The demons were bodily lifted from the ground as blood-red energy wrapped them in cocoons. They began screaming as their skin began flaking off, but were obstructed from their view in a matter of seconds. The cocoons finished forming around the unfortunate demons and landed on the ground, eleven pulsating meatbags.

The soldier had seen quite a lot. He had not seen that before.

Daisy gaped at the cocoons with blatant shock, her mouth hanging open in a perfect O. "Wha - I didn't know that was going to happen! What'd you do!?"

The soldier shrugged, dismissing the shotgun. He wasn't going to need it for Envy if the little information he had about her was accurate - it wasn't going to do much. With that, he walked over to the palace doors, staring their length up and down. They were ornately carved, with bronze snakes twisting and crawling up the sides. The massive handles were decorated with gold tassels. Each one was at least forty feet tall. Overall, they were very impressive doors, built solidly and built to last.

The soldier kicked them down.

It was pretty loud.

Holding her ears, Daisy cracked one eye open and asked hesitantly, "Was that necessary?"

The doors might have been locked, the soldier reasoned. And if they weren't, well, he'd already knocked them down.

Walking past the doorway and over the doors, which now had an imprint of his boots embedded into their surface, the soldier once again summoned his chain gun. After a moment's hesitation, Isabeld loped over to him, Daisy clutching onto the impromptu handle she'd found.

Several minutes later, the soldier decided that this building had far too many hallways. They'd been walking over carefully made designs and intricate carvings for at least a mile and a half now, and had been curving in a way that indicated that the path went all the way around the palace in a circle.

Daisy broke the silence suddenly, asking, "So why do you want to kill demons?"

The soldier glanced at her, thought for a moment, and then gave her a thumbs up. She blinked, thrown. "That's not really an answer..." She trailed off as he dismissed the chain gun, replacing it with a weapon he hadn't used before. It was more or less a bulky tube, with a handle approximately two-thirds of the way down and a barrel large enough to fit an arm down, it looked like a rather dangerous item. She pointed at it. "What's that?"

Bracing its butt against his shoulder, the soldier turned to the wall on his left and aimed it. "A door."

He pulled the trigger of the rocket launcher.

A violet projectile screamed from the end of the weapon and detonated against the polished stone walls of the hallway, blowing a sizable hole in it and raining a cloud of dust and rubble on everyone nearby. A particularly large chunk slammed into the soldier's head and bounced off with a curious clang.

Walking through the hole without further hesitation, the soldier got rid of the rocket launcher, considered using the chain gun, and then switched to the BFG's familiar heft.

Striding out of the dust cloud, the soldier was surprised to see a full-on colosseum dedicated to some sort of female demon. The statues, all featuring the same she-demon, were posed in a variety of extraordinarily tasteless ways. Each statue was a hundred feet tall at least, placed at even intervals on pedestals around the truly gigantic dome. The ceiling was over half a mile up, from what the soldier could tell, and was carved with images of demons climbing and battling over each other in an attempt to get to the top, which once again was engraved with a picture of the she-demon.

In the center of the dome, on a normal-sized couch, sat the demoness in question. Her horns were petite, contrasting the smooth crimson skin and lidded gray eyes. Lounging on the couch, a veritable mountain of treasure behind her, she glanced over at the soldier with an expression of deepest disdain in her eyes. Sitting up and wrinkling the ivory dress she had on, she called irritably, "Do you mind? These walls are not inexpensive, you know."

This, the soldier felt, was probably Envy.

Raising the BFG, he aimed, took a breath, and fired. The gun kicked as its furious green projectile hurtled away, bolts of lightning jutting out of it and striking everything in range. Envy sighed, seized her couch, and threw it one-handed at the green ball. The furniture met the ball at about the halfway point between them, and the explosion was immense.

Through the wavery haze rising from the green-tinged crater in the ground, Envy called over, "That's quite the weapon you have there. Your Perks must be... delicious."

A red board appeared in front of the soldier, blinking repeatedly.

! THE PERK HAS BEEN STOLEN!>

The BFG dissolved into crimson energy, fueling back into the soldier. He stared at his hands, surprised at the sudden loss of his weapon. Reaching for that strange feeling in the back of his mind, he was instead met by a blank space, a hole in his mind where all of his guns should be.

