Dust upon the ground on the other side of the moat of lava is kicked up after the Marine lands his jump. A short time ago, the distance between the moat walls would have been too far to make. Ever since he awoke from stasis, something was causing him to grow stronger than the most well-trained Space Marines he ever met, he never dreamed he would come to possess such strength. He remembered that a UAC scientist had said something about genetic experimentation, he couldn't seem to remember her name anymore. He knew his memory was getting hazy, possibly caused by the very place he was trapped within. He steps to the castle wall and climbs the ancient crumbling vines and then to the other side. A large corridor supported by large stone pillars was before him, a cloud of mist hung in the air. Three different paths lead in different directions, through the center passage he could see a staircase leading up to the castle's tower. He follows the orb of light into the left-hand passage.
The black stone passage way was dark, flickers of light laps along the far end of the hall. A wave of Imps turn the corner and race toward him, the Marine takes them out with his shotgun and a grenade. He figures he had two left from what was left in Martinez's bag. He reaches the right-hand bend in the hall, another long narrow corridor laid ahead. The stone walls held long gaps which contained a strip of flames. Suddenly he sees a tall black demon turn the corner at the end of the hall. The shadowy creature catches the Marine off-guard, he hastily fires a rocket, which strikes against the far-wall. He had apparently hallucinated the sight. It was at this time that the weight of his current circumstance began to gnaw his sanity.
After travelling for so far and seeing so many gruesome things, he wondered if it will all be in vein. The fear of his own death causes his whole body to tremble. The orb of light sees the Marine paralyzed in fear and detects another evil spirit at play. The orb drifts to the ground and transforms into Daisy. The bunny hops over to him and places its front paws on his boot, looking up at the Marine. He looks down and his trembling eased upon seeing her cute face staring up at him. He reaches down and lifts her up, the evil spirit causing his fear is cast away as he holds Daisy and gently strokes her brown fur. The rabbit leaps from his arms and hops around, then moved to the passage ahead. The Marine regains his focus and follows Daisy into the shadowed chamber. The area was occupied by a horde of imp and pinky demon. Daisy moved to the side, hopping around the demons and leading him to the right path. He clears a path with a couple rounds from the RPG, he brushes past some angry blast-charred demon and followed Daisy to the next passage. She hopped down the hall and banks into a passage on the right, he follows and found more demon in his path, he could hear Daisy chirping to him from behind the Imp and lost souls. He blasts his way through and moved to the next path.
The passage held the bottom of a short set of stairs leading to a master study. A wooden high-backed chair was pulled up to an exquisitely carved wooden desk, behind were several rows of shelves filled with bound alien text. He walks into the study and approaches the desk, resting upon it was a couple well-aged books and a few long sheets of parchment covered in dust. Lying on a document was one of the crystals, it was green, slim and long. His eyes are drawn from the crystal by a nearby rustling and sees a shadowy phantom watching him from between the shelves. The Marine watches as the spirit took on the form of a man, the apparition became more detailed, he was wearing fine clothes weaved with the flourish of royalty. The spirit points to a shelf and a book moves from its place, dropping to the floor. The spirit fades from the Marine's sight, he walks over and picks up the book, places it on the table and begins thumbing the pages. The text was written in an alien language, but moving through the pages reveals detailed illustrations of the history of the castle's former inhabitants, the spirit placed contextual insights into his mind as he studied the pages. The pages reveal a tightly knit society that isolated itself from most of the Mortick world, they were the remnants of an ancient Mortick order that was not well understood among many of the planet's people. Among Mortick society, the castle of Krata stood as one of many reminders of the planet's violent history. Among the Mortick, it became known that the inhabitants of the castle were involved in a conspiracy to control the planet and enslave the populations. After hundreds of years of agonizingly slow preparation, the conspirators were exposed for their evil deeds. Many operatives were tracked down and killed by angry mobs, others abandoned their elevated positions, ashamed after learning the full truth of the conspiracy they were involved with.
