A cool wind blew across the demon-infested city as flames and debris of cars, buildings and other structures of property littered everywhere. The blazing orange glow lit up the streets and disrupted the view of the peaceful night sky. There was nothing but the horrid rusty stench of blood and suffocating ashes polluting the air, making the entirety uninhabitable. Death. Destruction. Despair. This was a demon's paradise.

Atop the Temen-Ni-Gru, all was quiet as Adrian once again stood near the edge with his eyes once again closed, his mind in deep concentration. It was indescribable, but he felt it. Damian was able to successfully pass Cerberus and was just beginning to scale the tower. However, something was amiss. Instead of one presence, there were two. It was clear that one belonged to his brother, but the other he was not familiar with and simply deduced to be an intruder. An intruder that had to be dealt with NOW.

"Looks like we have an uninvited guest.", he coldly stated.

"Is that so?", replied Arkham, looking up from the book he was reading and stood up from the side of a statue he perched himself on earlier.

"A trespasser. A woman.", nodded the white furred jackal.

Getting the idea, the man slowly walked away to the flight of stairs, descending to the lower levels of the tower. "Then I'm afraid I must ask the uninvited guest to leave. That is what you want." AS he silently walked down the steps, the burn scars on his face began pulsing and slithering across as if it were alive. "A storm is approaching."


The tall and dark halls of the Temen-Ni-Gru were silent except for the continuous echos of unknown voices whispering followed by the faint and unsettling laughter of children. The air within were ominous and spine chilling, making even the most courageous of men faint of heart. The stone interiors were cracked and aged, giving off the feeling that you were inside a ruined cathedral. But this wasn't enough to faze our young hunter.

Damian walked through the halls of the Temen-Ni-Gru in silence, feeling the cold stone floor on his paws and feeling the musky breeze flow through his coat. He looked around in annoyance with a frown on his face. He swore that he's passed through the exact same hallway a few minutes ago and could not resist letting out an irritated groan as he ran a hand through his hair.

"WHAT THE HELL!?", his yell echoed through the large empty halls, "I'VE BEEN GOING AROUND IN FUCKING CIRCLES! WHY IS THIS PLACE SUCH A GODDAMN MAZE!?"

He stopped as soon as he heard growling and the sound of scurrying before turning around to face more Hell Prides and Wraths with their scythes with their scythes at the ready.

Damian grinned, "Hell Prides and Hell Lusts . . . Too easy."

Three of the prides screech and launched their scythes straight at Damian who didn't move. Each scythe then landed in Damian's body and dug deep into the flesh. At first the demons were pleased they hit him, but those feelings changed to fear when they saw that no blood was coming out of the wounds.

The jackal looks down at the blades impaled into his body, "That's IT!? Come on! If ya wanna kill me, get creative! The last dumb asses that pulled that off got their asses filled with bullets!" He gave his body one strong flex and all the scythe blades shot out in multiple directions, some pinning themselves to the walls. The demons looked in shock to see not even a scratch on his body for the recent wounds immediately healed.

"Looks like we gotta do this the hard way . . . ", smirked Damian taking out Blue Rose and twirling it around, "But just so you guys know . . . I LIVE FOR THIS SHIT!"

He then dashed forwards on speeds beyond those of mortals, with his pistol going rapid fire on them. They screeched as they felt the pain of the bullets pierce there hard skin, blood spilling out.

Damian then jumped up and kicked one in the chin, while shooting in mid air. He then landed on another Hell Pride's head and roundhouse kicked its head backwards to the wall. The demons charged at him with their scythes, but Damian cart wheeled over several blades going for his legs, then ducked over two going for his neck and performed a split kick on another two before they could attack.

He grinned and pulled out and twirled Red Queen in his hand and charged. Three slashes and two were already down in pieces; he dodged two scythe swipes from one of the Hell Lusts and slashed both of their hands off before decapitating it's head. He then jumped up in the air and kicked the flying head with enough force to knock three of the demons down when it slammed into them.

He swung Red Queen around him as fast as he could with no change of stopping. The Hell Prides and Hell Lusts were sliced into nothing but bloody severed chunks. Seeing more of them come his way, he summons Cerberus and brings the nunchaku down to the ground, which sent a field of icicles shooting upward piercing their bodies.

A Hell Pride stealthily rushes at the jackal's side with it's scythe reared back for a fatal swing only to be struck below the chin with a swift kick and feel one of the nunchaku heads wrap around it's waist and be swung around in a circular arc, swatting away it's allies before being released and splattering against a wall.

