Inferno Ascended
Chapter 103 - THE RIVER
"Give me this while I'm being nice," Glax said, as he raised the rifle, taking aim. They were about 30 meters from each other.
"Just remember you only have one chance to get it right, you sonofabitch. Because if you make a single mistake, you won't get what you want."
Glax sighed and brought the weapon to eye level. "Keep barking. I'm just getting more time to aim better, sucker."
Doros took a cautious step back, "What the fucking hell are you? Why do you care?"
"Should I open my heart to you? It's because I have regrets for the jerk shithead I was. Let's say I'm doing for Chris what I didn't do for Sienna."
"Sienna? Who the hell is Sienna?" Mech Eye shrugged, clearly thinking the whole thing was bullshit.
"For a moment I thought you might have a similar story. That you wanted to save Chriseis from something horrible. But that's not it, is it?"
"You're a…"
"Weird guy. Okay, I get that already. To be honest, I'm no longer interested in knowing your reasons. Now, if you're tired of talking, put the box down and I promise not to shoot you. Lucky for you I really believe in the Principles."
"Like I'd believe you…" Doros chuckled and his sarcastic laugh turned into a coughing fit. He bent over, and Glax wondered if he was going to die from Leto's vapors. Of course, he wondered how long he himself could hold out without suffering severe effects from its fumes.
"Hey man. You chose that, come to die here on this highway to literal Hell. You'd rather die coughing with your lungs corroded like an idiot asshole hit by the karma of your own choices... Or with a shot, like the decaying, fallen thug you've become?" He edged closer, still keeping Mech-Eye in the crosshairs.
"You…want to stop…talking shit, you boring motherfucker…" Doros kept coughing.
"It's annoying to shoot you while you're coughing, you all helpless and stuff. It's kind of cowardly." Glax was ironic, but what he said had some truth in it. He still needed to work on those mental triggers of his. The Valosian remembered Damiamon, who had given him the necessary break to straighten his mask.
"...Sucker!" His comment seemed to ignite Mech-Eye even more, and in a half-moon move, he hurled the box as hard as he could towards the river.
Glax watched in awe as the square object made a weird curve in the air. 'Don't. Fall. Into the river!'
"GRRRAARGH!!!" His finger pulled the trigger again and again, before he even saw where the box Chriseis' Fist in would land.
This time he hadn't aimed for the chest but for the head. He watched in satisfied horror as the successive shots tore off chunks of flesh, brains and metal from the skull of Kroton Doros of Kirene.
The body danced clumsily with the impact, until it fell backwards into the muck.
'Shit. I really am a garrulous shithead.' Already repented, he tried to immediately bend time and prevent the box from finishing its parable to the river, but he was with the clock. Also, he was still suffering the cooldown effects. He felt it in his gut.
His bad choices couldn't be deleted from his timeline, and he must face the consequences of not keeping his tongue in his mouth.
He hurried to the river's edge, his eyes stinging and his lungs itching the closer he got to Leto's virulent black waters.
He spotted the box, floating away more and farther from the river banks, attracted by the rapid currents of the center.
"Shit!" He had no way to pick up the object.
Glax looked at the Macaris Bridge, about a hundred meters away. Its imposing structure of carved stalactites, forming a huge arch over the Leto, was uninviting. Despite being suspended by colossal columns on both sides. sides, its central span of hundreds meters didn't touch the river. The box would pass under the structure in minutes.
Without thinking too much, he ran for the bridge. He must have been crazy to think that, but he was hoping to find a way to retrieve the box.
Macaris was still standing, but in the same state as the various ruins that Ascended with Stygia. It was wide enough for chariots to pass. Knowing that across the River the Silvans had an important fortress, Victum, Glax knew of the risk he was taking by just setting foot there.
He ran to the north side, where he could see the box being dragged by the river's strong currents. All his ideas of how to get the box back collapsed as he finally convinced himself that there was no human plausible way to do this.
He leaned forward as he saw the object floating under the bridge, several meters below him.
"Ugh!" His heart squeezed with anguish and self-condemnation. He didn't have the words to punish himself enough for his arrogant stupidity.
'Karma is a real bitch,' he concluded, with a sigh as he accepted that this time it was all his fault for thinking he had the situation under control.
And as if to prove he was totally right, he felt something slip under his tunic, and pop out of his collar now that he was leaning heavily on the edge of the bridge.
"What…! The clock!"
Glax bucked instinctively, and his hands tried to grab the object before the Vselys Clock, too, fell into the river! The artifact slipped from his fumbling hands, bouncing like wet soap almost as if it had a life of its own, and began its descent toward the black river.
The Valosian even shrank back, waiting for what would happen when the object to which he was intrinsically linked to plunged into the waters of the mythical river.
A hand with long, pale fingers caught the object in midair, halfway to sinking forever into Leto.
Glax blinked, stunned. "DAFUQ! You?!"
