#the soul imprisonment of minos prime

[onlineviolence]

I can’t write

[horror-beeings-artandwriting]

BESTIE!!!!!

DROP MINOS PRIME X TRANSMASC READER(or just masc if that's easier lol) HCS THAT YOU HAVE, AND MY LIFE IS YOURS /nf /ref (Reader can be whatever species you need it to be, I just want FOOD-/silly)

Oh, hell yeah, of course!

Prompt: Minos x human spirit reader hcs

Character: Minos Prine

Pronouns: He/Him reader

Minos is equal parts mad and happy that you’re in the lust layer with him, you were just trying to love, but then again, at least he gets to have you with him. He’s sweet loving and kind. You’re his one and only. He will make this place a paradise for you… He loves keeping you in his arms, kissing and loving on you constantly. You were his consort, his love, his husband. He loved taking you out on walks around the layer of lust, he was proud of his empire he built. When Gabriel came down, you were one of the main reasons he didn’t fight, he didn’t want blood on his hands when he came home to you. But…Gabriel didn’t listen. And Minos was killed…his soul however was not, his will, his need to protect his kingdom, to see you again, started to form him into a prime soul. Gabriel imprisoned him before he could form his physical body, but his mind was fully formed… Minos often dreams of you in his prison, hoping no, PRAYING, you survived…he misses your laugh, your smile, your smell, how soft you were… He wishes to hold you again to see you again to not be trapped in his own decaying corpse, but he cannot do anything and it hurts him so knowing he’s destroying everything, he built everything she left everything you loved… When the machine finds him, he thinks he has a chance to get out, to find you again, but…he was defeated. When he woke after his soul was shattered… He saw your face, maybe loosing that battle…was the best thing he had ever done.

Hope you enjoyed! Kinda angsty but eh.

[cherubchoirs]

so if v1 never attacked the prime sanctums... how would F! Gabriel approach Minos and Sisyphus? Would he feel any regret for his actions and try to make up for them? Possibly more folks for this newfound family????

(see this!)

i think gabriel would CONSTANTLY have the sanctums in the back of his mind, stuck on what he should do about them because he sees no good outcome and yet to leave them as they are would the pinnacle of cruel cowardice. his words cannot restore their lives, their people's lives, nor do anything for all the machines have killed with his failure to stop them, but to not say anything, to let them remain imprisoned, is far worse. he wants to find the best apology he can offer before releasing them, yet it's complicated by the fact that he could be killed if they're unwilling to listen...and he wouldn't blame them for it. but his hand is forced either way really - with v1's curious nature, he's on a time limit knowing it will discover them sooner or later (and he believes v1 is also in great danger of dying that way)

all that is rendered moot though as sisyphus destroys his own prison and of course follows up with the same for minos, which is a worst case scenario for gabriel who is genuinely still far too accustomed to things happening on his timetable lol and minos is quite literally hellbent on finding gabriel, no longer the fair philosopher king that had been executed so long ago - his torture inside the flesh prison has twisted him nearly beyond recognition, yet sisyphus sees no other recourse for them. his grudges had never been so personal and gabriel was a cog in the machine to him, yet all that is left of him wants nothing more than to struggle until he is killed again. they are both ghosts, caught in the emotions of their deaths, and that is the trade-off of being a prime soul - no longer fully realized, they are just what they were when they died and so contain only echoes of who they once were. minos, defined by his grief and his betrayal, sisyphus by meaningless war he knows will end in tragedy. and so all that is left for them is to survey the ruins of their fallen kingdoms and confront gabriel - the latter far more important to minos, but sisyphus accepts it despite gabriel no longer being an agent of heaven. it's still pretty worth it to take out at least one archangel regardless of his current status

so when they meet each other once more, gabriel's not only caught off-guard but he's also woefully ill-prepared for a minos that is just as unwilling to listen as he once was. after the initial shock, gabriel's heart breaks to see what he did to a man he had only ever known to be gentle and wise, his spirit now consumed by a violence so antithetical to his true nature. he did this, he knows. this is what he has sown, not just in minos but in so many before him too, yet now gabriel is unwilling to fight to the death...at least, not to minos's. he will not plead forgiveness, but he will confess his wrongs, he will denounce god's will in all of this, he will condemn his weakness for betraying minos. see him now, a demon of treachery fully revealed as minos always knew him to be - because gabriel acted against his own morals, he acted against a friend he cared for...against all the people in hell he loved. he was weak, he was spineless, and they all paid for his conscious betrayal. he can change nothing now, yet he can....leave what is left. there are still husks, still human souls trapped here in a hell worse than they have ever felt. and they need someone. they still need a king.

and i think this is the only thing that could stop minos. to know there are still "living" husks, and for gabriel to make a treaty with him. that he and v1 will leave any husks left, slaying both demons and machines that threaten them, so they may go to minos to live under his care. orphans. it's uh. not the easiest sell to v1, yet its protests must also contend with the fact that it and gabriel were struggling terribly in their fight against minos and sisyphus. but importantly too, v1 recognizes on some level this is deeply painful for gabriel, that this is someone he wants to do anything he can to reach and if no comfort is found, something in him is never going to heal. so. while i don't see minos as being particularly on good terms with gabriel, i do like the idea that they come to an agreement that sees gabe protecting the remaining husks so they can find safety with minos. it will never be as lust once was, but they could have a little community fully under the protection of a prime soul who can (and WILL) easily crush the stray angel/demon/machine that tries to interfere. a haven for those left. this puts his spirit to rest so to speak, and he accepts gabriel's terms as providing the humans left with happiness is his primary concern beneath his revenge. this is far more important, and it revives something in minos that he thought he lost in all the years trapped in the flesh prison.