Damian dodged a strike to his left chest and countered with a spinning nunchaku strike that took out three Hell Prides. He then kicked one away into a wall and performed a sweep slash that took out the ones slashing at him.

Damian chuckled as he swung Cerberus around, Bruce-Lee style, "Heh heh! I LOVE this thing!"

(With Vaggie . . . )

The young demon woman already had her hands full as she dodged the swipes of a Hell Wrath before throwing her darts at it, piercing it deep into the head and chest. Two of them rushed at her from both sides but smashed into each other once she cartwheeled out of the way. Vaggie laughed in amusement as she dodged and sidestepped each attack gracefully. If not for the obvious demons attacking, one would think she was dancing around the scene.

"Nice try, boys.", she smirked, blocking a scythe swing and giving a hard kick to a Wrath's face, "But you'll have to try harder than that!"

Using the bladed tips of her darts, she countered each scythe swing and slashed her way through each demon. Even as a surprise, she pulled out two dual pistols strapped to her thighs and lets out a fierce hailstorm of bullets on them as the demons either got riddled with bullets or flee from the insanity.

High above the ceiling, many Hell Lusts crawling down in large swarms like bats getting ready to drop down on their unsuspecting prey. However, their hasty crawling made a few small pebbles crumble off the old tower walls and bounce off her head, catching her attention. She looks up and only shakes her head as she twirled her darts and throws them up, striking the weak points of the ceiling. Once the darts hit their marks, the ceiling began rumbling before finally crumble and come crashing down on the demons and leaving them crush them under the large debris.

"And THAT is how it's done, sweeties!~", she smirked before putting away her darts.

"My, my, my, that was an impressive display."

Hearing this,, Vaggie turns around and sees Arkham standing a few feet away, reading his book. Not bothering to look up. "I would have been here sooner to see the entire show, but I was far too focused in finishing this chapter."

She raised an eyebrow and slowly inched her hand close to her darts. This man was not normal; just his presence alone left a mysterious and unsettling aura around him.

"And just who are you exactly?", Vaggie asked suspiciously.

"A lost soul, like yourself." he simply responded. "I would love to tell you more but I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave this place. We do not take kindly to trespassers."

She just rolled her eyes as she replied, "Sorry, but I'm not leaving this place yet. Still haven't found what I'm looking for." She turned around to leave, but what Arkham said next made her entire body freeze up.

"Rebirth . . . Such an fascinating concept, is it not?" the strange man flipped to another page, "Something or someone whose life has expired, reincarnated into a new one. From plant to animal. From man to insect . . . From mortal to demon." As he finished, a dart came soaring at him in such high speed one would be punctured by it before even realizing what happened yet Arkham surprisingly caught it with one hand before tossing it away, unfazed by the attempted shot to his head.

He looked on and saw the demon woman glare at him with intense fire in her eyes, "What do you know about that?"

"Ah, so that is what you seek? Answers?", Arkham faked an enlightened tone.

"TALK! Or so help me god, I'll-"

"I believe it is far too late for god to help you now. After all, why should he help one such as yourself? You have sinned gravely, simple as that. It is your punishment." Arkham shook his head as he shut his book. Before Vaggie knew it, he swept his leg underneath her feet, knocking her to the ground on her back. She gets up with her guns drawn but only to see him gone, vanished without a trace. Nothing but her and the empty halls.

She looks around before breathing out a disappointed sigh and holstering her guns and continued exploring the tower without a single word.

"Can't give up now . . . ", she spoke silently to herself. "Got to keep searching, There has to be more to it . . ."

(Back to Damian . . . )

The large doors opened with the recent corpses of demons being the first to tumble out. Damian nudged them out of the way with his foot before entering. It wasn't easy getting to where he was now as it involved running up a staircase while gunning and slicing his way through countless demons blocking his path. It didn't help either as their were newer and stronger demons other than the Hell Prides and Hell Lusts showing up as he explored deeper into the tower.

The most recent demons had had faced were Enigmas. What were Enigma demons, you may ask? Well, at first they appear as a humanoid statue at first glance but suddenly snap and crunch into a strange spider-like form with a large bulging red eye. Oh, and they shoot lasers too.

"Dammit, those assholes are messing up my favorite coat!" The teen pulls his coat tail up to reveal projectile holes and short tears from slash attacks. "As if I haven't gone through enough of this crap already!"


(Flashback)

The young jackal casually whistles to himself as he gets up onto a mechanical elevator lift, he pulls the switch activating the platform and listens to the elevator, humming and clanking of the metal cogs and gears as it slowly began to rise from the ground. Damian rests his arms behind his head as he gives out a relaxed sigh, all he had to do now was just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride up to the higher levels. Unfortunately, that moment of peace was interrupted as he heard scurrying and hissing over the elevator's clanking.

