By now, Shadow was starting to feel jaded. Sure, he enjoyed blowing away evil monsters and making sweet love to beautiful women, but at this point, he was also wondering if this was all his life was ever going to be. Somewhere down the line, there just had to be Satan himself, and the Ultimate Life Form was going to teach that devil a really good lesson, and he wanted it to come sooner rather than later so he could get back home to Rouge. Besides, it was getting hotter the farther he proceeded.

At one point, Shadow decided that he needed a rest, so he hid behind the next available large rock and took a nap. Given how hot it was, he didn't even bother draping a blanket over himself. Despite the fact that he wasn't lying down on a bed, he didn't mind sleeping on the ground, either. Thus, he relaxed and tried to let the comforting caress of sleep take him over. However, he would soon reconsider his decision to let sleep get to him, for he had an all-too-familiar dream about rushing down all-too-familiar hallways with an all-too-familiar face. Then, a gunshot rang out, and Shadow heard all-too-familiar words…

"Shadow, I beg of you…please, do it for me! For all of the people on that planet…give them a chance to be happy! Let them live for their dreams…for a better future!"

"MARIA!"

At that moment, Shadow bolted awake, panting and sweating. While this wasn't the first time he'd had this dream, he never really got used to the pain no matter how many times he thought about it. This time, however, it served as a call to arms for him:

(I have to do this! I have to! I don't care how long it takes; I'm going to blow away as many demons as possible until I take down Lucifer himself! Maria would've wanted this!)

Galvanized into continuing his quest, Shadow whipped out his M60 and proceeded further. Soon enough, he came across a large group of Imps, with a couple of Revenants thrown in for good measure. The Revenants took quite a few bullets, as usual, but the Imps got torn up like tissue paper, with Shadow laughing all the while.

(These guys clearly don't know their limitations.)

Moving on, Shadow's Hedgehog Sense tingled, and heard what sounded like teleportation sounds, only to discover that a bunch of Pinkies and Cacodemons were swarming him. Undeterred, he let loose with his M60, still laughing as they fell before him. A couple got too close for comfort, so he reached down their throats and ripped their spinal cords out.

"COME ON! Is this all you've got!?"

Once this bloodbath was done with, Shadow put a fresh 100-round belt into his M60 and moved on. His next group of victims was a large group of Cacodemons with a few Hell Knights mixed in for good measure. The Cacodemons were easy enough to rip to shreds, but despite not being tough as the nearly-identical Barons of Hell, the Hell Knights still proved to be really tough customers, so Shadow blinded both of them with M79 beehive rounds before whipping out his SPAS-12 to go alongside his M60. Dual-wielding them, especially considering that the SPAS-12 was loaded with explosive slugs, that made shorter work of the Knights.

(Peace sells…but who's buying?)

After dealing with those guys and changing his M60's barrel, Shadow had an easy stretch for a little bit before coming upon a group of Imps and Cacodemons with another nasty twist: two Arachnotrons. Shadow used the M60 and SPAS-12 to make short work of the Imps and Cacodemons before trying out the SPAS-12's explosive slugs on the Arachnotrons. Fortunately, he only needed three slugs each for these robotic spiders.

(I must be getting closer now.)

For a brief stretch, Shadow encountered no other monsters, but his Hedgehog Sense was telling him that something really nasty was waiting for him, so for the first time since he began this bloodbath, he pulled out the M202, keeping the M60 ready in case anything else tried to interfere with him. Nothing else did, but soon enough, he came across just what it was his Hedgehog Sense was alerting him to: the Cyberdemon.

"You may be huge, but the bigger they are, the harder they fall."

The Cyberdemon attempted to fire three rockets at Shadow, but he responded with one Blockbuster rocket. Fortunately for him, this was all it took to blow the massive hulk of a demon apart.

"You're not so tough, are you?"

