I… I didn't feel very good.

I could feel my flesh bubbling around the large energy blade in my gut, in a perpetual state of healing and being cauterized. I could feel the heat in my ribcage of what I imagined a lightsabre to feel like as it continued scorching my bones. I felt nauseas but my stomach had been near evaporated by Michael's blade so all I could do was shudder as I dry-heaved. The rage that I had felt so often when near demonic things felt like it was literally boiling in my blood.

The part of me that had absently watched those medical dramas with my mom was telling me that there was no way that I should even be awake now, little alone struggling on a glowing red energy blade. Every time someone in those shows appears with a pipe or something in them, they are always either dying or close to it. Why was I still awake? Why do I still feel everything?

Why was I so Angry?

"That's odd. I thought you'd be de-" Michael's musings were Interrupted by the sudden introduction of my fist against the front of his helmet. I absently noted the cracking of my finger bones as my fist struck the black steel of the helmet. The armoured head barely moved, my strike slightly turning his head, a smear of red blood prominently displayed on the side of the helmet.

I wasn't in the right mind to care.

"What the-" the armoured man was cut off again as my other fist slammed against his helmet, releasing another sound of crunching bone and a spurt of blood. I felt nothing but pain and rage as my fists rained down on his helmet, slowly but surely covering it in a thin coating of blood from my constantly breaking and regenerating fists, breaking less each time. Through the pain and rage, a simple thought came to me, and my bloodied hands gripped the energy projector and tried to rip it off from the man's vambrace on his right arm, the one that occupied holding me aloft.

"Let go of that!" he yelled, his own unoccupied fist starting its assault on me. I felt his fist slam into my head and chest repeatedly but it wasn't enough for me to stop even as I felt my bones break where what could only be the power armoured fist landed.

Even though it had only been a second, it had felt like forever until the energy blade's projector shifted, breaking hundreds of electrical connections and throwing out noticeably red sparks into the air. The biggest change came about when I felt the blade impaling me suddenly disappear and I fell to the ground, collapsing onto my back.

I lay there, the mists of rage clearing from my mind as I regenerated. It felt weird, feeling my charcoaled flesh suddenly come to life with pain as the nerves slowly regenerated inside the regrowing flesh. It felt even weirder to somehow feel my spine realigning itself as my bones unbroke themselves. I felt every injury as I lay there, the pain dragging seconds into minutes, but, somehow, I felt stronger than I had ever been.

And I felt stronger still with every red spark that emitted from Micheal's broken projector.

As for Micheal himself. I was dimly aware of him simply stare at my wounds for a few seconds until he cursed.

"Of course," he spat, looking up to the sky in what I think was exasperation. "Its just my luck that the one to mess up all my plans had to be a damned hybrid…"

With a sigh, Micheal looked down at me, stretching his neck. I just wanted to lay there but a deep part of me snarled at him, demanding that I stand up and attack him. For the first time, that urge to commit violence, that rage that had burned in me for weeks felt alien in its sheer intensity.

The part of me that was barely thinking, the part that enjoyed his weekends playing a four year old RPG and posting stuff online, couldn't feel anger through all the pain but something else did.

And as I succumbed to it once again, I noticed for the first time and was terrified.

Then I felt rage.

My body spasmed as I tried to lift myself to my feet, trying to move legs that weren't exactly ready to move yet. All I could manage was to sit up as my legs struggled and failed to hold my weight. I felt a scowl form on my face, directed at that expressionless black helmet.

I watched as the man known as Micheal stepped closer to me, staring down at my prone form all the while.

"Stop!" I heard a feminine yell next to me. I turned my head and saw Jessica, standing further away from the both of us, her odd techno gun in her hands with a shaky grip and her opened bag at her feet. "Get away from him!"

My assailant tilted his helmeted head at her, the glowing, blood red visor reflecting off Jessica's scared but determined eyes.

It was odd the things you noticed at a time like this.

"How about, no?" Micheal chuckled. "Or do you really think that your little science project would get through Hell-forged obsidian plate?"

"I'm w-warning you!" Jessica stuttered out. "I don't want to, but I'll kill you if I have to."

I got the vague impression that the demon armoured man took on a thoughtful look.

