DOOM: Puer Infernalis

02: Nigrum Fortuna; Mutare ad Adventum/The Black Fortress; The Coming Change

"What happed to that other thingamajig, big guy?" Her question sparked Claudia's and Celestine's own interests as well.

"What are you talking about, Maia?" Instead of an answer from the Mercenary Queen, the Gore Knight answered with his free hand forming tiny glowing blue cubes rapidly taking shape of an odd-looking object. In less than a second, his left hand was now holding his M40 SMG before it disappeared a second later.

Multiple swords being unsheathed rang out within the small vicinity around them as the Dawn Templars and Maia's warrior band had drawn their assortment of finely made blades.

He internally scoffed. Over the many millennia of chasing all sorts of foes, any human-made attack seemed to outright bounce off of him. Sure, he could feel the impacts, but they were nothing more than distractions now. Had he arrived to Eostia as a simple Marine and not some... he shook his head. Had he arrived to this dimension's continent as he had started out, they might have had a chance of harming him.

To ease their worries and hostilities, the Marine simply made his M40 SMG disappear via breaking the compact weapon down into tiny glowing blue cubes before they were absorbed into his Argent Accumulators.

He turned his head slightly to the right and spoke in a rhetorical manner.

"That answer your question?" Maia dumbly nodded, speechless at what he had just done. Claudia, on the other hand, was pretty much pissed at the Marine as she had drawn her decorative sword at him.

"What manner of sorcery was that?! Answer me, cur!" He simply shrugged off her hostility and looked back at the now-nearing mercenary group. He rested the top of his DS-117 Combat Shotgun against his shoulder while his free left hand clenched and unclenched rhythmically. Celestine quickly acted and told those that drew their weapons to sheath them for now which they complied with no complaints (although some, like Claudia and Eliza, were reluctant and a bit hostile towards the Marine).

By now, the guards outside the gates had let the Kuro Inu inside to palace walls.

Vult, along with Hicks, Kin and some of his men, were directly marching towards Celestine and her group. When he had reached the steps, he called out in a charismatic yet hard tone fitting for a veteran of war and a commander of a group.

"Lady Celestine, Your Grace, it is good to meet you once again and gracing us with your presence." He greeted kindly and bowed in respect. As soon as he was done, he nodded to Claudia (who simply nodded back with a blank stare) before setting his eyes onto Maia's form.

"Maia, it's good to see that you're still up and at 'em." Maia playfully winked at the mercenary leader, but the Marine could feel some emotion from her action, something beyond a petty crush type of affection.

"Master Vult," Celestine began, "I've heard that your defense of the borders were successful." Vult smirked in response to the praise.

"Aye, we kicked the horde's asses so hard back into the Badlands that I swear they were growing tails between their legs."

"And yet you didn't finish them off." The Marine muttered, but it was loud enough for Vult and the others to hear.

"Oh? And who the fuck are you?" Hicks rudely stated as his hands were tucked into the pockets of his pants and had a bit of a slouch on him as he approached the Marine. Hicks was about to grab the Marine by the collar only for said giant of a man to beat him to the punch as he grabbed the man by the throat and raised him about three feet from the ground.

He panicked and immediately went for one of his shortswords only to stop as the Marine stared intently from behind his visor. The fact that his eyes are completely hidden and that the visor reflects everything in front of it with perfect clarity, Hicks could see nothing but his own frightened visage.