Daemon X Core: I am Murder Man. (Patreon)

To preface this post, I got a sudden hit of inspiration to write a story and draw some pieces up, but this is a timeline in which the Mortali-Caspian War ended up in a stalemate, the Black Pope succeeded in his plot to open a gate to the immaterial, but he was stopped before he ascended, thus leaving the Gulch in a purgatory state. Now the year is 199X and the Daemon Core that is powering Atlantropa is failing and needs to be repaired, in a joint operation between the American and Atlantropian Governments send a small team to attempt to fix it.

I tend to write the end to stories first and work my way backwards, so the following transcript is just that, it is very rough, but that is what the Patreon is for!

Murder Man reaches for Jana's arm deep within the blood pool. Jana looks at her mechanical socket; she had been careless. She couldn't afford to die here; she had to make it to the central core and stabilize the Daemon Core. All of Atlantropa's, no, the whole outside world's hopes lay on her shoulders. She wondered as to the fates of West and Angel, where could they have ended up? It was hard to tell exactly how much time had passed since they had gotten separated, time within the Gulch passed different since the opening of the Vulnerate gates by the Mortali Knights so long ago now. Your arm, Jana. Here is your arm. Murder Man had been trying to get her attention for awhile now, Jana had been lost in deep thought, one of the many quirks that made her such a unique Nu-geist. Jana looked over at Murder Man, Thank you Murder Man, I'm sorry I was just lost in thought. She softly smiled at him. He just stood there silently, she reattached her arm and recalibrated it. Shall we, she gestured towards the massive tower in the distance.

Jana looked over at Murder Man. They had encountered so many hellish creatures during their journey, and things would only get worse. But despite it all, he didn't seem to care. Whatever Project Kandata did to the people who went through it must have been absolute in its transformation. Murder Man was as human as she was—none at all. Jana spoke up, "We should take a break, Murder Man. You haven't rested since we met, you know. As a human, surely you need to rest?"

Murder Man continued walking. "I am fine," he said. "My generation was designed to never stop." Jana looked at him. "Doesn't this wear you down, all this fighting?" Murder Man continued walking. "Not at all," he said. "I live for it; it is the only thing that keeps me—or, well, my kind—going. We must fight until our last breath. If we don't, the demons will rise up and consume the whole world. Jana, this is our purpose. You were built with one, were you not? Does that bother you?" Jana followed closely. "It doesn't bother me," she said, "but from my time here, I have seen the wounds add up on you and all the others we have met. It isn't fair. I'll complete my mission and get to go home, but you?" Murder Man stopped. "I'm under no delusion," he said. "Our hearts were replaced; in their place, we have genocide engines. There is no place above for us, Jana, and there may never be an end in sight for the demons and devils of the Gulch, but we will keep fighting." There needs to be an end to all this. You and all your brothers have been fighting this endless war for nearly a century now, trying to stop hell from spilling over. All in silence; above ground, in Atlantropa and all around the world, people are ignorant of this suffering and carnage. Jana angrily responded. Murder Man placed his hand on her shoulder. "It's alright, this is our duty, Jana. We aren't far now from the central core. The Hell Knights will be numerous, but so will my brothers be; there is always war near the core. If anything happens to me, keep going, understood? One of my brothers will undoubtedly shield you on your way."

Jana looked at Murder Man and nodded.

As they sprinted through the outer ring of the Central Core, Jana saw numerous fights and clashes all around her. This is where the bulk of the Kandata were, thousands of them fighting against hellish abominations, creatures that towered over anything she had seen so far. Murder Man was making a path for her to follow; his speed was ludicrous. As a demon tried to jump her, another Kandata tackled it mid-air, saving her. This would keep repeating until they reached the base of the structure. A massive Hell Knight was cleaving through Murder Man's brothers; they needed to get rid of him as soon as possible. With a combined effort, they managed to defeat the knight, clearing a way inwards. But Murder Man had not come out of the battle unscathed. They kept pushing forwards until reaching a massive chamber within the structure. Descending from it was an almost angelic-looking demon; it challenged Murder Man to combat. Both sides fought with their all; in the end, Murder Man had managed to slay the demon, but he had pushed himself too far. "Jana, go!" he yelled at her as she stood there petrified. It couldn't be happening; Murder Man was dying. Before she could do anything, a Kandata hoisted her onto his shoulder and began sprinting towards the stairs. Jana looked back at Murder Man as he gave her a thumbs-up. The Kandata did his best to get her closer to the Daemon Core but was struck down by a demonic knight. As this happened, more Kandata joined Jana, all fighting and pushing her forwards, all dying for her progress, each one doing everything they could. Jana once again found herself petrified; the sheer amount of death overwhelmed her.

She remembered something Angel was yapping about before they got to the transport to get down to the Gulch. She was going on about the turn of the millennium and how she had been reading about it being the end of the world. Something about old-time prophecies and long-lost calendars from ancient civilizations; the Maya believed in cycles in which the gods would reset the world through disasters when the world grew too corrupt for them to bear. Her train of thought was interrupted as she softly fell against the floor. The room was so bright. She heard from behind her a soft voice, "We are here, complete the mission." A sudden thud; the Kandata that had gotten her into the Daemon Core chamber collapsed next to her, dying from his wounds. Jana looked at him. Murder Man, the mission: kill all demons. Jana looked at the Daemon Core; its otherworldly power, even when it was dying out, was truly impressive. For Murder Man and all the Kandata, she would finish the fight. She wouldn't repair the Core; she would overload it. The explosion would be more than enough to wipe out all the demons and destroy the Vulnerate gates; she would murder them all. As she did, a thought crossed her mind; the blue hue began to envelop her form. It was December 31st; the eve of the new millennium was here. A massive explosion shook the Gulch, the blue hue instantly obliterating everything within it. It didn't stop; Atlantropa was consumed by the blue hue in mere seconds.

A massive, black hole-like vortex formed in the area that once was the floating city; it stabilized shortly after.