Solaris flicked his wrist, throwing a splatter of blood across the room, his face contorted into a look of disgust and sadness.
Since when did it get so easy?
I don't even feel bad about the gruesome way I've begun killing; every fight is a massacre, it's not a fair fight at all.
I don't even feel good about this at all.
"But I can't stop."
Solaris had long been feeling these things, yet had dismissed them for even longer, ever since his jailbreak. The ease of murder was shocking.
Back when he'd first fought and killed, it had been a life-or-death battle, yet now it was almost as if it was senseless slaughter, no challenge, no risk, just death.
The part that almost scared Solaris was the fact that it never seemed to grow harder physically to kill; it was almost as if his body was surpassing its limits, at all times, no matter how tired he was, his body never seemed to show it. His speed never diminished, and his strength never faltered.
As Solaris left the quarter, he looked back on his previous dream.
What did that thing mean when it said I'd been using it too much?
Rubbing his head, Solaris tried to recall exactly what the dream had said, but it was proving to be rather difficult.
As he passed another tent, Solaris stopped and decided to try something new.
Extending his arm out, he let the shards slide out from under his skin and fly into the tent. As he did, he shifted as much feeling into the shards and began to sense the movement and locations of the demon, then, as he did, he formed mental images of the interior and the demons, then, with this info, he moved the shards at rapid speed into the usual locations of the crystals.
After a moment, he heard the familiar sounds of crystals shattering.
Then, as he recalled the shards, he opened the flap to the tent and saw the six dead demons that had been sitting around a table.
A faint smile appeared on Solaris's face.
"That's good, this will save so much time."
However, it will diminish my defense.
Solaris had long since become reliant on his mesh of shards to protect him, so the thought of him not having it was a slight concern.
"I guess it's still very situational."
As Solaris weighed the options, he cleared a few more tents of demons. After around five minutes had passed, he'd reached the last tent.
Wanting to finish the fight quickly, he called forth his marks before entering and coated it all in Harden as well as heating them.
"If I'm right, there should be only two or three in this last tent."
He opened the flap and saw that he was correct, yet he really wished he wasn't.
Upon his first glance at the two demons within the tent, a feeling surged from within.
The two he saw were most certainly ranked above the others. From his talks with Ember and his own slaughters, he'd planned out at least four new ranks of demons, the previous ranks being sergeants, captains, and lieutenants; all three had a single crystal within their bodies, yet these new ranks had two.
He had coined them: Generals, commanders, and finally devils.
From his observations of the demons, he'd been aware of the two in front of him; they were the two directly below Malith, who somehow broke his Six-ranked system, and as such, he'd simply called him a king.
With all that being said, Solaris was absolutely certain that these two were devils.
As this realization landed in Solaris's mind, he felt a feeling he'd been missing for so long: fear. This feeling of fear was something he'd almost been chasing for many days.
He had been worried he had lost it, yet now he was certain it was still there. All that had changed was his own perception of the demons; the ones he'd been fighting were simply too weak.
"finally.... a..."
As Solaris began to speak, the first demon in armor charged him and struck him with a warhammer, sending him flying into the sky.
so fast...
Solaris looked down, forcing shards to move to his feet, then stopped his upward momentum. As he did, he witnessed the other demon, an incredibly skinny demon with skin dark yet still a pale red, aim a bone javelin at him. Before Solaris could think, the arm of the demon disappeared into a blur as the javelin shot at him; the faint white streak revealed the location of the weapon.
A smile appeared onto solaris's face as he rapidly turned his body and shot his arm into position, as it approached him, his fist clamped down grabbing the shaft of the bone javelin, yet solaris didn't stop the weapon, the momentum carried him along, forcing the upper half of his body to move, and with a snap his shoulder came out of socket, resulting in him letting the weapon go, his arm dangled by his side.
so strong...
Turning back, he saw that the skinny demon had already lined up another shot.
Perfect time to test this out, I guess.
Taking a quick breath, Solaris moved as he saw the bone pierce the air, then he grabbed his shoulder and moved it. As he did, he hardened the bone, followed by the rest of his shoulder, with a flash of pain. Solaris felt his bone pop back into the socket.
Taking no time to revel in the help of this discovery, he dashed through the air, intending to strike the skinny sloth, then worry about the armoured Pride.
Yet as he approached the sloth, he was instantly confronted by the hammer, sending him flying back into the sky.
"Shit."