lest something come along that could actually take him down. Granted, all of the monsters he'd fought thus far had no chance against him, but he decided that it was better to be safe than sorry. His decision would prove to be a wise one, for a large group of monsters awaited him, including some Imps, Pinkies, a fair share of Cacodemons and Lost Souls, and a couple more Pain Elementals. As usual, Shadow expended a couple of magazines – including a full tube of explosive shells from the SPAS-12 – but the monsters kept coming at him. Not helping were the extra Lost Souls that the Pain Elementals were spawning. Getting tired of their shenanigans, Shadow ran straight into the thick of the group, still firing, until…

"CHAOS BLAST!"

The resulting blast wave fried the rest of the monsters.

(They must be getting really desperate by now. I'm going to need more firepower.)

Shadow put the M16 and SPAS-12 away in favor of the M60. His Hedgehog Sense told him that that was a wise choice, for he now had two really big problems to face down: a pair of Barons of Hell. Still unfazed, Shadow proceeded to unleash a hail of lead on one of them, ignoring the fireballs that they hurled at him. However, even after a full 100-round belt of 7.62mm NATO, the Baron he shot was still alive…and very angry.

"Oh yeah!?" Shadow whipped out the M79. "Let's see how you like a beehive round to the knee!"

As per his promise, Shadow fired a beehive round at the Baron's knee. However, this merely annoyed it into brushing away at its knee, so Shadow attempted to shoot it in the head with his M60, which did the trick…albeit after half a belt. He noticed that the M60's barrel was heating up, but he remembered to bring an extra barrel as well. However, he wasn't exactly enthused about the idea of having to switch a barrel when a huge angry fireball-throwing monster was bearing down on him, so he took the M79 and fired a beehive round at its face. Fortunately, this managed to blind the remaining Baron, who screamed in agony as it clutched at its face. With the Baron unable to do much of anything, Shadow swapped his M60's barrel for the fresh one and did his best to ventilate the monster's brains out. Again, it took more than a few bullets, but he succeeded in wasting both Barons of Hell.

Not too far away from where the Barons were, Shadow did indeed come across another woman, seated at a wooden office desk with a custom-built desktop computer, near a large skull emitting steam. Like the other women, she had white hair, pale pinkish skin, red eyes and an arrow-tipped tail. Unlike the other women, her hair was styled into a messy bob, and she had two black horns sticking out of the top of her head, much like Modeus and Pandemonica. Her eyes also appeared to have a haggard look about them. Also, in the same vein as the other women, her attire had a red/black color scheme, in this case a black vest over a red long-sleeve button-down shirt, a black pencil skirt over black dress pants, and black knee-high high-heel leather boots. Unusually, Shadow also noticed that her shirt sleeves were rolled up to just below her elbows, revealing various tattoos on her forearms, and while not the most well-endowed woman, her figure was at least comparable to Cerberus'. She got up from her desk upon seeing Shadow.

"Great, more brain-dead idiots." The woman rubbed the right part of her forehead with the back of her hand. "Never seen your ugly face before. What are you playing at?"

Shadow smiled. "This is delicious. Please, insult me more."

The woman growled. "Fantastic. Just my luck to find another masochist creep."

The woman made a claw gesture with her right hand and attempted to slash Shadow's throat open. Not only did the Ultimate Life Form survive, but he didn't even flinch. Frustrated, the woman gritted her teeth, exposing her fangs.

"All right, tell me what you're playing at or get the fuck outta here."

Shadow kept smiling. "I'd sure love to play with you."

Still frowning, the woman ruffled her hair in front of her right horn. "Like what…video games? Sure, why not…as long as you're OK with turn-based strategies."

"Such as…?"

"Ever played Heroes of Might and Magic III?"

Shadow's look turned more serious, and he shook his head. "No, can't say I have."

The woman's usually-stern look quickly melted away as her eyes widened and she dropped her jaw.

"You've NEVER played that game!? What kind of rock have you been living under!? That's only the greatest game of all time!"

Shadow stared at the woman. "If it's as good as you say it is, then I'll gladly play that one with you."

