All characters from Disney, Vivziepop and other properties are owned by their respectful owners. The OCs made here are written entirely for the story. Enjoy the fic.

Chapter 13: Battle of the Ring of the Apes

Before it was taken over by Murdock, Angerton was just a quiet little town.

After waking up and getting out of bed, the young imp known as Wesley headed downstairs and spotted his parents in the kitchen. "Mornin' ma, mornin' pa."

"Good morning, son," said Wesley's mom, an imp woman in a western-style dress and apron. "I made you some breakfast."

"Thanks, ma," Wesley said with a smile as he went to sit at the table beside his father, who was reading the newspaper.

"Can you believe this?" asked his dad, who was dressed in a suit. "Gas prices have gone up again."

"Typical economics," Wesley's mom said while rolling her eyes. "After breakfast, we should visit the market. Wesley, do you want anything?"

"Hmm… I guess I'm thinking of something for my slingshot," Wesley noted.

His mother sighed. "Now you know how I feel about you slingin' at the neighbors, Wesley," she told him.

"Aw come on, ma, it's not that bad," Wesley told her before turning to his father. "Pa, when am I going to get my own gun?"

"When yer older and have had enough practice," his father told him. "And when you can show that you're responsible enough for one."

"What does that mean?" Wesley asked him.

"You'll understand someday," his mom told him, causing Wesley to pout.

After breakfast, Wesley and his parents headed into town, where they were greeted by their neighbors.

"Mornin' y'all," said a lady waving at them.

"Wrathful mornin, Jeb, May!" the sheriff waved as he passed by them.

"Good morning to you as well," Wesley's father, Jeb, replied as they went to run some errands.

They entered the marketplace, where Wesley helped his folks buy some goods. Or more accurately, while his parents were getting bread, eggs, milk, and fruit, Wesley just picked up a comic book and started reading it. Said comic was about a cowboy fighting bandits and saving a town from them.

"Oh, that's a good issue right there," said the store employee.

"You've read it?" Wesley asked him.

"Wesley, come on," his mom, May, called out to him. "We got everything we need."

"Coming, ma!" Wesley replied as he rushed over to his folks, still having the comic in his hand.

"Son, did you pay for that comic?" Jeb asked him, spotting the comic.

"Oh, sorry. Let me just go back in," Wesley said. But before he could go to return the comic, he heard the noise of motorbikes. "Wait, did you hear that?"

His parents turned and looked down the street, seeing dust clouds in the distance.

May looked at her husband, worried. "Jeb…"

"That doesn't look good," Jeb responded as they watched a gang coming into town on their bikes… a gang of Demon Apes.

When the townsfolk saw the approaching apes, they quickly got out of their way. Some went to hide inside of their stores and businesses, while others hid behind barrels. Others, like Wesley's family, just stayed in place at the side of the street, watching the gang of apes come to a stop.

Taking off his helmet was the leader, Murdock. He gave a toothy grin as he looked around at the townspeople. He could tell that they were uneasy, scared even…

"Attention, Angerton!" Murdock declared as he stepped off his bike. "My name is Murdock! You know what my kind are capable of, so you better listen if you know what's good for you!" he declared, earning their complete and undivided attention. He smiled. "Good. Now, I would like to say congratulations for being one of the first towns to be placed under our protection! Living here in the Wrath Ring ain't easy. I mean, who's going to protect you all from the natural disasters, or the ravaging bandits, or the monsters? For a fee, of course."

"Excuse me," said the previous Mayor, who showed up along with the sheriff and some deputies. "I'm Mayor Killbrick, I'm in charge of this town, and we're not interested in your kind of protection."

"Oh? You're not?" Murdock asked while smiling at the mayor. "You know, you remind me of the last mayor that told me that. Do you want to know what happened to him?"

Before the mayor could answer, he was suddenly grabbed by the face. Murdock lifted him off the ground, squeezing his head while the mayor let out muffled screams and the townspeople watched in shock.

The sheriff was also shocked, especially by how fast it had been. By the time he pulled his gun out, the mayor was already dead and Murdock threw the mayor's body towards the sheriff, knocking him down. Murdock then leapt on top of the sheriff, beating him to death while the deputies were gunned down by the other apes. A few townspeople tried to pull out their guns or just flee, Wesley's parents pulling him down as bullets flew over their heads.

After a while, everything fell silent. Wesley poked his head up and saw dead bodies in the street. Everyone who had tried to fight back had been killed and everyone who was still alive now looked at Murdock in fear.

"Now then," Murdock said. "With that out of the way, let me give you my demands…"

With their heads down, the townsfolk of Angerton were forced to submit to the apes' demands. Every month, Murdock would send one of his strongest 'generals' (and we use that term loosely) to collect what was owed to them.

"Hmm, these crops should be good to feed our troops," said one Demon Ape who was considered one of Murdock's top generals. He resembled a snow monkey. He had horns, an eye-patch, and a spiked jacket and boots. He walked over to one elderly imp. "But you have yet to cough up the souls you owe us, old man."

"I ain't giving anything to some stinkin' chimps!" the elderly imp shouted.

"Really? Well then…" the snow monkey demon said before he suddenly tackled the elderly imp and began to maul the screaming imp while the other townsfolk watched in terror and the apes watched in glee.

"Dirty Harry loves to maul people!" one ape minion declared.

"Yeah, he loves to get an excuse to tear your face up!" another added in order to scare the civilians. "So you better pay up!"

So on and so forth. Sometimes, in addition to taking the townsfolk for everything they had, they would also help themselves to the women. This included the previous secretary before Momo, a succubus woman who was pinned down by one of the ape generals.

"Please…" the succubus secretary quivered as she was held down by an orangutan demon ape who wore a black leather jacket with leather shorts. He gave her and some other nearby women lustful looks.

"Come on," he declared while grabbing her face. "You're a succubus, you're supposed to put out, right?"

She wanted to scream but she couldn't as the orangutan leaned closer to her.

"Now give old Daddy-Orang some sugar…"

When the apes left, they would take the secretary with them. Like all the women they took with them, she was never seen again…

Sometimes, the apes would pick on and torture villagers that couldn't pay…

"Stop! Please!" cried a hellhound farmer whose limbs were tied up, the apes holding the ropes tied to his limbs as they revved up their bikes, waiting for their general's orders.

"Alright, I'll count to three and then you pull this doggy apart," said a pink-furred ape woman with pigtails, blue eyes, and narrow horns. She wore a black tank top and one-pant leggings along with red boots. She raised her whip to strike at the hellhound.

"AAAH! STOP!" the hellhound cried while getting whipped.

"That's three lashes! Pull him apart!" she declared as the apes followed their orders.

"Yes, Lady Noodra!" the apes declared as they revved up their bikes and started pulling the hellhound's limps, snapping them off as he screamed.

"YAAAAH!"

Helping himself to the town's food was a large gray gorilla demon with short horns. He wore a white button jacket with jean pants. He was incredibly overweight due to all the eating he was doing.

"Please, the town needs this food!" the store owner pleaded with him.

"Not Snorgat's problem," the gorilla said before he picked up the imp.

"Hey, wait!" the store owner cried out, but his cries fell on deaf ears as Snorgat lifted the poor imp to his mouth and bit down on his head.

During one of his own visits to the town, Murdock looked over their loot stock.

"Anything good?" Murdock asked his generals.

"We took their last weapons," Dirty Harry said as he pointed at the barrel of guns.

"Along with a percentage of their harvest," Noodra said while pointing at Snorgat, who was carrying sacks of grain.

"Excellent," Murdock said while checking in on their loot before turning to look at the crowd that had gathered to watch him. "You know the deal by now. We'll be back in a month, so have our payment ready."

The villagers all had their heads down, knowing there was nothing they could do to stand up against the Demon Apes… until someone aimed his slingshot at him.

"Like hell I'm gonna stand for this," Wesley whispered while holding up his slingshot, which Jeb and May took notice of.

"Wesley, no!" May shouted as she tried to stop him, but it was too late.

Wesley sent a small rock flying through the air and it struck Murdock in the back of his head.

Everyone gasped, including the demon apes. Murdock just stood there, but they could hear him snarling in anger.

"Who… did that?" Murdock questioned.

"It's that boy over there, sir," Noodra said as she pointed to Wesley. "The one with the slingshot!"

Murdock turned around and glared at Wesley, whose parents immediately stepped up to protect their son.

"Please, sir, he didn't mean to," Jeb told him.

"Y-Yeah! Wesley's just a kid who didn't know any better," May said while holding Wesley protectively.

Murdock looked at them for a moment before he took a deep breath and adopted a calm expression. He walked over to Wesley and his parents, the other townsfolk parting away as Murdock walked past them. He then knelt in front of the boy. "Wesley, right?" he asked. "Now… why would you hit me?"

"Cause I'm not afraid of you!" Wesley spat at him. "Everyone else may be submissive, but I'm not!"

"Wesley…" Jeb said to his son, only to hear Murdock… start laughing.

"Hehehe… there's always a rebel like you who doesn't like change," Murdock told him. "Kid, I don't think you understand how things work." He looked up at his parents. "Probably because your parents didn't do a good job at teaching you." He shook his head. "So I guess it is time for some education. First lesson: every action has consequences. You hurt me, so now I'm going to have to hurt you…"

"No! Please, don't hurt my son!" May begged Murdock.

"He's just a boy, sir! It won't happen again! I can assure it!" Jeb assured Murdock.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt the boy…" Murdock said while looking at the parents and forming a grin. "Directly, that is…"

In an instant, he grabbed both of Wesley's parents by their collars and threw them to the ground. This shocked Wesley, who ended up frozen in fear when he saw Murdock hovering over his parents. The ape took a moment to savor their fear of what he was going to do to them… and then he began to scratch their faces and maul them.

"AAAAAH!" Jeb cried as he felt Murdock scratch his face and arms.

"Mom! Dad!" Wesley shouted as he tried to get to them, but he was held back by the other villagers. "Let me go! Let me go! Stop him!"

"Wesley, stay away!" May told him before she felt Murdock tear up her dress and pull at her horns. "AAAH!"

Murdock slowly tortured the parents to death, all the while Wesley and the rest of the town was forced to watch, the ape generals laughing cruelly at the two parents' fates.

Later on, Jeb and May's bodies were strung up on crosses and set up by Murdock and his apes for everyone to see.

"Now this here will be an example to remind you all of what happens when you go against me and my apes!" Murdock told the townsfolk. "If you try to be a hero, this is what happens!" He looked over at Wesley, who was crying as he was held by one of the villagers. "This is my lesson to you, boy. There is no room for heroes in my Wrath Ring."

Wesley barely even heard him, instead staring at the mangled corpses of his parents as they hung from their crosses. He knew that what happened to them was his fault. He looked down, his face stained by tears.

"Ma… pa… I'm sorry…"

In the present day, Wesley was visiting the cemetery just outside of Angerton. He was in front of his parents' tombstone. He placed some flowers over it, while looking saddened and guilt-ridden. He held his old sling-shot close to his chest.

"Ma… pa… I'm going to avenge you," Wesley told them. "Murdock and his crew are coming, and I don't know if I'll live or not, but I am going to take down as many of them as I can. And I just want to say that… I'm sorry. Sorry for getting ya killed. I thought I could be like one of those heroes in the comics. But… I'm not a hero. I'm just… a kid who didn't think things through."

He looked down at his slingshot, the one that started all of this. He sighed and placed the slingshot on their tombstone. "I… I don't know if I'll survive this, but I'd rather go down on my feet than on my knees. So… wish me luck."

After staying there for a few moments, he turned around and walked away from the graves.

He had a battle to get ready for

Far from Angerton, a town was burning, a trail of smoke rising up into the sky.

You would be forgiven to think that a natural disaster had hit this town. But no, this was the work of the Demon Apes, who stood in the middle of this town that they had set aflame, admiring their handiwork. In the distance another trail of smoke was behind them, indicating that this wasn't the first town they hit… nor would it be their last.

"Man, now that was a good pit stop!" Dirty Harry declared while tossing aside the skull of a poor imp he had killed. "Did you see the looks of their faces?"

"Yeah!" Noodra replied while licking the blood from her face. "It never gets old!"

Around them were also the dead bodies of the former residents of this village. Men, women, children… all slain, many of them maimed. It was a gruesome sight, yet Murdock looked almost disinterested in it.

"Are they all dead?" he asked his men.

"Every last one of them," Harry said with a grin.

"Except for the few that escaped," Snorgat corrected. He was chewing on what looked like to have once been part of a hellhound.

"They don't matter," Murdock said before he noticed one lone survivor crawling up towards them. Murdock looked down in disdain at the bleeding imp with the broken horn.

"W-Why?" he asked Murdock while coughing out blood.

The Demon Ape just glared down at the survivor while raising his foot. "Because you were in the way," he declared as he stomped on the imp's skull.

After that, the army of apes revved up their bikes and other vehicles and continued on their way to Angerton, leaving this village to burn just like the previous one.

Back in Angerton, in the room where Momo and Moxxie had spent the night together, Moxxie sat up in bed, seeing the morning light coming through the window.

"Man, I feel so… good right now," Moxxie said to himself before he saw someone stick her head out from underneath the covers.

"Did you sleep well?" Momo asked him with a smile while licking his face.

"Yeah, I slept great," Moxxie replied as he smiled at her. He watched as Momo pulled herself from the covers and rose up, looking just as beautiful as she did last night.

"Me too," Momo said as her tails brushed against his face.

"Okay, okay, you know I gotta get ready," Moxxie replied while gently moving her tails aside. He began to get up and he sniffed himself. "Probably need a shower?"

"Mind if I join?" she offered and the two shared a smile.

"Be my guest… or, however you say when I'm in your place," Moxxie said as Momo got up, following him into the bathroom for a shower…

After their shower, Moxxie got dressed while watching Momo, who brushed her hair while also getting dressed.

"I don't know how much time we have, so you should probably go to safety with the women and the children as soon as possible," he advised her.

"Oh no, I'm not hiding," Momo informed Moxxie, surprising him. "When the apes show up, I'm going to be fighting with everyone else."

"Are you sure?" Moxxie asked, looking concerned.

"I appreciate your concern, but I'm not helpless," Momo told Moxxie. "I know how to handle a gun, after all."

"I don't doubt that," Moxxie replied.

"Are you worried that I might be too much of a distraction?" Momo asked, looking back at Moxxie and gesturing to her body.

"No," Moxxie said. "I mean, we're both adults. We can both act professional outside of the bedroom."

"Agreed," Momo responded, opening her drawer and pulling up her revolver. "I want a chance to pay those apes back for what they've done to this town…" She then looked back at Moxxie. "And I do think it is sweet that you were concerned about my safety, but you don't know me, Moxxie. Not really."

"Yeah, you're right," Moxxie admitted, reflecting on how they were getting to know each other the other night, they weren't doing a lot of talking…

"Not that you should feel guilty about that," Momo reassured him. "We both got what we needed from each other last night."

"I can tell you more about myself, if you want," Moxxie offered.

Momo considered this. "Hmm, I would like that," she said. "Though maybe later, if we both survive the battle. Although I think I've already figured out some things about you."

This surprised Moxxie. "Really?" he asked. "Like what?"

"You knew those Greed gangsters who were here the other day," Momo pointed out. "This means that you're either from Greed originally or you spent some time in Greed. And you were probably mixed up in one of the mobs as well."

"You're right about that," Moxxie admitted. "I was born in Wrath, but I grew up in Greed. I don't live there anymore. And I don't run with that kind of crowd anymore either."

"Is that why you are in Wrath now?" Momo asked. "Reconnecting with your roots?"

"That wasn't the reason I came here, but I did decide to do that while I was in this Ring," Moxxie explained. "My mom's family still lives here." He paused. "Do you have any family, Momo?"

"Not any that live nearby," Momo admitted.

Moxxie then remembered something else. "You're a kitsune, right?"

Momo nodded. "Why?" she asked.

"I… recently helped rescue a bunch of kitsune kits," Moxxie explained. "But they were very different from you. They were smaller, on all fours, and they didn't talk."