sisyphus, however, doesn't hold the same values, yet his fight is not necessarily with gabriel at this point since he's now fallen. he wishes to, at the very least, rid the angelic presence in hell, and i absolutely love his biggest target being michael when he shows back up. of course sisyphus is fighting until his death to collapse what he can of heaven's structure, but michael is the archangel that binds hell as well as the one now most concerned with returning god's order in hell, so if sisyphus can kill one guy at the top, it's him. this proves far more complicated for gabriel, because sisyphus is honestly right in his stance yet gabe is personally connected to the very people he wants dead - both his virtues and the other archangels as his family. i haven't fully worked out how i want this to end, but i do know this is one of the biggest nightmares for gabriel being so stuck in the middle, especially as he is meant to help protect the people minos is now watching over...and michael would see them all bound back to their "proper" places.

[lunarmoontea]

ULTRAKILL AU IDEA: Shared Prison AU

An AU in which Gabriel listens to Minos and is convinced by him, however in trying to speak with the council, Gabriel is labeled a heretic and subsequently is imprisoned alongside Minos in a flesh prison that has been made to be a million times stronger than it's canon counterpart (To, you know, be able to contain both a prime soul and one extremely pissed off fallen angel)

Haven't ironed out all the details yet, but the council has another angel in place of Gabriel that is a far crueler and impotent judge, seeing the sinners they look after as beneath them (And yes, sadly, that means the ferryman's beloved idols are deemed as heresy and are destroyed)

[yakiattaki]

totally not insane or anything and reading into the like. level design of P-1 SOUL SURVIVOR and P-2 WAIT OF THE WORLD and how P-1 reflects Minos' loneliness and sadness at what happened and how he let his guard down around Gabriel and how even the music reflects this, a distorted classical track as you go down the spinal staircase which explodes into Chaos as you begin to fight the flesh prison, something that is simply lashing out at stimulus rather than actually fighting you and so its attacks are completely random and thoughtless which dies down into Order as you free Minos Prime where his rage and aggression (both at the machines and at himself) becomes focussed and highly directed towards removing you as an obstacle.

P-2 fits Sisyphus' eternal rage at his punishment and eternal imprisonment. its a gauntlet of some of the toughest enemies in the entire game non-stop until you get to him, the entire level has a very very different feeling from P-1 where it was just Flesh Prison and Minos Prime, now there's what, 60 enemies including the Flesh Panopticon and Sisyphus Prime and it just keeps ramping up until he breaks out of his prison to fight you and restart his insurrection. it almost feels like he knew he'd become stronger by becoming a Prime Soul and it was part of his plan, he isn't even mad that you bested him once and for all.

[crowleycringe]

Heya, is it okay if I ask about Arachne and Cain Prime’s lore?

Oh my gosh absolutely

(My writing got deleted while answering this helo)

I'm gonna start with Caine because he’s slightly less complex I guess?

His story starts like in the original in the bible

Since god favored Abel more than Caine this lead his jealousy to grow and grow and eventually killed his brother by striking a stone to his head

When confronted about the murder (and lying) he is punished by wandering the world in solitude for eternity, which would him to the gates of hell. He explores and suffers through the process of going through it leading to his apathetic nature before he comes across King Minos and his city of lust which was in construction

He sympathized with the boy and took him in as his own making him a resident of the city of lust, but unfortunately, this time of peace would be disturbed with Gabriel’s appearance.

As He witnessed the death of Minos he was distraught By the loss of the only admirable figure in his life which then led him to once again wander the layers of hell until he got to the greed layer where he met Sisyphus and Arachne. The three team up and Cain swears vengeance for Minos

Of course, in the end, they lose and Caines is pierced through the heart (which is why he doesn’t have a heart in his design like the others do) Soul is imprisoned like Minos.

And now for Arachne

Her story is also basically like the original but a bit in my version

Like in the original story; she’s a talented weaver who promptly earned praise from others

She believes that skill is earned by hard work and there's no such thing as being blessed to have been born with skills which paints her as an arrogant figure, of course, Gabriel hears of this and punishes her by sending her to the layer of greed.

She meets Sisyphus and the two sort of get along (frenemies) she agrees to help Sisyphus in his war against heaven.

But of course, the efforts come in Vain, and she dies at the hands of Gabriel, and her soul is too imprisoned like the rest

This turned out longer than I thought but thank you for asking about these two you have no idea how happy this makes me tehehehehe

[josieblueart]

Okay, so I know this is like, extremely unlikely but hear me out because I had this idea and it won’t leave.

Odysseus as the boss for P-3.

Let me cook please. It keeps with the theming of the prime souls being Greek mythology characters, his ass definitely has the willpower (at least from what I know of the myth), and he also appears in Dante’s Inferno like Minos, specifically in the layer of Fraud.

Maybe he goes with the progression that’s kind of been seen with the other two, like the imprisonment method advancing, or how Sisyphus’ form was already developed when we fight him. He wants to go home so badly that he no longer requires a husk, and the council had to put him in time out a very complicated prison. We don’t even break him out, we gotta fight him INSIDE the thing.

