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A new chapter is finally ready. Another long one, although not quite as much as the previous. Hope you'll enjoy the ride. As always, comments are encouraged. They are fuel for any artist. Let me know what you think.

Beings young gods in a universe crammed of ancient gods at war is not easy. Being the one thing that all the other gods crave and fight for, is a nightmare.

Chapter 78 - Factory of monsters

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Killer sighed and leaned tiredly back against the trunk of the weeping willow, gazing out through its many long branches as they danced slowly in tune with the cold breeze. He reached up to move a long bang of his hair out of his vision, while his eyes slowly roved over the horizon far beyond the embattlements at the edge of that quiet, silent garden. He hadn't gotten used yet to the terrifying sight of the ocean of magma and fire extending as far as the eye could see. Virgil, the Writer, the powerful alien god that Typhon had hired as an assassin to send against him, had literally erased, crushed away to dust and left to sink through liquid fire a large share of Heaven. Three entire Skies had been pulverized in one instant, with no effort at all and with no hesitation. Surprisingly, he had not destroyed the other regions of the suffering planet, and Killer was not quite sure why. He was very thankful for it, though.

Typhon was nowhere to be seen, unsurprisingly. His "hired assassin" was out of control and there was nothing he could do about it. Now he was hiding not just from one, but from two gods who would have gladly ripped him apart.

Killer could only try and imagine what Typhon was trying to do: his hidden factories were continuing to roll out new models of bio-organic weapons that were becoming more and more monstrous and dangerous. With the RA's help, he was tinkering with levels of technology that were nothing short of astounding, and at the same time he was experimenting with ancient and dark magic and arcane power, with the help of mages and of a few Arkangels that had adhered to the Righteous' ideology and thus continued to support him. Anahel - Rave, now... - had explained to Killer that councilors sent by Typhon had brought away several ancient tomes and a huge number of scrolls from his immense library, and the secrets contained in those papers were extremely powerful. Thankfully, in recent times Anahel had put a stop to that endless plundering, sealing the library and politely but firmly sending the envoys packing when they had showed up at the door. And now Virgil has disintegrated the whole estate, and the library with it... The thought of that formidable treasure of knowledge being lost forever was painful, yet it was impossible not to feel some relief about it, because many dangerous secrets were now destined to stay mysterious forever. Vesta's library in Eaglenest was the only other place in the whole world in which those texts could be found, and it rested safely deep within the fortress of Eaglenest, protected by Killer's godlike energies. If Typhon wanted to conquer it, he had to come out of hiding and pick a fight... and that would solve a whole lot of problems.

The uncomfortable reality was that Typhon was going to choose the time and the place of their final clash: he was going to charge at him only once he felt comfortable with the idea of fighting. The factories were spewing out monstrous clones, stronger and stronger with each new development, and those were all prototypes as well as expendable super-heavy infantry: the real final objective was to create a mix of technology and magic that would empower Typhon enough to take on Killer and the other gods.

Virgil must have noticed what is going on... he has been slaughtering Typhon's clones in droves. Maybe that's why he isn't simply destroying the whole planet. Maybe he hopes to steal those technologies. Maybe he is hedging against the risk of losing me, or of failing to... replicate whatever happens within my body. If he fails with me, having a fallback solution must be reassuring...

Killer sighed again, closing his eyes and leaning his head backwards for a few long moments, enjoying the cold mountain breeze and the simple fact of being alive, of being safe in Eaglenest. For a moment during the fight with Virgil, he had thought that his sanctuary would explode into pieces like everything else, such was the power of the Writer. Thankfully, Eaglenest had stood undaunted in the middle of the apocalypse, untouched by the violent explosions, undamaged by the exposed, burning core of the planet. The dark, towering mountain was still there, towering now over a terrible sea of liquid fire, and the fortress on top was safe and secure, along with all the people that mattered to him.

When he had gotten back there from the fight with Virgil, he had expected the Writer to hound them all the way to Eaglenest, because the power of that alien god was terrifying, and even his sanctuary didn't feel safe anymore. They had prepared for battle, and stood on the embattlements watching towards the horizon where the gigantic, immense god fought viciously against the other divinities that continued to teleport in, drawn to the secret within Killer's body like moths to a light.

Virgil had slaughtered god after god, taking them down like they were toys, tearing limbs and heads off their bodies like they were nothing but stuffed dolls, until they had stopped coming, at least for the moment. The Writer had shrieked his fury and his frustration, and then he had howled his challenge, his voice shrill and childish yet sending a shiver even down Killer's spine due to the sheer power the beast had just demonstrated. They had prepared for the worst when Virgil had turned to look in their direction, no doubt spotting the tall mountain and certainly feeling the energies coming from the sanctuary and from the divinities crowding it, but no assault had ensued. Virgil had shrunk back to his normal form and he had flown into the opposite direction, and since then he had been content with lording over the holiest and most remote regions, those that had composed the sixth and seventh Sky before the Cataclysm had reshaped Heaven into a planet.

Killer opened his eyes and took another long look at the horizon, where the extreme heat made the air tremble violently, making it impossible to make out any detail. There was nothing to see but destruction and desolation, anyway. He idly stroked a hand down the flat of Wyvern's blade, and he looked down with a little, soft smile full of affection and of relief, because the wide fissures and cracks that had scarred her had completely vanished.

"I knew I would find you here..." Alexis said, and Killer smiled at the sound of her voice, at the affection in her tone, at the little note of amusement, at the faint touch of sensuality that he knew so well and that nonetheless continued to enchant him every time.

"I needed some time for reflection, and just to... calm down some fears." Killer honestly replied, looking up at her, very slowly, to enjoy the glorious sight of her long, muscular legs. She smiled softly at that, all too happy to let him admire the strength and the beauty in her calves and in the powerful thighs, before their eyes met and positive energy almost crackled between them. He shifted to the side a bit, and patted the soft, grass-covered ground in a silent invitation that she gladly accepted, sitting down at his side.

"Did you manage to work your worries off, then...?" Alexis gently asked, and Killer made a bit of a grimace, shrugging a bit and mumbling: "Yeah, I think..." Then his eyes once more got lost along her mighty legs as she distended one while resting one arm on the knee of the other.

"You know, if you want to worship them, you are always welcome..." Alexis snorted in entertainment, leisurely flexing her thigh to make the massive muscles bulge and "dance" for him.

"Your legs deserve constant worship, my love..." Killer whispered, stroking down her massive thigh and nuzzling her lovingly. "I'll make sure that special temples are built exactly for that purpose."

"I'm pretty sure there already are some..." Alexis replied, snickering and slowly dragging her hand down the profile of his rippling abs, finally gripping hungrily into the enormous bulge in his black jeans. "But they are not as numerous as the temples built to worship your cock."

They traded a smirk, then their lips touched and they growled hungrily, their tongues wrestling together with passion, their hands gripping eagerly into each other's body, their eyes closing, then reopening and burning with lust and love as they bit lightly, tasting each other's blood. It lasted a few long and delicious moments, and then it broke, the two lovers smiling warmly, his hands rolling down her sides and hers tracing the profile of his abs.

"I am worried, my love. Things are not going the way I hoped... and now who knows how many alien gods know my secret." Killer finally confessed, and Alexis listened with a soft, supportive smile as they sat back against the tree, watching out over the horizon, enjoying the shade and the breeze and the peace of that little garden, built on top of one of the bastions and facing the infinite.

"We have a lot of fighting ahead of us, and suffering... but we will come out on top, Lion. You are the limitless one, remember? They want what you have. They crave it, they need it... and that tells you who will sit on top. You." Alexis reassured, smiling confidently as she wrapped one strong arm around his shoulders and tilted her head towards the heavy sword he cradled in his lap. "Virgil is an actor, Lion. He acts scarier than he really is. We lack experience, not strength: he affects our bodies and energies and minds because we allow it. Look at Wyvern: the cracks were little more than an illusion. He was unable to actually break the sword."

"He did break Heaven, though." Killer countered, but Alexis squeezed him firmly against her side and firmly remarked: "Come on now, Lion, that is not as impressive as it looks. Or better, it is... but it is something we could do with equal ease. We have done worse. We have annihilated planets with that same ease, remember."

"That is true..." Killer agreed, looking quietly down at the golden warships that dangled from the straps of her boots, thinking of the glorious spectacle of her mercilessly and oh so easily playing with the lives of hundreds of thousands of mortals whose weapons couldn't even tickle her. How they had disintegrated Sobek's planet together, and how easy it had been, an amusing, effortless act of pure power that they had accomplished again and again while high on lust and pleasure.

"Virgil is strong and dangerous, but he is not half as omnipotent as he dreams to be. He doesn't dare coming near Eaglenest, because he knows that on your home turf, he'd lose badly. He is also a spoiled child and a lazy asshole. He is good at godmodding, directly affecting reality by writing things out in his own terms... but as soon as his face gets punched in, he starts sounding shrill." Alexis calmly said, before closing her eyes for a moment as she thought of an earlier scrap she had had with the alien god. She wasn't there the first time, but she had been present at a later fight, this time in the Mortal Plane, and although Virgil had withstood their assaults, they had managed to land several good hits, enough to drive him away from the Colony he had targeted. "We have to fortify our realities, that's all. As soon as we deny him the chance to affect our bodies with his words and quill, he is mincemeat." She did not need to say that fortifying their vital energies wasn't easy. Killer knew all too well, and although they were training hard with the help of Echidna, Gaia and even Sekhmeth, the progresses were slow. The truth was that most gods had had Eons to refine their control of their powers and of their life essence, while for them everything was happening way too fast. They had immense power at their disposal, but still little control over it and a forma mentis still inadequate, too tied to the mortal ways they had been born into. Virgil had an extraordinarily good grasp of his power and abilities, and could keep his vital energies uncorrupted by their attacks while easily messing with their own and with the entire reality around them. Even Gaia and Sekhmeth, despite being ancient, powerful and expert had not been able to tackle the Writer, and that spoke volumes.

"We will rise to the challenge, my love. I look at you, and I know we will." Killer gently said, looking at her with a smile full of affection, before he tapped his fingers idly on the flat of Wyvern, looking at the dancing branches of the weeping willow and finally breathing: "I'm just... tired, I guess. Tired of seeing destruction and suffering all around me, and being unable to stop it. What use is all this power if I can't even keep Mriya, Elaine and everyone else safe?" He paused, dropping his head forwards and looking at the Imprisonment Crystal, no longer cracked, back to its usual sapphire brilliance, with faint shadows dancing back and forth inside it, their groans and cries sometimes loud enough to reach his ears. He snorted in bitter amusement as he heard one of those desperate howls, and he stroked one finger over the profile of the massive diamond, adding: "Ironic, isn't it, that I, of all people, should say that I'm tired of destruction... when I so much like to cause it. Maybe I'm just angry I'm not the one having fun being a monster for no other reason than the fact I can."

"You are better than that, and you have made your choices." Alexis countered, nuzzling him lovingly and then leaning her head against his, squeezing firmly into his massive, powerful shoulder. "There is great darkness within us, Lion, but there is also blinding light. We are capable of causing the most atrocious suffering, yet we can feel stinging sadness in front of the tears of an innocent." Killer snorted a bit at that, looking sideways at her with a playful tease in his gaze, and she gave her own huff at that, shoving him away. "Fuck you, it's true of me as well! Don't give me that look."

"I know, I know." Killer admitted, laughing and pushing his muzzle against hers, breathing of her enchanting scent, filling his eyes with the light sheen of sweat on her cleavage and on her glorious musculature, the leftovers of her latest round of training. There was nothing of her that he did not adore. He closed his eyes and leaned into her, resting his chin on one spectacular breast, and quietly said: "You know what I truly like of being a god...? The one thing I truly am thankful for...? It is not having to say goodbye. I was never afraid of dying, but losing the people I care for... that is excruciating. Turning my loved ones into gods. Not just immortals, but powerful beings who can stand up to anything the world might throw at them, so that they never have to spill tears. That is what I dream. That is what I fight for."

"We know that, and that is part of why we love you the way we do." Alexis gently said, kissing him on his forehead and wrapping her arms around him, cradling his head over her huge breasts.

"It is not just Virgil that worries me. Countless hostile gods stand against us, and they will hound me anywhere I go. They will attack you in order to get to me. And I can't keep you safe." Killer whispered, opening his eyes to look up at her with affection, and the femme fatale shook her head slowly, smiling in entertainment as she remarked: "You could never keep us out of this fight. We will fight to protect you, just as hard as you fight to protect us. We are a family, and our love for you is just as strong as yours for us. We know the risks just as well as we know and appreciate the benefits. You've given us all more than we could ever dream of. And we intend to give back just as much. We are family. Nobody stays behind."

Killer smiled warmly at that, deeply touched by her words, and he just kissed first one great breast, then the other, finding no words to offer, but knowing that they weren't needed. Their gazes and their touches did all the talking.

"The fact that the other gods pounced on us so quickly is just another proof of the fact that Virgil is an idiot. He must have known that the other gods were keeping him under control. I bet has his disciples out spying the other gods. Getting caught was either due to extreme arrogance, or complete stupidity." Alexis muttered after a few moments of silence, and Killer grunted in agreement. Virgil had been extremely careless about his actions, and the fact that he did not imagine he would find the "great mystery" on his path did not justify him.

"True, but it is a small comfort. Now every god of every universe is rushing in our direction, followed by a horde of disciples, thralls and monstrous infantry of some kind." The huge male mumbled, making a grimace as he added: "And to think, there was a time in which Typhon alone worried me. Now the whole issue with him seems so trivial..."

"We will be ready for whatever comes." Alexis simply said, matter of factly, and Killer could only flash his own grin in answer to hers. Her supreme confidence was contagious, and he could feel her battle lust pumping in her veins like some sort of fuel, her body radiating pure, terrible power and almost burning his skin. The truth was that they lived for that thrill, for the challenge, for the emotions that they felt on the battlefield, for the pleasure that came from victory, from pounding their enemies into pulp and proving that their strength was unmatched.

"It will be your choice, ultimately, what happens to this world. To all worlds..." Alexis said after a moment, her hands stroking adoringly over his massive chest, draining it from the drops of pearly sweat from his own exercises and training. "Once your power is fully revealed, gods like Virgil will be less than dust in comparison. Let them come, Lion. They will soon be nothing but playthings in our hands. They can double, treble, they can multiply exponentially in number, but they will be zeroes in front of your infinity." She pushed one hand against his chest and grinned widely, while guiding his own to hers. "I know you can feel it, just like I feel it. The power inside us... the beasts we truly are... They crave it. We have it."

Killer nodded in silent agreement, smiling a little. There was no need to say that they needed not only to snap the remaining Seals but establish full and competent control over all that power, with the latter being by far more complicated a task. Time worked against them, so much so that even taking little moments of respite like the one they were now enjoying made them feel somewhat guilty.

"I knew I would find you here." A well known voice said, and Killer and Alexis traded a look and a laugh at that, while Ira pushed the branches to the side and stepped under the green canopy, frowning a bit in front of their hilarity. "Did I say something funny...?"

"The exact same words I said to him moments ago." Alexis easily replied, standing up with a sigh and then cracking her neck, giving the cobra a brief look while rolling one massive, muscular shoulder. "But you bring quite the news!"

Ira rolled her eyes a bit, somewhat irritated by the ease with which Alexis could read everybody's minds, but as Killer pushed up to his feet she urgently confirmed: "Quite the news indeed. Lucifer is demanding audience."

"Holy crap. Anubis was right. Anubis is always right..." Killer mumbled, looking at her in surprise. Many years had passed since he had spared the fallen angel's life in the hope of gaining his collaboration; enough that he had all but abandoned all hopes of it ever happening. Anubis, on the other hand, had always been adamant on the point: one day, Lucifer would come. "And he came all the way up to Heaven. Let him in, I will meet him in the Hall of Weapons. Disciples and Praetorians only allowed. Let him see power, but not too many guards."

The Dark Wings, the Seraphims that wore Killer's collar and sported black wings, were quietly given word to keep a low profile as the Prince of hell and his small guard of burly Gigataurs clad in full body armour and carrying immense warhammers, made their way towards the center of the fortress. It was a long walk, and Lucifer very visibly took his time, gazing over the immense castle with interest, no doubt thinking of what had changed and of what had remained the same. The original monastery was one of the most ancient structures in all of Heaven, although much of its fortifications had been added after the Great Rebellion, when Lucifer could already look at the castle only from the outside. And since then, the changes had been vast, with Killer reshaping the whole place when he made it his first sanctuary.

The Dark Wings and the other angels of the garrison kept a silent, discreet watch on Lucifer as he walked past the many successive gates, but otherwise did not approach him, almost ignoring him and his escorts, giving him a clear message: you don't worry us. You are in the liger's lair, and you can quickly be disposed of if you do something stupid.

Killer and Alexis made their way towards the Hall of Weapons coming from the opposite direction, and had ample time to prepare. They did not want to appear arrogant, but they knew that looks and appearances have a great importance and wanted to leave Lucifer in no doubt about the relative positions of strength: they were in charge, and that was never going to be in discussion. Alexis closed her eyes and simply wished the sweat away from both of their bodies, replacing it with a very light hint of holy balsams, symbol of divinity. Her ripped, worn out jeans short shorts and the black exercise top were immediately replaced with the wonderful two-pieces dress of veils of darkness, bordered in solidified light, brighter and more precious than gold. Killer summoned his imposing black armor, replacing the black jeans and bare chest he had trained into, and when they entered the immense hall, a chaise-longue shaped throne had been prepared for them to lay down in it together, while large cushions of red velvet were arranged on either side for his Disciples to sit into. Ira sat down in hers, trading a little smile with Vesta, who looked tense, halfway between thrilled and annoyed about the idea of Lucifer walking into Eaglenest for the first time in literal ages. She was impatient to hear what he had to say and offer, because it was clear that this was, effectively, his surrender, and that could mark the true beginning of the end for the Great Rebellion, a war that had never really concluded, despite the treaties and the long periods of peace. It was a very personal issue for her, for obvious reasons. She had never really accepted what she saw as a disastrous handling of the end of the conflict, and much as she had bowed her head in obedience to God, she had always warned him both about the unfinished business with Hell and about keeping Typhon as adviser. Unfortunately, Elelyon had always politely but firmly rejected her recommendations on the matter and she had never pushed as hard as she later wished she had. There was a very good reason for Vesta's hesitation to argue her corner more insistently, and that was guilt: she had failed in breaching through Hell's Gates and the siege she and Gabriel had mounted had resulted only in a vast flow of casualties. She had never pardoned herself for her failure, that she felt had forced Elelyon into a tough negotiation: with the Legions suffering in muddy trenches outside the Gates, God had had to come to terms with Satan from a position of parity, if not of weakness. She could not push him towards more forceful decisions regarding a problem that she felt she had helped create.

Gaia smiled towards Killer, and nervousness showed through her expression as well: she was there when the rebellion started and the war raged, and this development, after so long a time, had her almost shifting with anxiety in her comfortable cushion, even though she was usually peaceful and serene in her handling of all situations. Alcana and Adrasthea looked more relaxed, smiling at him warmly and resting their hands over their spectacular legs, wearing pauldrons and hip plates of armor over flowing veils of silk and gold that left much of their bodies on full, glorious display, the robes wrapping around their proud chests, while long veils caressed the sides of their thighs.

The other Disciples were out on the field or busy with other activities in the fortress, but the four goddesses were more than beautiful and strong enough to put the shivers down the spine of not just one but a hundred Lucifers... and anyway, before getting to them, the Prince of Hell was going to have to walk past two lines of Praetorians. Pamela and Mriya stood on one side, Elaine and Savannah on the other, all of them armed with the massive hybrid polearm that they had chosen as standard equipment, reproducing the first example, created originally for Pamela. Only the Captain wore the full set of black, golden-edged armor plates because the younger girls were not fully-fledged Praetorians yet: Savannah, much to the envy of Mriya and Elaine, had given herself to Killer but needed more training, while the two daughters were well trained but had not yet shared their father's bed.

Savannah's muscular abdomen was swollen lightly with the new life growing inside her, but that took away nothing from the beauty of her strong body as she mounted guard, her breasts wrapped in black robes and a loincloth of the same material hanging down between her powerful legs. Mriya and Elaine were similarly dressed, but for the addition of pauldrons and heavy plates that, from a thick double belt of leather, descended to cover their hips and rear and the groin. Nobody could hope to walk between two lines of beauties of that caliber without being left in awe of the power that ruled them all, and the sight of those long, spectacular muscular legs was nothing short of intimidating, more so than the heavy spears held tip-up by the Praetorians. The gigantic hall itself spoke of power: it was a long, immense gallery full of light thanks to the endless succession of tall, arched windows to the right, which looked out over the inner gardens and the cloister. Every window was faced by a mirror just as tall and wide on the opposite side, so that the whole room shined and seemed even larger than it was, with its cathedral-like length and the height of the arched ceiling. Countless weapons were on display between a mirror and another; between a window and another; and inside monumental glass displays orderly lined along the gallery. Swords, maces, spears, rifles, pistols, the finest and the most special and peculiar, all of them carefully exposed. The glass cages contained weapons that had once been handled by Killer's enemies and that were still stained with the blood of their fallen owners, and their number and their imposing sizes worked well as a reminder of how many had stood in the liger's way only to be cut down to size. The throne was roughly halfway down the gallery, in the center of an area that was furnished as a comfortable lounge, with couches and tables, and when the immense double doors at the far end of the room finally opened, Lucifer almost recoiled for a moment, taking in the magnificence of that vast space and looking over the glass displays, recognizing many of the weapons and realizing that his own sword could have easily been found in one of those cages, had Killer not decided to spare him.

The Prince made a silent gesture to his guards, ordering them to stay put, and then walked inside, allowing the doors to slowly swing closed. Nobody said anything while he began to walk slowly up the hall, and he looked from side to side all the time, taking in the vastness and variety of that very special collection.

When he reached the two lines of Praetorians he hesitated for a moment, however brief, and his eyes wandered over the four powerful, splendid females, causing Killer to smirk in entertainment as he caught him gazing along the mighty legs on display, fully able to understand what Lucifer had to be thinking and feeling. The liger said nothing, however, only resting lazily on his side in the chaise longue, propped up comfortably and holding Alexis close, one arm wrapped around her waist as she lay on her side just ahead of him. Lucifer walked slowly up to the throne, stopping just a few steps away, keeping his eyes low... and after a moment in which Alexis only lazily gave him a brief and uninterested look, he bowed deeply.

Killer had not quite expected it, and almost betrayed his surprise, but in that same moment the prince of hell quietly said: "This place... it has changed a lot. It is, in fact, almost completely new. And yet it feels so familiar." He looked up, his ruined face showing no hate for Killer, despite the lasting damage he had caused to what remained of his ancient, legendary beauty. His eyes sparkled with something like happiness, instead, as he gazed at the wonderful frescos that decorated the tall arches. "There is an atmosphere here that I had almost forgotten could exist... there is hope. More than that, there is the conviction that things will be right, in the end. There is a sense of purpose, and almost everyone seems to have found his or her way. It has been so long since the last time I felt anything like this..."

Lucifer fell silent and seemed to only enjoy the atmosphere for a few long moments, and no one talked, because the surprise in front of his words was complete. It took a while before Vesta gazed sideways towards Killer and, on seeing his almost imperceptible nod, she muttered: "The last time was long before you rebelled."

Lucifer tilted his head towards her and smiled a little, his warped mouth exposing terrible fangs in the demonic half of his face while the tension in his cheek put in full evidence the newer scars on the half that had conserved the angelic traits. "Yes, Lady Vesta... there is an atmosphere of unity and purpose that Heaven has not experienced for Eons. I would not have rebelled, hadn't the climate in paradise changed so dramatically, without Lord God admitting it and acting resolutely about it."

"Lord God always gave chances to everyone. He always waited for everyone. He believed that everyone can find the force and wisdom to do the right thing, if they only try." Vesta countered, but there was no hostility in her voice, but rather something that sounded like resignation, because she remembered those times well, and knew that Lucifer was not exaggerating.

"Some people should not be given chances unless they come with attached punishment, because without the help of a strong hand they are not strong enough to choose the right path. Because the right path is often the most unpleasant and challenging one", Lucifer calmly said, smiling sadly. "Michael, Typhon... how many times did we warn Lord God about them, about their secret schemes and about their true nature, about the ambitions they hid? But Elelyon gave them chance after chance after chance... and if you give too many chances to the sinners, the loyal followers end up questioning the value attached to their loyalty. If nothing is unforgivable, why should they always follow the rules, just to be treated worse than the sinners welcomed back with open arms?"

Vesta hesitated for a moment, but then closed her eyes and shook her head, coldly remarking: "You are trying to justify your betrayal, but nothing you say will ever make that sin less monstrous."

"That is true. But you understand our frustration, our original motivations. You share them, at least in part. And we all see, now, what good it did to always pardon Typhon's actions." Lucifer serenely countered, before turning towards Killer and Alexis, bowing his head slightly once more as he added: "That is one of the differences between Lord Killer and Lord Elelyon: he is willing to punish. He is willing to use strength and violence to put things right. Perhaps it is not as good and as noble as the neverending kindness of Elelyon... but it feels right, doesn't it...?"

Vesta bit her lower lip, uncertain about how to respond, because she did not want to turn her back to Elelyon but at the same time could only agree with his point, but after a moment let out her breath in a sigh and admitted: "Yes. It feels right."

"It was never my intention to take Elelyon's place. It just... happened. And I didn't mean to encourage comparisons, either. I have my methods, the good and the bad, and he had his. We all owe Lord Elelyon much." Killer said, and Lucifer gave a little nod of agreement, offering: "It was bound to happen, Lord Killer. This world needed a guide, and found it in you. I used to think of you as a usurper, an arrogant young god craving nothing but conquest at all costs, but you showed me how wrong I was. I see now that you meant well, in your own way. Just like we meant well when we rebelled..." The Prince paused, looking down thoughtfully for a moment, and then he sighed and bitterly added: "At least at first."

Killer took his words in silence, surprised by the sincerity in them, which went well beyond what he had expected, but as the silence stretched on, he finally asked: "What brings you here today, Lucifer? It sure took you long enough to step forwards: I've had to wait literally years."

"It is not easy for me to bow my head, Lord Killer... I'm sure you can imagine. I'm humiliating myself and surrendering, and it took me a long while to come to terms with this reality." Lucifer firmly replied, and his eyes narrowed as he looked at the god, half-begging and half-ordering him not to insist on that topic. "I will have you know that I did not waste all of this time, however. I hoped I would be able to convince the survivor Princes to put an end to the war. I attempted to get Satan himself to see reason..."

"But it didn't work." Alexis concluded, but her tone contained a rare note of kindness, considering that she was speaking to someone who had been regarded as an enemy until minutes before. Killer gave Alexis's waist a little, gentle squeeze, keeping his eyes on Lucifer's face as the prince bit his lower lip, then admitted: "It didn't work. Only Lilith listened... she was shell-shocked after the little scrap she had with you, and it wasn't difficult to convince her to pull her troops out of the war... it took a little more to convince her to destroy the factories of clones and bio-organic weapons hiding within the borders of her kingdom, but she accepted, eventually, when she realized that Satan might use them against her at any moment, just because she had talked to me."

"Wasn't she pregnant, too...?" Alexis asked, grinning a little as her eyes glinted with dark entertainment.

Lucifer blushed deep red at that mention, looking at Killer with a mix of awe and horror in his eyes, coughing embarrassedly and finally finding something very interesting in the floor, staring at it with a tremble as he answered: "She was, and still is. She has given birth to countless daughters in these years: as soon as her womb is empty, your seed fills it up again, and nothing has been able to kill or remove your sperms. She tried mortal medicine; she tried ancient magic, she even mutilated herself to put an end to it. But nothing has worked. She had her womb removed, she attempted to inflict sterility on herself, but your semen..."

"Yeah, they don't care." Vesta cheerfully exclaimed, grinning widely and squeezing purposefully into her own breasts, almost bucking her hips against the vet cushion, heat filling her at the thought. She had studied Killer's enormous, powerful sperms and knew that they were perfect beasts, which only needed to devour some female DNA to generate a new life, rebuilding the female's body from the inside if needed. "She will be pregnant forever if she doesn't kill herself or if she doesn't manage to pull his sperms out one by one... but that is far easier said than done, because the beasts are vicious."

Lucifer shivered visibly at that, looking horrified, while Killer only smirked, licking his lips slowly and feeling his enormous cock throbbing hungrily against the loincloth and armor plate, a low growl coming out of his throat as Alexis teasingly arched her back, just enough to grind her perfect buttocks against the huge shaft, barely hidden by the long leather loincloth. He gave her a loving, hungry squeeze, leaning into her back and leisurely flexing his massive musculature, and the queen shamelessly reached back to grasp the girthy, enormous shaft, pushing the leather curtain aside and hefting the enormous cock out, letting it droop over her side like it was a python lazily sunbathing, her hand slowly stroking it just beneath the fat, enormous head. Typhon couldn't help but stare, his cheeks burning red as the thick, heavy foreskin glided noisily back and forth, revealing the vast, arrogant cumslit. He wasn't entirely surprised by that behavior, as he could easily imagine that Eaglenest saw a lot more nudity and sex than it ever had in the eons past; and besides, the sheer enormity of the veiny black cock was truly intimidating, making him feel inferior, envious and threatened, insignificant and ridiculed. He honestly figured that, had he had Killer's enormous virility, he would have flaunted it all the time.

"What did she do to the daughters that were born...?" Killer quietly enquired, fully expecting the worst possible answer, and Lucifer's hesitation sent a shiver of horror down all of their spines.

"Well... she... was not a good mother to them, to say the very least. She attempted to kill them all, when they were still inside her and then, when she realized it only meant beginning all over again, as soon as they were born. But many actually survived: her pregnancies are literally crippling, and she struggles to even move on her own with how big her belly gets. The daughters are born already mature in body and mind and strength... they look like teens, not newborns. So they have a chance to get away from her, if not to fight back." Lucifer explained, and then he gazed at Killer with surprise and interest as the huge male frowned. "You... didn't plan it out that way...?"

