As he feared, the strange red mass had a source somewhere inside the chapel. More precisely, it was a hole where, he guessed, the altar was supposed to be. Everything was demolished inside the small building, leaving nothing but useless rubble as the red stuff completely covered the walls, just like a vine of sorts. The only source of light was a small brass lamp in one of the corners.
The most nauseating was the smell that invaded his nostrils as soon as he set foot inside the chapel. He was accustomed to various unpleasantries, as his line of work demanded it from him. And yet, this smell made him regurgitate whatever he had in his stomach as soon as he felt it. The concoction of sulphur and decay was so potent that he thought he would die from it, if such death was even possible.
No, he had to go out. It was too much.
"Jesus Christ..." He wheezed. "Bah! What the hell's down there?!"
After vomiting once more, he sat down and looked at the chapel, thinking about the best course of action. It didn't took long for him to realize that there was no other option available. If he wanted to put an end to this obstacle, he had to go down there. Besides, there was a possibility that he would encounter more demons in whatever was the place below. God only knew what were they capable of. Judging by the things he saw up to now, there was no doubt that it could be a long-term problem.
Sighing to himself, he accepted his fate as he went once more into the chapel. While struggling to not fall unconscious, he reached the hole, grabbed the red substance as if it were a rope and slowly descended into the darkness below.
(Mesektet – Forgotten Tomb)
He didn't know how much it took for him to reach the bottom. He knew, however, that it was both an annoyance and a pain. The red matter proved to be rather slippery to the touch. He had to go through the procedure with precision and cautiousness, clutching edges with hands and feet whenever he could. A wrong step could easily turn into his last mistake.
The only source of light in the middle fo the darkness was his PDA. His life was made easier by using it as a torch to illuminate everything around him in a small radius. Now that the feat was over, it proved to be less useful than before.
At the moment, there was no clear way for him to recognize his surroundings. The heavy and cold air was an indication of him being in a cave. The smooth stone bricks below his feet quickly removed that hypothesis. Raising his left arm, he decided to take a few steps around the room. There was nothing that could give him a clue, except for the entrance blocked by a pile of rocks and a wooden door covered with that red stuff on the opposite side. He gripped the circular handle of the door and pulled. It creaked loudly as it scratched against the floor. It looked like it was there for a very long time.
Passing a stairway that lead downwards, he found himself in another, much larger room. This one, to his surprise, was brightened with wooden torches attached to the walls and human-sized golden candlesticks, each with a pile of golden skulls as a base.
That room had all the clues needed for him to figure out where he was. Each wall had dozens of stone slabs stacked on top of each other, leaving enough space for bones or, in some cases, urns. There was even a pit in the middle of the room filled with bones of all shapes and sizes closed with a rusty grid.
He was in a catacomb.
How, or why, would demons decide to use them was beyond him at this point. One guess was to use it as a factory for producing an army of undead. But most of the bones were left untouched, so that was unlikely. What creeped him out more than naything else was the lack of demonic presence. The room should have been packed with them, yet there was none to be found. He remembered that he was dealing with a threat that was far beyond him and his tactics. All of this could have been an elaborate trap for all he knew.
One of the many corpses in the room was "fresh". It lay in the corner to his left above a pool of blood. Careful to not alert any possible demon nearby, he silently approached the corpse and examined it further. It was an overweight and dark-skinned bald man in red body armor, holding a machine gun in his lap that Braylon recognized as a product of the Atlas corporation. Whoever was the man, he died by multiple stab wounds in his chest.
He was reluctant to grab the weapon at first, thinking how it could have been a trap. After waiting a couple more minutes, he decided to take it anyways, along with two magazines stashed in one of the pockets. The dead had no use of guns.
"Wow... looks really good." He thought while inspecting the weapon. For a tool that was old by several years, it looked as good as new. That is why people loved Atlas, despite it being no better than any other manufacturer that plagued the galaxy.
Reloading the new addition to his arsenal, he slowly walked towards an arch, the only thing that allowed him to reach the rectangle-shaped room. The sight made him stop dead in his tracks.
There were two beings observing something he wasn't able to see. One was tall with slightly tanned skin and an orange crystal formation sticking out of its back, shaking worse than a man with a seizure and tremors combined. The other was shorter and fatter, with a skin so pink that Braylon could easily mistake it for a pig.