Honestly, it’s more likely that he’d be the boss for Fraud instead, but a girl can dream.

[pitty-aegis-parlor]

TYPE: Prime SOUL

DATA: Minos Prime

A Prime soul is an incredibly rare occurrence in which a soul amasses so much power that it no longer requires a Husk as a vessel to manifest physically.

As manifestations of pure will, Prime souls are incredibly powerful, to the point that even the prideful angels see them as a threat and will use any means necessary to stop them from forming.

King Minos felt that eternal suffering was an unfair and unreasonable punishment for those whose only sin was loving another. After the Disappearance of God, as angels were lost and Heaven was in chaos, Minos began his efforts to reform the Lust layer.

The Lust renaissance was prosperous, as King Minos guided its inhabitants to come together and build a new civilization. The combined efforts of the countless who had been damned to the second layer bore great results as the grand city of Lust grew and grew.

However, after the Council took control of Heaven and brought stability to it through their iron fist rule, they saw that Minos had gone against God's will by freeing sinners from the punishment that God had designed for them.

Gabriel, the brightest of the angels, was sent to kill Minos. The king, rather than fight back, tried to reason with him, but Gabriel mercilessly struck him down without listening.

As Minos' will was strong enough to attempt to stand up to Heaven's rule, the angels chose to imprison his soul in an attempt to stop it from forming into a Prime soul and appointed Gabriel as the new Judge of Hell.

From the prison inside his own body, Minos helplessly watched as his soulless corpse, now controlled by parasites, tore apart everything he had worked so hard to build, cursing his own weakness for failing to protect his people, vowing to take revenge...

Poor Minos… a great man in unfortunate circumstances…

You think it’s possible for me to become this “Prime Soul” thingy?

[jrob498]

No character limit so I can explain the ULTRAKILL story (so far)

God makes humans

Humans go to war

God (a.k.a the father) realizes he made a mistake and fucks off for the foreseeable future

Humans make war machines, one of which being v1 (he is not special), the machines are fueled by blood (very plot important)

War machines take out most of humanity but the war eventually ends

(Going into theory territory) the machines run out of fresh blood and start killing more humans until all of the humans (and life in general) are dead

The machines find an entrance to hell and all go in there in a desperate attempt to get more blood from its dwellers

v1 (our favorite plot device) goes through the layers of hell killing everything in sight

In the limbo layer, he encounters v2, a machine similar to him but not made for war (likely private defense). When he beats v2, v2 fucks off and will be back later

In the lust layer, he encounters the corpse of king minos (will be important later), a massive husk, and promptly kills him

In the gluttony layer, he encounters gabriel, judge of hell, who will get his own tangent

Gabriel was appointed by the council of angels, a hierarchy made in heaven to reduce anarchy when god fucked off and left, as a judge of hell (someone who goes through hell and kills out of line residents/invaders). Gabriel is fueled by the father’s light, which was given to him by the council.

(In case you couldn’t tell, gabriel is the main character)

After encountering v1 in hell after killing (in the developers words) “a fucktillion other machines”, v1 destroys him in a fight, as v1 is the perfect machine and is perfectly efficient as he can possibly be.

Humiliated by his defeat, gabriel returns to the council of angels, who, blaming gabriel for his defeat, strip him of the fathers light and expels him from the council. While he doesn’t die instantly as the embers from the father’s light are still in him, he will die soon.

Yknow the king minos guy that I said would be important later? Yeah we’re talking about him now.

When king minos died in his life, his husk was massive due to his popularity in his life (something that we do not have time to unpack), and that gave him the ability to take the position of leader in the lust layer, and his good and just ruling led the layer into a renaissance.

The council of angels didn’t like it, because it wasn’t torturous enough to the souls of the damned, so they send gabriel to kill king minos (who destroyed him because he’s a supreme angel)(we’re not getting into the hierarchy)

However, king minos’ soul was so fucking powerful that the council of angels had to imprison it in a flesh prison, otherwise he would kill gabriel and every angel in heaven.

In the level before you fight gabriel, there’s an entrance to a secret level, that leads you to a level called a prime sanctum, which holds the flesh prison that holds the soul of king minos.

After killing the flesh prison, you free the soul of king minos, which is so powerful it is known as a prime soul, giving him the name of “Minos Prime”.

Minos prime thanks you for freeing him and swears his vengeance of Gabriel, but he’s pissed at you for killing like all the residents of the lust layer, and in his words, “thy punishment is death.”

The ensuing fight is hard, but fun, and after beating minos prime, v1 watches as minos dies, his final words being “forgive me my children, for I have failed to bring you salvation from this cold, dark, world…” and then it’s over.

It doesn’t matter if the fight is canon or not, because if you don’t do it in game, minos is trapped in the prison forever. And if you do, minos is dead, so it’s pretty meaningless.

(Back to our regularly scheduled v1)

v1, after beating gabriel travels to the greed layer, fighting through a burning desert and killing what is called a “Sisyphean Insurrectionist”. THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT LATER.

At the end of the greed layer, he goes into the pyramid in the background in all the levels, and at its tip, sees v2. V2 is back to beat v1, and has better weapons in order to make the fight harder. After the first phase of the fight is finished, v2 runs away, jumping down the pyramid, and v1 chases after him in a mad dash down the pyramid.

