POW!
A surprising impact echoed out through the gym as Immortal's fist came into contact with the open palm of War Woman.
"You okay, big guy?"
War Woman gently squeezed Immortal's fist before setting his arm down.
Immortal shook his head and looked down at War Woman, who had only just been relieved from the medical wing.
"They couldn't find your arm?"
War Woman clutched the bandaged stump where her left arm was previously, and a twinge of pain was seen in her eyes.
"No, in the chaos, it was likely obliterated. Hopefully, Cecil won't mind granting me a cybernetic replacement!"
Her eyes turned back to Immortal whose eyes never left her bandaged arm, "So you going to tell me what happened to piss you off so much?"
Immortal's eyes darkened, and he squeezed his fist with such force that blood began to drip onto the floor.
"The fucking church declared a holy war!"
War Woman's eyes went wide; her mind filled with instances throughout history where the church used its vast army of thoughtless zealots to impose its beliefs on other countries.
In one particularly brutal battle in antiquity, an angel was even summoned as a last resort, and everyone, man, woman, or child, was reduced to soul energy before being devoured by said angel.
An entire country disappeared all at once that fateful day, and for many months, no one knew what had occurred there.
Eventually, the pope of that time announced that he had banished the demons with the power granted to him through God, and in the uproar, the people simply forgot the lives lost that fateful day, and those who did not were systematically silenced.
"Wh... Why?" She asked as her single hand squeezed the handle of her trusty mace.
Immortal gestured for War Woman to follow, and the two proceeded to walk to one of the GDA's surveillance rooms, and he sat down in a chair in front of the closest screen and proceeded to input a set of information.
William's appearance during the battle appears on screen, the form he had taken, the blazing orange flame-like energy that erupted from behind his eyes and enveloped his entire head, contouring to his features, but the most prominent new feature was the single horn that appeared on his head.
He seemed like an actual demon as he weaved through the enemy army like a god of death, and the brutality with which he dispatched the larger juggernauts only proved that fact further.
Suddenly, it all clicked for War Woman, and her eyes narrowed into pinholes.
BANG!
"Those BASTARDS!" She roared and punched a nearby desk, causing it to fold in on itself.
As these two continued to talk about what was going on across the ocean within the opulent and massive cathedral known as the Vatican, an old man with grizzled features was speaking to a group of younger subordinates, each one wearing a modernized set of crusaders' gear of custom design.
"Your holiness, I have gathered the other Knights of the Order. We await your commands!"
The young knight at the forefront was a young man with bleach blonde hair that bordered on becoming ashen, with a part down the center of his shoulder-length hair.
His eyes practically shone with a light, giving him a naturally holy disposition.
In his hands, a longsword that seemed to hum with majesty and holy energy beneath the scabbard that could barely contain it.
The old man had a pleased expression on his face as he beheld the kneeling Knights of the Order, one who wields a holy sword, another who wields a spear that seemed to have a persistent coat of blood soaking the blade of the weapon.
His eyes soon fell on the other three Knights, one of whom was a lithe and nimble-looking woman who wields a bow that has a translucent crystal at its center and seems to lack a bowstring. To the right, a stocky knight holding a hammer on his shoulder that seemed to hold a weight far greater than one would expect, and to the left, the final knight held no weapon, but the old man knew that in a pinch, this woman would be the line that separates life from death.
Putting his hand on the desk he was sitting at, the old man slid a document over to the lead knight, who dutifully took the paperwork.
His expression was neutral as he read, but when he reached the second page where a new image of the most recent fight was displayed, showing his rather demonic-looking appearance as he fought the King of the Flaxan's to a forced retreat.
"William Black... Poor kid, clearly the host of some demonic spirit of some kind, it is a shame he must die!" The blonde knight passed the paperwork to the spear wielder next to him, whose stern glare seemed to shake with excitement when he saw the appearance of their target.
The blonde young man held his sword up, "Ready to slay some demons with me once more, Excalibur?"
BZZZT
Holy light buzzed around the blade as if responding to the young knight's question, and a smile formed on his face.
SLAM!
The butt of the spear in the hands of the other knight crashed into the floor causing spiderweb cracks to form around the new indentation.
Before the spear-wielding knight of the order could speak, however, he was cut off by the old man, who raised his hands to halt further discussion on their end.
"You have your orders, see it through, for it is the Lord's will!"
"THY WILL BE DONE! x5"
The five knights' chant echoed off marble walls, each "THY WILL BE DONE!" a drumbeat of divine conviction that rattled windows and sent tremors through the polished floor. The old man rose, ivory robes billowing around him like a specter's veil.
"Go," he intoned, voice low but absolute. "Bring me the demon's head as proof, and the church shall know no rival."
At his command, the Knights of the Order snapped into motion. The blonde swordsman, his blade humming with holy resonance, led the group through ornate archways into the labyrinthine catacombs beneath the cathedral. Torches flared to life as they passed, revealing centuries of crumbling frescoes depicting righteous battles and sanctified martyrdom.
