Inferno Ascended

"I can't believe you fell like a bat from the cave ceiling on the train," Glax teased, and poked Mors' fingers through the gap in his sandal. Mors quickly removed his foot.

"Glax, I thought you were growing up. But I see you just gave up on shaving, anyway. Come on, get off… Get a LIFE."

Suddenly Glax felt the realization of facts fall on his shoulders. 

"Wait… what are you doing here?"

Mors looked down with disdain. "Damn you can see me. Glax of Valosia, I'm here on a business trip. Can you please mind your own business?!" He started talking calmly but by the end he was already pursing his lips in irritation.

"Tell me… what will happen here?" Glax demanded.

"How am I supposed to know? Do you think I have a private psychic?"

"Don't you? Why are you here? I demand explanations."

"What matters to you is that it's certainly not your day, so get out of here. Go. Go." Mors kicked Glax's arm, who was caught off guard and fell down below inside the car. Mors closed the hatch and climbed on top of it.

Glax discovered when trying to open it that Mors was a lot heavier than his slender appearance made him appear. "DON'T BE RIDICULOUS, MORS! Who was talking about maturity just now, huh? Are you acting the mature one by climbing over the hatch just to not answer me?" He screamed. The car door opened, and the guard asked,

"Hey, what's going on?!" Looking at Glax hanging from the hatch,

"Sh...ah, nevermind." Glax jumped to the floor of the car. "I just went to see what had fallen on the roof of the car, as Skopas asked me. It was just a stone. A USELESS STONE."

"Ah, that's good." The guard sighed. Glax went back to the passenger car and see how everyone was doing. He needed to know if Hermes was aware of this. 

Why did he suspect so?

He was moving from one car to another when he saw the first sight of the Sea of ​​Mists afternoon landscape. The tracks wound along a winding path through the hills descending towards the coast.

Glax was about to open the other door to get into the car when his instinct made him look towards the coast hills again. 

'That idiot is not here by chance. He's said more than once that he only cares about collecting the heroes' orbs… That means someone is going to die epically today. Here? On this train?'

The train was advancing at an average speed of 25 km/h, and Glax scanned the misty landscape to spot threats. Then her gaze went to the top of a craggy hill at the edge of the sea. 

'You've got to be kidding me.'

:::::::::::::::

Glax abruptly entered the passenger car.

"The train is under attack!"

All the warriors in the car rose at once, grabbing their weapons. The Archigeos expressed his discomfort at being in a confined place and not knowing anything, but he's already commanded Tychos and Zotikos.

"You two get them all together in one car and find out if there are more warriors to join us. Glax, what's going on?" He asked as he walked behind the Valosian to the exit of the car. Glax just let the leader of the Echelians climb the small ladder to the roof of the car, as did the others.

From above, they could see the gigantic flying ship, hoisted by huge balloons and soaring wings, moving across the sky as if sailing across the water.

That was an ecstatic sight, but it wasn't the only threat, even if Glax could see the pair of cannons on each side. From the rocky hill, where they would pass in a few minutes, dark and giant creatures climbed down towards the valley.

"Giants?" The Archigeos put a shielding hand over his eyes to see better against the sun.

"No. They're mechas. Men wearing giant and steam-powered metal armor. At least that's what it looks like. They have firearms too."

"Are they Promethean?" Alekos asked.

"I'd bet on it." His father replied.

"What are they doing?" Rasmus pointed to the flying ship, and they all looked at them as they began to descend with cables, something they couldn't identify at first. 

Other warriors joined them on the train's roof as the machine headed to inexorably meet the assailants.

The answer finally popped up in Glax's mind.

"They're going to drop a giant bag! This is a robbery. They want to steal some precious ore." Of course, an operation this big shouldn't just be because of chloromites. They were after something more important.

"And they're not going to be very successful if they can't stop the train. And we're going to be in another tunnel in minutes…" The engine room warrior gave his opinion. The alarm bell had already rung to warn of imminent danger.

"What are you carrying so precious, anyway?"

"A vein of Galeon was found recently. It must have two tons of galeon under the chloromites," the head of Hercules guards admitted. They had discovered they were dealing with the archigeos of Echelians traveling incognito.

"If they were waiting for the train to leave the tunnel to attack, we would never have seen them on this side. They simply intend to prevent the train from entering the tunnel." The Archigeos deduced, "I know nothing about trains, but… what can be done?"

Glax reasoned for a moment. Maybe that would prevent Mors from taking someone today. Would he be able to speed up a train with his time bending cheat? But they were on a descent. Would that be wise? He shook his head as an answer.

"Forget it. Let's focus on the armored giants first." the Archigeos decided. "We don't have long-range weapons, but we have to rip them out of their armor."

Glax had never thought of such an unfair battle. He and the members of his squad had guns in their backpacks. But it was insufficient to deal with the 12 or so 3-meter tall armed to the teeth mechas. On their side, only 23 warriors, including the guards of Hercules. But most were armed only with common weapons.

"You come with me. Glax leads his group closer to the locomotive. Alekos you go with your master. What we have to do is wait- get them closer, when we can bring them into physical combat. They'll have fewer advantages. Focus on disarming them first, by all necessary means. May Helios who sees us today bless our cause. And may the Invisible Old God welcome those of us who get in his Underrealm."

Glax noticed Demophon hadn't said 'when we might have the best chance, but when THEY will have the least chance against us!' What a man!

Nodding, they were getting ready to descend when Zotikos came up the ladder. "Chiefs! The Lotus Eaters say they can help."

"What the hell are the Lo... What can they do?" Demophon recalled he wasn't in his homeland leading his own sorcerers.

"Basically," The Rhoas sharply summed up the long explanation, "they can use mind spells to confuse humans. But their powers need to be used at close range."

"So Lord Rhoas, you are my bridge to them."

"Yes sir, at your command!" Zotikos exclaimed and tucked down his head from view again.

Glax glanced at the available group. They were circling a hill and as soon as they exited the other side, the mecha would be waiting for them. He was sure they had already been spotted by the Promethean pirates on the flying ships. He just didn't know whether the mechas saw them before the hill covered them.

After a moment of anticipation, in which they knew they had little resources and that the enemy was much better prepared, they could only count on their resilience and warlike cunning. Stopping the train would only make the work of the pirates easier. And there was a chance of escape by entering the tunnel... Which would take about six minutes if the Hercules continued at the same speed.

They had to withstand six minutes of battle against about a dozen Mechas and a flying ship equipped with cannons.

"Why am I always on the side with fewer resources?" His old wary self wondered aloud. Rasmus beside him grunted.

"We would never have incarnated in Stygia if I did not prepare us for this, bro. We are of the lineage of heroes. We have a chance to create our own name. To be sung in the songs. What fun would it be if we were armed to the teeth?"

Rasmus was rather philosophical today. 

"I would find it pretty funny,actually" Glax said, standing back to back with his partner. He saw Alexandre do the same to Tychos, both of them with huge, devilish grins as Alexandre started his spring-powered saw and the Antusian grabbed his machine gun.

"You think today is our day?" Rasmus asked him, "I wanted to see my son."

"You're going to see your son, Ras. Even if Death was on that train, all we'd have to do is kick him out." It wasn't because he wasn't seeing Mors anymore that he didn't know the god was around.

He intended to meet the Old Hell yes, but on his own feet.

And definitely not today.

The shadow of the hill was left behind after a curve.

They saw the mechas coming toward the tracks.

CONTINUES