"It's a little early for you to frequent this place, Glax of Valosia." Mors had an indisputably amused glow as he faced the Valosian, floating up to his height. Then he looked at the object in his hands. "Besides, I don't want one more foreign object to fall where it shouldn't and cause even more trouble…" He frowned as he saw the Vselys clock vibrate in his hands, and begin to glow even brighter than usual.
"What is happening?" he asked intrigued but quickly handing the 'hot potato' into its owner's hands. Glax took note of the fact that Mors feared he would be holding the watch any longer.
To be honest, he was relieved that Mors had shown up at the last possible moment. But he was also worried about the clock.
At the same time, the artifact began to heat up in his hands, his head felt like it was going to explode and he felt that something very bad was going to happen.
His fist tightened around the object as the glare began to envelop him again. He felt the pressure and the spell that held him being violently shaken. His eyes rolled and his nose began to bleed.
Then the orbs began to escape through the fissures, attracted by the mighty current of the Infernal River.
ARHHHHGHHHHHH! He couldn't hold back the scream, it was too much for him. His entire body trembled and contorted in cramp, affected by the event that further weakened the chains that bound him to the common laws of time.
Finally, when all the souls were freed from the clock, Glax fell to the ground, sweating profusely and breathing heavily.
"Eh. Impressive. But we didn't need all this drama. Get up, you're blocking the way." Mors couldn't sound more indifferent.
"You son of a bitch."
"Not exactly. But you can't understand it, apparently." Mors shrugged, standing beside him. With the tip of the scythe, he nudged Glax's thigh to make him rise faster.
This had an effect, as it hurt, and it was quite an incentive to make the Valosian stand upright as if a spring were pushing him. He smoothed it where the sharp, icy tip touched. A black line had marked his skin, like a scar.
"HEY! YOU JUST EXIST TO PISS ME OFF ME OR WHAT?!"
"I would say it's the other way around. Look at you, all untouchable and stuff." Mors twirled his scythe a few times, playing with it and waiting for Glax to do something.
"What? Do you want me to thank you for leaving a scar on me?"
"No. But you should thank me for saving your Valya souvenir."
"You said yourself that you did it for your own purposes."
Mors sighed.
"What are you doing around here, by the way?"
"Bumping up heavy traffic, as you can see." Glax cleaned his clothes irritably. He was still furious with himself for everything he'd let happen.
"Well, what was in that box?"
"What do you mean, what was in that box? The Fist of Chriseis! Do you think I'm here doing tourism?"
"It wouldn't be unlikely coming from you. But…? Wasn't Chriseis' Fist supposed to have her soul?"
Glax looked at Mors with an expression of shock.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Just remember you only have one chance to get it right, you sonofabitch. Because if you make a single mistake, you won't get what you want."
Glax sighed and brought the weapon to eye level. "Keep barking. I'm just getting more time to aim better, sucker."
Doros took a cautious step back, "What the fucking hell are you? Why do you care?"
"Should I open my heart to you? It's because I have regrets for the jerk shithead I was. Let's say I'm doing for Chris what I didn't do for Sienna."
"Sienna? Who the hell is Sienna?" Mech Eye shrugged, clearly thinking the whole thing was bullshit.
"For a moment I thought you might have a similar story. That you wanted to save Chriseis from something horrible. But that's not it, is it?"
"You're a…"
"Weird guy. Okay, I get that already. To be honest, I'm no longer interested in knowing your reasons. Now, if you're tired of talking, put the box down and I promise not to shoot you. Lucky for you I really believe in the Principles."
"Like I'd believe you…" Doros chuckled and his sarcastic laugh turned into a coughing fit. He bent over, and Glax wondered if he was going to die from Leto's vapors. Of course, he wondered how long he himself could hold out without suffering severe effects from its fumes.
"Hey man. You chose that, come to die here on this highway to literal Hell. You'd rather die coughing with your lungs corroded like an idiot asshole hit by the karma of your own choices... Or with a shot, like the decaying, fallen thug you've become?" He edged closer, still keeping Mech-Eye in the crosshairs.
"You…want to stop…talking shit, you boring motherfucker…" Doros kept coughing.
"It's annoying to shoot you while you're coughing, you all helpless and stuff. It's kind of cowardly." Glax was ironic, but what he said had some truth in it. He still needed to work on those mental triggers of his. The Valosian remembered Damiamon, who had given him the necessary break to straighten his mask.
"...Sucker!" His comment seemed to ignite Mech-Eye even more, and in a half-moon move, he hurled the box as hard as he could towards the river.
Glax watched in awe as the square object made a weird curve in the air. 'Don't. Fall. Into the river!'
"GRRRAARGH!!!" His finger pulled the trigger again and again, before he even saw where the box Chriseis' Fist in would land.
This time he hadn't aimed for the chest but for the head. He watched in satisfied horror as the successive shots tore off chunks of flesh, brains and metal from the skull of Kroton Doros of Kirene.
The body danced clumsily with the impact, until it fell backwards into the muck.