Both of them turned around simultaneously and stared at him. He was able to see their true nature. The tall one was a humanoid, thin-legged hunchback with the torso so devoid of meat or fat, that the skin clung to the glowing red intestines like a blanket. Its feet were large and deformed, the fingers shaped to resemble the talons of a bird. It had a circular mouth filled with carnivorous teeth for a face and bundle of large red tentacles, each equipped with unique properties. One had eyes, one had spikes, etc.* The second one was, if his eyes didn't deceive him, a humanoid pig. A rotting humanoid pig with nothing but a golden sword held in one of its human-like arms.**
The fear known to Braylon came back, even if he was accustomed to it. Those two were demons, there was no point in denying it.
They looked at each other briefly. Then, as if some kind of silent agreement has been established, the tall one quickly shambled somewhere to his right, towards a hall. The undead pig stayed behind.
It squealed and groaned while Braylon readied himself for the inevitable fight.
"M... mortal... you... die!"
He was prepared this time. Nothing could take him by surprise. The demon was also predictable, as it ran forward and swung with its golden sword. He simply crouched and unloaded a four round burst at its abdomen and head. Since the Atlas gun had an explosive elemental converter, the bullets had the ability to explode on impact with the target, causing more damage than a "normal" bullet would. The demon fell way more easily than he thought it would.
But the pig demon wasn't his preoccupation. It was the tall one that ran away.
"Why did it run away?"
(Plutonia Revisited – Wicked Garden)
He ran down the hallway he was sure the demon had passed too. He was now in a smaller room which had a giant well filled with skeletons. There were also four Lost Souls floating freely above it while several Corpses came out from behind a jail cell-like door on the opposite side of his position. He gunned them all down and reloaded.
Braylon's next challenge was a hallway with three jail cells at each side. He didn't understand why would a catacomb have cells and he never had time to ponder about it anyways, as there were more urgent matters; an Abomination at the end of the hallway and a horde of Corpses coming out of the cells.
The Abomination had to be killed, but the Corpses stood in front of his gun while he fired, allowing the stronger monster to advance forward. He had to retreat to the previous room so that he could escape from the swing of the monster's axe-like arm.
"Crap! Out of ammo!" He jumped sideways, evading a strike that would otherwise be lethal. The monster's axe got stuck into the wall, allowing him to switch to the Striker shotgun. His first shot chopped of the axe from the body while the next blew up half of its skull. It died, falling into the well. As the path became free, he was able to follow the tall demon, killing any opposing force in his way, which mostly consisted of Corpses and Abominations.
A dead end, he thought as he ran down a hallway. It was the fourth in a row. Whoever build the catacomb, they must have had a serious passion about dungeons and labyrinths. When he reached the final room, which was the largest room in the whole place, he wondered where did the demon go. There was nowhere he could visibly hide. Ah, but there was a hole in the wall. It must have been its escape route.
The room's light came from four brass chandeliers, each in its respective corner. That, and several black candles in the center, placed around a sarcophagus made of stone, decorated with various motives unknown to him. When Braylon got closer, he saw that the each candle was at the tip of a red star surrounded in a circle of the same color.
When he was about to come even closer, five cyan-colored fireballs burst into existence above the sarcophagus, only to form into five Condemned. Four of them attacked him while the fifth went inside the sarcophagus. He rolled out of the way to dodge two of them, jumped sideways to dodge the third and the fourth got a hit as he stood up. The fire burned at the targeted spot, which was his right shoulder, making him cry in pain.
"Fuck..." he swore as he materialized the energy pistol and destroyed the four nuisances.
A loud crash made him turn around. The receptacle's lid was broken as a figure jumped out from its prison. It was a Returner. Unlike the others he sent back to Hell, this one was shaped to resemble a plump man in a tunic and trousers, sporting a pair of shafted shoes and a puch strapped to a belt. The man carried a round shield on his left arm and a Dane axe, a Viking's weapon of choice.***
Braylon and the Viking carefully circled around each other. Since Braylon thought that a ranged weapon would give him an advantage, he fired three shots with the pistol, all of which had been blocked by the shield.
"Okay... that's definitely new."
The Viking roared as he released a burst of aetherial energy from its body, sending Braylon flying across the room.
"That... is also new... ouch..."
Viking's surprise attack hurt, but not like the other times. Since the attack wasn't concentrated on one spot, it had a weaker knockback effect, allowing Braylon to be mostly unharmed. He jumped back on his legs and found out that the Returner had dissapeared from his sight. Suddenly, a cyan-colored cloud formed in front of him. The Viking immediately jumped out from it and attacked the surprised Vault Hunter, its ghostly axe passing through his body.
