UNKNOWN FIERY RED DOMAIN

Kratos stumbled through the strange locale around him. The air was thick with burning brimstone. He walked up a hill, attempting to figure out exactly where he is. He spotted an odd site. They were...buildings. Tall buildings made of stone and concrete. He'd seen nothing like them before. Clustered together and flashing with lights. He heard screams, laughs, moans, explosions. Something about it seemed sickly, chaotic, and dystopian. He tried to reach for his axe, but found nothing. He reached his hand out to call it, but nothing happened. The axe was gone.

Deciding that anywhere was better than the ashen plains, he made his way to this cluster.

It was a town... inhabited by red-skinned creatures with varying black and white striped horns, hair, and clothing, and yellow eyes with black lizard like slits for irises and red sclera. They also had tails with sharpened points. Some were even more canine in their look while others were any sort of strange creature. They didn't seem to acknowledge his presence, even when he caught their eye. None attempted to challenge him. Except one...

"HEY!" He heard behind him. One of the horned creatures, dressed in tattered clothes with dilated bloodshot pupils. It had a strange object pointed at him. Small, black and metallic, shaped like an L with the handle being grasped.

"Give me your shit. Every dollar you've got. NOW!"

This twitchy creature was small, barely coming up to Kratos' waist.

Kratos said, "I have nothing to offer. Leave me be unless you can tell me where I am."

The creature's hand tensed and the pointed end sparked off and seemingly let off a small explosion. What Kratos felt next was a sting in his stomach. A small piece of metal was bent against his exposed frame. The creature's eyes twitched more as he darted away. The metal fell to the ground, smoking as Kratos picked it up.

Perhaps the idea was that it was meant to penetrate his body and wound him. He continued walking searching for somewhere he could find answers. He heard a strange sound suddenly. A crackling.

He turned down an alleyway and noticed a portal opening. Humans were on the other side! Three more of these creatures jumped through.

One was the tallest, with massive curved black and white striped horns and a black buttoned up coat with boots and black gloves.

Another was shorter, with horns that went in a more zig-zag direction. He also had white hair and his legs resembled a goat more than a human, and wore a black suit with a red bowtie.

The shortest of the bunch had black horns and black hair, and a more feminine figure, suggesting she was a girl. She had a pair of black overalls on with black tattered pants.

The tallest one said, "Well that's another one in the bag, gang. What's say we order up some pizza tonight? Moxxie's buying."

The white haired creature, apparently named Moxxie spoke in a squeaky and raspy voice as he said, "Why exactly am I buying, Blitzø?"

Blitzø smiled and said, "You got the kill your reward is feeding your crew."

Moxxie simply sighed as the female one patted him on the head.

She spoke in a country accent as she said, "I like sausage on mine, sweetie."

Moxxie said, "Ok. Sausage for you, Millie."

Kratos yelled out, "You three!" drawing their attention.

Blitzø smiled and said, "Holy shit. 500 tons of man incoming..."

Kratos jogged to them as he said, "What...is this place?"

Millie raised an eyebrow. She said, "You don't already know?"

Blitzø says, "It takes some people a second. Put simply...welcome to Hell."

Kratos grunted and said, "I have been to Hel before. This is not that."

This triggered even more looks of concerns between them.

Blitzø said, "Alright let's take it back to one. Who are you?"

Kratos said, "I...am Kratos."

Blitzø said, "The name is Blitzø. The O is silent. This little baby boy is Moxxie and this is his wife Millie."

Kratos grunted and said, "That portal. You can leave this world at any time?"

Blitzø said, "Sure. But I hate to break it to you: You can't exactly leave. You're dead."

Kratos said, "I know. But my son is in danger. He needs me."

Blitzø said, "Look, I have a kid too and of course I'd do anything to keep her safe, but that only goes so far. You are literally fucking dead. Unless you've somehow died and come back before..."

"I have." Kratos said bluntly. "Twice."

