Solaris found himself staring at the dark wall of his cell, lost in his violent thoughts of murder, slaughter, and revenge.
At this point in time, he cared not for the repercussions, simply the destruction and eventual death of that demon.
Standing Solaris balled his hands into fists and began to strike the wall harder and harder, over and over. He had no idea why, but he just needed to vent this anger, even just a little bit. He punched until his knuckled bruised, yet he continued, he punched until they bled, yet he continued, he never stopped punching, day in and day out, punches landed on the wall.
He struck the wall and lingered his fist burning with pain, his skin was peeled, and his muscles were torn, pain was all he felt, slowly he removed his fist and slumped down, finding himself a spot on the cold floor, his eyes twitched, and soon tears began streaming down his face.
"Why couldn't I be stronger?"
Solaris sat in the embrace of silence as he cried.
Tears rolling down his face, blood dripping onto the floor, as he thought of his own mistakes, he had failed, not just Ember but himself as well. No matter how mad he was, he still was the reason for this anger; no matter how angry he was with Malith, he was more angry with himself.
All he could do was feel, and that's what he did, sitting in the stone cell made just for him, he felt every feeling he could, he thought of all he lost, he remembered all of his failures, all of those times when someone else had to solve his issues for him.
Even when he had killed that lust demon, it was only because of that mark, and now he had lost that mark, he had been useless during the fight with the hyena and the bird, he had been frozen by the mere sight of that anomaly in the slums, he had been captured immediately, all he had done was fail.
Even victory is a form of failure.
All he could do was watch as others solved his problems, be it Selen, Ember, or even the other him. All he could do was watch from the sidelines.
"I am useless."
Why do I even try? What do I have to gain from the world, what do I even have to give? I'm a waste, an insignificant thread of the tapestry of existence; my victories are not mine, my goals aren't even mine. All i do is take all i do is resist something that is inevitable.
"That's very true, Solaris, you're completely useless."
Solaris shot his head up, looking to see where that voice came from, that familiar voice, a voice that was not of another, a voice that was himself.
Yet Solaris was not the one who said it.
In the shadowed corner, is where his eyes met with another, a human or at least it looked human. Solaris stared at the being, its white eyes shimmering in the darkness, as if there was no soul behind them.
Solaris tensed up, fearing that this was the end of it; he was going to be eaten by that devilish king Malith, or perhaps he was to be tortured, he knew not which it could be.
"Please."
Solaris paused as if struggling and spoke again.
"I don't want to die, not yet..."
No matter how Solaris felt about himself, no matter the rage he had for himself, no matter how much he wished he hadn't been born, he still did not want to die, or at least not at the hands of another. If he were to go out, he'd slit his own throat before another were to kill him.
The creature in the corner said two words, then smiled brightly before disappearing, as if it had never been there.
Solaris froze, his face stopped quivering, and his eyes momentarily dried up; the words spoken to him were those of something only he knew.
The entity had said.
"Happy birthday."
These two words truly broke him; they cut deeper than any blade could. This simple phrase meant Solaris had been in this realm, this cell, for over two months.
Looking down, Solaris saw his body that had been ravaged due to the lack of food, his arms shaking, and his fists bloodied.
"AHHHAGHHAHAH!!!! IM GONNA KILLLLL YOU MALITHHHH!!!!!"
Without even realizing it, Solaris had subconsuiusly began to shift all of his anger to the one being he could hurt, the one being that seemed to be the source of his rage, no matter who or what was the cause, he had begun to blame Malith.
With the last of his strength, Solaris stood up and swung his bloodied arm at the wall. Yet it simply splatted against it, not even leaving an indent or even a scratch
His rage had finally reached a breaking point.
A feeling of immeasurable heat began to emanate from just below his heart.
His face twisted into a vicious snarl, that not unlike a beast.
The heat began to grow, from a feeling and into a force.
Then it began to spread, slowly across his entire ravaged, broken body. It grew and grew as it did it felt as if the world around him began to shift, and then warp.
His heart began beating faster than humanly possible, and his soul itself ignited, from a pure radiance into a blazing heat, and slowly it began to crack; his body began to glow, revealing the dark interior chasing the shadows away.
He felt an overwhelming feeling of energy shoot into him, as if he had been injected with a lethal amount of adrenaline.
With this newfound energy, he brought his withered fist back, now glowing with an orange radiance, and struck the wall once again.
As the fist was mere inches away, the glow subsided as a matte black coating began to envelop his fist, then his entire body.
Then the fist made contact with the wall, the resistance he had felt for so long seemed nonexistent, it was as if the wall never even touched him, yet he felt the wall quake and then crack.
BOOM!!
Solaris saw as the wall shattered before his very eyes, revealing a dark hallway that of which he had been walked down so long ago.