Alex and Sol followed the dregs of the crowd from behind, letting them take the brunt of the demons into the new room. Did that mean that they wouldn't get as many Red Orbs as they would otherwise get?

Yes.

But, and it was an important factor, it would also mean that they would get information, see what kind of enemies they would face and they would save their strength for later, when they would actually fight. Considering they weren't using Demonic Performance Enhancer, it was better to play safe than fast and loose.

Especially because they had no save files.

"So, I can see that a lot of them managed the demons with only small wounds. Only a few of them have actually gotten serious wounds." Alex remarked, from a corner of the new room, looking at the various, demon-drugged, people that were attacking with wild abandon, and without any kind of finesse, the monsters that appeared every now and then in the room.

Marionettes. Falling from the ceiling, made of wood, dressed in colorful clothes and sporting a series of weapons that looked rusty and somewhat crude, but still pretty sharp and dangerous.

Sometimes a gun.

Still very dangerous. For the two of them, anyway. The others were… pretty safe, and getting bolder by the moment.

"Damn, it's like watching a drug commercial: the first hit is free and easy, from the second, though, there will be Hell to pay." Alex stopped and blinked for a moment. "Literally, in this case." He chuckled at his macabre joke.

Sol couldn't help but return the laugh at the dark humor, before miming a smashing motion. "This is your body, this is your body on demon drugs, nobody asked questions." His smile died as he looked at the discarded remains of the marionettes. "Ah… kinda feel like an idiot now, could have bought another blue orb if I knew these would be around here."

Sol then took a moment to really look at the Marionette weapons for himself. Yes they were sharp, and it could probably ruin someone's day permanently, but they were clearly not meant to be handled by normal hands. What bothered him though was that they were still there. If he hadn't bought the hand axe and knife, he knew damn well he'd be trying to rip one of the marionette weapons free. Did the Demonic Strengthening purchases affect the mind of the buyers or was that literally their own pride speaking?

"I feel like I could get tetanus just looking at these." Sol paused for a moment and then continued. "So… we got marionettes here, first fodder enemy type. You're thinking this'll be a theme for a while? Starter enemies like Marionettes, Msira, Prides, and Scarecrows until our 'friend' drops something bigger on us?"

Alex nodded with conviction. "Definitely. Lure them in with something shiny, hook them with easy power and then…" He gestured up in a jerky motion, miming reeling something up. "Reel them up and away from the water, ready to be fileted and served for lunch." His grimy expression made it more than obvious how he was feeling about it.

"I both want to save them and don't want to, does it make sense? I mean, they end in the most stereotypical isekai fantasy ever and they don't even stop a moment to debate the situation? It's kinda shortsighted of them. And, yes, you and I have the bonus of meta-knowledge, but…" He gestured towards the environment. "This whole place is pretty suspect, isn't it?"

He was gesturing at the fleshy floor, the veins that were still pulsating and bringing blood who knows where, the monsters.

"I can only think that they have been affected by magic."

Sol sighed, "It's one hell of a scheme, even without that knowledge I'd be suspect… but I'd probably take the performance boosts without realizing. Demonic power seems to be a helluva thing, no pun intended."

Sol looked around further before continuing. "It can't just expect us to fight through caves, can it? I mean hell in DMC is always a mixed bag. I mean we've seen fleshy caves, marble rooms of stark contrasts, even a giant chess board if I remember right. That blood is going somewhere." Sol trails briefly before he turns pale.

"We never asked, no one made a point to ask the date." Sol turns to look at Alex with a horrified expression, "Is this the Qliphoth?"

Alex didn't answer. Not verbally. His face, however…

It was whiter than ever before, except for his lips, which were being bit between his teeth, so much that a faint trickle of blood was dripping from them. And even that wasn't enough to stop the incredibly faint whine of pure, unadulterated horror that was escaping his mouth. It sounded a bit like a dog being beaten to death.

The whole thing lasted for a few minutes before Alex managed to recover his senses and nodded, jerkily.

"I'm really hoping that it's not the case. But. Considering our luck until now. I'm afraid. It is." His whole speech was stunted, broken in parts, but he managed to not puke or start screaming. Which was a win, in his book.

"You do know what it means, right?"

"Means we're on a tight schedule. Because either Urizen is about to get up out of his chair, Nero's working out 20 odd years of parental abandonment, or the Sons of Sparda are about to seal this breach." Sol responded, before staring at the other people and continuing. "The demon is using these people to get a leg up on the sons of Sparda, this is not going to end well."

