The Doom Slayer killed the last Imp in his way with a blast of the the Super Shotty to the chest, opening a hole in it. The demon fell backwards, gurgling blood before dying. The Doom Slayer reloaded his weapon as it faded away. He saw the edge of the golden barrier in front of him and made some changes for what he knew would be a hard fight ahead of him. He switched his Savagery and Armored Offensive runes for Equipment Power and In-Flight Mobility, then changed his Rocket Launcher attachment from Lock-on Burst to Remote Detonation, and Stun Bomb for Heat Blast on his Plasma Rifle. He also switched out his frag grenades fo Siphon Grenades. He still had enough armor of Rich Get Richer to work, but he wasn’t going to have as many chances to refill it, and In-Flight Mobility could only help him dodge for so long, so he’d have to make sure each rocket counted. His siphon grenade was a way for him to get armor back mid fight, but it wouldn’t be much, especially with them needing to recharge.

After sprinting down the halls the finally came across the door what he could guess was the throne room, hearing the sounds of battle behind them. Instantly his body swelled with adrenaline as his rage spiked as he stomped forwards before kicking the door. It held against the force so he tried again, feeling something break. One more kick and the door was no longer an impediment.

Inside he saw three Hell Guards, two with either a mace or staff, the third with both. They all looked like they had gone through some kind of fight, but were not particularly damaged. He was far too enraged to notice that however, his heart pounding in anger adrenaline pumping through him. He also barely noticed the large blue pony that had apparently been fighting them, nor the mismatch creature (Discord if he cared to remember, which he didn’t), and other ponies including a large white one hiding behind some kind of barrier. He was too focused on hies next kill, so much so that he barely registered what they were talking about as the blue pony retreated inside the barrier. For now there was nothing aside from him and the demons that would soon be dead.

The demons stared him down for a moment, waiting for him to make the first move. He did, charging forwards as he raised his heavy assault rifle, immediately firing the micro missiles at the dual wielding Hell Guard, who charged and tried to strike him with a thrust with its mace. He dodged to the side and the one who wielded a staff only raised it, gathering power. The Doom Slayer quickly switched out for his super shotty and fired both barrels, interrupting the attack and causing it to stumble before falling to one knee. He was about to reload and fire again but the mace one jumped and tried to slam his weapon into him. The Doom Slayer leapt to the side, avoiding the hit and used his thrust boots for more distance and to avoid the fiery shockwave that came after.

As he landed the dual wielding Hell Guard summoned a ball of energy, preparing to fire. The Doom Slayer fire both barrels of his Super Shotty, causing the mass of energy to explode and stun all three of the nearby enemies. He quickly reloaded before switching to the rocket launcher, firing a rocket right towards the middle of them and triggering the remote detonation just at the right time to hit all of them with shrapnel from the explosive payload, the rocket itself colliding with the dual wielding Hell Guard and causing more damage. The three enemies were jolted out of their stun and split so that they weren’t a single target. The mace Hell Guard leapt into the air, its body engulfed in flames as it continued to flip. The staff Hell Guard dashed to the side, leaving a trail of fire, before prepping its own energy attack. The dual wielder began to spin, causing a spiral of flames extend and move across the floor. Doom Slayer quickly swapped out for his super shotty and fired at the Staff demon, cutting off its attack and stunning it. He reloaded quickly and switched to the plasma rifle, firing at the dual wielder while also moving away from the mace demon as it came down in a fiery blaze, unleashing another flaming shockwave, careful to avoid the lines of moving flames on the ground as he did. He double jumped away from both attacks and landed on a broken column, keeping him safe from the ground attacks as he continued to fire. The staff demon fired a stream of flames at him, which he avoided by double jumping to the wall and grabbing onto a hanging banner, the cloth managing to hold his weight as he still fired the plasma rifle with the other hand, swinging back and forth as he did.

