Solaris sat in the turret, his eyes growing heavy, his heart beating, and his mind in pain; he felt so much all at once. It was beginning to grow hard to think; all his emotions were weighing on his psyche, thoughts of saving Ember, thoughts of murder, and thoughts of death, all circled in his mind, circling until it went blank.
He slowly drifted into the embrace of sleep.
The familiar sound of chains rattled as he woke from his slumber, his eyes slowly opened, and he observed his current predicament.
The few hours of sleep had settled him down just long enough to think, to assess, and plan.
Sitting up and crossing his legs, he felt his heart subtly speed up; his sense of dread was present, but he was persevering.
I need to focus, I need to save Ember, getting home can wait, but first I need to make sure I can save him, so I'm gonna need to sneak out and get food, water, and intel.
Solaris began to observe the surroundings through the opening in the turret.
The area was very urban, much like where the crimson cross had been situated, while his former abode was much more like the slums, just with much taller buildings.
He looked around and decided on a route to a house semi-close to the castle.
The castle was settled, just like the sniper tower; it was in the middle of many buildings, and seemed very out of place.
After deciding on a route, he had to understand the extent of his Extramicy, as Cedric and Ember had told him in the past. Once you unlock the ability, you are instinctively able to understand how to use it, as if you've always had it. Of course, this wasn't the same as an instruction booklet, more of a quick summary of it.
Armed with this knowledge, Solaris closed his eyes and began to scour his mind and body, then he called the ability out. As he opened his eyes, he watched as his arms slowly darkened into pure black, then, focusing again, he watched as the faint heat grew as the light appeared.
I see, so it's not a single; I got very fortunate, I guess.
Solaris had been very well informed about Extramicy's, due to his conversations with Cedric, or at least he thought he was well informed; clearly, from Ember's perspective, he didn't know anything.
With the knowledge he did have, however, he was certain he was blessed with two abilities, one that heats and one that hardens,
"I suppose I'll name them… Damn, I got nothing, just Heat and Harden will do, for now."
Shaking his head at the hypocrisy of it, he continued and began to do some minor experimentation with the powers.
After a few moments, he felt as if he had only scratched the surface of the abilities, yet he had learned enough for this current task.
Solaris nodded and then called forth the shards. As they appeared, he witnessed the shards slide out from his skin.
Moving four under his feet, he then coated over them and began to float as he had done in the castle's halls.
He floated out the windows of the turret and then began to increase his speed and flew towards the house, using the other turrets as cover to avoid being detected.
Within minutes, Solaris slowed and then opened the door to the house. He moved a few shards to just above his arm, letting them rest on his knuckle. He quickly hardened them into a small blade, attached to his arm.
When he had attempted this before, during his first encounter with the beak demon, it had simply been ineffective, yet now, with Heat and Harden, he was much more confident in its strength.
Without wanting to take any risks that could put him back into that damned cell, he began to slowly search the house, using his shards to float only a few inches above the ground, reducing and eliminating the sound of his movement.
Clear
Clear
Clear
Last one... Clear.
Solaris had checked all the rooms in the house twice, once with the shards and a second with his eyes. Making sure to confirm the lack of any advisories in the building, before daring to let his guard down, with this confirmed, he made his way to the kitchen and began to grab food and water.
Making sure to leave a few shards at the front door as an alarm.
As he ate, he constantly looked around, ensuring no demons and, more importantly, no chains were approaching him.
Now that food and water are solved, I need to formulate a plan of attack, so I need to gather intel on that bastard and its underlings.
Slowly, Solaris left the house, looking both ways as he left, then shooting up with incredible speed, before slowing and making his way through the window.
Settling onto the bench in the turret, Solaris began formulating a plan of attack, or rather a plan of murder.
He knew that he was unable to win in a full-on assault on the castle, but he did know he had a chance of assassinating the demons one by one.
***
Two creatures were walking around the courtyard of the castle, one tall with thick black armor, with a large shield and a sizable sword; its face contained two glowing eyes, and four horns, two small and two large, and the another with two slits for eyes and a seemingly large cut from its chin to the sides of its face; it had terrible posture and two massive wings protruding from its bent back, it held no weapons or at least appeared to not hold any.
As the two walked, they approached an archway leading into the covered area of the courtyard. The winged demon slowly extended its arm, and a halberd slid out, seemingly made of bone, and then slowly approached the arch, its weapon at the ready.
A large slit tongue appeared from the cut on its face and licked around the face, before disappearing back into the cut, which was actually a mouth. As it passed under the arch, its spear shot up and struck nothing but three matte black shards with an orange glow, slowly tapping on the stone.
Turning to look at the armored demon, its slit eyes slowly widened, revealing two tiny black eyes. As it saw the armored demon dead, it was still standing, yet it had two holes punched through its torso; the once-thick black armor now looked melted, with the worst at the holes having some of the metal dripping, mixing with the blood of the demon.
The winged demon began to approach the dead one before the bottom of its face peeled open, revealing a dark mouth with layers of teeth. Its arms shot forward and ripped the helmet off, taking the head with it, then it began to devour the inside of the helmet.
It began to eat the demon.
Solaris's eyes widened at the sight of the Demon eating one of its own, then his fist crunched, and a red crystal shattered, narrowing his eyes, a slight smile appeared on his face, as he looked down at the demons.