"What the hell?", Damian breathed out as he stepped closer to the edge and peered over. Out from the dark depths below, hordes of Hell Prides and Lusts were crawling up the lift. Hearing more hissing, Damian looked upward and spotted more Prides and Lusts crawling there way down to him and all jumped down, landing onto the platform.

The jackal face-palms before sighing and taking out Cerberus. "I was probably gonna get bored on the way up anyway." He twirled the nunchaku around and prepared to fight until he felt the elevator platform loudly rumble to a halt nearly making him lose his footing. It stayed entirely still for a few moments. Then it started to let out a low groan and start creaking. Soon, it finally hit him.

All the demons including himself were adding WAY too much weight for the old platform to hold. Thus, the elevator snapped and dropped at incredible speeds in flashing sparks!

"SON OF A BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-"

The next flashback showed Damian hacking, slashing and firing away at multiple Hell Prides and Lusts swarming at him from down the halls. It didn't take long for them to tackle him and jump at him in a huge dog-pile with their constant slashing and spewing acidic sand from their gaping mouths. Luckily, they were all too focused in trying to take out their prey, they didn't see the teen crawl out from underneath.

Damian silently got back up to his feet and turned to see the demons in the dog-pile attacking what was now clearly nothing. Amused, he shakes his head with a snort as he walked out through a large door, completely undetected.

"Idiots.", he snorted.

"Thinking that his troubles were over, the large door slammed shut behind him as he looked around the wide open room that was surrounded by humanoid statues. Before he knew, the statues all shook and rumbled before they all cracked and twisted their still bodies into a more spider-like form with large bulging red eyes, revealing themselves to be Enigmas! Damian sweatdropped as they all pointed their limbs at him, charging up and firing multiple laser blasts aimed directly at him!

"Crap . . .", he then braced for impact.

(Flashback over)


He pushed the large metallic double doors and entered a large chamber. Casually strolling in, he took notice that that whole area was quiet. No scurrying of demons waiting for an ambush, no ominous hissing and growls in the distance. Just complete utter silence except for his own footsteps. What caught his attention was the walls of the chambers themselves, they had huge deep holes that looked as something must have burrowed through them. To inspect further, Damian hopped inside and ran two of his fingers along the tunnel walls that were covered in a sticky substance. It felt warm in his touch but also carried the scent of something Insectoid.

A low demonic hiss echoed through the tunnels, capturing Damian's attention. Multiple cyan glowing eyes peered through the cavern meeting Damian's blue ones. Soon after, the eyes shoots towards him, making the entire tunnel vibrate through it's movement. 'Damn, this guy must be huge!' he thought before the force of the creature's roar propels him out and skids across the ground. Looking up, his eyes widen as the creature before him is revealed to be what many demon hunters have known as a Gigapede; a giant tapeworm-like demon which strongly resembled more of a millipede.

Damian shook his head as he stood up and dusted his coat. Pointing to the Gigapede, he shouted, "Hey, Ugly!" The Gigapede turned it's large venus flytrap shaped head to the jackal and growled in hostility but that didn't stop him from marching up closer and throwing his arms up in a 'What the hell' fashion.

"You better have a good excuse for messing up my coat! This is one of a kind!" Damian crossed his arms and began tapping his foot. "You gonna apologize? Or am I gonna have to kick your ass so you can learn a lesson?" The Gigapede's only response was nothing short but a hiss; a hungry one to be exact!

Damian sighed as he took out Cerberus, "Ass kicking it is then."

(Gigapede boss theme: watch?v=TvG4he36V8g)

Not wasting any time, the Gigapede charged straight at the ivory jackal at full speed with it's jaws stretched wide open to devour him whole. Damian swiftly jumped over it's gaping jaws, spinning violently in mid-air before crashing the nunchaku into it's head, doing large damage and smashing the demon to the ground. It looked up dizzily before Damian spun the nunchaku around in a propeller-like motion, rapidly striking it's face and eyes with each cold hard strike.

The Gigapede snarled as it shook away the disorientation dealt from that blow and scanned around for the hunter. A sharp pain seared through it's back as it whipped it's head to see Damian on it's long back whirling Cerberus, slicing away at the insect's exoskeleton. It quickly spun itself at a fast speed to throw the hunter off of it's back. Damian held on tight to the Gigapede's armored hide before he eventually lost his grip and watched the insect fly into one the numerous tunnels around the chamber.