"Exactly." Alex nodded, turning his eyes towards the group of people fighting the demonic wooden puppets with wild abandon, using the power that had been granted to them without a care in the world. Without knowing.

"It means we're going to have to take more risks than we planned to. Starting from now." Alex moved away from the wall and extended his right arm, hand open, fingers extended forward, slightly tilted.

Purple light started collecting in it, while a magic circle inscribed itself in the air in front of it. Unknown symbols were written between the outer circle and the inner circle, six of them, with a series of spikes pointing inwards decorated the inside of the inner circle.

"I'm gonna aggro one enemy and attract it near here, then you're going to try and fight it, while I offer what support we can. We need at least enough Demon Blood to get at least the Purple Orb, maybe a couple of techniques for you. Ready?"

As soon as Sol nodded, Alex pointed at one of the Marionettes - one dressed in green - that was on the fringes nearer to them and shot.

The bullet of magic flew almost faster than what their eyes could follow, hitting the head of the Marionette and cratered half of the wooden monster's head. Not that it killed it. It only made it turn towards them, head turned ninety degrees to the side.

Then, with a cackle of wood on wood, it threw itself towards the duo.

Sol began to move along the demonic puppet's side. For a moment he saw the demon telegraph a high swing and moved out of the blade's path, bringing his hand axe down on the extended limb. The axe bit deeply, but the Marionette pulled back and swung again. Sol was forced to backpedal before throwing himself at the demon, striking at once with both weapons.

He aimed the hand axe at its head and drove the dagger into its side. The marionette reeled back, axe still buried in its mockery of a skull, while Sol forced it off balance, driving it to the floor all while repeatedly stabbing the demon with the dagger. He didn't realize it at the time but he had started to yell with each strike. It finally stopped moving, and Sol staggered to his feet.

"Holy… holy shit, that was… I killed it… I killed it!" He yelled with no small degree of shock and excitement. "We can do this, we can do this." The whole thing exploded into nothingness, leaving only a few red orbs that were soon moving towards Sol, adding themselves to his wallet. The body that had been left behind felt lesser, somewhat, and a quick check around the room showed that not every time that a demon died, the body remained after giving up its red orbs, sometimes they vanished.

"Yeah, you did. How do you feel? Tired?" Alex had moved a bit forward, being nowhere near enough to help - at least as a distraction - in case things were starting to go bad.

"Because we need to continue. Without using the granted power, we're going to lag behind in farming the red orbs and I have no idea how much time we're going to need to get the amount of Demon Blood we need."

"A little winded, but good yeah. I can see why Dante has so much fun fighting demons. But yeah, no, you're right. We have to move and make up the difference. I will cover you if need be."

Sol finished before spotting another marionette. "And I've got an idea. I'll call that one over, distract him, and you take him out. Cool?" Sol asks.

"I'll try. Let me prepare the spells now, so that I can try and take them out as soon as possible." Alex started murmuring something, two magic circles appearing above both of his hands, with the energy inside collecting slowly, forming the bullet.

"They are ready. I'm gonna try and see if I can charge them up, but I'm not sure I'm going to make it work. Feel free to go and aggro it, if you want." The long-haired guy nodded at Sol and focused, beads of sweat slowly starting to condense on his forehead.

Sol returned the nod and began to step out of Alex's line of fire. "Hey! Hey you! Yes, you rickety sticks!"

The Marionette turns and begins to shamble toward Sol, not realizing his occasional glances toward Alex.

"That's right! I killed your buddy, took its blood too! What are you going to do about it!?" Sol taunted the demon.

The Marionette's shamble turned into a full charge as it lunged towards Sol.

"Now's your shot Alex, waste this fodder." Sol thought as continued to move away from the bladed limbs.

"Left. Right. Left. Lunge. Right. Left… Right… Lunge… Left…" Alex followed the moments of the Marionette and, the moment it moved right to attack, he shot the first of the charged bullets. It slammed into the side of the monster with a small explosion, destroying half of the body of the monster. That unbalanced it and made it overcompensate on the other side. Which was exactly what Alex was hoping it would happen.

The second bullet hit the Marionette in the neck, destroying the upper part completely. The wooden mannequin wobbled and took another step forward, before falling on the ground, splintering completely and exploding into red orbs. Those went to Alex.

He was smiling at Sol, before folding on himself, his insides were on fire, throat completely dry, head thumping painfully. A series of dry heaves were enough to make him want to puke, but nothing came out of his mouth, only a few strands of saliva splattering on the ground.