"Sadly, no, I didn't really plan it out. I wasn't quite myself while raping her, and I didn't thought of all the consequences, and of the lives I would be creating. I just... used her ruthlessly, and let my body decide." Killer admitted, looking down with sadness and guilt, thinking of the newborns that hadn't survived, and worrying even more for those that had managed to get away from the angry princess of Hell only to face the hostility of the Underworld. "I never saw any of the girls while in Hell. Why? Have they been hounded down by Lilith's troops?"

"Lilith no longer has troops. Little more than a guard, made up of those too lazy to run away to offer their service to the other princes.... Or, perhaps, I should say it is made up of the wisest ones, considering that the others tend to end up dead after being ordered into hopeless fights against you and your followers." Lucifer calmly replied, smiling a little as he thought about it for a moment before confirming: "Yes, definitely the wisest. Lilith is too weak to boss them around much these days, and they basically do nothing all day, and avoid dying horribly on the battlefield. When commanded to pursue the runaway newborns, most of the time they just ignore the order."

"Then why have the newborns never tried to establish contact with me? I would have gladly protected them all." Killer enquired, his eyes narrowing with rage and worry as he coldly urged: "Speak clearly, Lucifer. What happened to them?"

"Satan took an interest in the girls, and tried to capture them to turn them into slaves and warriors to use against you. But it didn't work, it didn't, let me finish!" Lucifer said, hurriedly rising one hand to bid for Killer's patience as the liger's eyes burned with fierce fire and his muscles tensed as he shifted in the throne. "It did not work, because one of the first few girls to be born has... how to say it... turned into a tribal chief, leader and protector of all the others. She calls herself Boadicea, and she is a fierce, powerful fighter that even Satan prefers not to engage. Every nine months she visits Lilith's castle and escorts away the newborn. They are by now a small tribe, or a large clan if you prefer."

"All of them females...?" Vesta asked, arching an eyebrow and grinning a bit at the idea, and Lucifer gave a nod of confirmation. "They call themselves amazons and live as a nomadic tribe in the Hell of Wrath..." Lucifer paused and tilted his head slightly to the side, looking amused and smirking teasingly as he looked straight into Killer's eyes, adding: "Due to Satan's attempt to enslaving them, the perceived weakness of the soldiers they have had to face in combat and the absence of their father in their lives, they have developed a major dislike for males. They live as lesbians most of the time, and only rape a male every now and then, after a careful selection, just so they can expand the clan with new births."

Vesta grinned widely at that, slowly turning towards Killer and then exploding into a loud cackle with a cheerful clap of her hands, as she exclaimed: "You, of all people, generated a clan of dick-hating chicks! This is so funny it hurts!"

The other Disciples couldn't help but snicker a little about it, while Killer frowned, unsure of what to think. He felt guilty for how the lives of all those daughters had begun: in his lust and in his desire to punish Lilith, he had reserved little care for his own spawn. Alexis guessed his discomfort and turned slightly so that she could look up at him, kissing his throat lightly before she whispered: "It is not too late to save them. They need help, and we need allies. Boadicea could add a lot to our forces, and you can give her all she's missed in life so far..." She smiled softly at him, and he gave her a little, thankful nod, before snorting in amusement as she turned back to face their audience, announcing: "Not a problem. It wouldn't be the first time he converts lesbians into complete cock-devouring whores."

"Seriously, now. I need to meet Boadicea and... put things right, somehow." Killer quietly said, looking downwards and closing his eyes for a moment, cursing silently. How many times had he sworn to himself that the old times were over, and that he was no longer going to cause suffering and ruin lives just to sate his dark hungers? So many, and yet, here he was, with yet another sad, cruel story to somehow correct.

Lucifer gazed at him with curiosity, still confused and disconcerted by how things worked with Killer and around Killer, yet somehow feeling that the huge male, despite all his defects and failings, was someone worth trusting, because he genuinely wanted to put things right. There was something about that dark, violent, sex-craving beast that was surprisingly generous and caring. His concerns were true, and that left Lucifer wondering about how hunger for senseless destruction and such care for the world could coexist within the same person. An extreme case of bipolar disorder...?

"We noticed the inactivity of Lilith's legions, at least the ones of true demons... and the retreat of yours, too. But the clones and bio-organic weapons have continued to fight just like before." Ira remarked, breaking that moment of awkward silence and distracting the fallen angel from his reflections. He nodded in confirmation instead, and explained: "The clones ceased to answer to our orders and were recalled by Satan himself: he has direct access to the computer devices implanted inside the spine of each organic weapon, so he had no difficulties turning them against us, their former masters. Those legions are no longer mine, and I can't do anything about them... except defend my positions against their assaults. Satan also recalled the clones that used to be under Lilith's command as soon as her crippling pregnancy made her go into hiding."

Ira and Vesta traded a quick look and an almost imperceptible nod, and Killer made his own tiny little movement to confirm: they had indeed heard of internal clashes in both armies, and they had organized some covert reconnaissance of the main battlefields, which had collected information about the battles. The clashes had been ferocious and big enough that it was unlikely they had been intentionally staged to deceive them, and that made so Lucifer's tale convincing.

"I've had to destroy the clone laboratories in my provinces, because they had suddenly turned into my ruin, spitting out an endless succession of monsters that wanted me dead. But that only made Satan even angrier, and there's no way he's ever going to listen to me again. We are effectively at war now... and Lilith ended up destroying the factories and laboratories hidden in her territory as well, fearing that at any moment Satan and the others would start to use them against her. So, Satan wants her dead as well."

"Well, at least some of the factories are gone. We haven't noticed much of a drop in the number of clone legions, however." Vesta coldly said, keeping an eye on Lucifer to gauge the sincerity of his reaction as he offered: "Satan has been ordering constant expansions to the network of factories and laboratories, so that the sudden disappearance of the structures in our territories have had little impact. Shows how dishonest he has been all along. He let us lord over a few factories just to prevent us from complaining, but he always was far ahead of us for production volumes."

"If you weren't expecting it, you are kind of an idiot." Vesta mercilessly observed, resting her chin in one hand and gazing at him flatly.

"I thought he didn't even want this war, originally...?" Killer enquired, and Lucifer shrugged sadly and huffed: "You said it well: 'originally'. Since then, a lot of things have changed, and now he refuses the idea of putting an end to the conflict."

"He knows his days are over. If the war ends in anything other than victory, his throne will be lost forever." Gaia wisely said, and the others could only accept the truth of her words. Killer briefly considered the possibility of promising to safeguard Satan's power in exchange for the end of the war, but it was immediately clear that it could not work. He'd have to slaughter the other princes and use force against a whole lot of other lords that would, for both the right and the wrong reasons, be blaming Satan for the disaster, pushing to get rid of him. Plus there is the RA to consider... they will never let their expensive investment in Hell just go to waste. They have a firm grip on his balls, because I bet they can override any and all commands to the clones if they want, and will squeeze if he tries to move in a way they do not like. And truth be told, I'm not eager to let the asshole keep his throne after all the crap he's pulled. I'd be just pushing trouble to the right. Killer muttered under his breath, then looked at Lucifer for a brief moment and said: "We won't be able to talk him into an armistice. We need a way to force it on him... I trust that you have something to offer that will help us in that?"

Lucifer shifted uneasily on his feet, tilting his head slowly from side to side and making a grimace as he replied: "More or less." Alexis's eyes seemed to burn with rage at that, and the fallen angel recoiled in front of her ferocious gaze, pulling up his hands to bid for their patience. "Unfortunately, I don't have access to the other factories, nor do I have the strength needed to assault them and destroy them. I don't even know where they are. But as you know, Satan and Typhon have completely lost reason and have been inviting apocalypse on us all by calling alien gods to their help. Alien gods that they cannot control, like Virgil."

"I know that. But for your own sake, I hope you have not come here just to seek protection." Killer pressed on, his body relaxed yet radiating tremendous power and virility as Alexis continued to leisurely stroke his titanic black shaft, slowly and lightly enough not to make him hard, but more than enough to cause his colossal member to swell a bit, growing easily twenty inches in an arrogant display of lazy, confident omnipotence.

"I'm here to offer collaboration, and supply information." Lucifer firmly replied, trying to give himself a commanding tone even as an enormous blast of precum, filled with titanic sperms, fired from Killer's cock and drew a twelve feet river of white on the floor, making him shiver with envious awe. "I know you are about to launch an offensive through the Middle Sea."

Killer tilted his head slightly to the side, hiding his surprise at that and faking disinterest as he asked: "Why do you say that...?"

"Lord Killer, I used to be one of the chief strategists of God, and then of Satan." Lucifer calmly remarked, grinning for the first time in that unfair comparison of strength and characters. "I'm not stupid and I'm not blind. I've noticed how the horde has been moving steadily towards the coast, securing several fjords and large bays. It is not that hard to imagine what will happen next."

Killer said nothing, but inwardly nodded in agreement. He is observant, and has brains. But it is true, there is no real way to hide the general pattern of the horde's movements.

"You want to dive into the Middle Sea and track the Ship-eaters as they go back and forth carrying legions of clones, to locate the embarkation points... a good plan, even though going for a swim in the Middle Sea is, in itself, a horrible idea." Lucifer exposed, smiling a bit and bowing his head to Killer, who grunted and rolled his eyes, muttering: "Glad you think that too. I had to take a swim once, and frankly I'm in no hurry to repeat the experience."

"I admire you for doing it once and will bow deep to you doing it twice. But I would not want to follow." Lucifer said, smiling in respectful amusement. "I cannot tell you where the point of embarkation is, exactly, but I can greatly restrict the area you'll need to search, at least."

"That would be great..." Killer said, but he hesitated, seeing clearly in the prince's expression that there was more about that story, and then grimacing when Alexis muttered: "You are not going to like it, Lion..."

"Virgil is likely to be inside whatever kind of base is located at the end of the tunnels. This is why I contacted Kimera and asked to be teleported into Heaven with such urgency: the Writer has taken an interest in the experimentations that Typhon is carrying out in Heaven, and an even greater interest in the initiatives of Satan in Hell." Lucifer announced, nervously twisting his hands together and shifting on the spot, looking worriedly at Killer as he waited for the liger's reaction... which turned out pretty calm, as the huge male sighed tiredly and mumbled: "It is not an unexpected development. He would have already dissolved this entire solar system if he didn't think he could get something useful out of it."

"And there might be more. Satan has ordered studies to be carried out on your Praetorians, to see if they can help improve the organic weapons, or if they can be turned into new super-weapons themselves. Or just to hurt you, perhaps... I've heard rumors that suggest that Virgin has learned of the matter and has taken a special interest of his own in them. So... if you find him, you might find your missing friends too."

Lucifer's voice died down into uneasy silence as the fallen angel carefully avoided specifying that the Praetorians could have been killed, or subjected to even worse fates, by any one between Satan, the still belligerent princes and even Virgil. Killer's mind immediately filled with a thousand horrible images of torture, suffering and violence, and he swallowed thickly, repressing the sudden surge of rage and horror that made his whole body flex and tense up. Pamela, behind Lucifer's back, continued to stand guard but her face became pale with a mix of terror and fury, her spear wobbling a bit in the air, betraying the shudders rattling her body as she bit her lower lip to restrain the screams rising in her throat. All the others stiffened in place, and gazed up towards Killer, waiting for his directions, as Alexis closed her eyes and then slowly sat up in the throne.

"Thanks, Lucifer." Killer quietly said, straightening slowly and sitting on the edge of the chaise longue, resting his arms on his thighs and gazing straight into the fallen angel's eyes. Is he lying? Is he just trying to lure me into the ultimate trap? Lucifer stood patiently in front of him, looking back into his sapphire eyes, showing no fear, but rather sympathy, support... and genuine regret for what he had had to communicate. He looks sincere. Alexis hasn't picked up anything strange, either... No, he is not lying.

But that does not mean it isn't a trap.

"It looks like our offensive in the Middle Sea will have to start immediately. Despite the risks, I have to find that tunnel and break inside it. I want to bring our friends back. Kate, Nikita, Crystal, Valery... I want them all back. They have suffered more than enough. And whatever Virgil wants, he must not get. He is the worst threat to us all, right now. I must stop him. Stop Satan. End this madness." Killer announced, and finally stood up from the throne, together with Alexis and followed by the Disciples, who gazed at him with steely determination. He looked at him with great affection, and then turned to the side as Alexis squeezed into his shoulder and gently corrected his message: "We must stop them. And we will."

"I never thought the Middle Sea could get even worse. But of course, it actually could." Killer muttered, not for the first time, as he walked advanced over uneven ground, surrounded by a fog so thick that it felt like walking through jelly. It wasn't a normal fog at all: it was toxic like hell, for one thing, and had killed several Insatiables before the others pulled back and waited to be supplied with appropriate respirators and protections. Unfortunately it could not be dispelled, not even by Gaia, much as she tried to clean the air. Finally, it did not just mess with his field of view, but even with the other senses. Sounds came to the ears only horribly warped and changed in tone, so that it was extremely difficult to even speak with someone standing more than four feet away. Even Alexis's sixth sense was clogged up by that cold, unforgiving grey fog. Clearly, it had nothing to do with the weather, and all to do with magic and, perhaps, godlike powers at play. He had no idea whether Satan had put it up, or Virgil, but whoever had had the idea, had found the perfect way to make their task all the more complicated and miserable.

Lucifer had personally guided Killer and the others in the area, which according to him was above one of the titanic tunnels leading into the underground network of factories and laboratories which sustained Hell's war effort. The tunnel had an opening leading into the non-waters of the Middle Sea, and that was what Killer needed to locate. The fact that he couldn't even see the sea itself, and that the noise of the waves "bounced" endlessly between the curtains of fog, sounding like it surrounded them from all sides, made him frustrated and irritable.

Lucifer had not wanted to stick around for long because he was horribly afraid of Satan's anger against him and even more scared by Virgil's monstrous power, but the liger continued to trust him. The fallen angel had not abandoned the field entirely, but had taken position with his troops a few miles inland, forming a perimeter of defence that the horde of Insatiables was helping to expand and reinforce. Killer, his Disciples and some troops of Dark Wings and Insatiables had pushed onwards into the thick fog, expecting to be ambushed at every step, and further worried by the very real possibility of just walking right into the sea before realizing it was there in front of them. That was how bad their senses were screwed up, and it made the huge male shiver with horror at the thought of being assaulted: an enemy with a mean to see and hear clearly into that grey inferno would have been able to sneak on them, one by one, and they would have probably been unable to even voice an alarm and call for help.

The area was potentially perfect for a major ambush, and that obviously did nothing to enhance his morale: they were advancing over soft, almost marsh-like ground, flat and bare, subject to inundation with the high tide. In front of them was a large, open bay, rather unremarkable, while on either side were either low hills or tall cliffs, which walled them into a perfect killing ground. At first sight, it had been hard not glare at Lucifer and wonder if he wasn't just pushing them right into an ambush... but for all Killer could guess, Lucifer was sincere, and Alexis herself could detect nothing out of place in his thoughts. Still, they had ordered two troops of Dark Wings and Insatiables to move on the flanks and establish firebases on the high ground on either end of the horrible, stinky beach. The other troops, including Lucifer's Gigataurs, formed a solid perimeter facing inland, and were digging to prepare for anything that might come.

The flat ground had surprised Killer, and made him glad for Lucifer's collaboration: considering that they were looking for massive underground facilities, probably heavily armoured and reinforced against any kind of likely enemy offence, he would have begun searching from the coastal areas which had huge cliffs and hills and high ground, because stone provided a natural bunker once the tunnels were drilled inside it, and the cliffs represented extra space, more easily exploited than vast chambers deep under the sea level, which had to be dug open from zero.

I would have ended up wasting a lot of time and energies chasing ghosts in the wrong places...

"This place sucks. So hard." Alexis grumbled, walking up to him and glaring around herself with a grimace of distaste, her irritation causing sapphire energy to crackle around her in bolts. "I'm going to spank Satan's ass extra hard just for forcing us to come here."

Killer grunted in agreement, then turned towards the opposite side, frowning as he heard a confused noise, of steps and of a well known voice... but the fog warped the sounds so much that he did not recognize it as Gaia's voice until she was just a few feet away, when she finally emerged from the dense grey cloud.

"If the facility is under our feet, we could try and find it without having to jump into the sea... Tentacles and roots, maybe?" The goddess of nature suggested, but she visibly did not believe much in her own suggestion, since they expected the place to be defended by all kinds of barriers.

"We can try..." Alexis agreed in the same kind of mild tone, and Killer nodded before pointing to the right, announcing: "I'll take this side." They spaced out, facing in the different directions as massive black fleshed tentacles pushed out of Alexis and Killer's backs and arms, arching high up into the sky as bone plates harder than any steel pushed outward and formed a segmented armor ending in cruel spikes. Gaia spread her arms and pointed her palms toward the earth, and countless tentacle-like roots shot down into the mud, pushing deep down, searching, probing, while Killer and Alexis's tentacles stabbed down like spears, piercing deep into the earth and then whip-lashing angrily back towards the sky, throwing up dirt and stone, tearing enormous scars through the beach and the whole area behind it.

Slowly, they walked forwards along the beach, ravaging the ground ahead of them with their tentacles, and after a little while Killer's spikes slammed into something incredibly solid, making him grunt in surprise as the bone blades slid against a hard barrier, before a violent explosion of malignant energy blasted them up into the sky, the ground disintegrating in a colossal blast. The huge male leapt into the sky with a grunt, shielding himself with his arms as the shockwave hit him and spreading his wings to shoot higher up into the air as the ground broke down into spikes and daggers that angrily flew towards him. He cocked back his massive fist and slammed it hard forwards, roaring as he sent a shockwave of his own force into the spikes, dissolving them into nothing but dust before they could strike him, and he glared down at the scarred ground, visible even through the fog now, thanks to the violet glow of energy coming from the barrier.

"Well, you found it..." Vesta calmly said, pulling up at Killer's size and hovering with an easy flap of her mighty wings, clad in her battle armour and with her sickleswords at the ready. "It doesn't look like we are going to break through that, though."

"Probably no." Killer admitted, trying to spy through the cracks in the ground and through the intense violet glow that almost hurt the eyes. He could guess, more than see, the presence of enormous plates of armor, no doubt applied on top of massive walls of lodestone and reinforced concrete. None of those structures could hope to survive his punch, but the barrier was another story entirely. It looked just as powerful as the one that protected the Central Spire, Satan's castle in the middle of Hell, and that meant it was going to absorb a lot of punishment and repair itself with the same energy the enemy used in its attempt to open a breech. That barrier works a bit like I do... "At least we know we are in the right place this time around."

"Yeah, and if they didn't know about us yet, now they do." Vesta calmly observed, before grinning in entertainment as she playfully asked: "You don't think they are going to open a door and come charging at us, are they...?"

"I wish they were..." Killer mumbled, thinking of how much easier it would have been in that case. "They will send troops our way for sure, but they will come from a safe distance, so that we can't see where they emerge from. Is our perimeter solid? I will need you to buy me time."

"I'll give you all the time you need." Vesta assured, before smiling at him with affection. "Virgil is inside, isn't he...? I bet you have the same sensation."

"I think so, yes. But I'm also convinced that Nikita, Kate, Crystal and Valery are inside. So, I need to go in. And I will tear through everyone who attempts to stop me." Killer calmly replied, and Vesta smiled and nodded, bumping shoulder to shoulder and nuzzling him lovingly. "I know. Just remember that we are with you, and that you can always count on our help."

"I know that. I wouldn't have made it this far without you all." The huge male replied, smiling at her warmly, before dropping back down to earth just as the fog, briefly dispelled by the violence of the blast, thickened up again. Vesta rushed towards the defensive perimeter instead, where her legion was mounting guard, and already Killer could hear, warped and distant but still threatening, the sounds of battle.

"Well, that was quick." Alexis grumbled, looking towards the point where she knew the trenches had been dug. The fog made it impossible to see anything or hear any sound clearly, but what they could hear was more than enough to understand that a major assault had already started. "On the sea side, there are two things they might do: rush out the Ship Eaters to bring to safety as much stuff as they can; or close the doors and pretend they don't even exist while hoping the barrier keeps us out."

"I count on them doing the former." Killer replied, even though Alexis already knew it all too well. The huge male lead them towards the shore, grimacing at the sight of the cold, soul-mangling non-waters washing up the smelly, horrible beach, but despite the disgust and the horror at the thought of the incoming agony he did not slow down, charging into the waves.

Alexis followed him, hissing in a mix of anger and pain as the Middle Sea immediately began to claw into their spirits, trying to rip them into shreds, and they both felt their bodies becoming heavy and unresponsive as they were forcefully dragged away from the shore and towards the bottom. Gaia waited nervously on the beach, under precise orders from Killer, and Ira reached her a moment later, emerging from the fog and charging forwards until the non-water was up to her knees, the cobra ignoring the pain as she nocked a glowing, crackling arrow made of her godlike energies and let it go with a snarl as soon as the shark-like monstrosities of the deep assaulted Killer and Alexis. The immense arrow struck one beast straight under the massive jaw, hefting it out of the water and sending it crashing back into the sea, which suddenly seemed to boil as uncountable monsters rushed towards the alien souls they could so clearly perceive in the water. It exploded a moment later, tossing chunks of bloody meat in every direction and discharging bolts of electricity through the waves all around, causing shrieks and howls to rise from the dozens upon dozens of beasts. "Come and get it, you scum!" Ira snarled, her hands moving with the speed of lighting to nock arrow after arrow as the monsters mindlessly charged against her, one of them pushing out of the waves to throw a heavy spear but flying backwards instead as she sent a huge dart piercing through his chest, grinning as he crashed into a group of his brethren and knocked them over like pins before they were all disintegrated in the explosion, and already another two arrows had been fired, one of them sticking through a shark and nailing it to another before dissolving them in a mighty blast, the other impaling one of the monsters against the seabed before it could swing an axe into her leg. The cobra goddess purposefully allowed the horde to come closer and closer to her, then flexed her massive musculature and stepped forwards with a roar, eyes glowing emerald and energy crackling around her as she pulled up one foot, channeling her power down her spectacular leg before she stomped hard on the skull of a shark leaping against her, squishing it into a squirt of blood and liquefied gore and sending a tremendous explosion of pure force tearing into the sea, smashing the shark-beasts flying up high, where they were ensnared in Gaia's deadly roots, the large appendages sprouting with poisoned thorns that cut through armor like through wet paper, piercing through flesh and bone as the tentacles coiled around their bodies and mercilessly squeezed until chests and heads imploded in thick splatters of blood and gore. "Face the wrath of Nature!" Gaia roared, her own eyes glowing with fury as she spread her arms and sent more and more cruel, deadly tentacles shooting into the mass of bodies, the roots ending in savage spikes and harpoons that tore through beast after beast, skewering them until countless corpses were held in the air like long strings of candy on her endless, twisted, spiked roots, the devastated bodies dripping green poison and smoldering as the acid fluid hungrily consumed them until they broke into pieces and rained down into the sea. The Middle Sea had never answered to God and never welcomed Nature, always behaving like a terrible, lawless no man's land, and that had always angered Gaia, who always felt deep within her the need to spread life and colonize every corner of the universe with plants, flowers, animals. Now, some of that long-contained rage showed through as the snow leopardess pushed her hands forwards with a snarl and caused the enormous tangle of green tentacles to begin to spin and twist on itself, becoming a colossal meat grinder that sent blood raining thickly all over the beach, painting the mud crimson.

"You scare me, at times." Ira amusedly said, the cobra grinning widely under the rain of blood, her long tongue eagerly stretching out to catch the thick splatters even as she fired arrow after arrow, catching the monstrosities falling down from the sky like they were nothing but pigeons, before three shark beasts pushed out of the shallow water around her and hacked into her waist with their axes, letting out cackling hisses of triumph. Their blades slammed into scales that were harder than metal and that barely dented, her abs flexing with power as she murred with entertainment, slowly looking down at the monsters as their eyes bulged in shock and confusion, and their arms began to tremble violently as the goddess flexed her massive muscles, taking an idle step backwards and then lightly kicking one of them in the chest, causing its upper body to all but explode into ribbons of bloody meat, pieces of him shooting like missiles into the other beasts behind. Ira snorted in derision and her eyes flashed with her terrible power, causing emerald flames to burst violently in and out of the bodies of the two remaining monsters, which shrieked in agony and shock while rapidly falling away to ashes. She turned to the side as a large shark threw a spear crackling with dark lightning against her, and she caught it effortlessly in one hand, gritting her fangs with a snarl of pain but also of pleasure as the malignant energy exploded into her arm and shot through her chest, so vicious and yet so powerless, unable to give her more than a shudder as she spun the weapon and stabbed it through the skull of another monster, sending it crashing into the beach with a gargle while she flicked her wrist and sent the Lace of Lust shooting over the distance to pierce through the shark's chest. She easily yanked him towards her, the saw-like chain links almost ripping him in half down the middle, and she balled her other hand into a fist, smashing it down into the beast's face, snorting in dark amusement as the skull crumbled like a biscuit and the brains splattered dozens of feet away, the corpse breaking in two halves that short like missiles into the other creatures, sending several sprawling like pins.

Ira walked a bit further forwards, a snarling grin on her face as even the excruciating pain and the fatigue of moving through that infernal non-water added to her dark battle lust, to the thrill of fighting and winning, to the delight of her godlike strength, as she allowed another weird monster emerged in front of her to swing a huge electrified hammer into her chest only to laugh in his face as it shattered like it was made of glass, barely bruising her breast, before she seized the beast by the head and easily hefted it up above her head, her other hand grabbing the tangle of tentacles pushing out of its waist in place of legs and then simply ripping him in half like he was a stuffed toy.

Another monster, with a bug-like head armed with nasty pincers covered in acid drool and with the lower body composed of a mass of writhing tentacles, charged at her back with two massive curved blades sticking out of its wrists, but Ira ignored him, her senses telling her that it was not going to be an issue... and in fact Kimera emerged from the fog, her fangs seeming to glow bright white as she roared and leapt on top of the bug, crushing him down under her heavy, mighty hooves, loving the loud crunch of bones and the wet squelch of gore and blood spraying out like juice from an overripe fruit. Before the other monstrosities all around could recover from the surprise, the zebra swung her massive twin-headed axe up and caught another of the bug-beasts in the crotch, hefting it high off the ground before the blade tore through him and free, the corpse splitting into two bloody halves that crashed far away, together with the head of another of the shark creatures, before the goddess thrust hard backwards to slam the long pole of her weapon into the chest of another beast, piercing it from side to side with the solid blade at the extremity and then cutting its head in two pieces when she tore upwards to swung the huge weapon over her head and slam it down like a mace, the power of the impact throwing bodies into the air like puppets while those caught under the blade exploded into red mist. Manticora charged in with an eager growl, leaping onto the head of a shark beast and crushing its skull into pieces before easily hopping towards another beast, crushing it too under her hooves and jumping on before the corpse sunk out of sight, before finally kicking the head right off the torso of a beast that leapt at her swinging large, cruel metal hooks.

The skull of the beast seemed to vaporize, her heavy hoof tearing right through and smashing into a bug-demon coming up from behind, tearing a horrendous crater in his chest and smashing him down into the water as the goddess settled her other hoof on his crotch and surfed on the waves using him as table, grinning widely as spears were stabbed towards her only to be cut into pieces by her kukri blades, before her tail lashed outwards in a wide swing and a cloud of deadly, bone needles shot into the monsters around her, tearing through flesh and bones and piercing bodies from side to side, leaving the wounds oozing with acidic poison. Corpses fell away all around her, and as the body under her hooves sunk, she leapt off and clutched the head of another shark beast between her ankles, twisting elegantly in midair and scissoring up her legs so that the monster was hefted out of the water and thrown away like a missile that trailed a long streak of crimson behind itself as the head was squished like an overripe fruit in the process.

An enormous Cetus emerged in the distance and let out a angry shriek that pierced their eyes, but the goddesses weren't impressed by the miles-long spider legs pushing out of the waves, nor by the mountain-like body covered in thick, impenetrable plates of dark bone, its exoskeleton protecting it easily even from nuclear blasts. Pamela all but rushed towards the immense beast, charging through a line of shark beasts, cutting them down with wide, mighty swings of her hybrid weapon, her pole-axe smashing and tearing through waists and chests while her energies flowed through the pole and crackled together at the mouth of the cannon hidden inside, before blasting forth in a crackling bolt when she stabbed the weapon hard forwards. The beam of force struck one of the gigantic spider legs near one of the joints, melting the solid exoskeleton like it was made of butter and blasting out of the other side, exploding only after striking a second leg, the blast disintegrating a long section of the limb and sending the Cetus collapsing onto its face, made heavy and unwieldy by the multiple, terrible pincers stretching out in front of the cruel jaws. The mountain-like growth of stone, metal, bone and barnacles on the back of the immense monstrosity seemed to turn alight like a Christmas tree as a multitude of heavy cannons and machine guns opened fire against the Praetorian, but Pamela simply ignored most bullets as they could do nothing but bounce uselessly back when they hit her godlike musculature or her special armor of solid darkness and light.

Gaia thrust her hands towards the distant Cetus and immense, colossal snake-like trees emerged from the ground on either side of her and arched over the sea to coil around the gigantic monster, binding its legs and then snapping down around its skull, pinning its jaws to the shallow seabed even as it writhed and struggled, viciously snapping its pincers and stabbing the spike-ended legs into anything within reach, crushing many smaller monsters into nothing but red mist and splatters of gore.