In the second phase you’re perpetually sliding, and it’s little more than an elongated cutscene, and after doing enough damage, v2 gets flung of the pyramid, lands on the ground, and gets fucking liquidated. **he will not come back.**

If you look in the right spots in greed, you’ll learn about a husk named sisyphus. We will get back to sisyphus.

v1 then ventures through the wrath layer, which is depicted as an ocean. You see, there is only 1 ferryman of the dead in hell alive at a time, and because of that, it was impossible to ferry everyone to their respective layer after the influx of deaths in the mass extinction of all life on earth (thanks robots)

The unferried souls are now trapped in the ocean styx, as the influx of souls made the river essentially turn into an ocean of souls; all of them in a perpetual state of drowning, as it is hell, yknow, eternal torture.

Venturing through the ocean styx, v1 encounters the ferryman of the damned, a husk that was saved from death by gabriel, and has essentially devoted its life to both ferrying the dead, and worshipping gabriel like a god, going so far as to tear off their own skin in order to look less like a husk and more like an angel, leading them to wear a hood over their face.

v1 kills the ferryman.

After going through the ferry itself, v1 fights what’s known as the Leviathan, a mass of souls clinging onto each other in what is almost a hive mind formed into a giant eel looking thing, which I find really cool.

v1 kills the leviathan.

v1 then goes through the treachery layer, and encounters gabriel yet again.

Gabriel is enraged at v1, humiliated by his prior defeat, and fueled by a longing for ultimate vengeance. He is no longer doing a job, and he is no longer the judge of hell. He is the Apostate of Hate, and he aims to kill.

v1 beats gabriel.

Gabriel is no longer angry at v1. He looks inside, realizing he’s “only experienced the taste of victory”. He leaves you, giving himself time to think.

You see, in the second fight against gabriel, he begins the fight enraged, his attacks sloppy and emotionally charged himself, but halfway through the fight, he begins enjoying the thrill of fighting, taunting v1, and becoming more methodical and effective in his attacks.

After being beaten by v1, he once again returns to the council, but not for the same reason as before.

Gabriel, realizing that the father is gone, and the council of angels is not gods voice, but simply blasphemous, kills every. Single. Member.

He publicly decapitates its leader, and frees heaven from the tyranny of the council. He will return in act 3, which is not yet released. It’s debated in the community whether he will fight against or alongside v1, but it is pretty universally recognized that he will die, as the embers of the father’s light are running low in him.

While that is the end of the main story so far, there’s one more topic we need to discuss.

Remember the Sisyphean insurrectionists? Sisyphus? The guy that I said would be important? Yeah we’re talking about him now

Sisyphus, in his normal life, was incredibly popular, so popular that minos prime looks like filth. You can see his corpse in the greed layer, and it is **big**.

Sisyphus didn’t like hell (but who does), and using his power, recruits and leads an army to heaven, attempting an *insurrection* (get it now?)

Sisyphus and his army lost, and sisyphus was killed. However, sisyphus’ soul was hilariously powerful, so they had to lock him into a much more powerful and secure flesh prison, known as the flesh panopticon.

In the level where you fight gabriel a second time, there’s another secret entrance to a prime sanctum, this time formed as a traditional level. The first prime sanctum was simply a pathway to the flesh prison, but this one has real defenses. And this level is **hard**. If you thought the first prime sanctum was hard you are going to get bent over and railed by this level. I cannot stress enough that this is the most difficult level in the entire game so far, and likely will be the most difficult “traditional” level in the game, even when it’s finished, according to Hakita, the creator of the game, which means that the third prime sanctum will likely be similar to the first one.

Anyways, after powering through the hellscape of the second prime sanctum, you finally find the flesh panopticon.

Even after only slightly weakening the panopticon, the game accentuates the pure fucking strength of this man’s soul by making him BREAK OPEN THE FLESH PRISON WITH HIS OWN. ARMS. AFTER IT GETTING BARELY DAMAGED.

Sisyphus’ soul is freed from the flesh panopticon, and is ready to fight and destroy the council of angels, and decides you will be a good warmup, beginning the fight with Sisyphus Prime.

This fight is hard. Really hard. Minos prime was a fun challenge, and this fight and level on violent difficulty is the hardest thing I have ever attempted in a shooter game. Minos prime hits hard, and sisyphus flattens you with one punch. If you are playing on a hard difficulty and make a misplay, you lose a hilarious amount of hp.

v1 beats sisyphus prime.

Sisyphus prime dies in a similar way as minos prime, his last words being “And so ends the life and times of king sisyphus. A fitting end to an existence defined by futile struggle, doomed from the very start. And I don’t regret a second of it!” He then, in his final moments, laughs, satisfied about his life, and satisfied about the end of it.

Holy shit I finished it. I’ve been writing this for like an hour and a half, god I hope people read this, I’m gonna flood this shit with tags.

Subject your Followers to your favorite Stupid Bullshit.

