After that rather dark escapade into Solomon's past. We now turn our attention towards Hyde. Who, when we join up with him, has just run out of questions for the lantern bearer.

"So your saying I have to choose my path to immortality and all these tunnels are said paths." Hyde exclaimed in exasperation, "Not only must I make such a life-changing and future defining decision. But, I have to do so without any information on any of the paths, which all look the same."

Hyde's complaints were met with silence. The cold shoulder was to be expected from the lantern bearer. That didn't make it any less annoying though.

Seeing his complaints were getting him nowhere Hyde just sighed. "Fuck it. If they all look the same I'll just pick one at random." He proclaimed.

Striding towards the nearest tunnel Hyde didn't even pause to look back as he walked through the mouth of the tunnel.

As if he was being swallowed by a giant beast, Hyde disappeared into the tunnel's gaping maw.

Once Hyde crossed the threshold of the tunnel, he disappeared.

When Hyde next took a step, the entrance to the tunnel behind him disappeared. Not that this mattered as looking behind him was the absolute last thing on his mind. He was too preoccupied with the enormous castle laid out in front of him.

Standing in between two cart tracks on a dirt road Hyde was stunned. The castle in front of him was all stone and mortar, with spires stretching towards the heavens.

He coughed as a horse thundered past while kicking up dust. The man on the horse was wearing more armour than a tank and carried a lance.

Like drum beats, the horse hooves pounded on the dirt road. More horses followed behind the first. Hyde, who was standing in the middle of the road, was forced to desperately dodge to the side.

Hyde, who was in a sorry state and was sitting in the dirt at the side of the road waited for the pounding of hooves to subside before standing up. Raising his head up while muttering hatefully, Hyde's gaze met with a knight that had stopped in front of him.

"How fairs thee, trainee?" Asked the knight in an olde English accent.

"Trainee?" Hyde echoed in confusion.

"Aye, or shouldst I call thee a knight now? Did thou already slay the dragon?" Asked the inquisitive knight.

Hyde was baffled, Since when was he a trainee? "What dragon?" he asked curiously.

"Surely you jest. Tis the beast to the west. Thou must slay it to get knighthood no?" Said the knight as he laughed uproariously. "Sorry trainee but I must make haste," Said the knight thundering down the road on his horse.

Hyde stayed on the ground, digesting this inconspicuous info dump. A big quest like 'Slaying the dragon' Was quite a cliche. 'Since I have to do that to become a knight. Is my path that of a knight?' Hyde pondered.

But, that didn't exactly feel right for him. Although he admits that he was quite loyal to his friends. He was a dog demon after all. That didn't make him a knight. He had no other knightly qualities.

Still, He didn't exactly have many options. Old-timey England was kind of a horrible place full of disease and filth. Hyde definitely didn't want to stay here. So, he had to leave somehow.

"Killing a dragon... I don't think that's my trial. It doesn't feel right. Ah well, I can always figure it out after I kill it. It's only a dragon." Hyde muttered to himself.

Brushing the dirt off his leathery tunic, that he was sure he hadn't been wearing earlier, Hyde stood up. Grumbling he looked down the dirt path towards the west.

He couldn't see the end of the path was because it went over the horizon line, disappearing into the gap between the ground and the sky.

"They should have given me a horse if I'm meant to be a knight," Hyde complained as he took off running down the path.

His complaints were unnecessary though. Hyde could run faster with his demonic body than any horse could.

Now that he was running and compared himself to a normal human. He realised how strong he actually was. Just with his own body, Hyde could run twice as fast as a horse with ease.

Surrounded by grassy hillocks, the path continued on towards the west. Occasionally, Hyde would run past a horse-drawn carriage or a traders caravan. Usually, the people he ran past at over 100km/h would end up shouting that he was a witch.

Along the way, Hyde even ran into a group of bandits. He couldn't help but think they looked really cute. Standing there with their little knives speaking in Shakespearian English they were trying to tell him to drop his bag.

Clearly, they hadn't noticed that Hyde wasn't carrying a bag. Also instead of fingernails, Hyde had claws that would put their knives to shame.

Taking pity on them, he decided to run past them and leave them their bandit ways. Olde timey England was a tough time to live after all. You couldn't blame them for trying to escape poverty in any way possible.

"Hmm... leaving a bandit group alone and running past them isn't very knightly is it?" Hyde wondered out loud. Still, he was just doing what felt right.

After running for a couple more hours, Hyde arrived at a village. Most villages of these sorts were often closer to slums than a town. But this one seemed particularly bad.

The streets ran with mud and a house was considered to be in good condition if it only had a few holes in the roof. Sickly children peered out at him from inside their houses, too afraid to walk out into the streets.

Hyde couldn't help but notice a glaring lack of men in this town. In fact, he hadn't seen any yet at all.

As if on cue an elderly man walked out of one of the better-looking houses. His back crooked, the old man contrasted the filth of the town with his pristine clothes.

He wore a white, linen blouse and brown leather trousers and boots. His clothes resembled that of a noble. The old man had a stoic expression on his face.

"Art thou the knight?" The old man asked. The look he gave Hyde was sceptical.

Unsure how to reply, Hyde, paused in confusion. He decided to tell the man what he knew. "I'm not a knight but a trainee. Still, I am here to kill a dragon. Is it nearby?

"Shit... after all that, they didn't even send a knight" Swore the old man.