After putting the Grim Reaper away, Shadow proceeded forth. Just as he'd expected, after a brief stretch, he came upon another woman. However, this particular woman threw him for a loop, for she looked completely different from any of the other woman he'd encountered before. For one, her neck-length hair was raven black in color, with two white ribbons in it. Also, her skin was just Caucasian skin, and her eyes were as blue as the most expansive oceans. She even had a halo over her head. Her outfit was vastly different, too, consisting of a white short-sleeve shirt with yellow trim on the sleeves and vertically down the center, white gloves with yellow trim on the cuffs, a cross necklace with leaves, white pants, and white knee-high leather boots with yellow-trimmed straps. As for her figure, it was similar to Zdrada's. Almost immediately, she took notice of him:

"Oh my heavens! What would a living hedgehog be doing in Hell? Most unusual."

"Don't mind me; I'm just here to fuck."

The angel dropped her jaw. "Oh…oh my! I…well…I like women, but I'll most certainly make love to you…for research purposes! Yes, that's the ticket…"

Shadow smiled. "Then allow me to introduce myself: I'm Shadow the Hedgehog."

"And I am Azazel."

Without further ado, Azazel kissed Shadow, who gladly returned the gesture. After tasting Zdrada's cigarette breath, kissing this woman felt not only like a breath of fresh air, but heavenly…literally. Granted, she seemed to be a bit inexperienced in the art of kissing – or at least hesitant – judging by how little she was going into it, so he used what he'd learned to take charge and really go at her. In doing so, she tightened her embrace on him, which told him that she was either bisexual and didn't know it or at the very least was willing to make an exception for him. He didn't question this too much, figuring that as long as she was willing to give it to him, then why bother with the why? Soon, she grabbed his hands and guided him into disrobing her.

"Shadow…I want you."

Shadow wanted Azazel too, and after putting on a fresh condom, he entered her and began another hot lovemaking session. Compared to the other women he'd done, she was pretty tight, so he tried not to go at her too hard at first. Nevertheless, he found her to be very enjoyable. One thing that he noticed with her was that unlike the other women, she didn't moan very loudly as she was being fucked. Sure, her breathing was noticeably audible, and she had the typical "orgasm face" going on, but other than that, she seemed to be more modest during sex than the other women, though she did talk plenty dirty…

"Oh yes, this feels SO GOOD! I want MORE!"

Having never had the opportunity to have sex before, Azazel was going out of her mind. As if that wasn't enough, her first time also happened to be with a well-endowed, artificially-created immortal alien hedgehog. Given how he was giving it to her, she wondered how long it would be before she attained orgasm. On one hand, she worried what would happen if her fellow angels or even God Himself found out about this, but on the other hand, she did say this was for research, and if her research turned out to be pleasurable in the process, then she really didn't give a shit what her peers thought. Speaking of pleasurable…

"OH…OH MY! OH MY! OH YES!"

Azazel balled her fists, curled her toes and screamed her lungs out as her first orgasm overtook every square inch of her body. Naturally, Shadow just couldn't help but grin evilly as he continued to pump into her and get off himself. Finally, once both parties' climaxes had subsided, Shadow remained in Azazel for a bit before pulling out.

"Did you enjoy that, my dear Azazel?"

"Shadow…that was AMAZING! My research is going to benefit TREMENDOUSLY from this!"

"Glad I could be of service. Here, have a crepe."

Azazel took the crepe and took a bite out of it. She let out a hearty "mmmm" as she took in the mixed taste of Nutella and quark.

"This is a very good crepe! Did you make this?"

"No, my best friend did. I'll give her your thanks anyways."

Azazel swallowed. "Oh, that's very nice of you, Shadow!"

Shadow smiled. "Well, I haven't really thought of myself as a nice person, but you've done nothing wrong to me, so I felt that sharing a delicious treat with you was warranted."

Azazel finished up the rest of her crepe and proceeded to put her clothes back on.

"By the way, Shadow, are you the one responsible for all of that gunfire?"

Shadow frowned and crossed his arms. "Yeah. So?"

Azazel blushed. "Oh…I…that's no problem for me at all! In fact, even if I disagree with your methods, I welcome anyone who comes along to keep Hell's demons at bay! Besides, their entrails will prove most useful to my research!"

"Then I'll keep killing. Have a nice day, Azazel."

Azazel smiled and waved at Shadow. "You too! Bye, Shadow!"

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.