PROJECT VATROX

**VATROX-999** is PROJECT's violent, competitive demonic soldier. He is known for his competitive nature, and he strives for maximum efficiency and as many kills as possible. As a result, he never hides his intentions, never lies to himself or others about them, and he isn't just fighting to finally have a purpose as a demon in the future world of mortals, to deal with the sorrow of his past, for some false ideal he realised was wrong, or to realise his aspirations of freedom, peace, or whatever.

He is fighting because he is *damn* good at it, loved it, and strives to be the best, for the devil, and the megacorporation.

## Biography

### Background

**Varus Tel'Yuja** was born in the Severusan mountains of Hell. Varus has shown immense admiration and lifelong respect to the king of hell himself as a result of meeting him in one of the locations where Lucifer is known to spend his spare time sightseeing. He was enslaved as a child as a result of an invasion in Hell. Due to this, he spent his entire life as a slave honing his skills to become an archer. His sadism was later enhanced by giving the chance to torment and mutilate the unfortunate slaves of Hell itself.

He is widely known as "The Devil's Archer," "Arrow of Loathsomeness," and "Archer of Torment" by the slaves of the underworld. Some say he was once a man, which is correct; until he journeyed into hell to become an unforgiving warrior of the devil, after making a bargain with him to escape his existence as a mortal with duties, displaying a misanthropic attitude. If Hell wages war against the physical world someday, he'll answer the call of Lucifer to bring eternal damnation to the world of mortals.

### The Devil's Archer

Varus, one of the ancient demonic archers, was a lethal killer who enjoyed tormenting his opponents, driving them insane before delivering the killing arrow. He was imprisoned at the end of the *First Demon War*, but escaped centuries later in remade flesh as a result of a Valenthian warrior Brienne accidentally releasing him, cursed to fight him with a bow containing his bound essence. Varus now seeks out those who trapped him in order to exact his heinous vengeance, but the mortal souls within continue to resist him at every turn.

A few hundred years later, in the twenty-first century, Varus learns of Lucifer's death via Nicholas Wolfgang Bale. As a result, he has vowed to avenge him, but he has been imprisoned in the *Void of Souls* by the Fourth Reaper himself. As a result, he spent his time in the void, bored and with left with nothing to do. He was only released because Brienne had previously fought him and he was compelled to release her again. Varus is struggling to adjust to his release, but he sees Brienne as a worthy rival and resolves to kill her once and for all, if the opportunity ever arises.

### A New Master

The Darklord found him and his true colours before PROJECT was established. As a result, he decides to make him his warrior, but Varus shrugs, pointing the fact that he only serves the Devil and quickly opposes him by shooting him with hellfire arrows, causing him to take minimal damage before destroying the arrows with his heat vision. As a result, he grudgingly accepted his offer to be the Darklord's warrior. He regards him as being indifferent to Lucifer, due to sharing tyrannical traits and a genocidal agenda.

Following the demise of the Darklord in 2915, Vatrox learned of a mortal named Muldoon Lundgren acquiring possession of the newly formed PROJECT. He was enraged by the finding, seeing that a god from Colossus Prime was more deserving of owning a corporation to govern the globe than a mortal corrupted by greed. He even threatened to assassinate Lundgren, but he was thwarted by his "security detail", most notably PROJECT SHADOW.

### PROJECT-G/NEX War

VATROX, being one of the PROJECT corporation's finest non-cyborg soldiers, serves the megacorporation without hesitation or weakness, and will not stop until the corporation's enemies are destroyed. As a result, he rapidly developed a rivalry with BRIENNE-218, with the two outperforming each other on occasion, wanting to end each other's life in the cruellest way possible. However, he had some form of Cybernetics later on.

#### A Proven Soldier

VATROX-999, now known as PROJECT VATROX, has proven his talents as a soldier, performing as an exceptional archer and establishing his worth and skills on numerous battlefields. Such as the Battle of Aqtazen, Hauser's Skirmish, Surge of Meyzona, Storm of JImandy, and, most significantly, the Purge of Obsidian Mountains. However, he is not legible to join the Command Line; Due to his competitive nature that unsettles fellow soldiers, but he was heavily rewarded for discovering the betrayal of his nemesis, BRIENNE-218. However, LILIAN-395 was impressed of him, and sometimes including him as her partner in missions. The latter also allowed him to fight the Rebel Knight if he had the chance.

#### Rampancy: The Scouting

VATROX has demonstrated his dedication to the megacorporation, as expected. He observed dozens of people assisting the resistance and, much to his sadistic delight, murdered them on the corporation's orders. However, he was quickly made aware of an ongoing situation involving two of the megacorporation's strongest mechas, namely OBELISK and TAGGART. As a result, he was tasked with intervening in any way that was feasible and effective at the time. PROJECT SHADOW was able to interfere first, much to his disgust, because he is one of the best operators in the entire megacorporation.

