The lead Greater Daemon's enormous claw, covered in heavy Gravis and burning with bloodflame, seized Doom's broken right arm, which hung limply at his side, with a complex mixture of disgust, awe, and fanaticism.
It pulled hard, intending to drag this shattered "trophy" away from the crater.
It did not budge.
The Greater Daemon froze for a moment, then let out a low growl and increased its strength.
The battered dark-green body seemed welded to the earth, showing no sign of movement.
Instinctively, it lowered its head and looked at the "scrap metal" in its claw.
Crack—crack crack—
A faint yet heart-chilling sound of breaking rose from Doom's cracked dark-green armor.
The sound was quiet, yet it struck the hearts of every Greater Daemon like a funeral bell.
Across Doom's chest and shoulders, where the cracks were deepest, the thick outer armor peeled away and shattered like weathered stone, revealing beneath it... an extremely thin, strange inner armor clinging tightly to his body and glimmering with a dark golden light.
The inner armor had smooth lines, like the skin of some living creature or a highly compressed fabric of energy. Denser, older dark-gold Destruction Runes flowed across it.
"Hm?" The Greater Daemon gripping Doom's arm gave a puzzled rumble.
Thinking the restraint had been broken, it pulled again with all its strength!
This time, it finally sensed that something was wrong.
An icy, bone-deep, terrifying presence, like facing the ultimate void of the universe, awakened from beneath its claw... from that seemingly dying body!
It jerked its head up, its scarlet demonic eyes meeting a pair of... eyes.
No longer the dim red glow left behind after his visor had shattered.
They were two blazing masses of pure scarlet bloodflame beneath the broken helmet's faceplate, like the cores of frozen