[onlineviolence]

extended talking about gamaliels relationship to the council from explaining it on twt

it starts near with God's disappearance . Before that happens He makes the decision to make them his "heir" (as they were formerly his apprentice/advisor) and grants them a weakened version of the power he used to create Hell - how exactly he did so they don't remember, but it left permanent physical scars

And then he disappears and they try to appeal to the newly-formed Council, who doesn't believe their claim to power at all and blackmails them into silence with their knowledge of exactly what happened to God

before they know it they're under the councils command and control. their power is extremely frightening to the council, so they're cuffed and chained and constantly under surveillance - but it also could be of use.

theyre hidden away from the rest of heaven and basically never see a face that isn't from the council, but sometimes gabriel as the council favors him but they never have enough time together to have any real chance at conversation

so they are almost completely unknown to non-council angels and angels close to the council. majority of heaven knows the council probably don't make those prisons themselves, but don't know that there's an individual with a name who's forced to make them either

so. sufficient to say gamaliel despises the council but for millenia they were the only company they had.

they first learned of the Council's true feelings towards them firsthand when they're told to craft a "crown" of ram horns that would drive into the eyes of the wearer, blinding them. They're told it's for a heretic who's far too powerful for their own good who and needs to be restrained before they destroy everything around them.

they don't know the Council's referring to them, not until theyre finished and then told to put the horns on themself.

the council rarely ever refers to them by name, among themselves or on the rare occasion gabriel is there. theyre referred to by the mock title of "apollyon" because (images)

also gab

theyre an enigma to those outside the council and who arent gabriel (theyve had contact through when the Council spoke to gabriel and during the imprisonments of the prime souls except for maybe sisyphus' where he may or may not have been present still deciding

like their first Exchange Of Speech was likely next to Minos's giant corpse and the newly made flesh prison while being closely watched by a councilor )

[cyanocoraxx]

MINOS PRIME.

king minos felt that eternal suffering was unfair for those whose only sin was loving another, thus began his efforts to reform the lust layer of hell. the renaissance was prosperous, as king minos guided the inhabitants to build a new civilization, forming a grand city and community. however, after the council took control of heaven, they saw that king minos had gone against god’s will by freeing sinners from punishment. gabriel, the brightest of the angels, was sent to kill king minos, but minos was too strong - the angels instead imprisoned his soul in a prison of flesh to stop it forming into a prime soul. minos then helplessly watched as his soulless corpse tore apart everything he had worked so hard to build, cursing his own weakness for failing to protect his own people, and vowing to take revenge on gabriel.

[soulsurvived]

PERMANENT PLOTTER

[ aka “so, you want to talk to an old man with a hole for a face and snakes on his arms” ]

(Artwork by @francishsie)

If you’re interesting in building a potentially long-term bond with the former king of the second layer of Hell, then feel free to like this post to let me know! PMs are always welcome if you want to talk ideas. 

Despite the baggage that comes from being associated with a place of torment, Minos himself is actually very amicable and friendly, being a pacifist in nature. However, he’s learned from previous mistakes and is not afraid to take up arms if necessary. Literally. You’ll catch these hands. It’ll hurt, even with his nerfed strength.

FRIENDS/ALLIES: Minos appreciates having people to rely on! Since he doesn’t have to worry about kingly duties and because he’d prefer to have as much support as possible, building a network of close friends and confidants is something he prioritizes. He’s always willing to help those he trusts. And thankfully, it’s not too hard to earn said trust!

ENEMIES: A bit harder to make these, but certainly not impossible. After his two canon deaths, Minos is much more assertive than he once was, and even with his weakened abilities, he’s still a very strong being in both mind and body. Despite death not meaning much within the scale of Spirale, Minos still has a superboss reputation to uphold, and he’s not afraid to make you earn the P-ranks needed to beat him.

DEMONS & ANGELS: The things that Minos is most familiar with. It’d be very fun to have this high-ranking figure from Hell meet other demons, especially if they are also from Hell! There’d be a lot of conversations to have there, considering how subversively ULTRAKILL portrays the nine circles. Interactions with angels are also strongly encouraged, as Minos was slain by an archangel and had his lingering soul imprisoned by Heaven’s Council. He’s gonna be rather... apprehensive around them, to say the least. Fun!

THE LOST & CONFUSED: Hey. Is your character going through a lot? Do you want them to seek some guidance whether they actually want it or not? Will they not freak out too much over the fact that they’re basically getting therapy from a weird dude with a very exposed heart? Minos is your guy! His sense of empathy is very strong, and he’s willing to use his wisdom and experience to help people who are struggling to tread the proverbial waters. The “Prime” in “Minos Prime” refers to his prime dad energy, clearly.

[worldofl0re]

But when Sisyphus had come for the Gods, he was too late for his revenge; the old Gods were dead, and in their place was a new one, a single God, his power eternal and infinite.

And so God approached Sisyphus, and so said to him, "Child of Old Days, I shall make you a king of Hell, and you shall rule over the punishments of Hell," and so Sisyphus agreed: He would rule over the layer of Greed, and administer a punishment unto the sinners like he, to push the weight of their greed up the pyramids forevermore.

Then came the Death of Gods, and the scrambling of angels. Hell was unwatched, uncared, and so the forces within stirred. The Judge of Hell, Minos, moved swiftly to make peaceful revolution, but Sisyphus knew that peace could never be brokered between God's messengers and he, and so Sisyphus prepares for war.

But no army could stand to the Angels. They were routed, destroyed, mangled into forms grotesque and unimaginable, and Sisyphus? Murdered, and chained to the walls of the Pyramid he once ruled.

But his soul, like the king, Minos, were too strong to simply be killed, and so they were imprisoned; Minos, deep in the bowels of his own colossal corpse, and Sisyphus, deep in the layer Heresy, in a Panopticon of Flesh.