One of the gigantic leg-spikes stabbed viciously down towards her, and the goddess leapt up to meet the barbed harpoon, wrapping her powerful arms around it and snarling as her wings exploded into being with a flash of fire, propelling her skywards as her lips curled up in a savage grin, the miles-long spider leg first bending unnaturally, then cracking loudly, one of its rigid sections exploding into fragments of bone as the Cetus shrieked in agony and fury, uselessly trying to claw her out of the sky with the remaining legs, only to have Ira catch one in her supernatural chains, the cobra roaring and yanking hard back, biceps bulging explosively and pieces of bone exploding in every direction as the leg snapped into pieces. Demons manning bunkers and trenches dug in the mountain-like outgrowths on the Cetus's back trailed their rifles and bows and cannons towards Pamela, firing furiously in her direction, but right in that moment Mriya leapt up onto the back of the creature and stomped her heels through the skull of a Gigataur, crushing him dead into the Cetus's exoskeleton before charging forwards with a snarling laughter, bowling over three more and tossing a sphere of focused energy into them as they crashed into other demons, dissolving them all in an enormous explosion. She barreled through the flames before they had a chance to form a solid line of defence, leaping over the thrust of heavy spears and the swings of massive axes, ramming her shoulder into an armoured Gigataur and sending him crashing away like a toy while she swung her own poleaxe hard backwards, chopping the legs off from under another before it could turn around and swing his warhammer.

Elaine charged along a trench higher up on the side of the mountain, chopping through demons and sending pieces raining in every direction before leaning forwards to roar a hurricane of white-hot dragon fire that washed down the length of the trench, incinerating Gigataurs and nightmares before smashing into solid bone at the first turn in the saw blade-shaped line of defence. She leapt out of the trench with a graceful, powerful movement, easily flying above the head of a furious Gigataur before black-fleshed tentacles pushed out of her back and snapped down over the bull, crushing him in a vice-like grip that loudly shattered its bones and bent the armour plates out of shape while his body was effortlessly lifted up high into the air and then tossed into the sea far below.

Elaine and Mriya crossed paths, assaulting two other trenches filled with demons and rushing past a bunker from which a massive machine gun spewed out an endless torrent of armor-piercing rounds that bounced uselessly off their mighty bodies, grinning to themselves as Pamela, a brief instant later, tore the spider leg off the Cetus's body and, with a display of her terrifying physical strength, she tossed it up into the sky, spinning it until the lethal harpoon was aimed on the Cetus and then tossing it down like a mile-long spear that cut through the bunker's roof like it was made of paper, breaking through even the solid exoskeleton and digging deep into the Cetus's soft, vulnerable interiors, nailing the monster to the seabed before Gaia's enormous tree-tacles twisted together to form titanic, ungodly spikes that began to stab with tremendous force into the beast, blowing immense craters into its body, ripping it to pieces as the goddess of Nature smiled coldly and gracefully moved her hands in the air, looking like an orchestra conductor as she guided her plants into battle, her feet dry thanks to a literal tower of trees, twisted vines and solid crystals that she had created in the middle of the hostile waters.

More and more monsters were emerging from the depths of the hellish sea, but the Disciples of Killer ripped through their ranks like scythes, painting the non-waters crimson and blowing to pieces even the largest and most terrible of beasts, as other Cetus pushed towards the beach, angrily snapping their pincers and drooling jaws, trying to wrestle with the colossal tangles of flexible, prehensile trees and thorny roots that whip-lashed viciously into and around them, all but hefting them up into the air and crushing them like they were toys.

In the middle of the chaos, Mriya, Pamela and Elaine leapt off the back of the monster they had just slain and gracefully dived into the non-water, trying to ignore the agony it caused them as they swam deeper and deeper into the darkness, following on the trail of Killer and Alexis, who were making their way along the coast, trying to find the entry to the underground facility, while slaughtering every monster that assaulted them... and despite the intensity of the diversionary assault carried out by the Disciples in front of the beach, the hordes coming up from deep seemed to never end, as dark shapes whizzed back and forth in the cold, soul-rending non-waters around them. Underwater, the Middle Sea's beasts were at home and had the edge, as they moved much faster and felt none of the pain that had Killer and the others gritting their teeth and trying to think over pounding agony that seemed to want to break their skulls and chests from the inside. Mriya's eyes bulged and she felt her body stiffening violently, her back arching as she instinctively began to curl up, the coldness of the sea far worse than just "freezing", inflicting spiritual agony as well as physical pain, and her muscles bulged explosively with the effort it took to move through that hellish non-liquid. Elaine and Pamela had a moment of equal shock, their faces contorted by the suffering and their bodies spasming as they began to sunk towards the bottom, dragged down by the mysterious forces that ruled that cruel, ancient dimension that not even God had ever been able to understand... Entering the water at the beach had been terrible, but diving under the surface was a whole different experience, and while Killer had already faced it, for them all it was the first time, and their only preparation was based on his suggestions and warnings. Daddy did not exaggerate one bit...

Immediately, the three goddesses were swarmed over by cackling sharks and by bug-octopuses that eagerly charged forwards to exploit their sudden slowness and weakness, but when spiked tentacles wrapped around her legs and yanked her hard towards the rocky cliff, Mriya snarled and her eyes glowed with power and outrage, the sapphire flames burning in them strong enough to illuminate a large area around her as she spun her poleaxe and stabbed it down into the monstrous creature, chopping several tentacles before thrusting the massive blade right through its bug-like face, severing the lower jaw right off and then shattering the skull.

Another monster of some kind clawed into her back, but she immediately flexed and collected her legs before donkey-kicking hard backwards, shattering the creature into a cloud of crimson and sending dozens more bodies scattering all around her, bubbles and clouds of gore passing in front of her face in a confused blur, blades and talons ripping into her from all sides and dragging her downwards... until she spun her enormous weapon in a windmill all around her and energy exploded forth from her body, bolts of golden force crackling through the sea and incinerating demons all around her.

She spun around, using her weapon to keep the enemies back while she searched for the others, and Elaine emerged from another tangle of bodies, her jaws open wide and her fearsome dragonfire burning bright and incandescent, even under that weird, otherworldly water.

Pamela pulled up between them, her eyes glowing in the darkness and energy crackling around the twin blades of her poleaxe as she swam towards Killer and Alexis, who were well visible deeper down ahead of them, their bodies radiating terrible, devastating power as they tore their way through hordes of mindless beasts surging from the bottom of the ocean. And there, ahead of them... there it was, the well hidden and well protected entrance to the underground port that allowed Satan's bio-organic weapons to set sail for Heaven. Two titanic walls of stone had been cut, probably with lasers, to become the shutters of a monumental double door that was easily three miles wide. The two blocks of stone were at least two hundred feet thick, and their backside was reinforced by huge plates of armour inscribed with dozens upon dozens of glowing hellish runes imbued with the ancient magic of the Scholars and Scribes that ran and administered the Underworld. The same violet energy they had already seen formed an impenetrable final obstacle, but now it all was revealed to their eyes: the two colossal walls of stone, which apparently moved upon sturdy, enormous rails, had slid apart to allow a whole convoy of Ship Eaters to rush out of the port, no doubt carrying the latest batches of clones and bio-organic weapons produced, as well as valuable prototypes and scientists and every other precious thing that could be swiftly embarked and evacuated.

Killer and Alexis had already caught the first Ship Eater and had ripped it in two halves that were rapidly sinking, even as the worm's mutant meat attempted to lace back together and regenerate. In the middle of the horrendous, huge cloud of red that was slowly pushing upwards towards the surface, Mriya could see heavy crates, machinery, massive artillery pieces and uncountable corpses and writhing bodies that would soon become corpses, as the clones and bio-organic weapons went down towards the bottom. Some of the newer monstrosities, however, were apparently more than able to function even down there in the bowels of the sea, and Killer was grappling with one of them, a Vanguard, enormous living tanks that had recently appeared on the battlefield and was already becoming the primary heavy infantry of hell, representing a huge upgrade on Gigataurs. The Vanguard was a gigantic hybrid mutation that mated a warped Gigataur torso to a long, ugly bug-like body supported on six powerful wolf legs reinforced by a highly technological exoskeleton, with huge electric engines providing extra power to muscles that had been grown to huge proportions with the use of magic and drugs born out of mortal technology. His torso was monstrously deformed, covered in uncontrollable growths of black metal, with two gnarled, parasitic arms pushing out below the great, muscular ones and ending in three terrible, prehensile talons. The head of the beast was a weapon in itself, encased as it was between four fearsome horns that stuck forwards like spears, and the long neck, completely wrapped in overlapping armour plates, allowed the creature to stab forwards with vicious force. Plasma thrusters had been built into its legs, allowing it to move absurdly fast despite its weight and bulk, and the non-water now boiled and formed clouds of bubbles as the monster savagely clawed towards the liger, swinging an enormous cleaver which had a chainsaw end, currently sending sparkles exploding all around as it ground heavily against Wyvern, the Vanguard using all of its thrusters to try and push Killer back into the cliff.

The back of the taur-shaped creature was plated over with thick armor which bulged outwards over the force-field tanks that contained the deadly Unworld residue which fed the three oversized, square-barreled cannons mounted on a solid platform pushing out of the spiked spine. Mriya knew how devastating those guns could be, and she hurried towards the fight as all three glowed with magic and electricity before blasting forth a deluge of focused Unworld residue. Killer ducked under the immense blasts and twisted his arm to jerk Wyvern back, half-spinning to slam the sword hard into the chainsaw-cleaver, knocking the Vanguard off balance and sending the black goo firing wildly off target, creating a cloud of death that savagely burned away clones and other war-beasts as well as countless monsters of the Middle Sea as they continued to mindlessly charge towards Killer, swimming into the dark essence and never coming out. The Vanguard was completely uninterested in the fate of its allies and only interested in stopping Killer, no matter what sacrifice it required, and it used its thrusters to spin upside down, firing another barrage as Killer dived deeper down, trying to put himself out of sight by moving under the bio-cyber weapon.

The liger winced in surprise as the gigantic beast spun around and fired again against him at point blank range, but he immediately reacted by shoving his hand forwards, creating a large, curved shield made of his pure, immense energies, and the Unworld residue slammed into it with terrible force, thrusting him further back towards the cliff as the black goo hungrily consumed the shield, breaking through in several points and splashing against him. Killer growled in pain and his back arched with a spasm as the residue immediately incinerated and dissolved his skin and then his flesh, his arms smoldering and sizzling until they looked horrendously scarred, his bones showing through deep wounds surrounded by burned, consumed flesh and muscle. More of the black goo splattered on his chest and greedily ate everything it touched, but Killer seemed not to notice, his eyes burning with ferocious intensity as his body absorbed the poisonous, destructive good, rapidly turning it into energy, feeding him yet more power, healing his wounds almost faster than the residue could rip them open. He lunged forwards, tearing through the deluge of Unworld essence until his cracked, holed shield slammed into one of the huge cannons, knocking it out to the side and sending energy crackling violently down the barrel until it exploded in a huge bolt of electricity and a cloud of dark residue that began to eat into the Vanguard's armor, causing the beast to buck in pain and anger, slashing his chainsaw cleaver down with savage force. Killer met the blow by stabbing Wyvern forwards with such force that it broke the huge cleaver in half, sending links of the chainsaw exploding in every direction like shrapnel, many of them pelting the Vanguard's chest. The monster screeched and threw his broken sword against Killer, who knocked it out of the way with a slash of Wyvern, before ducking under a vicious stab of the pike-like head of the taur, slamming his huge fist up under the chin of the beast, the impact sending a ripple through the sea as the jaw disintegrated and teeth and pieces of bones shot up through the brain. The bio-cyber weapon recoiled, blood flowing into the non-water from the crushed head, but the Spirit device in its nervous system continued to work, almost unfazed by the damage, as new fleshy outgrowths began to fill up the shattered skull, not regenerating it, but instead sprouting forwards in the form of cruel tentacles ending in spikes of bone. The appendages immediately shot towards Killer's face, and the flexible talons at the end of the parasitic arms snapped forwards, forcing the liger to recoil backwards to avoid them, an hiss of pain escaping his lips as the blades tore deep gashes in his sides but failed to trap him in the middle, and when the four horns rushed forwards again, Killer was ready to grab the tip of one, his fingers digging into the metallic bone and cracking it as he wrestled the bull back, yanking his head hard to the side, forcing its neck to bend painfully and the horn to break and come loose, before Wyvern flashed into view and chopped through the long, armoured neck like it was made of butter, sending the heavy head sinking rapidly towards the bottom.

The Vanguard only charged forwards with even greater anger, as tendrils of flesh immediately pushed out of the bleeding neck, forming a new tangle of tentacles, some of which ended in large yellow eyes, but Killer seized the parasitic scythe-arm as it swung towards him and yanked it hard backwards, tearing it off with a thick splatter of blood, before spinning the solid talons in his hand to viciously stab them in the taur's shoulder, using them as a handle to pull himself hard forwards as he stabbed Wyvern right through the beast's torso and then slashed it downwards, tearing the Vanguard in half.

The two bloody halves of the torso collapsed lifelessly forwards, hanging from stubborn tendrils of mutant flesh that still attempted to self-repair, while ropes of weird, mysterious organs spilled out along with a deluge of blood and ichors and dark fluids, but the long body of the giant creature still angrily leapt against Killer, even as the back sizzled and smoldered and burned away because of the Unworld residue leaking out of the ruptured tank and shatter gun. The liger met the assault with his own charge, slamming his spiked shoulder into the armoured belly of the monster and sending it crashing backwards like a meteor into other Vanguards that were using their chainsaw cleavers to climb out from inside a sinking Ship Eater that Alexis had just killed, blowing its spine and the Spirit device lodged into it with a blast of psychic power.

The maimed body of the Vanguard was still leaking Unworld residue in gallons, and as it impacted into the dead worm, Killer struck it with a beam of focused energy that burned, dissolved and disintegrated the damaged plates protecting the special tanks filled with the deadly goo. Terrible, unforgiving darkness exploded out of the giant corpse and splattered all over the worm and the other Vanguards, rapidly eating through them, turning metal and flesh, skin and bones into nothing but weak motes of energy.

He turned around just in time to avoid another enormous Ship Eater which rushed out of the tunnel and tried to slither away unnoticed in the middle of the chaos, and he spun Wyvern tip-down, stabbing it through the solid, armor-like outer shell of the disgusting beast, his muscles bulging explosively as energy crackled loudly around him, zapping the sharks and other creatures that charged against him, before his force exploded forth from his sword and disintegrated the head of the colossal living transport, causing its hollow body to immediately fill with the cruel non-waters, washing away hundreds of clones. He kicked off the rapidly sinking corpse, ripping his blade free, and swam towards the gate as he saw the enormous stone shutters began to close as the garrison of the base evidently decided that the evacuation attempt was nothing but a suicide.

He rushed towards the tunnel, but as he did so he spotted Mriya and Elaine already well ahead of him, the two goddesses swimming with an elegance that was matched only by their sheer strength, which was put on full display a moment later as each of the young females seized one of the titanic shutters and pushed back against them, muscles bulging explosively as the colossal walls first stopped in place, then began to open again, sparkles flying from the many enormous engines that desperately tried to push in the opposite direction. Magic runes glowed brightly over the dark stone, but even the power of the Scholars could nothing against the two females, and Killer grinned widely when Mriya suddenly slammed her fist into the shutter and sent it shooting back along its rails like a rocket that nobody could hope to stop: when it slammed at the end of the rails it tore right through and collapsed heavily on itself, sinking towards the bottom of the sea. Elaine followed her example a moment later, making sure that nobody would ever be able to seal them out of the tunnel again, and Killer turned his attention to another Ship Eater which was diving deep, attempting to vanish into the darkness far below. Pamela pursued another, and Mriya and Elaine had already gotten into the thick of the confused, chaotic underwater fight while Alexis spread her arms and unleashed a terrifying ripple of power that seemed to travel through the whole ocean, cracking the cliff behind her and crushing the demons and monstrosities all around her into nothing but a cloud of crimson fluid, her eyes glowing with such ferocity that they remained visible, blindingly luminous and scary in their cold, unforgiving beauty, even through the flood of gore and blood that surrounded her. "Come to me, bugs" Her voice called, booming through the ocean, louder than thunder, as the cliff behind her disintegrated in a hailstorm of stone fragments, while thousands upon thousands of monstrosities were violently yanked up from the dark depths beneath, even as they squealed in terror and desperately tried to swim towards the bottom, before even the gargantuan Ship-Eaters began to move absurdly backwards, even as their long, massive tails whip-lashed savagely through the non-water.

Alexis spread her arms and flexed, muscles bulging, terrible power thrumming in her form as the Middle Sea boiled and quaked, the non-waters starting to circle powerlessly around her, a gigantic, fearsome vortex forming as the tide was dragged back away from the beach, so much so that the Disciples fighting in shallow water suddenly found themselves standing on muddy ground, and the creatures of the deep winced and fell over, looking back in shock as the ocean seemed to shrink away rapidly, while horrible clouds of crimson fluid came up to the rippling surface. Bolts of crackling, godlike energy shot through the sea as Alexis threw her head backwards and laughed, hands balling up into fists... and immediately, hundreds of the monstrous creatures that were powerlessly spinning up towards her exploded into bursts of pulped gore, as if they were nothing but grapes in her hands. Hundreds became thousands, thousands became tens of thousands and more as the entire ocean writhed and trashed around, slave to her whims, forced to bow down in front of her terrifying strength as the sharks, the bug-like monstrosities, mutant tentacle-beasts and other horrors were dragged up from the depths of that infernal place and torn to gory bits and chunks as they slammed into the solid blasts of pure force radiating off her, before she grinned and lazily pointed one hand towards a colossal, massive Cetus, the mountain-dwarfing monster letting out a shriek of agony as its long bug-legs closed up on themselves, its hard exoskeleton audibly groaning and creaking before shattering in a hailstorm of tiny fragments, while its insides broke down into chunks of ugly pale flesh and a jelly of pulped gore. "So easy... boring, almost..." The goddess mocked, grinning widely as another Cetus savagely swung its deadly, immense scorpion-tail against her while spinning helplessly up from the darkness of the deep, but the building-sized stinger crashed into a solid wall of her energy and just disintegrated with a loud crunch, before she rested her hands on her hips and just snickered as she used her psychic force to grab the long spider-legs, tearing them off its body, one by one, completely ignoring the pointless assaults of the other beasts around her, which only managed to commit suicide as they came too close to the incandescent, brutal power she radiated. She made an idle slapping gesture and the Cetus was knocked sideways with incredible force and brutality, its head smashing into the cracked cliff hard enough to send a large chunk of the rocky wall collapsing while the monster's thick skull caved inwards with a sick crunch, followed by others as Alexis yanked the beast back only to slam it into the wall once more, the long legs of the mutant writhing wildly through the non water before suddenly stretching outwards in their full length, trembling violently for a few instants... before curling as the beast's head completely shattered and its corpse sunk rapidly towards the bottom. "The Middle Sea never yields, they say... but it will bow to me, or perish in a futile attempt to resist!" Alexis announced, and her bemused, cold voice carried such power with it that even Killer winced, feeling a tsunami wave of her energies washing over him with a hot, violent crackle, while uncountable shark beasts and other mutants shrieked before bursting apart in yet more clouds of blood and ichors and gore, the sea around them by now solid crimson as Alexis licked her lips and hungrily ran one bloodied hand down her face, neck, cleavage and abs, painting a red streak across her spectacular form, before she pointed her other hand at the Ship Eater which was further away from her, the one which had almost got away but that now, despite its best efforts to swim away, was being dragged forcefully back towards her, like seemingly everything else in that dark pit of suffering. With terrifying ease, Alexis spread the fingers of her hand and made a clawing gesture, and blood exploded thickly out of five holes on top of the titanic's worm head, his armour caving inwards and breaking like paper before she easily yanked her arm back, bicep bulging with terrible, godlike power, and the ugly, huge wounds on the back of the worm stretched wider and longer, tearing down along its spine, from head to tail, severing its body into literal slices that fell away in a cloud of blood and gore, while the non-waters of the Middle Sea instantaneously flooded the vast, hollow insides of the beast, washing out a whole legion of clones and war machines that writhed in agony and panic while drowning, even as all of them were caught in Alexis's terrible power, dragged up towards her just to be smashed backwards in a slurry of broken pieces of meat by the terrible force thrumming through her muscular, beautiful body.

Killer looked up towards her in a mix of awe, envy and arousal, his own energies crackling violently around his form, eager to be unleashed, but he couldn't help but hesitate, because his self-control was not as good as hers. That was why he envied her: she was always ahead of him in training, able to push the boundaries further, to dare more with her terrifying power, to use more of her great strength without losing control. Ironically, Alexis had explained to him that she found it much easier to chase worries and fears away because she knew he would always be there to keep her in line with his strong hand. A hand she knew stronger than even hers.

The huge male growled, angry at himself for his failure in clearing his mind, in establishing firm, unequivocal control over himself... Dark Killer, the malignant voice in the darkness of his soul, was always there, sometimes louder and easier to hear, sometimes more distant and muffled, but never really far. He stabbed Wyvern into the side of the gigantic Ship Eater he had been pursuing, his muscles bulging explosively as he drove the huge weapon deep through the armour, through the pale flesh, pushing down all the way to the hilt and then allowing his energies to flow through the sword. The mutant beast howled in agony as its flesh sizzled and smoldered, and Killer grinned viciously as he began to drag the heavy sword upwards, until a massive blade of golden energy shot through the opposite side of the horrible worm, then cut out of its back, severing the beast in two halves that writhed violently, arching in a jolt of agony even as they began to rapidly sink into the darkness.

Pamela, Mriya and Elaine dispatched the other living transports before they could get away, but as they began to make their way towards the tunnel a new horde of furious, drooling beasts came up from the bottom of the Middle Sea, including the largest Cetus they had ever seen, an immense monstrosity covered in scars and old wounds that had been clearly collected in fights against its brethrens. They all turned to face the new horde, and Killer made a grimace as a tangle of enormous tentacles jutting with cruel spike-bones twisted out of the darkness and stretched towards him, hurriedly swinging Wyvern down to chop those that came closer before tossing a sphere of focused energy into another, dissolving it in a huge explosion... which only made him hiss in horror as the flash of golden light illuminated an ungodly, indescribable tangle of bodies and tentacles coming up from the deep. The gigantic appendages surrounded them from all sides as loud, sinister howls and shrieks echoed in their ears, before hundreds of heavy, electrified spears and throwing axes rushed against them, leaving behind trails of bubbles. Killer knocked a group of spears back with a swing of Wyvern, then snagged another before it could pierce into his chest, spun it around and viciously stabbed it through the skull of a massive shark-beast, stomping his foot hard on the skull of another which reached up for his legs, trying to pierce into his thighs with large, rusty daggers. In mere instants, he was swarmed over by countless bodies that moved in and out of his field of view, clawing and piercing and slashing weapons of all kinds against him, even as every hard swing of Wyvern sent a slurry of bloody body parts sinking away, the non-water around him turning crimson, before he roared and kicked himself backwards, away from that assault, allowing his tentacles to push out of his back and of his arms, shooting through the sharks and beasts all around, ripping and tearing, slashing through the mass of bodies and turning it into a thick red fog.

Alexis looked down towards the new masses of monsters, grinning gamely as she shoved her palm out and sent an overwhelming explosion of psychic force tearing through one of the massive Cetus monstrosities, crunching its thick exoskeleton and sending the soft insides bursting out through the cracks and joints, but then she turned around to face the tunnel as ghost images filled her mind, alerting her to the incoming threat. A group of monstrously oversized Ship-Eaters were rushing towards her from inside the underground facility, and it looked like none of them was a "normal" transport. They were completely plated over with massive blocks of dark metal alloy, with a spiked rostrum pushing out in front of the already fearsome circular jaws. Overlapping metallic fangs formed a triangular beak that could tear through any ship, any structure, before snapping open to further destroy its target and reveal the monstrous jaws beneath. Fortified superstructures had been built all over the immense beast's body, turning it into an ungodly, supernatural battleship, or a mobile fortress fraught with guns sticking out of hatches in the sides or arming enormous, heavily armoured turrets. Instead of filling them up with troops to be landed on the shores of Heaven, Hell had filled those particularly enormous beasts with nothing but power cores, both technological and magic; weapons and ammunition, turning them into true engines of destruction. Who knows how their species work...? How come these worms are so much larger than the others? Are they the males...? Or is it the female that is larger...? Alexis idly wondered for a moment, before frowning at her own curiosity and focusing instead on a barrage of super-cavitating torpedoes that rushed towards her in their weird case of bubbling air, which reduced the attrition and allowed them to move at speeds unimaginable for something in direct contact with the water. Even with their rocket propulsion, they still looked motionless to the goddess, who was able to effortlessly, elegantly move up to them, snorting in contempt as she seized the first by the pointy, conical head, her bicep bulging with her tremendous strength as she stopped it dead motionless, even as the rockets burned itself out, rattling the rear of the missile until the flame vanished, just like that of a candle. "You are so pathetic..." The femme fatale mocked, smirking before easily shoving the torpedo backwards, sending it hurling through the sea at a speed far greater than that given by the rocket, before it impacted into the side of one of the battle-worms and exploded, denting the heavy plates of armor and causing the beast to sway sideways with a howl of rage, pain and confusion, his senses way too slow to keep track of the goddess's movements as she went from torpedo to torpedo, easily punting them all back against the living battleships, tormenting them with a barrage of explosions, before she bolted forwards, emerging through the last few blasts with her fist cocked back and loaded, her muscles bulging and rippling with vigor as the cannons fired and struck her uselessly with hypersonic darts of dark metal which bent out of shape and bounced back like weak straws, unable to even bruise her as she smashed her punch down into one of the huge gun turrets, crumpling the colossal box of metal like it was a mere tin can, before she advanced against the second tower, clawing into its roof and peeling it open like a banana, laughing mercilessly at the clone Gigataurs inside, which burst apart in splatters of red fluid with just the weight of her gaze, her eyes burning a cold, merciless sapphire.

She walked easily onwards to the next turret in line and seized into it with a snarl, easily yanking it out of its well, hefting the massive structure above her head and hurling it into another of the living battleships, striking it with the violence of a meteor, sending it swerving out of course with a howl of pain, before a third beast flanked the one she was standing upon, allowing the full firepower of its broadside to rumble against her, but the goddess barely lifted her muscular arm, shielding her eyes as if annoyed by an intense sunray, otherwise ignoring the storm of fire and steel as she walked up to another gun turret and crushed it on itself until blood sprayed out where the joints between a plate and another exploded open.

The armoured worm beneath her feet angrily spun around to try and unsaddle her, its huge body twisting and trashing around as the beast bent backwards and snapped its jaws down towards her, but the goddess caught the metallic beaks in her hands, snarling as she was violently shoved backwards for a few feet, until her thighs flexed and bulged with power, her arms tensing and the dark alloy groaning in agony as it was bent and deformed by her powerful grip. The gigantic beast shrieked angrily in her face, snapping its jaws furiously but unable to reach her, until it opened its mouth wide, and Alexis grunted as she stared down its gullet to see saw countless power cores glowing with malignant energy that crackled loudly as it flooded through lenses of crystal, forming an enormous, terrible beam of destructive force.

It shot forwards with a deafening crackle, and Alexis ducked with a snarl, going into a slide down the metallic deck and smashing her fist upwards with all her terrible force, striking under the jaw of the beast and shattering the bone into a hailstorm of fragments that pelted the palate of the monster, his mouth closing with a splatter of blood and pieces of bone and cartilage just as the terrible beam of energy shot out. The worm's mouth exploded outwards in a cloud of crimson, the flesh burning, the metal melting, the bone dissolving as the Ship Eater howled in agony and trashed violently in the water, spinning on itself even as the ray of energy continued to fire out of its insides, cutting through everything it touched, dissolving shark beasts and other monstrosities all around.

Alexis allowed herself to slide down one side of the monster, ignoring the cannons that fired into her and only focusing on getting away from the energy beam, before she straddled the massive beast's flexing body, squeezing into it with her mighty legs and with her arms, snarling as yanked the worm's shattered head upwards, her fangs gritting in a vicious grin as she forced the beast to twist to the side, aiming the blade of energy against the other living battleship, severing it in two from head to tail, before it exploded in a colossal, terrifying blast that seemed to illuminate the whole Middle Sea as well as sending large, ominous cracks tearing open in the structure of the monumental tunnel leading into the underground facility.

The explosion greedily ate many of the smaller beasts, dissolving them out of existence in a blinding flash of light before scattering the others with its huge shockwave, but the largest of the mutants only recoiled for a moment, and Alexis winced as the remaining living battleships savagely assaulted the one she was riding, biting into its body, tearing large chunks of ugly pale flesh off, their rotating, twisting jaws grinding huge metal plates into nothing but thin shavings before three, then four beams of focused energy shot through the agonizing beast, tearing it into chunks. The goddess kicked off its body as it literally began to melt, the heat rising to unbearable levels, and as she swiftly moved away from the other beasts she was tracked by the countless magical eyes that blinked sinisterly down the miles-long bodies of the worms, as well as by the electro-optical and sonar sensors built with the latest mortal technology. Cannons trailed on her immediately, blasting forth a never ending deluge of fire and steel, their barrages so intense that, even though the shells couldn't really hurt her, she was slammed backwards out of the tunnel, just as two of the terrifying monsters opened their jaws, light flooding the dark sea as the crystal lenses were rapidly supercharged. The muscular femme fatale snarled and spread her arms wide before swinging them hard forwards, and the two gigantic beasts were smashed into each other with a wail of pain and rage and surprise, their focused lasers shooting off target and skywards, tearing out of the sea and into the sky, and the goddess immediately gripped into them with fearsome psychic force, twisting the two worms together like they were two ropes, her godlike strength tying up the two sea serpents in a tight, painful knot that sinisterly resounded with the crunching and cracking of bones and the groaning and bending of metal, but immediately she had to rise her hands in front of her, forming a barrier of dark energy as a third living battleship lunged towards her and vomited a huge beam of focused force, impacting her shield with enough force to slam her backwards through the sea as the laser first cracked, then began to eat through the shield... but the muscular goddess continued to wear her snarling grin as she closed her eyes and visualized the raw energy in front of her, absorbing it up through her arms, biceps bulging explosively, veins pumping and adrenaline rushing through her whole form as she hissed in a mix of pain and pleasure, her nervous system burning but her power hungrily predating on the force of her enemies, only making her stronger, her abs flexing and her back arching as she let out a roar of triumph, leaning forwards with a hard shove that broke the beam into feather-like motes of energy as her own terrible force slammed into the living battleship and crumbled all of the crystal lenses, a tremble going down the body of the beast before it exploded in a huge nebula of pale gunk and blood.