The mace demon leapt at him, its weapon raised and ready to strike. The Doom Slayer launched himself off the wall, firing the heat blast at the demon, knocking it out of the air and back to the ground. He activated his rocket boots to gain more distance, switching the gauss cannon as he did, before landing on the still spinning dual wielding Hell Guard, the force of impact causing it to lose its balance. As it stumbled the Slayer charge the mobile siege and fired point blank, the force not only knocking the unbalanced demon to the floor but also launching himself off in the opposite direction a bit. Unfortunately, he was headed right towards the other two demons. The mace Hell Guard swung hard, hitting him in the side and sending him tumbling to the corner, while the staff Hell Guard charged its energy fired, the volatile blast exploding and slamming him into the wall.

The Doom Slayer growled, shaking off the pain as he saw the dual wielding Hell Guard rise. Not wanting to get cornered as all three prepared to attack, he pulled out the BFG and fired, the enormous blast not only causing massive damage but also forcing them back a bit and stunning them. Seeing an opportunity and to retaliate as well as gain back some lost armor, he quickly tossed both of his Siphon Grenades, making sure they would hit more than one of the enemies when they exploded, before quickly switching out of the combat shotgun, firing an explosive blast which exploded before unleashing cluster bombs that struck all of them. With little time left before they all recovered, he changed to the chaingun, quickly engaging mobile turret mode and unleashed the hose of bullets upon the dual wielding Hell Guard. He was only able to continue this for a few seconds before they recovered and charged, switching for the heavy assault rifle and firing the micro missiles as he continued to strafe the three enemies.

Celestia couldn’t believe what she was watching, and neither could those around her. Only Discord seemed to be unfazed, though by no means unimpressed. This “specialist” was more than just a powerful warrior, it was as if it had been trained and equipped to be as lethal as possible, as if what she was seeing was the result of hundreds of years of scientific research and optimization. The variety of its weapons, the durability if its armor, and the trained and practiced motions of its almost incessant movement. This was the power of a whole army compressed into one highly mobile, and viciously relentless package. This was more than just a warrior or even a monster, this was a machine that seemed to have every aspect of its being crafted for unleashing destruction. She had little doubt that if this creature was to take on all of Equestria’s military forces at once it would still win with plenty of energy to spare.

She watched the specialist continue to move and fire, something that seemed to happen constantly, while the mace demon hurled its weapon around the circumference of the room, causing it to shoot flames at the creature from all angles as it circled around like a boomerang. The specialist dodged the attack with practiced ease, as if it had done this before, while continuing to fire the endless stream of small rockets at the one that wielded two weapons. The staff demon summoned another ball of energy in front of it, only for the specialist to quickly switch out for the weapon that unleashed to massive booms of force, causing the energy to rupture and explode, damaging and stunning the staff demon. The dual wielding demon began to spin again, unleashing the streams of flame across the floor once more. The specialist headed for the same broken column it went to before, but the mace demon anticipated this and dashed towards the column, leaving behind a streak of fire, and ramming into the column, crushing it to dust. The mace demon and the staff demon began to charge and attack the specialist, pushing it back in the opposite direction the flames on the floor were spinning, forcing it into the attack. Though the specialist did its best to avoid all attacks, trying to jump over the streams in the floor, it would often accidentally land on them anyway while trying to dodge the other two demons’ attacks. Then, during one jump, it was struck out of the air by a blast by the staff demon, knocking it onto its back.

With a flip back up onto its feet, and an growl of frustration and anger loud enough to be heard even over the sounds of battle, the specialist switched out for the weapon that fired the stream of energy blasts and began laying into the two demons, ignoring the flames on the floor, apparently deciding they were too much trouble to avoid. It would occasionally stop the stream of energy to fire a shockwave of energy at the two demons, who now struggled to deal with the assault. After about thirty seconds of this it switched for the weapon that fired the missiles that somehow exploded twice and continued to the assault, dodging only the attacks from the two demons, and carefully placing its shots so that it would always damage at least two of the demons with each blast. After another half minute of this, it switched out for the weapon that fired the small explosives again and focused the unending stream entirely on the demon spinning in the center of the room, dodging and ignoring the attacks from the other two demons. After about fifteen seconds of this it pulled out the massive weapon it fired only once before and unleashed the same extremely powerful green blast of energy. Just like last time it staggered the three demons and caused them to cease their attacks, stunning them as well. Also like last time, Luna and Discord struggled to keep up the barrier to protect everypony, even though the blast wasn’t even directed at them.

