Prelude to blood
As the dark lord fel on his back, exhausted and beaten, he looked to his creation. The human who was born to become greater than all but him. The human who had surpassed him.
"so, do you have any words for your creator before you kill me?" he asked.
As the helmet of the Slayer fell to the floor and his Super Shotgun leveled to his face, only one word was uttered.
The first word to be spoken by him in millennia.
"no."
The resultant shotgun blast ended the dark lord.
All across realities, the legions of hell's demons died.
The Slayer soaked in the moment, feeling the hellish argent energy leave him.
Suddenly he felt tired.
Oh so tired.
He fell into a deep sleep long before he fell to the ground.
Sealed in a sarcophagus, he slept away a century.
And then, it weas opened.
"Rise and shine Slayer. Wake up and smell the ashes." Came a deep baritone voice modulatred by electronic voice processors.
The slayer opened his eyes, and sat up in the sarcophagus.
His vision was blurry, and he felt weak.
A strong hand grabbed his own and helped him out of the sarcophagus.
"you will be disoriented for a while. Things are different from your last… nap. You've been stripped of argent energy. It's not the entirety of what made you so formidable, but its effects on you were key to how you were unstoppable. Mortality is a concept you are going to have to become reacquainted with." The voice stated as it helped him over it's shoulder.
The voice resonated with the Slayer.
"Hayden?" came the voice of gravel on rusted steel.
"so you can actually speak? Consider me surprised." Was Hayden's sarcastic response.
"how…?"
"I Descended again. And reintegrated my existence with the backup I left in the Fortress of Doom. With the Dark Lord dead, the Maykr race was all but eradicated because of the Argent corruption being so ingrained in their physiology. The Father helped me realize I should never have tried to stop you. You were always going to do the right thing… I am sorry for underestimating you." He responds as he helps the Slayer into a chair.
The slayer's eyes finaly start clearing as he sees Hayden's robotic body.
"accepted. I should have said something. The rage took my words from me." he said quietly.
"ah. Quite literally a fury beyond words then? Fascinating." Haden said as he put a lartge flat box on the table between them.
Hayden opened the box and the Slayer was assaulted by the overwhelming smell of a meat lover's pizza.
"eat, you are going to be very hungry for a while, as your biology gets used to needing food, drink, and rest again." He says as he pushes the open box towards him.
The Slayer doesn't hesitate at all and starts eating the meal with a gusto.
After 5 whole pizzas and nearly a gallon of water, the slayer finishes and sighs.
"I forgot what hunger felt like. Thank you." He said as Hayden brought him a cane shaped like a shotgun.
"here, you have mild atrophy in your muscles, as your body gets settled down you will need a little help."
The slayer looked to the cane with a grimace.
"is this the rest of my life?" he asked with worry.
Hayden scoffed. "Hardly. I give it a week at most. Let your nonvital organs get used to having a job again for a bit and your body will get back to your old strength. Though with the argent gone, you will see some differences."
The Slayer looked relived as he stood up with the can's help. "like what? And where are we?"
Hayden leads him down the hall to a familiar room.
"we're in the fortress?" he asks.
He didn't have a kitchen in the fortress.
"yes. I did some construction on the fortress as I looked for you. I knew you would need some different accommodations when you were awoken so I did a fair bit of reconstruction and remodeling. The surviving Night Sentinels were happy to help. You will find the Fortress' systems and structure to be at the best they have ever been."
The Slayer nodded, and began reacquainting himself with the ship.
As a week passed, the Slayer felt himself getting better. Hayden was al to willing to help him when he needed it, and after he was at peak health once again, he went to the Ripatorium to practice.
"With demons extinct, ive taken the liberty to develop a Hard Light Combat room in place of the Former Ripatorium. In practice it is much the same as it once was. But seeing as you no longer regain vitality through bloodshed, it is fine to use holograms." Hayden explained as he set up the training stage.
