Sol dodged the attack and shouted over to Alex. "I'll take one tendril, you take another, we'll deal with the last one aft-!" He was cut off as he dodged another strike, and cut at the offending limb.

The sword managed to make a deep, but not completely destructive, cut on the tendril before it moved out from his range.
Another tendril shot towards Sol, only for Alex to put himself between the two and block the attack with Calcabrina.

"I'll play defense, you go and attack. Tell me if you want to switch. So, don't worry about attacks from behind." Alex stated.

"Got it!" Sol shouted before moving around Alex's guard and stabbing into the tendril and dragging his blade around the circumference of its body. The main body retracted back, but not before the head at the end hung limply, like a broken blade of grass.

"Okay, that's one slightly down." Sol said before drawing his firing at the main mass of Nidhogg itself.

"Gah! It Stings! DIE!" The parasitic demon shouted before throwing one of two tendrils at him.

Sol dodged quickly before muttering under his breath. "Okay, bullets are only annoyances to greater demons unless you're Dante, gotta remember that."

Alex nodded, before deflecting one strike with his blade - and a charged bullet - and the other with a quick cast barrier around the umbrella. Sure, the barrier shattered, but they were not wounded, which was the important part.

"You know… You are kinda wimpy. I mean, you are all the way up there, we are down here. What, you scared of facing us directly?" Alex asked, casually, towards Nidhogg. The way he had phrased the taunt was more than enough.

"GraaaaaahhH!" The main body descended on the duo, the two spikes at the end of his arms gleaming in the light.

Sol began to fire rapidly at the demon, drawing its attention.

"Stinging, Again!" Nidhogg shouted.

"Yeah, what are you going to do about it!?" Sol shouted back, before he realized Nidhogg was rearing up and began to arc down.

"Move!" Sol shouted to Alex as he dodged the oncoming rush. Alex listened to him and jumped to the side, Nidhogg landing between the two and starting to wave the two blades like a madman, left and right, without a care if he hit something or not.

"Man, touchy touchy." Alex muttered, already opening Calcabrina and defending from the attack.

As Nidhogg continued attacking, it moved past the two smashing into a wall. Retracting and shaking the rubble off itself, it could be heard yelling, "Where did they go!?"

Sol paused, looked at Alex, and asked quietly, "Did… did he just ask what I think he asked?"

Alex looked pained, his face appearing from above the black rim of his umbrella. "Just… End his suffering. Living without a brain must be too painful. So, aim for the heart, as I'm pretty sure that his head's empty." Even his voice sounded like he was in pain.

"Sure thing, but goddamn, this guy is stupid." Sol replied before raising his sword and letting loose a Stinger directly at the center of Nidhogg's back. The sword pierced cleanly through maggoty flesh and Nidhogg howled before slumping forward. For a brief moment, Sol almost thought it might have been a ploy, but past experience proved otherwise. He still hacked off an arm just to be sure.

The demon remained still, and its orange-yellow skin lost its color before breaking down into a mass of red orbs.

"You uh, remember what I said about taking a bath earlier? I think I want a chemical bath after touching that… thing. Very slimy." Sol said, disgust plain in his voice.

"Now though, I gotta kick my own ass for not seeing that for what it was." Sol continued, before sharply performing a butt-kick on himself. "I was an idiot, but I'm true to my word on that matter."

"Yeah, I think… I think this day has been long enough. I don't have a watch or my phone, but I'm pretty sure that it's been more than twelve hours. Maybe more." Alex closed Calcabrina and stored it away, before nodding at the arm. "Take that, maybe Rodin can do something about it. We have an Inventory, the least we can do is use it."

After that, Alex looked around, until he noticed a heavy double door that was half open from the roots.

"Let's go and… take a shower. Maybe eat something. Sleep. I'm starting to get tired and we cannot allow for any kind of error. I mean, things are going well, no major wounds yet, but you never know." He shrugged, before starting to walk towards the apartment building. "Come on, you almost solo'd a boss. You need a bit of celebration and what best way to celebrate in a hellscape if not going for a bit of break in and robbery?"

Alex smiled above his shoulder, before continuing to walk, without even putting into doubt that Sol was going to follow.

Bonds made in the adversity were some of the stronger ones.

"Hahahaha." Sol laughed. "A few hours ago I'd never even considered it. But now? Hell yeah!" Sol said before grabbing a brick and chucking it into a window.

"Only time we may ever do this, so let's enjoy the surprise discount of 100% off."

Alex looked at Sol, before looking at the window, and shrugged. "Eh, the door was opened, but I know the feeling of wanting to take a brick and open a window." He pushed the umbrella against the remains of the glass and removed the shards. He didn't want either of them to get cut, after all.

"Now, let's find something to eat. If the whole place is like that store, there should be something. Hopefully not spoiled, but let's check, to be sure." Alex climbed up the stairs until he found the first door. It was closed.

"Ah, a closed door. Lucky me that I have brought my passepartout." And he shot a magic bullet at the lock.

"Ta-dà! Open Sesame." He strode in, leaving the smoking hole in the door behind.

As Sol walked and looked around before beginning to sing quietly. "Oh what we got is a blue light special on truth! It's the hottest with the youth! We've got nerves we need to soothe… Ah… Yeah we're definitely going to find something here."