'Shit. I really am a garrulous shithead.' Already repented, he tried to immediately bend time and prevent the box from finishing its parable to the river, but he was with the clock. Also, he was still suffering the cooldown effects. He felt it in his gut.
His bad choices couldn't be deleted from his timeline, and he must face the consequences of not keeping his tongue in his mouth.
He hurried to the river's edge, his eyes stinging and his lungs itching the closer he got to Leto's virulent black waters.
He spotted the box, floating away more and farther from the river banks, attracted by the rapid currents of the center.
"Shit!" He had no way to pick up the object.
Glax looked at the Macaris Bridge, about a hundred meters away. Its imposing structure of carved stalactites, forming a huge arch over the Leto, was uninviting. Despite being suspended by colossal columns on both sides. sides, its central span of hundreds meters didn't touch the river. The box would pass under the structure in minutes.
Without thinking too much, he ran for the bridge. He must have been crazy to think that, but he was hoping to find a way to retrieve the box.
Macaris was still standing, but in the same state as the various ruins that Ascended with Stygia. It was wide enough for chariots to pass. Knowing that across the River the Silvans had an important fortress, Victum, Glax knew of the risk he was taking by just setting foot there.
He ran to the north side, where he could see the box being dragged by the river's strong currents. All his ideas of how to get the box back collapsed as he finally convinced himself that there was no human plausible way to do this.
He leaned forward as he saw the object floating under the bridge, several meters below him.
"Ugh!" His heart squeezed with anguish and self-condemnation. He didn't have the words to punish himself enough for his arrogant stupidity.
'Karma is a real bitch,' he concluded, with a sigh as he accepted that this time it was all his fault for thinking he had the situation under control.
And as if to prove he was totally right, he felt something slip under his tunic, and pop out of his collar now that he was leaning heavily on the edge of the bridge.
"What…! The clock!"
Glax bucked instinctively, and his hands tried to grab the object before the Vselys Clock, too, fell into the river! The artifact slipped from his fumbling hands, bouncing like wet soap almost as if it had a life of its own, and began its descent toward the black river.
The Valosian even shrank back, waiting for what would happen when the object to which he was intrinsically linked to plunged into the waters of the mythical river.
A hand with long, pale fingers caught the object in midair, halfway to sinking forever into Leto.
Glax blinked, stunned. "DAFUQ! You?!"
"It's a little early for you to frequent this place, Glax of Valosia." Mors had an indisputably amused glow as he faced the Valosian, floating up to his height. Then he looked at the object in his hands. "Besides, I don't want one more foreign object to fall where it shouldn't and cause even more trouble…" He frowned as he saw the Vselys clock vibrate in his hands, and begin to glow even brighter than usual.
"What is happening?" he asked intrigued but quickly handing the 'hot potato' into its owner's hands. Glax took note of the fact that Mors feared he would be holding the watch any longer.
To be honest, he was relieved that Mors had shown up at the last possible moment. But he was also worried about the clock.
At the same time, the artifact began to heat up in his hands, his head felt like it was going to explode and he felt that something very bad was going to happen.
His fist tightened around the object as the glare began to envelop him again. He felt the pressure and the spell that held him being violently shaken. His eyes rolled and his nose began to bleed.
Then the orbs began to escape through the fissures, attracted by the mighty current of the Infernal River.
ARHHHHGHHHHHH! He couldn't hold back the scream, it was too much for him. His entire body trembled and contorted in cramp, affected by the event that further weakened the chains that bound him to the common laws of time.
Finally, when all the souls were freed from the clock, Glax fell to the ground, sweating profusely and breathing heavily.
"Eh. Impressive. But we didn't need all this drama. Get up, you're blocking the way." Mors couldn't sound more indifferent.
"You son of a bitch."
"Not exactly. But you can't understand it, apparently." Mors shrugged, standing beside him. With the tip of the scythe, he nudged Glax's thigh to make him rise faster.
This had an effect, as it hurt, and it was quite an incentive to make the Valosian stand upright as if a spring were pushing him. He smoothed it where the sharp, icy tip touched. A black line had marked his skin, like a scar.
"HEY! YOU JUST EXIST TO PISS ME OFF ME OR WHAT?!"
"I would say it's the other way around. Look at you, all untouchable and stuff." Mors twirled his scythe a few times, playing with it and waiting for Glax to do something.
"What? Do you want me to thank you for leaving a scar on me?"
"No. But you should thank me for saving your Valya souvenir."
"You said yourself that you did it for your own purposes."
Mors sighed.
"What are you doing around here, by the way?"
"Bumping up heavy traffic, as you can see." Glax cleaned his clothes irritably. He was still furious with himself for everything he'd let happen.
"Well, what was in that box?"
"What do you mean, what was in that box? The Fist of Chriseis! Do you think I'm here doing tourism?"
"It wouldn't be unlikely coming from you. But…? Wasn't Chriseis' Fist supposed to have her soul?"
Glax looked at Mors with an expression of shock.
"What do you mean by that?"
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