"Remind me to never get on your bad side." Sol said to Alex while offering a hand.

"We still have a long way to go, but if we keep this up we should start getting a good amount of orbs. Maybe if we're lucky we could find one of those red orb pillars and get a good amount of them out of it."

Alex looked up from his kneeling position on the ground, smiling sickly at Sol, grabbing his hand to get up, before freezing. And then pointing upwards, to a ledge that was almost invisible from the ground, unless someone happened to look up from a certain side of the room.

Even then, they wouldn't notice what was on it, unless they managed to be at the very edge of the room, like the duo was. On it, there was a faint purple glow from the ledge. A full Purple Orb was resting on it, without anyone the wiser.

"Can you see that?" Alex asked, voice low. "If we can reach that…"

"Then you'll have a better time casting and recovering from your spells." Sol said before looking around, "And I guess no one put two and two together."

"Unless we can split it between the two of us, then yes." Alex said, before turning his head to the side and spitting the saliva on the ground. With violence.

Alex looked around and… yes, the rest of the group was still doing pretty well. They were working in small groups, but the amount of Red Orbs that each single person received was pretty low. And the whole thing was causing a few… problems.

Mostly attrition, if the way some groups were discussing - literally shouting, in one case - on the small amounts of red orbs still on the ground was any indication of what was happening.

"I have the feeling that the first death will be at the hand of a human, not a demon. Wouldn't that be a funny thing?" Alex murmured, leaning on Sol to avoid falling down. His stomach was still cramping painfully and the dizziness was slow to go away, but he was recovering. Bit by bit.

"Anyway, I don't think it's a good idea for us to go and try to take it right now. First, we don't have a way to reach it. Second, we don't want to attract attention to the hidden Orbs, it would end badly for us. And probably for everyone else that is going to take it, it could cause a riot and infighting. More than it's already happening, I mean. It's callous, but I want to survive, damn it." His knuckles were white, fists closed, and he was shaking a little, but he looked serious and determined.

As much as he could while being in the literal Hell.

Sol slowly nodded before responding, "Yeah, those hidden orbs will be a huge help in the long run, but you're right about the other people." Sol said worriedly.

He'd seen enough interpersonal relations, between work and life, to know those tones of voices. It was a bastard combination of the last laugh mentality coupled with 'I'm right and you can't say otherwise' ideology. Bad shit was going to come from those spats and he just knew in the back of his mind that a fight was going to break out sooner or later.

Sol began to speak quietly, "I'm not a betting man by trade, but I'm guessing this is how that first death will probably go down. Some of those jocks are going to get into it, maybe they'll 'think' they heard the other say something and that'll set them off. They'll have it out and one misaimed punch or kick, and someone's forever down and out." He took a moment to look at the other members before continuing.

"Business guys and gals will figure out things real quick and definitely view this in the most cutthroat way possible. Probably use the more malleable jocks and the generally nice people as fodder before dropping them. They get the power, they fight amongst themselves and the demon profits."

Sol's eyes glanced back up to purple orb briefly and then back to Alex. "We'll let em trail ahead slightly. Claim anything to sell it and then… Figure out how to get up there." With a small tsk, Sol added. "I should have seen if I could have bought Air Hike."

Alex looked at Sol with his lips turned into a smirk and a laugh in his eyes. "At least you have shoes. I'm in socks." He lifted a foot to show the thick socks that were already starting to get slightly soggy and dirty.

"I wonder if we can get equipment from the Statue. I mean, you got weapons, so it should be doable. Are those enchanted with anything or are just normal weapons? Well, beyond being divinely granted, I mean." He pointed at the axe and the dagger, curious.

"I wouldn't say no to a pair of good socks and boots… maybe even some armor. Anything that can help me, anyway." And he had a good reason to say this, considering how he was dressed: for a leisure night at home, not for a survival game in hell.

"Maybe, but I doubt these are anything other than basic weapons. We'll probably need something far more worthwhile than simple arms to get through this. To be fair, I'd like a pair of nice boots, but the armor is a better option." Sol said, looking back at the crowds and at possible exits.

"You think with this possibly being the Qliphoth, we'd see anything from the past? We have the Marionettes here, so maybe, I don't know, a memory of Mallet Island would be here? That could be an armor source." Sol posed the question to Alex.