The door opened to an apartment that was in remarkably good condition. As Sol took off his helmet and placed it on the table he looked around. "Nothing seems moved… it's like the people never left." His eyes caught the sight of a silvery silhouette and he smirked. "Found the fridge, let's see if we're lucky or not."

Opening the fridge, Sol found it to be fairly stocked with various foods, vegetables, and drinks. His eyes looked at a cartoon milk that sat innocently on the top rack. "Alright nose, moment of truth," He thought as unscrewed the top and smelled the contents. It was… good, no stench of going sour present in the slightest. Just fresh milk. He screwed the cap back on and checked the expiration date. There was none, just lines and slashes denoting where one should have been. "Right, weird demon time logic going on here. Still have to remember that." He thought before calling out to Alex, "seems the contents of the refrigerator are good, did you find anything?"

Alex was rummaging through the cabinets and the various drawers. "Found cutlery. And potatoes, plus various snacks. All without an expiration date, all still good. Also, check this." He lobbed a potato at Sol. "Tell me if you see anything strange on it."

He didn't even wait for an answer, he just went and tried the oven. "This works."

Sol looked at the potato, almost considered cutting it open with his sword to check but swiftly reconsidered. He had no idea where Nidhogg had been. However, he realized that the potato was fresh. Setting it down, he checked back into the fridge and found a carton of eggs which he pulled out and searched for a bowl.

"That potato was fresh, so was the milk, and then so by comparison…" He trailed, finding a small measuring cup in a cupboard and cracking an egg into it. The yolk came out cleanly.

"The rest of the food…" he looked at Alex, before continuing. "We'll apologize to the owners later, but I figure we just have at the place?"

"Yes. Also…" Alex took out the bag of potatoes and let them roll out on the counter. All of them were exactly the same. "We definitely aren't in Kansas, Toto. Still, they are a nice size. And we have olive oil and there's an orange. We can roast potatoes." He shrugged, before checking the rest of the kitchen.

"The oven works and there's a dishwasher. If there's any meat in there, we can roast it with the potatoes. Also, see if there's anything green. I think I can improvise some veggie snacks. Oh, they have pasta. Shitty pasta." Alex twisted his nose at the box of pasta.

"Barilla. Bah, it's serviceable." There was a clattering of pots and pans before Alex took out a big pot and started filling it with water from the sink. "There are knives in the first drawer there. You take care of the meat and potatoes, I try to throw a sauce for the pasta together? Hopefully, they have something like tomato preserves or pesto…"

"I can make eggs easily. Scrambled, fried, or sunny-side. If we find anything that you're not using, I'll fix it in with the eggs, do like a blend, and pack up the rest I guess. Better than paying Red Orbs for what is probably the most basic of food." Sol said.

"Eh, true. Oh, see if there is any bacon. I think I can improvise a Carbonara. And no, there's no Cream, of any kind, in it. Only eggs, black pepper, and bacon." Alex preempted any kind of question before they even started.

"You'll eat it right and you'll like it." And that was that, for him.

"Cream? Why would anyone put cream into an egg mixture? I can understand adding milk to make scrambled eggs fluffier, but cream?" Sol feigned a look of disgust. "Black pepper is a must though."

"Look, I only know some horror stories I've heard about the USA, so don't ask me." Alex waved his hands in a sort of denial, before taking out bowls and other tools. "Peel the potatoes and cut them around a thumb wide. I'll take care of cooking pasta." taking the filled pot away from the sink and on the stove, he threw a bit of salt in it, before raising the flame to high and covering the pot with a lid.

"Now, the eggs… And to cook the bacon, but that comes later…" Alex put the skillet on another burner, while also dicing the bacon. Before tossing everything in the skillet, however, he turned on the oven, around 220° Celsius - luckily the whole thing wasn't in Fahrenheit or he wouldn't have the foggiest idea - and put a baking tray with high edges on the counter. He then poured some olive oil, enough to cover the bottom, in.

"Ok, once the potatoes are cut, feel free to throw them inside. The meat can be put after, no problem."

"Sure," Sol said before getting to work. It was a relatively quick job for Sol to peel the potatoes. Cutting them took a bit longer, but once they were done, he used the flat edge of the knife to slide the cut pieces into the skillet.

"Okay, that's done, outside of the bacon, anything else?" Sol asked.

"Marinade. Well, basically we need to add what my mom called 'odors' to the meat. Rub some salt, a bit of pepper grains and… see if there's any rosemary, be it fresh or ground in the spice rack. Add a little to the meat and a light dusting on the potatoes. Mix the potatoes before tossing the meat in." Alex instructed while beating the eggs with a pinch of salt.

After checking and then starting to beat them again when they didn't pass his test, he continued. "Put the meat in the baking tray, not on the potatoes, be sure that it's touching the metal. After that, take the orange, wash it carefully, and slice half a thumb wide. Put the slices on the potatoes and the meat. When the oven is hot, put the tray inside for 35-40 minutes at 200° Celsius."

"Okay," Sol said as he began to look for rosemary. In the spice rack, was a small glass container, half full of rosemary. Grinning Sol began to go over the steps in his mind as he went about the dish. He began to tap the edge of the container carefully, to ensure that the potatoes were evenly covered, before setting it down and placing the meat on the tray like Alex said. There was still some space between the two foods and in short order, rosemary was sprinkled on top of the meat.

