Hell (organism)

"If only we knew the suffering that would befall us next..."
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Not to be confused with: Hell (location)

Hell is a superintelligent, massive and extremely sadistic superorganism that entertains itself by watching the suffering of those trapped within it. It was created by God during a bout of frustration and despair at humanity’s defiance of His rule, and if the Testaments are to be believed, it swiftly became far too powerful for even Him to unmake it.

It's not only smart enough to learn how the complex futuristic technology of mankind works simply by watching them while they’re about their business, but also to use and construct complex items with leftover parts, and it can even attach slapdash augments to the Husks held captive within it, creating things like Soldiers and Stalkers, and after seeing the way Guttermen used human corpses as their fuel source, created the Mannequins by ripping apart sinners' limbs and joints and then stuffing them into the mannequins.

It is also able to warp its own structure at will, lock any door inside of it that it would like to, and teleport creatures inside of it around within it without limit. The reason it does this is to provoke fights among invaders and natives alike, to satisfy its own sadistic desire for entertainment. Humanity found this out the hard way.

Why and how Hell attained sentience to begin with remains unknown.

History[]

[Text from Testament III, found at the end of [ 4-S: CLASH OF THE BRANDICOOT ]]

"DAMNED IS MAN FOR FAILING TO FOLLOW MY RULE, MY WORD, MY LAW

DAMNED TO AN ETERNITY OF TORTURE AND SUFFERING,

THE WAILING AND THE GNASHING OF TEETH

I HAVE CREATED HELL . . .

. . . And now I can no longer unmake it"

[Text from a Library of Babel page, found at the end of the P-2 ARG, Part 2]

"I’ve figured it out. I know why the creatures are suddenly and undetectably appearing inside our facilities. I know why spare parts and pieces of machines keep disappearing. I know why the doors seem to malfunction and suddenly lock themselves. it's not a glitch in the system. its...

Hell is alive. it breathes. it thinks. The entire area is a massive intelligent superorganism, and it is harsh and it is cruel. Just by watching us it has learned how our systems and machines work. it has not only begun to deconstruct our technology but also assemble it in perverse ways, attaching parts to the creatures it tortures, making them into an aimless army of death and destruction. it warps them across itself to get them past our security. it locks our doors to trap us with them.

This is not an attack. This is not a defense. This is entertainment. This is an exhibition of death and cruelty and suffering for its own sake. It had grown tired of what it has and we unwillingly just offered ourselves up as new playthings.

Tom, please for the love of god cancel this project immediately, we have to abandon everything and seal this place away. Leave the machines and tools behind. Evacuate as many as we can, before it is too late.

I can only hope this encrypted message is received before the organism learns to read it and intercept it. Whatever happens, we can not let this being find a way out and spread to the surface. We ha-

a n o t h e r d i e s . b r i n g m e m o r e . i h u n g e r."

In-Game[]

Hell is the most prevalent of all the characters in ULTRAKILL, with it being the very area you traverse and combat in (and likely the very thing that lures u into its depths to begin with), though It is never fought directly.

Hell (location)

Hell is solely responsible for your quick voyage through its layers (since under normal circumstances it’s layers are meant to be inescapable), shifting it’s geometry to make traversal through it a breeze, and it is also responsible for all the battles you encounter, locking doors and teleporting enemies to instigate fights.

When entering the City of Dis (Layers 6-9), Hell’s presence can be felt the most since V1 seems to directly interact with Hell for the first time in P-2: WAIT OF THE WORLD. When opening the gates to the Flesh Panopticon, Hell will ask you a rhetorical question, giving you the illusion of choice and making you fight it regardless if you consent or not. Violence is where it interacts with V1 the most (so far), such as the book in 7-1: GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS, an incomprehensible ode to the act of violence as a whole, celebrating blood and gore as “beautiful” and are deserving to be splayed as an art form, and pointing to V1 as its central painter. 7-3: NO SOUND, NO MEMORY is where it tries to directly communicate to (and control) V1 to feed the trees blood. In 7-4: ...LIKE ANTENNAS TO HEAVEN, there is a blank book found in the level near the 1000-THR Defense System arena. We know the passage to be written by Hell, given its signature red text and occasional spacing in-between letters for emphasis. Unlike Hell's previous appearances to V1, the end of the text scan states that "the pages of the book are blank," suggesting that Hell altered V1's perceptive mechanisms to deliver its message. With the repeated instances of "you," "your," and other general second person statements, it's become clear that Hell has sought to further its contact with our bloodthirsty machine ever since it tore its way through the Mouth of Hell.

