Corruption of Souls

Ch.108

“How long will the Boys take?” We asked impatiently and in worry. It’d been hours since Urta was taken, who knows what those heathens have done to our beloved wife and our unborn children!

“The boys are just as frustrated Wiatr.” Visi was hugging us with one arm where we had both sat against the tunnel wall, the Shoggoth having gone off to ‘hunt’ more demons she could ‘smell’ nearby on our side of the barrier.

“But they don’t know her like we do Visi.” We whined and shivered. The tunnels may have been hot and musty, but even with our armor back on after realizing We’d forgotten to seal it back up and had to ‘vomit’ out tainted poison slime before doing so, We felt cold inside. Dread filled us the longer they had time to do whatever they planned to Urta.

“I know…” Visi softly muttered and squeezed our waist tighter.

“What are we going to do?” We squeaked, our skaven vocals causing us to get more high-pitched and quiet as our distress mounted. Like Fluttershy’s voice actually.

Visi wanted to say something, but when she opened her mouth no words came out and she closed it with a sigh as she leaned her head on our shoulder. “...I don’t know.” She sounded like she had lost hope, even her face showed it.

“Visi.” We sniffled and hugged her closer.

“I’m sorry.” Visi told us as her body shook, trying to hold back her tears. “I f-feel like I’ve already failed and lost.”

“You didn’t fail.” We whined before the tunnel suddenly got blisteringly hot and a red-yellow glow grew brighter from the tunnel leading onward. “Oh no, is that?” Things just keep getting worse.

“Magma? Yes.” Visi snarled as we stood up to see the tunnel slowly fill with burbling hot magma, which it was since we were underground. “Guess they’ve decided to further secure their location by flooding the tunnels they dug with magma from Hell. All units be advised: if you haven’t seen it yet, know that magma is being dumped into the tunnels, they’re digging in further.”

“Fuck!” We snarled as we backed away from the flood while Visi too avoided the nearing molten stone. The sulfuric gas given off by this will make the toxicity in the air even worse. It’s a good thing We had purged and resealed our armor while Visi never took any of her’s off.

“Great! Urta, what is going on?” We helplessly questioned our abducted Goddess-wife, only idly noting that We’d been giving her religious reverence. Just as well, We do Love her that much.

“What are we going to do now?” One of the many troop leaders questioned over the comms.

“Have the ships above Satan’s Stone out of reach of their Anti-Air batteries blow a hole through the roof where I’ve pinpointed the portal’s energy signature.” Runner radioed in, which gave us a swell of hope in our chest. “We know where the portal is now, it’s shielded with Urta inside it, so we could have the ships start bombarding the shit out of the place until it’s exposed, but that does mean we need to fully retreat out of the caves.”

“Urta and Berserker should be okay. She’s next-to-invincible, so that seems better than whatever they try to do to her. Berserker is too tough to have an indirect orbital bombardment do him in.” Visilia decided, clearly remembering how boastful our lovely wife was of her power. “We’ll get out of the tunnels, give us 10 minutes.”

“We’re having Hermais teleport all of our troops out of this place. I don’t think my Chasers and I can evacuate everyone out in time.” Runner said before the Comms with him stopped.

“Great.” We snarled and scooped Visi into our arms, causing her to yelp in surprise as We sprinted back the way we had come. We could hear the shouts of our soldiers as We hurried towards the general direction of ‘not-death’ that was going to be arriving soon. “Minion! If you can hear us, guide us out!”

“Yay~! Mistress called! This way!” The Shoggoth, that We’re dubbing Minion until a better name is provided, appeared out of thin air and then promptly began leading us down a tunnel slightly to the side of the one We’d been taking. Not even a minute later, we found a hole to the surface with soldiers climbing up, who helped us out when we got there, Visi was pulled up first.

Not a moment too soon either, as one of the Dreadnoughts in low orbit along with a few Cruisers in the sky fired their Gauss Cannons and missiles down upon the top of Satan’s Stone. The resulting explosion caused a pressure wave both on the surface which knocked us all to the ground, but it also pushed geysers of lava to the surface from the holes, burning several soldiers and setting numerous FOBs ablaze.