The woman nodded. "OK. Just let me pull up a chair for you…"

The woman grabbed a steel folding chair and set it up next to her leather office chair.

"By the way, we haven't even introduced ourselves." Shadow took a seat. "I'm Shadow the Hedgehog."

"My name is Malina."

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "So you're the Malina that Pandemonica told me about?" Shadow smiled. "Pleased to meet you at last."

Shadow offered his hand to Malina, and she shook hands with him. He noticed a vague smell of alcohol about her.

"You know, I'm surprised that Pandemonica mentioned me considering that hardly anyone thanks me for keeping this place clean."

Shadow scratched his head. "Funny, based on what she said, I got the impression that playing customer service down here was more thankless."

"Never mind that. Let's just get started with the game."

Malina opened up Heroes of Might and Magic III.

"Hey Malina, if you want to, why don't we make this more interesting?"

"How?"

"If I win, I get to do whatever I want with you. Conversely, if you win, you get to do the same with me."

Malina shrugged. "Ah, fair enough, I guess…"

Malina shook on the deal with Shadow.

"OK, so listen closely because I'm only going to tell you all of this once," said Malina. "Gameplay in Heroes III is a mix of overworld exploration and turn-based combat. You get a number of heroes who command their own armies. To create an army, you have to spend various resources at various towns. Certain town types benefit from different strategies more than others. For example, third-level mage guild towns make you compromise between building more units and producing more gold. Certain factions such as Rampart and Inferno will benefit you more if you build unit-producing structures in the first week instead of gold-producing structures. That aside, there are a number of different ways you can win depending on the map, whether by eliminating all other factions, collecting a certain amount of resources or finding a Grail-like item. The map has an aboveground and an underground section, with various gateways that lead to both. The map also has various treasures and monsters, plus mines, which you can use to…are you getting all of this?"

Shadow nodded. "I am. Please continue."

"Anyways, if you find a mine, flag it and it'll produce resources that you can use to develop your towns. You can expand your towns by spending some gold and using a resource such as wood, but more expensive buildings will require harder-to-find resources such as mercury, crystals, gems or sulfur, so try to get a corresponding mine when you can. Also, each town has two associated hero types, one that is more about might – that is, combat – and one that is more about magic. Also, try to hire more heroes from the tavern on Day 1, about two or three for Hard difficulty and three or four for Normal difficulty. Also, each town has seven different creature types that can be upgraded. If you need additional help, I'll explain as we go along."

"Understood."

Malina started up Heroes III and opened up the Multiplayer menu.

"If you want to, I can put a couple of AI players on the map to help you get accustomed to the gameplay," said Malina.

"Thanks, but I pass."

"If you say so. Now pick a faction, a hero and a resource."

Shadow grabbed the mouse and picked Necropolis.

"So help me god, if you pick that faction, I will kick your ass SO HARD…" said Malina.

Shadow crossed his arms. "What's wrong with them?"

"Do you NOT realize how OP Necropolis is?"

"So?"

"So pick a different faction or we're NOT playing!"

Shadow let out an aggravated sigh. "Fine…"

Shadow ended up picking the Stronghold faction. As for his hero, he chose Crag Hack, and he gave himself Artifacts for a starting bonus.

"Interesting choice," said Malina.

Malina chose Rampart as her faction, also choosing Mephala for her hero and a starting bonus of extra resources. For their scenario, she chose "Key to Victory", and thus, the game began. From the very outset of the scenario, it became obvious that Shadow had very well absorbed what Malina had taught to him, although it happened that she was putting up a hell of an early game fight when she accrued even more resources thanks to the Fountain of Fortune. Having fought a bunch of random Hell demons, however, Shadow was not one to give up so easily, and managed to get some Behemoths in the first week. During this time, Shadow's Hedgehog Sense tingled, and he looked over, only to notice Malina red in the face, sweating and moaning orgasmically. He found it odd that such a sour gamer chick could get off so much on this game. Nevertheless, he did his best to concentrate on the real action, and recalling what she told him, he persisted in his efforts. At one point, Shadow found and freed Adela and her five angels from a nearby prison, and from that point on, it was all downhill. Malina did her best, but in the end, Shadow crushed her entire army and captured her town.

