Solomon pulled his tail from the last Shrike and allowed it to fall to the ground. It landed in a sizzling pile of dissolved wood and scattered corpses. Joining the pile of ruined Shrikes that had gathered around him.

He heaved a sigh of relief and sat down on the spot. Desperate to catch his breath before the Shrike that was blocking the entrance to the Well was destroyed by the efforts of those trapped in the tunnel beneath it.

Between deep breaths, he turned to look at the Sky Wyrm, whose long snake-like body was now curled around his arm. She had brilliant green eyes, just like him.

Catena looked up into his eyes and he could have sworn she smiled.

"So... What are you?" Solomon asked tentatively.

"I am your elemental guardian. I guess you could say I am the personification of your elemental affinity. I finally gained independence whenever the elemental core in your heart took form." Catena replied easily.

"Right... You know that sounds crazy don't you? I mean, how do you expect me to believe that?" Solomon asked. Although if he was honest with himself, it did make sense.

"Who cares if you believe me or not? I just helped you win that battle right? In the end, all that matters is that we work together and..."

Catena's sentence was cut off by a boom that shook the ground. Something was smashing against the Shrike that covered the entrance and the ground shook violently after each attack.

Solomon grunted and stood up, "We can talk about this later, right now we just need to survive."

The tremors that shook the ground were getting stronger and stronger, as whatever was hitting against the Shrike increased the strength behind its attacks. In the ruined entrance to the Well, The fallen Shrike shook violently with each impact.

All of a sudden, the attacks completely stopped and the ruined city centre became silent once again.

"What the..." Solomon tried to say before being cut off by an enormous explosion.

A pillar of flame burst through the Shrike's corpse, tunnelling a gaping hole through the Shrikes body. The brilliant red flames rose into the dark clouds that covered the sky, piercing through and clearing away the storm clouds.

Sunlight beamed down through the hole in the clouds created by the pillar of fire and illuminated 4 figures as they jumped out from the hole the flames had created.

They landed on the ground in front of the corpse, and Solomon paused right as he was about to attack. Two of these demonic figures looked very familiar

"Hyde, is that you?" He asked tentatively.

Hyde squinted as he looked towards Solomon before eventually grinning. "Solomon is that you? How have you been?" He said with a beaming smile.

"Eh... you know, kind of shitty I guess," While Solomon said this, he looked down at his feet and spoke quietly.

The beaming smile on Hyde's face melted away and he frowned. "Hm, now that I'm looking at you, one of your horns is missing. Shit, that must have hurt like hell." He winced.

"You would not believe how much that hurt. It felt like my brain was melting," Solomon enthusiastically replied. "I'm just glad Sophia was there to help me when I was hurt. If I hadn't been able to rest in the library for a few days then..."

"I can imagine that would hurt pretty bad. Was it anything like the pain we felt when the leaderboard first appeared?" Fike asked curiously.

"Leaderboard?" Solomon echoed in confusion.

Wisp, who had been waiting quietly for a record time of 5 seconds piped up, "Yeah, I'm second place by the way. I don't know if you've heard of me."

Solomon thought about pretending he knew what they were talking about so that he wouldn't look stupid, but ended up asking anyway. "Second place in what? I honestly have no idea what you are talking about."

Wisp frowned, her position on the leaderboard was a great source of her pride after all. For this guy to pretend such a leaderboard didn't exist was annoying, to say the least.

Right as she was about to get angry, Drunken Sword spoke up, "Could it be that you haven't killed a Shrike? Perhaps that is why you haven't seen the leaderboard yet."

Solomon looked at the hundreds of corpses of Shrikes littered around him and frowned. "Unless I've been killing some sort of knockoff Shrikes then I don't think that's it."

Everyone else looked around at the hundreds of corpses piled near them. Only now did they realise that they were in a city. Although it was a ruined one, this was the first city they had seen on this planet.

Wisp squinted at the remains of the Shrikes and licked her lips, "Did you kill all of these by yourself?" She asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, anyway wasn't that tunnel you just came out of full of Shrikes?" Solomon asked

Wisp frowned at this confirmation before replying, "It was before we killed them all. There was about twice as many down there as up here."

Solomon breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank god, I don't think I could fight anymore Shrikes after that last battle," He said in joy before flopping down to the ground in exhaustion. At this point the only thing that had kept him going was willpower.

Wisp gave Solomon a weird look as he lay there on the ground, it seemed to say 'Is this weirdo really the one that killed all of these monsters?' He didn't exactly look very threatening.

When Hyde saw Solomon sitting down, he just laughed and went to join him, plopping down beside him. "I know how you feel. I have been non-stop fighting for almost a month now and I could use a rest."

Fike, who had joined them on the ground, grunted in annoyance, "I'm definitely more tired than you Hyde. Who do you think it was that had to clean up after you every time?"

Hyde looked at Fike in disgust. "Please tell me you are joking. I had to play bait. Every. Single. Time."

Their bickering was interrupted by a snort from Solomon. "Hmph. I didn't even have a partner so I'm probably way more tired."