"Okay, now the orange…" Sol trailed off, taking one of the oranges in the apartment and washing it as best he could. "Half a thumb wide," he said carefully before easing the blade into the orange, trying to get as much out of it as possible. Placing the slices delicately on the meat and potatoes, he checked the temperature of the oven. It was getting there, not quite 200 degrees Celsius, but near enough.

"Okay, just a little longer and this dish is cooking." Sol said.

"Pasta is boiling. Box says…. yeesh, 12 minutes? For this pasta? Damn, it's gonna come out a mush. Ok, eyeballing it is." Alex was muttering something very unkind under his breath.

Apparently it was scathing enough that the cabinet's doors started to smoke and blacken, Alex heedless of what was happening while he was stirring the pot.

Luckily, he had stopped after a couple of moments, so the wood didn't go up in flames. He was still watching the pasta - spaghetti, to be specific - with an eagle eye, but he had started cooking the bacon, so it would crunch pleasantly.

"Hey Alex, I think your voice may be magically charged because while I'm not that great of a cook, I'm pretty sure heat from boiling water doesn't char cabinet doors." Sol said while glancing away from the meat and potatoes before quickly looking back and hoping that they didn't show signs of being burned.

Alex looked at Sol puzzled, before looking at the cabinet. And blinked.

"...I think I was cursing in Enochian? By mistake. It's like… Nope, got nothing." He shrugged and started checking the pasta once again.

"Ah, you'd think curses wouldn't exist in the language of angels but I guess they'd have to vent their frustrations against their enemies in some way other than fighting." Sol checked the stove again. "We've got about 35 minutes on this. What's your time schedule like?"

Alex took a single strand of the spaghetti out and bit into it, before looking at it. "Ehhh… this pasta is rubbish. I swear, you can't find a decent brand of wheat pasta outside of Italy. Anyway, recrimination aside, two, no one minute for it to reach the perfect degree, considering it will continue to cook a little even after."

He lowered the flame under the skillet to the minimum, took out a colander and turned on the cold water, before grabbing the handles of the pot and throwing the pasta in the colander. As fast as he was able to, he tossed the spaghetti in the skillet, mixing it with the bacon and bacon fat.

"Set the table?" He grabbed the eggs and, after turning off the stove, he poured it on the pasta, grated a bit of black pepper, and mixed the whole thing. "Two minutes, no cheese, sadly, so it's not a true carbonara, but it should be good enough."

"Can do." Sol said before taking out two plates, and two bowls, setting them on the table and grabbing the rest of the required materials.

"I figured with the pasta, that bowl related, and the meat and potatoes on separate plates. Knives and forks, because I'm not heathen enough to think that spoons are good for a dish like this… even though I did once eat a potato with nothing but a pocket knife. I'm going to grab water only because I honestly don't know if there is anything other than that here and I'd rather save the celebratory bottles of alcohol until after we're free and clear of this place. Oh! I almost forgot, napkins."

"Fuck, the vegetables. I forgot. No problem, I'll… Gimme a minute." Alex checked the fridge and got out a bunch of carrots and some celery sticks. "Well, this works. But I'll prepare them later, I don't want to eat cold carbonara."

So he just left them on the counter, before pouring the pasta in a serving bowl and putting it in the middle of the table. He sat in front of Sol, gesturing at him. "Go on. I want to see if you like it or not."

It was good, really good. The contrast between the crunchiness of the bacon and the pasta was great.

"Man, this is beautiful. I'll have to write that recipe down because… just damn." Sol said with a look of contentment across his face.

"Yeah, it's passable." Alex, apparently, was a pasta snob. On the other hand, he was Italian, so it wasn't really a great surprise. "Anyway, I was thinking… We should sleep some." He was pretty serious, even if he was eating and talking almost at the same time.

Well, he chewed and didn't talk with his mouth full.

"We don't know how much time has passed, we don't know how long we have in front of us and the human brain is not made to stay awake for more than a set amount of hours before starting to hallucinate. I don't need to tell you how dangerous that would be, do I?" And he looked at Sol from under his eyelashes.

"You're right and this is an apartment… we could probably barricade the door easily enough. I'll take the couch for however long the hours are… You know, I don't know about you, but I have a feeling, I wake up next thinking that this was a strange dream and then… reality will come in and say 'hey man, still in hell'..." Sol said trailing off before his head whipped around to the stove.

"Five minutes left, whew… That could have been bad."

"Yeah. Ah, check that the meat isn't too pink in the middle. Personal preference. Oh, and the potatoes. If there isn't enough oil, they'll burn. I'll prepare the vegetables." Alex took out the empty serving bowls and the two plates, putting them in the sink, before taking a knife and starting to peel the carrots and wash the celery. After that, it was a very simple process: a bit of salt at the bottom of one of the very small bowls, oil until it was covered, and a few drops of vinegar for taste.

"You can use pepper instead of vinegar, but it's already in the roast and it was in the pasta, so I thought of something else to break the taste. Here's how it works." He took one of the peeled carrots, dipped it in the oil, grinding it slightly against the salt, and then bit the oiled part.

"One bowl for me, one bowl for you, dip as many times as you want. They're good, as far as vegetables go. And the roast looks like it needs a few more minutes." He, carefully, didn't say anything about his comment on remaining in Hell.

Mostly, because he didn't know what to say.