The specialist stored the weapon away wherever all its weapons came from, and charged the dual wielding demon with only its bare hands. It wrenched the staff out of one of its hands before stabbing the demon’s torso hard enough the break through the armored layer. It then quickly hefted up the mace onto its shoulder and spun before slamming the weapon into the other one, forcing the staff completely through the demon’s body, killing the creature inside as it fell back, limp. The specialist then continued to spin and then hurled the mace at the demon with the identical weapon, knocking it onto its back, before rushing at the staff demon, which was just starting to recover. It wrenched the staff out of the demon’s hand, the weapon glowing green with energy, before shoving it into the demon’s torso, unleashing a blast the exploded the insides of the demon out its back. The specialist then ran at the mace demon, who was just starting to get back up, and hitting it with the staff, breaking the weapon in half and knocking the demon back to the floor. The specialist then leapt on top of it and repeatedly stabbed the broken end into the side of the panel that the worm demon crawled into. After a few hits the broken weapon managed to pierce the armor, and the specialist began trying to use the broken weapon to pry it open, until the weapon itself snapped. Undeterred, the creature tore open the panel with its bare hands before reaching and side and pulling out the worm, before grabbing it with both hands and pulling, ripping the helpless creature in half.

Celestia and the other ponies just stared, shocked and horrified at the brutal executions they just witnessed as the bodies of the demons began to disintegrate into nothing. She was so stunned that she was completely unprepared for the massive force that attacked her barrier, almost shattering it instantly. She recoiled from the shock, attempting to gather herself, only for the next hit to break it. She shouted in pain as she fell to the floor.

“Sister!” Luna cried and rushed to her side.

Before anypony could say or do anything else loud thunderous footsteps approached, causing the entire room to shake. It was slow at first, until it turned the corner, a creature that looked like it was made of pain and anger and sending fear through everyponies’ body. Then it somehow seemed to rocket forward, destroying and bursting through the already massive door to the throne room, widening it further, before unleashing a deafening roar. The monster was a massive hulking brute, covered in stone like armor, and with it’s left hand replaced with a giant futuristic cannon, while it’s right arm had a bone like blade on its wrist. It glowered at them with four red glowing eyes, mandibles on either side of its mouth, and two large horns on its head. It also had some kind of device apparently implanted into its chest.

The screams of her ponies snapped Celestia back to reality, adding her power to the barrier Discord and Luna were holding up. The specialist meanwhile went right to work, firing at the beast with its two barrelled weapon, doing what it could to dodge the missiles the monster fired from its arm cannon. The massive demon sped to the opposite end of the room before unleashing a barrage of missiles from its back, which rained down all over the throne room. The specialist managed to dodge the blasts only for the beast to charge forward and hit him with a shoulder charge, knocking the weapon out of his hands and flying across the room. The specialist quickly got up and switched to the weapon that pumped after every shot, continuing to fight.

“What’s going?” Celestia asked, desperation seeping into her voice. “Why isn’t it fighting like before? Why is it losing!?”

“He ran out of ammo,” Discord replied. “This is all he’s got left.” He then held his hands… or, rather, claw and paw out in front of him. “Thankfully, I prepared for just such an occasion.” He summoned what little chaos magic he could, creating the same ball of red glowing energy he made before, one Celestia now recognized as being nearly identical to the specialist. “HEY, PSYCHO!’ Discord yelled, catching the warrior’s attention as a small hole opened up barrier. “NEED A JOLT!?” he asked before firing the energy at the specialist, who seemed to surge with power and red energy crackled along his body. After a moment it stopped, now leaving the armored being radiating a red fire from its body. The giant hulking beast actually took a step back in caution before steeling itself for a fight. “I’d caution those with weak hearts or bladder control to turn away, but let’s face it, you’ve seen plenty today.” Discord snarked.