"You didn't seem to hesitate when it came to Nathan two weeks ago. Did you even know that he had a family when you killed him in that gym hall?" Jessica's face went white but Micheal continued, a definite tone of amusement colouring his voice. "Oh, I've had a long chat with every one of my acolytes who died that day and they were so eager to tell me exactly who was responsible for their failure that day. Poor Nathan was so eager to talk that I didn't even get to using the spikes yet."

Micheal's posture took on a more threatening stance. I felt my vertebrae shift as my nerves solidified into the nerve cord. My legs could move more.

"I know who you are Jessica and everything about you, just as I thought I knew everything to know about Greg here." He gestured towards me. "I suggest you leave, Jessica Winters, unless you want to share the fate of your little demonic friend here."

Micheal turned back towards me and took another step.

"I am literally a Lord in Hell, you have no idea how little you would inconvenience me."

I have no idea what was going on in Jessica's mind at that moment. Had I been my old self, I was slightly ashamed to know that I would have run away, hoping to find someone stronger to help.

I saw a bright beam of light leave Jessica's gun as she fired with her railgun's distinctive roar, too fast for me to see the projectile. The beam was aimed right at the armoured man's head, where it was met by what seemed to be a golden coloured energy shield. Almost instantly, Micheal spun towards Jessica, his left arm extended. A red ball of energy left a projector on his arm and struck Jessica's gun, causing it to explode and shatter in her hands. She screamed as the shards of her gun embedded in her hands and arms, the blood leaking down from the fresh cuts. She fell to her knees, staring at the wounds on her arms as though she was trying to understand what had just occurred.

"I warned you." A vicious growl came from 'Micheal, snapping Jessica out of her thoughts. "Now I suggest you contemplate your choice, and your greatly shortened life."

"You never were going to let me live anyway." Jessica spat, her face cringing in agony. "I… needed to do something…"

Micheal nodded.

"You are right. And I respect that." He took another step towards me, aiming his energy blaster at me. "I had wanted to torture you Greg, explain exactly what you had done,but with how you are right now you are way too dangerous to indulge in a bit of Karmic punishment. Now you just need to die before you wreck anything else that took half a decade to arrange."

I watched as the energy projector on his arm started to glow a deadly red.

"Everything personal, kid."

To everyone there, it looked like I was going to die. I could see the horrified look on Jessica's face as she realized that she was going to see yet another of her classmates being murdered in front of her eyes. I could almost feel the vicious smile that Micheal had under his helmet.

But the part of me that had taken control wasn't worried. It wasn't some cornered animal and It knew that it wasn't going to die so easily because of one thing.

My legs were now okay.

Like a shot, I rolled out of the way of Micheal's plasma blast, it splashing harmlessly against the floor, super heating the piece of pavement that I had just been lying on. I then leapt to my feet and lunged for him as he struggled to re-aim his arm at me. He was too slow and I rammed into him, throwing his left arm to the side. It was just in time as a stream of red energy orbs to erupt from the launcher, striking and melting the scaffold of the bus stop. I launched my best approximation of a right hook at the helmet, causing it to snap back out of reach as Micheal committed a hasty dodge. I then tried to grab for his neck with my other hand which was deflected by a soft blow from my assailant left arm.

I threw another punch not caring where it ended up while he blocked with his left arm and struck me in the stomach with the other.

I tried to kick him in the stomach but he counter kicked my leg out of position with his own, throwing me off balance where I immediately felt a flash of pain as his right fist struck my temple.

What next happened was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life as Micheal kept blocking and countering every blow that my rage-addled mind tried to throw at him. Every punch or kick I threw was either blocked, redirected or dodged, leaving me unable to react to his strikes. Had I been normal, I would have lost after a minute or so of that as his armoured strikes were more than powerful enough to snap my bones with each strike but no sooner had I heard that chilling snap, I would hear the bone snap back Into place.

And every repeated strike in a certain area, that crack was softer and softer until I could barely hear it all.

The part of me that had forced to play witness to my almost literal bezerker rage noted just how utterly broken my body was if it was correct. It looked like I was adapting somehow, like each punch was taking off less and less of my metaphorical HP to the point that my HP regen would outpace the damage to it.

If that was true, I was now the literally perfect bezerker class.

Unfortunately, Micheal realized that too.

