Blood Red
Episode 3
Bloodlust Crusaders
A/N: I'd like to clarify something, there will be no influences from Metal Gear Rising Revengeance in this fic. Trust me.
Also I'm a massive liar.
A/N 2: Hey there, I'm finally back, sorry it took me so long to get a new chapter out, but I had to deal with some… Important personal issues first. Thank you for your time and have a happy read.
Chapter 16: Red Sun over paradise
Wunder, main bridge
A blue portal opened in the middle of the room while the rest of the crew remained in silence.
Asuka slowly walked out of it, ignoring the stares she was receiving from everyone, except for Ritsuko, who told her:
"Go to your quarters, we'll need to talk later."
Asuka left the room and the portal closed, letting some members let out a sigh of relief, scared that the Slayer would have walked out of it after her.
Ritsuko felt better too, but she was more focused on other matters to give it too much attention. She looked at the screen in front of her, where Samuel was charting a path through a map of Urdak.
'Alright, I have it figured out, I'll share you the map right now' The robot said as his face appeared over the Wunder's deck.
Play:[LRSSG Briefing I] Ace combat 7 OST
A map of Urdak suddenly appeared neck to him, showing the various islands, the void and the important locations they had to target, while their position was marked with two blue points. Then Samuel said:
'Here's the situation. We are currently stuck here since both of our ships are still damaged. We can defend ourselves from the Demons, but we can't hold out forever.
There is a facility north east of our position which can bring us back to your world, it's where the portal we originally used is located.
To get there however, you'll have to go through this dense forest that is full of demons, this was unfortunately the only feasible option. After you get out of the forest on the north eastern side, you'll have to use a flight pad to reach the island where the portal is located.
This portal is kept open by three energy rings, which can only be calibrated by VEGA, so he'll come with you on this mission by using a small storage device.
After the Slayer clears the area of demons, head up the main elevator, there you'll reach the floating island above it where the terminal is located.
Place the storing device on the terminal and VEGA will be able to operate the portal to send us back.
It'll take him a while since the coordinates to your world have been corrupted, so prepare yourself for some heavy demon resistance.'
"What if the demons don't follow us? Plus can't this mission be carried out by just the Slayer?" Ritsuko asked and Samuel replied:
'The problem is that ever since the last time we visited that facility, the Slayer has been denied access to a genetic level, so one more person is needed to follow him. The demons are naturally attracted to the Slayer, it's in their own nature, so I wouldn't worry about it. What's the state of unit 08?'
"It's still going to take us a while to restart its batteries, but we should be able to send it over as soon as we can." Ritsuko said.
'Great, the gap isn't too large either, so Mari should clear it with a well timed jump.'
Hearing this Ritsuko crossed her arms and said:
"Mari won't be the one piloting this time, she got hurt earlier when the batteries malfunctioned. I requested you to send Asuka over because of that."
"Does she consider Asuka as just a weapon or what?" The robot thought as he looked at the blonde woman on the other side of the screen. He then said:
'Okay… If she's fine with it.'
He turned around to grab the storage device when suddenly Ritsuko replied:
"She will, don't worry."
"That's exactly what VEGA says every time he 'meets' with the Wraiths-"
Samuel thought before his robotic head snapped back towards the screen and stared at the scientist right in the eyes, not noticing how his visor took on a very light red tint.
The Slayer walked next to him and grabbed the storage device as the Samuel said:
'I sure hope so. We're going in ten minutes.'.
The screen faded to black, letting the WILLE crew's heartbeat go under two hundred beats per minute.
They didn't notice the redhead which had been listening from behind the door.
Meanwhile, Wunder's infirmary
Asuka entered the room and looked at the various lit lights, one for each patient currently resting in there.
There was one that was detached from the others, so Asuka approached it, stopping just before the curtain to let out a short sigh.
She walked forward, finding Mari wide awake,who immediately said:
"Princess! You came! Aww come here and let me hug you!"
"Be more quiet Mari, there's other people here."
"Okay, so I'll ask right away. Did you get a chance to 'look' at the puppy while they were treating him?"
"Mari!" Asuka said as her face turned bright red.
"Ahh so you did?"
"... No, I didn't."
"Aww poor girl, don't worry you'll get your chance."
"Please Mari just shut up. I've just come here to tell you that I'm taking your unit for a while, since mine is still in Europe…"
"Alright, you can have it, just don't get it too dirty alright?"
Asuka rolled her eyes as she said:
"Yeah yeah… How's your leg?"
Mari's smile became a bit wider when she heard this and she replied:
"It's not bad, I'll be clear to go by the end of today if the muscle strain goes away."
Asuka nodded and turned to leave, until she heard Mari say:
"Hey princess, keep him close to you alright? He's gonna need you."
Asuka stood still for a moment before saying:
"He doesn't need me. Almost no one does."
She walked away before Mari could say anything else, leaving the girl with a bad taste in her mouth.
"Princess, princess… Are you sure he's the stupid one?"
Meanwhile outside in the hall, Asuka had just been approached by Ritsuko who said:
"So, you'll pilot?"
"Yes."
Asuka turned to leave when suddenly Ritsuko grabbed her shoulder, stopping her abruptly. She then said:
"I want to make one thing clear though. I've seen the decisions you make on the battlefield, when you ignore Misato's orders to do it your way.
Well I'm not going to let you do that as long as I'm in charge, let's hope that it's not for long anyway."
"...Yeah let's hope." Asuka replied, hiding her bright blue eyepatch as she walked away.
"Wait, isn't that the direction towards Misato's room?"
Ritsuko thought, but dismissed it as Sakura arrived to give her a checkup on their medical situation.
Captain's quarters, a while later
Asuka pressed the doorbell button and waited for a response. She didn't even know if her captain was awake or not, but she considered trying it anyway.
At least it might be able to stop the coldness that she was feeling in her body.
The door opened by itself and she entered. Ever since visiting it for the first time, Misato's room had always reminded her of their old apartment, the time she had spent with her and Shinji… Especially Shinji. And how long fourteen years without those things really are.
The door closed behind herself and she decided to cut it short, heading directly to the bedroom after fixing her cap.
