It hurts.
Limply hanging on the cross that Plaze nailed her to, all Sergeant Hammer could do was pray.
She hadn't prayed in decades. She hoped God heard her.
She wasn't ready to die. She's spent two lifetimes, but it wasn't enough. How could it ever be enough?
Hanging on the ruins of where she built her fortune, how could anyone say that two lifetimes were enough?
Heaven's light glowed in the skies, the extermination was here, ready to stamp out sinners to their final afterlife.
"No…" Hammer begged anyone who could hear her, "Save me! Someone! Anyone! I'll give everything I have to you! Help me!"
But nobody came.
Heavily breathing in and out, she kept pleading, "Someone! Save me! I don't deserve- I don't want to die! I give up! Please!"
She really wanted today to be a dream. To be able to wake up as a prisoner again. She wanted to be safe.
She wanted to be that ignorant girl who kept working on her tanks because it was cool.
Soon, the wings of an angel entered her vision, and all of her fear finally surfaced as she was found.
The cold, haunting face of the exterminator burned its image upon her eyes as they rushed towards her.
"Wait! Stop! No!" Hammer desperately pleaded, only encouraging her executioner to come faster, "I-I- Mom! Dad! Help! I need you right now!"
They were long dead. They were in heaven. She could never get to tell them anything that she's ever wanted to tell them.
"Please! Stop! Stop!" Hammer begged as the exterminator flew into her, spear first.
If there was any mercy in Hell, they gave some of it to her in that moment, as that spear pierced her heart, killing her instantly.
Watching his enemy fall limp, her struggles meaning nothing, Plaze only had an empty feeling in his stomach.
The broadcast quickly cut away to someone else's death, but Plaze could only think about the final words of someone he once vehemently hated.
As her desperation of wanting to live permanently engrains itself into his mind against his own will, he notices his own opinion changing.
Yes, she was a bastard. But she was human. Did she really deserve to die such an ignoble death, broadcasted for millions of fellow sinners to hear?
Sure, her death was just one of many that he'll see on TV, but none of those deaths were deserved by humans.
No, these exterminators treated them like insects to be stomped on.
Plaze considers himself a Christian, even if he has never really followed any of the teachings. There was no reason to stop considering himself one, now that he was in Hell.
So, he prayed for Hammer's soul to find peace, even if God would never hear his voice.
It was the only thing he could do for those as wretched as him.
Holding a bottle of alcohol, Tymate walks through the empty streets of Pentagram City, reminiscing about his 7 years in Hell.
He had tried his best. He really did.
But it was Hell. He didn't want to be here, everyone who did was someone who deserved to be here.
Once, he treated the angels with the utmost reverence, seeing their blades as the scythe that carried out death's will.
Now, he greets the angels without a care in the world.
As the exterminator in their gray uniforms rushed to claim his head, Tymate simply smiled and shouted out, "I lived a good life!"
He dies before anyone could call him out on his lie.
It was his second day in Hell! His SECOND DAY!
He hasn't even picked out a new name yet! He didn't even realize that there was more of Hell beyond the ruined city named Galstadt that he landed in until someone told him as they were running!
But he didn't adhere to their warnings because guess what, if he was smart, he wouldn't be in Hell, would he?
So now, he's hiding in a building, prone position, praying to whatever God is listening to not be found.
Meanwhile, he does his best to ignore all of the screams outside.
He doesn't know how long he waited. It could've been a few minutes, hours, days. He could believe any answer.
Until-
Someone kicks down the door.
In gray, military attire holding a spear that radiates holiness, they scan the room.
Then, they find him.
"Wait-" He tries to beg, but he doesn't get far into speaking before his head is pierced by the spear.
Keep running.
Run.
That's all she needed to do.
She was born a rabbit sinner, that's all she was made for.
As she ran down the streets of Tulma City, away from the center where the portal from heaven had opened, she cursed herself for believing she could steal a few things from the store and get back to the safehouse her husband prepared for her in time.
Instead, she had ended up as one of those idiots who was out on the streets during the extermination.
So run.
Keep running as though the world would end.
Her husband needed her. She needed him.
She can't die here.
Turning the corner-
It's an exterminator.
She doesn't bother looking at the corpse of whoever was stupid enough to die there. She just needed to run.