He felt as if something inside him was torn apart. Nothing in his body had been harmed in any way, as strange as it may seem. Nevertheless, the indescribable pain he felt had softened his legs, making him fall on his knees. Eyes wide and breathing slowed to a crawl, Braylon clutched his chest, trying to remove the pain.
"It's insane... hurts so much..." Gritting his teeth, he looked upwards to stare into the hateful eyes of his attacker who was about to deal a finishing blow. The young Vault Hunter kicked one of the Viking's legs, temporarily loosing his balance. Braylon materialized the Holo Sabre and swung upwards but was met with the ghostly shield. He fired at the Returner's tibia, cracking the bone and making it kneel down. Now that they were on the same height, Braylon dropped the gun and raised his right hand towards the Viking's skull, seeminly uncaring of the effects that it would have on him. It was with the help of his astounding strenght and endurance that Braylon took the skull and slammed it down on the stone bricks, breaking it instantly. The Returner dissapeared in a cyanish blinding light, leaving behind the desecrated corpse.
He thought for a moment that the Condemned would come out, now in its original form. Instead, it was a blue sphere with the agonized face, just like the one he found in Hell. Smiling slightly, he punched the sphere and let its gaseous form to envelop his body. He was feeling as good as new.
"And now for the other one..."
Continuing his hunt for the tall demon, Braylon decided to go through the hole in the wall. It lead to a hastily dug tunnel which, when he jumped down, connected to a natural cave. There, behind a pig demon, stood the one he was looking for. He swapped the pistol for the Striker.
"Die!" The humanoid pig charged forward. Braylon's shotgun brutally tore off its left arm, making it fall to its knees and drop its sword. While the demon desperately held the wound-turned-blood-fountain, another rushed from behind him, to his right. Braylon raised the shotgun and fired again. It spun around and fell as the shot hit its right shoulder. A third one appeared to his left before he could use the shotgun, so he sliced off its legs and then its head after it fell. Turning back to the first demon, he decided to end its suffering by unloading the barrel into the head and making it go kablooey.
Only the tall one remained. He was ready for the attack that never came as the demon turned around and ran into a tunnel. Cursing himself for allowing its escape, Braylon quickly followed behind. He had no ammo left for the shotgun so he needed to change the Striker to his revolver and pistol.
At one point of the whole chase, the creature jumped and dissapeared below a small cliff. Braylon stopped right on the edge of the cliff, having no intention of falling down and injuring himself. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the ambiental brightness for him to notice that he was in a very large cave, quite possibly twice the size of a hangar. His jaw dropped at the sight of the cave's contents. It was a common cave by all means, that was for certain, but he was sure that mountains of corpses and walls covered with that strange red substance weren't a natural occurence. Especially when said substance acted like roots to a giant, fleshy construct shaped to resemble a monstrous mouth.
"I see."
"What are you talking about?"
"That "mouth" is a Gore Nest.****"
"And what does it do?"
"Haven't you figured it out?" Just as it spoke, Braylon did notice a strange phenomenon. A glowing red circle flew above the mouth by several inches. He wasn't able to see it clearly, though he was sure that something flew out of it.
"A rift?"
"Hm, I guess that is one way to look at it. But I doubt you will have time to ponder about its significance."
It was right, for the cave's denizens were becoming aware of his presence, courtesy of the demon that escaped from his grasp. And what residents...
"Oh... my..."
Countless demons stood below him, staring upwards at the mortal that dared to trespass on the private propriety. Humanoid pigs, Abominations, Possessed, Tainted, Reanimators and even several specimens similar to the tall one with the mouth for a face. One such specimen was larger than the others and had light brown crystals on its back, rather than the red ones, which were also larger.*****
"There is no way I can banish so many demons at once..." His gaze returned to the Gore Nest, as the voice called it. "...But who says I have to?"
The maddening cacophony of screams below became louder and louder as time went on. Braylon prepared himself for the demonic assault.
(Quake 2 – Stealth Frag)
Four Possessed Corpses managed to climb upwards towards him. After he shot all of them down, he jumped and landed on a fifth, smashing its head to the ground with his legs. Those remaining that surrounded him got dispatched with few precise strikes of his Holo Sabre.
One tall demon, whom he thought it was the same who escaped him, used its tentacles as flails. As much as he was able to dodge several attacks, there would always be a tentacle or two that would damage his Shield. There was no effective way to dodge them all. He waited for the right moment, that is when the demon whipped its tentacles again, jumped towards the nearest pile of bodies to gain the higher ground advantage, then jumped and striked down the demon with his Holo Sabre. The wound that went from its neck down to the pelvic region opened up, releasing the glowing intestines and blood. The creature fell backwards, choking, growling and moaning at the same time. Braylon was able to decipher a sentence among all that noise, directed at him albeit barely audible.