“Shit!” We yelped and used our body to cover Visi, who shouted in concern since some of the molten rock splashed on us. “We need to get away, now!” We used our telekinesis to move others away as the lava quickly welled up, the pressure causing a small eruption from nearly every hole into the tunnel system Hell had dug. It only lasted a couple of minutes, but the damage was rather intense. Several soldiers died to intense heat cooking them alive in their armor.

“Usually we’re more careful than this, but we’re pressed for time! Whatever they’re going to use Urta’s Argent for, it can’t be good!” Visilia hissed with grit teeth, the soldiers rallying as the explosion reaching underground meant the barrier was down. “Forward!” A resounding cry echoed through the army as all able-bodied troops from all divisions surged forth.

Thankfully the bombardment had done a number on Hell’s forces. They were in disarray when we slammed into their ranks like a tide of death, ripping and tearing through demons left and right, even the higher ranked Knights and lesser Barons stood no chance to our fury. It felt good to have a reversal of what Hell must be used to, but even so this wasn’t enough. Hopefully the Doom Marines could get in up ahead and stop them from using Urta for their diabolical plans.

Soon enough the demons began to withdraw. “That’s not good. If they retreat with Urta still in their possession, they’ll close the portal and we won’t get her back. Hurry! Stop them from leaving!” Visi commanded all of our forces.

“No!” We roared and fought harder to push through the tunnels of Satan’s Stone and save Urta.

“Keep them from closing the portal! Once we get Urta back, we’re rushing through to fuck every last one of them up!” Our demonic alicorn future wife roared as she and her own part of the Crusaders started steamrolling their way through the tunnel. Of course, the Demons heard this and sent as many as possible to slow us all down.

“Give us back our wife and future husband!” We snarled as We tackled through their lines and broke their attempt to hold a chokepoint.

Eventually, we all made it to the new football-field-sized canyon that had been the portal chamber. There was a ruined metal framework and machine mixed in with the stone rubble covering the floor, which wasn’t important now since We saw our unconscious wife being towed through the portal by Barons. She seemed incredibly heavy even to them, so she must’ve at least turned off the weight reduction of her Navel Pearl before they could manage to knock her out. The scientists were all there, fighting back with Argent-based weapons.

Before they could do more than take out two of the forward lines of troops, Hunter took out two of them with his sniper rifle, but the rest fell back through the portal the moment Urta was on the other side. “No~!” We wailed and rushed towards the portal, but something knocked the sense out of us and We found ourselves being hefted into a sitting position by Visi.

We dizzily observed as the Spider Mastermind crawled out into this reality, along with two Cyberdemons and a...We don’t even know what sort of demon this was. The top half was humanoid, sickly pale, two horns, with cybernetics implanted where the eyes would be, its left arm having been replaced with dual chainsaws, carrying a cannon with its right arm. As for the bottom half, it was attached to some hovercraft that helped it move around, equipped with two rotating machine guns and missile silos.

“Of course.” We snarled and got back to our paws with a feeling of hot burning hatred in our chest. These monsters plan to steal our beloved away, then return and destroy all that We hold dear! They could field a thousand Cyberdemons and We would still fight!

“Doom Hunter!” We heard Slayer call out, pointing at the hovering cyber-viking as it screeched back at him. “That abominable bastard is mine, deal with the rest!” He told us as the Demon Generals came charging at us all.

“Raaah!” We roared while attacking the Spider Mastermind with our hardlight hammer. It cried out when our hammer dug into it’s squishy pink brain-like tissue. “We’re going to rip you apart!” We cast a point-blank soul spear that tore open the demon’s armor, then followed up with a soul stream on the opening before it skittered away. We then peppered it with our Infinity, the Slag weakening the cybernetic beast enough for us to close in and bash it’s jaw armor with our hammer. “Get out of our way!” We snarled when We grabbed its jaw and started pulling.