She opened the door slowly, eventually finding Misato still asleep on her bed.
Asuka stepped in, annoyed by how heavy the air inside felt, but she ignored it as she sat down on one of the chairs.
A faint light illuminated the cross on the woman's neck, while the girl looked at the sleeping woman and at the red cap on the nightstand, with a picture of her and her son next to it.
When she looked at Misato again, memories slowly started to make themselves known in her head, all of them involving Misato.
Their first weeks as her caretaker, their separation and her time with Kaji.
The time they spent in the apartment…
And then, the next thing she remembered was being awakened from her near death, with Misato still there, but… Different.
She didn't listen to her much, didn't look at her like before, she didn't even show any kind of acknowledgement towards her. Just a quick nod, and off she was at the frontlines again.
Over the years the two had only ever grown more distant from each other, to the point of barely greeting when other people weren't around.
"Why am I here in the first place?
Well she's my captain so it's okay for one of her crew to check on her… But no one ordered me to do this, and I'm not a medic either, so I should just leave… Unless I have to tell her something.
'How long Asuka, you've grown!'
'Ohhh, you're preparing something for Shinji too eh?'
'That's not true, you're a nice person Asuka.'
'I think this is the first time I've felt comfortable talking with you Misato.'
Yeah… Where the hell did all of that go? One accident and now I'm a monster to her. Stupid bitch… Do I really want to try to bring them back?"
Asuka looked back at the large bed, noticing that Misato was now slowly opening her eyes.
They ended up staring at each other, both unable to say a word to the other.
After some silence however it was Misato who broke the silence by saying:
"S-Shikinami? W-what are you doing here?"
"I just wanted to tell you that I'll be sortying soon, so if it's the last time you see me you know why."
"Oh, I see. Be careful out there."
"Tsk, as if you ever cared."
"Shikinam-!" Misato tried to shout back, but found her throat hurting like hell, so she stopped.
"Look, you're not even calling me by my name. And don't try to excuse yourself with your status of captain or anything, it's just the two of us right now."
Misato remained silent, feeling her heart beating faster and faster.
"Ever since near third impact you have done nothing but ignore me at all costs, even before WILLE was formed. And for all of these years you just pretended to care as I went into battle after battle with little hopes of survival. Oh but as long as I came back everything was okay right? It didn't matter if I got a limb blown off or two like that time in Beijing, since you could always just replace them thanks to this insult to God in my eye."
Misato's heart now felt like it was going to stop any moment now by how fast it was beating as the girl continued:
"You think that I enjoyed staying in that cell that is my quarters for all this time? The three best nights that I had recently I had them on the Fortress and in one of them I was nearly killed!... Ugh."
By now Asuka's breathing had gotten heavier due to how much she had shouted, so she leaned forward and said:
"What the hell happened to you Misato?"
The woman tried to reply, but felt her vocal cords stop working as nothing but air came out of her mouth. Annoyed by this, Asuka finally left the room and headed towards the evangelion's hangar.
Meanwhile, Misato thought to herself as guilt started to stab her in the back:
"I… I don't know Asuka. I'm sorry."
Her subconscious however knew the answer, just that she was unable to admit it to herself.
Outside of the two ships, ten minutes later
The Slayer waited outside the Wunder, tapping his foot as he looked at his internal clock.
'They should have been here minutes ago. What the hell are they doing?' Samuel said when suddenly the access ramp to the Wunder lowered down, with a single person coming out of it.
A man approached the Slayer wearing full military equipment, so much so that he wasn't even able to see his face properly.
The man extended a hand outwards and the Slayer shook it while he introduced himself:
"Lieutenant Ikanawa, five years of service in the JSDF, sorry if it took a while, I couldn't find my equipment. Let's get this over quickly, shall we?"
The Slayer nodded as VEGA said:
'I've just displayed the path on your HUD, the entrance to the forest is one hundred meters forward.'
The two men began their walk as both Samuel and Ritsuko watched them from their ships and after a couple of minutes they were in front of their destination.
A huge patch of forty meter tall trees that seemed to go on endlessly presented itself in front of them. Their barks were white with golden incisions just under them, while red leaves blocked off the world's natural dim light, reducing very much the visibility inside.
Ikanawa lowered his night vision goggles and activated the camera on top of his helmet, letting the Wunder see what was happening.
He followed the Slayer as they walked around red bushes, fallen trees, and a lot of puddles made up of a strange dark pink liquid, which the former soldier was very careful to avoid.
After a while they reached a white metallic road that had broken statues all around it, surrounded by rampant vegetation.
And as the soldier looked around he asked:
"What is this place anyway? An old road or something?"
'From the looks of it it's probably a temple of some sort… Strange though, it's not on the map even though every other building in Urdak is.' VEGA said as he thought:
"I know everything about Urdak so… Why did we discover this place only now?"
They continued down their path,noticing how the statues were getting larger and more decorated.
"Huh, this one looks like your robotic friend back there."
Ikanawa said while pointing at a face attached to a wall, so Ritsuko asked:
'I think that it's more than just a coincidence, right Hayden?'
'Well, I was "quite popular" in Urdak before I left for Earth.' The robot replied.
'It definitely shows.' Ritsuko said as they saw his head start to become a repeating decoration.
Finally, as they reached the end of the road, the Slayer moved away a big tree that was blocking the path, revealing a large white circular building with golden decorations all over it.
They got closer to its entrance, which was guarded by two enormous white statues of a being with thin arms, a large brain and armor covering the tentacles in its lower body.
As they got close to the door, the two were about to enter when suddenly the Slayer grabbed Ikanawa and pushed him to the side, making him avoid an imp's fireball.
The Slayer turned around and shot the small demon in the head with the heavy cannon, making it explode.
A horde of demons quickly stormed the palace, especially a large quantity of mancubi.
The fat humanoid bipedal giants had two cannons instead of hands with flamethrowers attached to it. Their various layers of flesh and simply the sheer amount was enough to make them some of the toughest demons on the battlefield, sacrificing mobility and agility instead.
The Slayer immediately killed one of the three by surprising it with a doom blade to the head, then jumped off and let out a volley of three rockets against the one to his right, feeling his arms burn as the last mancubus hit him with two large fireballs.
