I do not own Doom or any of its characters.

Hell

Arden pushed himself up, groaning, and looked around. The Hell portal was closed, but so were the demons and Emily. Arden picked up the pistol and shotgun from the ground and focused, channeling his Argent Energy into his armor, permanently magnetizing the back of it and his thighs, then stuck his shotgun to his back. His eyes swept the surrounding landscape again and narrowed. What he saw confirmed that his visions had, indeed, been Hell. The sky was the same bloody color, the bones of demons were scattered around, fires burned here and there, and the ground was all a charred black. He was at the top of a cliff, and as he walked over to it and looked at the world before him, his jaw dropped. There was a path made of stone paths, floating chunks of stone, and staircases, all of them leading generally down the cliff face, but ahead of him, there was a river of lava, and there, on the shore of the river, demons were swarming, barely the size of ants to Arden's eyes, but he could see the flashes of gunfire. Someone was fighting the demons.

Arden took off at a sprint, racing along the path as it led down the cliff. He leapt from one chunk of stone to the next, moving as fast as he could. It was impossible, and yet, it was true. Someone was there. Someone was fighting. Someone was alive. And that could only be one person. The exact person Arden needed. The only person who could help him. Who could save Emily.

A pair of creatures, both pale, emaciated, and with the upper half of their face transformed into an open hole, staggered into view from a cave up ahead, but both died from a handful of pistol shots easily. Arden sprinted into the cave, and another of the zombie-like creatures staggered toward him, only for Arden to punch it in the head, taking its head off entirely. And then, one of the same kind of demon as what had taken Emily leapt at him out of the darkness ahead of him, and Arden grabbed it, smashing it to the ground. However, suddenly, it was like he couldn't control his own body. Like he was watching a movie. His body drove its hand into the demon's chest, then ripped it back, bringing the demon's heart with it.

"Allow me to teach you what you can really do," the demon leader's voice almost purred inside of his mind.

As Arden watched, his body pulled his helmet off, then raised the heart. Arden gagged as the demon forced him to bite into the lesser demon's heart, then chew the bite and swallow it as the rest of the heart fell back to the ground with a splat. Then, control returned and Arden fell to his hands and knees, gagging and retching, but the chunk of heart refused to come back up. Finally, the nausea faded, and Arden stood, only for his left arm to move on its own again, rising. Then, as it rose in front of him, he felt energy flow to his hand, felt the exact feeling of its flow and use, and stared in shock as a fireball swirled to life above his palm, identical to the one the type of demon whose heart he'd been forced to eat could form.

"You're welcome," the high-ranked demon's voice purred, then faded as control returned to Arden.

He let his fireball dissipate, and continued to run along the pathway, leaving the cave to a staircase and leaping down it in one jump, landing heavily at the far end where the path turned back the other way and went down another staircase. He jumped down that staircase as well, then turned to his left, beginning to drop down a series of shot, ten-foot cliffs to a lower section of the path, and began to follow it again. More and more of the fireball-throwing demons and the zombies moved to attack him, but he fought his way through them quickly, quickly learning that his new fireball ability was more damaging than his pistol, but less useful at close range than his shotgun.

As he fought his way along the path, which slowly wound its way toward the Doom Slayer, more and more of the demons assaulted him. However, he soon realized that there was an issue. He hadn't had any spare ammo for his shotgun, so within a few battles, he had run out of shells for it. He kept it, on an impulse, and continued to run along the path. As the minutes dragged on into hours, he continued to run. Finally, he slowed to a stop as he reached a large, open space decorated with a handful of boulders where a dozen or so of the spiked demons were prowling around. But just as he arrived, a new, much more terrifying type of demon crashed to the ground. It was enormous, nearly ten feet tall, and powerfully built with its entire, tan body swollen with muscles. It had long claws on its hands and stood on a pair of legs shaped like those of a goat, but devoid of hair and in place of hooves it had small, round feet with five talon-like claws on the front of each. Its head resembled a human skull, except considerably larger, and the top half of its head was a single, solid dome devoid of eyes. However, as soon as its feet touched the ground, it roared and charged, ignoring the pistol shots and fireball Arden sent into it before slamming a punch into him, sending him exploding sideways into the wall of the cliff. It roared and leapt at him, and he dove aside, only for its explosive impact with the ground to send out a wave of Argent Energy that slammed into Arden solidly and sent him hurtling into a pair of the lesser demons, killing both and making Arden's entire body protest. The other lesser demons all roared instantly, charging at him, and he swore, shoving himself to his feet.