As a result, he wasn't able to perform his duties; SHADOW already took it the moment he saw the two titans. He quickly fled and decided to await further orders. While awaiting further orders, he is known to spook soldiers of the megacorporation by creeping in the hallways of any known headquarters or telling about his life experience in the fiery dimension of Hell itself.

#### The COALESCENCE: Valenthian Surprise

Prior to the grand heist, VATROX was deployed to Valenthia in an attempt to obtain the nation's magical power, seeing it as a method to strengthen their already formidable technology. He accepted the mission with the intention of using its power against the opposition, dreaming of himself tormenting BRIENNE-218 by slowly disintegrating her heavy duty armour and removing her natural flesh from within. Soon after, his party apprehended FIONA-384, and he ordered them to keep still after abusing her, and he was overjoyed to learn that his rival was nearby. It didn't take long for him to find her and as a result, the two were hit by flashbacks of their past rivalry, allowing them to start a fight within moments. VATROX was simply outmatched after BRIENNE-218 got ahold of him up close on their fight, not to mention his regular arrows are useless against her armour.

To capitalise, VATROX unleashes his **ARROW OF LUCIFER**, which mildly injured the latter by hitting her in the midsection and the thigh, but ended up being unsuccessful as she used her shield to block off the powerful arrows fired at her. When the latter gets close, he makes an effort to dodge her sword strikes, only to get kicked and punched in the chest, allowing for BRIENNE-218 to plant her shield to the ground, knocking him out in the air, but he counters by shooting endless arrows to win the fight. As a result, His group and the patrol assigned to accompany him has started to attack FIONA-384. BRIENNE-218 quickly saved her life, much to VATROX's chagrin. The failure of the mission was humiliating, as Muldoon Lundgren has long envisioned to combine his megacorporation's technology into the magic of Valenthia, seeing it as the ultimate combination, and the way to defeat all their foes. Perhaps this is overkill, but he desired it that way.

#### Going All Out: The Cybernetic Demon Pursuer

In Going All Out, VATROX was quickly informed about an incident at the megacorporation's top-secret ATLAS facility. As a result, he has witnessed the competent INTERCEPTOR-409 reporting back to him, as he was the sole survivor of the so-called "zombie outbreak," which the elite sniper says that it is due to the result of a virus rampaging the institution after the infected escaped their confinement. He quickly comprehends his report and returns him to the SUPREME headquarters for exfiltration. He quickly wasted no time to kill the G/NEX rebels after quickly discovering that they were in the area for a Liberation operation.

Recognising that it is only a three-man team, he attacks them from mountaintops and higher elevations. Much to his disappointment, BRIENNE-218 was able to pinpoint his locations. He shot an infinite volley of arrows to exacerbate their coming demise, and he intended to employ the zombies to kill them, as he had planned a tactical scenario for that strategy. However, his perch is compromised after BRIENNE-218 launched her *JUDGEMENT* ultimate ability on him, effectively crashing him to the ground, heavily damaged. Upon gaining consciousness, he quickly sees a zombie horde slowly approaching the rebels' position. Taking advantage of the horde, he directed the mass of zombies to the team, while he observes from the tree tops, knowing that he may get mauled to death by the infected if he makes a wrong move. After the horde has successfully surrounded the team and are doing their best efforts to survive, he delivers a message to their respective HUD in order to distract them.

BRIENNE-218 immediately deploys a grenade, which is a tracking explosive from PSYLOCKE-832. She carefully utilises her shield to put the explosive in front of him before hurling it at him. VATROX avoids the shield and shoots it with his arrows, but the explosive hovers towards his location and lands right in his face, wounding him. She used her ultimate ability once more to disperse the endless crowd of zombies around them and rapidly beheads him, although he is still aware and conscious by sending them a final message. SCYLLA-028 shrugs, but saves the file for later use BRIENNE-218 reminds him of their past rivalry, his evil nature, and his lifelong affiliation to the Devil. She is also curious to why would he serve in the megacorporation rather than maintain his loyalty to Lucifer, the devil himself. VATROX delivered his last line: "*Hell in all forms*."

