What was clear was that Hellraider wanted to vent his anger on me. I had openly used Hellraider as a tool, and he had every right to feel that way after what I had done to him. I was alone here, with no one else. Even if Banasphate were still beside me, he would no longer be able to help me face Hellraider in a condition like this.
Hellraider immediately walked toward me. Whatever was happening now, my body could not be commanded to get up and run from here. Why did my deepest instincts also seem unable to move anymore to save me? Even if I could stand up, where would I run to? In front of me lay a fairly wide chasm, and I could not cross it even with my maximum jump. For Hellraider, perhaps he could, because his body had already formed into a superhuman after fighting in hell for so long.
Did Hellraider deliberately choose not to destroy me immediately with his rocket and instead corner me on this lower ground with the stretch of the chasm so that he could finish me directly with his bare hands? I thought that indeed would be the most satisfying way to take revenge. Hellraider was already standing before me. I, still lying down, could only wait for my final moments before death arrived at his hands. Just like the incident at the lava lake cliff, Hellraider grabbed the front collar of my uniform with his right hand.
But suddenly he lifted me up, placed his other hand over the hand that was gripping me, pulled me toward his right shoulder, and while letting out a loud grunt, he hurled me into the air. At first I thought he would throw me straight into this chasm. Why didn't he just smash my head or chest with a stomp of his foot? But I felt my body being thrown higher and higher, and as I began to fall, I caught a glimpse that I had already passed over the chasm. I crashed onto the ground on the other side quite hard and rolled several times. My back landed first, and I immediately felt pain.
I saw Hellraider on the opposite side take a running start, run, and leap across the cliff. His jump was extremely high, something nearly impossible for most humans on Earth to do without special equipment. Hellraider landed precisely on the edge of the opposite cliff, and after walking a few steps, the ground where he had landed cracked and collapsed.
I immediately crawled away, though once again this was a futile action. Hellraider grabbed my back again and threw me once more, sending me rolling across the ground. When I was lying there, I saw Hellraider already above me. Then his right hand immediately grasped my neck and lifted my entire body. My neck felt tightly choked, my breathing continuously cut off.
Ohh… is this what hanging feels like??
I looked straight at Hellraider's face behind his helmet, which still displayed exploding emotions. Both of my hands were gripping Hellraider's forearm, which felt as hard as steel. Suddenly a voice came from inside his helmet,
"You… toyed… me… .DIEEE…" said Hellraider in that same heavy, hoarse voice.
I felt his grip tightening even more. My body began to struggle violently, and I started to run out of breath.
"Last… words…" Hellraider continued.
At moments like this, unbelievably, I recalled the old version of The Mayhem gameplay where when Hellraider fought a boss monster without taking even a bit of damage, just before firing the final shot to kill the boss, the line "Any last words?" would be heard, spoken by Hellraider. In the modern sequel, Hellraider truly became silent and no longer uttered those words.
At the very moment when my life was truly on the brink, from my subconscious, my mouth spoke words to Hellraider.
"Y-yo… your... n... name… D-Da…"
Before I could finish saying it, suddenly white electrical flashes appeared around Hellraider's helmet, rapidly covering his entire head. Hellraider immediately screamed as if in intense pain and released his grip on my neck, causing me to fall down as I quickly gasped for air while clutching my throat.
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I glanced at Hellraider and saw him clutching his helmet with both hands, continuously screaming in pain, until finally both of his knees dropped to the ground. After that, he removed his helmet, and now I could truly see his face directly.
I saw that his facial features were exactly the same as the scene when he removed his helmet in the final game series. The face of a powerful, masculine man with a defined jawline and emerald-green eyes. But what left me stunned was his hairstyle, exactly like the one I had seen in my dream some time ago, a short cut with the top slightly longer and spiked.
Hellraider then glared at me, his rage still surging, his teeth grinding against each other.
"WHAAAT… DID YOU DO… TO MEEEE…?!?!?" Hellraider shouted as his emotions exploded.
He stood up and looked as if he was about to attack me again. At that moment, I already understood Hellraider's greatest weakness. Yes… his name, which I remembered from watching an interview video with one of the game developers several years ago. My face immediately showed anger as well, and I prepared to say his name again to stop his actions.
But before he could reach me, suddenly white flashes appeared again on Hellraider's head, making him freeze, scream in pain while clutching his head, and collapse to the ground. Then he groaned angrily while pounding the ground.
"WHYYY… WHYYY IS THIS HAPPENING TO MEEEE…?!?!?!" Hellraider roared. His eyes glanced toward me again.
I, shocked again because I had not yet spoken his name, immediately stood up and stared back at his face.
"Because you never wanted to listen to me…!!! You always tried to kill me…!!! I already told you I was trapped here and that I intended to help youuu…!!!" I said, finally releasing everything that had been in my mind to the figure of Hellraider.
Hellraider stood up again, his expression now confused but still mixed with anger. His heavy breathing showed he was struggling to process what I had said.
As I continued to observe his movements, suddenly I felt something very wrong. I looked around and saw small hills around us from which monsters were emerging, their numbers rapidly increasing. Not only low-level monsters appeared, but all elite monsters I had ever encountered, hell knights, and even Licoths crawled onto the land to attack both of us.
I was no longer surprised, because strange things were bound to happen as long as I remained in hell. I saw Hellraider begin summoning his Obliviator weapon, and reflexively I also took my pistol from the interface slot. I immediately ran toward Hellraider to help face the massive horde of monsters.
But it seemed Hellraider still truly hated me. He grabbed my arm roughly and shouted,
"GET AWAAAY FROM MEEEE…!!!!"
I was thrown away by him yet again. The monsters seemed more focused on attacking Hellraider.
I quickly got up and ran away. From the sides, several monsters began chasing me. I no longer had any protection at all, only the weapons from my interface slot that I could use for self-defense. I climbed onto one of the rocks along the cliff wall and began shooting the monsters that kept chasing me. No elite monsters approached me; it seemed they were all focused on Hellraider. But still, their numbers kept increasing.
Suddenly I glanced toward the top of the terrain and saw several humanoid monsters ready to jump toward me. I immediately jumped down and ran again. Fortunately, many of the monsters below had already been taken down by my pistol. I felt that I could kill them with just two or three shots, and my reload speed had increased drastically.
I exited the hilly area and reached a vast plain. Even so, many monsters were already waiting for me there. I kept shooting while jogging. In front of me was a group of monsters, and reflexively I took my grenade, activated the detonator, and threw it at them, instantly exploding and killing them.
I looked around and saw many groups of monsters approaching me. I immediately used all my remaining grenades in every direction to blow up those that were cornering me. I also shot the monsters that nearly reached me with my remaining bullets until my ammunition was completely depleted.
I no longer had anything left to survive…
I dropped to my knees and let my pistol fall to the ground. Monsters were still emerging all around me. At this point, I could no longer think about whether I could miraculously survive the death that kept closing in on me. I looked up at the hellish sky and resigned myself, believing that it was truly my time to die here…
Suddenly, in the sky I was staring at, a brilliant light shone brightly and flew toward me.
Ohhh… had an angel finally come to save me???
As it drew closer, I saw that the light came from a kind of shuttle aircraft. The aircraft began firing at the monster hordes that were about to reach me, killing them all with its machine guns.
Finally… the Army was able to enter hell and save me… Thank you, Imelda…
I smiled happily, and soon after that my vision blurred, and I once again lost consciousness.