The Plain of Swords, an arid landscape that acts as a frontier between the Lands of Rock and Metal, stage of many confrontations over the ages, where many horrors have taken place, the last of which led to the current peace between both nations. Its vast surface is covered in petrified swords and what remains of their wielders, turned into stone by a powerful song. In the memory of all that watered this place with their blood, a giant monument in the form of a sword was made, reminding everyone of the destruction caused by using music to go to war.

“It has its beauty, but I can’t stop thinking in what everyone would had thought at the end of the war. Imagine it, they were probably with their mouths open and saying Fuck, what have we done-Said Mercuria to Glam, with her upper body outside the semitrailer, gazing at her surroundings-“Who would want more of this to happen?”

“History has shown us that humans can do great things, but also horrible”-Answered Glam from inside the structure, watching the world from the window- “Hey, look there”

The guitarist searched for what the singer saw, finding a herd of pyruxes, omnivorous canines with long red and yellow fur, resembling a living fire, able to burst in flames to face enemies.

“I had one of those as a pet”-Said Mercuria.

“Holy shit, there are fucking spinetearers!”-Said Glam after seeing the beasts for the first time in her life.

Three large four armed apes with grey fur, yellow eyes and tusks began to fight with the herd, who protected their lives with all their strength and ferocity.

“You know why they’re called spinetearers?”-Asked Mercuria to Glam.

“Absolutely zero idea”

“They kill their preys biting their neck and then pulling, tearing the head alongside the spine”

“Yeesh”

Short after, with the most of the herd managing to escape after damaging the creatures, a hurt pyrux fell into the clutches of his predators, demonstrating the guitarist’s piece of wisdom in a quick manner.

“Yeah, those things can keep as much distance from me as possible”-Exposed Glam after watching the spectacle.

Belle, drove by Rosaleón, past the animals and kept on its way towards Malastrachia, the capital city of the Land of Metal, where they’d hoped to find potential assets for their group and even a clue about the Remains if they were lucky. As the roadie had said before, they may be borderline fanatics of their music, lack subtlety or even be as stubborn as a mule sometimes, but they’re great musicians and true to themselves.

Time passed as their traversed through the Plain of Swords, with both women contemplating its beauty or distracting themselves as they could while the drummer operated the machine, until something unexpected happened.

“What the hell!?”-Shouted Mercuria while the Devil’s Pick was violently pulled by an unknown force while the cord hold it, tighten to the back of her neck. She grabbed the object with both hands, but it was still being attracted to a certain direction.

“I’ll tell Rosaleón”-Said Glam as she moved towards an interphone attached to the wall that communicated to the cabin, activating it and informing the driver.-“Stop the bus, something happens with The Pick!”

At the wheel, once he heard her words, Rosaleón stopped the vehicle, turned off his music, descended and ran into the semitrailer, followed by his faithful dog, going upstairs to the second floor.

“What’s happening”?-Said the roadie after reaching the top of the stairs, looking afterwards at the girls, especially at Mercuria’s necklace.

“The Pick is pointing somewhere”-Said Mercuria, moving the object in other directions only to return to its original, proving her theory.

“And, of course, we have to follow a guitar pick that contains a portion of an arrogant demon’s power, who wants to conquer the world. I’m sure there won’t be an ambush or anything like that in order to kill us and get The Pick. That would be nonsense!”

As she spoke, Glam raised her arms to emphasize her words, looking at her colleagues once she finished, knowing that their attention towards the object meant that they were going to investigate the cause of its behaviour.

“Fuck”

Mercuria, guided by the necklaced tied to her motorcycles’ handlebar, searched for whatever attracted the Devil’s Pick, dodging the statues and swords that covered the terrain, followed by Belle, that didn’t have as much mobility as her vehicle. They kept that way until they eventually found a hole in the ground, dropped from the vehicles and gathered at the border. With the cord wrapped around the guitarist’s hand, The Pick pointed to the innards of the cave.

“I don’t have a good feeling about this”-Said Glam, holding her microphone stand.

“Who would?”-Said Rosaleón.

Mercuria jumped the meter of profundity and slowly advanced down, followed by her partners. They kept walking through a natural tunnel, illuminated by openings in the ceiling and the roadie’s lighter, carefully traversing through the irregular terrain. When they left the tunnel behind they ended in a large cavern with numerous gaps on its upper portions, covered by crystal stalactites that transmitted the light, reaching most of the cave. In the middle of it laid a pile of gold, instruments and other valuable objects, or shiny trinkets, to which the Devil’s Pick pointed stronger than before.

“Let’s check it out”- Said Mercuria to the others, rushing to the mountain of riches to find the source of the attraction. She climbed and put her hands into the pile, holding the pick in one of her hands to pinpoint the location within. After grabbing the mysterious object, she pulled it with all her strength, falling backwards down the stack until she reached the bottom, recognizing when she stopped that she was holding a bass, and The Pick aggressively pointed to the strings-“I think it’s another Remain”

“Make’s sense. Maybe Belzerax’s power is trying to put itself back together. Either way, something has hoarded all that, so we’d better go as soon as possible”- Said Glam.

“She’s right, we’ve been lucky, but let’s don’t push it. Hades is nervous, let’s skeedaddle with our prize”-Said Rosaleón.

“Ok”-As she spoke this words, Mercuria searched for solid ground to lay her hand on and get up, finding a skull and bones instead - “What the fuck?”

After speaking, it broke down, with the sound reverberating through the cavern, and, after some seconds of silence, something produced two growls that combined in one, following by loud steps from behind the pile. Once they got closer, a black reptilian paw showed itself, followed by two black heads with two pairs of green eyes each, covered in scales, with three horns, two on the forehead and one on the snout, accompanied by two nostrils. The dragon showed the rest of his body to the invaders, bristling the fins on his back, erecting the tail and extending the wings in all their glory, standing on its rear extremities while roaring towards the humans that had stolen from his pile of beautiful things.

“Oh, shit”

Mercuria’s word resumed the thoughts of the three of them.