He blasted one with a fireball, sending it flying off of the cliff at the other end of the open area, then took off at a sprint, killing several of the lesser demons with his pistol. Another leapt at him, but he leapt into the air over it, and the much larger and more powerful demon smashed a fist into it, the sheer power of the blow ripping the demon's body apart and sending it flying. A lesser demon leapt at Arden, but he caught it, jamming his pistol up under its chin and spun, swinging it by the head before aiming through its head at another demon and fired, the blast punching through its head entirely and into another's head, killing both. Then, the massive demon leapt at him again, and he leapt into the air as high as he could, only for the demon to catch him by the legs and swing him down, slamming down back-first on top of a lesser demon, crushing it and making Arden shout in agony. However, as the demon lifted him by his chest, Arden grabbed its thumb, ripping it off entirely and freeing himself before lunging and slamming a punch into its chest, which was level with his head. The demon let out a noise like a grunt, staggering backward, but the punch didn't break through its body like it would have one of the lesser demons. However, Arden ignored that, leaping into the air and drilling a Superman Punch into the demon's head, this time sending it staggering backward. He pursued it instantly, leaping forward and slamming both feet into one of the demon's knees in a dropkick. He felt its bones shatter under the force, and slid out from under the demon just before it crashed to the ground. Then, he leapt onto its back and roared in effort as he slammed his fists down into its head over and over, finally caving it in after nearly ten and continuing to beat its head until he was sure the demon had died.

Then, as he stood, the last six of the lesser demons roared and charged, several hurling fireballs at him. However, this time, he took off at a sprint, ramming his shoulder into one directly with enough force to shatter its ribs, then hurled a fireball into another's head, killing it. He caught one and hurled it into an oncoming fireball before snatching his pistol up off the ground and rapidly gunning down the last three of the demons. He sighed, leaning against a boulder, breathing hard, then groaned, stretching his body to try and ease the soreness the larger demon's attacks had left him feeling. Finally, however, he pushed himself up and continued to run. But after a few more minutes, he found another new form of demon. A floating, horned skull surrounded by flames. However, these died with a pair of pistol shots each. There were maybe a dozen of them spread along the next few hundred meters of the path, not including the first pair, and he cleared them quickly, continuing to run.

Finally, he slowed to a stop as he reached a cliff directly above the Doom Slayer's still-raging battle. He could make it out almost clearly now, despite being a hundred feet above. Many different kinds of demons swarmed him, ranging from the lesser demons Arden had been fighting, to what looked like zombified UAC troops with plasma rifles seemingly fused to their arms, to the massive ones like what Arden had struggled with, to massive, horned demons that resembled hairless, red minotaurs, to demons shaped like large, red balls of flesh with large bone spikes jutting off of its top and back, a massive, gaping maw of a mouth that filled the majority of the front side of its body and was filled with huge fangs, a single, glowing, green eye above the mouth, and arm-like appendages hanging down below its body. As Arden watched, the Slayer moved like pure poetry. With his right arm, he wielded a sawed-off, double-barrel shotgun, which ripped demons apart with every blast. With his left, he ripped demons apart, often killing them with their own body parts. And as the Slayer absolutely one-sidedly slaughtered the demons, Arden dropped off of the cliff, bracing himself. However, as he landed, he sighed in relief, finding that he was unharmed.

But then, he turned his gaze back to the slayer, now in clear view, and saw the true level of violence he was staring at. The Slayer's way of fighting, his violence, the sheer force of his rage, was an art. The Slayer's Dance. His violence was so smooth, so flawless, that Arden never actually saw him reload his shotgun. But then, his spectating was interrupted when several of the lesser demons charged at him as well. He swore, grabbing his pistol and opening fire at them rapidly. He began to batter and dismember them, much like the Slayer but much less flawlessly, but then other demons began to take notice, and he realized that his pistol was horrendously insufficient for the battle at hand.