This left Blitzø stunned.

Moxxie said, "Sir. Doesn't he look different from other sinners here? Usually a sinner's appearance changes completely from life to death. Colored skin, eyes, that sort of thing. Besides the bleached skin, he looks no different than a human on Earth."

Blitzø said, "Ok this is fucking weird. Let's just head back with this sack of muscle and figure this out from our office."

UNSC Infinity

Bay 9

Atreus, Freya, Zoro, and Katara were preparing to launch on a Pelican. Atreus held on to Mimir who said, "How are you doing, little brother?"

Atreus said, "I'm doing ok. I can't think about it too hard now though. If I'm gonna stop Crota for my father, I'll be the one needing your help this time."

Mimir said, "I've got your back."

With them was a girl with teal skin, dark blue rounded hair, dark blue tank top with an exposed midriff, and blue sweatpants with golden laced sandals. This was Lapis Lazuli, a gem like Pearl and Garnet. Her teardrop shaped gemstone was on her back.

Katara said to Lapis, "If you and I keep the Hive off them, they can focus on stopping Crota."

Lapis said, "Yeah sure. Hey after we're done do you wanna explore? I hear they might have some real cool armor or whatever."

Katara said, "I didn't peg you for the fashionable type."

Lapis smiled and said, "We got this in the bag and no sense in not celebrating!"

Freya walked in saying, "I don't mean to be a wet blanket ladies, but let's wait until we win the battle before we plan shopping excursions. And definitely don't do so without a guide like me."

Zoro sighed as he prepared to board. He said, "Alright. Let's load it up!"

Atreus placed Mimir on his belt as he boarded the ship. Katara and Lapis followed with Freya leading.

Hell

I.M.P. Office

Kratos sat in the large square room with these strange creatures. He was on the couch, sitting opposite to the three.

Blitzø said, "Alright, so here's the cinch. We are the Immediate Murder Professionals. We help settle unfinished business for sinners that land here. Using a book from some demonic royalty we go to the human world and execute targets for our clients."

Kratos grunted in acknowledgement. "This book..." he said.

"...who is the owner? This royalty?"

"Stolas.", Moxxie explained. "He's the only demon permitted access to the human world."

Something kicked down the door. It was a bipedal wolf, with black and grey fur highlights around a base of white fur and red eyes. It wore tattered black clothing with pentagrams styled into it.

Blitzø smield and said, "Loona! Meet our newest...buddy, I guess?"

Loona rolled her eyes as she walked past.

Loona dryly said, "Nice to meet you, whoever the fuck."

Kratos said, "Stolas. I must meet him. I must discover how to get home."

Blitzø said, "Hold the fucking phone, Kratos. We told our story, but we still don't know yours."

Kratos sighed and said, "I am from Midgard. I protect it. But...things changed one day. These girls arrived. They were not of our world. Pursued by something not of theirs. Whatever they were, they sought the girls. And they kidnapped my son to make me give them up. We fought back. We saved my son, but they escaped with the girls. And their leader killed me in combat."

Moxxie said, "Ordinarily that'd be it but this isn't your first time dying?"

Kratos said, "No. This is another hell I will claw out of to find him."

Blitzø said, "Look, this shit is above my pay grade. I'll just call Stolas and he can handle this."

He pulled out a small black box with a glowing screen. After a few taps he pressed it to his ear and said, "Stolas...hi. Listen, this is just a business call. We've got a strange case on our hands. How soon can you get down here?"

Some strange noises came from within, some discernible as speech and some not.

Blitzø seemed to be ignoring most of it. He simply said, "Yeah yeah yeah, ok. Can you break away and get down here or not? You can? Great."

He hung up immediately. Bltizø said, "Apparently some crazy fucking shit is happening higher up, and it's got the royalty scrambling. But he is on his way."