The goddess flexed her spectacular musculature with a smirk, energy crackling around her arms and the smaller beasts now carefully avoiding her if they could, trying to stay as far from her body as they could, because the non-waters of the Middle Sea still spun around her, slave to her incredible strength, and whoever dared getting too close was yanked forcefully towards her and then crushed out of existence by the immense energy she radiated. She easily kept the remaining living battleships at bay, gripping into one with her psychic force and slamming the beast violently into the wall of the tunnel, again, again and again, blood spraying out in thick red clouds as the stone and concrete cracked and shattered while the beast was pulped, piece by piece. She was like a cat playing with little lizards, a predator taking cruel fun out of her preys, but not without purpose, as she turned slightly back to gaze down at Killer, who was beating back the endless horde of furious monstrosities coming up from the darkness of the seabed, so many miles below them. Come on, Lion... let go. Forget your worries. Lock them away. We need you to up your game. She bit her lower lip, considering the option of urging him on directly, speaking into his mind. She could do that easily, but she decided not to. He had to do it on his own, without external pressure: he would never hold a grudge against her for intervening, yet she knew all too well how much it would sting to have her giving him directions. She hoped and believed that her display of power and easy control would have proved encouraging enough on its own. Come on, Lion... just do it! The goddess moved forwards through the non-water, smirking mercilessly as the worm-battleships recoiled, swimming backwards and bumping into each other as they tried to escape her, all their artillery pieces blazing and hitting her again and again, but she only grinned wider, her body doubling in height in the space of an instant, muscles bulging explosively as reality around her trembled violently and ripped like plastic, the walls of the tunnel crumbling into nothing but clouds of dust and sand as the terrible force radiating off her stretched the passage even larger, shattering the solid stone, breaking it down into pieces that were violently slammed away from her, the dry land above their heads shattering, large cracks tearing open in every direction as new, tall cliffs and mountains and monoliths of stone spiked up, pushed by her terrifying power, as the demons and clones and war machines that had been charging over that stretch of land were suddenly knocked skywards, sent crashing on their sides or upside down, bodies flying up in pieces or vanishing in splatters of red as they were caught between two moving boulders, or swallowed into the cracks, or simply dissolved by a burning eruption of her force. She laughed as she reached the first living battleship and easily crashed its skull inwards with a punch, her voice echoing across the dark sea as she dragged her mighty, bloodied fist back only to smash it down once more, and again, and again, the crunches soon becoming wet, loud squelches as she beat the massive beast down to a pulp.

Killer growled in a mix of hunger and frustration, clearly feeling every terrible ripple of power coming from Alexis, her strength so great and unforgiving, and yet so clearly restrained, measured, held back: it was clear from the sheer force she radiated that there was so much more power that she could use to punish and destroy, and Killer couldn't help but envy her and admire her and love her, his eyes burning as he wrestled back the gigantic, diamond-encrusted pincers of the gargantuan, scarred Cetus. The beast was hardened by a whole life spent in the deepest corners of the Middle Sea, subject to hellish pressures, to the full weight of the ocean and of its non-waters, and its exoskeleton was so thick and so tempered that it seemed able to shrug off pretty much anything, easily resisting to the bolts shot from Pamela's poleaxe. The huge male liger growled in fury and frustration as the gigantic pincers snapped once more, the spikes and diamonds outgrowths covering them tearing into the palms of his hands and grinding into bone as the cruel tentacles around the beast's mouth stretched towards him, their bone-spikes ripping into his legs and scratching loudly against his armor, while the titanic scorpion tail of the mutant whip-lashed hard against Mriya, forcing the goddess to catch the stinger in her hands, her muscles bulging as she shoved hard back to keep it from piercing into her chest, the colossal spike larger by far than her whole body.

Killer snarled furiously at that, and finally he took the conscious, coldly aware decision of opening the floodgates... of tearing the goddamn Cetus apart... and everything else with it, turning the entire Middle Sea into a desert if he had to... He decided he wanted to match Alexis's display. No, not match it, but outmatch it. He gritted his fangs in a snarling grin, licking his lips as his back arched and his muscles flexed and bulged while his height increased rapidly, more than trebling in the space of a blink, his hands suddenly able to apply a lot more pressure around the massive pincers, so much so that they snapped like twigs in his grip, and he spun the broken ends tip-down. They were like scythes with cruel, saw-toothed blades encrusted with sharp, deadly diamonds, and he stabbed both hard through the monster's skull, cracking the hard bone as blood sprayed out all over his chest.

He twisted the cruel weapons into the wounds, grinning viciously as they pierced deeper inside the soft insides of the beast, and his musculature flexed and bulged even larger, thrumming with immense, terrible power as he closed his eyes with a snarling laugh, energy exploding out of him in enormous bolts that tore into the gigantic crusher-claw of the Cetus, knocking it backwards, away from the liger, while the thick exoskeleton loudly cracked and each fissure glowed bright white, superheating in one instant. The Cetus howled in agony and shock, swinging its colossal pincher-claw against Killer, but when it snapped closed it scratched painfully into a solid bubble of golden flames, which exploded outwards a moment later, rapidly dissolving the enormous claw and dozens of the smaller shark-beasts that had been circling around, tossing their spears against the liger's back and slamming their heavy weapons into him. Now the sharks and other mutants did their best to swim away from the dark god, but Killer did not grant them any chance of survival as he threw his head backwards with a roar and black flames burst into being around him, first reaching hungrily outwards in an explosion that somehow illuminated the entire ocean all around even as it created the deepest, most cruel of darkness in the epicenter. It greedily devoured everything that didn't manage to get far away in time, including the front half of the Cetus's gigantic body, leaving the tail to sink lifelessly towards the seabed, before the dark fire imploded, retreating violently back inside Killer's body and creating a terrifying, unforgiving gravity force that sucked thousands and thousands of creatures into a veritable maelstrom of destruction. They were yanked hard into solid walls of power thrumming violently out of him, and blood and gore flew from each savage impact as their bodies bounced bonelessly backwards only to be dragged upwards again, torn apart and destroyed, pieces of gore and wrecked weapons and plates of armor flying in every direction while Killer's sizes increased rapidly, reality trembling around him as in the space of a blink he stood ten times greater, ripples of tremendous force traveling across the entire ocean as he flexed and gazed idly at his hands, snickering darkly as the Middle Sea's monsters were ground into mincemeat all around him, his power pulsating off him with devastating force.

"You heard Alexis, your only goddess, your empress, your mistress... you will bow to us and pray for mercy, or you will all be destroyed." The huge male softly said, the calm in his tone only making his message even more devastatingly powerful, his words echoing louder than thunder in their minds as his eyes burned bright sapphire, glowing with such ferocity that the monsters caught in his gaze trembled violently and then were enveloped by dark, unforgiving flames that burned them all down to ashes. He turned his gaze onto the largest beasts coming up from the depths of the ocean and, for the first and probably last time ever, he almost felt pity for the unlucky, tormented creatures of that infernal dimension. Their world was so hostile, unwelcoming, dark and torturing that their endless rage and mindless savagery could be understood, and now, as he glared down at them while they were torn apart by his tremendous force, and he was almost tempted to show them mercy. Almost. They still snarled at him with indescribable fury, drooling and growling mindlessly, and he only needed to think of the pain that the non-waters of that infernal sea caused him to feel his own rage swelling. He pointed his hands down at the armada of Cetus and Ship-Eaters in front of him and snarled with savage satisfaction as their hard exoskeletons cracked and broke into pieces, enormous chunks falling off as legs and scorpion tails whipped back and forth through the non-water, the beasts howling in denial and agony, the giant worms curling up on themselves even as they burst apart, spilling gore and pulped meat all around... and as Killer shoved them back towards the depths they had come from, shoving his hands closer and compressing them all into a tangle of pain and misery and crunching bones, the Middle Sea began to swirl around him in a violent vortex, the non-water itself pulling back away from him as if in terror of the energies pulsing out of his massive form. Within moments, the sea split apart, and Killer threw his head backwards with a grin and a sigh of relief as the torturing non-water was forcefully shoved towards the shore, rising up in tall, roaring walls on all sides, as a gigantic hole formed in the ocean, reaching all the way down to the bottom.

Immediately, Alexis was at his side, floating easily in midair and seeming to bathe in the energies radiating off him, like he was a new sun and she was tanning with his rays, crossing her mighty arms and tilting her head slightly to the side, smirking as she admired his immense power in action. Pamela, Mriya and Elaine rapidly made their way into the shaft of fresh air, delighted to finally be out of that liquid inferno and fascinated and emboldened by their father and master's strength.

"I'm tempted to drain this disgusting swamp for good..." Killer muttered, but he wasn't serious about it. He needed no reminder of the importance of that dark dimension, so hostile and impassable, to keep Hell and Heaven well separated. No, they still needed the Middle Sea... but now that so much power flowed in his veins, he couldn't help but crave control of the entire ocean. Why not? It was not like anything could stop him... it was only right that those puny creatures should bow before him. "... but I will just conquer it, instead; make it mine."

Alexis grinned in dark delight at that, nodding in agreement and licking her lips as Killer flexed his enormous musculature and sent a tremendous shockwave of sheer power exploding towards the depths of the dimension, shattering the seabed, crumbling stone into dust, causing many of the Cracks to break apart and collapse on themselves, closing the passages that linked Hell's and Heaven's planes. The seabed was stomped down with such terrifying force that the ocean became deeper and wider, and the non-waters took on a new kind of glint as they crackled with his terrible energies, as entire populations of monsters looked up at him with slavish adoration and submission, their eyes burning sapphire as his dominance inscribed itself deep into their brains, the message burning into their brains, impossible to delete.

And then, to cement forever his domination over the Middle Sea, he clenched his hands into fists and crushed the tangle of Cetuses and Ship-Eaters into a broken pile of bones, the flesh melting away and dissolving, leaving behind enormous skeletons that floated upwards as Killer turned to the side and smiled to Alexis, nuzzling her lovingly. "There is a little tradition that we have started, and that I like to keep going..." He teased, and the goddess smirked, her eyes glowing sapphire as she seized into the enormous, ivory skeletons, murring lightly in her throat as she shrunk them down, and, with an easy flick of her wrist, sent the skeletons twisting together until they formed a ring, lined with ribs and decorated with monstrous skulls. "That's exactly it, Lion... the world is ours, and the Middle Sea cannot hope to be an exception." Alexis said, grinning widely as she held out her hand, the new ring floating meekly onto her palm as demons, angels, Disciples and monsters stared with the same awe, the battle on the coast ending abruptly as they all admired the two great gods as they tamed and conquered the dark dimension that even God had never been able to explore fully, and less than ever control. They could only gape in shock and awe as Alexis elegantly bent forwards and spread her toes, faking thoughtfulness for a few brief moments about what toe to select, until she slid the ring on the left index toe, right next to the ring made with the bones of Hades, conquered Prince of Hell and divinity of death. She grinned as she gazed idly down at her growing collection of rings, and then straightened with a grin, cracking her neck and rolling her shoulders slowly, her voice carrying over the sea and the land even though she spoke softly: "Another one in place... and more to follow." She turned her gaze to the legions of clones, abominations and war machines swarming over the coast and crowding the devastated land in front of the trenches, and the effect was tremendous, as hundreds of the beasts were battered back, broken in bloody pieces or even entirely dissolved, crushed into the ground by her terrible psychic force... and she only had to point a finger to summon several gigantic Cetuses, which crawled out of the Middle Sea and easily walked over and past the Dark Wings and Disciples on the shore to claw and stomp and stab into the legions of demons and bio-cyber weapons.

Killer watched the immense beasts advancing, tearing through the enemy legions, relatively slow but unstoppable, shrugging off most of the enemy fire like it was a cool breeze and landing terrifying blows that sent clouds of dust, dirt and blood exploding skywards, while Ira, Vesta and the other Disciples led the charge and cut their way through the enemies like scythes into corn. It was nice, for once, to not be on the receiving end of a Cetus assault... and he smirked in entertainment, gazing briefly down at Alexis's toes before asking: "Is the right big toe reserved for Thanathos...?"

The muscular goddess murred in amusement and nodded, confirming: "I can never keep a secret from you, Lion..." Then she flexed, arching her back with a little growl of eager delight at her own terrible strength, and gazed over his monumental, gigantic form with a wide grin. "It feels fantastic to let loose, doesn't it...? I was starting to fear you'd never loosen up your chains."

"I have... more work to do on self-control. It is a struggle to stay sane." Killer admitted, rubbing a hand over his forehead as Dark Killer laughed darkly inside it, his voice echoing loudly across his brain, urging him to conquer, to destroy, to ruin, to desecrate. He gazed in the distance, over the Central Spire of Hell, the one fortress that still resisted him... but even that didn't look so impressive now, as he flexed his arms out of sheer excessive vigor, grinning cruelly at the thought of Satan, high king of Hell, hiding in the humongous fortress, too scared to come out and fight him, even as he conquered province after province. He grinned, knowing that it was only a matter of time before he would claw into the barrier protecting the Spire and rip it to shreds like it was a mere curtain. He only needed to master a bit more of his abilities... but as soon as he thought of that, his mind filled with images of what little remained of Heaven, as well, and he almost grimaced in contempt at how weak and puny everything looked to his eyes. How frail... I could turn everything into dust with the flick of a finger... And the few monasteries and castles still remaining, or the ruins of the white towers and the remainders of shiny, glorious cathedrals made him almost ferally ferocious. Their purity somehow offended him, made him angry, as he imagined them splattered with blood, stained with gore instead, filled of crying bugs hiding in the dark corners to avoid being stomped out of existence as he walked by... oh, the temptation was incredible. He was using such a small percentage of his full potential, and already the world looked pitifully vulnerable. What could ever hope to stand up to him if he ever got close to one hundred percent...? He'd be able to topple the Spire with just an idle shove.

But as he thought of that, crimson eyes opened in his mind and stared at him with malignant glee, and fangs gritted in a cruel grin, glowing like stars into pitch black darkness, and he immediately shoved back against that vision, shaking his head slowly. "Let's get on with the job." He simply said, and Alexis nodded, having clearly felt the mental shudder he had just repressed. No comment was needed, and they just floated downwards through the deep well of clear air, as the waters of the Middle Sea continued to swirl around them in a vortex, surrounding them like titanic, impossible walls of liquid... but at least now the uncountable beasts that still crowded the sea stood guard to protect them, instead of assaulting them with savage ferocity. They quickly reached the shattered, damaged entrance to the tunnel, and flew down its length for many miles, wondering at the sheer scale of Satan's project. It was impossible to imagine how many years had occurred to dig such a monumental passage, and to build up its armoured walls, hundreds of feet thick and reinforced with a skeleton of dark alloy beams that Alexis's earlier rage had exposed by shattering the lodestone and the concrete. Titanic gates, massive and heavy enough to stand up even to the rage of the Ship-Eaters, stood in the way at regular intervals, but Alexis blew them to bits one after the other, smirking as the huge bars of metal groaned and tore, bending out of the way without her needing to lift a finger.

And then, finally, after breaking through yet another gate, they flew out of the tunnel and found themselves in a monumental underground port, a sort of artificially-made cave so enormous that the roof far above was almost invisible in the darkness. Enormous piers of steel extended from a waterfront that was uncountable miles long: Killer looked to the left, then to the right, and counted at least twenty piers, with several further away. The underwater basin was vast enough to allow one Ship-Eater to dock at the end of each pier, its mouth open wide, a steel drawbridge hooked unceremoniously into its jaws to prevent them from closing while the clones marched into their living transports. All the non-water was now gone, however, having retreated out of the tunnel due to Killer's strength, and the few Ship-Eaters still in place were nervously snarling and growling, drooling around the sturdy structures that forced their mouths open. The horrible super-worms could live and prosper even out of the water, and if they wanted they could even dig underground and push far inland, as they had discovered when some had literally dug their way into a walled colony in Heaven, many miles away from the shore of the Middle Sea, but that was not natural for them. Without the Spirit computer system hooked into their spines and connected to their nervous system, they would have never thought of crawling out of their dark sea. In some ways, the Ship-Eaters were victims, but it was just plain difficult to feel any sympathy for such ugly, dangerous and ferocious monstrosities.

Killer and Alexis landed near one of the huge piers, their boots clanking sinisterly on the reinforced concrete floor of the immense basin, and Mriya, Elaine and Pamela followed a moment later, watching around themselves in amazement at the sheer immensity of the base. Alarm sirens were blaring across the facility, loudspeakers were barking orders for the garrison, and they could clearly hear thousands of stomping feet on the top of the pier, while seeing other troops taking position all along the waterfront. They silently moved towards the base of the great waterfront wall, where they couldn't be easily seen, but the enemies knew they were there somewhere and began throwing grenades over the edge, bombarding them ceaselessly, the explosions echoing across the immense cave and the incandescent shrapnel bouncing against their bodies, making Mriya snort in contempt and annoyance rather than in pain. "What are they trying to do, giving us headache with all the noise...?" Elaine grumbled, similarly unimpressed, and Pamela smirked a little and shrugged, offering: "Well, they are a bit short on options at this point. The Ship-Eater battleships got slaughtered, and now they are clutching at straws."

Almost immediately, however, jets of Unworld Residue fired past the edge of the waterfront, and the terribly destructive goo cascaded down in front of them, the concrete sizzling audibly as it was almost instantaneously dissolved, and each drop of the stuff that splattered up into them had them hissing in pain as it burned its way through armor, clothes, flesh and muscle with the same horrible ease. "Let's get up there and slaughter them all." Mriya urged, but Alexis held up one finger to ask for a moment of patience, her other hand pointed towards the nearby piers... and the goddess grinned as the titanic pillars of reinforced concrete rattled violently and then shattered into gravel, before the heavy bridge decks swung up like the arms of catapults, throwing entire platoons of clones back towards the base, sending them crashing in the walls like meteors, before the gigantic slabs of steel and concrete fell down onto the waterfront, crushing hundreds more out of existence, sending a cloud of blood and gore bursting up into the air. Immediately, Alexis turned her attention towards the captive Ship Eaters, and her eyes narrowed as she fought to override and drown out the signals of the Spirit devices installed into them. Normally, she wouldn't even try: being a bank of computers, it wasn't too vulnerable to her psychic powers and could stand up to her remarkably well, especially if the beast fought back and forced her attention to split on doing too many things at once. But now, with the beasts restrained and her energies pumping in her veins, she knew she could fry the damn things... and she did. It took her just a brief moment of struggling, and then she pointed her finger towards the gigantic chains and restraints that held the remaining Ship-Eaters captive, and the steel melted and snapped apart as her psychic force pulled. The gigantic monsters were released, their Spirit devices burned out so that the enemies could no longer boss them around like remote-control toys, and they darted forth with roars of fury and outrage, their destructive hunger awakened by the crowd of clones on the jetty.

Loud screams immediately rose from the surviving clones and warriors on the waterfront as they saw the colossal worms lunging forwards, the cruel jaws snatching up dozens, even hundreds of bodies at a time and turning them all into nothing but mincemeat in the space of a blink, before the enormous beasts slithered up over the wall, crushing everything and everyone which didn't get out of the way quickly enough. "There, that will save us a lot of time." Alexis cheerfully commented, and Killer looked idly up at the cascade of blood rolling down from the top of the wall, half-smiling and half-grimacing as he playfully remarked: "You are scary."

"Thank you, lover. It's how I like to be." Alexis said, smiling and winking at him before effortlessly jumping up on top of the wall, leading them onto the vast jetty, now cluttered with rubble and pieces of the piers she had destroyed, blood covering the concrete pavement and flowing into every crack and fissure, literal lakes of the crimson fluids slowly but steadily expanding from beneath the mountains of rubble. There was no telling how many clones had been caught like mice in a trap and squished, but clearly the numbers were high. Further ahead, the jetty was covered in containers and crates full of ammunition, stores, weapons and parts. A vast area to the right was clearly a depot for the raw materials used for the production of weapons and armor, and there were huge ingots of the synthetic, factory-produced Godblood arranged in perfect rows, looking a bit like tombs in a graveyard. A huge building nearby, looking very much like a nuclear-resistant bunker thanks to the enormous, thick walls of reinforced concrete and armour plates, was one of the factories that produced the Godblood and the other, newer metallic alloys that Satan's scientists and mages were trying to perfect. There were other ugly, boxy buildings all around, arranged in neatly ordered blocks: the foundry block, next to the ingots depot, was easily identified by the huge chimneys that spewed out tall flames, dark and smelly smoke and that made the cave torturingly hot and humid and malodorous. Long conveyor belts coming out of the foundries carried the ingots directly to the depot, while the metal still glowed faintly with heat. The nearby two blocks were composed of enormous factories that produced weapons and armor sets, and there too traveled on conveyor belts leading to the next area, where the clones were armed and clad into heavy plates of metal which were melted in place upon their skins.

Killer stared at all this with increasing horror, swallowing as he spotted mindless, confused clones, enormous draconic beasts covered in thick, steel-hard scales and bulging with massive muscles, waiting on their knees for their armor to be fitted, oblivious to the chaos of the battle going on just a few hundred meters away from them, as a group of Vanguards hosed down one Ship-Eater in ungodly volleys of Unworld Residue, melting it into black sludge even as it shrieked and cried and writhed, its immense body whip-lashing into one of the bunker-like factories and shattering the front wall in an explosion of fragments, tossing Gigataurs and even a giant Vanguard flying away like toys.

The liger made a grimace of horror and disbelief at the sight of those beings, artificially created and grown and enhanced only to serve as war machines and, ultimately, as expendable cannon fodder. He was curious about how the genetic laboratories looked like, and he wondered how those giants were born and grown so fast, but at the same time he really didn't want to discover it. It was going to be one sickening discovery.

His attention was caught by another kind of horror instead as he noticed Mriya looking towards some sort of colossal dry dock a few hundred feet to the right, a grimace of disgust on her face. He followed her gaze and recoiled a bit at the sight of an unconscious, motionless Ship-Eater almost completely covered in gigantic chains which glowed all over with runes charged with great magic. The only area not covered in truck-sized chain links was the top of the "head" end of the beast, which was sliced open for a length of perhaps a hundred feet, and spaced apart by large, bloodied steel hooks. The spine was visible, the massive vertebrae of metallic bone sticking out of the wound, and a series of huge Spirit devices were applied on the bone and hooked into the marrow, with countless wires, all protected by segmented, overlapping plates of armor, connecting into nervous terminations. The work was however clearly unfinished, and dozens of the tubes just dangled uselessly all around, while blood dripped slowly from a colossal sawblade with diamond edges, which had been used to slice the beast open. And, judging from the old, caked blood splattered all over the steel tower that held the sawblade aloft, it had been used to cut open many others, although not all: he could spot other ominous, bloodied towers in the distance. "Holy shit..."

"This place is a nightmare." Elaine muttered, and Mriya grunted in agreement as they walked towards the edge of the dry dock, which had its walls completely caked crimson with dried blood. A series of gangways led on top of the unconscious monster, and tools of all kinds had been hastily abandoned all around when the teams had been evacuated. There was a very good possibility that the "scientists" who had been working on the beast had ended their days melting like snow in the non-waters of the Middle Sea, amid mind-shattering suffering, and that thought was somewhat pleasant.

Killer walked up to a large trolley loaded with one section of the Spirit device, and he touched the ring of computers and encased power banks with mixed feelings, both admiring the technology and grimacing at the thought of how it was being used. Apparently, multiple computer banks were installed on multiple vertebrae within the Ship-Breakers, a sign perhaps of how hard it was to control the will of those gigantic creatures. He closed his eyes for a moment, and then quietly said: "Vesta..."

"Of course, Master." The goddess replied immediately after appearing with a crackle of energy, right at his side. With the tunnel's defences blown to bits, there was now a hole in the barrier that they could exploit to teleport back and forth as they pleased. "The others will be here in a moment. Our new friends are doing a plenty good job on their own, pushing Satan's legions back." The queen of Seraphims announced, walking up to the enormous Spirit device on the trolley and tilting her head from side to side as she studied the details, the tangles of cables and connections, mumbling under her breath.

"Do you think we could understand how it works, and override its effects...?" Killer asked, and Vesta pulled air in between her teeth before tilting her head to the side with a bit of a grimace, replying: "For sure we can understand how it works, but overriding it... I don't think we are going to have much luck there." She hefted the massive device without effort, her huge biceps barely flexing, unfazed by the monstrous weight of that heavily armoured ring of metal and circuitry, and then she gazed towards Alexis with a question in her eyes.

"I can fry the computers pretty easily if I have a moment of peace for doing it, but they know it, and normally take very good countermeasures to keep my mind busy." The goddess admitted, making a grimace as she added: "Besides, computers really do not act and react like actual minds. There are no feelings, no cravings I can work upon. I can't just... make them fall prey to lust, for example. They are tough to work with."

"Yeah, that's what I expected." Vesta sighed, before teleporting the Spirit device away, directly to her laboratory back in Eaglenest, for later examination, before walking past the trolley to see if there was anything else worth scavenging. Alexis looked thoughtful for a moment, then turned towards Killer and snorted: "You know who could probably mess these things up real good...?"

The huge male frowned in thought for a brief moment, but it didn't took much guessing to come up with one particular face, and with the memory of gleaming, lustful emerald eyes. "Vera Raider. The Suicide-Maker."

"Exactly." Alexis confirmed, nodding slightly, before adding with bitter irony: "Would be a good starting point, wasn't she one of the bad guys, and had we any idea of where to find her."

Killer nodded, then shrugged a bit as he added: "If she really wants us dead, she'll come to us herself, sooner or later. But the last time we met... I dunno. She didn't feel like a real enemy. I wish she had given me the chance to..."

"... fuck her brains out?" Vesta helpfully offered, grinning widely, and Killer glared at her flatly for a moment before snorting in amusement despite himself: "I certainly wouldn't mind that. But I was thinking more about talking, reasoning, and finding common ground. I really think she would help us, if given a choice."

"If you fuck her before or during the talking, she's changing sides for sure." Vesta insisted, cackling and swiftly getting out of range before he could knock onto her skull.

"She has a point, you know..." Alexis amusedly remarked, and Killer snorted in entertainment, but they went back to serious matters as Ira walked towards them, covered in blood that was most evidently not hers, a grimace of disbelief on her face as she exclaimed: "Fuck, this place is immense. I expected it to be big, sure, but this... it is something else."

"Very true. How do we proceed?" Vesta asked, before turning her gaze towards the vast, sprawling factories. "I would like to take a look around, to salvage any information and material that might prove useful... although I fear much of the truly important stuff was in the Ship-Eaters that tried to get away."

"They can't possibly have evacuated everything, though. This place is just too vast. We are bound to discover something." Pamela observed, and it was difficult not to agree. Killer accepted the implicit suggestion and said: "Okay, keep your eyes open. If you find something that looks important, teleport it back to Eaglenest. If in doubt, ask Vesta. But once you are satisfied that there is nothing else interesting, raze the building to the ground. Destroy everything. This nightmare has to end."

It took a few minutes for the other Disciples to arrive, but the plan took shape quite rapidly and within moments they had spaced out to cover as much ground as possible. The priority was finding Nikita and the others, and there had been no need to remark that point.

"Still nothing...?" Killer asked as he crossed Alexis's path after tearing apart one of the foundry blocks, and the goddess nodded with a grimace of frustration.

"Nothing. I can't feel their energies and locate them... yet something tells me that they are here, somewhere." The femme fatale said, before looking up past the buildings ahead, staring at a gigantic tower of crystal that extended all the way up to the ceiling far above. It crackled with terrible violet energies, and was surrounded by smaller blocks of colored crystal that orbited around it. There was also a multitude of tangles of enormous cables and tubes stretching up towards a nuclear reactor core built on the very top of the crystal obelisk. "That goddamn thing radiates so much energy that I just can't feel anything else with clarity."

Killer nodded, having no difficulties at all understanding her difficulties: the power coming from that enormous core combining magic and technology was enough to give him a savage headache and every pulse of energy made his ribcage tremble painfully in his chest. The amount of force that was generated by that plant was simply terrifying, and there could be no doubt about it being one of the several generators that kept the Central Spire shielded and impenetrable. Most of the energy it produced went into the barrier around the Spire, protecting Satan's castle, and the leftovers were still great enough to easily power the entire base. It left him staring in amazement, trying to imagine how many mortal countries could have been lit up with that single power core... and he soon realized that the needs of the entire mortal world would have been covered with just a fraction of the energy that radiated off the monolith of crystal.

"Virgil is there, isn't he...? Right by the power core." Killer calmly wondered, and Alexis nodded without hesitation, making a grimace as she added: "I'm sure he is. I'm sure he is trying to figure out how to absorb all that energy. Satan probably had entire research teams trying to find a way to do just that."

Killer bit his lower lip as they advanced into another foundry block, and he absently teleported away a whole array of ingots of metallic alloys of different colors, as well as a whole bunch of documents and annotations which might or might not be useful, before angrily tossing a small sphere of focused energy into one of the gigantic blast furnaces, disintegrating it in an enormous explosion which caused the wall beyond to explode outwards in a hail of fragments, pelting other buildings nearby and sending great clouds of dust rolling over the block. "You think that...?"

"No. We would know if they had discovered a way to do it... they would have already absorbed all the energy they could find, and then would have stomped us out. No, they have no idea how to get close to that crystal without being zapped to death." Alexis replied with a shrug, before glaring at the other half of the foundry, shattering it into pebbles and dust without even flexing a muscle, her arms crossed on her chest and legs spread wide as she gazed over her shoulder at him and remarked: "The only ones who could probably claw into that power core and suck it dry are you and me. That's why I bet he is just sitting there, waiting for us."