"That's because kitsunes are different from other Hellborns," Momo explained. "Mainly because… kitsunes were not originally Hellborns. My ancestors came to this Realm."

"This realm… wait, you mean…?" Moxxie indicated before Momo answered.

"Hell wasn't my kind's original home," she said. "We immigrated from the Yokai Realm. And like you noted, when we're young, we're small and quadruped. Depending on how we're raised, we can either remain small or we can grow large enough to become bipedal and sentient, like Hellhounds. What did you rescue those kitsune kits from, by the way?"

Moxxie hesitated. "A fur farm," he told her, causing Momo to give a look of horror. "Yeah, I know. Don't worry, I helped to burn that place to the ground." He decided to change the subject. "So how did you end up with your job?"

"Well, the position was open after the last secretary was taken away by the apes here," Momo told him as she finished brushing her fur. "I try not to think about what happened to her. But I am more than just the secretary. Dirk was forced to take the position on short notice after his predecessor was killed, so he was caught unprepared. I've had to step in a lot in order to help him run the town. I like to think of myself as assistant mayor as well."

"Ah, so you're practically the brains of the operation here, making sure everything goes smoothly," Moxxie indicated after tying his bowtie.

"That's right… I'm actually a bit of a newcomer, having come here not too long ago. But despite that, I do consider this place my home," Momo declared after she finished dressed. She was now wearing a brown button shirt with a black skirt , black boots, and a brown cowgirl hat. "The folks here are my folks, my people. I care about them. So my fate will be the same as theirs."

Moxxie looked at her and gave her a nod. "I can respect that, Momo."

Momo smiled, but then that smile vanished. "I do have one… concern," she admitted. "I know that you're going to stand with us no matter what, but I worry that those companions of yours might not feel the same way. I worry that they could leave us when things do get bad… especially the Knights of Hell."

"That is… a possibility," Moxxie admitted, sharing the same concerns. "But we will just have to cross that bridge when we get to it."

Elsewhere in the town, the seven Knights of Hell were enjoying their big breakfast in the town's restaurant. Courtesy of the townsfolk, of course.

"Here you go," said a local woman as she placed a tray of deviled eggs and bacon on the table that the Knights were gathered around.

"Ooh, bacon!" some of the bikers shouted as they reached for the bacon, trying to get as much as they could before it was all gone. All of the bikers had their helmets off so they could scarf down their meals. Well, almost all of the bikers.

Cain sat at the end of the table, watching the others eat. Unlike the rest of his gang, his face was still hidden behind his helmet.

"Eat up, chums," Cain told his gang. "Jawline, how's your food?"

"Pretty good, sir!" shouted the gray shark demon with the tank top and black leather pants and strap boots. Without his helmet, he was revealed to have some scars across the left side of his face. "Can you pass the bacon, Grill?"

"Here you go, Jawline," said Grill, the reptile demon in the black poncho. He resembled a komodo dragon.

"You know, this is pretty good. Even better than the Waffle House we ended up destroying last week," said the white shark demon in the black jacket, whose graffiti painted helmet rested next to him on the table.

"Ugh, don't remind me of that place, Graff," said the sole imp biker and female member of the gang. Like the others, she had removed her helmet in order to eat her breakfast. This revealed that underneath her helmet she had long, black spiky hair with a beauty mark under her right eye. She also had a gap tooth and black horns with thin white lines. She sported her black jacket and tank top, with black jean short-shorts with black boots. "I always preferred supporting local businesses over franchises anyway."

"That's one way of looking at it, Millie," Cain told the imp biker, who beamed when she heard him. He then turned his attention to the other Knights, trying to determine if all of his gang were eating well. "Chop, Chik, how's yours?"

Chop and Chik, the last two members of the bike gang, were a pair of pale blue twin demon rabbits (hellrabbits) with each of them having only one ear, Chop possessing a left ear and Chik possessing a right ear. They both wore gray tank tops, with Chop wearing short black pants and Chik wearing long black pants. The two turned to Cain and gave him silent nods before they returned to eating their food. Their helmets were black with crescent visors, each of them having a hole for their ear to stick out.

"Good, good," Cain said as he continued to watch his gang eat. They were a messy and rowdy bunch, the concept of utensils seemingly beyond them. Either that or they didn't care. Each of them trying to eat as much food as quickly as possible, forcing the staff of the restaurant to work harder in order to keep up with the demand.

"Heads up, fellas. Here comes the next course," Cain said when he saw more servers coming over with platters of food. "Thanks."

"We, um, hope we made enough for everyone," one of the servers said, sounding a bit nervous. "Are you going to eat anything, sir?"

"Who, me?" Cain asked, turning to the server. "Oh, I'm good. The rest of my gang need it more. After all, they're growing boys. Well, growing boys and a single girl."

"If you need anything else, just ask," the server said.

Some of the Knights snorted after this. After all, why ask for something when they could just take whatever they wanted?

While the server tried to shrink away and return to the kitchen, another one of the servers caught Cain's attention. It was the saloon imp girl, the one that had been harassed by the apes just two days ago. She looked nervous now, not wanting a repeat of her attempted assault. She noticed that Cain was looking at her and she became more nervous.

"I hope everything is to your liking, sir," the imp girl said.

"I would say their reactions speak for themselves, but they would pretty much eat anything you put in front of them," Cain said, gesturing to his gang. "Especially Jawline and Graff. You should see some of the weird stuff that we've pulled from their stomachs. Jawline once ate part of a car."

"Heh, it's true," the shark demon said with a grin before he returned to eating.

"Honestly, I still have no idea why he did that," Cain admitted before turning back to the imp girl. "But I have to say, for as good as the food here is, the service is even better. And that includes you, sweetie."

"Oh… um, well… it's nothing, really," the saloon girl replied, blushing slightly at Cain's compliments.

"You got a name, love?" Cain asked her.

"Holly," she replied while twirling her hair. "And, you know, I just wanted to thank you for coming to help us against Murdock and his apes."

"Hey, don't worry about Murdock," Cain told Holly while leaning back in his chair. "Because luckily for you and everyone in this village, you are all under the protection of the Knights of Hell. This is what we do."

"That's… not what I heard," Holly admitted.

"Okay, this is not the only thing we do," Cain confessed with a shrug. "What can I say? We live a very interesting lifestyle…"

"I'm sure you have a lot of stories to tell then, Mr. Cain," Holly said.

"First of all, just call me Cain," the biker told her. "Second of all, I'm sure you have some stories as well."

"Me?" Holly asked in surprise. "But I'm just a background extra, ain't nothin' special about me or anythin'…"

Cain smiled behind his helmet and turned his chair, leaning closer to Cain. "I don't think I buy that," he said. "Though can I ask you something, Holly?"

"Sure," Holly said.

"Are you scared of me?" Cain asked.

Holly hesitated. "A l-little," she told him, making Cain chuckle.

"Good," Cain said. "Then my reputation speaks for me. But don't worry, Holly. I promise not to hurt you. And you're obviously not that scared of me anyway, since we're having this conversation now. And I really do enjoy talking to you, Holly."

Holly the saloon girl blushed. "S-Stop with that talk, you're making me blush," she said while hiding her face.

"Just saying it as it is," Cain replied before he heard one of the other serving girls cry out.

"H-Hey! Stop that!" cried out the saloon succubus woman as Graff kept trying to lift her skirt. She swatted his hand away. "Cut that out!"

"Come on, honey, why so shy?" Graff asked while grabbing her and forcibly pulling her onto his lap. "Just wanted to repay you for the food…"

"I said stop that!" the succubus shouted while feeling Graff getting fresh. She tried to get up but he forced her down. "Let me go!"

"Come on, I thought you succubi would be into this," Graff said as he leaned in, attempting to kiss her… only for Cain, who had gotten up, to grab the back of his head, pulling it back and slamming it against the table. "Hey! What's the big idea?!"

"She said stop, Graff," Cain told him off as the succubus saloon girl got up away from Graff. "Are you alright, miss?"

"Y-Yeah," she replied while backing away.

"Come on, man! I was just having fun," Graff told Cain while rubbing his head.

Cain scoffed. "This isn't how we should treat our hosts, Graff," Cain told him off. "And we certainly shouldn't harass the demons feeding us."

"She's a succubus! I thought those sluts were into this kind of thing," Graff said, which ended up getting under Millie's skin.

"She told you to stop, Graff, and that meant she didn't like what you were doin' to her," Millie said, speaking up while the other Knights stayed silent and stayed seated as they watched this confrontation play out.

"We shouldn't be acting no better than the apes they're terrified of," Cain scolded Graff. "We need to have standards."

"Is that so?" Graff asked as he stood up from his seat, glaring at Cain. "You getting soft, Cain?"

"Don't try to test me, Graff," Cain warned.

"Yeah? Well if I was the new Cain, we'd get to do whatever we want! Regardless of-"

Before Graff could even finish, he was punched in the face by Cain, sending him to the floor. He didn't get up either, having been knocked out. This caused the locals to gasp in shock while the other Knights laughed and hollered, very much enjoying seeing their leader put Graff in his place and remind him why Cain was in charge.

"One punch," Holly said in awe. "He knocked 'em out with one punch!"

"Told ya not to test me," Cain told the knocked out Graff. He turned to the other Knights. "Alright, who wants the rest of Graff's breakfast?"

The rest of the Knights immediately began fighting over Graff's breakfast. While they did this, Cain turned to the succubus woman that Graff had been harassing. Much like Holly, she was in awe of what he just did.

"I am so sorry for my uncivilized friend's behavior towards you, miss…?"

"Gigi," the succubi girl told him.

"Well, Gigi, when my friend wakes up I promise that he won't bother you anymore," Cain told them while he looked down at Graff's knocked out body. "He just needed a friendly reminder, that's all."

In the local saloon, Chase and Striker were both having their own breakfast together.

"So you actually took on a kraken down in Envy?" Striker asked while eating a bowl of grits with sausages and ham.

"Yeah, and it wasn't one of Leviathan's krakens either. This one was a rogue," Chase said as he took a bite out of the large ham on his plate. "No harpoons could hurt it, so I tricked the Kraken into swallowing me, then I tore it up from the inside before climbing out of its beak with its heart in my claws."

"Damn, sounds like hunting monsters is exhilarating," Striker replied. "Does it pay well?"

"Sure," Chase said with a shrug. "But I'm not in it for the money. I'm in it to get stronger."

"To what end?" Striker asked.

"No real end, honestly," Chase admitted. "Since I think there is always room to improve. So what can you tell me about your bounty hunting?"

"Eh, not as exciting as you might think," Striker confessed. "Especially since I try to be smart with what jobs I take. Make sure the risk is worth the reward, you know? I think the last job I took before this was hunting down this guy who skipped out on his court date. He was an eel demon from Pride."

"Was he a Sinner?" Chase asked.

"Yeah," Striker admitted. "And he had electricity powers."

"How did you bring him in?" Chase asked.

"Well, the thing about Sinners is that because they can't be killed, a lot of them think they're untouchable," Striker explained. "But that also makes them incredibly arrogant. You can use that to your advantage in order to get the drop on them. After all, I didn't have to kill him, just turn him in for the bounty. His electricity powers were a bit annoying though…"

"Hmm, that does remind me of my latest catch that I had to turn in," Chase replied after swallowing his meal. "Do you usually take jobs in Pride?"

"No, not really," Striker admitted. "That was something of a special occasion. Usually, I just take jobs in Wrath. Usually stuff like busting up gangs of bandits or cattle hustlers. Most of the time, I try to take them out quickly and efficiently. Most of my targets never see me coming."

Chase chuckled. "I'm the opposite," he told Striker. "I like my targets to know exactly who they're dealing with. I like seeing them piss themselves."

"That's… fair, I suppose," Striker said.

"I did see you shooting those practice targets the other day," Chase mentioned. "I don't really use guns, but I'll admit that you're a good sharp-shooter."

"Thank you," Striker replied. "I'm very good at what I do, though I certainly can't imagine doing what you do for a living, Chase."

"Well, I did learn from the best monster hunter in Hell," Chase replied with a fond smile.

"Really? What's she like?" Striker asked him.

"Well, she's a brute, a barbarian of a Sinner," Chase explained. "You could say that when it comes to monsters, she's unhinged and has a thirst for their blood. She's definitely a mess. But despite that, she was a good mama to me."

"She's a Sinner?" Striker asked and Chase nodded in confirmation. "Who was she? Joan of Arc?"

"Nah, Joan of Arc is a firewoman these days," Chase said before continuing to eat his breakfast.

Striker watched Chase eat. "So is she… a part of your motivation for what you do? For going into the monster-hunting business?"

"Hmm?" Chase asked. "I mean, I do appreciate her and I learned a great deal about monster hunting from her, but I wouldn't say I do this for her. I do this for me." He turned to Striker. "I mean, why do you hunt bounties for a living?"

"My son, Douglas," Striker pointed out.

"Oh, that's right," Chase said while chewing. "The kid. So then why are you here? You said you take jobs where the risk is worth the reward. Well, we aren't being paid much to do this. So why are you here risking your life for these people?"

"Because Moxxie appealed to my principles," Striker explained. "These people, they need our help. And I don't like seeing more powerful demons pushing around those smaller than them. I don't like it when the Goetia do it and I don't like it when Murdock does it. What about you?"

Chase shrugged. "I'm just here because I get this sweet chance to face off against these Demon Apes myself," he declared while biting off some more ham. "I'm looking forward to this battle…"

Striker couldn't help but frown over this. Because unlike Chase, he very much had something to lose here. And if they lost, what would become of Douglas? Who was going to watch over his boy if Striker was killed by those apes? The thought did worry the imp hybrid about what he had gotten himself into… but Chase didn't seem to care. At all.

Striker set his plate down and got up from the table, which Chase noticed. "Hey, where are you going? Your plate is still full."

"I'm not feeling hungry right now," Striker replied out of frustration before walking away from Chase, who seemed confused… until he looked at the rest of Striker's food.

"Well… best not to waste it," Chase said with a shrug as he helped himself to the rest of Striker's food.

Just outside of town, Cain had driven his bike over to a mountain. After he parked his bike and got off, he walked a short distance over to the entrance of a cave. In front of the entrance were two local men, who was guarding the cave with guns.

"Gentlemen," Cain said with a nod as he tried to walk past them, only for his path to be blocked by them. "Whoa, no need for hostilities, friends."

"We just don't want any trouble with you here," said the first guard.

"Yeah," the other guard replied. "The folks in there are already afraid enough as it is."

"No 'state your business' or anything?" Cain asked, but the gunmen didn't look to be in a joking mood. "Look, I'm not here to cause any trouble. I was just going for a walk. I'll be in and out very quickly. Promise."

The two guards looked at each other, silently debating whether to let Cain in or out. After a few moments, they looked back at Cain and reluctantly moved aside from the cave's entrance.

"One sound of a scream, yer swizz," one of the guards warned.

"Oh, I have no doubt about that," Cain said with a nod as he entered the cave.

Once he walked in, he descended down a tunnel and ended up in a wide part of the cavern that looked like it had once been an iron mine, though it hadn't been used as a mine in a very long time. Instead, the mine was currently home to Angerton's mothers and children, who were taking refuge in what had once been a prosperous mine. Cain looked around at the families who were huddled here, the mine mostly dark except for a few lit lanterns. And yet despite the dim light, he could still make out the faces of frightened women and their scared children, the mothers attempting to comfort their kids. They were here to wait out the battle and hide from the apes, who they already had lost so much to. As he looked at them, Cain couldn't help but pity them. But when they noticed Cain, they became noticeably wary of them, some of the children and women even reacting in fear to him.

"I don't mean any harm, I just wanted to check in and see how you folks are doing," Cain assured the townsfolk as he continued to walk around the mine. Then he paused, noticing a woman comforting her daughter and the little imp girl holding a stuffed rabbit. He just stared at the stuffed rabbit for a few seconds before he decided to approach them, which the mother noticed.

"H-Hey, we don't want any trouble," the mother told Cain as she pulled her daughter to her side.