I lunged at him, the angry part of my mind desperate to do any damage to him. In response, the Dark armoured man grabbed both of my wrists in a vice like grip while he retaliated with a full headbutt. I reeled back, clutching where I felt my skull crunch where the armoured helmet had struck my forehead. In that moment of distraction, I felt a blossoming pain in my stomach as Micheal kicked me away, into the wall of the half-melted bus stop shelter.

Micheal kicked himself away as I scrambled to my feet, some sort of jet propulsion making the hop take him a few feet into the middle of the street.

"See!" Micheal yelled, noticeably winded. "This is just what I wanted to avoid by killing you quickly! Now I guess my faithful slaves can deal with you."

Suddenly, I felt a shift in the air as Micheal's armour glowed a Bright red before the glow concentrated in his right arm. He then threw the ball of red energy behind him where it hanged in the air and expanded into a red rimmed circle showing a distorted image of a Hellscape.

Micheal had opened a portal to Hell, I just knew it in my bones. I looked for Jessica and found her on the other side of the overturned bus stop bench, having been damaged earlier in the fight. If that was a Hell Portal, I couldn't let her die to it. Moving myself between Jessica and the portal, I stared at Micheal and the portal, my raging self satisfied to wait for the Demons to come to me.

And we waited.

And waited.

"What the Hell?" Micheal asked softly, moving his head closer to the portal to inspect it.

He suddenly reared his head back in surprise as a large, fat head with a large gaping mouth with sharp, rotting teeth and a single green eye flew out of the portal. My surprise continued as a large figure in dark blue armour immediately followed it, swinging the largest sword that I had ever seen, straight at Micheal's neck.

Unlike me, the Black armoured man's obvious surprise was not total and he managed to leap back react fast enough to leap backwards. It was as though I was watching the blade in slow motion, the edge of the pitch-black blade scything ever towards Micheal's neck, the glowing red runes on the flat of the blade glowing balefully. Micheal was already in the air, his body almost horizontal as he leaned back so far that the blade would miss it's target.

And after a slow eternity, the very tip of the blade missed the Demon Lord's neck by centimeters.

Just like that, the moment was over. The blade wielder landed feet first from his leap, using the movement from his blade swing to bring his huge sword around in an arc and have It in a ready position in front of him. Micheal's leap, meanwhile, concluded his leap by somersaulting backwards as he hit the ground, coming to a stop in a three point crouch.

All was silent for a moment as the two armoured fighters stared at each other, even Jessica was silent as she watched them, her fingers moving almost automatically as they dug into her arms, extracting shards of bloodstained metal every time she dug her fingers in.

That was… definitely weird.

Then again, I couldn't exactly judge what normal meant. I had been reduced to a fleshy skeleton only two weeks ago after all.

"Of course, it just had to be you." Micheal ground out as he stood up, anger colouring his voice. "At first I thought it was you who managed to stop me, but no, you were just the same, stupid knight stuck in Hell doing nothing of consequence."

"Now, don't be so blaze, demon man." A light masculine voice reverberated from the blue knight's helmet. "I hear that organizing a demonic hunting party is quite the demanding feat, not to mention training the little things to stay still long enough to be ready to jump out of a personal portal to your defense. That must have been a lot of hours I just decapitated."

The amusement in the knight's tone was clear and I could see that, with how the Demon knight was literally shaking, the black armoured man was definitely not happy with whatever had just happened behind that portal.

"Enough." Micheal hissed out.

Then, the air blurred before me as Micheal was suddenly airborne, some sort of jets on his back pulsing with an eerie blue light, speeding towards the Knight at tremendous speed.

In less than a second, Micheal collided with the knight, a single glowing energy sword clashing with the knight's oversized sword, his opponent not even seemingly affected by the impact. I watched them as their blades struggled against each other in a contest of force, the red energy blade crackling with heat and unstable lightning as it pushed against the black steel blade of the sword, the symbols on it glowing even brighter.

The stalemate only lasted a second until the knight shoved the energy blade to the side, deflecting the momentum of the still hovering combatant, letting Micheal fly past the knight. Immediately after passing him, the blue light around Micheal disappeared, letting him fall to the floor in a crouch as he swiped his left arm behind him, the red energy blade connected to it, scything towards the knight's legs with deadly accuracy. The Knight from Hell was not idle however as he turned around almost as quickly as his opponent and deflected the glowing attack with an upward swing of his own blade.