"Fuck!" Arden swore, shooting a pair of demons in the head to kill them before turning and slamming the back of his arm into a zombie's head, knocking it off entirely. "I wish I had a fucking Plasma Rifle, now!"

He kicked a lesser demon, knocking it backward into another and both of them into the river of lava, but just as he did, a Plasma Rifle landed at his feet. He snatched it up instantly, channeling Argent Energy into it and turning and spraying a line of lesser demons and watching the plasma blast their bodies apart almost instantly. He began to rapidly slaughter the demons swarming toward him with the rifle, until one of the balls turned toward him and made a retching sound and fired a ball of glowing, purple plasma, which Arden was pretty sure was vomit. Arden dove out of the way, and the plasma splattered across a pair of lesser demons, immediately burning their flesh away and killing them. Arden stuck his new toy to his back and sprinted for the floating ball of flesh, avoiding pair of of blasts from it before launching himself into the air, using his Jump Boots to flip over the massive ball, grabbing two of its massive spikes before dropping, dragging it to the ground and smashing it down atop a lesser demon, crushing the lesser demon. Then, he formed a fireball and dropped it into the thing's mouth before hurling it away a second before the fireball exploded, killing the thing. Then, he was back to spraying demons with his Plasma Rifle. However, as he was, he realized that the rifle had a Heat Blast mod on it. And a moment later, he realized just how useful it was as one of the massive demons like he had struggled against charged toward him through the ranks of the lesser demons, uncaring of those it killed, only for Arden to dodge aside from its charge and vent the heat in a massive blast directly into it as it passed. Its flesh was blasted apart, ripping its body wide open and killing it instantly. And then, Arden was back to spraying the demons around him endlessly.

As more and more powerful demons began to target him as well, he began to have to use the Heat Blast mod against groups of lesser demons, and began to have to use physical attacks and fireballs to help stem the tide. But finally, after nearly two hours of fighting the demons alongside the Slayer, the last of the demons exploded apart from a point-blank shot from the Slayer's shotgun. Arden sighed, leaning against the corpse of one of the massive, minotaur demons, only for the Slayer to level his shotgun with Arden's throat. Arden swallowed hard.

"I'm not your enemy," Arden said. "I...I need your help."

The slayer didn't move, so Arden nodded slowly, setting his rifle down and raising his hands.

"I came here from an Argent research facility," Arden explained. "Samuel Hayden injected me with the blood of a demon. Combined my DNA with the demon's and exposed me to Argent Energy. He thought he could create a new type of super soldier. He thought he could recreate you. For a while, things were working. My strength, speed, stamina...it all multiplied as soon as the procedure was complete. And then, things...progressed. We discovered I had the ability to produce Argent Energy within my body, and through testing, I discovered I could use it to power weapons like my pistol and your Plasma Rifle, and that I could interface with computers using my Argent Energy and understand the data on it as though I was reading a computer.

"But Hayden wanted more, so he used some type of metal from Hell to try and recreate your armor. But as soon as I put it on, the demon whose blood Hayden used took control of my body. I was having a vision of standing behind his bone throne while he explained to me that he had given me his blood and the powers I had, and that he was planning to conquer the Earth. But while he was talking to me, my body was slaughtering a group of scientists and six of Hayden's Elite Guards.

"But then when I woke up, and when Hayden tried to kill me with some Argent Energy sword, a Hell portal formed and those smaller demons came through. We both fought them, but they took Emily, my wife, back through the portal. I came after her, but I was knocked unconscious by the portal. And when I woke up, they were gone, but I saw you fighting, so...I need your help. I need your help to kill the demon, and to save Emily. Please. After that, if you want to kill me for what I am, I'll let you, but I need your help first. Please." He lifted the rifle and offered it to the Slayer.