He ignored the pain as he pulled out the ballista and aimed it at the exposed heart at the centre of the dying demon's belly, using the push from the weapon to land right on top of the last large enemy and hit it with a blood punch, breaking both of its arm cannons.
The Slayer then dashed away to avoid its close range shockwave and the following smaller red shots while frying parts of its skin with the plasma gun and charging up the heat blast.
Once it was ready the Slayer dashed twice to end up behind the mancubus, where a group of gargoyles had been waiting to attack him. The thousand degree hot blast of energy that was fired from the plasma gun turned their bodies into pools of blood as the Slayer turned around and finished off the larger demon with a super shotgun shot.
An imp was about to get him while he was reloading, but Ikanawa managed to shoot at it right on time.
The Slayer looked back at the soldier, giving him a slight nod as he resumed his carnage by launching a grenade into a cacodemon's mouth and jumping on it.
He stabbed its eye and pulled it out, killing it as it exploded in a pool of blue blood. This blood revealed the cloaked spectre whiplashes and the spectre pinkies, both of which were slithering and running towards the Slayer.
He pulled out the chaingun and activated the energy shield, blocking the whiplashes' waves of energy and the spectres' charge.
A freeze grenade was launched into the group, stopping any movement as the Slayer started charging the destroyer blade.
A hell knight tried to jump on him, but the shockwave that the ballista sent out when it finished charging made it land abruptly and miss its target.
And as a blade of energy cut through its fellow demons like butter, the Slayer grabbed its head and broke it on his knee, finishing the fight.
He saw the soldier wipe some sweat off his brow while getting out from behind the statue. He then began following the Slayer, observing how the demon blood evaporated from his green armor.
While they approached the main door, the Slayer expected it to be closed and not react to him, but to everyone's surprise it opened without issue, so Samuel said:
"It must be disconnected from the system for it to just open like that… Which makes this place even weirder."
The two men walked into the dark circular room that had been conquered by vegetation, noticing how a faint yellow glow made the floor barely visible.
The Slayer moved forward towards what looked like an alien computer, when suddenly he heard something falling from behind him.
"One wrong move and he's dead!" A tall figure suddenly said from the dark while holding a blade at Ikanawa's throat.
"You need him to access the portal, am I correct Slayer?
After you killed the Khan Maykr and resurrected the Dark Lord you're not able to do anything here in Urdak, so now you resort to using random humans?"
'Who are you?' Samuel asked and the figure came forward, revealing itself to have a body very similar to the Wraiths'
"I thought that at least you would have recognized me, Samur. Have you forgotten about your old political rival?"
'Wait… Restos, is that you?' Samuel said.
"Clear as day you traitor." Restos said as he unfolded his yellow wings from behind his back and stepped forward, making the Slayer lower his super shotgun. Not because he couldn't save Ikanawa, but simply because he was interested in what the Maykr had to say.
Just as Restos was about to talk again, Ikanawa finally managed to grab a bullet from one of his magazines and, thanks to his numerous years of service, he was able to fire the bullet at his captor by using a pointed ring.
The gunshot erupted through the room as it went right through Restos' arm, freeing the soldier who immediately kicked him away and pulled out his rifle.
The Slayer stopped him however, placing a hand on the barrel. So a confused Ikanawa asked him:
"What are you doing? There might be more lurking around."
The Slayer shook his head as he looked back at the recovering Restos, who said while:
"He's right… There's only me here. Everyone else has either died or was corrupted by the demons… In all of Urdak."
'Wait. Restos you're the only Maykr left?' Samuel asked and the alien nodded, then added:
"Apart from you and the body in the main island, yes."
'Oh no.' Samuel said as Ikanawa put away his gun and asked:
"Uhm, what? Maykr? Corruption? Could I get an explanation since I nearly had my throat cut open."
"You shot me without even letting me talk! Ah! I hate you humans." The Maykr replied.
'I'll explain for everyone listening if that's okay.' VEGA said to also try to calm down the situation.
"And you are? You sound familiar." Restos asked.
'My name is VEGA, I am an artificial intelligence created by Samur on earth. I was able to access Urdak' s main database in a past mission.'
"I see. Go on then, I still need to heal anyway." Restos said while looking at his arm as Argent energy slowly regenerated his tissue.
So, VEGA began:
'The Maykrs are the indigenous population of Urdak, led by a leader called the Khan Maykr. They also had an even superior figure in their society called the Father, which disappeared when Samuel was exiled from their society. Since then they have been forced to live on a constant supply of Argent energy, which they were able to get after a pact with hell's leader, the Dark Lord. After the Slayer killed the last Khan Maykr and brought back the Dark Lord in his physical form, this world has gone in ruin, overrun by the demons.'
A brief moment of silence passed before Restos said:
"Yes, that's basically it."
'I am curious though, what's this place we are in right now? It didn't appear on the map.' VEGA asked and, as Restos started floating again, he replied:
"Come with me, I'll show you."
The two men looked at each other for a moment before starting to follow the Maykr, who led them to the console that the Slayer was about to inspect earlier.
Restos placed a hand on the startup button, bringing light back into the room as a screen appeared before them, showing a map and various instructions to the side.
Then he said:
"After the Father disappeared, the Khan Maykr had taken hold of everyone's minds, except for a few of us. We escaped inside this forest and for the longest time we simply watched her as she brought ruin to our world, unable to do anything.
But then you came, Slayer.
By waging war against her, you gave us an opportunity to destroy her rule over all other Maykrs, and we rejoiced when we saw you kill her, knowing that our plan was about to be complete.
If only the demons hadn't taken over our realm… Now I'm the only one left…"
The Slayer walked closer to the screen, noticing that in the building that housed the portal, a barrier of hell energy had been detected.
Curious about this, the Slayer made Restos notice it too, who then said:
"Huh, strange. It must have appeared recently because I've never seen a shield cover that area. Could they have set up a trap when they saw you crash land back here?"
The Slayer moved a hand towards his chin as he thought:
"Yes, that's probably it. There's going to be an entire platoon of demons waiting for me there and up the elevator that leads to it… It's going to be a very difficult fight, I might even be forced to fall back on my super weapons. Hm? What's Ikanawa looking at?"
