Sitting up, Solaris looked around, yet he only saw the turret he'd fallen asleep in.
Damn it.
Solaris rubbed his eyes as he turned to a sitting position. He was so sore and so tired that sleep was a luxury at this point. He'd only get a few hours if he were lucky; if not, only half an hour.
Turning, he pulled his map out once more and began to formulate a plan to finish off the last of the demon army, of course this plan didn't include the demons within the main body of the castle, as he had little to no knowledge of the internals of the castle.
He had attempted to get back inside the castle to observe and map the floor plan, yet he was unable to find a way back inside that didn't include breaking in, which would, in turn, reveal his location to Malith.
From his exploration of the megacity, he'd mapped out every location of the demons he could; from this, he'd learned how many were in each section of the city. There were only 20 in the outer layer or the slums, as they coined it, one hundred in the middle class, two hundred in the upper class, and at least two hundred and eighty in the center; a great deal of them were gluttony demons and were constantly coming and going; they were the proprietors of food for the army.
The rest were simply a defense force and other jobs within the castle.
When Solaris had first begun his retribution, he'd killed the middle class first, followed by the outer layer. It was much more difficult, as he had to be much more sneaky and smart than he was now; now he was able to easily track and kill the demons within the innermost layer. Some even in groups.
His most recent slaughter was his biggest and most exhausting fight; he'd been struck multiple times and was forced to chase a few retreating demons so that they were unable to report the specifics of the 'Eclipse' to Malith.
Luckily for Solaris, he'd been able to defend with Harden and the shards, so no attacks were able to truly hurt him. Physically, it still stung when a weapon hit him, but it left no lasting damage.
Rubbing his side, he let out a sigh and spoke in a soft whisper.
"I wonder how I'd fare against that hyena and bird now."
Standing up, Solaris put the map away and quickly did some stretching before taking a deep breath, exhaling, and then jumping out of the turret.
Without wasting any time, he dashed to a familiar window and peered inside, making sure to stay as hidden as possible. The window, of course, was the window Solaris and Ember had been pulled through when they first met Malith.
He had made a habit of observing the great hall in hopes of seeing Ember, since on that fateful day Malith had said he was to be a toy.
Using this information, Solaris had assumed, apparently falsely, that Malith would be near or at least in proximity to his new "Toy", yet no such thing had occurred, of course this was only part of the reason he'd look through this window; the other was because it always gave him the feeling he needed to continue his work, to continue killing, to continue fighting.
Today was just like all the others; that damned king is still alone, still in that massive throne, still alive.
As Solaris watched for a moment more, he felt the rage build up, and then he shot away from the window and went back to killing.
Today he'd planned to end it to finish the remaining hundred demons and then tomorrow raid the castle.
This plan was not going to be easy, and the chances of winning were slim to none, but it was the only plan that could work, so he had to continue.
Staring from behind a corner, he watched as a group of gluttony demons took off in search of food.
I'll kill them when they return.
The gluttony demons had left in four groups of ten, so he had a total of sixty left to kill, and this was only the demons on the outside of the castle; he'd only killed two on the inside of the castle, and that was when he'd escaped his confinement.
With a slight smile on his face, Solaris flew down to the barracks that the demons used. Some had been living in the housing, yet Solaris had killed many of them, so the remaining resorted to living together.
With a yawn, Solaris walked into the first quarter and, within a few moments, walked out, his body covered in even more blood than it had been before. He flicked his wrist, and the copper axe slid back under his skin.
After so many battles, he'd become very used to his abilities and taken a great liking to his axe, even naming it, due to its copper material, and poisoning abilities, he'd called it Rusty.
Admittedly, Solaris was terrible at naming things.
"I'm gonna have to apologize to the guy who named the 'tools of the trade' if I ever meet him."
As he talked, he approached another living quarter and pulled the flap back. As he looked inside, he saw five demons all pointing their weapons at him.
Taking a slight step forward, he saw a demon thrust its swords forward and at Solaris, without wasting a moment, Solaris hardened his skin and started his heat.
His arm shot forward and deflected the blade, as he did, another blade was heading towards him. Grimacing, he twisted his body, dashing towards the initial attacker and sliding his hands into its body. Within a second, he pulled out two crystals, both shattered.
one.
With a quick turn, Solaris used the body of the dead demon to block the next attack before launching a counterattack, calling forth Rusty. He swung at the hips of the skinny sloth demon, who had an arrow notched on its bow, before he fired the arrow. The top part was being held in Solaris ' hand, his axe gone, and his other arm inside the body.
With two firm grasps, he crushed the crystals before discarding the body.
Two.
As he threw the top part of the body at another demon, he followed up with his shards, aimed at the neck of another wrath demon already slicing through the sloth's bisected body. Its eyes widened when it saw the shards, before its head fell to the ground.
Solaris charged forward, his heat increasing as he plunged his hands into the demon's torso, forming a circle by moving his arms. He pulled 2 crystals from the body and quickly closed his fist.
Three.
The final two pride demons brought down their weapons simultaneously, one morning star and the other a warhammer.
Solaris simply willed the shards to move, placing them into the trajectory of the weapons, causing a melodious ringing to sound, before the shards passed through the weapons, like a hot knife through butter.
The two demons looked as the weapons dripped with molten metal, before Solaris shoved his arms into each other at the same time, this time his fist took a moment to breach the armor, yet it eventually gave way, and his arms dug into the body, grabbing hold of four crystals, two with each hand.
With a violent jerk, Solaris ripped his arms from the body and crushed the blood red crystals.
Four.
Five.
The entire battle only lasted thirty seconds.