Kicking off the ground, the blue glow behind Micheal reappeared as he lifted into the air, dodging a horizontal swing from the knight as he slashed downward with his own blade of deadly energy which was promptly repelled by an opposing force from its black steel counterpart.

The fight between them was fast. Micheal moved with the speed of someone using a light sabre and a jetpack, or at least I thought that was what the blue glow could be, while the knight hadn't really moved anywhere from his original spot but was wielding his massive Final Fantasy sword as though it was made of recycled paper cups.

And based on the loud clang that it made whenever it hit something solid, it definitely was not made out of paper.

I looked behind me, my vision filling with the image of Jessica somehow bandaging her arms simultaneously.

I looked back to the fight, but my mind was elsewhere.

More specifically, within itself.

It was stupid, cliché even to try and have an internal revelation when there was two guys from what was apparently, actually Hell fight a battle in front of me that had the pacing of those in anime. I, as Greg Veder, had seen enough Shonen and video games to know where this was going and should be trying to get both Jessica and I out of the proverbial splash zone.

It was unfortunate that I didn't exactly feel like Greg at the moment.

It felt… stupid to even think but it felt as though I shouldn't be like this.

Part of me shouldn't be considering jumping into that fight in front of me with a yell.

I should be running away from all this, or trying to crawl into a ball and hide somewhere.

I should have done this.

I remembered that I would have.

But not now.

Now there was a part of me, wanting to Rip, Tear and KILL the person that dared trying doing the same thing with me.

Back at Winslow, I didn't have time to really think, I just acted. The two weeks after were a result of me just wanting to play video games and forget that my life ever changed.

Here, now, I felt that I could see the distinction.

On one side was Greg Veder, high-school nerd who had been bullied for years who took all measures to avoid any confrontation (except over the internet)

On the other was Greg Veder, someone who had killed, butchered and brutalized most of a reanimated high school, with demons, and wanted more.

That Greg wanted so much more to die.

Who was I? The second Greg, the one who wanted to keep killing everything scared some primal part of me but I couldn't ever imagine even being the first Greg, being so afraid of things that didn't even matter.

Who was… what was I?

…

I am…

This…

What if…

This is…

This…

This.

Is.

Stupid.

I shook myself out of my thoughts.

I wasn't some sort of badly written emo character who had to choose between two equally extreme sides.

I was the Greg Veder that hated both of those images of myself.

I am the Greg that I am, not what I was or could be.

I Am the Greg that will Kill that stupid, evil fucker who said Demons were a good thing and proceed to shitpost on PHO on how stupid his helmet looks later.

With that identity crisis resolved, I ran towards the fight, my legs carrying myself at surprising speed towards the reason I was introspective for the purpose of a well deserved punch.

I, Greg Veder, never liked, liked, or will like being introspective.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jessica never really had a good relationship with pain.

She wasn't particularly sporty, so she wasn't used to the eventual accidents that came with sports. She had a good home life, didn't live in a rough area and hadn't even really been in a violent crime before the Incident.

A few days before she had been kidnapped that fateful day, a fall and a bloody scrape against a loose piece of a sidewalk had been enough to incapacitate her for at least an hour.

Pulling the left bandage at a thirty-degree angle will manage to further decrease fluid loss by forty percent without affecting circulation. Reflecting this action on the right bandage will further increase this to eighty percent.

Barely listening to the voice in her head as she did what it said, she further wrapped the wounds on her arms with the bandages she had packed in her bag. Bandages that wouldn't have even been there if her power hadn't told her exactly how likely that she, or someone she knew, would get injured if she went around looking for cults.

The only reason that Jessica hadn't passed out or broke down crying from the pain right now was that when she used her power, everything felt… lesser somehow, including her sense of pain.

Thankfully, there didn't seem to be a limit to how long she could use her power for.

Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be a limit to what she could use her power for either.

Jessica wasn't blind. She knew exactly how much she had been using her power since she had first gotten them, her power regularly told her when she wondered about it, but what else was she supposed to do when she had such a blatantly useful power?

It even helped her trying to help another person!

Well… Before her gun exploded at least.

She should have been upset at that, either shaking in fear of someone who could just outright destroy something made out of cast-iron and steel with little thought, or even frustration at all those sleepless nights that resulted in a bunch of shrapnel embedded in her shirt and arms.

Hell, she had been close to browning her shorts just a little awhile ago when it looked like she was staring death in the face. Even now, a small part of her held on to that terror.