And so his rage boiled and bubbled over to that of a thousand times his thirst for the blood of the Greeks, and so he swore vengeance on the man that put him in his prison forevermore:

Gabriel...

The chorus of the angel's symphony rang out across the halls of his chapel. He played his organ, and upon hearing the doors to his sanctum swing open, turned to face the Machine once more, for the final time.

But standing in the Machine's place was a man, imposingly tall, his head a golden beacon upon which Gabriel could barely see his red-hot expression. Gabriel's eyes widened beneath his helmet.

"You!" The angel cried, "How did you possibly escape that prison!"

Sisyphus raised his arm, and tossed something small and ringing at the angel. Gabriel caught it in his hand, and then opened his palm.

There, in his hand, he held a single, bloody, golden coin. Gabriel stared at it for one, agonizingly long moment. He could smell the blood on it, he knew where it came from.

That insolent stench of the Machine's bloodstained hands.

"Angel," Sisyphus' voice rang out inside the sanctum. "You, and the kingdom of Heaven have long since forgotten my name, and now I am eager to make you remember."

The Prime Soul's voice dripped with thirst of revenge as he spoke, his golden hands balling into deadly fists.

"So before I crush the cities and armies of Heaven, I will crush you first, angel, and lay your body towards the sky so you can watch your world burn to the ground-"

"ENOUGH!" Gabriel shouted, silencing the room. He began to float into the air on his blue, glowing wings, shaking with rage.

"How dare you steal the kill of the Machine from me! I will cut you down, insurrectionist, break you apart, splay the profane gore of your form across the stars! My hands shall relish ending you here, and NOW!"

And the Apostle of Hate drew his two sabers, and the Prime Soul tightened his fists.

Sisyphus has finally had enough. He lifts the boulder over his shoulders and hucks it effortlessly down the mountainside, before setting off in search of Zeus. After all, he’s been building muscle all these millennia, and it’s about time for a rematch.

[onlineviolence]

more. gama. questions Are the prime souls the only flesh prisons they've made, or is there a load of other people heaven wants imprisoned? are they making prisons and torture devices on the regular, or is it a once in a blue moon kinda thing

hmmm I'm thinking like. many little things with the occasional big thing (like the flesh prison and panopticon, which are huge and meant to contain very dangerous beings)

I'm very sure that Heaven has wanted more people imprisoned than Minos and Sisyphus

hell is one big flesh prison if you think about it

[citrous241]

I'm am simultaneously addicted to Ultrakill, Mortal Kombat 1, Halo Infinite and Hazbin Hotel.

I think I'm going to gush about Ultrakill rn. I'm trying to p-rank the first act now. P-ranking stands for perfect ranking; Ultrakill tallies up your kills, time and style at the end of each level (great and simple way to add loads of playability to a game that you can honestly beat completely in less than 2 hours). Get it done in the least amount of time possible, with the most kills and as stylishly as possible, you get a big yellow P stamp next for it to show you did it perfectly.

Do that for all 10 levels of an act and a secret door at the final level of said act will open. Behind it is a P level (not standing for perfect, that's spoilers for now).

The first act's P level is the easiest, as the actual level is just a spine descending downwards into a dark pit. (I have a friend who did the second act's P level and apparently its a whole endeavour to just get to the end, like they literally put every enemy in the game in a single room, make half of them invincible and the other half unable to siphon health off then make them all target you).

At the end of each P level is what that P stands for: Prime. A Prime soul is what occurs when a monarch of Hell dies, their soul is so powerful that it becomes a physical manifestation and basically gives them a second life. Heaven had unfortunately imprisoned these Prime souls in various flesh prisons across Hell after offing said monarch.

The first act's P level, known as Soul Survivor or just P-1, has you fight the Flesh Prison - a rhombus with a face that shoots lasers and summons sentient eyeballs that attack you and heals it. Destroying that frees Minos's, the King of Lust, Prime soul (fun fact this is actually the second time you've fought him, in the Lust layer of Hell you fight his giant parasite-controlled corpse - like seriously he is huge).

He thanks you for freeing him but since you play as a machine that ended humanity, and Minos was executed for feeling sympathy towards humans and making Lust into a nice place for them, he decides to kill you.

He fails.

Anyway I'm 1 level off, I just gotta fight the Angel Gabriel himself in 2 minutes without dying once. Fml.

It's a great game though. It's like if Doom had a transgender cousin who is constantly on crack.

You know what? Fuck it. Reblog this post gushing about your current hyperfixation. Idc what it is. Strawberries? Talk about how much you love them and what cool stuff you know about them. A TV show or book? Make long paragraphs gushing about it. Idc. Need to see more people talking about their hyoerfixations.

[jungle-fowl]

It's amazing how you are so new to the fandom and still understand the game FAR BETTER than a lot of players

Seriously, incredible post! I loved reading it and it's a very interesting and refreshing perspective to the game since most of the time people just try to theorize stuff like the end of the Act 3.

I would also like to point something that I think you missed a little bit, which is the characterization of King Minos.

We can read from the terminal of Prime Minos the next paragraph:

«As Minos' will was strong enough to attempt to stand up to Heaven's rule, the angels chose to imprison his soul in an attempt to stop it from forming into a prime soul and appointed Gabriel as the new Judge of Hell.

From the prison inside his own body, Minos helplessly watched as his soulless corpse, now controlled by parasites, tore apart everything he had worked so hard to build, cursing his own weakness for failing to protect his people, vowing to take revenge...»