Sol quietly went about following the instructions until everything was set. "The meat is cooking just right, but…" He said as poured some more oil on the potatoes, "The potatoes needed more oil." He said as he closed the stove back up, grabbed a carrot, and dipped it into the mixture. "This is pretty good. It's light and I'm guessing it works as a palette cleanser like ginger is to a sushi dish?" He asked between bites.

"Yeah, it can be an appetizer or even the main vegetable dish in a lunch or dinner. Easy to make and doesn't dirty too many dishes." Alex shrugged, snacking on the carrots. "It's called pinzimonio."

Soon, the vegetables had been all eaten, the roast taken out and sliced, the potatoes split and the food demolished.

Hunting demons and running for their lives was hungry work.

"And now…" Alex went to the counter and sliced some bread, before rummaging in a cabinet and returning to the table with several wrapped packages in hand. "Dessert. Chocolate on bread."

Alex shrugged sheepishly. "I didn't have time or ingredients or the recipes to make anything else. Well, I can make ONE thing, but I only thought about it right now, so… There's only this, sorry."

"Not a problem at all." Sol said happily. "There was this place I used to go to, a wine bar. They had really good foods, you know, heavily done, spiced, and yeah overpriced. But the dessert they'd always had on hand was an olive oiled bread, and a small bowl filled with melted sea salt chocolate." Sol said before taking a bite, "To have even close to that, just kinda makes me feel better. So, thank you…" Sol finished before reaching for another piece.

"That sounds pretty nice. I had this when I was a kid. My grandma and my mom. It was a mid-afternoon snack, really, but I… There was this thing…" Alex started ripping pieces of bread, before breaking the chocolate bar apart in pieces, too. Then, he put the pieces of chocolate on the bread.

"Little sheeps, we called this." He was smiling, softly. Before he took a piece and tossed it into his mouth, munching it.

"Little sheep huh… That's a nice name for it. Well, when we get out of this hellhole, remind me to thank them for creating this. It's a nice way to end a meal." Sol said before finishing up.

"You're welcome. And, seeing as we don't have to pay any of this or anything else, we can just load the dishwasher and be done with cleaning."

And he proceeded to start doing exactly that. "Go and take a shower. I'll… I dunno, move a shelf or something in front of the door as a protection. There's two bedrooms, so we can each have one and take a few hours of sleep." Alex was calmly putting things in the dishwasher tray, appearing more relaxed since… the start, really.

"Oh!" Sol said, pausing and taking a look at himself. "Yeah, it won't be a chemical bath but it'll do. Seriously, Nidhogg was just ehh.. Thank you for the meal man, I'll be done in five minutes."

"Take all the time you need, seriously. Nidhogg was nasty." Alex nodded at him, continuing his process of cleaning.

As Sol found the bathroom, he took a lot of the armor. The once shiny steel had taken on a discolored and dirtied look to it. It was easy enough to take off though, and he realized that there were period-correct clothes underneath.

"Right because we can't have a corporate knight in this, have to go the full monty." He said before really looking at himself. He wasn't really in shape before all this, but that had changed.

"I could actually fit into som… no all of my vests… Just an ever-increasing payment of red orbs and you too can get the body of your dreams. Call the Statue of Time and Space at 555-555-5555 for a free browsing session." He thought before getting everything else underway.

Five minutes later and dressed in the aketon and pants, Sol walked back out into the main room.

"Okay, so in my personal opinion, and this is being said as someone whose experience with killing demons is on par with yours, there's nothing better than taking a shower after killing demons. It feels so good. I think I could actually fall asleep right now."

Alex was done and the dishwasher was not running, but it was loaded. He turned towards him and nodded at the door on the left of the bathroom's door. "There are two bedrooms, they are basically identical. Choose one and go to sleep. I'm gonna follow in a moment, as soon as I move this shelf."

It wasn't an exaggeratedly big shelf, but it would be more than enough to block the door, so it was good enough. The point was for it to make enough sound to wake them up, not stopping supernaturally strong demons from entering.

"And then I'm gonna go and fall asleep, too. Now that I've eaten, I'm starting to feel pretty drowsy myself."

"Good… day?" Sol said with a question while looking out the window, "See you when either of us wakes up." He finished before closing the door. He propped his gun and sword on and against the nightstand and laid down on the bed. His head wasn't even resting against the pillow for a full minute before he slipped into a dreamless sleep.

For Alex, it was more or less the same. He tossed his clothes on the nearby chair, and covered himself with the sheets, only in his boxers.

Even if, usually, it took him several minutes to fall asleep, this time only took one.

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

Sol had woken up in a daze and felt around for what he was used to. His glasses that usually sat on the nightstand were gone and furthermore it wasn't the one he was used to. There was a gun where the glasses would be and a sword leaning against it. It didn't fully click, until he got up and opened the door. The short hallway leading to what he knew as home wasn't there and as he looked out the window, he noticed he could make out the signs down a very unfamiliar street.

He reached to his face to adjust his glasses and realized he hadn't been wearing them. He hadn't been wearing glasses for who knows how long, and yet he could read small print that even with his glasses he'd have a hard time reading. He remembered the previous… whatever the last few hours were. He'd eventually figure out what to call this strange fugue of time but for now, he just sat there, listlessly.