### Death

As VATROX's final message is delivered, SCYLLA-028 rips his cybernetic armour apart and she tosses him at the zombies, knowing that he isn't totally robotic and that his demonic flesh can poison the zombies to death. He gets consumed by the zombies after the infected consume his skin exposed by the damaged armour plates, shortly then the deadly chemicals on the torn flesh quickly react on the infected, which disabled them for a long moment, before they all glow in extreme heat and poison, effectively killing him, all while causing the zombie horde to explode through a massive chain reaction, which perfectly covered up the incident by PROJECT, as the burned mass of corpses will prevent any discovery of a zombie outbreak in the planet.

PROJECT search groups are unable to find his body, but INTERCEPTOR-409 discovered a few shreds of ripped flesh, his bow, which was still functional alongside his arrows; they retained his bow as a memento, and the megacorporation appears to have plans for his own successor. VATROX's terror and unending suffering of mortals have come to an end. Furthermore, it appears that they are attempting to construct a hybrid cyborg-demon warrior as his successor, as INTERCEPTOR-409 was still able to harvest his DNA from the rotten flesh he discovered with the salvage crew.

*His death earned another loss for the megacorporation.*

## Personality

> "Should I be reminding you that you are talking to a demon?!"
>
> - VARTOX defying authority

Varus, now known as VATROX, is known for his unwavering devotion to the devil and the higher demons or people who control him. As a result, he is tenacious, abrasive, selfish, and defiant. Varus is known for defying authority in all forms, and his temper is practically non-existent, with only a few instances where he shows a calmer side. He is also extremely competitive, to the point where he treats a war or battle as if it were a video game, constantly keeping track of his objectives, kills, precision, and performance. Most PROJECT allies are unamused, but PROJECT GRANDIOSE admires his competitive spirit.

He is a bloodthirsty, aggressive, harsh, and terrible individual who is always on the lookout for warfare and bloodshed, even openly calling himself a warmonger, as is typical of a demonic warrior. He frequently produces explicit threats and believes in conflict, always stressing all of the benefits it offers. He doesn't think much of nevanity, claiming that they are all fundamentally violent and nasty, and that age has instilled morals and a sense of good and wrong in them. VATROX believes that conflict is a natural part of nevankind and mockingly asked BRIENNE-218 whether she believed that every single war was part of a conspiracy. VATROX is proven to be extremely sadistic, as evidenced by his delight in killing mortals.

Even in his last moments, VATROX is defiant to everything, seemingly unafraid of the dangers posed at him when a zombified horde is devouring him. He even has the audacity to laugh until his life has ended in a massive explosion that finally ends him for good.

## Abilities

### Technological Capabilities

* **DIGITAL VENGEANCE**: Every successful hit on an enemy grants him temporarily increased attack speed and reaction time. Not to mention reflexes.

* **ARROW OF LUCIFER**: He fires an arrow of true hellfire, capable of penetrating 5 inches of titanium alloy plate in a full-charged shot. This can also penetrate rear tank armour.

* **DEMONIC QUIVER**: Built to parody ASHE-159's *PENTA VOLLEY*, this grants him the ability to fire volleys of arrows powered by hellfire itself. Best used for team fights and close range combat.

* **LUCIFER's Volley**: He fires a massive volley up in the sky with the intend of causing area-of-effect damage, which struck their targets below and desecrating the ground as a result. It has been said that those struck by these loathsome arrows suffer extreme haemorrhage.

* **Adrenaline Mk. 5**: As a Demon, his adrenaline is now artificially enhanced.

### Skills

* **Master Combatant**: Varus, aka VATROX has also been thoroughly trained by Lucifer and later the megacorporation in tactics, war and hand-to-hand combat. He excels in the use of ranged weapons, particularly his own bow and arrow and carries a quiver containing an endless supply of devilish arrows. However, he shows great proficiency with the katana and other melee weapons as well.

* **Master Archer**: Varus is the best archer of the entire Hell, or even Nexonia Prime. His skills are pretty much comparable to Ashe herself.

* **Master Tactician**: He is well versed in most types of tactics and strategies.

## Trivia

### General

* His rivalry with Brienne has rooted back since ancient Valenthia. He is impressed by her, stating that "She is one of a kind"; Which presumably refers to her size and strength alongside her shield and sword.
* ASHE-159 considers VATROX as a worthy opponent due to his comparable archery skill to her own. This fight actually happened at some point in Going All Out, but no records were saved to consider the fight a legitimate occurrence.
* He has a nasty, unrivalled sense of humour since he is a demon. He is always able to make even the most mundane situations entertaining and humorous. His foul pranks, superb comic timing, and merciless jokes never fail to make people laugh.
* His boots are ZERO/G, allowing to walk on walls without falling.
* He has faced Ashe back in the past, during the First and Second Demon War.
* Him and GRANDIOSE are said to be partners in crime.
* Known to be verbally abused by Astaroth.