While We were occupied with wrestling the Mastermind, all around us, it was turning into a bloody massacre. The Doom Hunter that Slayer was fighting had rammed into him and started killing others indiscriminately, both our side and the lesser demons still fighting. Meanwhile, the two Cyberdemons worked in unison, inflicting casualties among our soldiers trying to storm the portal while battling against the rest of the Doom Marines.

Slayer dug his feet into the ground so that he could stop the Doom Hunter’s frantic movements, holding him still long enough for the veteran demon slayer to rip away it’s cybernetics. Soon enough, the thrusters that kept it off the ground lost power while it vainly tried to saw through his armor.

As for the Cyberdemons, everyone managed to separate the two. Runner occupied one all by his lonesome while the soldiers and other Doom Marines quickly dispatched its twin. The Runner charged at the demon when it was distracted by the fact it had been fooled, and he slid underneath it. He stabbed a pair of kunai into the backs of it’s knees that detonated when he let go of them, and he jumped while it fell forward onto it’s hand and destroyed knees to drive another knife into the back of it’s skull, which again detonated when released, spraying grey matter everywhere.

During all this, We had managed to keep the Mastermind pinned with our armored hands clenched on both the top and bottom of it’s jaws. Sure, it’s undercarriage’s cannon shot our legs and paws, but it was pretty much little more than an irritation. While We had it occupied, Pillar got under the Mastermind and was about slam his Warhammer into its underbelly, only for Arachnotrons; the smaller versions of the Mastermind, to start swarming in from the portal!

“Pillar! Behind you!” We shouted in warning and strained to keep the Mastermind still.

“Wha-?!” Pillar grunted when one pounced and he had to block it with his hammer’s haft, forcing him back as it tried to reach past his guard with it’s legs and turret.

“Shit, Hunter they need support!” Runner called out as everyone fired upon the swarm of Arachnotrons that in turn pounded our troops with a hail of energy bolts and plasma grenades.

This was until Hunter did something that made his rifle glow with the light of Urta’s Argent before he rapidly sniped the cannons off of the heads of over a dozen of the mechanized demons. This was quickly mirrored by his Ghosts while everyone else provided suppressing fire.

“We’re going to kill you!” We roared as We kept pulling the Mastermind’s jaw wider. Arachnotrons swarmed us, shooting at us with their plasma weapons as We kept pulling. Seams started to form in the bastard's face as it cried out in panic. The bastard tossed us aside where We impacted the nearest wall of the massive chamber. “Is the portal still open?!” We snarled and fired the Infinity at the massive demon’s soft brain-like tissue which made it back off with screeches of pain.

“Yes!” Collateral answered with Determination as he mowed down the demons alongside his Gunners.

“Any way to kill this bastard quickly?” We snarled while swinging our hammer down at the skittering demons, sending them flying like golf balls.

“Well-!” Runner began to speak, but something happened on the other side of the portal. There was a lot of screaming and roaring, the sounds of flesh being ripped apart as half of a Baron’s body was tossed back onto this side. “...She’s pissed.” He commented, clearly referring to Urta.

Visilia and her Crusaders jumped onto the Mastermind before she looked up at us. “Go!” She shouted at us while they all started punching and stabbing the thing.

“Wiatr!” Pillar called to us as his, Collateral’s and Hunter’s forces started storming through the portal. “C’mon, let’s go! The Guard and Visi’s Crusaders can finish them off!”

“Alright.” We rushed to the portal and jumped through, intent on ripping the demons apart. This place was just like the visions of our mates’ memories, the desolate lands of Hell were bleak, fiery and sulfuric. So far all We saw were bodies of the demons that were carrying Urta here, and the only trail she left behind was the destruction she’d wrought.

“She must be hunting down those Scientists. I need some Defenders to stay behind and fortify this portal. We’re not leaving until we get Urta back!” Pillar ordered and his faction got to work.

“Urta!” We called out while jogging off after her. Everyone else kept up with us, calling out for her as well while Hunter and his Ghosts advanced ahead. “Hope she’s going to be okay.”