The demon fired missiles from its cannon at the specialist, who both dodged and charged at it with impressive speed. The demon responded by charging forwards, the specialist barely managing to dodge out of the way, but also grabbing onto one of its shin guards. When the demon stopped the specialist lunged up to its head, punching the demon hard enough that it actually stumbled back a few steps. It then lunged up the demon’s shin, aiming for the device in its chest, only for the demon to grab it and toss the warrior away. It then aimed its cannon again, charging the powerful blast for a few seconds and firing, the specialist managing to recover and leap out of the way at the last moment. The warrior then slammed both fists into the ground, smashing the marble floor, before grabbing a broken chunk of the and hurling it at the cannon, hitting it with enough force to actually move its whole arm and dent the metal. The specialist then sprinted towards the beast, only for the demon to extend its wrist blade and stab at it. The armored warrior dodged before striking the bone, breaking the blade off as the demon winced in pain. The specialist then took the broken weapon and stabbed it into the monster’s knee, causing it to howl with pain, only for the specialist to use the embedded weapon as a step to make it to the device in the demon’s chest. It shoved its hand into the device, twisted and, ribbed what looked like some kind of container out, before hopping off and landing on the floor. The demon struggled to move for a moment before falling backwards, as if its soul had just been ripped out, and fell limp.

For a moment Celestia relaxed, thinking the terror was over, only for the red mist that had been enveloping Canterlot to stream into the demon, its body floating off the ground as life returned to it, its body glowing red with power. In addition, she also noticed the container the specialist was glowing the same color, look like it could explode at any moment.

Then the specialist did something Celestia could barely believe. It shoved its hand into the container.

The Doom Slayer noticed his Berserk powerup was nearly spent, and the Cyberdemon in front of him was reviving itself, likely stronger than before. He had low ammo, no armor, and was holding an extremely volatile container of Argent energy with no clue what to do with it. He couldn’t funnel it into his health, armor, or ammo as those were all maxed out, and letting it teleport him would at best take him back to Hell with all the same spent weapons and armor he had now, and at worst could do… anything else. Then suddenly, he had an idea.

This is gonna be interesting.

He clenched his fist and with all his strength shoved it into Argent container, the power rapidly funnelling itself into his armor and body.

[WARNING: Argent Energy Overload]
[Redirect Energy]

The Doom Slayer floated into the air, force himself to hold onto the device. He saw the Cyberdemon now fully revived, prepared to fight again, only to step back in fear when it saw what he was doing.

[Redirect Argent Energy]
[System: Berserker Power]
[WARNING: Untested Method]
[CONTINUE? Y/N]

[Y]

[Redirecting…]

The Doom Slayer felt the power flow through him, his heart thundering like an engine in his chest as his every pore surged with adrenaline. His vision turned red, red lightning crackled all over his body, and he was completely engulfed in a red flaming aura. After a few more seconds he landing on the floor hard, cracking the marble. After recovering for a moment he stood up and tossed the Argent container to the side, with suck force that it shot through the marble wall like a bullet through tissue paper. He threw his back and bellowed a war cry, his voice reverberating and the entire room shaking from the force of his shout. The sonic vibrations themselves were enough to shake loose of the nearby columns which had already been weakened and began to fall on top of him. The Doom Slayer caught it and then swung it at the Cyberdemon, as if it was no heavier than a baseball bat, sending the massive demon to floor and breaking the column into thousand of pieces.

The demons struggled to get up only for the Doom Slayer to hurl what was left of the column at it, hitting it with enough force to send it sliding along the floor before smashing into the other wall. It quickly picked itself up and fired missiles from it cannon at him. He charged right at the beast, powering through and ignoring the explosives, before leaping at it. The hulking monstrosity managed to leap out of the way, just in time to avoid the Doom Slayer’s fist, which annihilated the wall behind its former position. As he fell back to the ground the Cyberdemon charged its laser blast, managing to score a hit dead on him. This only forced him to the ground for a moment before quickly rising again. The demon then fired more missiles from its back, which would soon be quickly coming down everywhere. The Doom Slayer responded by shoving his hands into the floor and ripping out a chunk of marble twice the size of him, acting as a shield against the missile barrage, before hurling it at the demon with such speed it couldn’t hope to dodge, causing it to fall back into the corner of the room. The Doom Slayer sprinted at the demon, which raised its cannon in a desperate attempt to retaliate, only for him to grab the weapon and rip it, along with its whole arm, off the demon’s body, then quickly strike the demon across the face with the limb, sending it to the floor.