"I've found all of your weapons, or in case of the crucible blade, made suitable replacements. Ive had to preform several modifications to al of them as well thanks to your lack of argent energy. Consider this a short version of basic training."
The Slayer frowned angrily. "I think I still remember how to use my guns."
Hayden didn't even look at him and asked, "how do you reload your minigun?"
At this the Slayer looked floored. Staring at Hayden for a moment before fidgeting.
Hayden responded with, "exactly. Your argent modifications brought about through the Divinity Machine made anything you considered a weapon basically a part of you. So you have not needed to change a clip, clean a barrel, or even worry about weapon maintenance for longer than you can likely remember."
"fair point. Lets start training then." The Slayer responded as he wentr down into the new Ripatorium.
The ripatorium wasn't just an arena anymore. There was a diverging hallway that had three paths, named Shooting Range, Arena, and Combat zone.
"for now, lets go to the shooting range. Relearn your arsenal." Haden's voice said through the Fortress.
Iin the shooting range the Slayer waked up to the range and a compartment opened up showing its contents.
"Plasma pistol. Self conbtained regenerative ammo supply. Effective distance, 40 meters. Unique mod, Charge shot." The Slayer picked up the weapon he used on mars and saw that it was a tad sleeker, and had a rather higher heat capability. He took several shots before testing the charge shot. The recoil was stronger than he remembered but the Hard Light Pinky he shot lost it's head with one shot, so the tradeoff seemed fair.
"next, the combat shotgun. No real change other than loading it yourself.
After a few shots, the slayer agreed that the good old shotgun was as reliable as ever.
"the heavy cannon now reloads through the side port where the micro missiles once came from. To combat the loss of offensive power, your sniper shots are now high explosives."
This change made the Slayer smile in dark glee.
"the plasma cannon and the BFG-9000 have been combined into a singular weapon, with a 20 second charge sequence and a full plasma clip being necessary to use the BFG's attack."
The resultant blasty was different from the original BFG, but at the same time it had a satisfying feeling quite comparable to the original.
"The Unmayker and Ballista are also now fused, and the resultant weapon I have dubbed the Devastator."
The cackling from the Slayer was evidence of his enjoyment as he mowed down three marauders with the Devastator.
"The Minigun has been altered to use both the Shield and quad barrle mods simultaneously, but only then the turret mod is used. The backlash would make it borderline unusable otherwise."
This one was fun.
After plenty of practice and some relearning his combat style, the slayer was back in the main Fortress.
"it feells good to be back in battle. Now ive been meaning to ask. Why did you wake me up?" thew Slayers voice had mellowed out to a deep baritone reminisant of a certain caped crusader. Something he would deny if mentioned. Especially if you asked him if he ever pretended to be batman when he was young. MOST especially if you asked about that one time in Boot Camp.
"There is no reason. Other than wanting you alive once more." Hayden said casually.
"Bullshit." Was The Slayer's response.
"Very. In all honesty, I HAD been looking to bring you back for that reason, but recently The Father contacted me and told me to get you ready. He said something would be happening, and that you needed to be ready for it. He failed to expand on the subject so honestly, I'm as in the dark on the matter as you are."
The slayer sighed and nodded and as he was about to respond he heard a strange sound.
The voice of a young girl.
"My servant that exists somewhere in the universe! My divine, beautiful, and powerful familiar! I wish and assert from the bottom of my heart, answer my guidance!"
"Do you hear that Hayden?" He asked.
"Only through my link with your armor. It seems your neural interface is working because this is in your head."
Suddenly, a green portal opened before the slayer.
"Interesting. A portal aside from our own. What wil you do?" Hayden asked.
"I'm going to assume this is what the Father wanted us ready for." The Slayer said with a dry tone.
Hayden nodded and said, "I'll keep in touch with you from here. I can bring the Fortress wherever you go thanks to the dimensional tether system."
The Slayer nodded as he walked through the portal.
On the other side, as an explosion rocks the clearing, a group of young mages mock a pink haired girl.
When the smoke clears…
They may regret their mocking.