The Slayer watched Ikanawa as he approached the screen and traced his finger across the map, making a strange path through the forest to reach the launch pad and stopping at the main tower right behind the portal machine, where the terminal they were after was located.
His eyes widened a bit and he said:
"What's this on the tower? An opening?"
Restos zoomed in closer, revealing a small air vent on the side of the building, but then he said:
"I see where you are getting at, but even if it allows us to get past the barrier, the demons will storm the place in no time. Shut up now human, I'm thinking."
"Hey! Don't you talk to me like that!" Ikanawa replied.
"You're an inferior species, I can talk to you any way I want."
"Why you little-" Ikanawa suddenly jumped on Restos and grabbed his wings, causing the Maykr to fall to the ground as the two started wrestling with each other.
It took the Slayer placing his foot on them and pointing the super shotgun right at their faces to make them stop immediately.
They jumped back to a standing position, trembling with fear as the Doom Slayer stared at their souls with fire in his eyes.
He let out a sigh and motioned to Ikanawa to continue.
"Ahh ehm, right, yes. What I wanted to say is that if there is an opening there, you can keep the demons busy outside Slayer while we go and activate the portal, going around the hell barrier."
The Slayer considered the plan and nodded after a while, then reopened the map to check for particular spots on the battlefield.
Meanwhile the two behind him exchanged a bad look at each other as they grabbed their respective weapons. A moment later they all left the room, heading into the forest and towards the jump pad.
Meanwhile, in the fortress of doom
"Ugh…" Shinji said as he reopened his eyes, looking around the hospital room he had been confined in.
He eventually found a piece of paper left by Samuel near his bed which said:
"Hi Shinji, I am currently busy fixing the ship and VEGA is on a mission with the Slayer, so if you wake up, follow the instructions here until I come back. Don't worry, it won't take long."
The boy looked at the paper a bit confused, turning it around to read the other text:
"Step 1 of your rehabilitation process:
If you are reading this, that means you are somewhat able to move your arms. Now, try to bring them as high as you can and remember your maximum height. Don't push yourself too hard, you are still fragile."
"Okay, this shouldn't be too hard." Shinji thought to himself as he placed the paper on his legs and began lifting his arms.
When he brought them to the sides of his face, his entire upper body started to hurt as if someone had just dipped it in acid, so he immediately let them fall back down.
After some heavy breaths, Shinji took the paper again, noticing that it was full of steps like these. He cursed himself several times before resuming.
A while later Hayden arrived, finding the boy laying down on his bed with his body as rigid as a brick as he sat down near him.
"So, how did it go?" Samuel asked and Shinji replied:
"Not… Great… My whole body… Hurts."
"Yeah well it was kind of expected, still we had to start in some way or another."
"Isn't there… A more… 'medical' approach to this? I don't think that I'll live for longer than a week like this."
"Well, I get what you mean but I'm a scientist, not a medic. And VEGA can be… A bit ruthless when it comes to strict programs."
"VEGA? You're…Kidding right?"
"Well, he certainly isn't with Molly. Actually since the fortress isn't flying right now, would you like to talk to her for a while? I need to go check something in my office anyway."
The boy's eyes widened at the sudden request and he nodded out of instinct, so the robot left for a while. When he returned he was holding the ship's power source in his hands, with the green eye glowing each time it looked at the boy.
Samuel placed it on the table near his bed and said:
"Alright, talk as much as you want, I need to check if the engines are alright. Just don't touch it, it's going to take over your mind."
The boy didn't know what to reply to such a warning, so instead as the robot was leaving he said:
"Wait… How can the ship still work without it?"
Samuel stopped right before the door and without turning around he replied:
"VEGA's core can be used as a secondary power source, though we prefer not to as it might damage it."
The elevator finally arrived, so Samuel entered it and disappeared a moment later.
A moment of nothing passed, then Shinji looked back at the large artifact and said:
"Uhm… Can you hear me Molly?"
The eye suddenly came to life, causing him to recoil a bit as a feminine voice came out of it.
'Ikari? Is that you?'
"Y-yes?"
'Yay! We haven't talked in a while huh?'
"Well… Not really. I mean the battle was less than a couple of days ago. Though I see why you would think this, the author had a long writer's block."
'Huh? What do you mean brother?'
"Nevermind."
'Oh okay, anyway how are you doing? I'm curious!'
"Not too great, I'm in a hospital bed currently. How about you?"
'I'm doing very fine! I've even become friends with the three guys in here, even if they don't show it on the surface hehehe.'
"I'm glad to hear that Molly."
'Yes,yes, is Asuka there too?'
"No… She's on the Wunder right now."
'Man what a lousy guardian she is, wasn't she supposed to keep an eye on you at all times?'
"Well, she did bring me here against Ritsuko's orders…"
The boy couldn't see her, but a small grin had just formed on Molly's face who thought:
"Oh really? Well, isn't that interesting? Wait, why am I smiling like this while thinking about it? Stop it mouth! Go back to your place!"
Her body followed her orders and so she returned to the conversation with her brother, noticing how his face was visibly tired.
'Your body doesn't look very relaxed even if you are in a hospital bed, is something troubling you?'
"Oh well, I tried doing some exercise earlier and it didn't go very well, plus Samuel says that my energy reserves are very small. So I'm just stuck here for a while I guess… What about you instead? How do you pass the time there?"
'I mostly think about stuff, but I also spend a lot of time with the Wraiths, it's so fun playing hide and seek with them, though I always lose because they can turn invisible. Still I like it.'
"Huh. What is it that keeps you thinking so much?"
'Currently I am debating whether snails and turtles are distant relatives or not, VEGA told me about them once and it's been stuck in my head ever since.'
Shinji smiled at this and when Molly noticed it she said:
'Hey! Don't you laugh about this. It is serious research, the animal world is very interesting!'
Shinji was about to reply when those words made him remember their visit to the aquarium, with Rei standing in front of a tank with small fish
He looked back at the artifact in which Molly was currently trapped as Ayanami's words rang in his mind:
"I can't live anywhere else. Otherwise I'd be like a fish out of water."