"I… honestly don't know. I mean, I know that the bloodsucking tree broke the dimension between Earth and Hell. It clearly broke more than that." Alex gestured at the room they were in, in lieu of an explanation. "On the other hand, this place is controlled by whatever demon has summoned us, so… Maybe?" He shrugged.

Then his eyes landed on the remains of the corpses of the Marionettes that the rest of the group - still all alive, although some had accrued a few more wounds - had left behind after getting the Red Orbs.

"Do you think we can use the remains for something? I mean, if I remember correctly, it's just possessed wood, but it's still wood that has been possessed and animated by a demon. Maybe it counts for something?" His question hung in the air between them, while the rest of the room kept going down in a spiral of violence and destruction.

The room was very big.

Sol snapped his fingers in clarity. "You've got magic right? Maybe to help with the strain you need a focus, I don't know, like a wand or a staff. If those marionettes have been steeped in demonic magic, especially if they were pulled from Mallet, then that could definitely be something."

Sol tucked the dagger into his belt before continuing. "I'll hack a limb or two off the one you just killed, I mean it might not be a Devil Arm but maybe it will fall under the 'you kill it, you buy it' idea, no?"

"Right of Conquest. I think the Voice had said something like that at the start, yes." Alex nodded, before pointing at one of the Marionettes that had just dropped down from the ceiling. "I'm good for a couple more shots. And we don't have the Red Orbs necessary, so. Let's grind some Blood, shall we?" And he grinned at Sol, teeth in full display.

Sol nodded before setting Alex on the ground and starting on the Marionette Alex killed. As he began to hack away at the leg of the intact side, he kept trying to see if the axe head was beginning to chip. Realizing that that would probably cost him a finger or several, he resumed cutting normally until the leg came off.

Looking at the severed limb, Sol merely grimaced at the grisly puppet leg before leaving it and the dagger with Alex.

"Right, I'm going to see if I can't do the same with the marionette I killed. Probably get some sort of makeshift pick-axe-scythe hybrid thing. But a weapon is a weapon, and it's got to be tempered through demon magic." Sol said before heading towards his respective kill.

"I'm going with support from afar. Oh, try and see if you can get some of the clothes they have on them, maybe we can use it for… something. I don't know." Alex shrugged, before putting the limb to the side and starting to charge a spell to destroy a demon. They did need the Red Orbs, after all.

*****************************************

After around an hour of fighting, the amount of demons that were appearing had lowered and against what the rest of the group was doing, they hadn't returned to the Divinity statue even once.

At least, not until they had managed to get around 1.000 Red Orbs each. Which sounded like a lot, but the Marionettes dropped a few of them each time they died, which helped.

"You go first, I need to organize all these spoils of war." Alex panted a little, dropping the collection of wooden limbs and cloth that they had gained from the monsters near the Statue, in two - more or less - neat piles: one for him, one for Sol.

"Remember: Nothing with an 'L' in parenthesis."

"Right, afterwards, I'll start cutting bandages and the like, never know right?" Sol responded.

With that, Sol touched the lion statue and found himself back in the white void with the statue.

"Okay, Mistress of Time and Space, make my day. Abilities please?"

The two windows opened again and Sol scrolled down looking for that one ability, only to stop and grimace when he saw the price.

"2,000 Red Orbs? Really? All right… back to items then."

The window closed and reopened to show the familiar item with Sol making a clear effort not to go anywhere near the Demonic Strengthening options. He was about to purchase another Blue Orb for another vitality boost when he noticed that the price had doubled.

"What? But… oh that's right, the price doubles on each purchase. I bet if you could answer me, you'd tell me that the Demonic Strengthening price stays as it is, wouldn't you?"

The statue, naturally, said nothing.

"Right, I'm saving my 1,000 orbs ma'am, because I absolutely intend to grab Air Hike when I can. Unfortunately, I think that concludes our business. See you next time."

The void receded and Sol found himself back in the previous room. He began with, "2000 for Air Hike, wanted to get myself another Blue Orb instead, but I completely forgot that the price doubles each time. Any luck with the marionette pieces while I was gone?"

Alex shrugged from his kneeling position on the ground. "More or less. I've managed to divide the whole piles in limbs, what few weapons we managed to get and clothes with no mismatch. Try taking these and see if they unlock some new option?" And he passed Sol a few of the blade weapons in the group, specifically the curved ones. "I think they should be able to update your axe. Try it."

"Sure, maybe that'll work." Sol said before carefully grabbing a few of the blades and touching the statue.