"Fuck," he cursed quietly. "This is all really happening…" He got up as if on auto-pilot and poured himself a glass of water, downed it, and repeated the process before taking out a skillet and preparing enough eggs to feed two people. It wouldn't hold a candle to what Alex made the previous night, but it was the least he could for him. All the while he began to think about the previous hours.

Ever so quietly, he said to himself, "I can see why Dante drinks, and we've been through a mere fraction of his life."

The sound of water that he hadn't even noticed stopped. From the bathroom, Alex came out, with only a towel around his waist, still dripping water, and stopped in the middle of the room, looking at Sol.

"It's real." His voice echoed… empty, for a moment. It was an emptiness of dreams lost. Something unspeakable that had been done and couldn't be recovered.

"It's… We really have been summoned by a demon."

"Yeah… yeah we… but… well silver linings." Sol began, false cheer blatant in his voice as tried to finish a sentence. "We're still alive, we have food, and we have our souls. Can't really say that about everyone else here." Sol made a face as he finished, a look that said 'I'm a fucking idiot for saying that.'

On the table were two sets of plates, and on them was a simple fare of eggs and toast. "I know it doesn't hold a candle to what you made last night but I figure it's good to greet whatever time we exist in with a full stomach."

"I.. Yeah, yeah, I'm kinda hungry. I mean, I'm… fit, now. But both of us have been moving a lot and fighting burns a lot of calories. So we need to eat." It almost looked like he was trying to convince himself and he strode forward, still half naked, still with his hair dripping water.

"There's any ketchup?"

Sol stopped and gave a shocked look before pulling out a bottle and placing it on the table.

"Keep that wretched, over sugar-ed, tomato paste away from me. The smell, I can't take the smell. My cousins would always pour that stuff on everything. Ew!" He finished with a disgusted shake of his head.

"Fine, fine. No ketchup." Alex smirked, before starting to eat.

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

The roads were the same as the time before, even down to the light from what mimicked the sky. There wasn't a feeling of time passing, which was a problem from the start. That also meant that they wouldn't need to worry about being ambushed in the dark.

"Ok, so." Alex looked at the three roads they could take. "We're going left, right or center?"

Sol looked around briefly before saying "Okay we head up to the next intersection and then make a right. Burrow Marketplace should be just ahead of that point."

"As long as we don't get either delayed or the roots stop us again, you mean." Alex pointed out, already walking towards the three-way split. Calcabrina was already in his hands, swinging around like it was a normal umbrella.

"I mean, Nidhogg should have kept demons away from this place, no?"

"That was probably the only thing he ever could have done that was smart, and I highly doubt that it was intentional." Sol responded as he rounded the corner.

"And here we go, one route to Burrow Marketplace." He said with aplomb.

The roots of the Qliphoth, of course, were blocking the road. As a consolation prize, there was one of those clusters of Red Orbs standing there, in the middle of the road.

"I'm either worrying that we have personally offended Murphy or that we are just that unlucky. You want them?" Alex pointed at the Red Orbs, turning to look towards Sol.

Sol slumped forward, slightly defeated. He had really hoped it was an exit… "No you take them, my just reward for having an IQ slightly higher than Nidhogg."

"I mean, a stone would have an IQ higher than Nidhogg… And I'm shutting up now." Alex stopped speaking as soon as he noticed that his words weren't helping and went to destroy the cluster of gems.

Sol went forward to the next intersection while Alex was hacking away at the cluster. Rounding it, he saw an actual open path leading out. "If I had just stepped x amount of feet forward I would have, gahhh! Really not helping my Nidhogg comparison." He thought angrily before bringing out the remnant of the demon.

"I am going to turn you into a complex and well thought out piece of death incarnate, so help me." He said to the limb before depositing it back into its holding area. He called back to Alex, "I found the exit… this time!"

"Good!" Alex came back running, shooting his magic bullets backwards. "I found demons!" Following him, six scarecrows turned the corner and shot forward, towards the duo.

"Ah hell," Sol said before firing at the small horde.

The bullets didn't do much but they did annoy the scarecrows to the point where some were looking at Sol. Two lunged forward, and Sol took the defensive, batting back one oversized axe with his blade and pistol whipping the other as it cackled. Sol stabbed that particular one, turned it to where it was facing its fellow and let out another stinger. The attack impaled both scarecrows who quickly dissolved into mist and red orbs.

Before he could do anything else, he dodged an attack from a third scarecrow before backing up and playing defense again.

Alex, in the meantime, was dealing with his part of the scarecrows, keeping them at bay with the umbrella and slashing with the sword.

He wasn't skilled in any way, but he was good enough. Also, he supplemented his attacks with magical bullets here and there, until the scarecrow had turned into dark mist.

The axe blade scraped along the edge of Sol's breastplate as he slashed down. The attached limb was sent flying before a second strike took the scarecrow's head. He turned and watched the other two scarecrows advance on Alex, before letting loose another stinger at the rearmost one.

A charged bullet shot from the tip of the umbrella was more than enough to destroy one. The other got impaled into the sword a moment later, the weapon in its hand scraping against the cloth of the umbrella itself.

"Well, that was… easy?" Ales asked, dusting himself from the remains of the scarecrows.

"Yeah, I guess they really are like bug swarms, more difficult in packs, but easy enough when separated. Let's get going before any more show up." Sol said, dusting off his breastplate, a noticeable scratch marring its surface.