He tossed the limb aside and jumped up, landing right in front of the Cyberdemon’s face before grabbing it by the horns. With no more effort than trying to open a beer bottle, the Doom Slayer ripped the head of the demon off with such force and ease that he ended up tossing it high into the air behind him. He didn’t hear it land for another ten seconds, and when he did he let loose another bellowing roar.

Celestia had never been so terrified in her life. This... monster had destroyed a creature more than twice its size like it was made of nothing but paper mache, with its bare hands. The victorious cry shook the entire throne room as red fire and electricity radiated off its body. After a few seconds of this it began to rapidly pant, each exhale sounding like the growl of a rabid animal. Even with the tinted glass of its visor, she could see its glowing red eyes of hatred. Then the more supernatural displays suddenly stopped, as if the energy had simply been spent, but it still panted loudly and menacingly. Then, much to her surprise, it took in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and then let out a long exhale. After that its breathing returned to what could be called normal, not the snarling grunts of a beast.

Celestia could barely get her thoughts straight, but even so exited the barrier and approached the creature. Her body trembled more and more with each step towards it, and by the time she was in arm’s reach she was shaking like a leaf. She gulped as she tried to gather herself before speaking.

“Th-Thank you.” She began. “I… I don’t know who or what you are, or even if you intended it, but… you saved us. You have our gratitude.” She slowly extended her hoof towards it, which it stared at for a minuted. It then bumped its fist against her hoof before twiddling its fingers in a manner that could only be called whimsical. Celestia released the breath she had been holding and let out a chuckle. She was about to continue when she felt the immeasurable hatred and rage radiating off it again. Her blood ran cold as she thought she had made a terrible mistake, thinking of all the horrid ways it could kill her, when its head snapped around to the doorway, seeing one of the pale skinned floating demons come into view. The specialist pulled out a weapon, some kind of sword with an engine strapped to it, the whirred with a terrible sound, before sprinting at the creature. The demon gather red power around itself, attempting to flee, only for the warrior to shove its weapon into the demon, blood flying everywhere. Then both of them disappeared in a flash of red light.

Celestia was left reeling, still trying to process everything that had just happened, that she didn’t even notice her sister calling her name until she was right next her.

“Celestia, are you alright?” Luna asked, her sister finally hearing the question.

Celestia only nodded back dumbly before looking over the throne room, finally able to take in the incredible amount of destruction the battles inside had made. Her eyes then stopped, finding the weapon that he had dropped in the fight with the hulking giant of a demon. She trotted over before levitating it up to her hooves to examine it. Unlike many of the other weapons the specialist wielded, this was old in both age and design. It had some simplistic yet ornate carvings into the metal, and despite the roughing up of use seemed to be well cared for. It was a clear sign of respect for the past, those who understood the value of a tried and true design that was not yet obsolete. She turned to Discord. “Who… What was it?” she asked.

Discord paused before answering, as if trying to find the right words. “... I wasn’t able to learn everything, but… he’s been fighting these things for what feels like eons. A simple mortal that submitted himself to revenge against these things, somehow gaining more power than should be possible. You know how I used to be the kind of thing foals would check their beds and closets at night for? That’s what he is to them. He is monster that monsters have nightmares about.”

“... What was its… his name?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure if he even knows, or even cares anymore. But I do know what they call him.”

“They… you mean the demons?”

He nodded. “They are the bringers of the apocalypse, the Legions of Doom… so they named him the Doom Slayer. He is there bane, not because of righteousness or holiness… but because he’s even worse than they are.”

The Doom Slayer pulled his chainsaw out of the Summoner’s body, watching as it faded to nothing. He looked around the familiar reds of Hell.

Well, that was an interesting little detour, he thought before absorbing the ammo the demon released after dying. He looked around and noticed some clearly man made structure, specifically the light markers the U.A.C. used to catch their bearings. He smirked as he pulled out his combat shotgun and pumped it. Time to pay the Doctor a visit.

Author's Note

Almost there, everyone! Just got one last chapter to write. Give me an hour or two, then I'm going to bed. I hope you all enjoyed the fights and that I picked good songs for them. And of course, here's the inspiration for the chapter title.