The white field returned and Sol addressed the statue immediately. "I know, I know. But I'm not here to haggle for Air Hike or a Blue Orb. I'm looking to see if I can enhance the hand axe you gave me earlier? I even brought some materials that may help.

There was silence before a new window opened. Sol could see his hand axe and an option next to it, stating Enchant, 500.

"Half my wallet huh? Well, I can't say you don't have a way of keeping customers coming, or at least I hope you do. Do you need these weapon pieces as well?" Sol asked as he pressed the option.

The marionette blades disappeared as his red orb count dropped to 500. Sol noticed a faint glow on his hand axe and after inspecting it, noticed the blade looked cleaner, sharper even. He also noticed the price for further enchantment increased to 1,000. He merely gave the statue a flat stare before saying his goodbyes.

As his vision took back the hellish cavern, he stated simply "500 red orbs for a basic enchantment. I'm keeping the rest though, because a double jump is still a double jump."

"That sounds like a good idea. Also, I'm gonna check if there's an option to get some physical enhancement that is not using the Loser option." Alex nodded, before grabbing the limbs and touching the statue.

White bloomed in his vision and gold screens appeared in front of him.

It still defaulted to the Demonic Strengthening Options. Which was a very good scam, he had to admit.

"Can I see weapon options, please? Something to enhance magic, maybe." He asked the statue with politeness, still unsure if it was something that influenced things, but not willing to risk angering the Divinity behind the statue.

Weapons:
Basic Staff: 200 Red Orbs
Basic Scepter: 150 Red Orbs
Basic Wand: 100 Red Orbs
Basic Enchanted Staff: 700 Red Orbs
Basic Enchanted Scepter: 650 Red Orbs
Basic Enchanted Wand: 600 Red Orbs

There were other options, but nothing that interested Alex right now. Maybe one of the Bladed Staves would be useful, but not right now. An image of a wooden staff with glowing purple-red lines twisting up and down the shaft appeared when he selected the option.

"Costly. But I NEED a weapon and this one doesn't use the Loser option, so Basic Enchanted Staff it is." A click and the option was purchased. A moment later, a thought struck him.

"Can I see Physical Enhancement, please? Not the Default option. Anything that doesn't contain the (L) tag. Please." His polite request prompted the screen to vanish and get substituted by another one.

Physical Enhancement:
Basic Enhancement: 5.000 Red Orbs.

"Nope, never mind." Alex closed the store instantly, not even looking under the first option, only to find himself in front of Sol with what was a clearly magical staff in his hands and a realization hitting him all of sudden...

"...I forgot to check the clothes." His voice was flat. Then, he perked up, although his following sentence was clearly sarcastic.

"But, hey! Good news, we can still get the physical enhancements without the demon's powers! They just cost ten times as much."

Sol sighed at that, "That would make sense… still convinced that the L price doesn't change." He then stopped, gave a thoughtful look, and then continued. "Which means if the price doesn't change, then everyone who took that option could have a 3x boost in one singular area or a boost across. If it does double its price per purchase, then the boost is still significant but less than it could be. Either way, that is one hell of a deal considering the other option."

He began to cut strips of ruined cloth with his hand axe before saying. "I am still saving for my Air Hike though, I want that double jump."

"Yeah, definitely. Still, without that enhancement, your jump will just be one of a normal, unenhanced human. Still, better than nothing, I guess." Alex shrugged, before turning towards the room where the sounds of fighting were starting to slow down.

And, all of sudden, everything fell silent.

"I… am afraid of checking it. But we gotta see what is happening, right? Not having information would be a bad situation to be in. And yet…" Alex grimaced, before starting to walk towards the opening.

"Maybe let's try to not get seen. Just… in case, you know." Sol responded, trepidation heavy in his voice.

Looking into the area where the last battle was held, there were marionette bodies everywhere. Broken by the hands and feet of those who had been in the room prior, it was… not completely a bloodless battle but damn close, except for one spot.

Towards the edge of the room, were two figures. The first and more noticeable of the two was a larger marionette, garbed in red clothing and bringing its blade down on a person. It was one of the jocks and by the tears in the marionette's clothes, it seemed that he tried to rip it to pieces before being cut down.

Mindlessly, the demon kept swinging into the corpse and Sol whispered quietly, "It's been a while since I played through Mallet, but aren't marionettes supposed to be, you know, not like that?"

"Honest truth: I've never played the first game, but I did a wiki dive. I think I remember something about multiple variants, with one stronger than the others." Alex whispered back at his companion.

