A young boy stood shakily at the entrance of the library. He was holding a heavy leather-bound book in his small hands and was standing in between a monster and his grandmother.

Behind him, the people of the city huddled together, pressing back into the alcoves of the bookshelves, desperately trying to remain hidden.

The boy was flanked on either side by a few men. Most of them were old and didn't look as though they had long left to live. Perhaps that was why they were willing to stand in between the Shrike and the helpless women and children.

In front of the library, the monster trudged forwards with heavy footsteps. Along its twisted limbs were the mauled corpses of many people. All of them had faces twisted into masks of eternal agony. All except one... at the very end of one branch was a particularly fresh corpse. It was a woman and she had a serene smile covering her face.

Stifling his gasp, the boy whispered to his grandfather who stood beside him, "Isn't that the librarian?"

"Shush boy! Didn't I already tell you to go back to your grandmother? I told you that I will take care of this,"

"Take care of what? I have to help you cut up your food because your hands shake too much to hold a knife. Can you still say you can protect grandmother?"

"Please listen to me... I don't wasn't to see you die before me... not after what happened to your father,"

The hushed whispers of the pair drew glares from the rest of the men lined up at the entrance to the library. But, none of them dared tell the pair to be quiet. What if that was what caught the Shrikes attention?

Stubbornly, the boy refused to hide in the back of the library. He clutched the heavy tome he was holding tighter and ground his teeth together.

Behind them, a mother was holding a baby in her arms. She was choking down tears and her hand was clamped on the baby's mouth. It was trying to cry and if she removed her hand, it would all be over.

The baby's struggles grew weaker as it was slowly smothered by its mother. While the rest of the survivors watched on grimly. If the mother of the child tried to remove her hand, they would have to step in. If that kid started crying, it would alert the strike.

At the end of the street, the Shrike wandered through the thick acrid smoke. It seemed to sense something was nearby but couldn't get a lock on its location.

Then, the Shrike straightened up and turned its lumbering body towards the walls. Following the Shrike, the boy looked towards the wall. Wondering what could have gotten its attention. 'Is it the guards,' he wondered.

While this street was covered in a blanket of eery silence. The same wasn't true for the rest of the city. Thunderous explosions rang out as the cannons and ballistas atop the walls had turned to aim inwards at the houses and the monsters that roamed between them.

In the still air, the boy gradually began to make out the sounds of something nearing them. It was crashing through buildings and the sounds of screaming accompanied its approach.

Within the smoke, something came into view. A towering Shrike, more than twice as big as the one at the end of their street.

Although, under normal circumstances, this would spell disaster for the people hiding in the library. Instead of fear, the only thing they felt was awe.

The Shrike that was approaching them wasn't doing so along the ground. It was skidding limply along the rooftops of buildings in a shower of fire and mortar.

Ploughing through the nearby houses, the approaching Shrike came to a stop when it collided with the other one that was prowling along the edges of their street. Now that he could get a proper look at it, the boy noticed that Its thick trunk was snapped in half and withered up. The uncomfortable sound of something sizzling came from within the Shrike's body.

The Shrike that had been hit tried to get up but was hammered back into the ground when something metallic impaled its hard wooden body with ease. It quickly began to shrivel up and wither into a dried-out husk.

After their deaths, two ghostly balls of black glowing light floated up out of the Shrikes. They paused for a moment above the corps and then zoomed off into the thick black smoke, obscured from the boy's view.

He watched with bated breath as a person ran out of the fog. His appearance was human, aside from the horns, two tails and green-red flames that flickered translucently around him.

The young man sprinted out of the smoke, seemingly impervious to its effects and skidded to a stop in front of the library. He stared straight at the boy with his luminous green eyes and anxiously spoke.

"Where is Sophia?"

Confused, the boy couldn't answer, "Who... who is Sophia?"

"The librarian! kid. Have you seen her,"

The boy's grandfather spoke up, "She was going around evacuating people to the library, I haven't seen her since 20 minutes ago."

The young man paused in confusion, "She was doing what?" He muttered before raising his voice again, "Does anyone here know where she is?"

An ominous silence settled on the library and the young man became even more flustered. No one was answering him.

"I..." The young boy tried to speak up.

The young man swivelled his gaze back to the boy and stared daggers into his eyes, "Yes!"

"I, I think I saw her..."

"Where? Where was she?"

The boy slowly raised his finger and pointed towards the second Shrike Solomon had killed. At the very end of its twisted and withered branch, a young woman was impaled through her stomach. She hung limply with a serene smile plastered on her face, red streaks of blood oozed from the sides of her mouth.

The young man's face turned grim when he saw Sophia's corpse impaled on the Shrike's branch, "Dammit! Too late," he muttered.

He walked up to the Shrike and gently removed the woman's body from its branch. She left behind a dried stain of red blood. "It's still fresh... she must have died only a few minutes ago," groaned the young man.

Cradling Sophia in his arms, the young man carried her over to the library. He ignored the apprehensive gazes of the refugees hiding within the library and set her down in her favourite seat.

All the while, he was muttering two words quietly, "Too. Late. Too. Late." He kept repeating. He reached down and closed her eyes with one hand. Then he turned around sinisterly and left. His face was as dark as pitch and storm clouds of fury were rumbling above his head.