Instead she felt… needy. It had even started when she had seen Greg being impaled by that energy blade and she saw the small, arm mounted energy projector that was making it. A normal girl would have screamed out when someone in front of you suddenly grows armour and impales a nearby… acquaintance with a big glowing blade but, after seeing that beauty of mystery and engineering, she just couldn't look away as her eyes roamed over every curve and angle of that little armour piece.

Her power had even been rattling off its own observations in her head so quickly that it sounded more like a bad dial-up connection, with Jessica managing to understand every word of it.

It had taken Greg breaking it somehow to even bring her back to reality.

But that same feeling returned when she saw her Gauss bolt absolutely failed to affect "Micheal's" armour in any way, and only magnified when she managed to spot the second energy projector that he had aimed at her.

Even now, with her life potentially in danger, she was barely paying attention to treating her wounds and instead kept the majority of her attention on the fight happening in front of her.

The technology in that wrist… whatever was letting the armoured man float… It was so similar to what she had seen in Sci-fi shows that it just had to be to be Tinkertech.

Except it wasn't.

Being the 'Cape Capital' of the USA, It wasn't hard to find examples of actual Tinkertech in Brockton Bay and whenever she did manage to see some, her power would rattle off a whole bunch of nonsense terms and terminology that she didn't understand.

But everything her power said when she looked at that armour, she understood. It didn't work like normal energy should but she knew exactly why, it was using an energy source that she had been using for weeks now…

Hell Energy, the entire armour was running off Hell energy.

Even that huge sword that knight was carrying around had some sort of carvings in it that contained Hell Energy, making the blade a lot stronger than it should have been.

No matter what she wanted to do, run away or help, she couldn't because her mind was almost overflowing with ideas as she watched the two fight.

So invested she was in the act of bandaging herself, she feel the blood dripping out of her nose and she didn't see the enraged, semi-naked teen running to join the fight.

There was just too much to see.

So much data…

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It dimly occurred to me that I was running into a fight straight out of an Earth Aleph anime.

Sadly, Bet Japan never really recovered.

Regardless, I was pretty much an anime character at this point so I guessed it was appropriate.

Ahead of me, I saw Micheal, his black armour surrounded by a blue field, as he quickly deflected a swing from the blue armoured knight.

I managed to reach them as Micheal stood up too his full height, his large blade dissipating as the energy projector on his arm charged up with Red Delicious energy, aimed at the knight who was ready to catch the incoming blast on his blade.

I didn't let that happen.

My charged crashed into his arm, my sheer speed, mass and strength forcing his arm off its aim, the plasma blast zooming past the knight and tearing up the tar road beyond.

I span around and punched at the section below Micheal's main breastplate. Unlike the other parts of the armour I punched, it dented under the force of my blow.

My right fist, going in for a second punch, was caught by a gauntleted hand at the last moment, crushing my hand bones.

"Not you again." Micheal commented in distaste. "Fuck off."

With the last word, I felt the impact of a power assisted leg in my stomach area as Micheal kicked me away. I felt the strain in my spine as I was sent flying, but couldn't help but smile as I saw the Knight take advantage of the distraction and smack Micheal in the helmet with a swing of his sword, flipping him end over end through sheer force. While in mid-air, Micheal's armour glowed blue once again and he flipped himself upright, kicking the blade away.

By the time I hit the floor and scrambled to my feet, my wounds had already regenerated and I charged once again.

I slammed into Micheal's back, throwing off a swing of his blade as I punched him in the side, the metal denting under my fist once again. He retaliated my throwing me backwards and hitting me in the chest with a small plasma blast, throwing me back as my flesh, and the remnants of my shirt and jacket, either combusted or melted. For his trouble, he received another slash to the back of his armour.

To an observer, it must have looked like I had lost it. That I was just blindly charging in and getting beaten up for it. Well, that was actually happening but I wasn't insane however, I had a plan.

It was obvious that Micheal was using some sort of power armour and that of course needed a source of power, hence the name.

What better source for a self-professed Demon lord to use but the Energy of Hell itself.

Energy that at least one part of me wanted to devour like a five-year old given sugar pancakes. Energy that my hungry and violent side of me wanted to badly get so it was subtly pulling me into that direction, which inadvertently told me exactly where the power lines were in his suit.