In the meantime, the Marionette - a Bloody Mari - kept slashing against the still moving corpse. Maybe it was just the last spasms of a dead body, maybe the guy was still alive, kept aware and breathing from the demonic power that had been lent to him. Just so that he could try and struggle to the end, without a real chance, but with the impression of having the possibility to win. To survive.

One hand slapped against the side of the demon and the creature just twisted its head towards it, before swinging the curved blades held in its hands, cutting it off at the wrist. Then, the Bloody Mari just kept swinging down on the body.

Until the body started shining. And the human just… exploded. Into harmless indigo light - and threads of smoke that vanished into the air - leaving behind red orbs landing all around the demon, who turned towards its next prey, a girl that was frozen in horror.

"Oh, fuck." Alex's eyes were wide as saucers, while the rest of the people in the room were starting to move once again. "Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck."

"Blast him," Sol stated before grabbing his weapon. "I'll distract him."

As soon as he said that, Sol was up and running to the side. After a few paces, he swapped the dagger's position and threw it as hard as he could at the Bloody Mari. The dagger flew through the air in a beautiful arc, before striking the demon pommel side.

"Fuck." was the only word out Sol's mouth, before he began to taunt the demon. "Well, come on then, second servings right here!"

The Bloody Mari turned towards Sol, while the rest of the people - One Hundred and Eight people, assuming the victim was the only one dead yet - stood there, watching, stunned. It was like they hadn't even considered the possibility of one of them dying. Like all of this, the entire situation was a simple game.

Alex grabbed the staff in the middle, before pointing it at the demon. A magic circle appeared at the tip, before shooting forward, hitting the hand that the marionette was using to move the weapon, attempting to throw it towards Sol.

"Nine shots!" Alex shouted, before moving the staff slightly and clearly trying to follow what was happening, eyes squinting and focused on the situation.

"Right!" Sol shouted back before partially closing the distance slightly and picking up the dropped weapon. It was another dagger, longer than Sol's but rust-covered and slightly unwieldy in his hands.

As the Bloody Mari approached, Sol waited, trying to bait an attack. The Bloody Mari swung its right arm and Sol dodged to its left, returning the rusted dagger into the Bloody Mari's side, before quickly moving away from the retaliatory back-swing.

Another magical bullet hit the side of the head of the Bloody Mari, removing maybe a third of it and making the stronger marionette turn towards Alex, without caring about Sol. Even if he was right there.

Sol took the opportunity to two-hand the hand axe and drive into the back of the Bloody Mari's head. The enchanted blade driving deeper than before and freeing itself more easily, allowed Sol to swing several more times. By the time the Bloody Mari had fallen like a string less puppet, there was hardly anything left of its head.

As it fell, not only did the red orbs it carried become part of Sol's wallet but so too did the ones from the fallen jock. There was silence from the other humans as Sol looked around.

"What!?" Sol asked the crowd. "You all thought this was a game!? You all think you can punch your way through all this? We gotta think people, we're in hell right now. No room for fuck ups!"

Alex grimaced at the shout that Sol had just given to the others, but another thing attracted his attention: from the ceiling, more Bloody Mari's were starting to descend, fast, sliding down the threads that controlled that specific kind of monster.

"Look above!" Another bullet hit the nearest one to Alex, one that was poised to land on some cocky teenager. Which would have been… a massacre, probably. "More of the same monster!"

While he was shouting, he didn't have any kind of thought about the situation. He was purely focused on surviving. And trying to not think about how several of those people in the room wouldn't.

And those were just Marionettes. One of the weakest enemies in this world. What would happen in front of worse demons?

Then, the Bloody Mari's landed. And the massacre started.

True, the others were now moving, either by moving away or moving towards them, some even sporting greedy looks, clearly remembering the amount of Red Orbs that Sol had gained, but most of them were just trying to survive. And to survive, they would need to eliminate the enemy.

A very simple, very primal Them vs. Us situation.

A very dangerous one, too. Because, with groups already forming, Alex was already fearing the moment the whole thing would devolve into a pseudo-situation of petty warlords lording over the rest.

If not at this moment, then when the hunger started growing. There was no evident food anywhere in sight, if one discounted the walls and the floors. Well, and the other people around.

Sol quickly made his way back to Alex, axe and knife out. Covering the spell caster, and with a shaky 'I can't believe I'm saying this' grin, Sol spoke.

"Well, as the man himself once said. 'This party's getting crazy! Let's Rock!'"