The castle became more and more empty until only the few most fanatical conspirators remained. It was this group who, in an act of desperation to resurrect their crumbling order began to practice occult ceremonial rituals previously deemed too dangerous to attempt. They began to master the occult arts and after some years they became extremely powerful beings and, blinded by their arrogant confidence, attempted to summon and control evil forces known by legend to occupy a demonic parallel dimension. The practitioners were able to open a portal to the dimension and were able to withstand the influence of the domain's evil spirits. They repeatedly perform a summoning ritual and eventually make contact with a congregation of Dark Priests. They bargained with the priests, making known their dark intentions for the planet and its inhabitants. They plead for power and the means to control, the Dark Priests agree in exchange for a sizable cut of mortals to harvest. The Priests instructed them how to build a portal and insisted it be built to facilitate their cooperation and they foolishly did as they were instructed. After it was complete, the conspirators summoned the Dark Priests through it, this began a demonic infestation within the castle walls. The mortals within the castle walls were all killed and the demon moved onto harvest the rest of the planet.
The Marine places the book on the desk and takes the crystal, through his gloved hand he can feel a vibration coming from it, he sees a dim glow within. In that moment columns of portal energy emerged before the study's entryway, releasing a pair of Hell Knight. The shadowy demons were hulking. They had flat hooves and pointed curved horns. With eyes wide with demonic fury, the Hell Knights stomp toward the Marine, the pounding of their flat hooves on the stone floor echoes throughout the study.
The Marine's mind was gripped with panic, he quickly fires a rocket, it narrowly misses and hits the castle wall. A Knight leaps up and smashes the desk in two with its fist upon landing, scattering scrolls and alien-designed stationary. The Marine backed between the shelves of books, a demon pushes over a set of shelves, the other came to the passage and it was immediately struck by a rocket, the blast ripping through the bound pages around it. The demon was still standing, as the smoke cleared, the Marine could see a new level of rage in its eyes. It moved closer as the other Knight appeared from beyond a shelf to his left, he could hear their angered grunting between the narrow shelves.
He ducks behind a shelf as a blob of searing green plasma streaks past and burns a hole through some shelved text, the Marine reaches for his shotgun and readies the alternative firing mode. He steps to the edge of the bookcase, both Hell Knight were closing on him fast. He points the barrel of the shotgun at the closest blast-charred Knight just as it moved into the ideal range and fired, the alt-mode rapidly pumps the entire magazine into its face. A horned chunk of skull is blasted apart, exposing a large brain, possibly larger than a human's, red drops of blood run down his visor. It collapses to the ground, spilling red fluid from its mortal wound. The other Knight roars furiously as it stomped closer, the Marine fires a rocket but the demon steps out of the way and it strikes a bookshelf behind, a flutter of burning pages shoots from the explosion. The demon throws back a green blob of plasma from its clawed hand, the marine dodges and it strikes the castle wall.
The demon jumps over the fallen bookcases and loudly lands in front of the Marine. The Marine had already reloaded and fired shell after shell. The demon brushed off the attack, stomped closer and swiped with its large claws. He moves to get some distance and finds that several Imp had teleported into the area, one moved in on him and he reversed the momentum, sending it flying against a partially fallen bookcase. He sees the Hell Knight approaching from his left and moves out of its path to take out a few more of the Imp around him.
The Hell Knight emerges from behind the shelves and throws another blob of plasma, he narrowly ducks underneath as it passed and burns a hole through an ancient woven tapestry against the wall. The Knight is drawn into the open as the Marine dealt with the Imps, all the while keeping an eye on the demon from the corner of his vision. The Marine's instincts told him that he had the Hell Knight right where he was the most vulnerable. He swings toward it, RPG in hand and fired one rocket at a time as the demon screamed. The final rocket blows off one of its legs and it falls, bleeding out on the floor. The ancient master study was in ruins, countless untold occult ancient history and knowledge lost in a moment of violence. He sees daisy waiting for him at the passage, he steps around the toppled shelves and they move back into the halls.