"This is just the begginning..."
Seeing that there was no time for thinking in the middle of a grotesque labyrinth filled with monsters ready to tear his face off, Braylon picked a random path, hoping to reach the Gore Nest.
Two Former Humans stood in his way. One young woman with a sickle and an old man with a wooden club. Both of them growled like dogs before lunging at the Vault Hunter. The woman slashed with her sickle vertically. Braylon jumped to the left and pointed the Unforgiven's barrel below her ear. He fired and then fired a shot with the pistol into the old man's knee. When he kneeled, Braylon pointed both guns at the man's head and pulled the trigger.
It was then when he heard the neighing of a horse, only severely distorted and high pitched. A dark brown skeletal creature that reminded Braylon of a horse, only it had a pair of horns and the spine ended in a long tail. Green mist came out of its hooves, mouth and eye sockets. ******
Braylon decided to run down another way, temporarily escaping from the creature's sight. A zombie-pig demon jumped out from a pile at the unsuspecting Vault Hunter, throwing him on the ground. He couldn't fire because he had to hold the golden sword that was inches away from his throat. After lifting the sword, if only slightly, he materialized Holo Sabre and cut off the demon's hands, thus staining his clothes in even more blood. He kicked the squealing monster away, picked the guns and resumed his running.
And there was the skeletal beast. Right down the road.
It cocked its head back, then quickly opened its mouth and spat a jet of green smoke at him. Unable to run the opposite way, as he was sure that the demons were reaching him, Braylon had to jump towards the peak of a corpse mountain. Reaching it, he was able to see the current situation.
He was completely surrounded.
There wasn't a place safe enough to land without being attacked en masse. He heard a deep, guttural growl to his right. He turned around and saw a flying demon that was physically similar to the one in the cemetery, only this one had one pair of arms, leathery brown hide, actual teeth and the black pupil was round rather then a slit. *******
"Ugh, another one."
"Indeed. And I suggest you banish him quickly."
"Why is-"
The demon suddenly opened its mouth and a Lost Soul rocketed out. Thankfully he had quick reflexes, so he shot it to death. But just as he did, the demon was ready to summon a replacement.
"Oh no, you won't!"
Braylon took two steps back, then jumped at the demon, materializing Holo Ripper in mid-air and shoving it into the giant eye. As said eye burst open, he kept thrashing the holographic chainsaw until he was sure he made enough damage, then jumped on top of it and on another pile while the demon exploded behind him.
"Whoa!"
The rotten meat below him started trembling like a leaf. There was something buried below, he thought. All of a sudden, he found himself catapulted in the air as a loud, monstrous roar threatened to pierce his eardrums. His head was upside down while he flew, but he was able to see it anyways.
It was tall, not sure how much, amalgamation of several animal bodies that he was sure they weren't supposed to be like they were. There was the body of a cow molten together with the body of a pig, acting like the abdomen, and the head of a bull with flaming red eyes. The pig's legs were replaced with something that resembled like the legs of a mantis, only extremely sharp and blade-like. Tiny orange crystal formations were present all over it's body, scattered seemingly at random. ********
"Ho-lee fu-oof!"
His back crashed on something hard before he went tumbling downhill like a ball. There were no injuries, but he was seriously troubled by the sight of that beast. He doubted his pistols could do any harm to it. Bigger guns would certainly help. Too bad he was low on ammo.
"I need to destroy that fucking Gore Nest before something else jumps out!"
A demon shambled out of the corner of his eyesight. It was the one with the brown crystals.
"Great."
The demon raised one of its legs and slammed it down, creating an earthquake wave directed at Braylon. He was to slow to dodge it, so he lost the balance and fell down. His brief staring into the ceiling was interrupted by a Tainted deer that brought its head dangerously close to his face. He deadpanned.
"Stop it."
He nonchalantly pointed the revolver at its nose and fired.
"Whew... okay, round two."
Braylon jumped back to his feet. The tall demon grabbed him and slammed his body into a pile of corpses, then tossed him on the other side.
"Alright! Now you pissed me off!"
It shot its tentacles towards him like a bunch of spears ready to impale their target. He ran towards them, slid under, activated the Holo Ripper and chopped them off. It retracted its tentacles back and raised its foot. Braylon roared as he increased his speed , reaching and grabbing the responsible leg before it could cause another earthquake. He cut it off and then stabbed both the Holo Ripper and his hand into its chest.