Gabriel became the new Judge of Hell after destroying Minos, BUT, there is something interesting about it, which we can find in the dialogue of Minos Prime, after we released it from Flesh Prision.

«Ah... free at last. O Gabriel... now dawns thy reckoning, and thy gore shall glisten before the temples of man! Creature of steel, my gratitude upon thee for my freedom. But the crimes thy kind have committed against humanity are not forgotten! And thy punishment... is death!»

There's a lot to cover up, the first thing is how Minos refers to V1.

Creature of Steel.

This is extremely interesting since only TWO characters have voice in the game. Gabriel and Minos. And Gabriel refers to us as "Machine"

Gabriel didn't really care about what V1 did in the hell. In fact he pretty much just ignores him until he has no other choice but to fight him. But Minos immediately tried to deal with V1, which he refers to as a CREATURE. I think there's a little simbolism between this two.

Think about it, the fight against Gabriel is in the HEART and flesh of the destroyed body of King Minos. And Gabriel at first didn't fought V1... he was trying to make him just go away. Why? He is the Judge of Hell. Even the body of Minos tried to kill us as soon as we were in range.

Gabriel, from what we see in the Act 2, is deeply devoted to God's Will, helping husks with pure hearts and letting them carve their own sacred statues from demon stone, even if that would be Heresy, Gabriel saw the benevolent act and allow it. Gabriel is the only archangel that really looks into Hell and tries to save the sinners.

I think Gabriel realized, after his fights against the Kings, that they had pure intentions, but a impure heart. Perhaps that's why he was in Gluttony, the layer between the two kings. Maybe, Gabriel thought that both were just people, just that they were corrupted by sin.

There are a lot of things to cover about sin and redemption in Ultrakill, and I definitely can't cover everything in this post.

My point is, Minos is characterized as a man full of sins, since his actions are what led to the downfall of the Lust Layer. And, after being released from Flesh Prision, instead of going to find Gabriel, he decided to fight against V1.

He decided to let his hate aside to kill the BIGGEST threat in Hell. He didn't try to speak to V1. He wanted to SAVE humanity. That's why he doesn't have a face. He is no longer blinded by justice and his ideal of trying to speak against the enemies.

Achieving the Prime Soul, Minos renounced to everything he was in his life to became who he needed to became a long time ago.

A King with a pure heart.

(The design of Minos Prime really tells everything about how he became after being imprisioned)

Ultrakill is really an amazing storytelling game

IT'S RAMBLING TIME

Remember me saying I wanted to write an small ( i hope it is ) essay regarding Ultrakill's Greek folklore references and why they were so good? Wellp, here it is brought to you by a girl who can't shut up about a game she sucks at playing. ANYWAYS—

BEFORE YOU GO DOWN this is, to no one's surprise, filled with spoilers. While it's true that lore in this game is secondary, if you wanna learn it by yourself when playing it, then save this reading for later. Ultrakill is avaible at Steam, and there's for now an Early Access version in case you wanna try it before buying it. It's filled with blood, but it's still a masterpiece, me thinks.

!! - Guide of this thingy:

Introduction.

King Minos.

King Sisyphus.

Honorable mentions ( mostly things that i'm probably imagining ).

1 - Introduction:

There's many people out there who have already talked about everything that reminds them of the Divine Comedy regarding the game, besides the fact that it takes inspiration in DMC too; but almost no one seems to notice the details that reference Greek folklore, and it's true that they are not THAT important, most likely i'm just imagining references in places where there are actually none, but this is what brainrot does to a girl. So wether they are true or not, i'll still will write this thing down or else i'll explode with my thoughts.

2 - King Minos:

To make it short, Minos was the king of the Lust Layer, he felt that the sinners of said layer did not deserve such punishment just for loving one another, and when God dissappeared and Heaven turned into chaos, he build next to the inhabitants of the layer a prosperous place. Sadly, when the council took control of Heaven back, they implied Minos' intentions had gone against God's will by freeing the sinners, and Gabriel was sent down to kill Minos.

Minos instead of fighting back, tried to find reason in the angel, but Gabriel didn't hear any of his words and ended him, imprisioning his soul.

"...Gabriel struck down Minos, his flesh torn asunder with torrents of crimson pooling at his feet as we all cried out for clarity. 'Justice,' Gabriel decreed to all, with our just ruler writhing in wailing agony, 'The Lord's Will be done.' We watched on in horror as Minos lay broken, now waning, screaming in defiance of God's Will, Gabriel."

Text from a book found in the second level of the Lust Layer.

Minos' corpse was now controlled by parasites and Gabriel was the new Judge of Hell. Oh, yeah, that's why thorns are blinding him. Justice is blind and Minos was, wellp, a Judge of Hell.

And here's when my shenanigan's begin!

So you see, it's true the first Minos we know from Greek folklore was a king, was made a Judge of Hell after his death too, and all the shenanigans... But can we see any of that in this Minos? While it's true that most of the things are original or coming from the Divine Comedy, here's this detail i spend some time thinking about:

"Despite once bringing upon the renaissance of the Lust layer, his corpse now only seeks sinners to punish."

Terminal data of The Corpse of King Minos from the game

While the Christian elements are heavy here ( Divine Comedy, WUH ) and we have the Father's name, God, therefore not many references to the Greek Gods ( specially knowing Minos was one of Zeus' sons ), this detail is what reminds me of him becoming the Judge of Hell in the original folclore.

