2 Prope

Yunn drove his spear deep between the ribs of one of the massive coal skinned demons and quickly released the wooden haft. The sky was dark and blackened with still rising smoke. The air became hard to breathe, and more often then not each breath was accompanied by a cough. This demon had charged down Alnus Hill right out of the gate, and had been about to trample him underfoot. Yunn must have used all the luck remaining in his life to dodge out of the way of that mad charge. It was like narrowly avoiding a flesh coated boulder. The things eyeless gaze seemed to pierce right through Yunn. The upper half of its skull was white as bone and just as smooth, with no eyeholes. Despite that, however, the things gaze bore through him like a drill. It ignored the spear still jammed in its side, raising a massive fist overhead to crush Yunn into the dirt.

Its hand alone was as big as his body, and Yunn knew that he would die.

Before the hand could smite Yunn down, a massive red ogre collided with the creature. The demon gave a roar as the ogre wrapped both of its muscled arms around the things middle, pinning the demon's arms to its sides. Yunn drew his short sword as he stepped back away from the two grappling giants. The demon roared again as the ogre squeezed harder, its ugly face straining with the effort of holding the demon.

The demon ended its roar by sinking its sharp triangular teeth deep into the throat of the ogre, bright red blood gushing from the wound. Before he could see the results of the monstrous battle, he was knocked over by an empire soldier.

Or more the man's upper half. The poor fellow had been dismembered with his intestines pouring out like hanging heaps of red rope. Yunn screamed as he landed on his back as he tried to shove the corpse off of him. At least he tried to scream, all that came out was a cough. The smoky air made it difficult to breathe, and his tears were beginning to water.

The dead man rolled down the small slope after Yunn got the corpse off of him. He stood up quickly and cursed as he realized that he lost his blade in the collision. One of the smaller orange monsters flung an orange ball of flame into the battlefield. Others like it were doing the same, darting around the top of Alnus hill as they threw those balls of hot flame. They didn't seem to have particular care for where those projectiles landed, for they hit man and demon alike, toasting off skin.

These had to be demons. The gods had grown sick of the mortal races, and had opened the Gate to Hell as punishment for some unknown sin! Yunn shook his head as he sprinted down the hill. He couldn't afford to think like that now. He needed a weapon. He'd be damned if he'd run away like a beat dog.

Not like that bastard Tirus. He left at the first sign of trouble. No, Yunn would not flee before these dregs. He ducked and weaved through the insanity of this battle, avoiding huge demons and other creatures as he desperately tried to find some kind of weapon. He had to struggle not to bump into any men or monsters while trying not to slow his pace. Yunn thought that if he actually took a moment to look on the ground, he'd find a weapon to use.

The problem with that however was the fact that he would have to actually take the time to look. He'd have been blasted by a hell ball or torn in half by a demon if he stayed still. Formations were broken everywhere as men scrambled to fight or flee from the attacking demons. Giant red horned monsters were cutting bloody swathes through the ranks of the Empire, shattering whatever formation that would have been formed before they even began.

Formations against these things was death Yunn knew, but Empire training drilled it into your head. It was muscle memory. If Yunn wasn't thinking too hard, he'd be trying to form a phalanx with the poor fools getting turned into fleshy metal slag by hell balls. Time passed, he wasn't sure how much, but all he knew was that his lungs burned and his legs were becoming leaden. He somehow found himself amongst the burning tents of the Alnus Encampment, the heat of burning flames seeming to sear the hair right off his arms.

His body had decided to take the coward route on its own it seemed. Not many men were weaving through this part of the camp, they were all either fighting at the base of the hill not too far back or were fleeing like Tirus... and Yunn he supposed. Demons blotted the blackened sky, seemingly unaffected by the inhalation of smoke. Did demons get bothered by smoke?

Of course not.

Suddenly his face had met dirt as his foot snagged on something. His face rebounded from the earth and he felt a crunch on his nose. The smell of copper accompanied an excruciating pain from his nose. He groaned and sat up. Yunn felt at his face, and noted that his nose was now leaning a little more to the left than it used to.

He ignored the pain of his broken nose as blood poured down over his lips, sighting a spilled rack of polearms. Beautiful polearms. Spears, halberds, and even a couple of quarterstaffs. He grabbed up a spear, and squinted at his surroundings, looking for the first beast to slay. A few darted too quickly between the tents for him to catch up with them, so he decided to return to the base of the hill.

A flash of something green passed him in the blink of an eye, running towards the base of Alnus as well. Yunn was shocked to see that it was indeed a man, running faster than any living thing Yunn had ever seen in his life. Abruptly the man jumped in the air, and somehow, jumped again reaching a height even with an ogre. Then something launched from a contraption he held, a flaming golden hook on a black chain shot out, sinking into the flesh of one of the giant floating orb monsters. Its big mouth seemed to open in a scream at sighting the green knight.

Indeed Yunn would be terrified as well, for the chain began pulling the green knight towards the thing at high speed. The green stranger then punched the demon in its side, launching it away in a bloody purple pulp. The force behind that strike wasn't possible. Not for a mere man.

Sure, he had arms as big as Yunns legs, but he'd seen orcs punch people with less results.

Yunn then saw as the green knight then descended upon the calamity of the battlefield like a comet, his odd contraption exploding with magical thunder. Demons were shredded apart instantly by the sheer force of the small staff. An apostle!? Surely he was, that meant that the gods were on the Empires side! He ignored the small voice in his head telling him that all apostles were female, he didn't know for sure anyway. Yunn had never even seen an apostle.

Surely that man must be it, but of what deity?

His thoughts were interrupted for the last time as a gargoyle chopped Yunns head in half.

...

...

...

