Pain Elemental

Pain Elementals are a species of floating demons with many similarities to Cacodemons, serving as living forges for Lost Souls, which damns them to an existence of constant pain.

Biology
Pain Elementals bear great resemblance to Cacodemons, who they are possibly related to. Like Cacodemons, they bear sphere-like bodies with a single eye, but unlike Cacodemons, Pain Elementals are brown-skinned, with an orange eye bearing a black pupil, two large, curving, black horns, sharp teeth, and two arms. What appears to be a more evolved breed of Pain Elementals has an armored backside, an overall slimmer frame, longer, larger arms with large claws, longer horns, an entirely orange eye, and several mandibles around their mouths. Pain Elementals serve as living "forges" for Lost Souls, taking the incorporeal essence of souls broken by intense slave labor into their bodies and turning the souls into physical manifestations of madness. The process is incredibly excruciating for the Pain Elementals, and repeats indefinitely throughout their lifespans, which are possibly finite. While their level of sapience is unknown, Pain Elementals are known to actively seek out targets to expel Lost Souls at to alleviate some pain from their bodies, and take great sadistic pleasure in the suffering of their victims. While all Pain Elemental breeds are capable of producing Lost Souls, the evolved breed appears to actually have some control over them, able to have them hover around them like a barrier. Unlike the original breed, which fires Lost Souls like a projectile, the evolved breed manually throws them at a target. Like Cacodemons, it is possible that they fly through a form of hot gas, evidenced by their literal flaming gut, as they explode if their eyes are ripped out or severely damaged. Unlike Cacodemons, Pain Elementals have red blood. The original breed of Pain Elementals appeared even more volatile than the evolved breed, and would leave behind some Lost Souls after exploding.

History
Pain Elementals rose from the deepest, darkest depths of Hell, known as the abhorrent creations of the Umbral Plains, and possibly related to Cacodemons or cyclopedic Titans. Pain Elementals forged Lost Souls within their very body, plunging them into endlessly excruciating pain, driving Pain Elementals to indiscriminately kill and torment those they saw as weaker than themselves. Pain Elementals were among the demonic forces that invaded Argent D'Nur, a world vassalized by extradimensional aliens known as Maykrs. The Night Sentinels, guardians of the energy-creating Elemental Wraiths and the military force of Argent D'Nur, fought against the demons, with the Deag Priests, a caste of Argenta priests serving the Maykrs, discovering Argent Energy- energy created by combining Hell Essence with Sentinel Energy. With Argent Energy now fueling their ranks, the Night Sentinels were able to push the demonic forces back, bolstered by an unnamed time-traveling Human man who joined their ranks, arriving just before the first wave of demons appeared. The man, first known as the Outlander, soon became the champion of the Night Sentinels, and was granted superhuman abilities by a Maykr Seraph named Samur. Now known as the Doom Slayer, the Human led the charge against Hell, but unbeknownst to the Slayer and the Night Sentinels, the Maykrs struck a deal with the Dark Lord of Hell, allowing Hell to conquer more worlds in exchange for Argent Energy, which allowed the Maykrs to remain immortal. The Doom Slayer and his companions were betrayed and locked away in Hell as Argent D'Nur fell, and in Hell, Pain Elementals and other demons launched an unrelenting assault on them. Only the Doom Slayer survived, and continued to fight the demons for eons, until he was locked away in a sarcophagus by powerful demonic priests, presumably including the very Deag Priests who had once served Argent D'Nur, now corrupted into Hell Priests. Pain Elementals roamed Hell until 2022, where they were used by the Icon of Sin, the most powerful of the Titans, to invade Earth after the death of the Spiderdemon known as the Spider Mastermind.