Minos was so respected by everyone, even the gods, that they decided to make him a Judge of Hell. Meanwhile in Ultrakill, after Gabriel killed him and became the new Judge of Hell, they still kept his corpse searching for sinners to punish. Tragic and bittersweet, but apparently they still thought of his corpse as a Judge of Hell, even when no soul was with it. Just like Greek Minos was respected enough to be turned a judge in Hell, this Minos is respected enough to maintain his corpse as a Judge, just like he once was.

3 - King Sisyphus:

Since Sisyphus hasn't come out as a boss yet and we therefore don't have 100% his lore explained, I can more or less summarize it:

I have heard of Minos beginning a peaceful revolution, but our King Sisyphus knows such pacificity will gain no favor from our cruel captors. He knows that one can only fight power with power, and he shall lead us to freedom."

"King Sisyphus has acted in secret until now, amassing an army whose strength and numbers swell, but now there is no need to hide anymore. We have lived in the shadow of Heaven long enough to forget the taste of fear. Now the Sisyphean Insurrectionists prepare for war.

Text from a book found in the second level of the Greed Layer.

Minos decided to do a peaceful revolution, building his own shenanigans in the Lust Layer, but Sisyphus didn't think the same way; he decided to do a revolution too, but it was anything but peaceful.

Full terminal data of the Sisyphean Insurrectionists in the game:

"The Sisyphean Insurrectionists were an army of Husks gathered and trained by King Sisyphus for overthrowing Heaven's control of Hell, freeing the sinners from their eternal torment. [...]

Upon the establishment of the Council and subsequent return of peace to Heaven, Gabriel and an army of angels were sent down to crush the insurrection and subjugate Sisyphus' army.

Although their battle was well-fought, the inexperienced Insurrectionist could not match the educated strategy of the angels, who quickly descended upon King Sisyphus with great force, eventually overpowering and killing him, leaving the Insurrectionists without a chain of command.

Left scattered and disoriented, the warriors were easily picked off one by one, their bodies cut apart, leaving behind only the bare essentials to carry on their eternal punishment of hauling heavy boulders up the monuments of mankind's arrogance and greed.

Although the blood of their enemies still stains their bodies and their grasp still clutches their fallen foes, their will and fierce fury only serve as mental torment in knowing how close they were to freedom."

The Insurrectionists mantain Greek Sisyphus' original Hell punishment, carrying a rock up to the top of a mountain ( in the game, a pyramid ) that will eventually fall down again.

Now, more interesting details... Greek Sisyphus wasn't that much liked by the gods since he, wellp, cheated death a couple times, unlike Greek Minos who was so respected that he was turned into a Judge of Hell. So just like Greek Sisyphus was thrown into Hell with a punishment and Greek Minos was turned into a Judge of Hell; in this game, Minos' corpse is still used as some kind of Judge... more or else, as I said before. Meanwhile, Sisyphus corpse isn't used at all ( not yet, remember the game isn't finished ), it is just imprisoned with no head, even. Perhaps that has something to do with the Greek Sisyphus being punished instead of turning into a Judge of Hell, or similar, like the Greek Minos was? Or maybe i'm just imagining stuff. Hmm.

Oh, by the way, unlike Minos being blind being due to him being a Judge and Justice is blind; Sisyphus was blinded by greed, so he literally is blinded by gold.

4 - Honorable mentions ( mostly things that i'm probably imagining ):

You know I could just jump into Hakita ( developer ) and ask him "is this bullshit i came up with actual references?" but there are better things to do in life, I guess, sooooo let's leave them here, shall we?

THE ENTIRE LAYER OF WRATH is, for my stupid mind, an antire Odyssey reference. Except the last level i guess.

The entire layer is ambiented around boats and the sea. And while you can say 'odyssey' is a word used for 'really long travel' nowadays, my mind goes beyond that with this concept.

The first level of the layer is named "In the Wake of Poseidon", you have no idea how much i screamed when i first read it. Like, the first level, just like while in the Odyssey many stuff happens, before all of those stories are told, Odysseus is first thrown at the sea after leaving Calipso's island, by none other than Poseidon. If we go to the second level "Waves of the Starless Sea" we'll be, no shit Sherlock, in a sea. But full of broken boats, completely destroyed, just how Odysseus' small boat was left after Poseidon came at him. The third level is "Ship of Fools" and, okay, i'm sorry for saying this is Odyssey related too, but Odysseus' companions were, indeed, fools. ( The game has many DMC references too, so maybe i'm mixing things, but i'm no fan of DMC so uuuuhh ).

The Ocean is literally called "Ocean Styx". Ring a bell? River Styx?

You can choose not to fight the Ferryman by giving him a coin. Ring another bell? Charon? The whole 'putting a coin in the corpse's mouth so that they could pay him in the Underworld to take them by the river' shenanigans?

Cerberus is the boss in the Prelude, who in later-game becomes a common enemy. Funny enough, he isn't shaped as a dog, but as a humanoid, and the explanation given in the terminal data of the game regarding that, is this one:

"Although they do not resemble the mythological three-headed dog, this name was chosen due to their nature as protectors of Hell."

Gotta love them for that.

WELLP that's all folks. Hope you had fun reading my ramblings, as usual. Feels good to be back into the essays world.