"Fuck! You!"
He ripped its heart out and crushed it. The brown crystals on its back suddenly exploded, engulfing the falling demon in fire of the same color.
He had a hunch that he was getting closer to his goal. It was true. Raising his eyes, he saw the cursed Gore Nest, spitting out more Former Humans and pig demons. He decided to run uphill, killing anyone who dared to oppose him. He was a few meters away from it when he felt something pulling him back by the shoulder. He turned around and, to his brief scare, found the skeletal creature from before. It released its grip and headbutted him. He fell down. It raised its front hoofs up in the air. Hadn't he rolled away, he would have been squished under that weight.
The Unforgiven's bullet went between its eyes but it still didn't do anything to stop its advance. He frowned as he quickly jumped to all fours and sprinted towards the Gore Nest.
"See that yellow pouch? Pop it open and pull out it's contents."
Even if he couldn't see it, Braylon felt the skeletal monster's rage as it quickly approached him, obviously not liking the idea of a mortal being that close to something important. He reached the yellow pouch, as instructed, squeezed his right hand into a fist and tore it apart with a quick, yet strong, punch. His hand caught something squishy as it pulled out. It was suprisingly hard to pull off, but he did it, just as the reanimated skeleton was at arm's reach.
The very instant he ripped out the squishy object, which, to his disgust and horror, looked like a mutated heart, the Gore Nest let out an almost human-like roar of pain before exploding. The unleashed energy blast sent him flying downhill and annihilated the horselike skeleton as the devastation spread all over the cave, causing even an earthquake that threatened to bury everything in it.
Coughing, Braylon turned his head to the place where the Gore Nest had been. While it was true that the "body" had exploded, the red ring that flew above didn't. Quite the contrary, it expanded, replacing the light inside of it with inky blackness and massive bursts of dark red mist and lightning. The pile of bodies beneath it was slowly shrinking as the corpses were pulled into the black sphere of nothingness.
"It's unstable!" Braylon stared wide-eyed as the demons were unable to resist its call, flying like ragdoll and sucked in by a vacuum cleaner. Even the amalgamation, which tried to find the intruder on its own, flew over his head and dived straight into the portal, mooing all the way.
"Congratulations, mortal." The voice taunted. "You forcefully opened a hole in reality itself."
"Don't fuck with me! How was I supposed to know it would do that? Why didn't you tell me?"
"And to ruin the fun? Besides, are you so blind that you are unable to recognize something unstable?"
"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu-!"
The young Vault Hunter raged against the entity that was supposedly helping him as he was quickly brought towards the unstoppable rift.
M1rzaTheBroJo: 1. Ammo is either gonna be created by him or it will be an ass-pulled deus ex machina in the form of "you ask, I pop a box of ammo at your feet". As for the energy pistol, in case you didn't figure it out, has unlimited ammo. There is a reason why I added its description back in that chapter when he got it...
2. If my calculations are correct, he should be able to encounter some of them in the ninth chapter. Though I won't promise anything.
Arsenal:
Pistols: Unforgiven (first game), Energy pistol
Shotgun: Striker (first game)
Assault rifle: Ajax's Spear (explosive, reflex sight)
Shield: The Bee
PDA Biopedia:
*Entry #16: Flesh Artist
Type: Demon – Demonic Corruption
Faction: Legions of Hell
Description: "Remember how I talked about some brothers of mine who are obsessed with making weird constructs out of dead meat? Well, allow me to introduce you to the Flesh Artists. A little bit of background; before we decided to go into a war that was lost from the start, these individuals were the living embodiments of art in its purest form. They knew how to sing, how to paint, how to build pretty things yadda yadda yadda... then that cursed day happened and some of these went into a mood swing, complaining how this war was, and I quote, "killing the inspiration". While some returned to normal, as if nothing ever happened (you can thank them for giving mortal races all forms of art they know and love, by the way) some started to see "patterns" in the war itself. Their art quickly turned grotesque and depraved, picturing slaughter and such. When they were casted down here, they... lost their sanity. So, as a form used to express their hatred for Anathema, they started making "art" from things they could find, which was usually fire and rocks. The more they created, the more insane they became. One day, one of the group proclaimed himself as a leader among them and gave them a new perspective: the flesh! Indeed, nowdays the flesh became their canvas... all they need to do is paint."
