A booming drumbeat permeated throughout the second circle. It seemed to come from both everywhere and nowhere.

The walls and floor of the cavern vibrated as little specks of dust were dislodged from them by the heavy sound.

The deafening sound echoed and reverberated throughout the whole second circle getting constantly amplified and distorted.

Without exception, every single demon in the second circle of hell heard the beat of this might drum. As one, they stopped what they were doing and paused to listen.

The smarter ones caught on quickly and ran for their weapons. They desperately readied themselves for battle.

Just from the way, their hearts raced and blood boiled they could tell what was happening. That was the sound of a war drum.

Suddenly, after exactly 10 thunderous booms on the war drum, everything returned to silence. It was almost possible to hear as every demon in the second circle took a deep breath and held it. The tension in the cavern was palpable.

Before long, another sound broke the silence. A deep thunderous voice that boomed even louder than the drum spoke with enthusiasm.

"Are you ready for war you wretched creatures!? HAHAHA"

"..."

"Of course, of course, you can't reply. Well, I have better things to do than babysit you abominations, so I'll just explain the rules and go."

"..."

"First, you are going to war. A certain race called the 'shrikes' has committed crimes against karma so wipe them out."

"..."

"Second, and this is more important. As roughly half of you may know. Only half of the demons can complete this 'Penance' and go on to the next level. The other half will need to wait here for the next one. So fight hard."

"..."

"Righto, that's all I have to say so... fuck off and get it done."

Like that, the booming voice disappeared, along with every single demon in the second circle. This included Fike and Hyde, who were lying down to rest beside a mountain of monster corpses with their hearts gouged out.

This also included Solomon. Solomon, who was 400 metres above the ground in a tiny cave and sharpening his daggers on a nearby rock. The gleaming white metal fragment was nowhere to be found.

In a split second, the world turned upside down and they were all gone. Turned into flowing lights that drifted through time and space as nothing but information. All of them beamed towards a huge planet completely covered in thick foliage.

If there was alien life. Would it look like humans? probably not. But, it would surely be an animal right... right? That wasn't the case on this planet. On the surface of this planet, Plants ruled supreme.

The planet was almost entirely covered with enormous green plants that stretched up towards the sky in a desperate fight for sunlight.

That was except for one place. In the very northernmost region, a golden desert stretched out covering the whole north pole of the planet.

It was in this Desert that, all of a sudden. Countless demons appeared out of nowhere. These demons were armed to the teeth and stunk of sulfur and blood. They were going on a crusade.

In the depths of the desert. At the hottest point, with the least water, animal life thrived. That was the only way they could escape the grasp of the plants.

A week ago, It was these animals that had prayed to the gods for help. Storm clouds were brewing and heading towards the desert that was untouched by rain. The desert Needed to be untouched by rain.

If the environment of the desert became suitable for plants. It would be over for the creatures desperately clinging on to life there.

In a towering city, at the very most northern point of the planet, Creatures that resembled humans walked the streets. They were all wrapped in cloths and cloaks to keep off the ruthless sunlight

It was in this city that, out of desperation due to the storm clouds closing in. The king had desperately prayed. He had prayed for a god or an angel to help him and save his people.

Of course, Gods and angels weren't so kind. Maybe they once had been, but the endless millennium spent disconnected from mortal life eroded their empathy. Besides, they had better things to do.

No, what answered the desperate king's prayers were the demons. Demons that brought with them fire and destruction. He couldn't have asked for anything better.

On the endless sweeping sand dunes, these demons appeared out of nothing and looked around curiously. Bristling with weapons and claws, they were eager to get started fighting.

...

Perhaps because he was so high up before he was brought here, Solomon landed on an enormous sand dune the size of a mountain.

This sand dune was unfathomably large and ringed the entire desert. As the undergrowth encroached on the north, the sand was pushed back and piled up into a natural fort that kept out the plants.

Of course, the plants weren't as simple as they sounded. There was only one species of them that developed intelligence.

The Shrike.

The Shrike resembled an ent without any of the gentlenesses. They had viciously sharp branches that came off of their bodies. When they killed an enemy their corpse was impaled on these spikes as a warning. Wherever they walked, blood and entrails were left in their wake.

Like some twisted Christmas tree, they lumbered through the prehistoric forests of the planet. Any animal unlucky enough to bump into them became an ornament that was added to their branches.

A vague image like this appeared in Solomon mind right as he appeared. 'Looks like that's what I'm fighting,' he thought when he saw it.

Disgust welled up inside him when he thought of the mangled corpses hanging from the branches. He sort of understood why this race would incur the wrath of karma.

In the endless universe. Life was both rare and sacred. To kill in order to live was nature, creatures needed to eat after all. This was the law of nature after all.

To make a mockery of life in such a way was an affront to all that was living. The shrikes must have brought retribution onto themselves in this way.

Setting all this aside, Solomon cleared his head and tried to think of a plan. Because it had taken him so long to absorb that weird metal, he wasn't able to meet up with Hyde and Fike like he was supposed to.