After reflecting for a bit on those words, the boy asked her:
"Hey Molly, how… How did you feel about being separated from NERV like that? I mean it was your entire life up until recently."
'... Honestly there's still a lot I need to get accustomed to. Like being able to always think for myself, being able to make choices and go wherever I want… Well that one not so much.
In the end though, I feel like it doesn't matter. As long as I can protect you from harm, then I'll be a happy little sister."
"It's that warm feeling again…" Molly thought as she felt something coming from her chest, though she was unsure what it was. Looking back at Shinji she noticed how he was barely holding his eyes open, so she said:
'Why don't you try to sleep, Shinji? You still need to recover right? I thought that sleeping helped with that.'
Shinji decided to listen to Molly's advice and said:
"I-I… guess that taking a nap will help, yes."
The boy closed his eyes and fell asleep quite quickly, letting his body relax as the small amount of Argent that he was hooked up to kept regenerating his tissue.
Just as he moved his hands down however, one of his fingers came in contact with the Demonic Crucible, causing a red spark to appear as visions were projected in Shinji's mind, along with screams of the souls of the damned echoing in his ears.
Huge towers of lava flashed in front of him as cages filled with misfigured people were sent into a pit of fire, while others were crushed into a bloody paste.
The vision flashed again, this time there were various demons eating people alive from a huge pile as if it was a royal dinner, with many more bodies having been impaled to the nearby rocks and distorted rusty metal rods.
Another flash and he was at the bottom of a huge inverted cone, with its sides full of humans being mentally tortured to their worst nightmares as their screams were amplified by the shape of the seemingly endless pit.
It was so loud and deafening that Shinji wanted to start screaming as well, but before he could do it one more flash came by, sending him in the middle of a flat area surrounded by skeletons and lava everywhere.
Suddenly, a group of demons appeared, looking at him with their glowing eyes as they started to run in his direction. He tried to run away, but the lava all around him prevented that, so he just closed his eyes and tried to cover himself with his arms.
That's when a sudden scream filled his right ear, followed quickly by sounds of gunfire and demon roars. But Shinji was too scared to open his eyes again, so he remained in his fetal position and tried to silence out the noise.
This lasted until he was hit by something very heavy, that pushed him to the ground and made him finally make the biggest mistake he could have made.
He looked down at his chest, noticing that a huge black bloody horn had flown across the pit of lava and into him. Shinji moved his eyes up in disgust, finally seeing the battle that was taking place near him.
Demons were coming from all directions and amassing into a single area, from which only their bloody dead bodies would come out as a dark shadow moved at unimaginable speeds from beast to beast.
Both blue and red blood was spilled everywhere as each different type of demon tried to attack, from the smallest to the largest. Yet it was all futile.
One by one they were torn apart, blown up, skinned alive, their limbs were snatched off, in some cases their spines were ripped out of their backs. Their own skeletons were used as weapons against them as the horde started gradually thinning out.
It didn't take long for the last demon to have its guts ripped out of its body in the same way he had seen the Atlan do in front of the village, which was what made the boy finally realize what he had just witnessed. It hadn't been a battle, but a carnage.
And as the dark shadow at the centre of it finally became slow enough to be seen by the human eye, Shinji's vision was filled by the monster that was more evil and powerful than all of hell combined, because only by being worse than the demons someone would be able to beat them.
A pair of hands suddenly grabbed him from behind just as the Slayer started turning around, and Kaworu's face was the last thing Shinji saw before his mind went to rest in a peaceful abyss.
Somewhere in a forest, around two minutes later.
The Slayer, Restos and Ikanawa had been walking through the thick red foliage for a while, getting ever closer to the jump-pad they had to reach.
And while the Slayer had remained silent the entire time, his patience was being run dry by the other two's constant bickering.
Thankfully for him, a fireball flew straight towards him from out of nowhere, but he dodged it with a quick dash to the side and immediately tried to locate the imp that had thrown it.
All he could see however were falling leaves as he heard the demons go from tree to tree to avoid being detected.
A new wave of fireballs fell towards him, which he dodged with ease. The same could not be said for Ikanawa and Restos as they evaded the projectiles by only a couple of centimeters.
Seeing as he could not locate the imps at the top of the trees, the Slayer pulled out his chainsaw and slammed it into the nearest log, cutting through it in one quick motion. The giant tree fell to the side, but the imp managed to easily get to another one near it. So the Slayer thought as he dashed away to avoid more fireballs:
"Dammit, looks like they planned this ambush out. I can't cut all the trees one by one and I don't even have napalm to burn down the forest…"
He looked at the compass in his HUD which told him that the jump pad was still eight hundred meters from their position. He would have run there if it wasn't for the fact that he had to carry around the other two, who were currently stuck behind a rock.
Thinking quickly, he ran over to where they were hiding and grabbed both of them by putting them under his arms, then sprinted towards their objective.
A column of fire rose next to them as an archvile started to summon reinforcements, but he ignored it despite how much he wanted to tear it apart as he dashed over a pit full of pinkies and mancubi.
Right in front of them however a ravine too large for him to cross had just revealed itself, which housed plenty of pointy rocks at the bottom.
He spotted a cacodemon flying towards them so the Slayer used his equipment launcher to lob a grenade in its mouth. Then, as he jumped off the nearby trees, the Slayer landed on its head and used it as a platform to leap over the gap and land on the other side unharmed so that he could resume his run immediately.
And after dodging barons of hell, revenants, hell knights and many more demons, he was finally able to reach the elevated platform where the jump pad was waiting for them. He dropped Restos and Ikanawa to the ground, who both had to vomit from how much their intestines had been messed up.
The Slayer immediately pulled out his super shotgun as a red portal appeared in front of him, from where a marauder walked out.
It drew its ace made of red Argent energy and loaded its own double barrel shotgun, then ran towards the Slayer, who waited in place with his shotgun ready.
Just as the marauder was about to open up for an attack however, Ikanawa fired at it with his rifle, making him draw his shield and block the Slayer's shot.
The demon then raised his axe in the air as he summoned his wolf of Argent, who jumped on the Slayer and bit him in an arm.