**Entry #17: Zombie Pigman
Type: Hellspawn
Faction: Legions of Hell
Description: "What came first, the chicken or the egg? Well, swap the chicken and the egg for Pigman and Zombie Pigman and you kinda get the same result really. Mostly used for target practice or loyal slave-guards or whatever. I can't bring myself to care and neither should you. Oh, and if you happen to find a digested golden nugget, please return it its owner, which would be me, thank you."
***Entry #18: Brynjar, Chosen of Odin
Type: Returner - Hero
Faction: Legions of Hell
Description: "Brynjar was born in a small peaceful village Anathema-knows-where. At the tender age of sixteen (or was it less?) he decided to play vikings vs everyone else, a pretty popular game at that time. When he got older, he discovered a hobby that he would love for the rest of his days on that pitiful planet: war. Indeed, Brynjar was a "devil" on the battlefield, killing everyone who had the guts to challenge him. His people dubbed him "the chosen of Odin". Who is that, I have no idea. Probably a brother of mine with a passion for beards. Anyways, Brynjar died in the most stupid way possible. He thought it that him, along with two thousands of his men, would beat an army that not only surpassed ten thousands, but was also better equipped. Hey, mathematics is hard."
****Entry #19: Gore Nest
Type: Demonic Corruption
Faction: Legions of Hell
Description: "Being a very cheap way of transportation, the Gore Nests are a favorite choice among the wannabe leaders, as its only ingredients are a cart full of fresh corpses and our sorcery. These beings (yes, they are alive) have the astounding ability to open portals that connect this place with a selected reality, or realm if you wish. Of course, if you have even half of a brain in that skull you can easily point out its huge flaws. For straters,the Gore Nest must be stable and active if you want a functional portal. If you wish to bring out stronger entities, or even massive numbers, then the Nest must be bigger so that it could create a bigger portal. That in itself is a problem as even the common Nest requires a stable supply of fresh corpses, something that is hard to come by if you wish to be stealthy. Another problem is the fact that the Gore Nests are only capable of making a connection with this place and one selected reality. Anything above that will require more sophisticated methods of transportation."
*****Entry #20: Marmythael – Moulder of Flesh
Type: Demon – Demonic Corruption - Hero
Faction: Legions of Hell
Description: "Sigh... I sometimes fail to understand my brothers. You see, the Flesh Artists never show up in a body of their own. Their strategy revolves around forming a body out of a dead mortal, add some twists, and then possess it. This is nothing like the Corpses possessed by Lost Souls. Flesh Artists are way smarter. Before they possess the body, they make sure to infuse it with a mixture of various energies and sorceries in the form of a crystal, which then will grow naturally on the body. This not only gives them more power and better control, but it also allows them to use those same crystals to invent new abominations every day. And while most Flesh Artists use the basic, cheap recipe, the more advanced ones (or the sane-er) take it a step further and try to experiment. They crystals you saw on the back of Marmythael were designed to give him the control of the earth around him. Naturally, since I suspect he never wrote the recipe down, he made them very unstable, which would explain why you weren't swarmed with earth-controlling monstrosities."
******Entry #21: Virus, Prophet of the Plague
Type: Demonic Corruption – Hero
Faction: Legions of Hell
Description: "Despite its appearance, Virus is a Tainted. I am sure that by now you realized that the Tainted are a byproduct randomly created when we act in the physical realms. A Tainted is never created intentionally... except for this one. Virus being a synthetic product created by Flesh Artists is my best guess. Hm, and here I was thinking they lost their touch."
Entry #22: Pain Elemental
Type: Demon
Faction: Legions of Hell
Description: "There is a rank among us that is named "Elemental". An elemental is a living embodiment of the element they, supposedly, represent. The Pain Elementals are one such type. Not only they desire inflicting pain on everything that isn't them, but they are drawn to it. It gives them power. Should one drop in the middle of a battlefield, they would become truly powerful, the best among their ranks. The Pain tribe is known for two things; one, their sorcery allows them to summon Lost Souls whenever needed. Two, if you ever happen to stumble upon one, make them a top priority, as they, like all Elementals, have the ability to influence nearby mortals with their elements. The more you stand near a Pain Elemental, the stronger the pain you will feel. Naturally, killing their bodies is almost as bad as letting them live."
********Entry #23: Amalgamation
Type: Demonic Corruption
Faction: Legions of Hell
Description: "My mind can't even right now. Just... can someone tell me how that thing is even alive? And why it can move around when obviously shouldn't? It looked tough too. Note to self, if I ever find another one of these things, I better have something better than a couple of pea shooters."