"Relax, I just want to talk," Cain assured them in a soft tone. He noticed the little imp girl shrinking away from him in fear. "It's the helmet, isn't it?" he asked as he knelt down so that he was at the same level as the little girl instead of towering over her and her mother. He then reached up and removed his helmet, placing it on the ground next to him. "There. Is that better?"

In the bad lighting of the mine, it was impossible to make out Cain's face. But despite that, the little imp girl and her mother were able to see Cain's blue eyes, which pierced through the darkness and shone brightly.

"Hey kid, got a name?" Cain asked the little girl.

"Mim," the little girl responded. She sounded shy, but she didn't seem to be nearly as intimidated by Cain. Instead, she looked… curious.

"And does he have a name?" Cain asked.

"Who?" Mim asked.

"Your bunny," Cain said, gesturing to the stuffed animal she was clutching.

"Oh," Mim said in surprise. "Y-Yeah." She lifted her stuffed bunny up, showing that he had only one button eye. "Mr. One-Eye."

"Does he make you feel safe?" Cain asked.

Mim nodded while hugging her stuffed toy.

"Good," Cain said. "How old are you, Mim?"

"Eight," Mim said.

"Eight…" Cain repeated to himself. "I think you're a few years older than her then."

"Who?" Mim asked.

"My little sister," Cain told her. "You remind me of her. I haven't seen her in years, but she loves stuffed animals, just like you love yours. And even though I haven't seen her in years, every now and then I send her a stuffed animal as a gift. To let her know that I still think of her."

"Oh, that's nice of you," Mim's mother said.

"Thank you," Cain said before looking back at Mim. "Mim, I want to let you know that nothing bad is going to happen to you or your mom. I'm gonna help protect you, just like I would protect my own sister. Understand?"

Mim nodded. "Yes," she said, smiling a little.

Cain smiled back, though his smile was hidden by the dark. "I'll see you later, okay?" he asked.

"Okay," Mim said. But as Cain stood up and started to leave, she spoke again. "W-wait." Cain turned back and said Mim holding up her stuffed bunny. "Do you think your little sister would like Mr. One-Eye?"

Cain looked down at Mim in surprise. "I-I'm sure she would love him, but I don't want to ask you to give him up," he admitted. "I mean, taking toys from children is low, even for me."

"You wouldn't be taking him from me," Mim said. "I am giving him to you, so you can give him to your sister. If you're going to protect us… then I don't need him to feel safe."

"Honey, are you sure?" her mom asked. "You've had Mr. One-Eye for a long time."

"Yeah, they're right, is this something you're sure about?" Cain asked her.

Mim nodded. "Yes, because I want to give Mr. One-Eye not just for your little sister… but as thanks for protecting us," Mim said. "We don't have much to give you, but I can give you this. Just… promise me he'll be safe."

Cain's eyes had a softened expression as Mim handed him Mr. One-Eye. "I promise that both you and Mr. One-Eye will be safe," he promised as he knelt down and patted Mim's shoulder. "Thank you, Mim."

"You're welcome, Mr. Blue-Eyes," Mim told him and Cain let out a chuckle.

After giving the mother a nod, Cain set off to leave the mine, his business having been settled.

Back in the town, coming into Angerton was an express mail rider riding on a demon horse. A crowd gathered around the rider.

"Alright, if any of y'all have any letters or stuff you want me to deliver, put 'em up in my sack," the rider declared before having to clarify. "My mail sack, get yer minds outta the gutter, folks."

Many of the townsfolk either gave the rider their letters or went to quickly write said letters, just so they could send a final message to any friends or loved ones they had outside of town in case they didn't survive. This included Striker and Moxxie, who walked up to the rider with their letters.

"Here," Striker said as he handed his letter to the rider. "To my son."

"To my family," Moxxie said as he handed his letter over to the express rider.

The Knights stood off to the side, watching the townsfolk giving their mail to the rider. They then spotted Cain returning from his walk, parking his bike next to the other Knights.

"Hey, what's going on?" Cain asked.

"A mail express rider came into town," Jawline explained. "He said he'll send these letters to everyone's loved ones after the battle. He also said that he saw the apes heading this way, so we don't have much time."

"Is that so?" Cain asked, looking thoughtful.

A few minutes later, the express rider looked around. "Is that everyone?" he asked.

"Over here!" Cain shouted as he rushed over to give the rider a letter tied to the stuffed bunny. "Send this if you don't hear from me after the battle."

The express rider looked at the address on the letter and his eyes widened in surprise. "Is this-"

"Just make sure it gets to where it needs to," Cain told the rider.

Moxxie and Striker saw this and they both looked surprised.

"Is that a stuffed animal…?" Striker asked.

"Yeah," Moxxie said with a nod, his eyebrow raised. "I guess even Cain has loved ones."

"Alright, any other last minutes?" the rider asked before seeing Millie rushing over.

"Sorry I'm late!" she shouted. Her helmet was on and she gave the express rider her many letters. "Here, ah figured I could send some letters for my folks."

"That's a lot of letters, Millie," Cain noted. "I thought you were confident about the battle."

"Well… I am," Millie told him. "But I still wanted to have something ready to be sent, just in case I don't make it."

Cain nodded and turned to the express rider. "Where can we find you after the battle?" he asked.

"The nearest town," the express rider said. "I'll wait for as long as I can before sending out the letters. Although I saw the trail of destruction Murdock and his apes are leaving behind in their wake. I don't think your chances are good."

"Which is why you don't want to stick around," Cain noted.

The express rider nodded, looking a bit uneasy. He clearly didn't want to stay here longer than he needed to and was ready to move on. "I don't have a death wish," the express rider told Cain. "Still, I wish you folks luck."

And with that, the express rider took off, leaving the people of Angerton to their fates…

Sometime later, everyone was prepared for the upcoming battle. The townsfolk, which included Mayor Dirk, Momo, Chase, and the Knights, were all in position. Surrounding the town was now a blockade formed from sacks, barbed wire, wooden boards, and barrels. Behind these makeshift barriers was the first line of defense. This included Moxxie, Striker, and Wesley, who were passing time with the other armed locals who anxiously waited with their guns.

"Any word?" Striker asked.

"None from the lookout," Wesley replied. A moment of silence passed between the trio before Wesley spoke again. "Any of y'all feel… nervous?"

"Yeah, but that's just the anticipation," Moxxie said while holding up his rifle. "Right now, we are all focused on the future. But when the fighting starts, all we will be able to focus on is the present."

"What about you? Are you feeling nervous, Wesley?" Striker asked the young imp.

"Well… a bit," Wesley admitted. "Could you be straight with me? What do you think our chances of winning this battle are?"

"…I don't know," Striker confessed. "I think that will depend on a number of factors… including our allies?"

"You mean the Knights of Hell?" Moxxie asked.

"Not just them," Striker told Moxxie. "Chase as well. Like the Knights, he doesn't have a stake in the survival of this town or its people or even us. I know his kind. He is only here for the fight. We're really scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to allies."

"…that may be true," Moxxie admitted. "But we have to settle with what we have right now, Striker. At this moment, we really need to put faith in our allies, since we have nobody else. We need them."

"If you say so…" Striker responded, sounding unsure.

"Dust!" someone shouted.

Everyone looked up to see the lookout in the bell tower raising the alarm.

"Dust cloud in the distance… they're here!"

Moxxie, Striker, and Wesley poked their heads over the barriers, spotting the dust cloud approaching. And in that cloud, they could make out shapes.

"Murdock…" Wesley said, narrowing his eyes.

Sure enough, Murdock and his Demon-Apes were rapidly approaching in an convoy that consisted of different motorbikes and vehicles, ready for their assault on Angerton.

"Alright, everyone, battle stations!" Moxxie shouted while one of the townsfolk making up the first line of defense held up a rocket launcher.

"Stand back; who knows what this thing's capable of," the townsfolk said as he aimed and locked in on one of the vehicles. "This is for my daughter, Stacy…"

As he squeezed the trigger, a rocket flew from the launcher, shooting straight towards the Demon Apes. It hit one of the buggies, striking the trunk…

BOOM!

The explosion that occurred shocked the apes, especially Murdock and his generals.

"The fuck?!" Daddy-Orang shouted in shock.

"Holy shit, they're packing heat!" Noodra cried out.

"Now I'm angry enough to rip their faces off and eat them!" Dirty Harry declared, causing Noodra to give him a look.

"Okay, what is with you and eating faces?" she asked.

Murdock just narrowed his eyes at the town, seeing the defenses set up. "They're making a final stand," he recognized. He turned to the apes. "Let's spread out."

Looking up from over the barrier, Moxxie saw the convoy of vehicles begin to spread out. He pulled out a trigger and pressed down on it, setting off bombs that he and the townsfolk had buried in the ground surrounding the town. These bombs exploded, turning where Murdock and his apes were into an active minefield. Vehicles exploded, ape bodies were torn apart as their flaming organs and limbs flew through the air.

"Fall back!" Murdock shouted. "Fall back!"

The apes that didn't fall back in time were set ablaze, the fire from the explosions spreading quickly to other vehicles, causing even more explosions. But even as the apes pulled back, they found themselves under a different kind of pain…

Moxxie, Striker, Wesley, and the townsfolk opened fire on the apes, picking them off from a distance. Murdock wasn't pleased by this at all, especially when an ape near him was shot in the face, forcing him to duck behind his motorcycle for cover.

"What do we do?" Noodra asked. "We're sitting ducks out here!"

Murdock looked around. He saw a few of his apes trying to shoot back, only to get shot for their efforts. Other apes were cowering in or behind their vehicles. He didn't like this at all. It made them look like cowards. He growled.

"We charge them," Murdock revealed. "We have superior strength and numbers. They can't hold their line of defense if we rush and overwhelm them."

"Apes will die," Noodra pointed out.

"Apes will die anyway," Murdock told Noodra as he shouted orders at his apes. While a few looked shocked by the orders, they didn't argue and the convoy of vehicles began to approach the town, the apes firing on the defenders as they advanced.

Moxxie and the others held their line of defense as long as they could, but Moxxie noted a few of the townsfolk near him being struck and killed by stray bullets. He also noted that the apes were getting closer and that would just mean more casualties before their position was overrun.

"Pull back!" Moxxie ordered everyone. "Pull back and head into town!"

Everyone did just that, rushing back into the town. Wesley followed them while Moxxie and Striker covered for the others, buying them a few seconds by firing at the approaching apes. Then the two retreated into town as well, to get ready for what came next.

"They have guns!" Snorgat declared while watching with his binoculars.

"Yeah, no shit," Noodra responded as they drove through the smoke and flames. The convoy of vehicles broke through the barriers and came to a stop.

Murdock looked around at the town, seeing nobody in the streets. "Search the town," he ordered. "Tear down the walls if you have to."

Inside the town, the defenders were hiding inside the buildings, watching through the windows as some apes came down the street on their bikes. But then, some of the apes fell into a pit trap that had been prepared, the ground giving away beneath them.

"YAAAH!" cried one ape that fell into the spike pit.

"WHOA!" another cried out as he fell in along with his bike.

One ape managed to avoid falling into one of the pits, only to get sniped off his bike.

At the entrance of the town, Murdock heard the screams and the gunshots and he stopped his generals from going on.

"Let's pull back," he told the generals. "I want to see what we're up against."

He got back on his bike and pulled back to a position where he wouldn't be sniped, leaving the apes he had already sent into the town to their fates.

In the town, townsfolk began to fire from inside of the buildings, through doors and windows, catching several apes this way. A few of the apes attempted to get off the street, but then shadows loomed over them…

"Death from above!" Chase shouted as he and the Knights of Hell jumped down from the rooftops. Chase landed on an unfortunate ape who was on his bike, grabbing the ape, lifting him off the bike, and tearing him apart. He then turned to a group of apes and lunged at them, grabbing one and using him to beat a few of his enemies before throwing him aside and using his claws to shred and tear apart any apes in his path. "Come on! Is that the best you got?!"

Meanwhile, Millie managed to jump on top of an ape. "Give me your bike!" she shouted, stabbing his face with her knife and throwing him off his bike. She then revved the bike toward a group of other apes, laughing maniacally before jumping off the bike right before it crashed into the apes.

Jawline brought out a large, three-bladed sickle to stab through an ape. His blade didn't just slash through the ape, it also slashed through his bike. The shark demon let out a roar as he went to slash another ape.

Graff was holding up a flamethrower, which used his graffiti as fuel. He targeted the apes and spewed colorful flames to burn them. "YAAAAAH!" he shouted while setting the apes ablaze, burning them beyond recognition…

Grill had managed to hijack one of the ape's bikes while holding up a chainsaw sword, which he used to slash at the apes, cutting down any in his path. He drove straight into one of the apes, pinning him against the wall before bringing down the chainsaw to cut the ape in half vertically, absolutely shredding him.

Chop and Chik hopped from rooftop to rooftop, holding large sawed-off rifles filled with salt pellets. They shot at apes from above, blasting their heads off and creating a bloody paint on the ground. The twins said nothing, only silently nodding at each other in acknowledgement before they hopped to the next vantage point.

The apes caught in the streets were already in complete disarray when they heard the sound of a bike revving. They turned to see that at the end of the street was Cain, riding on his motorcycle and holding up a javelin. He drove his bike toward the apes, holding his javelin up like a jousting knight. It seemed to extend forward as it stabbed through apes, killing them by impalement through their heads and chests. He detracted the javelin to get the dead apes off, then saw one ape on a motorcycle driving toward him while firing his gun. Cain turned his motorcycle around and drove toward the ape as bullets flew past his helmeted head, successfully knocking the ape off his motorcycle. Before the ape could get up, Cain pointed his javelin at the ape and several others before firing an electric charge from the end of the javelin, shocking them.

Hiding on one of the rooftops, Moxxie had taken up a sniping position and was sniping each of the apes in town, getting headshot after headshot. He smiled as he picked another ape off.

"Thank you, Stu," he said before deciding to go for a different angle. He shot at a store sign, the bullet bouncing off the sign and hitting an ape. Then he shot at a weather vane, which twirled around as the bullet ricocheted through a hole in a fence, hitting another ape who was hiding there in the head.

In another part of the town, Striker and Wesley were both taking shelter in a general store, firing from inside at the apes. Wesley ended up missing one of his marks, but Striker fixed that mistake for him, shooting the ape in the head.

"Thanks, Striker," Wesley told him.

"Save the thanks for after the battle," Striker told him.

The apes didn't stand a chance against the combined efforts of the townspeople, Chase, and the Knights of Hell. At this point, the apes were just trying to get out of there alive, some of them abandoning their vehicles in their blind panic. As one ape struggled to get out, he turned a corner and noticed the spiked heads of the previous apes that were in town.

"Dear Satan…" the ape said in horror as he recognized one of the ape heads. "Oh fuck! That's Murdock's cousin, Derek!"

"Ha! I knew he was his cousin!" Chase shouted, revealing himself as he stood behind the ape, who let out a terrified scream.

However, some of the apes had managed to retreat from the town with their lives, having avoided getting shot or otherwise killed. A few of them managed to drag themselves over to where Murdock and the other apes were.

"Well?" Murdock asked one of the wounded apes, looking down at him.

"The townsfolk are hiding inside the buildings," the ape explained. "Though at least one of them is on the rooftops. B-but they're not fighting alone!"

"They have help from that infamous hellhound, Chase, along with the Knights of Hell!" another ape said. "T-They even spiked the head of your cousin, Derek!"

Murdock didn't even look phased by this information. "Looks like we should pull out our little ace," he declared. "But what about the children? Did you see them?"

The wounded apes shook their heads. "We don't see any children there," one of them replied.

"Yeah, I thought not," Murdock said. "They must've taken them to a safer location, one that might be nearby…" Murdock tapped his chin, his grizzled smile forming. "Okay, new plan. We need to buy some time to get our ace ready. Noodra, Daddy-Orang, Dirty Harry, I want you three to help with the next assault. Do what you do best. Snorgat, you stay with me." He pointed to several other apes. "Find the town's children."