Funnily enough I noticed quite a few of these areas felt stronger than others, and all these locations happened to be in between the visible plates of armour.

When I had first charged in, I had hoped that meant that those sections were weaker than the rest of the armour.

The dents in those places were all the confirmation I needed to know that I had found the weak point of this boss fight.

Well… Not weak point exactly but it would give me a fighting chance at least.

So my plan was simple, break the power so that it leaks and I get stronger while he gets weaker.

With my flesh finished regenerating, I now had the necessary core muscles to get to my feet again and charge again.

This time, the Knight saw my charge and, for the first time, moved from his position to charge a surprised Micheal. The clash of blades was short, resulting in a contest of strength as the two combatants locked blades with each other.

With Micheal stuck doing one thing, I struck.

First, a charging fist smacked the the dented area of armour on his back, further crumpling it. Gripping the edges of crumpled metal, I pulled. With a metallic groan and crack, the metal armour came loose in that area, showing the incredibly complicated circuitry beneath.

Dimly, I noticed the sound of cloth hitting the ground across the road.

"What are you doing?!" Micheal tried to turn my way but the Knight exerted more pressure on the blade lock, forcing him to continue facing the blue Knight.

"Don't be rude," The Knight jeered, his breaths heavy. "We are having quite a nice fight over here."

Ignoring the conversation, I noticed a singular tube of glowing red energy in the centre of the circuits.

With no hesitation, I grabbed hold of the tube and ripped it out.

The circuit board erupted into sparks and I could feel the energy leaking from it.

I felt it less as Micheal shoved the knight back and kicked me in the face, sending me rolling backwards.

I could feel my jaw and teeth break from the impact, but I could also feel them heal faster.

I stood up, ignoring my rapidly healing head injury with a blood-stained grin.

It was working!

My plan was working!

My internal celebration only increased as I saw the helmeted face of the Demon armor helmet glaring at the fingers of his right hand, all of them seemingly glitching erratically.

I prepared myself to charge again, with the enthusiasm I always felt when suddenly realizing exactly how to defeat a boss encounter.

Maybe that wasn't the right mindset to have in a fight, but it seemed that I was nigh unkillable at the moment anyway, so I could forgive myself for not exactly seeing this in the most appropriate light.

Of course, then the Demon Lord did something I didn't expect.

"You know, what?" Micheal suddenly spoke up, his voice filled with irritation as he glared towards me. "No."

"No?" I asked lamely, not really getting what he meant.

"No." He confirmed. "I've worked far too hard to risk even a small amount of progress wasting time fighting you two idiots."

With that, the blue glow surrounded Micheal once again, flickering slightly, and his armoured form rose into the air.

"Where in the Hell are you going?" I yelled to the floating man.

Micheal scoffed.

"To do more important things than killing a nuisance," He sent a glare towards the knight, who shrugged. "and a lucky half-breed."

Micheal raised higher in the air.

"Nothing you do can stop Earth Bet from being saved. Even your delays are inconsequential. So try to fight me, I promise you will lose."

Then, in a bright flash of blue light, The dark armoured man zoomed away.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Silence echoed throughout the street as the Knight and I just stood there, looking at the location where the Demon Lord just was.

"Don't worry about what he said." The Knight spoke towards me, his comparatively normal visor focused on me. "I've learned through experience that if Micheal is ranting, then he is on the verge of absolute rage."

"Well, um." I replied with grace. "Thank you, I guess?"

"You should be proud of yourself, boy!" The knight proclaimed joyously. "When you stopped his invasion the first time, you could hear him from the next Demon realm over. Of course that would only be the beginning."

"Wait, the beginning?" I asked.

"Of course! Now that you stopped him the first time, he is only going to try harder to actually drag this whole dimension into Hell. Which means that Its up to you, and me, to keep stopping him."

"No, no,no. You have this all wrong." I denied. Clearly this man, aside the necessary insanity from literally appearing from Hell, was insane to think I was actually a protaganist. "I was just the Right, absolutely normal kid in the right place. I am not some sort of guy who goes around looking to save people."

"Oh, then why are you here?"

I thought back to the exact reason I had went to that warehouse this morning, and immediately cringed.

"I… I was just curious." I admitted hesitantly, aware of how such a reason blew a hole in my argument.

I couldn't see his face behind the full plated helm, but I got the distinct impression of a smug grin.