The Slayer stared at him for a long few moments before lowering his shotgun. When he spoke, his voice was deep, gruff, and raspy, exactly as Arden would have expected. "Keep the rifle. You'll need it."

"Then...you'll help?" Arden asked.

"Yes," the Slayer said, holding out a datapad.

Arden accepted it, using his Arden Energy to scan the information on it, and information about all of the demons he'd seen, and more filled his mind. The zombies were called Possessed, and would eventually transform into a more powerful, skeletal form of demon known as Unwilling. Possessed also included a subcategory known as Possessed Soldiers, which were the UAC troops with the Plasma Rifles fused to their arm. The lesser demons that threw fireballs were called Imps, and made up the bulk of Hell's forces. They were able to evolve into one of two types of demons, those being the Summoner and the Arch-Vile, which were the male and female genders of the evolved Imps. Both could summon more demons to aid them, but Summoners teleported around to avoid being injured and could generate Argent Energy in the form of electricity to use for attacks while the Arch-Vile was fast and agile and attacked with fire-based attacks. The next type of demon was known as a Hell Razor, and it was an evolution of a Possessed Soldier, though through unknown means. A more evolved form of the Arch-Viles were known as Prowlers, which had the ability to jump horrifyingly long distances at extreme speeds and had enough physical strength to easily rip a human being apart in an instant. Summoners, on the other hand, could evolve into a similar but horned version called a Harvester, which could fire bolts of Argent Energy that drained the life force from its victim and healed the Harvester, or it could fire off massive blasts of Argent Energy that could incinerate its prey. The floating ball demons that attacked by regurgitating plasma bile were called Cacodemons. The large thing with no upper face were called Hell Knights and evolved into the minotaur demons, which were called Barons of Hell.

The datapad also had data on many types of demons that Arden hadn't seen at the battle. Among them were a tall, skeletal demon with a jetpack and shoulder-mounted rocket launchers called a Revenant, a massive, bloated type of demon with huge Plasma Cannons grafted to its arms and attached to a machine encasing the demon's heart to form an Argent Energy battery to power them, the demon called a Mancubus, which could be further augmented to improve its offensive capabilities and to add armor, becoming a subclass known as a Cyber Mancubus. There was data on a pair of demons labeled as a "Pinkie" and a subspecies called a Specter, which was essentially a near-invisible version of a Pinkie. Both apparently had excessively armored front ends and gaping maw mouths filled with huge teeth, but a very lightly-armored rear end and stood on a pair of stubby legs and bore a pair of stubby, useless arms. It used its defenses as a weapon, however, by ramming into their prey with enough force to break through a six-inch steel plate. The next type of demon was called a Hell Guard and was something like a pile of animated stones controlled by a massive, demonic, parasitic worm, which had to be killed in order for the stone bodies they controlled to be destroyed. The floating skulls were known as Lost Souls and were the weakest of all demons, even the Possessed, but had the ability to explode in order to weaken their prey then take control of weak-willed humans and turn them into Possessed. And then, of course, there were the Titans.

"That was a lot of information," Arden said, shaking his head as a migraine began to form, but he ignored it. "Thank you."

The Slayer didn't respond, instead taking Arden's Combat Shotgun and shoving a small box glowing with Argent Energy into the shotgun's loading port. As he handed it back, Arden touched the box, using his Argent Energy to see what it did, and his jaw dropped. It was a device that transformed Argent Energy, like what was left in the atmosphere when a demon died or what Arden fed it, blasts of Argent Energy projectiles, similar to what his pistol fired but calibrated for maximum power by sacrificing range. It would effectively be a shotgun with infinite ammo.

"Thank you," Arden said.

The Slayer nodded. "The demon you saw. Where was it?"

"His throne was in this big, flat area where there were hundreds of corpses, probably more, and there was lava coming out of the ground, and the whole area was surrounded by Titan skeletons," Arden described. "Dozens of them."

The Slayer nodded. "That's a long way from here. Are you sure that's where the demons took your wife?"

Arden nodded. "I'm not sure how I know, but I'm sure."

The Slayer nodded, then turned, starting away from the lava, Arden following in silence, charging his shotgun so it was ready to use.

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