"And that's why he probably has Nikita, Valery, Crystal and Kate in chains and on their knees, right in front of him." Killer snarled, slamming his fist into the wall of the following building and breaking through the thick reinforced concrete like he would through a brittle biscuit, sending enormous boulders and sharp fragments exploding like shrapnel into the road beyond, pelting a group of Gigataurs, some of which were impaled by broken steel girders and others crushed into pulp against the bunker on the other side of the street. Alexis did not comment, sharing his same worry and knowing that there could be no plan to deal with that scenario. They could only get there and try to put things right, doing whatever they could. No word she could say would have added anything, or changed that uncomfortable truth, and so she just gritted her fangs instead, charging forwards through the dust and the still falling fragments, moving with such speed that pieces of concrete and several Gigataurs were blasted violently away from her, while the other clone warriors turned around in confusion and automatically took on a square formation, their huge shields forming solid walls of metal against aggression from all directions. Alexis had already gone into an elegant slide, however, grinning as she bent backwards to move under the edge of one of the circular shields, her hand reaching up to grab the massive, armoured Gigataur by the crotch, the clone letting out a grunt of pain that became a shriek as she shoved upwards and sent the enormous male flying up in the air, spinning over and falling heavily on top of one of his comrades. The formation tightened up as the Gigataurs attempted to close the gap in their lines, too slow to realize what had hit them, and already Alexis planted her feet into the ground and sprung up standing, catching two Gigataurs in front of her by the back of their skulls and dragging them with her, sending both crashing like meteors face-first into the pavement, blood spraying thickly upwards as a third of the massive warriors spun around, ditching the spear and drawing out his massive broadsword, lashing out a savage cut that Alexis ducked with a smirk, wrapping one arm around his waist and kicking both legs up as she spun around his body, kicking two other warriors flying in broken comets of blood and pieces of metal as she slipped upside-down and closed her mighty legs around the head of the confused Gigataur, dragging him around in a circle while she crushed the helmet and the skull into one messy paste, metal groaning and blood exploding out all over her thighs before she threw the corpse against the other huge clones.

She landed on her feet with a grin, covered in blood and with eyes flashing with entertainment, one leg kicking hard backwards as a Gigataur lunged forwards with a spear, catching him right in the chest and caving his armour inwards like it was made of plastic, the beast crashing backwards like a meteor and slamming two of his comrades into the wall. The others spaced out and turned against her, stabbing their massive spears forwards and sending lightning bolts exploding into her, but the goddess only snickered and shoved two fingers up, catching the largest of the heavily armoured super-soldiers into her psychic grip and slamming him hard against his comrades, bouncing him back and forth between her hand and his brethren, striking them down like nails with a hammer, blood spraying up all the way to the top of the walls on either side of the road and the concrete pavement cracking and crumbling as the Gigataurs were crushed into heaps of bloody pulp and bent metal plates. Alexis only stopped when the little that remained of her "hammer" literally leaked out of her psychic grip, the Gigataur reduced to nothing but a crimson mush.

More warriors rushed against her from the nearby crossroad between four of the factory blocks, and the huge blast-doors of the bunker-like factory slid open to let out a trio of massive Hellstorm guns, fast-firing rail guns with three rotating barrels and two colossal metallic legs that could allowed the artillery piece to deploy on any terrain, stomping out barriers, trees and small buildings if necessary.

"Bring it on, bitches!" Alexis teased, slamming one bloodied fist over her powerful abs, and the Gigataurs and Nightmares immediately opened fire with all of their machine guns and rocket launchers, before the first Hellstorm crouched down to stabilize itself and fired its first dart, the very air seeming to tear apart as a deafening crackle covered all other noises while a bus-sized shell perforated the wall of sound, hurled out of the crackling, electrified barrel at a speed no less than 8 times greater than that of sound.

And yet Alexis's eyes saw the dart coming, saw it spinning, and it looked almost pathetically slow to her as her senses tracked it, her eyes following the huge square barrels as they rotated, and a second dart exploded forth, then a third, while her hand reached up and glowed with her energies, first recoiling a bit as she caught all of the darts, her psychic force grinding them to an absurd stand-still in midair, before she shoved her palm hard forwards and sent the projectiles tearing through the Hellstorm, blowing huge holes in its legs and knocking one of the gigantic barrels spinning wildly into the sky, the other two bending out of shape. The titanic machine collapsed onto its knees, electricity exploding in bolts out of the damaged core and flames bursting into sight a moment later as the machine slumped to the ground, crushing several Gigataurs before they had a chance to fly out of the way. She ignored the hailstorm of bullets slamming into her, none of them heavy and strong enough to have her as much as flinching, and she turned her attention to the second Hellstorm, effortlessly hefting it up in the air with her psychic grip, grinning widely as it began to spin slowly and pathetically on its head, while the clones beneath the gigantic machine scattered, trying to get away from the murderous shadow that the many thousands of tons of metal casted.

The third Hellstorm fired barrage after barrage of darts against her, but even the gigantic projectiles couldn't get to her, smashing instead against solid, wall-like waves of power radiating off her form and bouncing violently back or going wild out to the sides, crumpled up like cheap pieces of tin, but still fast and heavy enough to tear through walls and pillars and machinery, pelting the buildings on either side and causing a factory block to collapse into a pile of ruins. Alexis idly shoved the floating Hellstorm into the buildings to the right, and the colossal artillery piece tore through the wall of the factory, sending chunks of concrete falling down onto the street, crushing Gigataurs and Nightmares, before the goddess moved her hand in the opposite direction and sent the cyber-weapon smashing into the other building, knocking over chimneys and tearing through a large machine that serial-produced chest armor plates. Pieces of metal clanged loudly in every direction as the heavy instruments were torn off the ground and sent crashing into a twin machine installed nearby, but it was still nothing in comparison to the mayhem that followed as Alexis laughed and pulled her hand back, dragging the damaged Hellstorm up above her head and then tossing it into its brethren with the force of a meteor. The impact was spectacular, sending pieces of metal and Gigataurs whole exploding in every direction like shrapnel, blood spraying up in a thick red mist while the two robotic artillery pieces became nothing but a mangled ball of wreckage which crushed everything in its path, drawing a long burrow full of blood and gore and wreckage before smashing into a building with enough force to make the entire structure all-but-explode, the burning remains tearing out the other side of the cascade of concrete and metal to smash through several blocks' worth of buildings beyond.

Alexis flexed her spectacular musculature with a lick of her lips, then turned to the side, alerted by a ghost image in her mind, her hand swinging up to almost absently back-hand the charging clone in the face, her monstrous strength sending the enormous Gigataur crashing into the ground one hundred feet away, its helmet and head crumpled and shattered. She snorted in contempt as she sidestepped the charge of a Nightmare which tried to impale her with a swing of his electrified spear, and before he could think of another move she slammed her fist up into his abdomen and smashed him flying up into the sky, blood exploding out of his mouth as he bonelessly twisted on himself in midair, and Alexis leapt up after him, grabbing him in a bear hug that cracked his spine like a twig before she hurled him down face-first into another clone, knocking both down and finishing them by landing with her boots and sharp heels right on their heads, smirking as warm blood sprayed up on her legs and abs and a satisfying, sinister crunch filled her ears. She took a moment to look over the enemies which were swarming up the roads between the factories and sheds and facilities, trying to keep them from advancing further. The Ship-Eaters that she had set loose against them had done a good job on the waterfront, but they had been taken down and slaughtered one by one, so that now the garrison could focus entirely on them. She wasn't particularly concerned by the garrison, however: no matter how many Gigataurs they could throw against her, she had the strength to slaughter them with ease, and so did Killer, Gaia and the other Disciples. What caught her attention was just how much Satan's Hell and Typhon's Heaven had become one and the same: Gigataurs cloned en masse, enhanced with magic and technology, just like Paladins in Heaven. The methods, the kit, the ways, they were very much the same. The RA was arming both sides, and putting its technologies in a fratricide fight... which also happens to encourage innovation and forces development to progress that much faster. And three entire worlds have become the test ground for these insane projects.

Typhon and Satan were many things, but they were not stupid, so the real question nagging her was: why are they both playing along? It was simply impossible to think that they might not have noticed their mortal "ally" was shamelessly playing along with both sides at once. Yet, they continue playing along.

Alexis snarled in frustration, clutching at straws and seeking an answer that continued not to come to mind. The RA seemed impossible to nail down and identify. It was everywhere and yet nowhere at once.

She lashed angrily out towards another factory block, disintegrating the roof and sending the walls exploding outwards to pelt the troops crowding the streets, turning demons into nothing but ugly red stains and revealing another multiple production line of huge rifles and swords and armor plates. But no scientist in sight, no mortal technician anywhere. They had all been evacuated, through portals if not through Ship-Eater transport... and that made her curse under her breath, before she snorted and turned to the side as another troop of demon-clones emerged from behind one of the huge mountains of rubble, the Nightmares firing huge rifles and portable rail-guns while the Gigataurs charged forwards to engage in close combat. "Come, boys, come..." Alexis teased, spreading her arms wide and grinning, ignoring the useless pattering of gunfire over her powerful body and beckoning for the angry taurs to come closer, smiling at the sight of the steam coming out of their nostrils as they pulled up their axes... before she pulled one foot up, the mighty muscles of her leg bulging and shifting majestically as energy crackled around her, until she slammed her boot down into the earth and sent a terrifying seismic wave rattling the entire cave, the ground caving into a deep crater around her and cracks spreading in every direction before her energy exploded upwards through it, slamming tanks, ruins, artillery pieces, barricades, Gigataurs and Nightmares flying like toys, spinning in the air as their bones shattered, blood bursting out of them as they were sent raining down like meteors onto the far end of the base, splattering against the ground and roofs like overripe fruits. The factory blocks around her dissolved in a huge cloud of dust, and she idly stroked a hand down her abs, smearing blood all over them as she walked onwards, aiming for a series of buildings that were covered in antennas of all kind. She was quite sure that the research laboratories were inside those structures... and the gigantic power core loomed over them, further away.

Killer grunted as he rammed his shoulder into a wall and smashed through it, emerging into the facility beyond and startling a group of Nightmare clones which were about to rush out of the nearby door, the horse-like beasts turning against him and opening up with automatic shotguns while others lunged forwards with long, heavy spears. Killer lashed out with his arm, and Wyvern cut a deep burrow in the floor before chopping violently into the line of Nightmares, slamming them back into the wall and cutting them in halves that flopped wetly onto the ground, before he snarled and walked onwards, flames bursting into being all around him and devouring the clones that attempted to tackle him, their armors melting and the flesh turning to ashes to reveal metallic skeletons and robotic enhancements.

A Gigataur completely clad in dark armor stepped forwards next, but the liger viciously slammed his palm against the axe blade of the giant and knocked it flying out of his hands, before Wyvern stabbed up through his chin and skull, tearing free out of its muzzle, sending the large beast collapsing on the floor in a lake of dark blood... which mixed with a thick black goo that caught Killer's eye. For a moment he thought that it might be Unworld Residue, but he immediately discarded that option as it wasn't greedily eating away the concrete floor and the very ground. Instead, he looked to the side in time to see a bunch of tentacles of dark goo shooting towards his face, and he battered them away with the flat of Wyvern before wincing as an horribly mutated Gigataur stumbled forwards with a snarl, drooling more of the black substance while his body pulsed and throbbed and shifted uneasily, trying to find a new balance as the muscles swelled larger and larger, the fingers lengthening some into thick tentacles and some into flexible talons, and the legs of the bull had semi-merged into a growing snake body of massive proportions and which was pushing out of the lake of darkness on the floor.

Corruption. Focused Hellish Corruption. Killer grunted as the beast slithered forwards with a hungry, insane hiss, its snake body growing longer and larger as the beast slid over the lake of Corruption and absorbed it, his mutated hands clamping into Wyvern and the tentacles arching up to wrap around the liger's neck, dragging him forwards. Killer reached up with a hand and seized into the tangle of appendages, jerking them off his throat, but the slippery, wet, gross goo slipped away from his grip and tightened again on his airways, and he shoved Wyvern forwards with a snarl instead, the blade cutting through the beast's fingers, causing them to break down in a splatter of Corruption.

They reformed immediately, but Killer had enough time to break free and leap backwards, tossing a small sphere of energy against the creature, only to see the mutated chest opening wide, becoming a sort of drooling, dark mouth lined with sharp ribs. The mouth closed on the small sphere of gold, which continued to glow brightly even through the goo as the chest of the beast sealed up and swelled into a sort of huge pimple which shifted down to the waist and then literally moved onto the bull's back before the sphere could explode. The blast splattered black goo everywhere and sent the bull stumbling forwards with a growl of pain and rage, but the lasting damage was minimal and the demon only spread his arms and vomited forth a huge load of crackling darkness.

Killer slid backwards and pulled up one hand, forming a shield of golden energy against which the goo splashed, and he winced as the focused corruption pulsed and immediately began to form tendrils and tentacles that arched around the edges of the shield and attempted to stab into his arm, each droplet landing on him causing his flesh to sizzle and his energies to ripple as it tried to rewrite his very genetic code, mutating him. He shoved the shield forwards, tossing it against the bull as it charged forwards with a howl, huge horns and spikes pushing out of his head, and the wall of energy slammed into the beast, exploding and pelting the monster with shards of golden force, which burst into white-hot ethereal flames. The bull writhed and howled in agony at that, the fire consuming the goo and exposing the Gigataur's fur and, in many areas, its flesh and bones, causing the beast to charge forwards with a furious wail, slashing its claws against the liger, just as segmented, prehensile talons pushed out around the bull's mouth, and they swung viciously towards Killer, trying to snag his face into a deadly grip.

The liger ducked under the assault and stepped to the side, spinning Wyvern around and slashing it up into the bull's body, tearing a deep gash in its abdomen, before energy crackled down the length of the blade and became white-hot fire that filled up the deep wound, nearly ripping the snake-body off the bull's form.

The liger landed in a crouch and spun around to face the beast, and cursed under his breath as he realized his mistake, seeing the bull literally diving into a huge lake of black goo, hissing in a mix of pain and delight as it rapidly absorbed it, literally drinking the puddle up like a giant sponge, its eyes glowing crimson as the Corruption rolled over the burning wounds and snuffed out the flames.

The beast grinned wildly and reached forth, his tentacles shooting across the room and wrapping around a train car loaded with huge ingots of dark metal, the vehicle's structure groaning and bending like cheap tin as it was hefted high up off the rails, the bull roaring and tossing the car hard against Killer.

The liger charged forwards, his eyes following the enormous projectile as he slashed Wyvern hard upwards, cutting the vehicle in half and sending the pieces crashing in the opposite directions, before jumping over the massive black snake-body as it whip-lashed against him, before his eyes bulged in surprise as it bent tip-down and stabbed into the floor covered in dark essence, sending a ripple through the goo... and the entire room suddenly filled up with spiked, thorny tentacles that shot upwards, reaching hungrily towards the liger. Killer instinctively covered himself with the wide flat of Wyvern and closed his eyes, focusing his energies into his chest and then letting them out in a violent pulse that shattered the tentacles in a huge splatter of goo that rained back to earth.

The bull looked up at that dark rain with something like insane need, and it rushed forwards to catch it all as if fell, roaring in hungry, painful delight as his muscles swelled even larger, bulging explosively as his body grew larger and larger. "Greedy." Killer coldly commented, and he shoved his hand hard forwards, sending a downpour of sheer energy slamming into the beast, smashing it away from the dark rain and then hefting it off the ground, where it could not replenish its reserves. The bull howled in fury and trashed against his psychic grip, its long tail whip-lashing savagely through the air and attempting to slam down into the blackened floor, but Killer grinned and shook his head slowly, pushing the beast back towards the huge steel hooks hanging from the massive gantry cranes just beneath the ceiling. The bull snarled furiously as the hooks pierced into his back and tore out of his chest, and he reached up to snag one of the enormous gantry cranes, tearing the enormous beam off its rails and hurling it angrily against Killer, who slapped it aside with a snort of contempt, his eyes glowing sapphire as he sent white fire bursting into being all over the corrupted beast, watching on as it trashed and writhed angrily, clawing uselessly at the air while it burned down to ashes.

The Corruption was a thinking thing, and when the pain grew too intense it let go of its host and splashed back down to earth, but Killer followed it with his glare and pointed his palm down towards the dark lake, enveloping it whole in an inferno of ethereal flames, while floating slowly down until his boots touched the ground.

He gazed up at the blackened, carbonized husk of Gigataur hanging from the hooks and he shook his head slowly, making a grimace of distaste: the clone had probably just stepped in the dark goo without being aware of the consequences, and it had been rapidly mutated into a feral, cruel beast, overwhelmed by the exposition to such a great concentration of hellish essence. But the focused Corruption was not there by chance: a huge tank had ruptured and was spilling out countless gallons of the stuff, which was no doubt used to grow the clones up into muscular behemoths in very short timeframes.

Killer winced at the sight of many other huge tanks lined up against the wall, all of those thankfully still buzzing as electricity was pumped into them to form an electromagnetic field which kept the dark goo away from the walls of the tank. If Corruption managed to directly touch the steel case, it would very rapidly mutate it into something hideous... and porous, so that the black goo could spill out and take over any object or life form within reach, seeking to spread its domination even further.

The next thing he noticed was one truly gigantic weapon hanging from a set of gantry cranes that held it off the ground. It was a monstrous "rifle" of some kind, but it had the size of a small train, and the caliber of the barrel was monstrous. There was a huge chainsaw blade affixed to the side of the muzzle brake, extending for dozens of feet ahead of the weapon and running down much of the length of the weapon, and there were also two smaller tubes, assembled beneath the main one, and Killer made a grimace as he saw segmented tubes extending from those barrels all the way up to a large tank which, he suspected, contained either Corruption or Unworld Residue. Perhaps a bit of both. Would explain having two barrels...

The size of the weapon made him grimace a little as he wondered just how many hundreds of feet tall the handler had to be. The beast using that weapon had to be absolutely enormous, as well as incredibly strong, and he revised his initial estimate upwards when he spotted an enormous armoured "rucksack" that was being assembled nearby: a gigantic internal structure of steel girders formed a long series of "cradles" for the huge darts for the rail gun, and a long, flexible belt of steel segments connected the magazine to the back of the cannon, feeding it with its ammunition. The rucksack was still incomplete: its external layer was still being built, and an enormous plate of armor was hanging from one of the overhead cranes, dangling slightly and causing the heavy chains to groan, while large welding machines lay abandoned all around. Killer walked towards the enormous ammo pack, shaking his head slowly in amazement at the sheer scale of it, before cursing under his breath as he saw that there were several other super-guns being assembled further down the production line, meaning that Satan was attempting to mass-produce a new colossal super-weapon. He gazed again towards the huge tanks full of focused Corruption, wondering where the massive super-warriors were being grown up while their weapons were assembled... and his attention was caught by tubes that extended from the tanks to dive into the floor at regular intervals. He walked up to the nearest one, and he made a grimace as he stepped on top of an enormous, town square-sized "cork" of red stone. As soon as his boot touched the stone, runes glowed with a faint crimson light, all along the edge of the circular platform, as if angry because of his presence, or more likely because excited by his own immense energy signature. Corruption was pumped in huge quantities into what was, Killer now realized, a huge cocoon in which a mighty, colossal beast was being artificially grown and enhanced. And another was to the left. Another to the right. And entire rows extended ahead. "This is not good..." Killer muttered, walking towards a tall building which looked like an airport's control tower, located right in the middle of the huge factory, where it had unimpeded field of view over the various production lines and on all of the rune-marked incubators. He hoped that the room behind the canted, heavy armoured glass panels would contain the controls to the system, so he could stop the flow of Corruption and starve the beasts of their highly unstable, terribly dangerous food, and he leapt up a flight of steel stairs, reaching the heavy armoured door. It was closed, but Killer didn't even notice it, shoving it open with such brutal strength that the walls of concrete cracked and the huge hinges came loose. Inside, however, he discovered nothing but devastation: when the personnel had rushed out of the facility, they had tossed a bunch of hand-grenades inside the room before closing the heavy door. It was hard to even guess where the dozens of computer stations had been: now everything was blackened and burnt and pelted with shrapnel and in pieces on the floor.

He looked out of the windows, and counted dozens of the immense "cocoons", while thinking of a good way to shut the flow of Corruption without spilling it all out... before his gaze was caught by a cocoon which had a damaged, cracked lid, and Corruption was flowing into the fissures, eagerly rushing towards the very suitable host curled up inside the huge pit. He immediately realized that it was already too late to prevent the awakening of at least one of the beasts, and so he rushed out on the platform and jackknifed the rail, jumping down from the tower and rushing towards the Corruption tanks, clenching one hand into a fist and sending a icy mist washing over the enormous silos, turning them into solid blocks of ice. The tubes completely froze over as well, and he spun Wyvern tip-down, leaping past duct after duct and letting the heavy blade tear through the brittle, iced steel, severing the connections, while he focused on generating a freezing temperature so unforgiving that even Corruption became sluggish and inert, bubbling uselessly against the transparent, cold prison.

"So, you found the interesting stuff in the end." Alexis commented, coming in through the destroyed wall at the end of the factory, followed by a huge cloud of dust as another facility she had just visited finished collapsing into a pile of ruins. She gazed at the frozen tanks, then at the cracked stone lid in the floor as the runes on it glowed brighter and brighter by the second, beginning to flicker as the magic bindings were overwhelmed by the huge force coming up from beneath, and then up at the titanic gun hanging from the roof. Killer looked at her with an urgent question in his eyes as he pushed his palm upwards and hefted the huge tanks up, and the goddess made a grimace, thinking rapidly. Where do we store the damn stuff...?

"Look, I say we banish the Corruption tanks into the depths of the Middle Sea." The femme fatale offered, before grunting as the floor under their feet bounced upwards with a thunderous rumble, the already damaged lid cracking and bulging upwards as something pushed from beneath, before the runes vanished from sight with a last flash of crimson and huge, ungodly talons tore through the stone, accompanied by a howl of fury and tremendous, insane hunger. "Encased in crystal or something, so no one will tamper with it, in no circumstance."

"Deal." Killer hurriedly confirmed, and he pushed the floating blocks of ice towards the goddess, who easily teleported them away, thinking of the deepest, most remote pit of the Middle Sea she could imagine, her eyes closing for a brief moment as she focused her energies on building a solid, impenetrable prison of solid crystal all around them. Before her eyes could open again, two gigantic hands pushed out through the thick lid of stone, sending pieces of it rolling heavily around and crashing onto the floor, the smallest of them larger than a truck. Terrible talons clawed into the concrete like it was nothing but wet sand, and a gigantic creature pushed out of the cocoon, dripping Corruption all over, as large eyes glared down at them, glowing a ghastly, empty and emotionless white. The beast seemed shapeless at first, wrapped tightly up in leathery, wet skin that made it look like a deformed balloon, but when it managed to clumsily claw its way out, standing on two prehensile feet armed with long, curved talons of dark metal, it let out a shriek and spread huge black wings, revealing a muscular, powerful form slightly bent to the right by the sheer weight of a huge, oversized arm. The beast looked very much like a bat, with leathery wings topped by prehensile talons at the joints and with a structure of metallic bones forming sharp ribs. Its body was massive, grotesquely muscular and thrumming with tremendous physical power, but ripples and spasms tortured the beast as the excess Corruption continued to forcefully mutate and warp his form, so much so that it stumbled in confusion for a moment, growling angrily as he straightened and smashed its head against the roof, knocking over a massive gantry crane, causing the steel beam to fall down like a meteor towards Alexis, who absently slapped it away, sending it crashing through the far wall.

The beast arched his back and pushed against the ceiling, tearing through reinforced concrete like it was wet paper, and the two ligers stepped back away from the storm of rubble and ruins.

The bat's development had clearly not completed properly, and it looked unstable on its short legs, which gave the impression of being too thin for supporting the enormous frame towering up from the waist. The left arm was also far less developed than the right one, much thinner and shorter and ending in a gnarled, claw-like hand, more blade than tool. A mane of crimson flames burst into being on top of its large, boar-like head, with large curved fangs pushing out messily from the sides and the front of powerful, oversized jaws. The body was armoured by splatters of thick goo as well as thick, sharp fur made of metallic spikes, and massive horns pushed out of its skull. The bat looked down at Killer and Alexis with a snarl of terrible rage and frustration, but instead of attacking them it stumbled forwards and reached up with his right hand, which was enormous, and covered by a thick "shield" of bone, which also extended in segments over the fingers, turning them into prehensile talons. It clawed angrily at the back of its own neck and snarled as it ripped out a tangle of armoured cables and computers, throwing them away.

"He doesn't like them installing junkware in his brain, it seems." Alexis playfully commented, and Killer grunted and nodded even as they automatically spaced out, taking ready positions for the fight. "He's not complete, at least. You think they all look like him...?"

Alexis thought about it for a moment, studying the beast, its energy signature, her eyes narrowing as she gritted her fangs and then shook her head slowly: "I don't think they are all the same. This... this thing. It was no clone, Lion. This was an actual demon. Very young, but very strong. His mind is that of a toddler, or little more than that... but it's no clone's mind."

"They dumped a young demon into a pit of Corruption and turned him into this...?" Killer asked, grimacing in a mix of distaste and disbelief, but before they could explain the matter any further, the bat stormed forwards, using his oversized arm for support and letting out a howl of fury and agony so loud and piercing that it turned into a powerful, solid succession of shockwaves. Killer groaned in agony, blood exploding out of his ears as he was slammed violently backwards, the pain rattling his ribcage and his bones seeming to move inside his body, as if trying to tear out and run away from the horrendous noise, his eyes instinctively closing as he dropped his head forwards, shrinking between his massive shoulders in a futile attempt to find some relief. His senses were entirely blotted out by the noise that threatened to split his head in half, and when he attempted to reopen his eyes the pressure almost squished them into the sockets, while his feet lost contact with the floor.

He spun Wyvern tip-down and stabbed it violently into the floor of reinforced concrete, squeezing hard into the heavy handle and gritting his fangs as he braced himself as best he could, while the endless succession of shockwaves knocked the air out of his chest, making him wheeze breathlessly, the pain pulsing in his mind as he felt the sword cut through the floor as he continued to slide backwards. His instinct screamed at him that he couldn't just stay there, blind and deaf, and he half-ducked behind his huge blade, wincing in pain but forcing his eyes open, just in time to see the gigantic beast picking up a train car and throwing it against him like it was a pebble. Killer saw the enormous lump of steel spinning in midair, sending huge ingots of raw metal flying in every direction, and he let both feet slide backwards, clawing into the ground to lunge forwards with a snarl, dragging Wyvern up and slamming its flat side against the huge car, throwing it back against the bat and striking it in the face, ending its mind-shattering howl and turning it into a crying snarl of pain and outrage.

Killer stumbled forwards, almost falling over on his face, Wyvern feeling much heavier than normal as his legs trembled dangerously... and Alexis pushed up by his side, shaking her head with a groan of pain and frustrated rage, wiping blood off her face with the back of one gloved hand, her eyes glowing with fury as she looked up at the beast. "Fucking hell, that stung. Completely screws up my psychic abilities." She grunted, shaking her head in an attempt to clear it, muttering: "Hurts like hell."

The gigantic bat flapped his enormous wings, smashing through the roof like it was made of paper and sending landslides of ruins and rubble falling inside the factory, while his hands clawed into the huge steel beams of the gantry cranes, ripping them off the rails and hurling them towards the two ligers, forcing them to sprint in the opposite directions, encircling him. The gigantic beast looked confused for a moment, unsure of who to attack first, but Killer sprinted towards a contorted gantry crane sticking halfway out of the floor it had pierced, and he growled as he clawed into it, yanking it out of the crater and tossing it up in the air, smashing a hook-kick into it and sending the enormous lump of metal crashing into the bat's chest, knocking it backwards with a shriek of rage. That got the childish creature's attention, and it charged forwards with a snarl, using his oversized fist for balance and moving almost like a gorilla, while his wings spread wide and pushed towards the liger, the prehensile talons at the end of the wing-arms flexing eagerly, before the beast opened its massive jaws and let out another devastating shriek, smashing Killer back into the wall even as he attempted to brace, the liger grunting as he sunk deep into the concrete, the wall cracking all around him, the shockwaves hitting him like meteors, causing him to vomit up blood even as he raised Wyvern in front of himself in defence... and somehow found the strength to toss a small sphere of golden energy between the feet of the charging beast.

The bat looked at it in shock and confusion before it exploded in a blinding flash of light and heat, sending the monster falling onto its knees as one lower leg was ripped apart in a spray of pulped gore and blood. The demon's howl ended and turned into a cry of pain and rage, and Killer exploited the moment to push out of the crater in the wall, snarling as he stomped towards the bat, cocking Wyvern back for the strike, his eyes narrowing as the thick black Corruption rapidly covered the wound and rebuilding and reinforcing the leg of the beast. The bat stood up and clawed angrily forwards, his enormous talons closing in on Killer like scythes, and the liger braced in place and slammed Wyvern up into the blades, knocking them back away from him, before wincing as a large splatter of Corruption exploded forth from the bat's body, lunging at him like an alive thing.

The liger threw himself to the side, avoiding the black goo and looking over his shoulder as he heard it splattering against the wall, and from there it slithered onto the floor and chased after him, while the bat's oversized, bone-reinforced hand rushed down from the sky towards his face. Killer lunged away from the Corruption, hissing in pain as drops and splatters still managed to shot over and through his leg, burning terribly against his flesh as it attempted to mutate him, and he tossed a fireball of bright energy into the dark goo, before spinning around to stab Wyvern hard up through the palm of the bat's hand.

The monster shrieked in rage as the crimson blade tore through the armor of bone and pierced right through, bursting out of the back of his hand, while the Corruption burst into bright, white-hot flames and recoiled away, writhing in agony and slowly melting into a useless dark sludge.