"That doesn't mean anything." I hastily added. "An NPC is fully capable of getting into trouble because of curiosity."

"Yes, but who did Micheal try to trap and kill?"

I stayed silent at that, realizing that, as much as I hated it, he wasn't wrong.

"Look, I may be explaining this badly, but the way I see it, Micheal blames you, is going to try to kill you and set off a demonic invasion that will likely kill everyone you know. It makes sense to stop that, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess, but…"

"Look, I get it, you don't want to actually commit to fighting Demons, you probably thought of it as a 'might as well' kind of thing. Trust me, I was the same but You will feel different about it later on."

I stayed silent as I had no idea how to respond to that but deep thought.

"And don't think too hard about that Half-breed comment. Its probably a case of reverse possession rather than parentage anyway."

"What?"

"You see, based on how you regenerated from literal mortal wounds, I would guess that, instead of rejecting the energies of Hell like most organic beings, you must have won the genetic lottery and your body actually absorbs it. Then a minor demon must have tried to posses you, shredding your soul but then thanks to actually liking demon energy, your soul probably ate the demon back, using the soul bit of it as some sort of soul glue while your body subsisted on the energy."

I could do nothing but stare at the Knight, my mouth agape.

I just sat there.

In the hallway, covered in blood with torn and broken lockers, some of them on fire, I just sat there.

I felt my shock and unnatural calm break.

I felt myself fill with RAGE

They needed to die.

It made a lot of sense actually. Too much sense.

"How do you know all this?" I asked.

"Oh, I've been rambling haven't I?" The Knight asked himself more than me. "I'm sorry. I'm just so excited to actually be out of Hell for the first time in millennia. You have no idea how many Oracles I have bribed in order to be prepared for this moment."

"Okay?"

"But hey, I'm here now, and definitely ready to help the only person that has given Micheal a pseudo-aneurysm in at least four years."

"I don't even know if you are human or not!"

"Well, I was about a millennia ago at least. I guess the answer would be… mostly?"

"Really?" I glared at him for such a vague answer.

"Hell changes you." The Knight shrugged. "But shouldn't you be more worried about her?"

He pointed past me. Turning around, I saw the collapsed form of Jessica, lying on the ground with blood slowly dripping from her nose. I felt my chest clench in worry as I ran over to her. Reaching her, I breathed out a sigh of relief to see that she was in fact breathing properly and seemingly in a peaceful sleep.

"Well, I guess her power must have overwhelmed her a bit. It does that when it comes to Thinkers."

"Thinkers?" I asked pointedly as I looked back behind me at the Knight.

"Look, I'm just going to go now, I don't have any money so in order to stay I'm probably going to have to loot a few gangers to get by. I'll… see you around."

"Just who the Hell are you anyway?" I yelled as he began walking away, his sword strapped to his back."

"The name is Ned!"

I watched at the Hell man named Ned walked down the dark street, eventually pinching my nose at, by far, the weirdest conversation I've ever had.

And I accidentally managed to get Sparky to give me an abridged version of the Birds and the Bees.

I let out a sigh as I resigned myself to be the one to take Jessica home, despite my blood-stained state of undress.

Hopefully, she has her address in her wallet…

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AN:

I honestly didn't enjoy writing this chapter. In everything I write, i normally go with a central theme to a certain scene. In the Earlier scenes, I went with more DOOM than Worm and it had a constant tone per chapter. This chapter had so much ground to cover (even in my original draft) that I didn't feel that tone while I was writing and thus I personally feel that it became a slog and there is probably an immense amount of inconsistencies that I couldn't find.

Then there was Micheal...

I want him to be a competent villain, I want him to actually be smart and practical enough in order to not fall into the villain tropes that people use to give exposition.

But I still need him to give exposition.

I still need Greg to actually survive this fight.

As Ned was originally going to appear here as a future pseudo mentor, I decided to actually get him, as an over excited man to not be in the worst place in the multiverse, to drop some expo bombs at a time where Greg doesn't actually care to think about it rather than Micheal revealing everything in a fight he thinks will be simple pest extermination

It probably reads terribly.

I will say that I will try my best to make the chapters flow better in the future now that all the expo dump and introductions have finished.

Probably a Micheal interlude next though.

I also hope that Greg ignoring a character dilemma is also written well enough to remain in character.

I sincerely hope that the writing was enjoyable.