He stepped over the threshold of the library and all of sudden, he was standing before the corpse of the Shrike. The boy who was watching him from the library almost got whiplash trying to follow the young man's movements. Mighty gusts of wind billowed and swirled around him as he looked down at the dead monster.

And then, just as suddenly as he had come, the young man disappeared off into the smoke.

...

On a nearby street, a soldier who was running towards the city centre was flung to the side and crashed into the wall of a nearby house. He didn't even see what had hit him.

Throughout the city, similar stories repeated themselves. All any of the victims knew was that something was moving very fast towards the city centre.

In the heavens above, ghostly black thunderclouds began to materialise from nothing. Until just a moment ago, the sky had been clear blue. There wasn't a cloud within 100 hundred miles.

Thunder rumbled and boomed above the city as the clouds stretched out to swallow the sun, completely blanketing the city in shadow.

At the centre of the swirling maelstrom of thunder clouds was a young man. Or to be more precise... a demon.

...

Solomon was moving so fast through the city, he had become a blur. Everywhere he passed, the pavement cracked and glass would break from the shockwaves

He hadn't completely lost his mind in anger... but he was close.

Although he knew that death wasn't the end of a person's existence. That wasn't much of a comfort. Every time he closed his eyes, he would see Sophia's corpse, hanging limply... cold and lifeless.

She may reincarnate as a demon, but she would be a different person then, just like Solomon was. To him, she was as good as dead.

His blood was boiling in rage and he had to let out this anger somehow. In the end, a convenient sandbag had appeared for him to let his anger out on.

Shrike after Shrike fell to the ground as Solomon passed by. Their corpses were shrivelled and withered from the venom he had injected inside them. Each time a Shrike fell to the ground, dead an orb of light would float out and into Solomon.

Within his heart, a crystal core began to form. It only took a couple of minutes for it to be half completed.

The city was crawling with Shrike's and they were all quite powerful. 'That should have been a General ranked Shrike I just killed Solomon mused,' He had managed to do so effortlessly and with one strike.

It was slightly harder, but he managed to kill a Lord ranked Shrike shortly after and without too much difficulty. The number of Shrike within the city dropped sharply as Solomon darted from place to place like the grim reaper. Reaping the lives of any Shrike he could find.

After absorbing the damned soul of the Lord ranked Shrike. The elemental core within Solomon's chest had already completely taken shape. But he had no time to pay attention to it. He was completely preoccupied with the numerous Shrike remaining within the city.

As Solomon rampaged within the walled city, it must be noted that he had already killed hundreds of Shrike and multiple General ranked Shrike. He had even managed to kill a Lord ranked Shrike. So it would stand to reason that he would have gained enough points to rank in and around the top 1000 on the leaderboards. And yet... there was no sign of him anywhere on the leaderboards at all.

...

War was watching everything unfold beneath him with a beaming smile. He had invited over some of his old friends and they were watching the scenes of the war between demons and Shrike like it was a reality show.

War and his friends were lounging on luxurious couches that were centred around a deep pit in the ground. This pit was full of water and had gold coins piled high within. On the water's surface was the projection of the war. This projection was called a Visionis and was activated by sacrificing gold to the god of foresight.

A disgustingly beautiful woman giggled and pointed at the violent picture. "I like the looks of this one. The little guy called in first looks great. I think he has what it takes to serve us succubi. What was his name again? Titan?" Her laughter was laced with suggestion and lust.

"Shut the fuck up Lilith!" Roared a muscular woman covered in tattoos. "How dare you speak of my nephew like that,"

Lilith licked her lips and smiled evilly. She had always enjoyed annoying Hypollita. "You amazons are always such stuck up bitches,"

"What did you?!"

"Be quiet," Hissed an old man. His head was covered in thick white hair and a beard. On one eye, he wore an eyepatch and he was frowning while looking through visionis. "War! are you sure you set the visionis up properly? You haven't been slacking on your duties as an administrator, have you?"

"What are you talking about? Of course I haven't been negligent. Can't you see the 'Penance' is proceeding smoothly? There's no need to get your knickers in a twist eye-patch," Joked War smugly.

The old man snorted in annoyance and looked away from War. He missed whenever all the gods had names. These new upstarts always seemed to find a way to get under his skin.

When he looked back at the projection of the battle, the frown returned to his face. The projection was showing the image of a planet that had been ravaged by fire. The only place that remained unmarred was a thick band of forest that stretched around the equator like a belt.

Within these forests, thousands of demons waged a war of epic proportions against the Shrike. Blood was shed, fire was spread and deaths were aplenty on both sides... So why did he feel like something was missing? Hiding in the peripheries of his vision, just out of reach.

He was Odin, the possessor of the all-seeing eye, and yet... Why did he feel like there was something out of his sight?

In the end, he shrugged it off as a consequence of old age and turned his attention back to the projection of a battlefield.

Within the chaos of the battle, two demons were standing out through their excellent coordination and skilled control of the elements.

One of them had wolfish, canine ears poking up from his sandy blonde hair. Instead of fingernails, he had vicious claws that tore through the tough bodies of the Shrike. When he opened his mouth, torrents of flame gushed out.

Beside him stood a slightly more unassuming demon. He had bone spurs rising from his shoulder and a wickedly sharp harpoon where his left forearm should have been. When enemies tried to attack him, they would freeze in place before being impaled.

Solomon wasn't the only one decimating the Shrikes right now.