Doomguy fired tons of plasma shots at the orange wolf to make it disappear and then immediately switched back to the ballista to stun the marauder who had tried to attack him while he was distracted.
The Slayer then fired a rocket and pulled out his heavy cannon to nail a sniper shot right in its head. The demon eventually recovered, but he created a second opening by remotely detonating a rocket right next to it, letting him shoot the super shotgun at point blank range and tear a lot of its skin off.
The Slayer then broke one of his knees and stole the Argent axe from his arms, which he used to cut its body in half.
Thanks to the lower demonic presence, the jump pad came back online, creating a red ring in the air in front of it with strange writings on its edges. And since the demons from before were catching up on the Slayer, he grabbed the other two again and leaped in the air, crossing the giant red ring that sent them flying towards a small floating island with another pad.
Once they landed, the Slayer set the other two down as they slowly tried to regain their balance.
And as he sat down on a rock Ikanawa asked:
"W-what kind of demon was that? None of the ones I've seen had a shield up to now."
The Slayer stopped looking at the main island in front of them and said:
"A marauder. A fallen soldier from the time I led legions in hell with the people of Argent d'Nur. A civil war made them side with hell and turn into those things."
The Slayer turned around again, so Ikanawa said:
"Straight to the point huh? Well it's clear you're a man of few words… God my stomach is killing me."
"Y-you too?" Restos said as he tried to lift himself back up.
"Heh. Looks Mr perfect race h-here isn't so great after all." Ikanawa said.
"S-Shut up. It's a miracle you're still conscious."
"Well, you can't even fly right now. What good is a bird without wings?"
"Don't you dare compare me to such animals! I'm a Maykr, proud of my nature and society until the end."
"So? I'm a marine of the JSDF. I'm ready to take a bullet and more for my country."
A sudden realization hit both of them as they thought:
"Huh. I guess that we might be more similar than I thought."
They suddenly heard a noise coming from the Slayer and since they were now able to walk, they got up and approached him.
Ikanawa noticed that he was looking at a particular spot on the main building of the huge island in front of them, so he pulled out his binoculars and brought them to his eyes.
Then, after regulating the focus of the lenses he said:
"Bingo. There's the opening we were looking for, it's covered by some metal but I think my bursting charge should be enough to get through it. It's a bit high though, I don't know if I can climb up there given the energy shield too."
'Restos could fly you up there, it would lower the shield too since it detects a Maykr.' VEGA said.
The two looked at each other for a moment before the Maykr asked:
"I-Is it our only option?"
'My analysis doesn't show any other way that would result in all of us surviving.'
"...Fine. Try climbing on my back to see if we can actually do this."
The soldier put away his binoculars and approached the Maykr from behind, who said:
"Alright, watch out for the wings since I'm- Ow! Dammit! I told you to watch out!"
"You're the one who won't stand still! Agh- There. I've got it."
The Slayer looked as the soldier held himself by the Maykr's shoulders and rode him piggyback, with Restos not particularly enjoying it.
Now that they confirmed that it was a feasible plan, the Slayer approached the jump pad and told them to go after him.
The red ring appeared in the air once again and the Slayer gave the hard drive with VEGA to the two of them. Then he jumped forward, getting launched right in the middle of the island where demons were waiting for him.
Meanwhile, on the smaller island Restos had stopped just before the red ring to say:
"Hold on tight."
"Yeah yeah, now let's go Pegasus."
"Fuck off."
Restos said as he and Ikanawa crossed the ring, getting launched towards the Slayer's same position.
Thanks to his wings however, the Maykr was able to fly behind the building, undetected by the demons.
He slowly approached the vent, when suddenly Ikanawa said:
"Something's coming, let's hide behind there!"
The Maykr flew behind a rock formation and waited silently, watching as a flock of cacodemons flew towards the ongoing fight.
Once they were sure they had all gone away, Ikanawa pulled out his explosives and they flew next to the vent.
The red barrier that had been protecting the building retreated once it recognized the Maykr's presence, so the soldier was able to place down the explosives. Then he said:
"Alright, fly back a little. I'll count to three and then we go in there as quickly as possible, got it?"
Restos nodded and so Ikanawa added: "See? You might be the stupidest creature out there, but at least you understand what to do quickl-" Restos hit him with his elbow before he could finish the sentence, so Ikanawa just grabbed the controller and counted to three.
As soon as the explosion blew away the metallic protection the two flew inside, crashing into the wall because of the smoke obscuring their vision.
They fell to the ground, but soon found out that they had ended up right where they wanted to be.
To their right there was the control panel, while on their left a demonic barrier separated them from the rest of the structure.
Ikanawa pulled out VEGA and then placed the device in the round hole at the centre of the terminal, where it fit perfectly.
The entire island seemed to come to life as VEGA accessed the main database and activated the defensive systems, while also trying to get control over the three rings, which had scattered around after the connection was interrupted.
"I'm recalibrating the portal, but the entire code is a mess here, it's going to take me a while. Don't worry though, I just detected Asuka coming towards us."
"Who's Asuka?"
Ikanawa gestured to him to look outside the window behind them, allowing Restos to see a pink and white giant sprinting towards them. His view didn't last long however as the head of an imp smashed against the glass, reminding them of the battle below as VEGA said:
"Some demons are coming, watch out!"
Three imps suddenly appeared at the end of the hallway as the barrier between the two groups disappeared, allowing Ikanawa to start shooting at them.
Thanks to his excellent aim, he managed to get rid of all three of them just before they got too close, when suddenly he noticed Restos making a golden spear appear in his hands.
"Since when did you have that?"
"Oh all higher Maykrs can do it. It's part of our own body."
Ikanawa looked at him with a confused face for a moment before dismissing it as he heard new sounds approaching.
A gargoyle entered the opening they had come through, but Restos had predicted it and managed to launch his weapon right into it, killing it instantly.
The spear then returned to his hands as they got ready to face more demons.
Meanwhile, just as VEGA placed the first blue ring in the correct position, Unit 08 landed on the island, crushing a lot of demons in the process and breaking a statue of the Khan Maykr with its foot.