He landed, and the Doom Slayer tore through the battlefield with cold fury. He blasted the face-off of an imp with his Super Shotgun, the smoke of the double barrels invisible against the smoky field. He lashed out with a fist, crunching the skull of a gargoyle. Humans and other humanoid things crowded around everywhere, dying more than killing the scourge. They did manage to lob off a few limbs however, he supposed that was amiable enough for a bunch of primitives.

The Doom Slayer launched two fragmentation grenades from his shoulder mount, landing far back into the pushing horde well away from the humans. They engulfed the demon scum in a satisfying explosion. Guts and other viscera flew across the battleground, some of it human, some of it not. He slashed wildly with his serrated arm blade, extending it to its full length and hacking his way through imps and hell razors with righteous fury.

He ducked under a hell knights fist, delivering a powerful uppercut into the things throat. The power of his punch sank his fist deep into the creature's neck. Of course, this was not enough to kill a hell knight.

The Doom Slayer gripped fingers around the things spinal cord, tugging the whole bone right out of the creature's body. The headless corpse fell to the ground, crushing a zombie beneath it. Still holding the long spinal cord, the Doom Slayer whipped it over his head like a flail and struck out.

The hell knights skull collided with a nearby hell baron, cracking in its left goat leg and spattering the now useless skull against its brown fur. Blood was invisible against the creature's reddened flesh, and it gave a roar as it stumbled from the impact. The Doom Slayer brought his ballista to bear and fired it right into the baron's horned head. The impact sent a small shockwave that was followed by the brains and face bits of the falling baron.

The Doom Slayer wheeled before it could fall, and lit a whole formation of clustered imps on fire. He leaped high into the air, and brought his rocket launcher to bear. Several flaming demon parts were all that remained of the suffering monsters.

He should have let them burn for longer, but he didn't have much more time.

He slashed, punched, and shot his way up the top of the hill, nearing the hell portal that had opened. He didn't know how VEGA knew this was going to open on this planet, but he didn't care for such things. Hell needed to be contained and destroyed wherever it cropped up. He used the ballista to clear a path towards the top of the hill, slicing cleanly through a small horde of demons.

An archvile stood atop the hill, raising its hands to the sky as if to offer to its dark god. The Doom Slayer growled internally as he brought his Super Shotgun to bear. Archviles were some of the foulest denizens of hell, he couldn't wait to end this ones existence. Its entire body was covered in a yellow exoskeleton like the insect that it was. Its elongated skull and sharp teeth matched the sharp claws at the ends of its long arms. The oddly narrow waist stood out to him, and the Slayer narrowed his eyes. He never thought to try that before.

The meathook sunk into its plated yellow chest, and The Doom Slayer was pulled toward the disgusting vermin. Flame engulfed the demon but it didn't seem to pay the flame much mind. The archvile then saw the Slayer accelerating toward it, and its glowing yellow eyes widened. Whether through fear or surprise he was not sure. Humans that were not busy fighting actually seemed to follow him up the hill towards the archvile.

That brought painful memories that he shoved to the back of his mind. The Doom Slayer ignored them, and brought the Sentinel Crucible to bear. The calming blue light contrasted the blood-soaked earth around him as the blade formed. The Argent Crucible blade remained embedded within the Icons brain, but this new one made a great replacement.

The glowing blade bore no markings upon its translucent surface, and the hilt of the sword bore the mark of the Slayer.

Though now it was blue. Sentinel blue was one of his favorite colors.

That, and demon blood.

The Slayer swung as soon as he was in range of the archvile, the humans shouting behind him in an unintelligible language. The blade struck home, and clove through the thin midsection with ease. A bright blue heated line cauterized the two now separate halves of the demon. The archvile screamed in its guttural voice, a pained cry for its foul god to save it. It lay on its back, crawling away with clawed hands while staring bug-eyed at the Slayer.

He dashed up to it, and punched its

Fucking

Head off in an explosion of gore and shattered exoskeleton. Ignoring the corpse he darted towards the open mouth of the hell portal, noting that it could not have been of hellish design. It looked like it was built by human hands, not demonic. They liked to splash blood and decorate their buildings with skulls when the building itself wasn't simply alive. How was he supposed to shut this thing down?

He peered through the open mouth of the tunnel, seeing a fresh wave of demon spawn heading right for him. They slowed only slightly upon sighting the Slayer, no doubt confident in their numbers. Indeed thousands seem to be pouring down through the gateway. Well, can't have any of that.

He brought the Big Fucking Gun to bear, the glowing green energy casting a sickly glow around him. The shouting men that had followed him went silent upon sighting it, and indeed, it was impressive. The Slayer pulled the trigger with a twisted grin upon his face, seeing the green orb reach out with bolts of green energy as it passed through the dark corridor.

Thousands of demons had to have been within the kill radius of the shot, for dozens of arcing green bolts lit the entire corridor. A bright flash of green brought the Slayers attention, but it was not the BFG that caused it. The many large embedded turquoise gems began to glow a brilliant bright green, so bright that it was almost painful to look at.

The glow continued, and the Slayer ran backward, still keeping his eye on the gate. He knocked over a few people on his way back, but they would be fine he was sure. The Slayer didn't care much anyhow, it was better to get knocked on your ass than to be dead. Indeed, several packs of demons still fought distracted men.

Though the number was far lower than it had been initially. How many had he killed today? Fifty? A thousand? He didn't keep track anymore.

It was simply impossible to.

At seeing the demons still alive, the Slayer ignored the cracking of the green glowing gems as he dashed away to cave in skulls and shoot through guts. He didn't see the gems explode, launching their shattered parts impossibly far, the gem fragments reaching the horizon and beyond. Those fragments tore into man and demon alike, shredding them into pieces yet they still flew on.

All he knew was Rip and Tear