Meaning, he needed to be careful when he moved to attack the Shrike. Two hands couldn't block four after all and this was a war not a one on one battle.

Thinking that, wars didn't usually end quickly he wasn't in too much of a rush so he set himself a temporary goal.

'The first thing I need to do is gather information. If I can find out what the weaknesses of the Shrikes are and work out strategies to kill them it will help me in the long run,' he reasoned.

'How do I work out their weaknesses though? Just walking into the jungle on my own would be suicidal, if I was with the rest of the demons, maybe I could gather information from watching them fight but now that I am by myself I need to come up with a different tactic.'

'Hmm... who would know their weaknesses better than anyone else? The animals that live on this planet right. But how do I find them? They would surely be hiding as far away from the plants as possible.'

Solomon looked down one side of the enormous sand dune and saw an endless jungle stretching off into the horizon. He looked over to the other side and saw a desert covered with sand dunes like waves that headed into the distance in the other direction.

'If I just walk the opposite direction of the plants, I should find the natives eventually right?' Thought Solomon as he made up his mind.

Then, he turned his back from the forest and walked down from the top of the dune and towards the north.

As Solomon left the top of the sand dune and couldn't be seen from the forest anymore, the undergrowth started shifting and roiling. Creaking sounds of wood moving could be heard throughout the forest.

...

Hyde and Fike were luckier than Solomon, not only did they arrive with each other, they were close enough to the main force of the demons that they could see them milling about in the desert a few miles away.

The pair looked slightly different than what they had from a few days ago. Hyde had grown taller and his eyes glowed with a strange hypnotic light that would entrance any that looked too deeply into them.

Fike had the biggest change. A Leather rope was wrapped around his shoulder. This rope was fashioned from the hide of the snake they had killed and was attached to his harpoon. He was sick of having to walk over and collect it, so he had created this.

When it was alive, the snake monster had been at least 15 metres long, so the rope, which was made from its hide was more than long enough to do what FIke needed.

To be honest, Fike was more excited about the prospect of spearfishing with it, but he wouldn't admit that to Hyde. Hyde wanted him to use it for fighting or as a grappling hook.

"Let's go meet up with the other demons so we can get a better idea of what's going on." Suggested Fike.

Hyde nodded thoughtfully, "Good idea. Hey, this is just me thinking out loud here but, you saw those Shrikes too right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, seeing as they are made out of wood, they probably aren't edible right?"

"Hmm, you never know. Since they are sort of like trees, they probably have fruit."

Hearing this Hyde lit up and chattered with Fike about what he thought the fruit might taste like as they walked towards the congregating demons.

Because of their increased strength and strong bodies, it didn't take long for the pair to arrive at where the main troop of demons was.

Counting roughly, Fike reckoned that there had to be at least a few hundred thousand here. Just the energy they were all releasing was suffocating.

All of the demons were gathered around a particularly large sand dune that had three demons on it. These demons were some of the strongest that Hyde had seen yet. So he decided to listen to what they had to say.

The first one to speak was the biggest one. He stood at roughly 9 feet tall and had two enormous horns protruding from the side of his head. He had a very deep and powerful voice which attracted the attention of most of the demons nearby.

"My name is Thraw. I have already participated in [The Horde] once and would like to give everyone some advice." He bellowed

'Apparently, demons are nice no matter where you go,' thought Hyde.

The crowd of demons that were gathered nearby quietened in order to listen to what he had to say.

"I am not going to help you too much, because I don't want to fail again. But I can say this. Last time, the war lasted for two months, so don't be in a rush and get yourself killed. We will need as many demons as possible when we go for their stronghold."

A few of the demons that heard this were shocked. Two months was a long time. What if you only had a month left to live before this 'Penance' started? Wouldn't you just die no matter what?

"Also, Because your contribution to the war is tested individually, you may want to go off on your own. Which makes sense. But, I would recommend getting into smaller groups so that you aren't completely helpless if you get injured or something unexpected happens."

Fike was sort of jealous of this big demon. He was probably gaining loads of good karma for just telling everyone what was common sense. Still, what he had said wasn't wrong. With only Hyde and him they might get picked off by the Shrike.

Some of the demons that heard Thraw's advice ignored him. They believed in their own strength, or maybe they had abilities that were more useful alone such as stealth. Whatever the reason, roughly half of the demons gathered walked off on their own.

Hyde and Fike were a pair and when they joined up with Solomon, they would have three people in their group. Their group was already pretty well rounded.

Hyde was a close quarter's brawler with excellent sense because of his canine traits. He could function as a tracker and fighter.

Fike could attack from range now that he could fire off his harpoon and he was useful when it came to trapping enemies and keeping them pinned down.

Solomon, well, Fike wasn't really sure how strong Solomon was, but he felt like Solomon was more of a glass cannon. Maybe he could function like an assassin. They would have to figure that out later.

For now, Hyde and FIke also separated from the group of congregated demons. Their first course of action was to get an understanding of their surroundings.