Thinking back on it, Hyde was sure there had been many paths available to him along his journey.

If he had captured the bandits and slain the dragon, he would have walked the path of a knight.

Had he taken pity on the villager's mistreatment at the hands of the royalty, he could have rebelled, thus walking the path of anarchy.

But, he did neither. He ate the heart of the dragon, taking its strength for himself. Then he left. It might have been cold-hearted but, he didn't really care.

He had chosen selfishness. The strong ate the weak. That's how it was.

He chose The path of Gluttony.

The villagers, if they were even real, could solve their own problems. That's the way he thought anyway.

After making his decision, the world fell apart around him. The building blocks of reality collapsed, leaving behind an empty space with an ominous altar at its centre.

Pitch black, made of obsidian and the bones of mythical creatures, the altar had one word carved into its surface.

[Lethe]

...

After crying for a while, Solomon slapped himself on the face. How could he be so stupid? He knew these memories were of a previous life.

Memories that didn't really have anything to do with him. He wasn't responsible for anything that happened in that life. All he had to do was deal with the repercussions of those actions.

Still... He couldn't help but flinch when he remembered such a desolate life. Without joy or hope. Alone, always alone. Trapped and alone.

Solomon shuddered. He could never. No, He would never be trapped like that again. It went against every fibre of his very being.

"Where am I anyway?" He muttered.

Solomon looked around. He lay in a cavern of grey stone. Stalactites hung down from the ceiling dripping a clear glowing liquid onto a tree.

"A tree? What is such a thing doing down here?" Solomon asked. He was baffled, plants usually needed sunlight after all. And he could confirm that no sunlight had ever reached this cavern.

In fact, as far as he could tell, nothing had ever reached this cavern. It was completely enclosed. There was no entrance or exit. Everywhere he looked there was stone blocking his path.

Basically familiar with this sort of situation, Solomon sighed.

Scratching his head in thought Solomon looked around. 'There must be some sort of trigger, something I need to do in order to leave' He reasoned.

The cave was lit by a soft glow from a strange fungus that clung to the ceiling like stars. Piercing out of the fungus and plunging towards the ground were the stalactites.

Drip, drip, drip. The constant sound of the water flowing down from the ceiling and splashing onto the vibrant green leaves of the tree.

"Must be the tree, huh" Solomon guessed.

The tree was rather small. Compared to the one he had seen earlier anyway. It stood a few meters tall. Glowing green leaves decorated the branches that spiralled off from the trunk. Following the trunk down was the roots. Each one burrowed tenaciously into the stone of the cave ground.

Walking up to the tree Solomon was curious. He was sure he had done everything he was supposed to. So what was the point of this?

He couldn't help it when his gaze was drawn to a supple fruit that hung from the top branch of the tree.

Honestly, he was slightly wary of this tree. The last time he ate a fruit from a mysterious tree had been somewhat traumatising.

The difference was that this time, something was telling him to eat the fruit. Something deep inside of him wanted to eat the fruit.

For some reason, he knew it would be good for him. Apparently, his tail knew that too. Without him telling it to, it snaked up towards that fruit.

Perplexed, Solomon just watched. He could have tried to stop his tail but decided against that. He was already getting claustrophobic being trapped in this cave. Bad memories that he had just barely managed to bury were resurfacing.

He needed to get out of here soon and wasn't going to let a fruit get in the way of such a thing.

His tail returned with the fruit in tow. Presenting it to him with the utmost care, as if it carried a baby, the fruit landed in his outstretched hand.

In his cupped hands lay a pomegranate, shining bloody red. Solomon couldn't help but gulp. It looked delicious, he wanted to eat this more than anything he had ever wanted in his life.

Pausing with the fruit poised in front of his mouth, Solomon prayed that this fruit would remain as a fruit and not turn into an organ.

Checking that it wasn't pulsing or acting suspiciously organ-like, Solomon reasoned that it should be okay to eat.

Biting into it, the whole fruit melted into his mouth and flowed down his throat in a soothing stream of warmth.

It started as soothing anyway. The problem was that that warm feeling kept increasing.

Solomon remembered hearing a story about a frog. If you dropped one into boiling water, it would jump out immediately in pain. But, if you dropped it in normal water and slowly boiled the water, the frog wouldn't notice the increased temperature and would die.

Apparently, this was bullshit. He could clearly notice the burning feeling that scorched his throat and stomach. He could feel it in agonising detail as the burning spread throughout his whole body.

The worst pain was coming from his tail. It felt as though he had dipped it in lava.

As he burned internally, the green flames that always surrounded him flared up. Solomon groaned as he writhed on the ground in agony.

Soon after, the noise of the flames was accompanied by popping sounds.

In Solomon's body, Muscles tore and joints re-aligned. Bones ground against each other with sickening clarity as they repositioned themselves.

The worst noises came from his tail. Originally, his tail was in the shape of a flattened metallic spine. Divided into serrated sections like a spine which made it easier to move.

Each of these sections clashed with each other as something about them changed. The noise that resulted from this was similar to what you might hear in a smithy as someone straightened out metal with a hammer.

Gasping for air, reason flew from Solomon's mind. He was in no position to think clearly as he desperately clung to the last vestiges of his consciousness.

However, if he could think clearly, he might remember something he was told before he entered the 'Penance'.

"If successfully completed, your abilities will be improved."

Yes, this was what was happening to him right now. Apparently, it wasn't some nebulous increase of skills or unlocking of magic. His body was growing stronger, along with his racial abilities and this process was torturous.