From inside the entry plug Asuka looked down at the Slayer who stopped for a moment to look back at her while the demons were regrouping. He gave her a short thumbs up before restarting the carnage.
Asuka got ready too, and as she felt the LCL bubble around her body, she couldn't help but feel like something was wrong with the eva. It felt too passive, like it was just an empty canvas inside the core.
Play:[Rust, Dust & Guts] Doom 2016 OST
She pushed it aside as a group of cacodemons and the larger black pain elementals began attacking her, while gargoyles landed everywhere around her armor.
She jumped in the air while giving her body a spin with her last leg before leaving the ground, throwing off the smaller demons as the other flying demons bombarded her AT field with balls of energy and flaming skulls.
A group of demons that looked like brains with four metallic legs and a turret on top began to fire a barrage of plasma at her, but before she could even react a destroyer blade cut through their bodies like butter as the Slayer jumped off the last arachnotron to crush a hell knight and then impale a mancubus in the brain.
He got off and a carcass blocked his firing arc against the incoming baron from his left, so he shot a plasma beam after it locked on the giant beast, overcharging the shield in an instant.
He used the temporary stun to dash forward and blast the demon at point blank range with the super shotgun, then he pushed himself back with the recoil of the ballista to avoid its claws and finished off the short combo with a rocket to its face.
Then he pulled out the heavy cannon and quickly placed the micro-missiles mod on it. Two containers full of bullet sized rockets opened up next to the barrel of the gun as a full on barrage was unleashed against the flaming demon, quickly tearing apart its skin as it fell dead in front of him.
A large orange laser beam suddenly hit the Slayer on his shoulder, making him falter for a split second. He immediately turned around and found the source of the attack, a Tyrant superheavy demon. These ten meters tall beasts were some of the worst bastards hell's army had to offer, being derived directly from the Cyberdemon itself.
The Slayer grabbed his super shotgun as the tyrant aimed its hand cannon again and fired a barrage of rockets, which all missed their mark once the Slayer dashed to the left. Doomguy then fired the meathook right at the demon's face, blinding it for a moment as he was pulled towards it.
Two shotgun shells were fired into the giant's face before the Slayer dashed away to avoid the Argent sword coming out of its other arm. From the ground he fired a burst of homing rockets before launching a grenade to stun it and close the distance once more for another super shotgun shot.
This time however the tyrant was able to launch a seeking wave of energy that traveled along the ground before crashing into the Slayer. He didn't even have time to feel the impact because a barrage of missiles came down on him from above, making him pull out the chaingun's shield to avoid taking unnecessary damage.
The Slayer then aimed the large gun at the demon while throwing an ice grenade at it just as he equipped the mobile turret mod. The four smaller miniguns soon began to rain lead on the demon's huge guts, ripping apart its flesh and damaging its metallic skeleton also thanks to the frostbite wounds of the grenade.
He fired one more rocket at the demon's chest and with the ice now gone, all the Slayer needed to do was fire a ballista shot to its head. This stunned it for long enough to let him get behind its left leg and cut it from behind, then follow up with a swift decapitation.
Given a moment of peace, he turned around and saw that the second orange ring had been moved in place and that Asuka was having very few problems in dealing with the demons.
It was at that time however that the ground started to shake a red portal bigger than even the evangelion appeared not too far away from them.
From inside unit 08's entry plug, Asuka's eyepatch glowed a bright blue as Bardiel felt the incoming threat. So the girl quickly got rid of the other demons and stood still to look at the black and red circle in front of her.
A giant leg suddenly appeared out of it, then another and along with it a humanoid beast as tall as the Atlan. It's skin was covered in armor plates made of darker flesh, making it look like an evangelion without its armor, but thicker and more worn out.
Its upper body was completely covered in giant nails impaled on its shoulders, arms and neck, which culminated in a large collar made of rusted metal.
Its head was dominated by two large curved horns, one of them having been clearly cut at the tip, while its face was more similar to a colored skull, highlighting its sharp teeth and large chin.
Once it laid its cat-like eyes on the pink giant, it roared and flexed its muscles, making Asuka pull out her prog knife and get in position. While tightening her grip on the weapon she thought:
"Finally I can fight something a bit more my size."
Suddenly she heard VEGA's voice who told her:
"Asuka watch out, that's a dreadnought titan. They are invincible to conventional weaponry and their tough skin makes their attacks hit very hard. I suggest that you fight defensively."
"Don't worry VEGA." -Asuka replied- "Evangelions were made exactly to fight this kind of threat, and I'm the best at it!"
With that she sprinted forward towards her enemy, dodging the first slow punch as she pushed the knife into its abdomen, then hit it with her shoulder to try to send it to the ground.
This didn't work as the beast remained standing, so in one quick motion she grabbed her knife again and slashed open one of its shoulders, gritting her teeth due to how much force she had to use.
After avoiding a kick, she backed up for a moment, seeing a stream of red Argent regenerate the wound she had just created.
The beast roared again and so she tried a similar attack as before, but this time it was able to predict her movements and punch her evangelion in the chest, cracking one of the armor plates in a single blow.
"Holy shit! VEGA wasn't lying when he said that these things were strong."
Asuka thought as she tried to process the pain from her stomach, but she didn't have time for it as a second fist was coming from above her. Seeing the opportunity, she moved to the side and grabbed the falling arm, then pulled it down while extending a leg to hit the titan's knees.
The giant fell face first into the ground, so she got on top of it and began to stab away at its brain and neck with the prog knife, trying to hit all of its nervous system.
Stab after stab after stab soon created a large hole in the titan's head and the neck was completely ruined too. After a couple of seconds of no movement whatsoever, Asuka said:
"See VEGA? You were way too worr-"
"Asuka it's still alive!" The AI shouted back to her, but not quickly enough for her to notice that the titan's legs had moved up behind her.
The two giant meat towers slammed into the ground below as the titan's snapped back up in a standing position so quickly that unit 08 fell some meters away.
The raging titan roared once again as its eyes turned red and it tried to attack the unit, but Asuka was quick enough to block both of its fists with her hands.