"You…" said Malina. "If you hadn't freed Adela, I would've beaten you for sure!"

Shadow smiled. "Well-played, nevertheless. That was fun. Now, about our agreement…"

"All right, what do you want?"

"You're attractive. I want to have sex with you."

Malina stared at Shadow briefly. Then, she sighed.

"Fair enough. It's not like I'm too drunk to fuck anyways."

With that, Malina kissed Shadow. For a sour gamer, he noticed that she was really going into the kiss. Nevertheless, her lips were just as enjoyable as any of the other demon girls' lips that he'd kissed thus far. Besides, to Shadow, pretty much any woman could be beautiful if they had the right stuff, and despite Malina's attitude and the taste of alcohol on her breath, he thought she had enough of the right stuff to want to make love to her. What made this even better for him was the fact that he had to work to earn this from her, and while he didn't mind "no strings attached" lovemaking, a round of Heroes III definitely made the experience sweeter. Then, one of the more fun parts came for Shadow: the part where Malina began undressing. Shadow always enjoyed this part because he thought the women looked so sexy when they had their clothes off. He also couldn't help but notice that she had more tattoos. Then, Malina lied down.

"Come on, get this over with," said Malina.

Shadow smiled. "Gladly."

Just as he had done before, Shadow put on a condom and entered Malina, who let out a loud gasp upon discovering just how big he was. Then, he began thrusting into her. For someone who had such an unpleasant attitude, he found her very pleasant to make love to so far. While he was good with the idea of being dominated during sex, he really enjoyed taking on the dominant role with these women, and knowing that he had not only dominated her in Heroes III, but was doing so now, it made him want an orgasm for the both of them even more. Judging by the way she was moaning, he could tell she really wanted – no, needed – one.

"Yeah, fuck my pussy!" said Malina.

Despite her generally bitter attitude, Malina loved a good round of sex, and considering that Shadow was so well-endowed, she especially loved having sex with him so far. Even if he had beaten her at Heroes III, she didn't care too much. After all, deep down inside, she'd been crying out for companionship of any sort, and knowing that he came down here to visit, it was melting all her troubles away. As their little bang session continued, Malina got hotter and hotter, wanting her orgasm more and more. Considering how handsome she found Shadow, she really wanted it, so she lied back and took it, until…

"OH GOD! OH GOD! FUCK! FUCK!"

Malina dug her fingers into Shadow's hips and screamed as the orgasm rocked her world like nothing else could. Encouraged, he kept thrusting through his own climax, happy that he once again got to have his way with a human-looking demon girl. Once again, he didn't stop until he was completely finished, after which he pulled out.

"Wow, you must've really enjoyed that," said Shadow.

Malina took a deep breath. "It was all right, I suppose…"

Shadow smiled. "I don't know, your moaning and screaming told me that you really needed this."

Malina sat up and crossed her arms. "Don't push your luck. I know you're the one responsible for blowing away all those demons. Do you NOT know how long it's gonna take to clean all of that up?"

"Malina, not only will I give you a delicious crepe if you stop complaining about the mess, but I'll even fuck you again."

Malina looked into Shadow's blood red eyes, and despite trying to maintain a stone face, she melted soon enough.

"Well…all right."

Shadow then handed Malina a crepe, which she wasted no time in eating. She nodded after the first few bites.

"This is really good. Did you make this?"

"No, my best friend did."

After Malina finished her crepe, she had another round of hot sex with Shadow.

"You know, I'm amazed that any man can have sex twice in a row without feeling drained," said Malina.

"Well, I have no refractory period. Besides, you're not the only one; Modeus took me four times."

Malina proceeded to put her clothes back on. "Hmph, no surprise considering she's such a fucking slut. Now if you'll excuse me, I have shit to do, so get outta here, loverboy. Oh, and tell my sister I said 'fuck you'."

"You have a sister? What's her name?"

"Zdrada."

Shadow nodded. "Right. Have a nice day, Malina."

"You too, Shadow."

Shadow moved along.

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.