The bat leaned forwards, thrusting his huge hand down along Wyvern's blade, ignoring the pain and only viciously trying to claw into Killer's body, opening its jaws wide and snarling as it draw breath for another mind-breaking howl... but before the beast could scream, Killer tore Wyvern hard forwards, ripping it free of the bony hand and then spun the heavy weapon, slashing it through the already damaged leg of the mutant, chopping the foot neatly off and sending the bat stumbling forwards. His jaws opened even wider and the deafening sound began to pierce into the liger's ears, but the bat crashed hard on the floor, clawing into the concrete as Alexis, mounting Wrath, charged up its spine, guiding the massive stallion on top of the beast's head, the heavy hooves stomping viciously down on the bat's skull, before Alexis stood up in the stirrups and Wrath reared up with a snort, kicking at the air for a moment before smashing his hooves down even harder as Alexis snarled: "Oh, no, you don't! I hate that noise!" She focused energy into her hand and shaped it into a spear that she angrily hurled through the bat's head, pinning it to the floor, Corruption, rather than blood, spraying out of the wound as the skull caved inwards and shattered, and black tentacles pushed angrily out of the wound, wrapping around Wrath's neck, strangling him even as the huge stallion immediately backstepped with a snarl, kicking and stomping.

Alexis blasted the tentacles into splatters of black jelly with a shot of psychic force, but before she could follow on with another assault, the monster slammed his wings into the ground and pushed himself up, ripping his head up along the body of the glowing spear of golden energy, before Corruption leaked all over the weapon and consumed it away to nothing.

The bat reared up with a snarl, throwing his head hard back to toss Wrath and Alexis away, but the goddess had already slung herself around the horse's neck and dropped down in free fall past the bat's muzzle as it opened to let out another shriek. "I said: shut up!" The goddess barked, and she drew Blue Vixen, stabbing it viciously into the monster's throat and then yanking it hard to the side, grinning in vengeance as blood and corruption sprayed thickly out, while she made sure to cut through the beast's vocal cords, a gargle coming from the bat as its head fell backwards, dangling from a scrap of skin and corruption and muscle, but even so its body trashed and clawed violently upwards, almost snagging Wrath as the stallion leapt down to the ground, and before Alexis could completely cut off the head, the bat's body seemed to explode, his metallic fur turning into a dense cloud of shrapnel that flew at supersonic speed towards the ligers. Alexis saw it coming with her sixth sense and threw herself backwards just in time, grunting as she summoned her energies in the form of a shield, ducking behind it as a tempest of dark darts slammed into it, and Killer used Wyvern's flat to parry most of the damage, hissing in pain as some of the darts tore into his legs and broad shoulders, immediately pumping corruption into his system, in such quantities that he saw his arms rippling and then bulging outwards strangely, pulsating in an absurd, disgusting way as they began to mutate... before he hissed in both pain and a weird sort of pleasure as his body began to savagely feast on the corruption, absorbing into his own darkness, breaking it down into fuel he could use, as he shoved his hand forwards with a snarl and sent white fire erupting all over the bat's body, just as Alexis lunged upwards and lashed a vicious kick into the hanging head of the monster, smashing it flying off like a bloody meteor as even the last sinews and fibers of muscle and chunks of flesh were ripped apart, the spine snapping like a twig with the strength of her blow.

The demon stumbled backwards, corruption spraying thickly from his neck and splattering all over the goddess, drawing an hiss of pain and rage from her as the goo burned through flesh and muscle and attempted to mess with her genetic code, but she gritted her fangs and shoved her hand forwards with a roar, blasting the huge creature away from her and sending it crashing into the control tower, turning half of the structure into nothing but dust and gravel, before the bat slapped the other half hard, sending it exploding towards Alexis like a storm of meteors made of steel and concrete, that the goddess pulverized in midair with a glare.

"Die, already!" Killer roared, making a crushing gesture with his hand and causing the white flames to burn all the higher and brighter, but there was so much corruption pumping within the demonic superweapon that it managed to clumsily beat his enormous wings and take flight, while two horrible, mutated eyes pushed out instead of nipples on its chest, its abdomen splitting open just above the waist and becoming a grotesque, enormous mouth lined with broken bones, sharper than normal fangs. The bat lifted off and flew forwards with surprising speed, its new mouth spluttering out a torrent of Corruption that forced Killer and Alexis to separate once more, as the flood of dark goo washed down with ferocious force, drawing a line of darkness where they stood an instant before. The bat once again chose Killer, flexing the deadly talons of its feet and harrying down like an enormous bird of prey, but the liger went into a slide on the ground and grabbed the side of a huge chunk of concrete, tossing it upwards with a growl. The bat instinctively seized the moving object, crushing it into dust between his talons, and that mistake was all Killer needed to leap off the ground and claw into one leg, climbing rapidly up it and swinging around it when the other foot viciously clawed towards him. Killer pulled Wyvern up and fenced the massive talons backwards, then, when they hurried forth once more, he threw himself to the side and let them pass, dropping Wyvern in a chopping blow that cut the foot right off, sending it crashing wetly on the floor.

The beast growled in fury and pain and flew right towards the edge of a broken wall, where bent girders of steel stuck out like pikes, against which it tried to nail Killer, but the liger climbed up past the enormous foot and onto the ankle, stabbing Wyvern through the side of it and slicing upwards, tearing much of the leg apart, a dark smirk spreading on his muzzle as he looked down over his shoulder and stomped down hard with both feet, in time to send the bat's foot down over a sharp girder, which tore through, impaling the beast in place.

The demon howled in pain and rage and the girder bent like it was made of paper as the beast trashed and attempted to jerk free, the wall itself cracking and soon exploding into pieces, but the moment of distraction allowed Killer to leap upwards, slashing Wyvern up through one huge, leathery wing, chopping through the powerful arm and sending the huge limb crashing down to earth.

The bat let out a shriek of agony and tilted over to the side as he lost the wing, crashing hard into what was left of the wall of the factory and tearing through it to painfully land on top of a pile of ruins, and Alexis leapt on top of the other wing, her boots viciously tearing through the leathery skin as she charged up the vast surface until she could slam her foot down on the main joint, grabbing the arm in her strong hands and pulling it violently upwards at the same time, grinning viciously as she heard the sick crumbling sound the bones made as the limb went limp and useless.

"I... must... kill... Amon-Ra..." The bat suddenly growled, the words coming to his abdomen-mouth only with uncertainty and hesitations, but they signaled an ongoing evolution of the beast, and before Killer had the time to think about the implications, the monster once more seemed to explode, a ripple of corrupted energy bursting from him and smashing both Killer and Alexis flying backwards, before a huge barrage of poisoned spikes burst towards them while the white flames over the monster's body were snuffed out of existence.

Killer swung Wyvern out first to one side, then to the other, tearing through the barrage and sending steel daggers flying in every direction, and his eyes sought again the bat, fixing on it as it crawled over to the gigantic gun system, his broken, ruined wing dragging over the floor and his maimed legs pulsing and mutating wildly as the Corruption sought to repair the damage with a chaotic but effective response, forming tangles of long tentacles of black goo. "My... mission... kill... Amon-Ra." The bat growled, grabbing the enormous weapon and effortlessly swinging it around, ignoring the large chunk of factory that collapsed in a pile of ruins as he dragged all the cranes violently off the roof, the chains snapping like weak strings, while the unfinished ammo backpack dragged over the floor with an abominable sound that echoed loudly against what remained of the walls. The beast had the brain of a child, yet it knew exactly what to do with the gigantic weapon, and immediately the titanic chainsaw blade began to noisily turn, the demon's mutated mouth twisting into an ugly grin of intense satisfaction as it squeezed on the triggers and fired a gigantic dart of dark steel out of the rail gun barrel.

Killer charged sideways and leapt out of the way, wincing as he felt the shockwave and the crackling sound of the hypersonic dart tearing the very air apart, smashing through the wall beyond like it wasn't even there and tearing through a whole line of buildings, turning them into nothing but clouds of dust and debris. Enormous engines put the conveyor belt in motion, loading another titanic projectile into the chamber as the bat swung the monstrous cannon around like it weighted nothing, and with another deafening crackle, the dart exploded forth, smashing into the ground and forcing Killer to leap out of the way, a growl of pain escaping from his gritted fangs as he was pelted with shrapnel and smashed aside by a terrifying shockwave and a solid wall of brutal heat. He fell down on his feet, stumbling forwards several steps before catching himself properly, his effort made more complex by the floor disintegrating beneath him, as the lids of at least four of the cocoons burst apart into gravel and dust, Corruption spraying up in a huge column of dark goo.

Killer turned back with a snarl, expecting to see more of the monsters rising from their incubators, but he was relieved to find nothing but a monstrous crater filled with blood, gore and sloshing Corruption: whatever was inside those pits had been squished into mush by the huge, hypersonic rod. The bat saw the lake of Corruption as well, and his ugly eyes glowed with glee as he growled: "Power!"

He hungrily stormed towards the dark goo, and Killer charged forwards to stop him, eyes narrowing as the railgun fired once more, the dart rushing towards him, his feet leaving the ground as he leapt towards it... and he stomped onto the enormous metal rod a moment later, sending the colossal projectile crashing into the ground and running along its length before leaping again, cocking Wyvern back and slashing it out with a roar. "Amon-Ra... tiny! Bael... huge! Bael is stronger!" The demon cackled, swinging the enormous rifle in the way and revving up the chainsaw blade, grinning viciously as the two weapons collided, the enormous fangs of the chainsaw slamming into Wyvern's edge and making it tremble violently into Killer's grip as the liger gritted his fangs and pushed back with a snarl... which became a roared "You wish!" as he thrust the heavy weapon hard up and to the side, knocking the rifle wide off target and opening a breach he immediately exploited to follow up with a terrible punch in the center of the beast's mutated chest, right between its ugly, huge eyes.

The bat crashed backwards with a breathless, choked grunt of pain and surprise, blood bursting out of his chest as it caved inwards horrendously, and before he could slam into the ground, Alexis pulled up behind him, one leg firmly planted on the ground as she spun around and kicked the other hand up high, her foot striking the base of the monster's spine and slamming it flying higher into the air, its body bending almost to breaking point as it shrieked in agony, falling back down on the cold concrete floor only for the goddess to stomp one of his eyes into nothing but bloody pulp, while Killer took out the other. The monster trashed hard on the spot, trying to stand up, but the two lovers pinned him to the ground and twisted their heels in, making him howl in agony and powerless rage, his muscles bulging enormously and yet his strength failing to budge the two ligers, until he angrily shrieked and swung up the heavy, enormous rifle-chainsaw, pulling on the second trigger and sending torrents of Unworld residue firing out of the smaller, twin barrels, the destructive darkness cascading down all over his own body as Killer and Alexis easily leapt out of the way, the goddess going into a slide down the side of the bat's body and gripping into its huge weapon as she moved under it. Her biceps flexed and bulged with power, a vicious grin on her face as she tore the chainsaw blade loose, links of it exploding in every direction before she twisted her body up and kicked both feet into his fingers, hard enough to crumble the bone, so that the huge rifle fell uselessly down to the ground. The bat howled in agony and disbelieving confusion as the Unworld Residue greedily consumed his flesh and bone away, clashing against Corruption, the two black goos attempting to destroy each other while the beast's body mutated wildly, as the hellish essence tried to rebuild what the Unworld residue destroyed. "You have no idea who you are messing with, you loser..." Alexis taunted, cracking her knuckles as white-hot fire burst into being around her powerful forearms while she slowly and majestically rolled her chorded, muscular shoulders, huge biceps bulging explosively. She traded a look with Killer as the huge male took position on the other side of the agonizing but almost immortal beast, his own huge fists wrapped in burning energy as he slammed one punch into his palm, smirking.

"I say we devour it all." Alexis easily said, grinning widely as she slowly balled one hand into a fist and cocked it back, before slamming it down into one of the devastated legs of the beast, making it howl in absolute agony as the limb was completely annihilated, the goddess hissing in a mix of pain and pleasure as Corruption and Residue splattered all over her. "This young bitch is an Incarnation... he would have grown up into a powerful demon. And he is saturated in corruption and Unworld residue. Makes me salivate with hunger." She grinned mercilessly as the dark goo covering her arm was rapidly absorbed into her muscles, the burn marks and wounds rapidly vanishing as she turned the deadly stiff into nothing but food for her mighty form. "I'm in the mood for a good snack!"

Killer smirked at that, landing his own mighty blow and hissing in a mix of pain and delight as the vile fluids first burned into his flesh, then became energy that pumped into his veins, only making him stronger and hungrier, his wounds rapidly healing and his body flexing with excess vigor as he struck the beast again, shattering the pelvis, turning half of its waist into bloody pulp at the bottom of a crater in the concrete floor... and Alexis 's own fist viciously smashed through the other half, before she laughed as the black tentacles of corruption stretching out from the pulped legs stretched longer and longer, finally diving into the lake of Corruption, beginning to drink it up. "Power...!" The bat groaned, but Alexis grinned mercilessly and clawed into two of the largest tentacles, squeezing hard on them and bringing them up to her mouth, taunting: "Power is not made for losers like you..." She slowly licked her white, perfect fangs, then bit viciously into the tentacles, growling at the pain of the Corruption and Residue biting into her muzzle, but it rapidly turned into pleasure as she devoured the malignant energies, dominated them, made them hers, tearing the tentacles apart with her teeth and using them like little more than straws while she slammed her heavy fist down again and again and again... And Killer growled in appreciation, moving over to the other tangle of tentacles and picking it up, biting into it with a roar and devouring every bit of energy he could, flexing his massive muscles and arching his back, closing his eyes in pleasure, feeling even his enormous shaft throbbing and half-hardening up with the pleasure of the moment. The two lovers pushed towards each other, their punches sending blood and corruption and gore all over each other's body, and they kissed while continuing to chew and bite and maim the tentacles, suckling energy out of them, their eyes glowing sapphire as they feasted on the dying enemy, watching down into his eyes as they lost their luster while his body shriveled and shrunk away, drained down to a useless husk. Alexis laughed darkly as she clawed into a long rope of what looked like intestine, and she yanked it out, bringing it up to their mouths as they hungrily, almost viciously kissed, and they parted for the brief moment needed to bit into the organ, chewing and ripping and tearing, both lovers growing a couple of feet taller, their muscles bulging explosively as they leaned into each other, and the femme fatale let out a hiss of cruel delight as she savored blood and corruption while her leather pants audibly stretched, an enormous bulge forming, including down one thigh, as the excitement of the slaughter added to her appetites, and her body adapted by taking on its herm form, her colossal cock and gigantic balls pushing against the fabric. The demon let out a cry at that, his eyes opening even wider, if it even was possible at all, and the goddess snickered as she easily straddled him, putting her massive bulge in glorious display. The eyes of the beast fixed on it, but he did not last long, his skin becoming nothing but a condom that adhered tightly to the very bones, and a last breathless lament came from the demon before its very skeleton fell apart in a puff of dust.

"That was pretty sweet..." Alexis commented, grinning widely and then lazily blowing the dust away, dispersing them in the wind, before idly rolling her shoulders, looking down at her powerful hands. "Didn't add anything to our power, insignificant losers that they are... but it was still tasty, at least."

They stood up, grinning in amusement at each other, and Killer pointed a finger at the bulge in her pants, commenting: "You seem to have enjoyed it plenty."

"I'm supremely flaccid, lover. Worried I'll get bigger than you...?" Alexis teasingly corrected, running a hand down the massive bulge snaking down one thigh all the way down to past the knee.

Killer snorted in entertainment at that, bumping his own gigantic bulge against hers, seizing her firm buttocks in his hands and pulling her harder against him as he established his domination, his enormous flaccid member even heavier and more ponderous then even hers. The goddess murred in appreciation and reached around the groin plate of his armour, gripping firmly into his goliath cock and squeezing his titanic girth, giving it a couple of slow, worshipful strokes. "No, this thing is unmatched, and I like it that way." Alexis said, smirking at him before adding: "I just want to cockslap that fuckin' micro-dick Writer into mush and then rape the pile of mush until it is still warm".

"That sounds so deliciously sick!" Vesta cheerfully exclaimed, walking up to them with a wide grin on her face, her heavy sickleswords leisurely shouldered and dripping blood all over her powerful back, leaving two crimson trails in her wake, mixed with the red prints of her boot-soles. "Holy fuck, how I love it when both of your cocks are there for my eyes to rove over. Book me for a split roast anytime. Like, right now, even." The queen of Seraphims winked at them, and then tapped her foot on one of the surviving lids, grimacing at the powerful energy that glowed in the hellish runes carved in the stone. "But I guess we have to deal with these killjoys first, don't we...? There are other factories like this one. Other cocoons. Other half-formed abominations."

"How did you deal with them?" Killer enquired, and Vesta shrugged with a grimace. "We didn't. I'm pretty sure we've all had the same idea about hiding away the Corruption and making sure their growth can't progress or anything. But even half-formed, these things are incredibly dangerous, and just blowing the cocoon up might only wake them up and make the big bad babies angry."

"What the hell are they, exactly...?" Killer quietly asked, and Vesta looked down at the intact stone lids, tilting her head to the side and making a bit of a grimace. "Well, it is hard to say without opening the cocoons and studying them. But I do not think they are going to let me study them. For sure, that beast you just took down didn't look or feel like a clone. I have a feeling that each cocoon might contain a unique specimen."

"They are real demons. Sealed into pits of Corruption in young age." Alexis calmly said, in a matter of fact voice, looking down at the huge stone lid in front of them. "The Corruption mostly drowns my senses out, but I still feel their energies clearly enough to have no doubts about it."

"Well, that would make it extra monstrous and disgusting." Vesta observed, glaring at the pits with a whole new level of horror and rage, and Killer knew, although no one dared speak a word about it, that both females shared his same horrible, unspoken fear: that some of the girls born out of his seed poured into Lilith could be locked inside some of the cocoons, warped and corrupted by the focused hellish essence and with their minds controlled by computers. It was a horrifying thought, and worse still was the awareness that there was nothing that could be done to save them, in the case: they were too far gone, completely soaked in Corruption and with their minds horrendously damaged and turned into nothing but components of a complex computer system hooked to the spine, connected to the nerves.

"How do we destroy them...? We need a way to make sure they can't be awakened and unleashed, or it'll get ugly." Vesta asked, and there was understandable urgency in her voice, before she fell silent for a moment, biting her lower lip and studying the sealed lids. "Can you devour them all like you did with fluffy puppy there...?"

Killer and Alexis traded a look, half-excited and half-horrified by the way, quickly evaluating their chances without the need to utter a word, before the goddess shook her head slowly. "We could, in theory, but I do not think we should try. They are too many. Way too much Corruption, and staying in control of ourselves is already hard enough as it is."

They turned and looked back as Gaia came towards them, announced by tangles of enormous thorny roots and plants that moved like tentacles, sprouting out of the ground with such vigor to rip up walls and crumble the concrete floors and roads, shattering entire buildings as the vegetation rapidly spread through the cave, enormous trees growing around the tall chimneys and crushing them into nothing but clouds of dust and debris. The snow leopardess stood on one enormous tentacle-plant, surrounded by a great number of smaller tendrils and by huge leaves that were literally sturdy enough to shield her from artillery fire, and her eyes glowed a bright sapphire as energy crackled audibly around her. She was covered in blood, and more of the crimson fluids stained the plants around her, which seemed to drink it up, using it to grow all the larger and stronger. The enormous plant arched downwards and, like some kind of titanic hand, pushed Gaia forwards, holding her slightly above the ground. She bowed deeply to Killer and Alexis, but he did not miss the way her energies radiated off her in waves, crackling audibly while the huge musculature that she had always craved flexed with barely contained vigor and eagerness to destroy more, and to create more. She was eager, she was hungry, and she was loving every second of the fight. The serene, peaceful and gentle Mother Gaia had, for the moment being, taken a back seat to let the destructive rage of Nature rule over the world. "Master, I think that, with your help, I can solve the problem."

"I'm all hears, Gaia." The huge male replied, and the leopardess smiled warmly and spread her arms as she said, as if it was the most natural of things: "We will just fight Corruption with more, stronger, better Corruption. Use your darkness to choke the life out of them and turn these pits into nothing but destruction. I can channel your forces down into the pits using roots: we can take them all out where they are."

Killer thought about it for a brief moment, searching first Alexis's eyes, then Vesta's, and both females gave light nods of approval, so he climbed onto the green platform that held Gaia aloft and held his hands hesitatingly up, asking awkwardly: "How do we do it...?"

"Just grip into me, and let your energies flow, like you intended to hurt me... to ruin me... destroy me..." Gaia replied, as she went down to her knees in front of him, licking her lips hungrily as she gazed up at his mighty form, her own huge muscles bulging with power and vigor, with hunger and greed. Her voice was hoarse and primal, excited and demanding, and a visible shiver of delight rattled her as she let her long tongue hang out, drooling into her own glorious cleavage as she growled: "Use me. Be cruel. Be destructive. The world is your toy, and you must bend it in the shape you desire... and when the world is not enough, I will create new ones for you..." As she spoke, enormous tentacles made of entangled thorny roots stretched out of her arms and back and out of the immense plant under their feet, and Killer couldn't help but lick his own lips as he watched them arch high up in the air, some of the larger ones tearing through what was left of the roof and of the walls to pierce into other factory and laboratory blocks, stabbing through concrete like it was butter, and he grinned as Vanguards and clones and Gigataurs and Nightmares were crushed in the coils, hefted off the ground and squished into pulp without the goddess even noticing, her eyes fixed on him, seeing nothing but him as she leaned forwards to plant worshipful kisses up the thick armor plate covering his astonishing virility. "Rape this weak world, my master... tear apart its rules... drown it in your darkness."

The green tentacles stabbed violently down into the stone lids, piercing through them like they were made of paper, and Killer growled as he seized her head in his hands, fingers tangling into her watery hair and squeezing into her skull as he felt her hunger, her need, her love, her own darkness grinning in savage delight as she trembled in fear and awe of his power when he flexed and grew ten feet taller with just a little snort of contempt, throwing his head back as his own immense tentacles stretched out of his back and pierced into more of the cocoons. "You can't even imagine how weak this world is..." Killer hungrily growled, and Gaia shivered in ecstasy, feeling her skull creaking as blood leaked out around his claws, feeling his terrifying energy filling the world around them as reality trembled violently, and the liger licked his lips as he clearly felt his and her tentacles wrapping around other half-formed monstrosities at the bottom of each pit. He strangled them, and felt clearly their agony, their shock, their primal terror as tentacles wrapped around their bodies and crushed bones into dust, before tearing flesh and muscle and organs apart as huge thorns of bone jutted out... "Perhaps I should drink all this up, huh...? Wouldn't have much more effect than an energy drink at this point..."

Gaia shivered in cruel, merciless bliss at that, the pain of the monsters adding to her pleasure as her own pounding agony in the head only made her body flex with greater vigor and hunger. "They are unworthy... they do not deserve to be your food... mindless beasts that they are." The goddess of Nature purred, and Killer growled in agreement before letting his darkest urges through, allowing his darkness to spread, leaving his power free to warp, mutate, ruin and conquer. Gaia felt it clearly, and she threw her head back with a howl of pain and absolute bliss, eyes glowing brightly as her muscles bulged larger, veins pumping sheer, unadulterated energy as she grew in height and mass, energy crackling around them as his darkness showed through her skin, turning her veins into very evident, bulging black cables. "Yes, yes, yes...! Fuck, yes!" Gaia howled, trembling hard, spasming, muscles bulging explosively as she burned with pain yet thrummed with power beyond comparison, bliss making her whole body shudder as she eagerly ground her muscular thighs together. Within moments, the green plants and roots and tentacles began to morph, half-turning into solid, mighty black flesh as dark veins bulged down their lengths, and within instants cruel thorns and spikes of bone pushed out of every appendage, which, at the same time, began leaking gallons of dense, thick, potent black corruption, awfully similar to cum... and no less virile, musky and fertile than his matchless giga-sperms. The stone lids cracked and began to bulge messily upwards as Killer's corruption filled up the pits beyond their capacity, and the thick black fluid bubbled up through the cracks and fissures while the great god laughed darkly, able to feel clearly every life that was crushed between mighty tentacles and dissolved by his darkness. The hellish Corruption attempted to resist, encouraging wild mutations and quick growth in its agonizing hosts, but Killer's darkness was far stronger, and each time a body grew, or changed shape, or developed a new feature, such as extra limbs or blade-arms to tear through the tentacles with, his cruel essence melted the original genetic codes away and rewrote them, turning everything into disease and decay. Within moments, the stone lids all around them exploded into fragments as the liger's Corruption became too much to contain, and Gaia hissed in a mix of pain and delight, her eyes glowing as she saw the decaying corpses of the demons floating up on top of that black sea. Flesh sizzled and rotted away, falling off bones that became brittle and weak, shattering with the lightest of impacts, and the hellish essence itself was bubbling weakly, diluted and washed away, reduced to mere stains of grey in that ocean of thick black goo.

"So... powerful... so... strong..." Gaia breathed, watching on in awe as the huge super-demons melted like snow in the sun, some of them weakly struggling at first, but none of them managing to stand up as the hellish corruption was burned out of existence, boiled into vapor by the terrible darkness oozing out of Killer. Vesta stared in amazement at the same incredible spectacle, and after a moment she went down on her knees and slowly dragged her tongue through the dark sea, scooping up thick mouthfuls of the black essence, even though it burned like hell, full of malignant energy as it was. "Oh, fuck... oh, fuck... fuck yeah!" Vesta snarled, throwing her arms out and arching her back with a roar as she felt pure power flooding her body, pumping in her veins, the darkness filling her with new strength, so much so that she almost instantaneously doubled in height, flexing huge muscles and grinning at the sight of black veins bulging outwards. She dived her muzzle into the dark ocean, greedily drinking it up as best she could, smearing the thick stuff over her thighs, her abs, her chest, chewing on the mighty essence and using her tongue to guide it into her jaws, growling in delight and need, her eyes widening, her breath rough and quickened, intoxicated and addicted to that powerful substance. Alexis eagerly cupped her hands and drank from them, eyes glowing with hunger and delight as the pain of contact with the Corruption was immediately drowned out by the delight of the sudden boost of power it granted.

"Look at this cheap, watery crap... it's pathetic." Vesta taunted, pushing her hand through a stain of grey, a bubble of hellish essence that was rapidly being dissolved and that burst apart and lost coherence as soon as she touched it, flowing away just like water. She grinned widely and pushed her other hand down through the thick, dense, rich and pitch-back darkness that was oozing out of the liger's tentacles like sweat. It was so think that she had to actually push to break through the dense, solid surface and it stuck onto her arm, stretching in thick, rich ropes when she pulled back, struggling free only to hungrily lick the fluid off her fingers. "This is the real deal... thick batter, tasting as good and as strong as fuck... so thick that you have to fuckin' chew it... It's like comparing his cum to that of a fuckin' little loser of a sissy-boy!"

Gaia couldn't help but agree, groaning in bliss and pain as she felt all that terrible force traveling through her body and into her trees and plants and green tentacles, more of the black fluid even leaking out from the corners of her mouth, forcing her to lick it up, eager to taste every drop, her hands eagerly and erratically stroking his enormous member behind the plate of armour, her eyes open wide and gleaming with bliss as he grew before her, towering taller and taller with every second that passed, his muscles growing even larger and his energies crackling violently all around them, while his tentacles ripped the decaying demons out of their pits, breaking them into pieces, crushing them into pulp as they whip-lashed through the air, tossing remains in every direction, only for those sad chunks to fall apart soon afterwards.

Finally, Killer hissed in dark delight and unceremoniously shoved Gaia hard backwards, sending the goddess collapsing into a tangle of her own plants and tentacles, and the snow leopardess only groaned in bliss, licking her lips and gulping down thick mouthfuls of his Corruption, watching in awe as his tentacles slowly and majestically retreated into his back while he flexed with a growl of intense satisfaction.

Within moments, his corruption began to solidify, forming roots that tore through the concrete and shattered it, before enormous trees and flailing, threatening tentacle-like vines stretched upwards to the roof of the cave, as the world around them was reshaped by his energies, and all remains of the massive structures and factories were quickly crushed out of existence or absorbed into the semi-solid tentacles, which continued to ooze a thick black "sweat" strong enough to melt steel in seconds.

Vesta and Alexis slowly straightened, licking their lips and rolling their powerful shoulders, eyeing each other's bodies with barely restrained hunger, their hands clenching and unclenching as they shuddered a little, hissing with craving for blood, for violence, for someone or something to utterly destroy, something to unleash their strength against. The queen of Seraphims grabbed a thick tentacle as it whip-lashed the air near her, and she licked slowly up to its pointy yet fat end, savoring the dense fluid so copiously oozing out even as she forced herself to be serious and think about possible consequences. Finally, she gulped a last mouthful down and looked at him with quiet concern, asking: "Do you think they could find a way to use your own Corruption for their experiments...? Maybe you should destroy this jungle, and leave them no samples. This is... powerful stuff."

"Too powerful for them to harness, in fact." Killer immediately replied, grinning widely... but then he forced some humility back in his train of thought, and cleared his head a bit, shaking away the haze of omnipotence caused by that new and exciting display of power. "It might be my arrogance speaking, but I do not think they will be able to tamper with this... stuff." He looked at what was, effectively, his own brand of demonic Corruption, far stronger than that of Hell, and he found himself half excited and half horrified by that awareness. "You can touch it, even drink it because you already have a great deal of it in your systems because of your connections to me as Disciples... or, in Alexis's case, because she has just as much juice as I have. But if they tried to touch it... well, it wouldn't be pretty." He paused, and grinned darkly as his mind filled with images of the black jungle around them raping, slaughtering, butchering, corrupting demons and mortals and gods alike, infecting them with terrifying diseases, sapping away their strength, turning them into nothing but rotting bodies, more dead than alive and completely slave to his laziest whims. "They have tried getting samples from the jungle born out of my seed, down in Hell. You know how it ended... and my semen is "gentle" compared to this stuff."

"I fuckin' want you to make me pregnant with your darkest corruption, now." Vesta replied, grinning widely and then licking her lips slowly at the thought. Killer smirked in entertainment at that, flexing his powerful form and feeling his gigantic cock giving a happy throb full of interest for the idea. "Careful what you ask for, little bitch... I will accept no safe word once I get going."