"On it, sir!" the ape declared as he got on his bike, revved it, and set off.

"All right, time to rip their faces off!" Dirty Harry declared as he and his fellow generals led the next wave of apes into town.

"Just try not to get shot," Noodra said as she followed.

"Hehe, let's see if there's any lovelies to play around with," Daddy-Orang said with a depraved look.

"Will I get to eat any survivors or children, boss?" Snorgat asked Murdock.

"Oh, when we're done here, you'll have a feast, Snorgat," Murdock assured him while sporting his own depraved look.

The three ape generals entered the town, passing by their dead brethren, which they didn't pay any attention to as their approach was noticed by the Knights.

"Great, they're sending in more," Grill pointed out, seeing the high-rankers.

"They don't look tough to me," Jawline said as Graff stepped up.

"Yeah, we can take them!" Graff declared while shooting his flame thrower at them.

The three apes swerved their bikes to dodge the wall of flames, Dirty Harry jumped up from his bike. "So you like fire, huh? I'll give you fire!" he shouted before spitting fire bullets on the ground near Graff, who stepped back.

"What the hell?!" Graff shouted before Dirty Harry landed in front of him. He saw the snow monkey take a deep breath before breathing hot flames in front of him. "Gah!" he shouted, backing away before shooting back at Harry with his colorful flame thrower. His flames met Harry's, but in the aftermath he heard Dirty Harry laughing. "What in the… how are you not scorched?!"

"What's wrong?" Dirty Harry asked. "Can't take the heat?"

The snow monkey demon then used his hands to shoot the colorful flames back at Graff, who dodged the flames while the rest of the Knights did the same.

"Shit!" Graff shouted as he avoided the flames, which drew near him. He took some cans of graffiti paint from his belt and threw them towards the demon-ape. When the cans hit the flames, an explosion occurred. A colorful explosion. Graff took a moment to admire his handiwork, but then he saw Dirty Harry just standing there, unscathed and unbothered by the explosion. "What the fuck?!"

"My wrath knows no bounds," Dirty Harry said with a grin before he launched himself towards Graff, who started to panic as he kept shooting his flamethrower at Harry. But this only succeeded in making Harry look more terrifying as the low flame-covered monkey lunged toward him…

"Hang on, Graff!" Millie shouted as she was about to go over and assist, until she was wrapped up by a whip. "What the-?! YAAH!" she cried out as she was thrown around and flung into the wall of a building. She got up, wincing slightly, and saw Noodra stepping over to her.

"Na-a-ah, don't want you to interfere with Dirty Harry's work," Noodra declared before she heard the sound of the chainsaw sword from Grill, who lunged at her with his weapon. She dodged the attack, flipping away from Grill's chainsaw. She landed on a barrel and then jumped off it and Grill swung at her, slicing the barrel in two while she landed safely elsewhere.

"Take her down!" Jawline shouted. He had his helmet off and he attempted to bite her, but she narrowly dodged it and pulled out a dagger, hitting him in his eye. "GAH!" Jawline cried out, before she grabbed the dagger and slashed it across his face, leaving a bloody cut, a new scar for his face. "My eye! YAAAH!"

"Jawline!" Millie cried out before Daddy-Orang jumped in front of her.

"Hold on, babe," Daddy-Orang said. "Why the rush? Why don't we get to know each other…"

Millie snarled as she jumped in to attack him, slashing her knife at him. But Daddy-Orang blocked her attacked, grabbed her arm, and tossed her away from him. "Nice try, babe," he declared before he noticed Chik and Chop aiming their guns at him. Daddy-Orang moved quickly, avoiding several gunshots as he climbed up to the building to where the rabbits were, surprising them and grabbing their sawed off guns. "Ooh, nice weapons… think I can keep them?"

Chik and Chop looked at each other, then at the orangutan demon. They both jumped down form the building, Chop grabbing Millie as Daddy-Orang fired down at them. Chop and Millie both took cover while Chik attempted to pull out another weapon, which got Daddy-Orang's attention. "Guess it's rabbit stew for me…"

BANG!

Chik was shot in through the stomach, then in the face, causing him to fall back to the ground.

"Chik!" Millie cried out, she and Chop having witnessed the whole thing. Chop stared at his twin brother's body, his devastated face hidden behind his helmet.

Daddy-Orang grinned, but then got distracted when he saw Momo in the second story window of a hotel across from him. "Oh hello, darling…"

Momo attempted to fire at him, but was forced to duck down as Daddy-Orang shot at her. He then jumped across the street, crashing through the window into the hotel where Momo was.

Millie saw this and was about to go into the building after Daddy-Orang, but her path was blocked by Noodra, who kicked her back.

"Na-a-ah," Noodra said with a sadistic smile. She pulled out her whip while licking her lips. "I'm not done with you yet…"

"You bitch…" Millie snarled, her fists tightening as she prepared to take on Noodra. Chop joined her, standing by her side as they faced down the demon chimp.

Meanwhile, Graff kept shooting his flamethrower at Dirty Harry, who managed to close the distance between them. Dirty Harry tackled Graff, removed his mask, and then opened his fiery jaws, biting down on his face.

"YAAAH! STOP! LET GO!" he shouted, spraying Dirty Harry with more flames before Dirty Harry ripped off his face, causing Graff's body to fall limp before Dirty Harry burned it.

"Burn, trash!" Dirty Harry declared as he continued to maul Graff's face even after Graff's body became unresponsive. He then left the body to return. "Who's next?"

He turned his attention to Jawline and Grill, who were helping each other up. "I think you'll do just fine," Dirty Harry said with a grin.

Meanwhile, Cain rode his bike out of the town, heading over to where Murdock was while holding his javelin out, using it to knock, stab, and shock every ape that was in his path, leaving a trail of injured or dead apes in his wake.

"Out of my way!" Cain shouted as he swung his javelin, electrocuting several apes. He then used a rock as a ramp, sending Cain and his motorcycle flying through the air before it landed in front of Cain and Snorgat, the motorcycle sliding to a stop.

"Murdock!" Cain shouted. "At last we finally meet!"

"And you are…?" Murdock questioned him, raising an eyebrow.

"The name's Cain," Cain introduced as he stepped off his bike. "Leader of the legendary Knights of Hell!"

"Ah, I've heard about you," Murdock said while the apes near him aimed their guns at Cain.

"I take it my reputation precedes me then," Cain said as he walked toward Murdock, his javelin in his hand. "Just like yours. I've actually seen some of your handiwork, Murdock. And I have to say… I'm not a fan. Wrath has no use for the likes of you."

"Oh?" Murdock asked. "And what gives you the authority to decide that?"

"Hmm, maybe you're right," Cain said, grinning underneath his helmet. "So how about we let a trial by combat decide? You versus me. One-on-one."

Murdock stared at Cain, amused by his audacity.

"Want me to handle him, boss?" Snorgat asked, but Murdock halted him and gestured for the rest of his men to stand down as well.

"No, stand back, Snorgat," Murdock said. "I think I'll accept this whelp's challenge. It's been a long time since someone has challenged me to a good old-fashioned fight…"

He and Cain stood their ground, facing off against each other. Murdock sneered at Cain in an attempt to intimidate Cain, who just glared at Murdock through his helmet.

"I have to admit, I am surprised to see you and your Knights here," Murdock admitted. "You and your Knights don't exactly have a reputation for defending villages. No, from what I heard, you and me are-"

"Yeah, I'm gonna stop you right there," Cain said, lifting his hand. "I'm not interested in hearing the 'we're not so different' spiel."

Murdock growled. "So then why are you here?" he demanded to know. "A chance to take out a powerful rival, perhaps?"

"That is part of it," Cain admitted. "But I also consider this my obligatory community service to the Ring of Wrath." He held up his javelin. "An act of duty in the name of Lord Satan."

"Satan?" Murdock asked with a chuckle. "Oh, you know that he never does anything to enforce order in this Ring," he said while bringing out something from the sheath strapped on his back. "Which is exactly why the Ring is ripe for conquest…"

"And that's exactly why you need to be stopped," Cain told Murdock. "Sure, me and my Knights can get carried away every now and then. But you are under the delusion that you claim ownership of this Ring, of this town."

"This town does belong to me!" Murdock hissed. "And perhaps Wrath will one day belong to me as well. Sure, Satan can have his throne. But outside of his palace, I'll be the one really in charge. The one that Wrath fears!"

"And thinking like that is exactly why you have to be stopped," Cain said. "One way or another, you're not going to survive this day. I can promise you that."

"Bold of you to talk like that in front of me, boy," Murdock said as he brought out his weapon. It was a large, double-edge blade with rigid edges. He grabbed the helm of the blade and it split apart, showing chains connected to it. "Perhaps a lesson is in order…"

"Bring it…" Cain replied while giving Murdock a heated glare before the two charged at each other, their weapons clashing violently.

Meanwhile, Moxxie was still on the rooftop, shooting at the apes when he noticed some of them attempting to climb up the side of the building to the roof.

"Shit," he cursed as he started shooting at the apes to prevent them from reaching him. However, one ape managed to sneak up from behind, waiting until Moxxie stopped to reload. Fortunately, Moxxie noticed the shadow of the ape behind him, giving him a chance to react. He spun around, but before he could fire the ape managed to grab his rifle.

"Hey, let go!" Moxxie shouted as the two wrestled for the gun. The ape kicked Moxxie in the stomach, knocking him back and causing the rifle to fly out of his hands, landing on the other side of the roof. As Moxxie got him, he glanced at the gun, then back at the ape, whose eye twitched before he screeched and jumped towards Moxxie.

"Fuck!" Moxxie shouted before rolling away from the ape. He tried to run for the rifle, but the ape blocked his path and tried to use his claws to scratch at Moxxie. The imp jumped back, feeling the claws tear at his clothing. Moxxie reached for his knife, but as he pulled it out, the ape threw his own body at Moxxie, tackling him. The two began to roll across the rooftop, hitting and scratching each other.

As the two fought each other, the ape pushed Moxxie's head down, pressing his face against the roof. The ape screeched and began to bite his head. "Yeowch!" he screamed as he felt the ape biting his horn. He then saw his knife on the ground not far away from him and he started to reach for it, straining in the process.

"Get off me… you… you…" Moxxie said as he reached for the knife. "DAMN, DIRTY APE!" he screamed as he grabbed the knife and stabbed the ape in the side of his head. The ape screeched and Moxxie managed to use this moment to pin the ape down, stabbing him in the head over and over again with the knife, causing black blood to be spilt all over him. He kept doing this until the ape became unresponsive.

Only then did Moxxie stop to take a breather. He looked down at the dead ape before getting up and going to retrieve his rifle.

One more nasty ape down for the count.

Meanwhile, in the general store, Striker, Wesley, and another townsie kept shooting at the apes. However, one ape spotted them and shot at them, with the townsie being unlucky enough to get hit by the shot.

"Shit!" the townsie cried out before getting rattled with bullets before falling to the floor.

"Take cover!" Striker shouted as he and Wesley ducked down as bullets broke through the windows and flew over their heads. They pulled the townsie over to their side and saw him bleeding to death.

"Oh Satan, is he…" Wesley asked as Striker checked on him.

"Dead," Striker confirmed while lowering his head. He then noticed a shadow looming over them. The two looked up and saw an ape crawling through the broken glass. "Wesley, get behind me!"

As the apes began to breach the general store, Striker fired his pistol, immediately killing one of the apes. However, he saw more coming in and he ducked as the bullets flew past him. "Fall back!" he shouted as he and Wesley ran back into the building, away from the windows.

Striker and Wesley hid behind the counter, Striker poking his head up to fire at the apes that were now climbing into the general store, ducking down whenever the apes fired back. Wesley wanted to help and he noticed a bucket of nails nearby. Getting an idea, he picked up the bucket and threw it at the apes, knocking one in the head and spilling the nails all over the floor, causing the apes to step on the sharp nails and screech in pain.

While the apes were distracted, Striker and Wesley moved over to the shelves, throwing items off the shelves to slow down the apes chasing after them. Striker even got the idea to slam his body against a shelf, causing a domino effect that made more of a mess and created more barriers they could hide behind.

However, some of the apes climbed over the fallen shelves to chase after the two through the general store. As the apes closed in, Wesley threw some bottles on the ground, covering the floor with broken pieces of sharp glass that the apes stepped on, causing them to shriek. This gave Striker the chance to shoot one of the apes coming after them while Wesley held up his gun to shoot at another ape coming at them.

"Good shot, kid," Striker told him with a grin. He noticed that the last ape was about to get up from the floor, but Striker shot him in the head, finishing him off.

Outside in the streets, a small group of apes were scouring through the town, looking for townsfolk to kill. That was when they heard a voice call out to them.

"Oh yoo-hoo, boys."

The apes turned around and saw that sticking out from around the corner of a house… was a leg. This leg belonged to Carla, who stepped into view to make herself known to the apes. Hearts popped up around her and she swayed her hips as she walked towards the apes while in her brassier leotard and fishnets.

"I've been wonderin' if any of you could treat sweet little ol' me with a good time?" she asked while shaking her behind and giving them a wink while twirling her hair, working her succubus charm on them.

It worked flawlessly.

The apes' eyes popped up into hearts as they became entranced by the beauty of the southern belle succubus. She walked back behind the building, her tail motioning for them to follow her. The apes did, of course, and they found her sitting on a barrel with her legs crossed, gesturing for them to come over. But when they walked towards her, the ground gave way beneath them and they all fell into a pit.

"YAAAH!" the apes cried out.

"What gives?!" one of them shouted.

"Oops, sorry, looks like you fell right where I want ya," Carla teased from the edge of the pit as a much larger figure appeared next to her. "They're all yours, Chase."

"Thanks, Carla," Chase said with a grin before he jumped down into the hole. The apes began to scream as Chase dealt with them, their screams accompanied by other violent sounds.

"WAAAAAAH!/NOOOOO!/KENNY!" the apes screamed as one of them, who was named Kenny, was ripped apart by Chase.

Carla just stepped back, shaking her head. "After this, I'm never coming to the Wrath Ring ever again," she said as she went to lure her next victims to Chase.

Meanwhile, in the hotel, Momo was trying to get away from Daddy-Orang.

"Well, well, I've never been with a foxy lady before," Daddy-Orang said as he followed her through the hotel.

"Stay away from me!" Momo shouted as she held up her rifle, firing several rounds at him. However, Daddy-Orang managed to dodge every shot as he drew closer to her, causing Momo to back away.

"Come on now," Daddy-Orang declared as he grabbed a table and threw it at her, forcing Momo to duck. "You know you want me."

"I said stay away!" she shouted as she prepared to shoot again, but before she could fire Daddy-Orang closed the distance between them, grabbed her rifle away from her, and threw it behind him. She looked up at him, showing no fear despite the situation. "Go ahead and kill me."

"Oh, I don't plan to kill ya, I plan to take you with me," he said while his arms reached towards Momo, whose eyes widened when she realized the ape's intentions. She kicked him and managed to dodge his arms, running down the hall and heading towards a room.

"Ooh, playing hard to get?" Daddy-Orang asked as he followed her. He turned around a corner and spotted her tails vanishing into a room, the door slamming shut. Daddy-Orang followed and checked the door, finding it locked. But that didn't stop him. Instead, Daddy-Orang punched through the door, causing Momo to shriek. He smiled, especially when he saw the bed behind her. "Found you…"

"Oh, yes you did," Momo replied, her tone nervous as she looked up at the orangutan demon, who forced his way into her room. "Y-you know, for a demon-ape, you're quite… handsome…"

"Oh, I know. But… that's surprising to hear from you," Daddy-Orang said while marching up to her, holding her by the shoulder and caressing her cheek, causing Momo to flinch. "Are you surrendering?"

"Y-yes," Momo said while sitting back in the bed. "I mean, what's the point in fighting back? You're so… strong, while I'm just… a weak, little ol' fox playing cowgirl," she said while her hand was placed over his. "So… at least be gentle."