The teen hits the ground and pounded his fist on the ground with a growl as he got up, looking around to anticipate which tunnel the demon would come out from. He began firing bullets into several of the tunnels in hope to get a response of the Gigapede. Instead, the floor beneath his feet shook before it bursts with the Gigapede striking him from below in a surprise attack! Damian tried to flip back onto his feet before the Gigapede's tail slammed him into the ground with it's tail and swatted him across the chamber where he struck a pillar.

Damian groaned in pain but reacted fast once he looked up to see the Gigapede charging straight at him and jumped away the minute the Gigapede's crashed into the wall. In mid-air, Damian spun and landed smoothly on his feet, he quickly took out Blue Rose and fired a couple of rounds at the Gigapede only to prove little use as the bullets simply bounced off the exoskeleton. Damian groaned as he took out Red Queen and threw the blade, watching it spin like a saw blade and cut through one of the Gigapede's legs that tried to impale him with a thrust. 'Looks like it's time to use Trickster Style!', he thought before evading more of the demon's legs by dashing out of the way in a red haze.

Damian sped through the attacks, shooting away at the armor-less limbs with Blue Rose until he got to a safe enough distance and raised his hand up to catch the sword as it returned to him in a boomerang-like fashion. "Anything else ya wanna throw at me?" As if it heard Damian's question, the large insect turned it's head towards the ivory hunter and began to emit a strange purple glow before firing balls of lightning aimed right at him! The jackal face palmed in regret for saying that troublesome sentence. Oh, why? WHY? Did he have to go and say that!?

"ME AND MY BIG MOUTH!", Damian cried out as he used Trickster Style to evade one lightning ball that whizzed past his head and zipped to a stone pillar before jumping off as another blew it to rubble upon impact. The jackal ran along the wall as more balls of lightning came flying after him, but each one missed their mark. Pulling out Red Queen, he jumped off and began deflecting each projectile, sending them back at the Gigapede. It lets out a shriek as it was struck with it's own attack and began to writhe in pain, leaving itself defenseless.

'This looks like a perfect time to strike!', the jackal grinned as he took out Cerberus and charged at it in full speed, making him appear as a red blur. His Trickster Style darted him up some pillars, taking him upwards the stunned Gigapede before disappearing. The jackal reappeared above it's head before slamming your nunchaku onto it with full force followed by a huge spike of solid ice impaling through the top of the head and the bottom of the mouth. The large insectoid demon only let out an empty breath before slowly descending and hitting the ground with a loud 'BAM!', being strong enough to make the entire area quake. Damian hopped off of the deceased beast before giving a salute of farewell.

(Music ends)

"The bigger they are. The harder they fall.", was his response before making it to the other side of the catacomb-like chamber. But all he found once he entered, was nothing. Just a large empty room.

Damian raised an eyebrow at this, it was odd. He didn't feel any demonic presence anywhere so the possibilities of an ambush was ruled out. There was also no strange pieces or patterns visible so the thoughts of solving a puzzle was nonexistent right now. Just empty. Quiet. Peaceful. And boring as hell.

He shook his head in disappointment while muttering how the fight was a total waste before turning back and exiting the dull room. But as he reached out and placed his hand on the door to push open, it stayed shut and slammed face first into the metallic surface! Cursing, Damian rubbed his stinging nose before reaching out and attempted to push it again. It wouldn't open! Sighing, he turned and walked a few feet across before quickly turned around and charged straight towards the doors, leaping at it and striking it with a strong thrust of his leg. The impact made it vibrate throughout the place, making dust slowly fall from the ceiling like snow. Instead of the door being busted off it's hinges, it stayed completely intact!

"Huh?", the teen stared dumbstruck. He shook his head, he added a nodding 'Ok, it's on' gesture and whipped out Blue Rose in an effort to shoot it off it's hinges instead before someone called out:

"YOO-HOO!~"

Turning his head, he saw what stood behind him a tall pale man in a blackish/purple jester's outfit with wide feathery sleeves. He wore a blackish/purple jester's hat with the bells on each end being shaped as skulls, What was most unsettling was his face as it was snow white along with a long pointed nose a wide creepy smile that stretched from ear to ear and mismatched black eyes with one pupil being a pale blue and the other being a pale red.

"There's no need to use violence, devil boy."

Damian let out an irritated 'Pfft!'.

As he was about to pull the trigger, the clownish individual got in his way holding out his hand to stop him. "Wait, wait, wait, better listen to what others say, lad.", he waved his gold colored scepter in his pale clawed hand, with sharp bloodied fingers to the door. "This tower is very sturdy, you see." He immediately got up in Damian's face as he continued with, "Your tricks will do no good. NO GOOD!"