"I wonder… Do you think there are healing spells here? I mean, there wasn't the Golden Orb… At least, I didn't see it. And, to be fair, it's not like Vergil, Dante, or even Nero needed healing magic, thanks to their demon nonsense…" Alex asked, walking down the road, his face set into a pensive look.

"Maybe in the higher stages of magical knowledge, I mean there's always vitality stars for that, in a pinch. But yeah I can see what you mean." Sol said as they approached the edifice for Burrow Marketplace.

"Well we've arrived, look for some cues to see where to go next?" Sol asked while looking around.

"I mean… Do we even know where we are going? It's not like we have any kind of hint on where we need to go or what to do to escape this place. Whatever this place is." Alex waved his hands around, gesturing at everything.

"Plus, we have two business sharks around, six unknown demons/humans/whatever, and who knows who or what else to worry about." He was still remarkably calm, although his tone of voice had a definite edge on it. "We're just fumbling in the dark, as much as it is depressing to admit."

"Don't remind me," Sol said with a sigh. "But I figure the motif here is that we're heading down, so maybe a sign of the train station or lower walkway might be the ticket."

Alex shrugged, looking around. "Well, I have no idea where to go, so… Unless we need to go towards the Qliphoth itself. I mean, it's either that or down, down, down…" He half-hummed the last words.

"Yeah I know, between that and the time aspect, I figure it's safer just to say 'going forward.'" Sol said before looking and catching something. There was a map system routing various subways that should have been in the area. One of which wasn't very far away.

"Burrow Marketplace Plaza Station, a bit of a mouthful but should just be straight ahead." Sol said with surprise.

"Uh. Oh, hey. It says three minutes walk from the dot. Which is.. where we are." Alex shrugged, before looking down the road. It seemed to be clear, no ruins, no demons, no roots, no nothing.

"Well, a turn of good fortune?" Alex asked before turning and starting to walk in that direction.

"Let's hope it lasts." Sol said following behind.

The walk wasn't long, as the station really was that close. However, the issue the two ran into was that there was a large gate separating them from the plaza proper. Upon looking through the gate, the two could not only see the entrance to the subway station but the remains of a large statue and a horse it must have been perched on.

"Hey, is that a Divinity Statue?" Alex pointed at the other side of the plaza. Hidden behind a decorative column and an iron grate, there was the classic gold shine of the divine statue.

"Yes, it is, maybe even a way to Rodin's Gates of Hell is around here too." Sol said before trying the gate. It was locked with a heavy iron chain and lock.

"Well, I always wanted to try this and this seems to be the shortest route. Stand back, I'm going to shoot the lock off." Sol said before assuming a firing position.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

Three shots rang out in the plaza followed by the noise of the heavy chain and lock falling to the ground.

"Okay, that's kinda fun." Sol said as he pushed the gates, "We'll restock whatever we need at the statue, get stronger, maybe find Rodin and…

*CRACK!*

There was a loud cracking noise and part of the ruined statue broke off… followed by another part, until the statue fell over to the ground. The horse seemed to move, its stone-like exterior taking on a blueish hue as small gouts of demonic flame began to sputter into life. The horse let out menacing neigh before descending from the platform and trotting forward. Two blue, twisting horns sprouted from the forehead.

Archaic Steed: Deep Geryon

"Oh… oh fuck…" Sol said with horror.

"Fuck me…" Alex was halfway paralyzed.

The Deep Geryon, on the other hand, was not. Instead, it vanished from their sight. Just… one moment was there, the other was gone. He didn't even have the decency of waiting for both of them to blink.

"What… where did he go?!" Alex started turning around, scanning the place to see if he could spot the demon before… anything happened.

Sol moved to be facing directly away from Alex, to cover any blind spots. There was silence in the square and as Sol looked he swore he could see some form of distortion…

"Alex, move!" Sol shouted, grabbing Alex and using his weight to throw himself and Alex to the side. Where they stood, the form of the demonic steed surged forward, trampling the flowers of the plaza and smashing the earth beneath. Deep Geryon reared back before stomping forward and eyeing the two. It stomped his hooves again, breathing heavily before flashing out existence again.

"Fuck… A Geryon. Here. Weren't they supposed to be extremely rare?" Alex's eyes were wild, darting around the plaza with feverish intensity. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. They can mess with Time. Capital T Time. We need to run away."

Apparently it wasn't an option anymore, as the demonic horse appeared from a gray distortion in the air, landed on the roof of the building near the entrance and… with a couple of stomps, sent half of the whole thing falling down, blocking the way back.

"Well that stops us heading back or relying on any form of high ground." Sol said before firing on the horse. "If he tries to drop a road roller on us, I swear!" Sol shouted as the horse leapt down back to the plaza.

"No JoJo references!" Alex shouted, while also shooting as many magic bullets as he could at the Nightmare Horse that had just landed. Some of them had even hit him!

And made him angrier, but what can you do?

"Scatter! We're going to be easy targets if we remain here!" Again, Alex shouted, before starting to run to one side of the plaza, away from Sol.

Sol moved in the opposite direction, firing at the demonic horse while shouting. "Blame The Stupid Files, they're the one that made the connection!"

The Deep Geryon neighed angrily before flickering out of sight once more.

"Where'd he go!?" Sol asked frantically.