"Okay..." said Hyde while looking apologetic. "So should I go kill the dragon or..."

The old man looked at the apologetic Hyde and his expression softened. "Apologies, Trainee. Thy art not at fault."

At first, The ye olde English accent was entertaining. Now, however, Hyde was sick of it and totally checked out whenever these guys spoke.

He was working on a skill where he only heard what was actually important and not all of the thees, thous and thines.

The old man's tale was tragic. As most peoples were in these times.

He was the mayor of this town. One day a dragon had shown up and started terrorising the place, as dragons often do.

At first, He had gone for an audience with the king. The king refused to send a knight because knights are too expensive. The town needed to pay more in taxes to the crown if they wanted a campaign against the monster.

Unwilling, the men of the town had made a plan. They decided to kill the dragon themselves. They never came back. The few who did return had gone mad.

Without the men who usually worked, the town was stuck in limbo. Desperate to kill the dragon that kept taking the town's dwindling livestock, the mayor was forced to scrounge up money from the rest of the townspeople.

Then, after they had raised enough money and sent it to the capital. The king sent Hyde. Who wasn't even knight. So of course the old man wasn't exactly happy to see Hyde.

Hyde didn't know how to feel about this. He already hadn't been a fan of being a knight and now he was sure. He was going to kill the dragon anyway so that he could eat its heart. But then what? He would have to find out.

He left the village and walked to the west. Passing out of the ghost town and walking through the empty pastures Hyde left the limits of the village

Sniffing the air, he could smell sulfur and burning. It smelt very familiar to him, he was a demon after all. Following the smell, Hyde headed up the only mountain in the area.

His steps paused when he came across a massive footprint stamped into the ground. The clawed foot was almost a metre wide and half a foot deep. Hyde's blood boiled thinking about the creature that left such a footprint.

Smoke drifted outside of the cave that Hyde stood outside. The dragon's den lay on the other side of the mountain to the town.

Looking at the hungry cave mouth, Hyde grinned and ran in. Now that he was used to fighting monsters it wasn't in his nature to wait around for his opponent to strike. Whoever took the initiative in a fight had the best chance to win.

Inside the cave on a mound of bones, both animal and human, Lay a monstrous lizard. Smoke poured from its bloodied green snout, its leathery wings were curled around it protectively. With claws that could shred a boulder, the monster was truly intimidating.

Hyde's run came to an abrupt stop when he set eyes on the monster. He wasn't even sure his claws could pierce its leathery scales. One thing he was sure of was that the dragon's claws could definitely pierce him. He was only a useless leather tunic.

A low growl came from Hyde's throat. He knew he needed to fight the dragon in this cave. With its movements and flight restricted, he just might have a chance.

Getting low to the ground, Hyde crawled towards the dragon, careful not to wake up the sleeping beast.

When he was close enough to feel the boiling hot breath of the creature against his face, Hyde was careful not to even breathe in case he woke it up.

At the moment, he was glad not to be wearing heavy armour like a knight. Otherwise, he would have been a walking alarm bell for the dragon.

Frustratingly, the dragon was sleeping on its front, so Hyde couldn't reach its softer underbelly or its neck. Left with no other choice he made his way to the beast hind legs. All the while, being careful to step over the scattered bones and skulls.

Taking his claws, Hyde Growled, It didn't matter if this would wake up the dragon, because what he was about to do next definitely would.

The dragon roared, deafening Hyde who was trapped in the cave with it. Not thinking too much about his sore ears, Hyde was too busy being smashed into a wall.

After he had cut the dragon's tendon on its back leg, Hyde was swept off his feet by the dragon's scaly tail.

Shaking his head, Hyde couldn't clear the ringing in his ears. He barely had time to roll out of the way before a claw sheared through the wall behind where he once stood. Hyde felt air rush past his back as he rolled under the claw.

Not giving the dragon any more time to attack him, Hyde sprung up from his roll and sliced the foreleg of the dragon that had just tried to kill him.

With two of its legs disabled, the dragon tried to spread its wings to intimidate Hyde and scare him off. But both of the wings smashed into the cave walls.

Barely managing to duck under the flourishing wings, Hyde was forced to listen to the dragon's screech of pain.

With its intimidation bearing little fruit, the dragon started to scream. Flame poured out from behind the beast's serrated teeth.

Hyde laughed at the screaming monster, "Using flame on a demon. Some fucking dragon" He laughed while bathed in flames.

Barrelling straight into the flames, Hyde's clothes caught fire and began to melt. The dragon was standing on its only good back leg and with its wings flung wide and head pressed against the cramped cave ceiling.

Hyde burst out of the wall of flames and leapt towards the dragon's throat. Like a meteor, he crashed into the dragon's throat and jammed his claws into scaly skin. Blood burst out of 10 wounds, one for each claw.

The Dragon's skin made an uncomfortable sizzling sound as the burning Hyde stuffed his flaming hands into its throat. It tried to roar again but choked on its own blood.

With a thunderous boom, the dragon crashed into the cave floor. A once-mighty beast had become a mere corpse. A corpse without a heart at that.

The heart was grasped in Hyde's hand. Still pulsing from the electromagnetic signals, the heart was drenched in blood and the size of his head.

Hyde's own heart raced but he didn't think it was from adrenaline. No, it was because of what he had grasped in his hand. He knew the reason he came here.

He was supposed to eat this.