"Oooh~! Now that's what I'm talking about!" Daddy-Orang shouted with a smile, his hand tracing her body. "But don't worry, I promise to be gentle with you, my little foxy-loxy," he said while starting to lift her skirt up. "Well, as gentle as I can be…"

"Wait," Momo said, getting him to stop. "Why not savor this moment with a kiss?"

"Hmm, sure," Daddy-Orang said as he closed his eyes and puckered his lips up. He felt something pressing against his lips. "Mmm, your lips are a little cold-"

BANG!

Daddy-Orang's head was blasted away, brain matter and bits of his skull flying everywhere. Instead of kissing Momo's lips, he had been kissing the barrel of a handgun. A handgun she had pulled out from underneath her skirt. She gave a smirk before firing another round between his eyes, coating the ceiling with more blood and brain matter.

"Bang, bang, daddy-o," Momo said as she kicked the now dead Daddy-Orang away from her, his body hitting the floor while she looked down at it in disgust.

Daddy-Orang, the first general to die.

Back outside, Millie and Chop faced off against Noodra, while Jawline and Grill faced off against Dirty Harry. First, let's focus on Millie's battle with one of the high-ranking apes.

Millie let out a battle cry as she charged at Noodra with her knives, Chop assisting her by firing several rounds at Noodra, who flipped over the shots before bringing out her whip, striking at Chop's hand and making her drop his gun. Noodra then turned her attention to Millie, using her own pigtail to grab the imp.

"What the fuck?!" Millie cried out before being tossed aside. She winced before noticing the ponytails transforming into knives and being launched towards her, Millie scurrying away from as the living hair stabbed the boxes near her. Millie looked up to see Noodra being lifted off the ground by her pigtails. "Your hair is alive?!"

"I know, fun isn't it?" Noodra asked as Chop tried to target her from behind, but she simply used her hair to swipe at Chop, knocking him down again. "Your rabbit friend's not so bright, is he? I should just put him out of his stupidity…"

"Oh no you don't, bitch!" Millie shouted as she ran up towards the ape. When she saw the hair coming at her, she jumped up and slashed at the hair with her blades.

"Hey! My hair!" Noodra shouted as she backed away.

"Hmm, seems like you can't handle a haircut." Millie said with a smirk. "Now that's a glaring weakness right here…"

Noodra glared at Millie as she brought out more of her whips, striking them on the ground before cracking them over at Millie.

Millie ducked underneath the whips, dodging the strikes until one wrapped around her ankle. It brought her up and threw her around, but she used one of her blades to cut the whip, instead landing nearly on a barrel. More hair tendrils came for her and she slashed at them, until one managed to stab her in the shoulder, while another stabbed her in the thigh.

"SHIT!" Millie cried out. She threw one of her blades at Noodra, but the ape grabbed it inches away from her face.

"Nice try!" Noodra declared before she felt something hit her back. "Gah! What the-" She turned around to see Chop throwing rocks at her. "You again, you damn rabbit?!" she shouted, taking her eyes off of Millie and turning to Chop, which gave Millie the perfect distraction…

SLASH!

Noodra's eyes widened when she felt something fall from her head. Her hair tendrils stopped moving… as her scalp slid off, along with her hair and a part of her brain. Noodra just stood there, drooling as Chop saw that Noodra's head had completely lost its top, which fell to the ground.

"Shave in a haircut…" Millie said as she held her blood-stained blade and swung it to cut Noodra's head off from her neck. "Two bits." She turned to nod at Chop. "Thanks, Chop. I got her real good."

Chop said nothing, he just gave her a thumbs up while Noodra's body fell on the ground, her head rolling next to her scalp.

Noodra was now dead.

Meanwhile, Jawline and Grill were currently fighting against Dirty Harry, who kept sending out his fiery attacks, preventing the two Knights from getting too close to him.

"Feel my wrath, cretins!" Dirty Harry declared, sending out fireballs from his hands towards the two, keeping them moving.

Jawline used his three-teeth blade to swipe at the fireballs, dispersing them. He looked around to see the area around catching fire. "If he keeps this up, he'll burn down this part of town!"

"Then we'll have to cool him off," Grill said as he looked around and spotted a barrel of water. He rushed towards the barrel and grabbed it, throwing it at Dirty Harry, who shot a fireball at the barrel.

This resulted in the barrel exploding, dousing the snow monkey demon with gallons of water. However, this only made him angrier. "You bastards will pay for this!" he shouted as more flames sprouted around him, evaporating the water.

"Shit," Grill muttered as he and Jawline dodged the fireballs coming at them. "How is this guy even doing this?" He turned to Jawline. "Jawline, I think we need to get close and finish this," he said while holding his chainsaw sword.

"What? We'll be burned to death by that pyromaniac!" Jawline pointed out.

"Well, I'm tired of dancing to his fire," Grill countered as he held his chainsaw sword up. "Gonna shove this into this guy's asshole."

Jawline was surprised by this, but he smirked and gave him a nod as he held up his large blade. The two ran in separate directions, forcing Dirty Harry to divert his focus.

"Come and face me, cowards!" Dirty Harry declared as he saw both of the Knights holding up their weapons. Jawline held his three-bladed sword while covered in flames while Grill was also covered in flames while revving up his chainsaw sword, which sparked flames around. "Crazy shit-stains! You'll burn to death!"

"Maybe, but at least we look really cool!" Grill declared while jumping towards the ape. Dirty Harry was surprised by this, not expecting the Knights to be crazy enough to actually run through his flames. He was forced to back away as Grill advanced on him, only to then be forced to dodge Jawline as well. He tried to blast the two with flames, but they continued their chase, causing Dirty Harry to flee.

But eventually, Dirty Harry ran out of luck. Jawline swiped his blade across Dirty Harry's chest, the three blades cutting down through his chest to his stomach, leaving a large gash. Grill also pressed his chainsaw sword against the demon ape, shredding through his skull.

"AAAAAAAHHH!" Dirty Harry cried out, blood splattering all over the two Knights as they brought their weapons down on him. Dirty Harry's face became unrecognizable as his head splattered into pieces and his body was shredded. And as Dirty Harry died, the fire around him seemed to die as well, almost as if this isn't natural fire at all…

Once Grill was done chopping up the demon ape, he saw Jawline grab a piece of Dirty Harry's arm and munched on it.

"Oh, come on, don't eat him, you don't know where he's been," Grill told his companion while looking down at the remains of Dirty Harry. "So how do you think he got his fire powers?"

"Who cares?" Jawline asked with a shrug as he continued to chew on Dirty Harry's arm.

As for Cain against Murdock, the two were locked in combat, their blades clashing against each other in a heated exchange while Murdock's men watched the duel.

Cain slid back, holding up his javelin in defense. He shot sparks of electricity towards Murdock, who blocked it with his double-edged sword. Murdock then lunged at Cain, swinging his sword at Cain, who ducked out of the way and brought up his javelin to block the next attack.

"Do you have a death wish, boy?" Murdock questioned as he kept attacking.

"Right now, I'm definitely wishing for your death," Cain snarled as he knocked the sword aside and swung his javelin towards Murdock's face, who dodged the attack. However, Cain did manage to cut his cheek.

"Huh," Murdock noted as he wiped the blood from his cheek and looked at it with an unamused expression.

"First blood is mine," Cain declared as he held his javelin up.

"I still have a lot of blood… you won't," Murdock declared as he swung his blade against Cain's javelin. The javelin sparked electricity as Cain tried to push back against Murdock, but Murdock managed to overpower Cain, shoving him back. Cain grunted but managed to dash away as the blade hit the ground where he had stood only moments earlier. Once he was at a safe distance, he pointed his javelin at Murdock and hit him with some electricity, the ape growling in response.

"Stings, does it?" Cain taunted as Murdock lunged forward and swung his blade at him, but Cain dodged the swing. He then saw Murdock leap in the air and spin the blade like a helicopter towards Cain, who backed away while shooting bolts of electricity towards it.

The electricity bounced back from the spins, causing Snorgat and the apes watching the fight to dodge the bolts. Cain grimaced and retracted his javelin, charging more electricity into it.

"Time to send you away," Cain whispered as he charged up his javelin, using it as a conduit for electricity before the javelin shot out, firing a beam of electricity towards Murdock, who stopped spinning the blade when he saw the beam coming to him…

BOOM!

A large cloud of an explosion occurred and Cain stood his ground, staring through the smoke. Once the smoke cleared away, Cain's eyes widened…

Because there was nobody there.

Cain's instincts kicked in at the last second and he jumped out of the way as Murdock tried to stab him from behind, though Murdock still managed to nick him in the side.

"Okay, this was fun for a bit, but now I'm getting tired of you," Murdock said as he swung his blade at Cain, who defended himself with his javelin up. The two continued to clash, Cain actually struggling to keep up with Murdock's speed. As he met Murdock's attacks, he became so preoccupied by the double-edge blade that he didn't see Murdock's fist coming at him.

Cain fell back, feeling his helmet with his hand. Despite his helmet, he could still feel the pain through the metal. Murdock used this opening as his chance to overpower Cain, grabbing him by the head and lifting him up in the air before slamming him to the ground, making Cain drop his javelin, which rolled across the dirt. Murdock then pinned Cain down.

"Out of all the worms I've put down, you have the honor of being the most… annoying one," Murdock said as he glared down at Cain.

Cain chuckled. "Sorry for messing with your monkey business," he taunted Murdock, who wasn't pleased at all by the joke. Instead, he just looked up at the sky and sighed.

"Usually, I like to drag this out," Murdock said. "But for you, I'll make an exception."

SCHICK!

Cain gasped while feeling the sharp pain in his stomach. He looked down and saw the blade going into his stomach while Murdock sadistically grinned at the Knight.

"Got anything more to say, kid?" Murdock mocked before retracing his blade back. He saw Cain still staring at him, which made him scoff at him. "Pathetic," he said as he kicked Cain into a ditch, watching his body roll to a stop while the ape army cheered for their leader's victory.

"Master Murdock!" someone shouted.

Murdock turned to see one of the scouts from before.

"I've found where the women and children are being kept, inside the mountain where the iron mines are! There are some guards there to keep them safe, but not many!" the scout reported.

This pleased Murdock. "Excellent, now we can get down to business and finish this. I want a group of apes to storm the mine and kill every woman and child there. Make sure to kill the children first."

"Yes, sir," the scout ape saluted as he began to put together a group of apes to storm the mine.

"Murdock, it's here," Snorgat said, getting Murdock's attention as he pointed at the large pickup truck coming toward them. "Our little Ace has finally arrived."

"Yes…" Murdock said with a grin before he told his army. "Alright! Now let's speed things up, shall we?"

"YEAH!" the apes declared.

Murdock continued to grin as he looked down at the body of Cain, which wasn't moving. He then noticed the abandoned javelin and went to pick it up. "Time to end this…" he declared.

The truck was opened and coming out from the back was something big. It was a large white creature with icy blue eyes. It let out a roar that gave an icy cold breath. As it stepped out of the truck, it was revealed to be a large, tortoise-like creature with ice spikes on its shell, a blue beak with jagged teeth, diamond toes, and a tail covered with ice spikes. It wore a metal collar around its neck as it let out another roar.

Back in Angerton, Momo dragged Daddy-Orang's body to throw out of the hotel when she noticed a flake of snow in front of her face.

"Snow?" Momo asked as she looked up and saw that it was starting to snow.

"Why is it snowing around here?" Grill asked after shredding another ape.

Everyone else started to notice the snow as well and were understandably weirded out by it.

"It never snows in Wrath," Moxxie said while looking confused before hearing from a lookout.

"Monster!" the lookout shouted from the bell tower, pointing at the large ice tortoise that was coming into the town, leaving a trail of ice behind it.

"Monster? What kind is it?!" Carla asked in a panic while with Chase, whose eyes widened in recognition when he saw the beast.

"Oh shit… terafrost!" Chase shouted.

"ROOOAAAAAWWWW!" the ice tortoise known as a terafrost roared.

"What the fuck?!" Millie shouted as she and the Knights saw the terafrost coming into town.

"I thought those things were supposed to be extinct?!" Striker asked as he and Wesley looked out the window at the large beast coming.

"ROOOAAAAAWWWW!" the large creature roared before it shot a blue ice beam out of its mouth.

"Take cover!" someone shouted as everyone ran for cover. The ice beam hit some of the townsfolk, freezing them into solid ice.

"Don't let the beam hit you!" Chase shouted as he grabbed Carla and pulled her away.

Millie, Chop, and Jawline ran from the beam of ice. Grill ran as well, but his foot got caught by the ice beam. "Shit!"

"Hang on, Grill!" Jawline shouted as he went for his friend, but Millie stopped him.

"Wait, look!" Millie shouted as she pointed at Grill's leg, which was turning into ice along with the rest of his body. "Grill…"

"Fuckfuckfuckfuck…" Grill said as his entire body was turned into ice in a matter of seconds, which included his chainsaw sword.

Then another ice beam hit him, this time the beam shattering Grill's body completely. The rest of the Knights took cover while seeing a trail of ice spikes grow from the ground.

"There's no way we can fight that thing!" Jawline declared.

"I got this," Chase said as he walked past the cowering Knights and stepped forward, walking next to the ice spike. Carla stayed behind, deciding to run for cover while Chase approached the monster. "Hey, shellhead!"

The terafrost stopped and turned as it noticed Chase, staring at the Hellhound as if it understood him. "Yeah! Right here! I challenge you to a fight!" he declared. The terafrost roared in response, which prompted Chase to give it a smirk. He ran towards the terafrost, who prepared to blast another ice beam from its mouth until Chase jumped up and punched it by the jaw, prompting the beam to shoot up to the sky.

"He's really going to fight it!" Carla exclaimed as Momo led her away.

"Come on! You're not dressed for this weather!" Momo shouted as they ran.

Chase and the terafrost began to fight through the town, the hellhound wrestling the large creature by grabbing its neck, getting it to shoot more ice beams up in the sky, creating more snowy weather. The terafrost roared as it tried to shake Chase off of it. When it succeeded, it raised up its tail to try to slam down on Chase, but Chase dodged the swing and ran over to the creature's head, jumping up and slamming his elbow down on it, causing the monster to slam to the ground.

The terafrost groaned in annoyance as it tried to shake Chase off of her head. Despite his strong grip, the hellhound was sent flying back into a building, causing the entire building to shake from the impact.

This was, of course, the building that Moxxie happened to be on.

"Aw shit!" Moxxie shouted as he lost his balance and fell off the building. He saw the ground rushing up to meet him and everything went black…

"Moxxie? Moxxie!"

Moxxie could hear a ringing and buzzing noise as someone called his name. Slowly Moxxie opened up his eyes, his vision blurring. As his vision began to readjust, he could feel someone shaking him.

"Moxxie!" Wesley called out as Moxxie felt his head. "Thank the ring you're alive!"

"Wesley…" Moxxie groaned as the teenage imp helped him up and let Moxxie lean on him as he took him to safety. "What… what happened?"

"I saw you fall from the building, you were out for a few moments!" Wesley told him while bringing Moxxie away from the chaos unfolding in the streets.

Moxxie looked back and saw that parts of the town were completely frozen, Chase still fighting against the terafrost, seemingly ignoring everything else as he wrestled the creature. But Moxxie was more shocked when he saw the dead bodies of townsfolk in the streets. He also noticed apes breaking into buildings, shooting whoever they found inside.

"No…" Moxxie said in shock.

"Mayor Dirk and the others have decided to take the escape routes," Wesley told Moxxie. "We should follow them."

"What about Striker?" Moxxie asked.

"We lost sight of each other," Wesley confirmed.

"And where are the Knights?" Moxxie asked him as Wesley pointed to a building.

Said building was barricaded and Moxxie could spot Chop, Jawline, and Millie inside, using guns they had picked up to hold off the apes.

"We should help them," Moxxie suggested.

"Not a good idea," Wesley said as he pulled Moxxie toward a nearby house. "Come on, let's get out of the street and rest for a moment."