Damian shoved his revolver against the clown's face with the barrel pressed against his nose in a threatening manner. "ZIP IT! Or I'll pierce that big nose."

"That could be a problem.", the clown nasally replied. In a blur, he reappeared by Damian with an arm slung around his shoulder in a friendly manner. "Just hear me out. You've got nothing to lose, right?" Damian tensed up as the thoughts of his family and friends he's left behind flash before his eyes before shaking it off.

The clown took a bow as he introduced himself, "My name is Jester, and I know a thing or two about this place." He points to a stone pedestal near the door, "That thing there is a power generator for this entire sector. In order to open the door, you need to APPLY a little something to it first." He grinned, showing his yellowish teeth. "Do you know what that is, kid? Or is that too difficult for you? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAAAAAA!"

Damian opened fire at the demon clown's feet, "GET TO THE POINT! OR DO YOU WANNA KEEP ON DANCING!?"

Jester was not at all fazed by the young jackal's threat as he laughed and began to literally dance, from tap dancing, shuffling, and much more! Eventually Damian ceased fire, letting him stop to catch his breath and fan himself with his scepter. "Whew! Actually, I would like a sword to be my partner! Shall we dance, m'lady?~"

Damian growled as he swung Red Queen overhead at the clown only for him to disappear, making the blade strike the pedestal instead! A rumbling sound was heard as the door before him finally opened, finally granting him an exit.

"BINGO! THAT is WHAT the SOMETHING is! Remember that, kid! Write it down on your hand if you don't trust your head!", Laughed Jester who had mysteriously reappeared standing upside down on the ceiling. He continued laughing and exits the scene as more rounds were fired at him.

Dancing away, he sang;

"Hello my baby,
Hello my honey,
Hello my ragtime gal!~

Send me a kiss by wire!
Baby, my heart's on fire!~

If you refuse me,
Honey, you loose me!
Then you'll be
Left alone!~

Oh, baby telephone!
And tell me I'm Your own!~"

Damian stared with a look of annoyance at the clown dancing into the shadows with his laughing voice growing fainter and fainter before finally ending in silence. He looked at the open door for a minute and smiled with a pleased 'hmph' before leaving.

"I see, thanks." Damian then muttered, "You still piss me off though."


Vaggie casually made her way through the halls to head up to the upper levels of the tower before she heard Jester's voice. "I know you don't know me but allow me to say that it's a pleasure to meet you and Devil Boy, Dearie! WELCOME TO HELL!" The sounds of flapping wings and screeching bird-like hisses echoing through out the place before continuing; "Please accept my gift! Don't be humble, just take it! After all, we're buddies, aren't we? HAHAHAHAAA!"

"Wait, what are you-", she tried to ask what was it the clown was talking about before swarms of Blood-goyles, blood red bird-like demons with bat-like wings, long tails, legless bodies, and grotesque faces with beak-like noses came flying out and circled around Vaggie getting ready to attack. Several of them dive bombed with their beaks aimed at her before failing once they were struck with one of her darts. She quickly swung her leg back, kicking a Blood-goyle in the face when trying to take a bite out her neck while she was fending off the rest that that to flank her.

As two Blood-goyles charged at her from both sides, she did a full front split which allowed her to duck and watch the two bird demons smack right into each other before they were blasted away with her pistol. She reaches into her leg warmers to pull out grenades as she did a back handspring to get herself back onto her feet and throws them straight at the flock before they ignite into a fiery explosion sending them flying everywhere and splattering against the walls in a bloody mess.

Vaggie smiled to herself at her successful handiwork as she bent down to fix her leg warmers. However, she was completely too busy to noticed that one Blood-goyle managed to survive the massacre and slowly limped it's body closer to the demoness to take her out from behind. It got close enough to raise it's bladed tail and swung with all it's strength but what happened was that due to it's weakened condition, it's tail instead weakly smacked her soft round butt with it's flat side, making a loud 'SLAP!'.

The blood-goyle immediately realized it's mistake once it saw Vaggie immediately freeze up and slowly turned around, glaring at it with the deadliest look in her eyes. The bird demon trembled in fear with a frightened squawk as it could literally feel the killing intent radiating off of her.

The Blood-goyle gulped as Vaggie growled, ". . . Did you just SPANK my ASS!?"

The Blood-goyle's screech of pure terror echoed everywhere through the Temen-Ni-Gru as the poor demon received the most painful pummeling in it's life!