At this very moment, Hyde and Fike were experiencing similar agony.

Hyde's claws sharpened and his senses grew clearer, He could hear the sound of the water dripping from the ceiling with deafening clarity. And, most importantly, fueled by the energy of the dragon's heart he had eaten and the fruit, a new organ formed in his body.

Fike groaned as the harpoon on his arm sharpened and elongated. Along with this, the structure of his shoulder changed, becoming covered in bony armour. Perhaps, the internal changes in his shoulder were even more drastic.

Solomon's tail stretched to double its original length, before snapping back to what it had been. Again and again, it lengthened and shortened all the while accompanied by the screeching of metal against metal. At the very end of the tail, a wicked hook formed. reminiscent of a scorpion.

Perhaps, the pain that resulted from these changes was simply too much. All three passed out in unison. In the cavern, bathed in the glow of stars they lay as still as the dead.

...

Solomon woke up with a gasp. Sitting bolt upright and spluttering for air, he panted. He knew he had left the cavern. There were telltale signs all around him.

These signs took the shapes of Fike and Hyde, along with one or two other demons he hand't seen before.

All the gathered demons looked particularly strong. At the very least, they looked a lot tougher than any of the demons he had met in the first circle. Aside from those that ran the barges of course.

Solomon himself looked quite intimidating. With curved horns peaking out from his head and a tail that glittered, reflecting the glow from the ceiling above them onto the wickedly pointed hook at its end.

He couldn't quite put his finger on how he had grown. It's not like he grew taller or bulked up massively. Rather, His slender form seemed to burst with energy. As if his muscles had condensed and strengenthed immensely.

On his right, Hyde lay there sleeping peacefully. So, it was only natural that Solomon would lay a kick into his side.

"Ahh, what the fuck!" Hyde roared as he woke up.

Something strange happened as a result of him roaring. That by itself was unnatural, as he had never been known to roar before. If anything, he would growl, perhaps due to the canine influence of his race.

However, not only did he roar, flames shot out of his open mouth as he did so. Terrified, Solomon watched the encroaching flames and cried out.

As the flames neared him, his tail burst into action. Originally, it was 2 metres long, but each of the sections of the tail separated until its length had doubled. Using the hook at the end he was yanked out of the way, barely saving his eyebrows from being singed off.

Woken up by the roar of a dragon, Fike was startled into action when a scorching heat beared down on his unsuspecting face. Desperately leaping to the side Fike cried out.

"Shit a dragon!" Fike exclaimed.

In panic he pointed his harpoon at whatever it was behind the wall of flame. Like a bolt of lighting, the harpoon burst out of Fike's arm as steam shot out of the bone spurs on his shoulder.

Fike was just turning to run the other way when he heard cursing. "Jesus! Something nearly took my head off. Did you see what it was Solomon?"

As the flames died down, a petrified Hyde was revealed with a harpoon buried into the cave wall beside his shoulder.

"Fike? is this yours?" Hyde asked while his voice quivered.

Still on guard, FIke asked "Yeah, where is the dragon?"

Hyde looked down awkwardly and spoke under his breath. "There is no dragon."

"No dragon?" Fike echoed. "Then who..."

"It was Hyde." Solomon replied instantly.

Hyde looked betrayed when Solomon pointed his finger in his direction. His expression was aggrieved and seemed to say. 'How could you do this?'

Surprisingly, Fike didn't seem to mind too much. He only apologised for nearly beheading Hyde.

"Sorry about that, I'm just still on edge from my trial." Fike explained.

Hyde nodded, he had fought a pretty intense fight himself. Interested in Fike's story he asked him what had happened.

"Well, after I spoke to the creepy cloak guy with the lantern. I was stressed out about which path to choose. Until, all of a sudden I heard the sound of rushing water in one of them. The sound of waves crashing against each other called out to me and I ended up walking through that tunnel."

Solomon listened to this with interest. His experience had been vastly different. Meanwhile, Hyde looked slightly embarrassed. He had just picked the nearest one impatiently. Perhaps that was why his trial was slightly strange in nature.

Fike continued on, "Anyway, all of sudden I was on this boat in the ocean. Waves 10s of meters high were crashing into the sides and a shadow moved beneath us in the water. Before I could even catch my breath a humongous whale burst out of the waves in front of us and someone was shouting at me to "Kill Moby Dick!"

Solomon paled hearing this. His trial wasn't nearly as treacherous.

Apparently enthralled by this story, Hyde laughed. "I wonder what whale would taste like? I ended up killing a dragon and its taste wasn't bad."

Solomon looked shocked once again, A dragon, A monsterous whale. Why were their trials so different from his?

Fike turned to Solomon who was still looking lost. "What did you have to do for your trial?"

"I ate a fruit from a big tree." He answered sheepishly.

"No, we all did that. Although the tree wasn't that big. I meant your trial, what did you fight?" Fike asked again.

Solomon blushed as he tried to explain himself. "My trial was also to eat a fruit from a tree."

"It must have been a really big tree, right. Did you have to climb really high to get to the fruit?" Hyde asked enthusiastically.

"Well... the tree was really big. But, the fruit was at the very bottom." Solomon buried looked at his feet while speaking.

"So... you just picked an easy fruit and called it a day?" Fike exclaimed disbelievingly.

Solomon nodded. He couldn't refute it. Why had his trial been so easy? Curse his good fortune. This was a shame he would carry from then on.