He glared at Envy, who smiled demurely. "I do hope you didn't need that particular Perk to fight. What a shame that would be... oh, you have a little friend." Her grin spread wider and wider, moving up the side of her face and disfiguring her expression, razor-sharp triangular teeth pushing out from her thin lips. She was looking at Daisy, who nervously tucked herself closer to Isabeld's fur. "Such a tough face... I think I want it."

The soldier realized what was about to happen half a second before it did. Half a second was plenty of time for him to react, and he launched himself at the Lepori. The air blurred next to her, and Envy appeared within the distortion, her hand growing and breaking as serrated claws grew from her fingertips. Before the demoness could attack, the soldier grabbed her by the wrist, twisted, and hurled the Sin away.

Righting herself midair, Envy chuckled. Her hand was still horrifically misshapen, bone visible from where the soldier stood. Daisy stared around wildly, having realized that she'd been an inch from death.

The she-demon called lightly from where she stood, "Oh dear, you really don't want her to die, do you? Such a glaring weakness in a big, strong man such as yourself. Speaking of which... what is your Strength? I'd really like some of it... or ALL OF IT!!!"

Another red board appeared with almost the same message, and the soldier glared at it.

! YOUR STRENGTH IS BEING REDUCED!>

The soldier actually growled in frustration. This demoness could steal his Perks and his stats? What kind of a...

He paused mid-thought, nearly aghast at what he'd been about to think. Perks? He was worried about Perks!? He'd gone without them for over a decade! Who gave a flying crap what his stats were!? Who needed guns!? Who needed weapons!? He could shred them to pieces with his bare hands if he needed to! He would turn their own limbs into weapons! Their bones into knives! Their brains into dust! He would rip and tear and rip and tear and RIP AND TEAR!!!

The soldier began to work himself into a berserker rage, and as he did, flames began to spark around his armor. Envy's smile faltered slightly, but she bent her knees, ready to hurl herself forward. The soldier - no, the Slayer - stomped forward, his steps grinding stone into atoms as he walked forward.

The attack, when it came, was lightning-quick. Envy's claw hissed through the space that the Slayer's head had occupied a fraction of a second before, but now the Slayer was in range. Grabbing her arm, he tensed every muscle in his arm and punched the back of her elbow. Bone broke, and her limb flopped uselessly.

Envy's entire head bisected horizontally in a horrific visage of teeth and eyes as she shrieked her agony and fury at him, and the Slayer roared his own rage at her in a wordless sound that made his allies duck down in blind, animalistic terror. Still holding onto Envy's arm, he grabbed onto the injured section and pulled.

Battering at the Slayer's helmet, Envy screeched and screamed, but was unable to stop the Slayer from ripping her forearm from her elbow. She retreated the instant he finished, muttering hoarsely to herself. Her body began to elongate, spiked ridges rising from her spine as her frame became gaunt. Lowering her head to the ground and using her remaining arm as a supporting limb, five bloodshot eyes opening on her neck and shoulders, the now unrecognizable demon shrilly screamed at the Slayer.

Instead of waiting, the Slayer set off at a dead run for Envy, tossing her limb away. She blurred forward to meet him, her head opening in a blossom of razors. He grabbed onto both sides of her jaw, sliding backward from the force of her slamming into him, and then began to push her mouth further open.

It was as if she'd been electrocuted. Her entire body jerked, and she began to scrabble at the Slayer's arms. Bracing himself, the Slayer raised one foot and stepped halfway into Envy's mouth, pinning the floor of her mouth to the ground. Releasing her mouth with one arm, he started ruthlessly punching at the roof of her mouth.

In one convulsive movement, Envy rammed the Slayer, knocking him off-balance, and then retreated, moaning in pain. A message appeared to the Slayer, alerting him that his abilities were returning. He noticed, but his mind was a haze of blood and gore, all of it focused on his opponent.

Rising to her feet, Envy's eyes narrowed, and then she rushed the Slayer once again. Her remaining limb scooped him up by the neck, spikes of bone protruding from every inch of it, holding him in the air, and her horrific face split in a manic grin.

The grin died as the Slayer held up the BFG, one-handed, and fired straight into her face at point-blank.

The explosion enveloped both of them.