"Above you!" Alex managed to shout, his eyes noticing the gray portal opening over Sol. Thanking everything he could think of, there was a very small delay between the appearance of the portal and the emergence of the demon. That allowed Alex to start charging a bullet, trying to, desperately, hit the Deep Geryon between time jumps.

Sol dodged out of the way as the demon slammed down where he once stood before trotting off.

"If only it could stay still long enough for us to… Alex! I'll play the bait, hit him as he appears!" Sol shouted.

The demon horse stood still for a moment, before turning towards Sol, flames snorting from his nose. Then, a charged bullet hit his flank and exploded, making him jerk to the side. It was a very small jerk and the damage was pretty low, but it was there.

"Don't risk yourself too much!" Alex shouted back, before charging another shot while the horse wasn't jumping around through magical portals and stopping time willy-nilly.

"I got it!" Sol responded before firing at the demon. He stopped before aiming higher towards the demon's eyes. "Maybe I can go for the eyes and make him charge blindly."

The bullets roared from the gun, their path true and aimed for the demon's eyes, and then… The Deep Geryon disappeared from where he was a moment before.

That's when Sol heard the sound of hooves clopping from behind him, moving away, but starting to turn. And an explosion, followed by a low whinny of anger.

Sol spun on his heel, noticing the horse beginning to turn away from him before he fired more at its eyes. The Deep Geryon reared back in anger before looking at Sol again.

"That's right, big guy, keep those evil blues on me!" Sol shouted while backpedaling.

A series of rapid shots from Alex flew from the other side of the plaza. Alex, not even bothering to charge the bullets, just shot as many as fast as he could. Mostly, to try and stop the Deep Geryon from going too close to Sol. And it looked like it was even working! More or less. More less than more, but still. The classic death from a thousand cuts. Assuming the demonic horse didn't trample them both before.

Deep Geryon seemed to become more agitated, stamping its hooves under the hail of bullets and magic before leaping up and then coming down in a bizarre pattern of leaps and stomps.

"Fuuuuuck meeee!" Alex shouted, throwing himself into a roll to avoid the giant stallion coming down on him. Then another one and when the third roll brought him where the remains of the statue were, he opened Calcabrina and cast the barrier as well, blocking exactly one stomp and 'stunning' - well, more or less. It was just the sudden stop mid-motion that did it - that made him raise back in surprise.

"Sol!"

Sol let loose at a Stinger at the Deep Geryon's flank. While the attack did not do nearly the amount of damage that it had done on the scarecrows previously, it did further upset the momentum of the demon, knocking it ever so slightly off its center of balance.

"Fuck you!" Alex shouted, twisting and slamming the umbrella against the neck of the demon horse, before shooting a charged bullet with his hand. Channeling through his body instead of a weapon was far inferior, as far as efficiency and damage went, but it worked.

The explosion against the flank of the demon sent him further stumbling to the side, until he tipped completely over.

Sol was on the demon as soon as it fell, stabbing at its exposed stomach as fast as he could while calling out to Alex, "Keep up the fire! We can't let him get up again!"

However, as Sol went to stab the demon again, there was a moment he couldn't quite describe. The noise of the world cut out briefly in a drone and he suddenly found himself stumbling forward mid stab, where the Deep Geryon should have been.

"What… oh shit, he's moving again!" Sol cried out frantically.

"Left!" Alex shouted, moving and putting himself in front of Sol. His barrier appeared between them and the Geryon's charge just at the right moment. The horns of the demon, twisted and very, very sharp, slammed against the layer of magic and reinforced cloth, stopping for exactly one second and a half.

Then, the barrier broke with the sound of glass shattering, and both of them were thrown back by several meters. Luckily, with only a few bruises for it.

"Damn… That smarts." Well, and a headache for Alex, but that was something he was accustomed to, so it wasn't an immediate problem. "I don't think I can block another hit like that. Think of it as a cooldown." Alex, shakily, got up and kept his eyes trained on the Deep Geryon.

"Understood, I'll distract it like before. Hammer with everything you safely can just in case he pulls another one of those charges." Sol said, before moving parallel to Alex and firing at the Deep Geryon. The bullets, while more of an irritation, seemed to catch the demon's attention again and it turned to face Sol.

"I'll try. Do not get hurt, I can't heal." It was something that Alex had already said, but it was worth repeating. Then, he unsheathed the sword and started charging a bullet on the tip of the umbrella part, while shooting normal ones with the blade.

"Will do, just get ready to move!" Sol said while keeping the fire up. He could see Deep Geryon begin that same stomping move from before and Sol dodged to keep out its way. As he realized he was by the gate, he thought of a crazy idea. The horse kept coming, bearing down on him and Sol fired his gun, to keep pissing it off.

"Come on just a little more." The horse was right above him. Sol dodged while screaming "Now!" The stomp he just barely dodged smashed the remains of the gate, and while the warped iron and steel did little to Deep Geryon, it did tangle around the demon's legs.

"That was dangerous, you asshole! Don't you dare die on me!" Alex shouted, before shooting his charged bullet and followed it with another shower of magical projectiles against the flank of the demonic horse.

The Deep Geryon seemed to glitch for a moment, as if he was trying to free himself, but was missing a few frames, before the magic bullets hit him one after another, the dust cloud big enough to obscure half of the giant horse.

It wasn't enough to not notice when he finally got free and reared on his back legs, eyes burning in rage - and literal fire - before vanishing and reappearing near Sol, coming down for a stomp.