Keep running.
She can hear the wings behind her, but she won't look back.
If she looks back, they'll catch her.
She owns her husband's soul, just as he owns her.
She can feel him giving her his entire strength just to be able to outrun the angel behind her-
It isn't enough.
Something hits her leg, and she falls to the floor hard.
The last thing she thought about was her husband as the angel didn't even have the courtesy to kill her instantly, piercing her stomach before leaving and letting the holy wound do the job.
His right hand man, Taranto, warily looks up into the sky as he questions, "Boss, are you sure it's the smart thing to do this when the extermination is going on right now?"
They were standing within a forest, simply waiting for a business transaction to take place. Both parties had agreed upon the time and location, and now they were just waiting for the other side to show up.
The boss, Falzinar, grins as he finds his business associates coming into the clearing holding the bags they requested, "Of course. The exterminations begins in the cities, but there are a fuck-ton of sinners in those cities that they possibly can't get through it all in 24 hours, no matter how many angels they send down in each city. They just don't have the manpower. So very few angels come and take a look around the areas in-between the cities. It's just less efficient that way."
"Well said, Falzinar!" Balsaror commended as he opened the briefcase, filled with substances from the lower rings of Hell, "Say, this was a pain in the ass to get. You've got the money, though, right?"
"Of course, it's right-"
"Boss! Boss! Look up!" Taranto panickedly shook his boss, pointing towards the sky.
Looking at where he was pointing at revealed a squad of 5 angels flying through the red sky of the Pride Ring.
"Fuck, stand still, maybe they don't see us…" Balsaror quietly said, the entire group obeying and not moving a muscle.
That did not save them as one of the exterminators looked down and pointed at them, alerting their entire group.
"Fuck!" Falzinar shouted out as he pulled out his gun, "Open fire!"
"You know it doesn't work-"
"Open fire you dumbass!" Falzinar repeated as bullets began to fill the sky.
They harmlessly hit the exterminators, who were dive bombing their position, weapons ready to kill.
"Falzinar?"
"What?"
"Fuck you, this is all your fault-"
Their criminal empires ended that day, as someone else took notice of their disappearance and began to fill the void with their own presence.
Those new empires would fall in 2 years, and the loop continued for a very long time after that, just as it had before.
Lighting a cigar, Tempest suggested to his friend, "Say, what if I distract them, so that you can run and hopefully find a better place to hide?"
At the moment, they were both chilling inside a closed dumpster. It stinks like shit, it was uncomfortable, and they both seriously contemplated death rather than this embarrassing state of existence.
Hurricane simply said, "If it works, it works. I doubt the exterminators are going to open a dumpster to find sinners."
Narrowing his eyes, Tempest pleaded to his friend, "Damn, dude. At least let me open the top of this so we can get some fresh air?"
"Do you want them to see your face and kill you?"
"Tch," Tempest clicked his tongue, "It might be preferable to this."
Hurricane kicked him, "I'm close to getting a promotion from Vox, dude! I can't die now!"
Giving off a cheshire grin, he mocked, "Oh, yeah, that promotion you've been talking about for 2 years now? Give it up, dude, it's not happening."
"Really, it is! It's-!"
Suddenly, their dumpster shook a bit, instantly forcing them to shut up.
"Damn, has it really been that long?"
"It is, sir. Would you like to call back our forces?"
Tempest's eyes met Hurricane.
They were listening to angels speaking.
Holy fuck, if they could get these words back to their bosses…
"Ah… Hm, yeah, it's about time. But first…"
The two sinners next to them were cleaved in half, not even realizing what mythological figure's words they were listening to.
As countless stories met their unfortunate end under the sword of the extermination, those left standing would be given another chance to think about what life truly meant to those capable of living forever.
Most will not take that chance of reflection. For what are they but sinners, born to do evil in the world?
Either way, just as the sun rises and falls, the extermination could not last forever.
As the portals over the cities began opening again, it signaled to all those still living that the extermination was over.
The year 1986 had passed.
The year was now 1987, and the sinners began to torment Hell once more.
AN:
Ngl, I don't actually read that many Helluvaverse fics. But it feels pretty easy to downplay the extermination since it happened once and they got slammed in the series, looking like incompetent fools.
But put some respect on their names dawg.
They scary as shit!