"Alright," Moxxie said as he and Wesley went inside the building, Wesley closing the door behind him. Once the door was closed, Moxxie sat down and buried his face in his hands. "This is all falling apart…"

Wesley saw this and went over to Moxxie. "The battle's not over yet," he tried to reassure the imp. "We just need to regroup with the others and-" Suddenly, a large gorilla hand smashed through the wall near their heads. "YAAH!"

"CRUMBS!" Moxxie cried out, leaping to his feet as Snorgat literally walked through the walls of the house.

"I smell you!" Snorgat declared as the large gorilla demon towered over the smaller imps.

"It's Snorgat! Run!" Wesley shouted as he and Moxxie avoided getting grabbed by the huge hands of the ape. They ran through the house as Snorgat followed them, breaking through some more walls with his overly large body.

"Where's my rifle?" Moxxie asked before Wesley passed it to him. "Thanks, Wesley," he said as he turned around. But before he could fire, his gun was grabbed by Snorgat, the rifle getting snapped into two like a toothpick. "Crumbs on a stick!"

Snorgat grinned before feeling some bullets hitting him. He turned to Wesley, who kept shooting at him. "That almost tickles," he said.

Despite this, Wesley kept shooting at Snorgat, at least until he noticed that the bullets were not even going into Snorgat, instead just bouncing off him. "Shit, shit!" he cursed, realizing that the bullets had no effect on the gorilla. When he emptied his gun, he and Moxxie had no choice but to continue running.

Moxxie and Wesley kept running around the building, desperately trying to avoid getting grabbed by Snorgat. While they were smaller and faster… Snorgat was just more durable, his oversized body breaking everything that he ran into, including tables and couches. The two imps were scurrying away from him in a panic, heading for the stairs.

"Come on! This way!" Wesley shouted while leading Moxxie up the stairs. Snorgat managed to follow them, the wooden boards splintering beneath him.

"It's no use tryin' to escape from me!" Snorgat declared while walking up the stairs. "I'm gonna get'cha! I'm gonna eat'cha!"

Wesley and Moxxie looked around the second floor, finding a table that they picked up and pushed down the stairs. However, Snorgat just punched the table in front of him and kept slowly marching up the stairs. Moxxie and Wesley then moved a mattress they found in one of the rooms, throwing it at him. Then a vase full of plants, which shattered against his face, but Snorgat continued to march up. He was only slowed briefly when a bowling ball hit his head and broke in half.

"You think you can get away from me?!" Snorgat shouted as he reached the top of the stairs, despite all the objects being thrown at him. Moxxie and Wesley were quickly running out of stuff to delay Snorgat with.

"Watch out, Mox!" Wesley shouted as he threw some baseball bats and golf clubs at the top of the stairs.

"Aha! Made it!" Snorgat shouted as he made it up the second floor, only for the baseballs bats to roll toward him. His feet get caught on the bats, prompting him to trip over one of them. "Whoa, what?!" he cried out as he fell back and down the stairs. "AAAIIIIIEEEE!" he cried out as he fell back to the first floor…

CRASH!

…and crashed through it, falling into the basement.

Moxxie and Wesley looked down the stairs, seeing a hole through the floor at the bottom.

"You think that will stop him?" Moxxie asked Wesley.

"No way," Wesley said, shaking his head.

"Then let's get out of here before he gets back up!" Moxxie shouted and Wesley didn't need to be told twice.

Meanwhile, Striker was now on his own, shooting at several apes that were coming at him. He was outnumbered, but he didn't let that get to him. However, he was quickly running out of cover… at least until the apes he was fighting were suddenly hit by an ice beam, freezing them in place before they started to fall apart. Striker turned and saw Chase still fighting the terafrost.

"Yeah!" Chase shouted as he slash at the terafrost's face, causing it to scream in pain. "You want some of this?! Bring it!" he shouted while grabbing a hook and chain from a nearby building. He swung around the hook while holding the chain, then threw it at the monster. It caught the eyelid of the terafrost, which caused it to roar back as it pulled Chase back up from the ground towards the monster, where he punched the monster in the beak.

"Huh," Striker said as he watched the fight. "Now that's something you don't see every day."

Chase flipped over as he drew his claws along the back of the head of the terafrost, leaving a trail of scratch marks. This prompted the terafrost to cry out in pain as Chase jumped in the air and landed on the head of the terafrost, driving it into the ground. For a moment, it seemed like the terafrost was down for the count… but it was actually playing dead and a few seconds later, the terafrost stood up and shook Chase off of it. The creature was now trying to keep its head as far away from Chase as possible, instead swinging its tail at him.

As Chase saw the tail coming at him, he decided to hold his ground… and grab the tail, letting it swing him around as he held onto it. Eventually, he landed back on the ground and he dug his feet in while still holding onto the tail. "Now… to do a flip!" he declared while bringing the tail over his shoulder. The monster's eyes widened in surprise as the hellhound somehow managed to throw its entire large body over his shoulder, the terafrost shrieking as it hit the ground, causing the ground itself to shake. The terafrost was now on its back, its vision blurry as it raised its head up and saw three Chases coming at it.

"I'm not done with you yet," Chase declared.

The terafrost's eyes popped out in a panic and it began to scramble, getting back to its feet before trying to run away from the hellhound.

"Oh no you don't, come back here!" Chase shouted as he was about to pursue the monster…

BANG!

"YAAAH!"

Chase heard a familiar scream and he turned around. He saw that the one who screamed was Striker, who had been shot in the arm by an ape that had gotten the drop on him.

Striker shot the ape that had managed to shoot him, but he now found himself surrounded by apes. He kept shooting until he ran out of bullets. He hissed, his arm bleeding as the apes cornered him while holding various weapons.

"Not so tough now, eh?!" one of the apes declared.

"Let's sic'em, boys!" another replied as the apes were about to tear Striker apart, prompting the imp hybrid to shut his eyes…

STOMP!

Striker's eyes shot open when he heard the stomp noise. Much to his shock, he saw Chase in front of him, an ape smashed underneath his paws. Chase made short work of the rest of the apes, tearing them apart with his teeth and his claws. He then looked down at Striker and grabbed him, pulling him away as bullets flew past them.

"You alright, Strike?" Chase asked him, surprising the hybrid.

"You… came to save me?" Striker asked in shock. "But what about that monster?"

"It ran off, but I'll track it down another time," Chase told him as they ducked away from the street. "Besides, you have a son waiting for you, don't you?"

Striker stared at the hellhound in shock, but before he could thank Chase, who was checking his wound, he noticed a shadow looming over them. "Chase!"

BONK!

Before Chase could react, he was struck in the head by a heavy fist, causing him to fall down to the ground. Striker fell back and saw Snorgat standing over them. Chase groaned and started to get up, but Snorgat didn't give him the chance to fight back. Instead, Snorgat continued to beat Chase down, much to Striker's shock.

"No, stop!" Striker shouted as he tried to intervene, but Snorgat just grabbed him with one hand and lifted him off the ground while his other hand strangled Chase into unconsciousness.

"Well, that takes care of him," Snorgat declared while grabbing the now unconscious Chase by the head, lifting him up. He turned to Striker. "Murdock would like a word with you…"

"Shit…" Striker snarled.

Meanwhile, Moxxie and Wesley were hiding in one of the alleyways of the town.

"Alright, I think the coast is…" Moxxie didn't even get to finish his sentence as several apes jumped down from the rooftops, holding their guns at the two of them. This prompted the imps to raise their arms up in surrender.

"Clear, you say?" one ape mocked with a smirk.

Soon after that, the defenders of Angerton were all rounded up. Snorgat was carrying both Striker and the knocked out Chase while Moxxie and Wesley were both led at gunpoint. The remaining Knights were also brought out, having been overrun and captured. Their hands were now restrained as they were all led before Murdock, who looked them over.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Murdock asked as he marched up to the defeated defenders. He glanced at Chase before looking up at Snorgat, who had dropped Striker but was still holding onto Chase, just in case the hellhound woke up at an inconvenient time. "Snorgat, thank you for taking care of the monster hunter. He is much more… manageable this way."

Snorgat answered with a grunt.

Murdock turned to the heroes, giving them an emotionless look. "You've given me a lot of trouble today. You even managed to kill three of my top-ranking apes… but no matter, I can always find more. Especially when they hear about what happened today." He then held up a javelin, throwing it on the ground.

"That javelin… it's Cain's!" Millie shouted as she, along with the other Knights, recognized the weapon.

"What did you do to Cain?!" Jawline demanded to know.

"Oh, I left him in a ditch," Murdock said while holding up a gun. "A fate that he more than deserved."

"Cain… nonononono, yer lyin'!" Millie shouted. "There's no way he'll lose to the likes of you!"

"Well… he did," Murdock said as he held his finger under her chin. "You know, I bet that underneath that helmet, you're not bad-looking at all," he told Millie, who growled at him. "Of course, you'll no longer be pretty by the time I'm done with you."

"Don't you dare put a fucking hand on her," Jawline threatened.

Murdock glanced at Jawline before looking over at Chop, who hadn't said a word. He walked over to the hell rabbit. "What about you?" he asked. "Do you have anything to say?"

Chop remained silent. Unsatisfied with that answer, he aimed his gun and shot Chop in the head, immediately killing him.

"Chop!" Millie and Jawline cried out as their dead rabbit friend fell to the ground.

"Why did you do that?!" Millie demanded, glaring at Murdock.

Murdock shrugged. "Because I wanted to," he said while looking at the gathered defenders. "But I gotta ask… why are you here? Why are you fighting for these people? What could they have offered you that made you want to fight them?"

"It isn't always about getting paid," Striker said as he glared at Murdock.

Murdock laughed. "Oh wait, you're serious?" the ape asked before laughing again. "I guess I'm just helping natural selection, because you have to be some of the dumbest demons in Hell, risking everything you have for little to no reward. I know these people, so I know they couldn't have offered you much. So… why?"

He then turned his gaze over to Moxxie. "It was you, wasn't it?" he asked the imp. "You were the one who killed my men. How does it feel, knowing that your actions have doomed everyone in this town?"

Moxxie, who had been staring at the ground, looked up at Murock, his gaze defiant. "Fuck you."

Murdock chuckled and grabbed Moxxie from the chin. "I bet you're wondering why you aren't dead yet," he told Moxxie. "That's because I don't want you to die just yet. No, I want to make an example out of you. I want to make your death last. You are going to suffer and by the end of it, you will be begging to die. And only when I am done with you, will I give you permission."

He threw Moxxie down to the ground while laughing. "And your torment starts now," he told everyone. "I know where you hid the women and children," he revealed, causing everyone's eyes to widen. "So I sent a team of my apes to the mine. Right now, they're having all kinds of fun in there. And I promise to show you the aftermath."

"You… you monster!" Moxxie shouted.

"I've been called worse," Murdock said with a shrug. "Honestly, I am kinda glad you killed my men, imp. Because after today, nobody will ever try to stand against me ever again. Not after they hear about how I killed the leader of the Knights of Hell and how I killed the infamous monster hunter Chase. Of course, nobody will care about me also killing a couple of imps who-" He paused when he took notice of Wesley, finally getting a good look at him. "Wait… I know you."

Wesley glared at Murdock with hate while Murdock crouched down to get a look at Wesley. "Yes… I recognize you… the boy who got his parents killed! The slingshot kid!"

Wesley didn't flinch despite Murdock being in his face.

"Now you… you, I get," Murdock told Wesley. "I don't understand why they're here," he said while gesturing to Moxxie, Striker, Chase, and the Knights. "But I understand you perfectly. You want revenge, don't you?"

"Yes," Wesley hissed at him with hate.

"Really?" Murdock asked while he tilted back his head and gave a chuckle. He turned to his apes "This boy… this boy thought he could kill me. He thought he could avenge his parents. Hilarious, isn't he?" he asked, causing his apes to laugh along.

"Laugh all you want," Wesley said as he managed to stand on his feet while still tied up. "But you know what, Murdock? Three of your strongest generals are dead because of me."

"Wesley, no…" Moxxie hissed at him while Murdock turned to the boy.

"What?" Murdock questioned.

"Yeah, cause you know who actually started this whole thing? Who was the reason this town decided that we had enough of you? Who was the one who brought help to Angerton? It was me! And I don't care if I die, and I don't care if I'm just some stupid imp… because this dumb imp managed to-"

SMACK!

Wesley was smacked across the face by Murdock. The heroes looked shocked to see this while Murdock… just looked bored.

"Wesley!" Moxxie and Striker cried out in shock and worry while Murdock walked over to the imp boy.

"All of that talk, all of your bellyaching," Murdock said as he raised his foot up. "I think that's what I hate most about you imps. The bellyaching." He then stomped on Wesley's leg.

"AAAAH!" Wesley cried out in pain as he felt his leg get stomped by Murdock, who then began to kick his face and stomach, eventually kicking him across the ground before some apes grabbed Wesley and pushed him back to Murdock.

"Stop it! Stop hurting him!" Moxxie cried out while struggling against his bonds.

"He's just a kid!" Striker shouted while also struggling. "Hurt us! Not him!"

"This boy should have learned his lesson when I killed his parents!" Murdock declared as he shoved Wesley down to the ground and pulled out his knife. "But it looks like you imps need to be reminded of the new natural order in Wrath! In Pride, you imps serve the Sinners and the Goetia. But down here? You imps serve us!" He began carving his knife into Wesley's skin, making the imp boy scream while Moxxie and Striker continued to yell for him to stop.

"Wesley!" Moxxie cried out, his tone desperate.

"This is what happens when you try to play hero," Murdock declared as he continued to torture Wesley.

BANG-BANG-BANG!

Murdock and the apes ducked down after hearing the sound of sudden gunshots in the distance. "What the fuck?!" Murdock shouted. "Where are those gunshots coming from?!"

"I don't know! I don't see anyone shooting at us!" Snorgat shouted.

Millie saw how the apes were distracted by the gunshots, which gave her the perfect opening to finish using her tail to untangle the rope around her hands. Once she broke out of her bonds, she launched herself at an ape and grabbed his knife from him, stabbing his face before pulling out his gun. The other apes turned to her, but she threw some sand in their faces, blinding them and giving her the opportunity to run over to Moxxie, cutting his bonds and giving him the gun.

"Here!" Millie shouted at him before she went to fight the apes, slashing at them with her knife. While she kept them busy, Moxxie went over to free Striker, helping him up and shooting one ape that he saw coming over to them.

"Free the other Knight," Moxxie told Striker before he went to help Millie, standing back to back with her against the apes.

"Thanks," Moxxie told her as the two fought together, Moxxie shooting apes while Millie stabbed any who got too close, even slicing the throat of one ape.

Murdock frowned at this, not liking how things weren't going in his favor. He turned to the unconscious Wesley, deciding to use him as a hostage as he went to grab him. "I'm going to pop that little brat in front of-"

STAB!

"YAAAAHHH!" Murdock cried out, Millie having thrown a knife at him that stabbed through his hand. Murdock stared at his hand in shock, backing away from Wesley. He pulled the knife out of his hand, looked at Millie, and ran away.

"Dat's what ah' thought!" Millie declared as Moxxie went to hand Striker and Jawline guns.

"We need to get Wesley to safety!" Moxxie told Striker.

"No need to ask twice!" Striker declared while Jawline ran in front of them.

"For Cain!" Jawline roared as bit into one of the apes, ripping his head off.

While the others covered for him, Striker ran over to Wesley, picking up the boy and carrying him to the safety of one of the buildings.

In one of the alleyways, Murdock was nursing his bleeding hand. He saw Snorgat coming over to him, still holding onto Chase. "What are you doing here?!" Murdock shouted.

"I wanted to make sure you were alright, boss," Snorgat said.

"Obviously I am not!" Murdock spat angrily. "Go out there and kill them all!" he ordered before he ran off.

Snorgat watched his boss flee, then he shrugged and dropped Chase down to the ground, leaving him there as he went to deal with the heroes. He passed the dead bodies of his fellow apes, heading straight for the imps responsible for this: Moxxie and Millie. "You two! I'm gonna gobble you up and chew your bones!"