"That only makes it hotter..." Vesta purred, and Alexis's eyes flashed with hunger as well, burning with power and lust as she grunted and squeezed leisurely into the enormous bulge in her pants, loving the feel of her thick, massive, ponderous shaft. Killer closed his eyes for a moment at that, rolling his enormous shoulders and taking a deep, slow breath to calm his hunger down and control himself and the adrenaline and testosterone raging in his veins, only warning: "Noted, my little angel. Once this mess is over..."

"Oh, fuck yeah!" Vesta cheerfully squeaked, rubbing her mighty thighs together and bouncing a bit on the spot, grinning widely and slamming her sickleswords together, the blades banging loudly and dripping blood all over her back as she held them up on her shoulders. "It'll rape my last bit of angel-ness right into bits... and it is hot like hell to think about."

"We should think about more immediate problems, for now." Ira barked, even though her cheeks were slightly flushed as she walked up to them, her eyes glowing emerald and lust clearly visible in them as she gazed towards Killer, announcing: "We have demolished the outer blocks of the base, but the area around the power core is heavily defended. The clones are no big worry, but there are several of the new super-demons as well: Virgil has awakened them and bent them to his will. Fried the Spirit computers like chips, too. Electricity keeps sparkling out of the back of their necks."

"So he truly is here." Killer muttered, displeased but not at all surprised. "Did you see him?"

"Yes, from a distance. He was sitting in some kind of crappy throne right in front of the power core." Ira confirmed, before hesitating and gazing up at him with uncertainty about whether to say more, and how. She finally added: "The missing Praetorians are there with him, too. Pamela is chomping at the bit and it is getting hard to prevent her from charging against the Writer."

"I'll be there right away." Killer immediately replied, and Ira nodded, having fully expected that answer. She immediately took the lead, leading them over a pile of ruins and down a ruined street flooded with blood and completely overgrown with enormous black tentacle-plants dripping with Killer's corruption, more of the enormous tendrils surrounding them on both sides as they rapidly crushed the buildings in the area, cracking the reinforced concrete like it was pastry.

The sounds of battle came from beyond the damaged buildings ahead, and flashes of light illuminated the immense cave with every explosion, but thankfully the many screams and shouts and roars that could be heard did not include any mind-shattering bat shriek like the one they had just had to face. Killer leapt up over a bent, broken steel girder and followed Ira up a tall mountain of rubble, running past a section of wall that somehow still stood. From there, Killer could now see the power core, and it proved to be even more impressive than earlier thought: the immense monolith of glowing crystal was inserted in an enormous circular pit, which stretched down and down. Killer could not see the end of the abyss, and the energy crackling within it was terrifying, creating lightning bolts that filled the area with ghastly white light.

A number of bunkers of reinforced concrete, each containing a self-supporting nuclear reactor, were arranged in a circle around the edge of the abyss, and enormous armoured cables stretched from the bunkers to the crystal. Killer had no idea how the system worked, but clearly mortal technology had been used to dramatically enhance the power output of the ancient magic. A group of super-demons formed a defensive perimeter around the area, and the gigantic beasts were definitely not clones: they were all different. Killer saw a monstrous lion-taur; a gigantic bull; a mutated demon of Wrath made so monstrous by its Sin that it was impossible to tell what species he resembled; and there were many others. The only thing that was common to all was the gigantic combined weapon that they all carried and that they were using to battle back Mriya, Elaine, Pamela and the others. Immense rail gun darts smashed into the ground with terrifying force, demolishing entire buildings and throwing up enormous clouds of debris and dust, but what was more horrifying were the huge volleys of Unworld Residue and Corruption that arched through the air and rained back down over the factory blocks all around, melting them away to nothing but sludge.

Clones of all kinds and Vanguards and other beasts and war machines were assembled in tight ranks around the feet and hooves of the super-demons, protecting them and supporting them, even though the gigantic beasts washed away entire lines with showers of Unworld Residue, or simply crushed them underfoot when they moved, showing no regard for their much smaller and weaker allies.

The Writer was there, sitting in a weird, ugly throne apparently built of bodies and computer banks twisted together, and the god was writing, as usual, filling scroll after scroll, puppeting the troops and giant beasts he had enslaved... but he also appeared to be reading from a series of computers that had been pulled out of the laboratories and lined up in front of him. There were even a few terrified scientists in fully sealed rubber suits, lacking only the head covers, on their knees in front of the god, and Killer could see them trembling even from where he stood, hundreds of meters away. He could also see the captive Praetorians, crucified to cruel, spiked steel girders, covered in blood, burn marks and scars... with one exception. One of them, although equally bloodied and abused, was standing on her own feet, waiting a few feet away from Virgil, almost standing guard to protect him. Kate... what is he doing to her...?

He couldn't tell, from that distance, whether Kate was there because the Writer was controlling her body and mind, or because she had willingly surrendered. He couldn't write off the possibility that the pain and the torture might have finally grown simply too much to bear, and he couldn't blame any of them for surrendering: they had been prisoner and test and torture subjects for literally thousands of years due to the time difference between Hell and the other planes of existence.

He clenched his free hand into a fist and squeezed into Wyvern's handle hard enough to make the sword gleam with energy and almost groan in pain, the Imprisonment Crystal flashing and letting out an audible cry coming from the souls locked inside. He leapt down the pile of ruins, following Ira as they made their way towards the battle, and he sprinted ahead of her, turning around to gaze into the eyes of each of the splendid, powerful goddesses around him as he added: "I'll need you to take down the super-demons, because I want to go directly for the Writer. If we let him sit comfortably in the back, with hostages and everything, he's going to drive us all insane with his goddamned tricks."

The goddesses nodded immediately in agreement, and Alexis took charge of their assault maneuver, jogging up to Killer's side and signaling Ira to spread out to the left, and Vesta to the right, at the same time barking orders like she used to do as a colonel in Glacial's army: "I'll try and absorb the Unworld Residue they are spray-painting everywhere. Move up behind me, and hit them hard. They won't die easily; Corruption will keep mutating them in response to battle damage. So, strike again, and again, at every opportunity you get. Close the distances, and pound them until they stop moving."

"Fine for me." Vesta grunted, looking eager, and Alexis smirked before turning her attention to Gaia, saying: "Your abilities are perfect for stopping those beasts dead in their tracks, so make sure to entangle them up in as many tentacles and roots as you can. If you can, help me deal with the Corruption and Residue. It'll be a lot of stuff that we need to suck out of them to ensure they go down and stay down."

The snow leopardess eagerly agreed, but before Alexis could add anything else, one of the super-demons, towering hundreds of feet above them and the top of even the tallest building, let out a roar of triumph as it spotted them, and it immediately trailed its monstrous weapon towards them just as they approached the corner of a still mostly intact factory that overlooked the large square surrounding the power core block. The gigantic rail gun in the hands of the lion-like titan came to life as enormous bolts of electricity ran down the barrel, and with a tremendous, deafening crackle the immense metal dart blasted forth, seeming to rip the world in half as it came crashing down through the factory, disintegrating the entire building in a hailstorm of metal and concrete shrapnel. Killer grunted as he pushed through the terrible shockwave, feeling like he was running through a wall, hissing as rubble smashed into his body from all sides, most of it bouncing away without causing any damage. An enormous cloud of dust completely engulfed him and made it impossible to see anything other than a faint crimson glow as the very dirt all around burned with the heat generated by the hypersonic impact, but he continued to run towards the square, knowing that the girls were going to do their own part. A line of Nightmare clones began firing wildly into the cloud of dust, and projectiles and arrows and javelins tore through the thick smoke and slammed repeatedly into him, but he barreled through, slapping many of the spears away by swinging Wyvern into their path and simply ignoring the useless pattering of gunfire against his armor and solid muscles. The gigantic super-demon charged forwards with a angry snarl and stomped his taloned foot blindly down into the cloud of dust, crushing and kicking up waves of rubble and causing the ground to tremble violently under Killer's feet, but the liger ran straight along one of the gigantic feet as it twisted viciously on top of a section of the destroyed factory, and he stabbed Wyvern into the huge toe, grinning as he pushed the sword forwards, slicing the foot open from talon to heel, causing the beast to roar in pain and outrage, blood exploding out of the enormous wound. The lion stomped his foot hard down, again and again, before kicking angrily through the ruins of the factory, but Killer had already moved far past, emerging from the cloud of dust and charging towards the line of Nightmares and Vanguards.

The super-demon meanwhile had begun spraying Unworld Residue down in a circle all around himself, wildly trying to melt his invisible attackers out of existence, but Alexis pushed through the storm, holding Blue Vixen in front of her chest and using her energies to form a large golden wall, a huge shield which allowed Ira and Vesta and Gaia to charge forwards unscathed.

Ira threw her chain-whips against the massive weapon in the lion's hands, the hooks piercing deep even through the dark alloy of the huge barrel, and she threw herself wide out to the side, yanking on the chains to pull the rifle wide out to the side, while Gaia used her plants and tentacle-vines to tie the beast's feet tightly together, robbing him of his balance just as Alexis and Vesta shot right into his face, striking with the force of meteors and sending the titan crashing backwards like a puppet, blood exploding from his face. His finger continued to obsessively squeeze on the triggers of the twin barrels of the Unworld Residue, and a cascade of the black goo washed down on top of the lines of clones as Ira yanked the rifle in that direction, opening a wide path for Killer, who immediately exploited it, grinning as the lion-demon hit the ground, squishing dozens of Nightmares in a burst of crimson rain.

Immediately, another group of clones pushed up to form a new line, but Killer dropped his shoulder and rammed through them like a raging bull, smashing their formation into a broken pile of bodies and sending demons crashing into boneless heaps in every direction, cutting through them with savage slashes of Wyvern, his eyes fixed on the Writer, who smirked in malignant amusement from his comfortable throne in the back.

A second titan spotted Killer and immediately turned against him, swinging down its enormous cannon and revving up the spinning chainsaw blade, which cut through the ground with terrifying ease, digging a deep, clean and wide cut in the concrete, forcing Killer to twist around on the spot, swinging Wyvern up to parry the assault... but Mriya charged past him and thrust her heavy Praetorian polearm up against the massive chainsaw, gritting her fangs as she was pushed back for a moment before she managed to dig her boots into the ground, her spectacular musculature flexing and bulging with power as she wrestled back against the monstrous weapon. "Go on, go on! We've got this!" The young goddess urged, and Killer couldn't help but admire her for a brief but intense moment as she bent backwards, but only to prepare for a stronger push, a roar coming out of her gritted fangs as she slashed her spear skywards and sent the chainsaw flying away from her. She flashed him a grin, and he had just enough time to smile at her, before she leapt up after the cannon, just as Pamela flew him from the side, stabbing her spear into the links of the chainsaw, jamming it, and Elaine came up from beneath, breathing her white-hot flames on the dark metal links, melting some of them and then quickly diving out of the way as the chain snapped apart and whip-lashed violently through the air.

Fascinated, Killer saw Mriya leaping high up into the sky and catching the monstrous, sharp chain, exploiting its and her momentum to spin on herself a couple of times, bulging up speed before hurling the titanic lump of sharp metal segments right into the demon's face, knocking it backwards with a cry of agony and shock.

Killer moved onwards, cutting through the lines of clones that attempted to stop him, his eyes searching his other disciples in the massive fight going on around him, as the titanic demons attempted to stop him and his girls stood in their way. He saw Alcana wrestle back the Wrath demon, burning his upper body with her terrifying firebreath, the Corruption shifting and writhing and rippling as it attempted to regenerate and mutate into new shapes only to fall apart in the middle of that infernal heat. He saw one of the colossal beasts ensnared in a rapidly growing forest of tentacle-like trees, as terrible thorns ripped into the demon and pumped so much poison into it that even Corruption couldn't keep up. Kimera and Manticora, sized up and enormous, spectacular for their musculature and their golden, terrifying hooves, seized another of the titanic demons and hefted him off the ground before tearing him in half like a ragdoll as they charged in the opposite directions, and even through tentacles of Corruption wildly worked to keep the beast whole and regenerate its body, they were rapid in pounding it, punching it into the ground and then massacring it under their hooves to prevent it from regenerating, their stomps rattling the entire cave and sending immense cracks opening in the stone.

Killer rushed past the fallen titanic demon, leaping past the streams of Corruption that leaked out of him together with blood while Manticora and Kimera viciously stepped on its face and chest and groin, the ground shattering and caving under his maimed body. The Writer seemed unfazed by the scene, and Killer could see him smirk even though his fully enclosed helmet put no features on display. There could be no doubt about the dark amusement in the alien god as he tilted his head slightly to the side, hesitating for a moment in his writing, tapping the quill lightly against his chin, faking intense concentration, before he wrote something on his floating scrolls, and another of the superior demons turned around with a snarl of pain and fury, eyes blazing as it charged towards him with an inarticulate yell of childish but terrible rage, stabbing its cannon-sword viciously down.

Killer followed the immense chainsaw blade as it rushed against him and went into a slide at the last moment, bracing himself against the ground as best he could as he first slammed Wyvern up to parry the crushing blow, then stepped rapidly to the side and allowed his sword to lose contact, the tip cutting a gash through the side of the rapidly moving links of the chainsaw, before the liger stabbed hard forwards, impaling his crimson blade through the enemy weapon.

Immediately, he yanked hard down to sever the chainsaw in two, but right in that moment the solid ground beneath his feet vanished and he sunk down through cold, freezing emptiness, his slash losing most of its strength as he suddenly found himself hanging from Wyvern's handle, while what had been solid reinforced concrete suddenly morphed into emptiness, and then into steely birds of prey made of huge dark blades rather than feathers. A whole swarm of car-sized eagles of steel squeaked and shot at him from every direction at once, and every time they beat their wings they sent vicious barrages of daggers firing into him, dozens of the incandescent blades pelting his wings as they came into view, bursting out of his back in a flash of fire. He winced in pain as several long blades pierced into his back, many others tearing through his wings, and he gritted his fangs with a cry of agony as the blades morphed within his flesh, spikes growing sideways out of the daggers to hook them inside him, but still he angrily beat his huge wings once and shot skywards, out of the void, working with his wrists to yank Wyvern back and tear the chainsaw apart.

One of the large links snapped open and the chain fell off the huge rotors that kept it spinning, but before Killer could even smirk, the broken block of metal became a living thing, a cruel mouth that lunged against him with a growl of hunger. "What the fuckin' hell!" Killer muttered under his breath, swinging Wyvern into it but failing to batter it away as the metallic mouth literally bit into the edge of the sword and exploded in a massive ball of dirty orange fire, slamming him backwards through the air just as metallic raptors dived at him like living bombs. Killer beat his wings to fly backwards, gaining some space to throw a sphere of focused energy into them, and the massive explosion dissolved several of the massive beasts, allowing him to spin around, Wyvern windmilling around him and cutting the others into pieces... but before he could even understand what was happening, those metallic fragments became liquid and rained down on him with vicious force, just as the titanic demon seized the barrel of his colossal cannon in both hands and swung it down like an oversized hammer, smashing him out of the sky.

Killer tried to react, but the molten metal splattered all over his body had already cooled down and was rapidly turning solid, making him sluggish... and he grunted and braced himself as best he could as the void beneath him closed with a ripple, as solid black stone reformed and jutted upwards in vicious, enormous spikes. He saw Adrasthea flying towards him, but the goddess had to turn around to slam her shield against the superior demon's rifle as it was swung down against them once more, and then he saw her spear moving with the usual, amazing, fluid grace and terrible power, an immense bolt of energy exploding from the polearm and slamming into the super-demon, before he closed his eyes and focused on the voice in his mind that angrily reminded: Don't fight like a mortal.

The heavy, shapeless object of abruptly cooled-down metal crashed into the ground like a meteor, ending up impaled on the gigantic spikes jutting from the ground, but Virgil's hint of jubilation died down almost before it started, because the god realized that something had gone wrong. The metal shell was empty, and Killer was gone, and the Writer leaned back in his throne with a snort that was half contempt and half approbation. The ancient, expert god did not show any surprise when Killer reappeared out of thin air in front of him, charging forth and throwing a large sphere of focused energy; instead he bent his head forwards and rapidly wrote more lines of text, and a spiraling wall of fire emerged around the throne, acting as a barrier against which Killer's assault crashed uselessly, the explosion barely shaking the parchment on which the quill continued to rapidly move.

Immediately, the wall of fire shifted and morphed, turning into a massive dragon made of flames, a titanic beast that arched up in the air and lunged against Killer with a roar, baring enormous saber-fangs and firing a ray of white-hot molten metal from its jaws. The liger moved on fearlessly, however, and a cloud of freezing mist surrounded him and spiraled around Wyvern as he ducked under the destructive beam and went into a slide right under the body of the beast, slashing Wyvern upwards and chopping its head right off... before the whole body froze over, becoming a snake of ice that whip-lashed back against the Writer, wrapping tightly around him and nailing him to the throne, the massive coils clamping down hard, but failing to crush him because a terrible force pushed back, like a solid wall that allowed Virgil to continue writing, until the ice snake melted away into a cloud of vapor.

Killer immediately tried to think of a way to react, but the Writer was faster and he turned the vapor into some kind of poison that immediately caused the liger to scream as his eyes, then his nose, then most of his body began to sizzle and decay, burning so viciously that he stumbled with a cry of agony, blinded and unable to focus on anything other than the pain. He worked against the poison, trying to force it off from his body, and roared as white-hot flames exploded out of his form, his energies attempting to burn that acid out of existence, but if anything it seemed to make it even stronger. Killer tried to cover himself in ice next, but that didn't work either, and, in step with the agony, his rage and frustration grew, until they began to ooze out of him in form of Corruption, rolling down his muscles like droplets of sweat that devoured the poison and broke it down into energy, absorbing it...

Killer opened his mouth, a breathless, silent cry escaping from his throat, but his eyes began to open again, even though the light, at first, made him wince in pain and step backwards... and that saved him, because two silvery, splendid curved blades cut elegantly through the air where his chest and abdomen had been. His instinct screamed warnings to him and he somehow found the strength to pull Wyvern up, stepping forwards with a snarl and leaning into the flat of the blade to smash violently into the unknown attacked, knocking it crashing backwards. His eyes still couldn't see much, but his instinct was eloquent, ordering him to leap over a sweeping low kick that narrowly missed his feet, before the knives from earlier against slashed out, faster than lightning, and one of them caught him in the leg, just above the end of one of his heavy metal boots.

He immediately spun Wyvern tip-down and drove it downwards, but his eyes opened wide as he began to recognize what was ahead of him, and a shiver of horror went down his spine as a breathless, agonizing but well known voice begged: "Kill me... kill me... please, let this end... I don't want this... I can't take it anymore..."

Kate's eyes looked up at him, blindly, their pupils gone, only ghastly white remaining. Her beautiful face was badly burnt and blackened, and covered in terrible scars. It literally looked like her eyes had been pulled out and forced back into the sockets more than once... and there were enormous parasites eating the flesh off her bones, like big centipedes with hard, sharp claws instead of legs. Her breasts had been chopped off her chest and replaced with a plate of corrupted metal alloy which rippled and morphed strangely, and huge, badly stitched up scars covered almost every inch of her body. She had grown to more than twice her original height, and even though she was crouching it was easy to estimate that she now towered well over eighteen feet, and she had grown powerful and muscular, bulky and massive... but her feet had been torn off and replaced with steely cloven hooves, and her hands, while still clutching her old knives, with which she was absolutely, gracefully lethal, had their fingers replaced by elongated metallic talons. Huge bone and metal spikes pushed out of a spine that was now badly hunched, and they condensed at the back to form a long, massive tail that could hit like a spiked mace.

It took Killer a single look to realize that she was a prisoner in her own body, and her begging cry confirmed it, tears rolling down her cheeks as she whimpered: "Kill me... I don't want this... I don't want to fight you, to hurt you... make it stop, make it stop!"

"Kate... I... I will pull you out of this." Killer offered, but he immediately cursed himself for how weak and hesitant his words sounded as he tried to think of something actually reassuring, but failed, only able to focus on the horror of what was in front of his eyes.

"Please..." Kate begged, and the sight of the tears rolling down from her blind eyes made him shiver in horror, his instincts drowned out by the sadness and the denial and his reaction getting sluggish as the female kicked up to her feet and spun her knives so she could stab the long blades towards his sides. He backstepped at the last moment, turning Wyvern around to use the flat of the blade to force one of the blades away, while his other hand seized her wrist and forced the other knife away from target as he leaned down to almost nuzzle her face, saying quietly: "Don't... Kate, don't even think about death. I'll get you out of here. Alive."

"I can't.... I can't..." The vixen desperately cried, before shrieking: "Go away!" just before her body violently moved out of his grip, a flexible tongue-spike blasting out of her metallic jaws and shooting for his face. He ducked under it just in time, but then grunted in pain as the vixen backflipped and kicked both hooves hard into his chest, sending him skidding backwards more than fifteen feet.

Killer straightened, and immediately had to sidestep as the Vixen charged forwards with a snarl, even though her eyes glinted with tears and despair, and he ducked to wrap his huge arm around her waist, tackling her hard down into the ground, crushing the huge tail under her back as best he could as it viciously lashed back and forth, the terrible spikes slamming into his legs and sparkles flying from the contact between the blades and his armour. Kate's body trashed with violent, insane force, kicking hard against the floor to bounce up, the beast snarling furiously as it reached around Killer's massive arm as best she could, slamming a knife right through his huge bicep, sending blood splattering thickly out, a growl of agony escaping his lips as he gritted his fangs... but instead of lashing out with rage, he only pushed down harder, trying to pin her to the ground. "I'm... sorry..." Kate cried, just as her metallic hand let go of the knife pierced deep in his massive bicep to instead claw into his shoulder, her segmented metal talons reaching for his throat like scythes, forcing him to bend out of the way with a grunt that turned into a hiss of pain when the Writer laughed loudly and a bunch of long, heavy swords made of solid magic appeared in midair all around him, stabbing and swinging forwards with unforgiving speed, forcing him to lift Wyvern up above his head, working mostly with his wrist to fence back the enemy assault, blade after blade clanging loudly against his huge sword, his gritted fangs contorting in a snarl as he looked up at the Writer, and in an explosion of rage and power, the swords were all knocked backwards into their creator. Virgil, however, effortlessly dissolved them into a cloud of golden mist, tilting his head patronizingly sideways as Killer roared: "What did you do to her? To all of them?"

"Not much, in reality. Satan had then carried here. Had them cut up and tested and filled with all sorts of machinery enhancements and other prototypes. I've just probed their loyalties a little... and man, what a bad master and hero you are. They have been tortured for literal centuries...!" The Writer cruelly taunted, shaking his head slowly. "The real heroes here are these girls... still resisting after all this suffering. Still loyal to their oaths."

The Writer said it to taunt him, but Killer thought it for real, as his eyes went down to meet Kate's, then up to meet those of the other girls, who shifted their weight uneasily on the cruel steel crosses, terrible spikes pierced right through their ankles and wrists and blood streaking thickly down from their countless wounds as they struggled desperately to straighten their backs and ease the pressure on their ribcages, the muscles of their legs bulging and spasming violently as they coughed and vomited blood. Nikita was the first in line, the splendid mare completely caked in her own blood and with her chest pulsing, half-open by a vast wound that went from stern to crotch, yet still able to flash him a defiant, albeit trembling, smirk. Then Crystal, whose muscle fibers were in full view over much of her body as her scales had been savagely torn off, one by one. Synthetic, metallic muscular fibers had been installed within her to further amplify her strength, already increased by the hellish energies that had gotten into her. They are demonesses now... they have given their mortal lives for you. And they are suffering all this for you, again... Her eyes still had vitality in them, at least when they crossed his, and the reptilian female did her best to put a smile on her face, even whispering words that Killer, unfortunately, could not hear. And last in line, Valery, the Amazonian lioness, who looked at him with eyes filled of bloody tears and yet glowing with newfound courage and confidence. "You... you came..."

"Of course I did..." Killer replied, humbled by their loyalty and courage and sheer strength and determination.

"I just probed their minds a bit... had some fun with them, when I discovered that they are yours." Virgil teasingly continued, turning slightly in the throne to look up at the crucified females, a cruel glee very clearly filling his entire being as he added: "They won't last much longer... their minds will surrender to my power, or burst into pulp. But look at the positives: hadn't I come here, they would probably have already been tossed in the crystal pit and destroyed." The Writer added, jerking his head in the direction of the terrible abyss surrounding the gigantic monolith of crystal. "The files show that Satan was very frustrated by their... stubbornness. He was thinking about disposing of them once and for all."

"He'll pay for that too." Killer coldly said, struggling to keep Kate pinned to the ground as her body trashed wildly, clawing and slashing into his arm, cutting deep wounds in every bit of flesh her talons could reach, even as the female, prisoner in her own body, begged for forgiveness and for liberation from the agony.

The Writer snorted in contempt at his comment, shrugging a bit and teasing: "I plan to kill him later, but you'll have been dead already for a while by then... and who knows, maybe it'll be sweet... Kate, is it...? To kill you. She is by far the weakest of the bunch... a little whore who couldn't take the punishment. Didn't take me much to take control of her body."

"I'm so sorry..." Kate cried, and Killer shushed her gently, swallowing thickly as rage and frustration rattled his whole body, before the Writer resumed writing and an enormous golden sword appeared in midair, slashing hard towards Killer's head. The liger sprung up to his feet and slammed Wyvern forth, knocking the other sword backwards and allowing his blade to slide forwards, until the golden weapon ended up trapped between one of the large triangular spikes at the base. He roared and flicked his wrist to try and tear the golden sword out of the invisible "hand" moving it, while using his other arm to carry Kate, even as the female savagely clawed into his arm, then arched forwards to stab a knife straight down into his shoulder, near the neck, where the heavy pauldron of his armor could not protect him.

Killer hissed in pain, but did not let go of her, even as his eyes bulged when the golden sword split into two, forcing him to duck under a vicious cut, then to parry two more with Wyvern, before he spun around and angrily hammered one of the two blades away, sending it spinning through the sky before he flipped Wyvern around, aiming it backwards under his armpit, moving back with the speed of lightning to stab the Writer and nail him to his throne.

Virgil grunted in surprise at that, springing up from his seat and throwing himself to the side as the blade tore through the throne, before lashing out his arm with a squeak of inarticulate rage, his armour flowing like a liquid and forming a large blade sticking out of the wrist, which slammed into Wyvern as Killer spun on himself and slashed his heavy weapon.

The floating golden swords rushed down from the sky at the same time, one aiming for the back of Killer's head and one going for the arm with which he awkwardly held Kate up, but two massive black-fleshed tentacles stretched out of the liger's back and coiled around both blades, bending them like they were made of chocolate and crushing them out of existence with a loud groan of metal. Virgil backstepped and moved behind his heavy throne as Killer stepped forwards with a snarl, and Wyvern chopped the top half of the backrest right off, severing a couple of floating scrolls as well, but the Writer responded by making rapid grabbing gestures in midair, using psychic force to seize the terrified scientists still trembling on their knees nearby, to toss them against Killer.

The liger instinctively chopped the first in half with a swing of Wyvern, sending blood exploding outwards in a cloud, but he immediately realized that those mortals could perhaps give him invaluable information: immediately, more tentacles stretched out of his back and caught the screaming scientists in midair, almost gently, with great care not to squish them... but the Writer snorted and clenched one hand, and all of them exploded into crimson mist, with enough force to tear apart even Killer's solid, powerful tentacles.

"So, it is true... you have trained and improved." The Writer bitterly admitted, but then shook his head patronizingly, snorting in derision as he added: "But it is not enough, and never will be. You are a young, arrogant god who thinks it is possible to catch up with ancient, expert masters in mere weeks. But it is just a dream, and you are in for a rude awakening."

"I thought I would not have these few weeks. But you didn't dare chasing after me... you gave me that time." Killer calmly countered, a grin cresting his lips as he gazed at the slender alien divinity with a taunt, pulling up Wyvern in front of himself, showing his rival the perfect, powerful blade and leaning forwards to coldly add: "Half of your power is just mind-tricks and illusions, Writer. Wyvern never really cracked. Never will. And less than ever will I crack, whatever the pressure."

"Come then, young god. Time for your lesson." Virgil coldly countered, taking on an easy ready position, one arm extended to point the long, deadly wrist-blade against the liger while his other hand continued to push the quill under the floating parchments, writing line after line... and immediately, Kate howled in panic and pain, her back arching so violently that Killer winced, expecting her to break in half, before she clawed into his arm with vicious force, her talons tearing through armor like it was butter and digging deep, cutting into his very bones. Still, Killer did not let go of her, gritting his fangs with a groan of pain but holding her aloft even as Virgil cackled and slid forwards with an hard swing of his sword, Wyvern slashing up and the two blades sending bolts of energy crackling violently out in every direction, even as the two warriors already maneuvered for a new assault, the heavy swords meeting again, and again, and again... before Virgil snickered as he wrote another line of text, and the ground under Killer's feet turned into quicksand, rapidly swallowing the liger down to the knees. "Illusions, you say... the only illusion here is the idea that you could ever be able to stand up to me!" The Writer snarled, cocking back his wrist-blade as it morphed into a larger, heavier mace-blade that he swung down with savage force, forcing Killer to parry with Wyvern and sink deeper into the traitorous mud, all the way past the waist.

Virgil stepped forwards and lashed out a kick towards the liger's face, snorting in contempt, but two large tentacles stretched out of Killer's shoulder and rapidly coiled around his leg, yanking him hard forwards and upwards, sending him crashing hard on his back... before vanishing from the spot just as Wyvern viciously came crashing down, cutting a deep wound in the solid concrete floor.

"How... dare... you!" Virgil furiously squeaked as it reappeared behind Killer, a great distance away, trembling with inarticulate rage... and fear. He does not like getting hit. I must close the distances, whatever it takes. The Writer rapidly wrote a line, then slammed the quill down on the parchment hard enough to nearly hole it, and Killer howled in agony as a terrible, invisible spear stabbed right through him, sending a splatter of blood and pieces of bone out of his chest as all the air was savagely torn out of his lungs. "How dare you, you insolent bug..." Virgil shrieked, and Killer, even through the agony, snarled in rage at that shrill, almost girlish voice.