The door burst apart, revealing a gigantic monster. It was a black owl beast with red feathers. It morphed and shrunk down into a humanoid owl with long legs. The feet were black, and the feathers were grey, and he wore a red suit with golden buttons and a white cape with black hearts on the outside and red on the inside. He had two massive red eyes on his white face with a black beak, and grey head.

He spoke in a posh British accent. "Alright. Let's make this quick. Where is the..."

Stolas eyed Kratos. He noticed his seemingly unchanged appearance, but that wasn't what caught his attention. He knew that distinct marking. That barely contained fiery rage. The pale skin of a ghost. He flew back and clung to the wall.

He said, "The Ghost of Sparta...here? That's...not possible."

Kratos said, "You know my past?"

Stolas eyed Blitzø and said, "You brought the Ghost of Sparta here?! How the fuck is he even here?!"

Millie said, "Hold your horses, Stoley. What the fuck is the Ghost of Sparta?"

Stolas slowly unhooked himself off the wall, keeping a firm eye on Kratos.

"Have you little creatures ever heard of a land called 'Sparta'?", Stolas asked.

"No..." they all said.

"He is why..." Stolas said raising his long-clawed finger towards Kratos.

"He's a legend. A godkiller..."

Moxxie said, "Um, Stolas sir. God is still alive and, as far as I know, unkillable."

Stolas said, "Oh dear...this is going to be quite an eye opener. Heaven and Hell are not all that exist... around the human world."

Millie raised an eyebrow. Blitzø said, "The fuck else is there?"

Stolas said, "Have you not noticed that everyone you meet in the human world only has one accent. An occasional country accent here and there? All the same language?"

Blitzø said, "Yeah doesn't every fucko speak this on Earth?"

Stolas said, "No. Your work and our connection have been restricted to a country called America. Think of countries as rings. Each country is tied to its own heavens and hells. Greece had Olympus and Tartarus. A pantheon of Gods, ruling the skies and seas. And when they crossed one of their own demigods, his fiery rage and godlike strength tore them to pieces. And with nobody to keep things in check, Sparta and all of Greece were swept up by plagues. He was never seen again after that. He was thought dead."

Kratos said, "If you know of my past...you know how far I will go for my family. For my son. You must return me to Earth."

Stolas said, "If you've died you shouldn't even be here. Either Tartarus or whatever other pantheon's hell you've decided to root yourself in."

Kratos said, "The...girls...Crota... None of them were of my world..."

Stolas raised an eyebrow and said, "What's this now?"

Moxxie said, "He mentioned something about people from two different worlds falling into his."

Stolas' eyes widened and he said, "Satan below, that's it! Whatever brought those worlds together may be why you ended up here Your soul was cast adrift, and you ended up here outside of your realm's afterlife. And if anyone can come here regardless, that explains what's happening to the Magnes."

Kratos turned and said, "What?"

Blitzø said, "Is this that crazy shit that meant you couldn't get here right away? The fuck is even happening up there?"

Stolas said, "Lucifer has been...deposed."

The IMP collectively gasped and said, "What?!"

Kratos asked, "Who is this Lucifer?"

Blitzø said, "Hell's head honcho. You can't exactly topple him."

Stolas said, "Well this stranger did. He and his lackey have Lucifer and his daughter held hostage, and unless we submit to him, they and the rest of us are good as dead. If Kratos experienced strangers in his land, then this issue may extend far beyond our borders. And it's only going to get worse from here..."

Kratos slowly stood and said, "This stranger. His lackey. What do they call themselves."

Stolas said, "Why do you want to know?"

Kratos said, "If I help Lucifer and liberate this realm, will he return me to life?"

Stolas sighed and said, "I can't guarantee anything, but you'll at least have a better shot than if you do nothing."

Kratos grunted and said, "Then I ask again: What do they call themselves?"

Stolas smiled and said, "This stranger calls himself Shinnok, the fallen Elder God, and his lackey is named Quan Chi."