Beside them, Wisp listened in, 'Are they actually competing over who is more tired?' She wondered. Or at least she thought about it, as she went to sit down next to them, 'There is no way any of them worked harder than me' She vowed.

Hyde racked his brain and finally found a suitable comeback "Wait a second, Didn't you say something about a girl called Sophia earlier? Wasn't she helping you fight?"

Solomon looked sad when he heard her name again and sighed, "No, she was just a regular person from this planet. I just recovered in her Library in between fights."

Fike smiled thinly, "I'm jealous that you even had a place to rest. Where is the girl so that we can stay at her place too?"

Solomon's face darkened slightly and he looked down at his feet, "She... She died."

"Brilliant!" Hyde shouted, "She can join us in Hell then. Isn't that great?"

Everyone turned and stared at Hyde like he was some sort of mystical insect, equally strange and disturbing.

Solomon's face darkened even more, "How the Fuck is that brilliant? She won't look the same or remember who I am. How am I supposed to find her?" He shouted.

"The power of love," Hyde said while smirking.

"Hyde," Solomon said while looking Hyde dead in the face.

"Yes," Hyde replied while grinning.

"Does my fist smell strange to you?" Solomon asked while cocking back his arm.

"What do you... Argh," Hyde yelped as Solomon's fist collided with his nose.

Hyde shook off the punch and looked at Solomon while frowning, "Um, I think there's a bug on your face. Hold on, I'll get it for you."

Solomon caught the open palm that was about to slap his face, "Hah, don't try and use my own... oof." Solomon grunted in pain.

Wisp burst out laughing as Hyde removed his other fist from Solomon's stomach. Her laughter only grew louder as Solomon jumped on top of Hyde and they started rolling about in the dirt.

Solomon was using his knees and elbows to smash into Hyde's face. While Hyde was playing dirty, pulling hair and aiming below the belt. They were out for blood.

"Enough of this nonsense," Drunken Sword spoke up and was completely ignored. The only person to even notice him was Fike who shook his head sadly and stepped back out of the blast zone. He wasn't planning on getting involved with this fight.

"Go for his doggy ears. Fuck yes, right there." Cheered Wisp. She was loving this visceral violence and especially like seeing Hyde getting hit. 'That guy has always been annoying.' She had even beaten him up in the past whenever he tried to scam her.

Her cheering came to an abrupt halt whenever a flailing leg caught her in the side and sent her flying. She skimmed across the ground before eventually coming to a stop 50 metres away.

Hyde and Solomon stopped fighting just long enough to see Wisp pulling herself out of the crater her collision had created. Her mouth was smiling, but her eyes were blazing in anger.

"Shit," Hyde swore, he had seen those eyes once before. It was right before she beat the living daylights out of him.

"Solomon I think we should... Urg," Hyde's attempt to reason with Solomon was cut off by a fist.

Right before all Hell could break loose, Drunken Sword lept in between the combatants and roared in anger.

"LISTEN TO ME!... Ah, what the?" His bellow was cut short when a small fist slammed into his back, sending him careering off into a nearby building.

"Hahaha," Wisp had to clutch her stomach she was laughing so hard. "I didn't mean to do that, but I'm glad I did." She wheezed.

Drunken Sword pulled himself out of the rubble and brushed off the dust that had covered his white shirt. He took three deep breaths before finally calming himself.

He directed his attention towards Solomon and asked the question that had been on his mind. "Look, I don't care if you want to fight, but have you seen a demon called Titan lately?"

Solomon frowned in displeasure when he heard Titan's name, "Yeah I saw that asshole earlier. He ran by and left me with all those Shrikes to deal with," He said while gesturing towards the thoroughly dead monsters.

Drunken Sword nodded in satisfaction and asked a follow-up question, "Which way did he go?"

Solomon looked around for a bit and tried to remember, "I think it was... ah yes, over there," he said while pointing towards a set of buildings that had collapsed towards the east.

"Thanks." Drunken Sword said curtly, before taking off towards the east. He needed to find Titan as soon as possible.

When Drunken Sword had left, a tense silence settled on the three demons that had been about to fight. Wisp was staring at Hyde venomously and Solomon was cracking his knuckles. Hyde looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a nuclear missile... if they had headlights anyway.

Fike inched further away and backed off towards the tunnel he had come from earlier. At least he would be able to jump in if he needed cover.

Eventually, a piercing exploding shattered the tense silence. Dust billowed up into the air and rubbled sprayed everywhere.

When the dust settled. A bloodied figure was left inside a crater. His blonde hair was bedraggled and his clothes were torn to shreds. Above his head, a grey halo floated quietly. It released a soft, holy glow as it hung there motionless.

"Titan?" Solomon blurted out. Honestly, he had been expecting to see Hyde in that crater with Wisp standing over him.

"Ugh, fuck me." Titan groaned inside the crater. On his hands, two golden gauntlets shifted and warped until they had become pillars that pushed him back to his feet. The metal that made up the gauntlets seemed to flow freely like it was molten gold.

Titan caught sight of Solomon and smiled slyly, "Oh you're still here. Good, can you lend me a hand with the Progenitor after all?"

"It's one tough bastard."