The liger vomited blood as the invisible spear slammed down into his back once more, the other half of his chest exploding out in a splatter of blood, gore and metallic bone pieces, his back arching violently with the agony, and yet he stabbed Wyvern into the solid concrete around his pit of misery and began to haul himself out of the quicksand, only for it to morph into a tangle of metallic, serrated, segmented tentacles that viciously clamped on his body and on Kate's, making him scream as several of the cruel appendages tore through the terrible wounds in his torso, from chest to back and vice versa. They dragged him down with terrible force, at the same time making mincemeat of flesh and muscle, and all he could hear was Kate's voice deformed and warped by the agony, begging him to kill her while her muzzle split apart vertically, down the middle, and became a four-pronged mouth jutting with ugly, fearsome fangs.

"Your story is almost over, arrogant newbie. You had potential... but there are more than enough gods already. No room for new ones. Don't you worry, though: I'll make really good use of your abilities..." Virgil said, almost purring in delight as the metallic tentacles dragged Killer further down into the abyss... before the liger froze over, turning into a statue of ice, which cracked and shattered in a hailstorm of fragments, leaving Virgil staring in shock for a brief instant of confusion... before he turned around with a grunt of realization just as Killer exploded out of the ground in the form of a stormy, freezing wind.

It crashed into Virgil like a train, slamming the alien god off his feet while his scrolls became stiff and brittle, disintegrating when Killer reformed fully, roaring and slashing Wyvern hard upwards, hitting the Writer in the crotch and then diagonally up across his torso, sending him crashing backwards bonelessly... before the god vanished and reappeared a safe distance away, surrounded by new scrolls and trembling in fury.

Killer charged forth for a new assault, but the Writer swung one arm out and a terrible explosion of force knocked the liger over onto his back, blood exploding out of his nose and jaws as he curled up on himself for a moment, trying to swallow down the pain even as Kate landed in his lap and, completely out of control, stabbed her sword-like talons into his maimed chest, her ugly, mutated jaws snapping viciously, trying to rip his face right off.

He sat up immediately, as best he could, and growled as he threw Kate out to the side, simultaneously pulling Wyvern up, using the thick crossbar to knock back a floating golden sword before it could nail him to the ground. He kicked up to his feet with a wince of pain and spun around to protect Kate from another sword that shot down from the sky, and he swung Wyvern up into another, then parried a spear, holding Kate still and pushing the vixen behind his back, shielding her with his own body as he was pushed back, the Writer floating in midair and cackling as arrays of swords and spears and daggers appeared out of thin air in front of him just so he could toss them out in barrages. Killer looked back over his shoulder as he felt the air becoming hotter and the hair on his back standing up, and he gritted his fangs as he realized that Virgil was driving him to the edge of the abyss around the power core. He braced and pushed back against the following barrage of blades, knocking them back with a hard thrust of Wyvern, but then wincing as they exploded in a massive blast of force that impacted his chest hard enough to make him cough up blood. He charged forwards and closed his eyes to teleport away, but Virgil cackled and quickly wrote something on his scrolls, and Killer felt his energies yanked in every direction at once, chains wrapping tightly all around him and keeping him from teleporting away. Time slowed violently down while Killer struggled hard against his bounds, and his eyes bulged as he saw the dust particles around him floating, motionless, frozen in time. Everything froze still... with the exception of Virgil, who crossed his arms and tapped his chin with the quill, walking up to the liger. "There, much better. I grow tired of all the running around: it has never been in my style."

Killer snarled, but even his lips moved only in extremely slow motion, and he almost couldn't make a sound at all. His eyes darted from side to side, so terribly slowly, but what he saw truly terrified him: even the super demons seemed frozen in time, and with them all of his Disciples and even Alexis, motionless in the act of punching the face of a semi-destroyed corrupted titan. Can he truly do this...? It can't be true... how do we fight someone who can just stop time at will...?

"This world has proven surprisingly interesting, I will admit. I never expected this tiny little speck of dust to have so much to give... but since my arrival, it truly has been a gift that keeps on giving. I originally wanted to destroy it, but instead I began to explore it. An anchor was destroyed in what you call Heaven... and I'm told you absorbed much of the power that was released, and prevented the whole dimension from being destroyed. That gave me the certainty that you truly contain the secret I'm looking for..." Virgil explained, walking up to Killer and slowly moving around him, studying his massive body with a thoughtful mumble. "The question now is how to get that secret out of you. I can't kill you and risk dissolving the secret forever... That's why I did not come for you right away. I knew you'd come to me yourself, eventually. I could take my time to study the issue... and study my backup options."

Virgil spread his arms and looked up at the roof of the cave, exclaiming: "Look at this place! It is magnificent. I found so much knowledge at work, in here... and in other places like this one, including in Heaven. Both Typhon and Satan have been working on the most amazing of projects. Technology and magic combined to create new gods, or to exponentially increase the power of an existing divinity... And I learned of this Anubis guy, too." The Writer paused and stepped up in front of Killer, leaning forwards until their muzzles almost touched, and Killer could easily imagine the taunting grin behind the fully enclosed helmet. "Such a loser. A follower all of his life, a succubus to his friend Sobek... and yet, even though he was such a limited god, he was able to realize the dream of every god to ever exist, turning his sanctuary into a piece of armor!" The Writer shook his head in amazement, gripping into Killer's mane and rattling his head back and forth. "How did he do that, damn him...? Satan and Typhon have been trying to find out ever since, but with no success. What a shame... can you imagine what I'd be like, wearing my sanctuary all the time? I wouldn't need to bother with you at all." The Writer studied Killer for a few long moments, then let go of his head with a snort of contempt, taking a step back and away from him. "You have no clue about how Anubis did it, even though you were the one who took him down... You are useless, as always. All muscle and dick, with no brain."

Killer threw himself hard against his restraints, trying to break free, but time continued to keep him motionless and imprisoned, and barely shifted his position at all, even though his muscles bulged explosively, almost ripping through his own skin. The Writer ignored his efforts, instead looking out through the time-barrier, at the frozen, motionless shapes of the super-demons outside. "And you've seen the Terrors, too... impressive, aren't they? And these are just "cubs". I've speeded up their development and put them to the test against your bitches, but given the time they need to fully mature and absorb all the power that hellish corruption can give, they would real engines of destruction." The Writer idly said, his voice filled with admiration, almost awe for what he had discovered. "Extraordinary... there Corruption pits can greatly enhance the power and abilities of any demon. They can make even a god like me stronger... unfortunately, there are... contraindications, although Satan had found countermeasures to most of them. The Terrors are prototypes... useful as super-heavy weapons, but the real aim of your "friend" is find a way to make himself dramatically stronger without losing his mind and control of his own body." Virgil lightly clapped his hands together, and Killer grimaced in distaste at the delight that the alien god clearly radiated while exclaiming: "There is so much good stuff I've learned, and so much more to find out! This world, apparently so unremarkable, has truly generated an astonishing amount of knowledge about how to create gods, or make existing ones stronger. All thanks to two ambitious assholes who are willing to sacrifice any and everything in order to conquer the throne of Lord God. You know what is disgustingly wonderful about the Terrors? They are all real demons, not clones!" Virgil cackled, spreading his arms and pointing at the motionless, titanic shapes out of the barrier. "He chained up the most powerful and promising newborns of Hell, kidnapped them and dumped them into the pits to rebuild their bodies, enhance their power and erase their minds. Isn't it delightfully merciless...?"

Killer repressed a shiver of fury and distaste at the thought, and then closed his eyes with a snarl as Virgil laughed louder and almost companionably punched his shoulder while cruelly announcing: "Of course, both Typhon and Satan thought about fighting fire with fire. Since you are so powerful and so stubborn about never dying, they figured that your very own genetic code would be their best weapon. And since you have dumped your seed all over Hell, it wasn't hard to find plenty of your spawn. Many of the pits in this cave are filled with your sons and daughters! Aren't you a proud daddy...? Aren't you? Course' you are!" The Writer laughed cruelly, his eyes wandering down Killer's powerful front, down to the groin plate that did its best to hide the massive, legendary cock of the huge male... and the liger allowed himself to grin inward for a brief instant as the awkward moment of silence that followed spoke so clearly of envy and disbelief on Virgil's side. Finally, the alien god snorted irritably as he added: "But as Satan and Typhon have already discovered, you are not entirely stupid... you don't think just with your dick. You can control the... quality of your seed, so to speak... these beasts have just a small fraction of your actual potential." The Writer paused, and then pushed his wrist-sword forwards until the hooked, cruel tip of the blade pushed against the thick double belt of his armor. "I would love to chop your dick off and crush your balls out of existence... I know how much it would hurt you. But I wonder... disgusting as it is to think about, whether the secret to your strength could reside in your loins. Your sperm might still give me the answers I need..." The Writer muttered, his voice dripping hate and distaste as he swung the blade down, sparkles flying from it as it tore a gash in Killer's heavy, black armor, before Virgil turned around to face the massive mountain of magic-imbued crystal that loomed over them and the entire cave. "These power cores are spectacular, too... so much energy! It's no wonder that the Central Spire is safe out of your reach... Hell, even out of mine. Until 7 cores like this one pump energy into the barrier, nobody is going to break through. But this is where you come into the frame..." Virgil paused, then idly flicked a finger, just so that Killer spun around in midair, forced to look in the direction of the power core. But while he slowly moved through the air, Killer saw glimpses, hints of movement outside what looked like a veil, a tent dividing Reality in two. There were shapes moving rapidly beyond that semi-transparent wall, and suddenly one of those shapes took on a very recognizable silhouette as Alexis smashed her fists against the wall, rattling it violently.

He could even heard her voice, albeit it arrived to his ears only muffled and horribly warped and slowed down, making it impossible to understand her message... but what mattered was that she was free, and that her image, frozen in time in midair on the opposite side, was just an illusion. You can't freeze time entirely. Not in a wide-enough radius, at least... The Writer did not seem to attach any importance to Alexis's attempt of breaking through the barrier, and just pretended not to see. Trying to look much stronger than you really are... Scared, are you? The idea of Alexis managing to break into this bubble must not be pleasant for you. But there she was, punching the barrier, and a second shape came into view a moment later, and probably it was Ira: he could see the shape of her cobra hood. That was a welcome, relieving sight: there could be no doubt that the time outside hadn't frozen at all, and that his goddesses had destroyed some or all of the Terrors, despite the fiction that the alien god continued to put up.

Virgil pointed one finger towards the abyss and announced: "This will be the first test. I want to see what you can actually do for me... You are going to stick your hands into that inferno of energy, and you are going to convey them inside me. You are going to make me even stronger!" The alien god cackled, gripping Killer's skull and forcing him to gaze towards the crackling discharges of wild, immense, terrifying energy, which could annihilate anything and anyone getting too close. "If you prove useful, I win. If you prove useless at this little game, we'll prove something else. I can fucking' assure you, pelt, you are going to make me stronger. In a way or another, you are going to make me invincible. And once I have what I want, I'll destroy you and all those you love. And I'll still have Satan's and Typhon's researches to exploit, as well... even if you turn out being completely useless, I will still make myself the most powerful being to ever exist. Either way, the victory is mine!"

Virgil once more roughly seized Killer's head, pushing the liger forwards, and the huge male shut his eyes with a snarl of fury at being that close but unable to do anything... before Alexis smashed her fists hard into the time-barrier around them, and a tremendous discharge of her energy exploded through the wall and into the bubble, lightning bolts of sapphire force that slammed into the Writer and sent him falling down on one knee with a groan of pain and shock. A ripple of Alexis's intense energy went through Killer as well, and his heart pounded faster, his muscles flexing and bulging explosively as he pushed against Time... but not to break free, this time, but to control its flow instead, as the femme fatale's voice echoed in his mind: "Everything he can do... you can do better."

Virgil snarled in fury and slammed a fist into the ground, pushing himself up... but he bumped into invisible, invincible restraints as time froze around him, while Killer tore free of his own prison, tearing through time like it was cheap plastic, his massive muscles bulging through as he grew more than ten feet taller in the space of a blink, growling hungrily as he viciously slammed his spiked elbow into the Writer's face, sending him crashing loudly into the ground. Immediately, Killer spun Wyvern tip-down and stabbed it hard through the Writer's torso, pinning him to the ground in a huge spray of dark blood, which was followed by even larger spurts as the liger tore the sword backwards, gutting the alien divinity open like a fish. Virgil attempted to shriek in horror and agony and fear, but his trashing had to be guessed, because it was so slow that it couldn't be perceived. The scrolls floated, motionless, around his body and the hand clutching the quill was clearly attempting to write something even though it barely moved at all, and Killer straddled the agonizing god with a snarl of vengeful rage, grinning widely as he let go of Wyvern and snagged one of the thick parchments instead, balling his hand into a fist and announcing: "I fucking hate you. You, your quill, your scrolls, your arrogant godmodding. I promised that I'd make you chew your own scrolls, and I always keep my promises." The liger slammed his massive fist down into the Writer's head, crushing his fully-enclosed helmet into a shapeless wreck of metal and sending blood spraying thickly out of the joints as the heavy plates bent out of shape and disconnected in several points. A note of agony finally came out, in extreme slow-motion, from Virgil's lips, and it sounded extra pathetic as it went on and on and on, while Killer's bloodied fist cocked back and then rammed down again, heavier than a meteor, crushing Virgil's head back down into the concrete, causing immense cracks to spread in every direction as the floor caved in under the assault, a large crater opening beneath them. Killer struck again, and again, and again, pummeling the helmet into a broken, unrecognizable heap of contorted, bloody scrap-metal, and then he clawed viciously into the fissures and cracks and tore back, ripping one heavy, thick plate right off, grinning darkly as chunks of flesh and muscle stretched between it and the broken skull. The metal was one with Virgil's skin, and the alien god's eyes rolled up madly inside the shattered skull as Killer tore much of his face off, tossing it away together with the broken plate, revealing a mess of blood and gore caked over a dark, metallic skull. The Writer had four small eyes and virtually no nose or muzzle: his face was flat, his nostrils just two holes that flared wide as he struggled to breathe, lost in a mix of agony and fury, his teeth gritted painfully together even though many of them had been shattered and knocked loose by Killer's punches... and the liger immediately gripped into the lower jaw of the alien, forcefully yanking it open just so he could brutally force the thick parchment into the Writer's throat, punching it deep down and then slamming the lower jaw upwards, again and again, forcing him to chew and rip the scroll, as well as his own tongue and gums, apart. "Eat up all of your crap, like that..." Killer snarled, enjoying every second of his vengeance, even as the entire world around them suddenly began to rattle violently, energy crackling in the air as Virgil fought back with all his forces.

Kate let out a howl of absolute, indescribable despair and slammed her talons into Killer's back, making him roar in pain as she yanked, tore, ripped, maimed, trashing wildly, completely out of control, acid drool flying from her broken, split-apart face as she lost even the ability to put together words. He did his best to restrain her, gripping into her throat and holding her aloft, out at arm's length, but she dragged herself forwards with violent force, strangling herself with his hand, almost impaling herself on his arm as he felt his fingers sink into her neck, her blood streaking down his arm while she savagely ripped into his back, tearing open deep, ugly gashes as she began to dig into his body, seeking his organs.

He threw her away with a hiss of pain, but caught her in midair with one tentacle, the mighty appendage coiling around her as best it could, trying to immobilize her... but he couldn't apply enough force without hurting her even worse, and she continued to claw and tear into his flesh all the time. He returned his attention to the Writer just in time to grimace in horror at the sight of the god breaking through his prison of time and reaching forwards to grab Wyvern: immediately, the liger seized the handle of his massive sword and viciously tore it back up, ripping it out through Virgil's shoulder after chopping his torso in half and nearly decapitating him. The alien god let out a roar of agony and outrage, clawing uselessly at the air as the huge sword tore through him, but then he vanished from the spot, and Killer grunted in surprise before a terrible shockwave of force smashed into him and sent him flying bonelessly towards the edge of the abyss. He spun in midair, eyes shut and blood spurting out of his mouth and nostrils, but his instinct was sharp enough to guide his hand as he stabbed Wyvern hard into the ground, anchoring himself before he could fall into the inferno of the Power Core. He fell onto his knees instead, skidding painfully over the concrete for several feet before grinding to a stop, and he opened his eyes, immediately seeking out his foe. Virgil floated in midair, livid with fury and overcharged with energy that crackled violently around him while his body, that Killer had just torn apart and dismembered, was regenerating incredibly quickly, so much so that it was already hard to spot the points where his chest had been split apart mere moments before. The face of the Writer was not regenerating nearly as well, and his head remained a grotesquely deformed, cracked and smashed skull only half-covered in wrecked plates of armor, but Virgil seemed unfazed by the damage as he moved his quill over a new scroll, writing with angry, wide, fast movements. The entire world around Killer seemed to tremble, the ground rattling violently as explosions of terrifying force smashed into him again and again and again, slamming him closer and closer to the abyss while the floor disintegrated into sharp fragments of concrete and steel that exploded against him like shrapnel from an artillery barrage. Killer felt his boots bump into the edge of the abyss, and already bolts of electricity shot up his tail and burned their way up his spine, making his body spasm violently, but still he pushed forwards, swinging Wyvern into the barrage of shockwaves, cutting through them, sending explosions of force washing past him on either side, gritting his fangs and trying to suffocate the cry of agony and exhaustion coming from within.

The Writer descended from the sky, grinning maniacally as he pointed his wrist-sword against the liger and walked closer and closer to him, teasing: "The victory is mine. Whatever you do, I will still win. The sooner you realize it, the better for you." The wrist-blade glowed as it supercharged with the god's energies, and Killer had barely enough time to brace himself as that focused force exploded forwards in a massive, spear-shaped beam that he only spotted at the last minute, between an explosion and another, while crackling bolts of electricity almost blinded and paralyzed him, cursing violently through his form. He reacted on instinct, flooding Wyvern with his own energies and slashing it hard against the beam, allowing his own force to explode against it. The impact caused an immense explosion and sent motes of divine energy flying in every direction, and Killer immediately shielded himself with the flat of his enormous blade, turning his mental focus on absorbing rather than on blasting out: the Imprisonment Crystal in the handle of Wyvern became blindingly luminous as even the sword opened up to that deluge of raw power, and Killer winced as a vortex of energy violently spiraled down the blade and into the jewel and into his arms, a cry of agony escaping from his lips as his body sizzled and smoldered... but Virgil got by far the worst end of the deal, flying backwards bonelessly and crashing into his own time-barrier, shrieking in agony and shock as he slumped to the ground in a lake of his own blood, hugging his ripped-open chest.

Immediately, Alexis, Vesta, Ira and Gaia and then other goddesses were behind him, landing ferocious blows against the barrier in an attempt to get to him and Killer, and the Writer rolled over with a cry of pure fear, scampering away from them and staring in disbelief as Alexis's fist tore through the barrier, narrowly missing him. "No... Not possible..." His voice trembled and nearly broke, but still he angrily thrust his palm towards the barrier, and a terrible shockwave of force exploded out of him, slamming Alexis backwards as the wall of time sealed itself again, crackling with malignant energy and glowing whenever Ira and the others struck against it. "You will not interrupt us!" Virgil shrieked, and his voice was terrifying and powerful even as his tone became shrill and almost feminine in pitch. "I am about to become absolute! The Only! The Master of all!"

His rage was terrible, and it caused a true hurricane of crackling electricity and winds of pure energy that tore into Killer's body like blades, sending his blood splattering thickly all around as he was knocked down to one knee, panting and breathless, his mind clouded over by agony... and yet the liger scrambled forwards, kicking again up to his feet even as his legs threatened to fail him, and he swung Wyvern out in a wide, heavy slash just as Virgil slowly stood up.

The alien god pulled up his arm, and his armored sleeve morphed into a shield that deflected Wyvern sideways, and Killer cursed under his breath, shifting his weight around and stabbing the sword up from under the edge of his defence, but the Writer snarled and blasted him away with a discharge of terrible, sheer force. "You have aggravated me..." Virgil hissed, and his eyes glowed with pure, inarticulate fury as he pointed his hand towards the steel crosses from which Nikita and the others still hung, and the females immediately trashed violently around, their backs arching so much that Killer feared they would snap in half as they shrieked in horrendous, indescribable agony... and a moment later they pushed forwards with insane, tormented shrieks, ripping their ankles and wrists apart in a deluge of blood as they somehow found the strength to tear free of the metallic spikes and hooks and nails restraining them.

They crashed on their knees, shrieking in despair and pain, and Virgil grinned cruelly as he made a shoving gesture, crushing them into the ground as he hissed: "I'll break them, I swear... I will hurt them so bad that they will hate your guts. They will devour the flesh off of your bones!"

Killer looked at them in horror, petrified by their terrifying screams, and then his eyes bulged as the females slowly turned towards him, eyes glowing with white, ghastly energy as they snarled furiously and charged him, their maimed arms splitting apart as the shreds of flesh and muscle all turned into terrible, spiked tentacles of flexible metal, their faces splitting apart and turning into terrible mouths lined with ugly, massive teeth and fangs. "I don't want to fight you... I cannot fight you..." Killer said, bracing as best he could against their assaults, gritting his teeth as their tentacles whip-lashed into him, cutting down to the bone and shredding his arms even as he did his best to repeal them without breaking their bodies, without killing them, using the flat of Wyvern as a shield, battering them back and attempting to immobilize them with his tentacles... but the agony had driven them entirely insane and they only swarmed all over him with even greater ferocity, savagely biting and clawing into his flesh.

"I won't destroy you..." Killer shouted, tears rolling down his cheeks as he tackled Nikita down to the ground as best he could, before turning to the side as Crystal literally bit into the side of his neck while clawing into the pauldron of his armor, trying to rip It off. He wrapped his arm around her waist and shoved her down onto her back, wincing at the pain as his blood sprayed up onto his face, and then he turned to face Virgil as he charged forwards with a cackle and kicked hard into his chest, knocking him down with a grunt, the metallic edge of the abyss surrounding the power core pushing painfully into his badly maimed chest as he stared in horror at the incredible, endless depth of the chasm over which the top half of his body now hanged.

Nikita and the other Praetorians, possessed by Virgil and insane with their own agony, immediately pinned him down, covering his arms with their bodies and pushing down with all of their combined strength, and the Writer added his armoured foot, settling it down on his head and crushing his face further down into the abyss. Terrible, immense energy crackled all around him, threatening to cook him alive, and he panted breathlessly, staring at the lightning bolts that whipped the air all around him, every hair on his body standing up and his nervous system turning into an inferno of heat and pain as the electricity began to curse through his body. "Here we go, young god. Your big chance!" Virgil teased, twisting his heel on his skull and spreading his arms as he looked up at the immense tower of crystal. "I'm ready to become the invincible master of all. You better be ready to help me, because otherwise... If you try to convey the energy into me as a weapon, you'll turn your dear girls into ashes first. If you try and absorb it inside your own body, I will know it and I will put an end to this experiment in a way you will not like... Keep it nice and steady. Give me what I want, and maybe, just maybe, I might even keep you around as a pet."

Killer snarled and pushed up as best he could, trying to distance himself from the almost solid wall of crackling energy ahead of his face, but the Praetorians pushed even harder down and Virgil stomped hard on his skull, so that he finally collided with one of the bolts of energy.

The shock that followed was unlike anything else he had ever felt. His body was slammed violently backwards and upwards, even as Virgil and the girls forced him down with all their forces. His heart pumped crazily for a brief moment, then stopped abruptly, along with his breathing, while his everything became pain. The feeling of burning, of being consumed out of existence. Everything became dark. Time slowed down. All noise was replaced by terrible, terrifying silence.

I'm dead. I must be dead... He could feel... a flow. A flow of immense force, raging into him. He couldn't tell where it started and where it ended, but he could feel it, tremendous and wild, violent and unstoppable. And then he realized that he could... feel... or even see, somehow... smaller energy signatures, that he soon recognized as those of Nikita, Crystal, Kate, Valery... and behind him, on top of him, a much greater energy, angry, eager, expectant, which pushed down into him, urged him on with words he could not hear.

Nikita... Valery... Crystal... Kate... I don't want to hurt you... I don't want to kill you... I... can't...

He did his best to contain the immense, raging force roaring within him, but he could feel it eating through him from inside, and he knew he had to let go, or be annihilated by it. A tiny layer of... of me... of my flesh... was all what separated the Praetorians from destruction. And he knew he couldn't hold it. He tried. But he couldn't. One further moment of hesitation, and he would burn out of existence, and them with him.

Forgive me...

He allowed the energy to run through him, but with horror he felt the flow rolling up into Virgil. It was like a roaring tsunami was entering into him and then, once slowed down and squeezed into a manageable flow in a small tube, fed into the Writer, to make him stronger. So much stronger...

"Yes! Yes! Yes! It works...! It works! I feel my power swelling, growing, expanding... more and more and more... I will grow beyond everything that ever was and ever will be! I claim everything as mine! Everyone shall quail and tremble before me!" Virgil howled, his eyes blazing with power, his body swelling immensely, dwarfing Killer in a mere instant, radiating a tremendous, terrifying power as he smiled in dark delight, leaning down over the liger, easily able to squeeze him in one hand now, just like a small stress toy... and Killer now found it impossible to close the floodgates and put an end to that flow of power. Even as the tower of crystal loudly trembled and then suddenly cracked, pulsing with all of its power as it was drained, he couldn't stop the flow, even as his mind filled with the horrendous awareness: you are making your enemy strong. You are giving him victory. You are the tool of his triumph. You. It is your fault.

Killer's eyes opened as a snarl of horror and fury came up from his throat, and he flexed powerfully against the titanic hand that roughly clamped on him. Each finger was easily ten or more times his size, and yet he found it surprisingly easy to push them away... and a grin spread on his lips as he realized that it was getting even easier. The tremendous flood of energy now split into multiple directions within him, and he was able to send rivers of it roaring down his arms, his torso, his legs... and he spun onto his back, and it was like the universe was nothing but a shirt, tight over his muscular shoulders, stretched out over his back, unable to contain his immense biceps as he seized Virgil's face in one hand and squeezed, with brutal force. Virgil shrieked in disbelief, trying to pull back, away from the liger. Stomping, kicking, pushing hard against Killer, trying to toss him into the abyss, but the liger was unmovable. "No, don't you dare! It is my power... my destiny! I am Master, I am the Only, I will rule over everything!" Virgil shrieked, but Killer threw his head back with a cruel grin, and flexed muscles that thrummed with terrifying, impossible power. Killer clicked his tongue, and the energy that had filled the Writer rushed back out of him, and flooded into his body as he arched his back with a growl of bliss, devouring all that force. The pain was gone, and suddenly his mind was clear and focused with deadly accuracy on one intense lust, one terrible hunger: "It is not your destiny, Writer... it never was. It is my destiny. Mine, and mine alone. To be the strongest, the greatest in all the universes. To conquer all, and to never have to lift so much as a finger to do it..."

The cracks in the monolith of crystal spread wider and tore deeper, and the magic-charged material rapidly paled as its force was swallowed into the bottomless ocean that Killer was, the liger growing greater and greater, dwarfing Virgil to insignificance as his fingers dig into his armored body like it was made of butter, the liger's body flexing as he drains what miserable energy the alien god had left, holding him like nothing more than a weak doll. He looked down at him with eyes that burned with cold, merciless sapphire light, the cave trembling and cracking around him, the world itself shaking at his presence alone. Outside, the whole of Hell is rattled like leaves in a storm, and the barrier surrounding the Central Spire visibly flickers and pales slightly, losing part of its strength, leaving all the demons of Hell staring and wondering...

And now Killer doesn't bother to even look in the direction of the tiny, doomed alien god, who still shrieked and protested, but with a tiny, ridiculously shrill voice literally drowned out by the thrumming of Killer's monstrous, powerful muscles. The more Virgil attempted to fight back, the more he exhausts himself, and the more of his energies were drained away and absorbed into the liger. Killer snorted in amusement, idly gripping into his titanic, impossible cock, attaching no importance at all to the microscopic god that ended up crushed into his colossal member, left there to be melted out of existence by the liger's cock-sweat. There was nothing but contempt and a faint, mocking amusement at that tiny little creature, microscopic even when compared to one of his sperms, no more of a threat to him than a grain of dust. He was larger, more powerful, greater than anything Virgil had ever experienced, even just in his dreams. And when he only gazed curiously down at his black shaft, trying to spot any hint of remains of the Writer, the weight of his gaze alone was enough to squish every sign out of existence.

Killer seized the top of the monolith of crystal in one hand and squeezed, draining it even faster, and within moments the Power Core had nothing else to give: it crumbled like a biscuit, leaving Killer licking his lips in delight, laying down on his back and filling up the immense cave, the buildings that had been around him turned into nothing but rubble beneath his back.

"You did not deserve to get near my cock, thinking of it... but I guess I'm generous at heart." Killer idly commented, giving his gigantic shaft a slow squeeze, savoring the fact that another of his enemies was now dust, while he had just grown immensely stronger... and then, he looked down at his huge, muscular arms, smiling as he saw Nikita, then Valery, then Kate and Crystal, all slowly standing up upon his mountain-like biceps. They touched their faces, slowly, wonderingly, and tears of joy streaked down their cheeks as they found their muzzles back in one piece, their bodies healed and regenerated... and they beamed as they felt heavy, thick collars wrapped tightly around their throats.

They went down to their knees, and bent forwards to kiss his arm. And while they thanked him for the miracle he had just accomplished, he closed his eyes and sighed, savoring the wonderful relief of the moment. He had no idea how he had saved them from the terrifying wounds and mutilations that had nearly destroyed their bodies: it was a literal miracle.

And for perhaps the first time, he truly felt like a god. He had saved them. He had given their lives back to them. He had blessed them and rewarded them for their loyalty. _Isn't this all what a God should be about...? _