Back on American soil, William was lying down on his bed while holding the crystalline heart above him, the massive amount of blood it drained from him somehow condensed into a small amount within the strange item.
Unaware of what was going on with the blood inside the crystalline heart, he set it down on the dresser next to him and decided to sleep for a bit to recover from the battle and the post-battle coitus he had with Kate.
In his dreams, he once again entered that strange dimension with vast otherworldly armies constantly funneling into portals.
This time, however, he could see the ambient energy of the realm; he could see small portions of it being siphoned off to places unknown before being restored as if the energy were without limit.
"Oh, back so soon, child?"
An ethereal and hauntingly beautiful voice emanated from behind him, and he turned around to see a rather tall woman with long black hair, which seemed to float endlessly behind her before seemingly merging with the realm itself.
Before he could react, this strangely familiar woman suddenly lunged towards him with speeds that defied thought itself, and suddenly he found his face buried in her mountainous cleavage as she wrapped her arms around him.
"MMMF!" He attempted to speak, but despite his strength, he found himself utterly outmatched by the woman in every physical aspect and was unable to resist the woman as she held him between her breasts.
"Who is this woman?" He could not help but think.
After a moment, she let him go and looked at him up and down with a somewhat pleased expression before she waved her hands, and William's human features were suddenly enveloped by his demonic orange flames, and a single horn appeared on his head that spiraled upwards as if defying the heavens.
"There he is, my baby boy!" As she said this, her face, which held a motherly smile, suddenly vanished, revealing brilliant multicolored flames that formed into a face and thick horns that would make any dragon quake in jealousy, spiraled upwards, and a queenly crown of flames formed between them.
A throne of the same multicolored flames emerged behind her, and with elegant steps upon the void, she walked towards it and sat down.
"HEHEHE!" She chuckled before gesturing to William, and he was drawn in by some unseen force.
However, before he reaches the position next to her, his body begins to fade, causing the woman to appear quite displeased.
"Sigh, perhaps next time, when you grow up!" She glanced at the single horn on his head before settling on Williams' blazing eyes, which held nothing short of pure confusion as he inevitably vanished from the woman's realm, leaving her once again alone in the vast ether that permeated the realm.
As she sat there in the distance, one of the portals where armies and energy poured into in large portions suddenly stopped allowing them to pass as something massive was emerging from within.
A large celestial orb that seemed to contain billions of galaxies, nebulae, and vast oceans of space within it emerged and settled within the void next to several similarly shaped orbs, each one emanating a different colored light.
Seeing this caused a smile to once again grace her face, and she suddenly vanished into the void itself.
William awoke in a start with his bed soaked in cold sweat.
"What the hell is going on?" He thought before he shifted to the side of the bed and sat there for a moment.
He noticed that on the top of his dresser, the crystalline heart he had placed there had turned into a vivid translucent red with a deep orange glow in the very center
Reaching out, he touched the heart, which felt strangely warm to the touch and was weirdly comforting.
Suddenly, the heart shone with light that caused William to go temporarily blind, and when his vision returned, the heart was gone.
"What the hell?"
He looked all around him, even going so far as to search under his bed and in his closet, only to find nothing.
He grew aggravated as his search continued to find nothing.
KNOCK
KNOCK
A loud knock snapped William out of his mental state, but the sudden noise caused him to react defensively, and as he did so in his hand a sword appeared in his hand, surprising him and causing him to drop the weapon.
However, the anticipated clattering of steel against the floor never occurred, and he looked down where the sword was and found that it had vanished.
"Huh!"
Shaking his head, feeling as if he had imagined it, he walked to the door and looked through the peephole to see Robot standing there with a neutral stance.
"Wonder what Robot wants!"
He opened the door, and Robot greeted him with a rather casual but equally awkward wave.
"Could you perhaps help me with something if you have the time?" Robot asked humbly.
William thought for a moment before he asked, "What do you need? I'm available if it is not too time-consuming!"
Robot seemed to breathe a sigh of relief despite being a robot
"Well, it is easier to show rather than tell, please follow me!" Robot gestured for William to follow, and the two walked through the base heading downward until they reached the labs where Robot worked most of the time.
Robot walked up to a monitor and began pressing keys. Soon, the room lit up, and a giant vat, like the one William had been in before, when he was healing in a coma.
Inside the vat was a spinal column that floated in the center of the strange fluid within, and Robot took a tablet and handed it to William.
On the screen, it showed his fight at the warehouses with the strange shadow man and Marie, who showed up afterwards.
The video stopped when she ripped his spine out and tossed it to the side before flying off.
"I would like your permission to use the spine left from that fight to formulate a new body for myself!"
TSSS!
Pressurized air leaked from the Robotic frame as the chest opened up, revealing Robot's real body, a misshapen and hideous young man, trapped inside a cage of his creation.
William was naturally taken aback by Robot's true appearance, but soon his face returned to normal, and he looked back into the vat with a look of deep thought on his face.
Robot began to sweat as he awaited the fateful answer that would potentially change his life for the better.