She immediately felt like she was trying to push a car uphill as all the immense strength of the demon pressed down on the pink giant, but she wasn't going to give up so easily.
Her synch rate spiked along with the brightness of her eyepatch as she pushed back as hard as she could, screaming:
"Come on you piece of shit! Let's see who's the toughest!"
The titan screamed back as the ground beneath them started to crack, with neither of them willing to give up their standoff.
Just as Asuka seemed to gain an advantage however, her entry plug turned completely black and unit 08 fell to the ground.
"Wait what? I still had loads of power left!
Did I short-circuit the batteries by pushing them too hard?"
Her screen suddenly came back online as the system rebooted, just for her to see the titan standing over her and ready to attack.
"No no no no not like this!" She screamed in her own head as two giant fists came down towards her head, only to be stopped by a bright yellow light appearing out of nowhere.
Once the flash died down, she saw that the two hands had lost part of their flesh and the Slayer was running up the titan's arm.
He delivered a second blood punch to its face, making it turn to the side completely and leaving part of its head burning.
Then, as he landed in between unit 08's legs, he looked the titan dead in the eyes and raised an arm towards it, taunting it to get its attention.
It worked, as the Slayer had to dodge one of its feet trying to crush him. He started to run back to the main facility, where all the three rings had been aligned, with a clear plan in his head.
Just as he predicted the titan mindlessly followed him, blinded by its rage, leaving alone so that she could get back on her feet.
Now all he had to do was bring the fish to the hook.
Play:[Rules of Nature] Metal gear rising OST
He dodged a piece of debris as the ground behind him was constantly destroyed by the titan, each step bringing him closer to his target.
After a couple hundred meters more and no damage dealt, the titan decided to change tactic and crouched down to grab groups of large trees. It effortlessly ripped them from the ground and resumed the pursuit, using them as makeshift projectiles.
The Slayer had some problems by having to run while trying to avoid things he couldn't see, but he was able to still avoid them thanks to his billions of years of fighting, even if a couple of them came really close to him.
Once it ran out of them, the titan saw the Slayer suddenly stop running in front of the largest building, so it decided to do one big jump towards him.
Its massive body flew in the air and started to come back down on the Slayer, but then he dashed away as a bright light appeared from the machine to its side. A beam of Argent energy as large as the tower itself was fired at the titan's side, vaporizing all the flesh and muscle on its right arm before pushing the giant off the island into the void below.
The beast hadn't yet given up however and with the other intact arm it grabbed the edge of the floating island, bringing itself back up. The Slayer saw its destroyed muscles regenerate as it roared and sent the half bone half flesh arm falling right on him,leaving him no room to escape.
He stopped it with his bare hands as Argent from the titan's regenerating body scattered on the ground like sparks. The Slayer screamed as he felt the adrenaline flowing through him, which made his nerves and muscles strong enough to push the arm away.
It soon came back in the form of a punch but the Slayer caught that too, stopping it completely. He then nearby opened a ravine with his legs as he started to push forward, making the titan lose balance and its grip on the island.
Just to be sure however, he ran down the broken arm and, just like before, delivered a blood punch to its face, launching it forever into the abyss.
He used the meathook to get back to safe ground, where he saw Asuka kicking away a bunch of hell knights that were trying to enter the control room. And with the portal now wide enough, both the Fortress and the Wunder stopped by.
So, he looked over at unit 08,who punched open the window to the control room for him, allowing a quick and easy access to the hallway where Ikanawa and Restos were about to be overrun by the demons.
He resolved the situation quickly with a freeze grenade and a destroyer blade,then he turned around to grab VEGA. The building suddenly started to shake as the sky all above them turned red, with dark red lighting and an eerie feeling spreading all over the area.
Then VEGA immediately said:
"We have to get out of here quickly, or the portal will close!"
A sudden earthquake hit the building they were in and parts of the ceiling fell off, burying Restos under the rubble.
Seeing all the other cracks forming around him, Restos said:
"Go! I'll make it out, don't worry! The portal is starting to close!"
Without thinking about it twice, the Slayer grabbed Ikanawa and VEGA before jumping into unit 08's hand and being carried into the Wunder.
The two ships crossed the portal soon after, avoiding its collapse by just a few seconds.
Solar system, near the moon
A hole in the fabric of space opened near the moon, from where the Fortress of doom and the Wunder were shot out towards the Earth.
Once they came to a stop above the atmosphere, Samuel opened a portal inside the hangar bays of the Wunder to let the Slayer and VEGA back on their ship. Then, upon seeing the two of them cross the portal he asked:
"Was our plan successful?"
"Yes, I downloaded a part of Urdak's mainframe and set up the trap. They won't see it coming." VEGA replied.
Samuel noticed that the Slayer was quite confused, so he said:
"You see Slayer, we noticed some oddities during your mission, let me explain…"
Back on Urdak, main island
"Ugh… It really took you a while to arrive huh?" Restos said as a couple of demons carried him out of the rubble.
"It doesn't matter. Do you have the information?"
"Of course, Davoth.
The portal mainframe saves the coordinates of each location it's been used to travel to, so we just need to wait for it to cool down and then you'll be able to lead your army to their exact location."
"Perfect. How long until it is ready to fire again?" Davoth replied.
"Let me check." Restos said as he turned around and looked at the parameters on the screen below him. It was at that moment however that he noticed something strange, so he asked:
"Uhm… Wait, the temperature isn't going down… Could the cooling system have been damaged?"
As Restos said this he placed a hand on the computer to try and solve the issue, but suddenly all the doors around them closed as the temperature of the machine began to skyrocket.
Confused and scared, Restos' brain went into overdrive to try and find a solution out of this, but just when he thought he had resolved the issue, the temperature exceeded critical levels as an audio file played:
'Dear Davoth, go fuck yourself.
With regards, Hayden.'
The lord of hell could only scream internally as a nuclear explosion was set off by the machine under their location.
Once it passed, he looked around at the barren landscape and thought to himself:
"It's going to take a long time to rebuild this place… Thankfully the data is stored deep underground.
Slayer… I will come for you. It doesn't matter how long it will take or what I'll have to go through…
I will find you. And I will kill you."
TO BE CONTINUED-