Trivia[]

It is possible that Hell influenced the Terminals, with them having the same desire for entertainment as Hell.
- Unlike their influencer however, the Terminals actually reward their entertainers.
The extinction of mankind could be the result of Hell invading and conquering the surface.
A notable aspect regarding Hell is that when it communicates through text, the letters are either all uppercase, or all lowercase, and often spread out l i k e t h i s. The spread out letters spelling "h a v e f u n !" and "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA a s i f y o u h a d a c h o i c e ." in the P-2 pre-boss room, the "give 'em h e l l, kid!" on the payload terminal in 7-2, as well as the text "F E E D I T" at the 7-3 tree could be Hell speaking directly to V1.
Hell's ability to speak probably improves the deeper into hell V1 goes. Its presence can be detected once the player reaches the city of Dis in P-2: WAIT OF THE WORLD. The levels in act 3: 7-3: NO SOUND, NO MEMORY, possibly 7-4: ...LIKE ANTENNAS TO HEAVEN and below is where it seems to start leaving messages to V1 directly.
Hell seems to make its influence a secret most of the time, or to keep some elements of its domain a mystery. This can be inferred by the fact it is (heavily implied to be) responsible for the death of the human researcher who discovered its sentience. This theory gains additional credence when it is heavily implied that Hell itself is censoring the data on the ~~Minotaur~~ in 7-1: GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS as to not expose its own implied role in the Minotaur's creation.
- In the terminal description of the ~~Minotaur~~, it is stated that there's "NO DATA" on the demon, but text still appears anyway (albeit crossed out), similarly to how the book in 7-4: ...LIKE ANTENNAS TO HEAVEN had "blank pages", but with text V1 could still read.
- There’s also a likelihood that the reason the text is crossed out is due to Hell infiltrating the Terminals, and the Terminals censoring said text since it is foreign data.
There's also the possibility that the first book you encounter in 7-1: GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS was written by Hell itself. The book indicates an affinity for violence, and the last sentence with red, spaced-out text is one of Hell's signatures.
- This possibility is also supported by the reasoning behind the design of 7-1: GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS. The layer is white as to act as a canvas for blood that can "pay tribute" to the crosses littered across the level. This consequently reveals that Hell not only views, pain, suffering, gore and death as entertainment, but also finds beauty in it, viewing it as an art form that deserves to be celebrated and perfected.
- This also recontextualizes Hell as quite the twisted theater kid/artist, such as the rationale behind the aesthetic designs of Hell’s layers (since the layers are meant to reflect and or contrast the sin committed in life), as well as why the demons look the way they do (since they are often reference or resemble sculptures and art pieces).
Hell also might have control over the Machines themselves, as the puzzle book in [7-2: LIGHT UP THE NIGHT] mentions "reprogrammed protectors" referring to the Guttertanks and Guttermen. The 'F E E D I T .' narration on the first Blood Tree could also be an attempt to fully control V1.
- If the intro is taken to be Hell speaking (as indicated by the red text often used by it), it can be inferred that Hell influenced V1 itself to travel to Hell. This may be more plausible with the fact that it has directly addressed V1 on several occasions.
Hell appears to have a unique fascination with eyes. Most husks lack eyes, with one examples being Filth (who have no eyes or sockets), while Virtues, angelic beings who normally possess an array of eyes (as noted in the terminal), lose these eyes when employed in Hell as wardens. The image also used for this article's infobox is also theorized to be a form Hell takes, as it appears when V1 dies for a few frames, and it appears to be an eye fused with another.
Hell is a completely unstoppable organism that can do anything it pleases. The only reason V1 is still alive is because Hell wants them to be.