"What is with the whole 'eating us' bit?!" Moxxie shouted before dodging the fist of the gorilla, which slammed the ground next to him. He rolled away and shot at him, but Snorgat was once again impervious to the bullets. However, while Moxxie distracted him, Millie crawled onto his back and wrapped some chains around his neck, choking him. Snorgat actually struggled with him for a bit before he reached up and grabbed Millie. He was about to squeeze the life out of her when Moxxie shot him in the eye, causing him to cry out and let Millie go, the imp scampering away when she hit the ground.

"Ha!" Moxxie laughed. "So you can feel pain!"

"Annoying pests!" Snorgat declared as he tried to slam his fist at Moxxie, but the imp was too fast for him. Moxxie and Millie began to run circles around Snorgat, shooting and stabbing him whenever they saw an opening, trying to find a weak spot. This only aggravated Snorgat more.

Millie spotted Cain's javelin laying on the ground and a nearby spike pit. This gave her an idea. She motioned for Moxxie to follow her and the two led Snorgat over to the pit, the gorilla being too angry to notice where he was being led. Then while Moxxie distracted Snorgat, Millie ran over to pick up the javelin. "Duck!"

Moxxie saw the javelin flying toward him and he ducked, the javelin stabbing Snorgat with enough force to cause him to start to lose his balance… right at the edge of the pit.

"What the-?!" Snorgat cried out as he began to fall over into the pit. "Fuck!" he shouted as he fell over the edge and onto the spikes below. After that, neither imp heard anything from the gorilla demon.

"Do you think that got him?" Millie asked as she walked over to Moxxie.

"Honestly, I doubt it," Moxxie admitted as he looked around, seeing that most of the apes in the area were now dead, with Jawline eating some of them. He then saw a group of townsfolk coming over to them, shooting at the remaining apes. Momo was among them.

"Moxxie! You're alright!" Momo declared as she rushed towards him.

"Hey, Momo," Moxxie said as he panted, trying to catch his breath. "What's going on?"

"Well, we are now pushing the apes back with some help from those friends of yours," Momo told him, confusing Moxxie.

"What friends?" he asked.

"YEAH!" Nickel shouted as he used a machine gun to mow down apes. "Having fun, Titus?"

"Yeah!" Titus shouted while using his own gun to shoot at the apes coming after him. When he saw one wounded ape close to him, he launched himself at the injured ape and took a bite out of him, ripping off that ape's flesh.

"Yahahahahaha! One banana!" Giancarlo laughed while using his tommy-gun to shoot at some apes, splatting their faces. "Two bananas! Three bananas! FOUR!" he shouted as he threw a grenade at a group of apes, causing an explosion that sent body parts flying.

"You're having way more fun with this than you should, Gian," Marcella said as she blasted an ape's head off with her large rifle. She then shot another ape in the chest.

Crunch brought out his thirty-nailed large bat to swing at and kill the apes coming at him. One ape managed to grab the bat, but the turtleneck-wearing shark demon just sank his teeth into the ape, tearing his flesh off.

Butch, Cleo, and Depressed Boyfriend all lined up, having cornered a group of apes in an alley. The three mobsters mercilessly gunned down the apes before Butch spotted some apes on the rooftops above them and he pointed his gun up, shooting at them.

Cleo saw an ape coming at her and she brought out a jack knife to stab the ape's eye before kicking it with the knife popping out of her heel. She threw the ape up and kicked it back. "I think we're running out of apes to kill."

Depressed Boyfriend shot some more apes before throwing a knife that stabbed one ape into the wall behind him by the throat. "Not today," he declared before going over to another ape and slicing his throat.

"You guys came," Moxxie said in shock and awe when he saw Stu coming over to him while gunning down some apes.

"I thought you said you weren't outlaw heroes," Moxxie told Stu.

"Well… today we are," Stu said with a smile. "Besides, you said you would pay us back and it'd be bad for business if we didn't protect our investment." He then lit his cigarette and went to deal with another group of apes. "Stand back," he said while holding up his machine gun and shooting at the apes. The apes attempted to flee, but Stu threw a grenade and it landed right in front of the fleeing apes before it exploded, blasting the apes to pieces.

"Wow," Moxxie said before he remembered something. "Wait! Murdock!"

"Yeah, where did he go?" Millie asked.

"Not just him, but he sent part of his army to kill the women and children we sent into hiding," Moxxie revealed.

"All those families… we can't allow that to happen!" Momo declared.

"We need to split up," Moxxie told Momo. "You should lead a group to the mine, since I think Stu and his group have things covered here. I'll stay here to help and make sure that Murdock doesn't run away."

Momo nodded, though she looked worried. "I just hope we aren't too late…"

Meanwhile, the scout who had found where the women and children were being held led the group of apes to the mine. The guards saw them coming, but were quickly gunned down.

"Well, that was easy," one ape said.

"Of course it was, they're imps! They're easily gut-table," another replied as the scout went inside the mine.

"Come on! We got child skull-bashing and lady banging to do!" the scout declared.

With that encouragement, the group of apes rushed into the mine and entered the area where the children and the mothers were. When they saw the apes, they began to scream while the apes just laughed.

Mim looked at the apes with fear in her eyes while her mother held her protectively. Other families began to back away from the apes, while others just held each other as they waited for the inevitable.

"Alright, boys, remember what Murdock said. Target the children first and make the women watch while we-" Before the ape could finish, he was stabbed through the back. He gasped in pain before he fell to the ground, the apes staring in shock at the knife-wielding figure who stood over the body.

When Mim saw who had stabbed the ape, her eyes widened. "Mr. Blue-Eyes!"

"Hello, boys," Cain said as he kicked the dead body of the ape and raised up his long knife. "Hope you don't mind the interruption."

For a moment, the apes just stared at Cain in shock. After all, they had seen their leader kill him. And yet, here he was, standing up like it was nothing.

"Hmm, rough crowd," Cain said, noting their silence.

"Kill him!" one of the apes shouted as they attempted to dog-pile Cain. However, before they could even touch Cain, he threw something to the ground and it exploded, temporarily blinding the apes.

While the apes were blinded, Cain moved quickly, dodging a fist and slashing at the arm with his knife. The ape grabbed his arm, shrieking in pain and leaving him open for a bunch in the face. He then swung his leg to trip one of the apes on his back, lifting up his boot and bringing it down on the ape's face. Cain then shoved one ape into another, pinning the latter's body against the wall while he stabbed the former until another ape grabbed him and yanked him away.

The ape wrestled the knife out of Cain's hand, but Cain ripped a piece of metal off his armor, using the plate to slice the ape's face below the eyes, causing the ape to let go of him while clutching his own face. Cain was only given a moment of relief, however, before one of the apes hit him right in the head.

"How are you alive?!" the ape shouted while hitting him. "Murdock moider ya!"

"Who cares?" another ape asked as he pulled out his gun. "Let's just finish the job!"

The first ape leapt out of the way as the second ape fired several rounds into Cain, the nearby women and children crying out as they heard the gunshots. Cain flinched as he felt the bullets go into him, but despite that… he remained standing.

"Ow," was all Cain said.

The ape who shot him lowered his gun out of shock. "What the-"

Cain lunged forward, grabbing the ape by the arm and twisting it, causing the ape to scream in pain. He then broke the arm and the ape fell to the ground, whimpering.

However, the other apes then all ganged up on Cain, having gotten over their shock. Cain did his best to fight back, but he was definitely taking hits. One of the apes managed to hit him so hard that his helmet went flying off his head, the helmet rolling across the ground.

Seeing his mask on the ground, Cain looked up, revealing his pissed off face to the apes. Besides his blue eyes, his face had noticeable feline features, including a mane. He snarled.

"Now you've done it," Cain declared and in the blink of an eye, he ripped out the throat of the nearest ape with his sharp teeth, spitting out blood as he glared at the now terrified apes, who were backing away from him.

But they moved too slow. Cain began to massacre the apes, grabbing some of them and smashing their faces against the walls while stomping on apes who were already on the floor. He bit, bashed, and brutalized, breaking limbs and snapping spines. It was a bloodbath.

"RAAAAH!" Cain roared as he continued to slaughter the apes, now stained by the blood of his kills. Most of the gathered townsfolk were horrified by the display of violence, though some found themselves in awe at him.

Soon, only one ape remained standing. His body shook as he looked around, seeing all of his brethren dead. He then looked up at Cain, who rose up from his latest kill. The ape lifted his gun, but instead of aiming it at Cain, he began to aim it at the nearest child. However, before he could pull the trigger, Cain rushed over to him and grabbed the hand with the gun, squeezing it hard. The ape screamed in pain and was forced to look at Cain as the Knight of Hell grabbed the ape by the throat, raising him up off the ground. Cain glared up at the ape.

"W-Who… who are you?!" the ape asked him.

"I… am… Cain!" he screamed before using his other hand to shove his fingers into the ape's eyes, causing the ape to scream in pain. After listening to the ape scream for a few more moments, Cain snapped his neck and then threw the ape's body down to the ground. He turned around and looked over at all of the dead apes, taking a moment to admire his handiwork.

Cain was trying to catch his breath when he noticed the women and children still hiding in the corners of the mine. They had seen Cain killing the apes, but most of them had managed to avert the eyes of their children away from the carnage.

"Oh… everyone alright?" Cain asked them. He saw them all give him a nod, though a number of the townsfolk looked just as afraid of him as they were of the apes, not that Cain could blame them. "Good, good," Cain said… before he suddenly fell to the ground from exhaustion.

"Mr. Blue-Eyes!" Mim cried out as she rushed over to Cain, her mother following him. Cain looked up at Mim. "Are you alright?"

As Cain looked at Mim, he gave her a tired smile. "H-hey, Alice," he said. "I did it."

"Alice?" Mim asked, confused.

Before Cain could correct himself, a group of armed townsfolk led by Momo rushed into the mine. "Alright apes, we're here to-!" She paused, looking around in shock to see that all of the apes were already dead. "Christ…"

"Huh, looks like someone already beat us to it," one local said as one of the townsfolk vomited at the sight of all of the carnage.

Momo managed to take her eyes off the bodies and she noticed all of the women and children, untouched by the apes. "Is everyone alright?"

"Yeah, and it's thanks to him," Mim's mother said as she checked on Cain, who smiled up at Momo and her group.

"Oh, hey guys," Cain said as he casually waved to them. "You missed out on quite a party."

As they stared at Cain in shock, Momo just shook her head. "Well that takes care of that issue…"

Back in the town, Chase had started to wake up. He let out a groan while getting up from the ground and feeling his head.

"What kind of bus hit me?" he asked before looking around. He saw that he was surrounded by dead apes. "Shit, did I miss the battle?" he asked before noticing someone climbing out from the nearby pit trap.

Snorgat grunted as he pulled himself out of the pit. He noticed a spike sticking out of him and he reached down to pull it out of him while grunting in pain. He then noticed that Chase was up, his eyes narrowing at him. "Oh… you're awake."

"Yeah, and I assume you're the bus that hit me," Chase said as he bared his fangs and cracked his knuckles. "Rematch time."

Snorgat snorted and charged at Chase, bringing his fist up to throw them down at the hellhound, who jumped up and delivered a kick towards Snorgat's face, using it as a launching pad. The gorilla demon snarled as he grabbed a barrel and threw it at Chase, but Chase slid underneath the barrel and slashed at Snorgat, targeting the area where the spike had gotten him. The gorilla demon roared in pain and managed to land a hit on Chase, sending him crashing through a building.

Chase looked up with a groan and saw Snorgat charging toward him. Before Chase could get up, Snorgat grabbed Chase by the shoulders and lifted him up… only for Chase to sink his teeth into Snorgat's hand, making the gorilla cry out as he tried to shake Chase off. Chase let go of his hand and landed on the ground before attacking the gorilla demon, landing multiple kicks and punches that didn't even seem to phase the gorilla demon. "You don't go down easily, do ya?"

"What's it to you?!" Snorgat spat.

"Oh, that's just how I like my fights," Chase declared before avoiding Snorgat's hands and unleashing his claws as he swiped across the gorilla demon's face.

This only angered the gorilla demon, who tried to slam his fists down on Chase, but the hellhound jumped over his fists and slammed his paw down onto the gorilla's neck. Snorgat stumbled back slightly. Chase then climbed onto Snorgat's back and began clawing it while Snorgat ran around, trying to shake Chase off. He eventually succeeded, sending Chase flying into some nearby crates.

"I'm going to smash you like a grape!" Snorgat declared as he began to charge toward Chase, who picked up some crates and threw them at the gorilla demon. The crates exploded upon impact, but it barely even slowed Snorgat down as he continued running toward Chase, who leapt away at the last second, causing Snorgat to run straight into a wall.

Chase took a moment to catch his breath, but that left him open for another attack. Snorgat managed to tackle Chase to the ground, Chase punching and clawing at Snorgat while the gorilla demon held Chase down. Snorgat grabbed Chase's muzzle, trying to rip it off. As Chase struggled and winced in pain, Snorgat gave him a toothy grin. "I wonder what you taste like…"

Fortunately, before Snorgat could learn just that, a lasso wrapped around Snorgat's neck, forcing him to let go of Chase and grab at his own throat. "GACK!" he cried out as the rope tightened around his neck.

Chase managed to roll away from Snorgat. He got up and turned to see that the one restraining Snorgat with the lasso… was Striker. He grinned. "Alright, Striker!"

"Don't thank me yet, partner!" Striker declared as he threw another lasso around Snorgat, straining with effort as he attempted to restrain Snorgat's arms. "We got to finish this job!"

Chase nodded in agreement and launched himself towards the partially bound Snorgat, punching him in the stomach before noticing the spike injury from earlier. Grinning, he thrust his claws into that hole.

"YAAAAH!" Snorgat screamed in pain, feeling Chase's claws digging through his skin and widening the injury.

"Not so impenetrable, are ya, Kong?" Chase smirked as he pushed his claws deeper into Snorgat's body. The gorilla demon fell on his back and Chase used his claws to tear into Snorgat, until he felt something. "Ah… is that your heart?"

Snorgat's eyes widened and he tried to say something, but only blood came from his mouth.

"I take that as a yes then," Chase said as he proceeded to rip Snorgat's heart out of his chest. Snorgat's eyes went blank as he stopped struggling, his body falling motionless… dead.

"Fatality," Chase declared while looking at the gorilla's heart… and throwing it back down to Snorgat's body. "Eh, here, don't need it anymore," he told him. He then climbed off Snorgat's body and turned to Striker. "Thanks for the save, Strikey."

"Yeah, well, I owed you one for saving me," Striker responded with a smile.

"Guess that makes us square," Chase said, offering his hand to Striker.

Striker gave a nod and respectfully shook Chase's hand. "You're darn right, Chase."

And with that, the two went to help clean up the rest of the apes.

Meanwhile, Murdock was currently running away from the town. He was trying to put as much distance between him and the town as possible, all the way holding his wounded hand. He hated having to run away like a coward, but to him this was a practical retreat.

"Gotta… get… away…" he huffed as he ran. He didn't know where he was going, he just knew it had to be away. However, he was forced to come to a stop when he realized that he had reached the edge of a chasm. "Shit," he cursed as he desperately looked around, trying to find a way around the chasm while holding his bleeding hand.

"Murdock!"

The demon ape heard the voice of Moxxie and he turned around to see that the imp had caught up with him. Murdock narrowed his eyes, glaring at Moxxie with a look of pure hatred.

"It's over, Murdock," Moxxie told him. "You're not getting away."

"YOU!" Murdock screamed at Moxxie. "You think you've won? Well, guess what? Even if you kill me, you still lose!" He gave a chuckle before he continued to bark. "Because by now, my apes would have killed those bitches and brats that you tried to protect! They're all dead!"

Moxxie glared back at Murdock. "That may be the case… but you've still lost. Your army is gone! Your lieutenants, killed! And after today, you're never going to hurt anyone ever again!"