It was a miracle that Sol jerked away at the last moment and the hooves slammed against the ground, sending a tremor all around the plaza.

The Deep Geryon was enraged, and also severely wounded. After all the attacks that had hit him, he was bleeding from several areas and some slashes that Sol had inflicted were still weeping blood.

"Can't you take the hint and just die already!" Sol roared as he fired back at the enraged demonic steed. It dragged one of its hooves deep in the stone, and seemed to visually glitch out for a moment before barrelling towards Sol at breakneck speed.

Sol tried to dodge to the side, just barely missing Deep Geryon as he did so. When he got back to his feet, the horse was gone.

"Can you see it?" Alex shouted, looking around, the fear that he was able to keep under control slipping for a moment. Even if he looked like he was doing well in dealing with the situation, he was terrified.

"I… I don't… Think." Sol managed to gasp out between breaths before his eyes caught that tell tale visual distortion. "Your right side!" He shouted as Deep Geryon made its presence known.

Alex threw himself into a roll forward, not even thinking, just reacting. He was fast enough to avoid the first charge, but not enough to retaliate and the Deep Geryon simply vanished again. When he reappeared, he was in the same charge, however, he was in a perfect collision course with Sol.

Sol dodged backwards, avoiding the charge before looking where Deep Geryon had vanished too. He moved next to Alex as quickly as he could. "We need to end this next charge and hit him with everything we got." He said in a low tone.

"You're right." Alex nodded, his grip on Calcabrina tight, knuckles white. "I can cast the barrier spell once more. I stop him, you stab him in the neck?" Alex whispered, eyes darting to and fro around the plaza.

"Can do." Was all Sol's response.

There was silence in the plaza for a few moments before the image of Deep Geryon began to flicker around them. The demon was galloping in a circle before eventually fading out entirely.

"He's playing with us." Sol noted.

"Definitely." Alex nodded, eyes still sharp. As the only one with a defense worth a damn - and no, he wasn't counting the armor that Sol had on him. Against demons of the Deep Geryon's caliber that thing could as well be made of tissue paper… he would need to react as fast as possible unless he didn't want to get both of them killed.

What happened after was a matter of moments.

The Deep Geryon appeared on the other side of the plaza, already barreling towards them, a fiery aura blue around him that was scorching the stone that he was galloping on, horns elongated and wrapped in a blue aura.

Alex pushed Sol to the side, opened Calcabrina, and poured all his magic into the Devil Arm. The barrier spell appeared on the canopy of the umbrella, making it shine with purple-gold energy.

The Deep Geryon impacted it.

The barrier shattered.

Calcabrina flew away from Alex's hands, as he was forced to let it go unless he wanted his wrists to break..

Geryon was stopped, and looked properly dazed.

Sol moved in without a word and stabbed into Deep Geryon's exposed neck. The blade must have found a gap in the armored flesh as it bit deeply. Sol dragged the blade across as far as he could before he felt something rigid in the neck. He gave a sharp twist as a general 'fuck you' and wrenched the blade out.

Deep Geryon reared back in egregious agony, its neighing replaced by a shallow gurgling noise before it toppled onto its side.

"Fuck you, you time stopping prick." Sol said to the downed demon before turning back to Alex.

"Well, it should be cash out any minute, wonder how much we'll get?" He said, exhaustion evident in his voice.

"I don't… Know." Alex was panting, looking at Sol. Then, his eyes widened.

"MOVE-GHRK!" Alex pushed himself forward, grabbing Sol by the shoulder and pushing him to the left, as the horns of the Deep Geryon slammed against his stomach, piercing him front to back, and through his spine.

He dropped on the ground with a dull thud, blood gushing down from the two entrance wounds. The demon horse, in its own final 'fuck you', rose on his rear hooves and pushed himself forward, toppling onto Alex with all of his weight.

He landed squarely on his… everything from under the collarbone.

The sound of bones breaking apart could be easily heard.

Only then did a veritable storm of Red Orbs appear.

"No, No, NO! You Fuck!" Sol roared as he ran toward the two in a mad panic.

"I…I… fuck! Alex, can you hear me!? I can't… shit I don't think I can move it off you!" Sol grabbed the sides of his head before pacing and muttering frantically, "Can't move his body, shouldn't move his body… He'll die if I don't do something!" He checked the med kit he brought with him from earlier, it had bandages and antibacterial washes but not much else beyond that. In a rage, Sol threw the kit as far as he could before looking around for something, anything that could offer a hint of salvation for his friend.

There was something that caught his eye, something that elicited a mad, crazy, and stupid idea. The statue of Time and Space was right there. Time stopped there, didn't it? It could give him the time necessary to help him. But he couldn't move Alex close enough to touch it!… Maybe if he bridged the gap? Sol stood between the two and gripped the most exposed part of Alex he could see, a hand. Sol then stretched his other hand as far out as he could trying desperately to touch the statue. His hand just barely grazed the statue a few times before it found purchase and the white void replaced the plaza.

He turned back to look at Alex, hoping he was there, and found that while he was, he was still pinned under the demonic horse.

"What the hell.. should I… Statue! Help me please!" Sol practically screamed.

A golden glow appeared in front of Alex's pained face. Blood was dribbling down the corner of his mouth.

Nothing happened.

And then…