This pissed off Murdock royally. "WHY?! WHY DO YOU CARE ABOUT SOME BACKWATER HICK TOWN AND ITS PEOPLE?! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DESTROY EVERYTHING THAT I'VE SPENT YEARS BUILDING?!" he screamed at Moxxie. "WELL?!"

"I guess… I just happened to be in the right place at the right time," Moxxie told him simply.

Murdock's eye twitched and he began to move his uninjured hand, reaching for his gun.

BANG!

Murdock dropped his gun and stared in shock at Moxxie, whose own gun was smoking. He blinked, realizing that Moxxie had beaten him on the draw. He looked down, seeing where the bullet had hit him.

BANG-BANG!

Moxxie fired several more times and as Murdock was pierced by the bullets, he was launched back, stumbling towards the edge of the chasm before he fell off from the edge and into the chasm without a single cry.

Moxxie saw the demon ape fall over the edge, but he didn't just want to assume that killed him. After a few moments, he began to carefully approach the edge of the chasm, wanting to check for a body…

…only for a hand to reach up and grab his leg.

"BAH!" Murdock cried out as he spat blood.

"CRUMBS!" Moxxie shouted as he tried to pull away. "Hey! Let me go!"

"If I die, you die as well!" Murdock declared while hanging from the edge of the chasm, trying to drag Moxxie over with him.

"Get off!" Moxxie shouted as he kicked Murdock with his free leg. But despite his efforts, Moxxie felt himself being dragged closer to the edge and Moxxie began clawing at the ground, trying to hang on for his dear life.

while resisting from falling with the ape. Murdock kept grabbing his leg while Moxxie kept kicking with his other. Murdock screeches at Moxxie, trying to get him to fall, as the two were now over the edge, with Moxxie hanging on to his dear life.

"Yahahahaha-AHAHAHAHAA!" Murdock cackled maniacally as he kept hanging onto Moxxie, his mouth oozing blood and his eyes having a mad look.

But he would not get the last laugh, because it was then that rushing towards the edge was Millie, who was holding a knife. "Hang on!" she shouted as she stabbed Murdock's arm, causing the ape to cry in pain. "This is fer the Knights!"

Murdock gave them one last look of pure hatred before Millie dug her knife into his arm, causing him to let go of Moxxie. "NOOOOO!" he cried out as he fell back into the chasm. As he fell, his body smashed against the side of the chasm several times before hitting the bottom, landing with enough force to break nearly every bone in his body. It was safe to say that he was very dead by the time his body landed at the bottom of the chasm.

Moxxie saw this as he looked down into the chasm, letting out a sigh of relief while holding on to the edge as Millie began to help pull him back up to safety. Moxxie got back on his hooves and he and Millie both stepped away from the edge of the chasm, making it a few feet before they both collapsed onto the ground.

"Thanks," Moxxie managed to say.

"Don't mention it," Millie said.

After that, neither of them said another word to each other. They didn't even look at one another. Instead, they looked up at the sky of the Wrath Ring, trying to catch their breath.

Murdock was dead.

It was over.

After resting in silence for a few minutes, Millie and Moxxie began to walk back to the town. They didn't say a word to each other, they were both far too tired for that.

Once they returned to town, they saw the survivors of the battle cleaning up. Currently, they were gathering up every body they could find, dead local and ape alike.

"Alright, found more dead apes," Butch told a local.

"Put them in the pile," the local replied.

Butch pushed the cart full of dead apes to add them to the growing pile of ape bodies outside of the town. Chase added the body of Snorgat to the pile, placing it over the dead bodies of Noodra, Dirty Harry, and Daddy-Orang.

As they looked around, Millie heard a familiar voice call out to her. It was Jawline.

"Hey! Millie! Guess who's back!" her fellow Knight shouted to her.

Millie turned her head in his direction and her eyes widened when she saw that with Dirk and Momo… was Cain, who was bandaged up and had his helmet back on. Millie let out a loud gasp. "Cainy!" Millie shrieked in excitement as she rushed over to hug her leader. "I'm so glad that yer alive!"

"Glad to see you too, Millie," Cain said, wincing from the imp's tight hug.

"Murdock said he killed you!" Millie told Cain.

"Well, he obviously overestimated his own abilities," Cain said, smiling at Millie behind his mask.

Momo spotted Moxxie walking over to them. "Moxxie, are you alright?" she asked him in concern.

"Water," Moxxie said.

Realizing what he was asking for, Momo nodded and handed him a canteen of water, which he quickly gulped down. "Thank you," he said when he finished. "Murdock is dead."

"What?" Momo asked, having not heard him.

"Murdock is dead," Moxxie said, louder.

"You heard that, everyone?" Dirk asked while looking around. "Murdock is dead!"

Upon earning this, everyone in hearing range expressed a mix of relief and joy. A few of them even managed to let out a cheer. However, Cain just looked down in disappointment, which did not go unnoticed by Millie.

"What's wrong, Cainy?" Millie asked him.

"I didn't get to kill Murdock myself," Cain said.

"Well, if it makes ya feel better, I was the one to finish him off for good," Millie told him.

"Hmm… I guess that's fitting," Cain noted, smiling again under his helmet.

Moxxie, however, didn't feel like being in a celebrating mood. He turned to Momo. "Momo, please tell me… how many women and children were killed?"

"None, thankfully," Momo said, which surprised Moxxie.

"W-what?" Moxxie asked.

"By the time we reached the mine, those apes were already dead," Momo explained as she pointed to Cain. "All of the women and children were saved thanks to him."

"You?" Moxxie asked, staring at Cain in shock.

Cain just shrugged. "Honestly, I was just at the right place at the right time, really," he said, trying to downplay his actions.

"Well, my lad, you've done a great service for this town. You and your Knights," Dirk declared as he walked over to Cain. "We owe you our gratitude and we shall give your fallen comrades a hero's burial."

"A hero's burial…" Cain repeated, his tone softer as he looked over at Millie and Jawline, the only other Knights to have survived the battle. "I appreciate that, thanks."

"No, thank you," Dirk told Cain. "Their sacrifice will not be forgotten."

While Dirk was talking to Cain, Moxxie looked around the town some more. Plenty of the buildings had been damaged by the battle and a good part of the town was still covered in ice thanks to the terafrost. As he watched the townsfolk collect the dead, the imp looked down in guilt, feeling the weight of all those deaths.

"This… whole thing was my fault," he said with a sigh. "I wish it didn't have to be like this. This whole battle shouldn't have happened. All of the deaths…"

"Now son, don't beat yourself over this," Dirk said as he and Momo walked over to him. "This whole thing wasn't for nothing. Murdock is dead, his army is broken, and his reign of terror in the Wrath Ring is over. And we had already accepted our fate here before you came in."

"And yet, because of you, we will never have to worry about Murdock ever again," Momo added, patting Moxxie's shoulder. "Nobody will. Yes, we have our losses, and we will bury our dead and mourn them. But Angerton survived, we survived, and we will rebuild and recover." She gave Moxxie a hug. "Never forget that, Moxxie."

Hearing this did uplift the imp a little. Because he knew that after all of the bloodshed and violence… Angerton would be okay.

The three remaining Knights of Hell went into what was left of the saloon. The inside was absolutely wrecked and they were the only ones inside except for Holly, who was standing behind the bar. Cain, Millie, and Jawline sat down together, each of them removing their helmets and placing them down on the bar. Holly handed them a glass bottle of alcohol

"Here you go, you three," Holly said.

"Thank you, Holly," Cain responded with a smile. He started to pour the alcohol into glass mugs for him and his Knights when he noticed Holly staring at him. "What is it?" He gestured to his face. "Is it this ugly mug? Yeah, I got a little beat up during the fight and-"

"Oh, no," Holly quickly said. "You look good."

Cain smiled at her, causing her to blush. He then finished pouring the drinks and he raised his mug up in a toast.

"To Grill, Graff, Chop, and Chik, who all passed on beyond the Rings," Cain declared as he saw the two raise their mugs up. "To our fallen knights."

"To our fallen knights!" Millie and Jawline declared before they all downed their drinks and placed their mugs on the bar.

Cain sighed as he looked at the two, noticing that Millie looked dejected while Jawline was lowering his head. "Hey," he said to them, drawing their attention. "They didn't die in vain. After what went down today, we are going to go down as legends for what we did. And so will they. Plus, we eliminated a major threat to the Wrath Ring. Everyone is better off without Murdock."

"That is true," Jawline replied with a nod. "They are going to remember what we did today."

"Yeah! Right in the history books!" Millie declared.

"And also, we get to enjoy the spoils of our victory," Cain pointed out with a grin. "Both here and at Murdock's base, where his stash will be ripe for the picking. And we'll head over there," he said as he saw both of their grins. "But first… we should take some advantage of this town's generosity."

"Oh yeah, I could do with some relaxin'," Millie said with a smile.

"Wonder if they have a steam room here?" Jawline asked.

Cain, however, turned his gaze over to Holly, who noticed the way that Cain was looking at her. She looked down, her face bright red.

Meanwhile, Moxxie entered a building that had been set up as a hospital for the wounded. He walked around, passing many of the wounded and injured, and managed to find two of his allies.

"Chase, Striker," Moxxie said as he walked up to them. "Are you two alright?"

"We're better," Chase said while in a tub of ice. "This ice bath really hits the spot."

"I'm just glad that we all lived through this… well, most of us," Striker said while having a bandage around his wound.

Moxxie nodded. "I'm glad you're both alive," he told them.

"What happened to Murdock?" Striker asked. "Is he dead?"

"Yes," Moxxie confirmed. "I killed him with help from one of the Knights."

"That's almost a shame," Chase said. "I would have loved to have killed him myself." He shrugged. "Well, at least I can still track down that terafrost."

"Yeah… just what was that thing's deal?" Moxxie asked.

"Well, do you know how this Ring used to be a frozen wasteland?" Chase asked. Moxxie nodded. "Creatures like that used to live in this Ring, but they were thought to have been wiped out when the old Satan set off all those volcanoes."

"Then how did a thug like Murdock find one?" Striker asked.

"I guess we'll never know," Chase said. "But maybe I can hunt that thing down before I go up to Pride."

"Good luck with that," Striker said. "As for me, I'm just going back home to my son."

Moxxie looked between Chase and Striker, having realized something. "Wait… are you like friends now?"

Chase and Striker both looked at each other, then at Moxxie before shrugging.

Moxxie was about to question what exactly happened between them during the battle, but then he remembered something else. "Say, do you know where I can find Wesley?"

"Over there," Striker said as he pointed to a cot, where Moxxie saw Wesley, still looking pretty banged up from what Murdock did to him.

"Oh crumbs… Wesley," Moxxie said as he rushed over to him, kneeling by his bedside. "Wesley, are you okay?"

"Mox… is that you?" Wesley asked, his voice weak as he looked over to Moxxie. He had both a black eye and a scarred lip. "You're okay…"

"Yeah, and you don't have to worry about Murdock anymore," Moxxie assured him. "He's finally dead."

"For real?" Wesley asked and Moxxie gave him a nod. Wesley closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief. "That's so good to hear. My ma and pa have been avenged now, even if I was not the one who pulled the trigger," he said before he turned to look at Moxxie again. "Thank you, Moxxie."

"You're welcome," Moxxie said, though he still looked concerned about Wesley's condition. "Just… get some rest, okay?"

Wesley nodded. "What are you going to do now?" he asked.

"I already thought about that," Moxxie admitted. "After all of this, I was thinking I would stay here for a while. I still feel responsible to help Angerton rebuild and get back on its feet. I don't feel like I can just leave you guys like this… and I can't leave you like this either, Wesley," he told him.

Wesley formed a smile. "You know, Moxxie, you were wrong."

Moxxie was confused by this. "About what?"

"Well, remember when you told me that sometimes the monsters do win and there's nothing that can be done about it? Well, I refuse to believe that," Wesley told him. "And you shouldn't believe that too, Moxxie. Monsters only win when you let them win. You shouldn't have given up on avenging your mother by killing the monster who killed her. Because today proved that we can defeat the monsters." He gave a sigh. "Just think about it."

Moxxie took in Wesley's words and looked down. "Well, I'll keep that in mind," he said as he began to stand up. "I'll check on you later. Get some rest."

Wesley gave a nod as Moxxie left the side of the cot and went to walk out of the building. Once he stepped outside and looked around, he spotted Stu in the distance, seeing him talking to Dirk and Momo. As he watched them, he thought about Wesley's words, about facing the monster that killed his mother…

The Pride Ring, a few days later…

At the House of Alloces, Alice and Octavia were both hanging out at the horse pens.

"Go on, try it," Alice told Octavia while petting the horse as she offered it a sugar cube. "They like it when you give them sugar cubes."

"Oh right…" Octavia said she offered another horse a sugar cube. The horse sniffed the sugar cubes in her hand and licked them up, letting Octavia pet them. "Oh! Um… wow!"

"See? I told you they'd respond well if you give them a gentle approach," Alice said as one of the animal caretakers walked over to them.

"Lady Alice, you have a package from your brother," the animal caretaker said.

"My brother?!" Alice asked with a smile, squeeing in joy as she rushed over to get the package, practically hopping in place. "Let me see, let me see!" she demanded as he handed it to her. Octavia went over to join her as she saw Alice rip open the package and pull out a stuffed rabbit with one eye, which came with a letter. "Oh my Lilith, he looks so cute!" Alice screamed while hugging the stuffed animal tightly.

"What does the letter say?" Octavia asked.

Alice opened up the letter and began to read it. "'Dear Alice, I know it's been a while since you last heard from me, but I finally found a new present for you. His name is Mr. One-Eye and he belonged to a friend of mine. Please take care of him and give him a good home.'" She smiled while looking at the stuffed rabbit. "Well, of course I'll take care of him. Welcome to the House of Alloces, Mr. One-Eye!" she declared out of joy while raising the stuffed bunny up and running away with him, not realizing she had dropped the letter.

"Alice, you dropped-" Octavia tried to say as she picked up the letter, but Alice was too busy adoring the stuffed animal.

"I'll have you cleaned up and then we can have tea parties with Mr. Snuffalufagus, Mr. Battarang, Mrs. Curly-Tops…" Alice began to list.

Octavia just sighed, but gave a small smile as she let Alice enjoy her new stuffed animal. She looked down at the letter in her hand and noticed the name signed at the bottom…

'-Love, your dear brother, Alex.'

Wonder how many monkey puns have we thrown out?

The terafrost is basically a parody of Shimo from Godzilla x King: The New Empire

Decided to give names to not just the Knights, but the saloon girl as well. So other than Cain and Millie, we got Jawline, Graff, Grill, Chop and Chik.

Also introducing are Murdock's strongest apes, consist of Dirty Harry, who's a snow monkey demon that's a pyromaniac(gotta love the irony of design), Noodra who's a parody of Tiny Kong by design, Daddy-Orang who isn't based off of anyone, just an orangutan demon in leather. Snorgat who is more based off of the ape bodyguard from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, with a name and eating habits similar to Snorlax.

Now originally, this chapter was going to be a B plot with the A plot being about Loona and Blitz. But ultimately, we decided to make the battle with Murdock its own chapter. Since we thought that cutting between the action and Loona's group would not be good for pacing reasons. And making the battle with Murdock its own chapter allowed us to flesh things out more.

And of course to mention about Cain's identity. Well, obviously it was never intended to make him the actual biblical Cain. 'Cain' is just a title used by the leader of the Knights of Hell. It was always our idea to have Cain be a young Goetian demon who rejected his upbringing, and ran off to find his own destiny in the Wrath Ring. Thus, he became a biker, and enjoying the freedom that came along with it.

And it's probably all there is for the author's notes.

Review Section:

Matteso: 2) The scene with Millie in the trailer is still going to happen.

Crash X Fusion: Hmm… nothing at the moment to ask you about.

Shuffollower: Came in full circle with the Derek part.

Knight of Dawn: He and Penzi did something…

SPantidem7: 1) We don't know. 2) About four more left in the Wrath Arc. 3) No spoilers. 4) We don't know. 5) No. 6) Yes. 7) Maybe. 8) Yes.

XDDCC: Probably not.