Inferno Ascended

The large canvas supported by hundreds of cables came towards him, blocking all view. The Prometheans intended to steal the precious cargo within Stygian territory with a bold plan. 

But the plan had already gone wrong, Glax smirked. 

The flying ship was about forty feet high, and the canvas that formed a bag about four feet off the ground.

If Glax's calculations were right, they only had four mechas left. He saw two of them on top of one of the cars, tearing off the top of the ore container. The other two were fighting the Archigeos and other warriors. Glax put more projectiles into his rifle, and stood up calmly.

Gathering air in his lungs, he sprinted and with the momentum he threw himself against the canvas, grabbing onto it as best he could. Not in his wildest dreams would the former game illustrator think of doing this without picturing an epic fail and many broken bones as result. But that didn't happen with his new persona. Now that he'd gotten used to the idea that he wasn't even an ordinary human in this world.

'Nah, my friends. You are asking to be beaten. Why on my trip to Verivos? Why?' It didn't escape him that Hermes put him in this mess on purpose, though.

What a bad timing for the prometheans. 

The idiots couldn't even see that he was climbing the huge, tough fabric they wanted to fill with Stygia's rarest and most special metal. The same incorruptible material from which the gods forged their weapons. 

The maneuver tried to place the huge bag close to the only two mechas still engaged in the assault. They were simply throwing the chloromite powdery lumps along the way as they tried to pick up the galeon nuggets below.

One of the Prometheans grabbed the edge of the canvas, and lifted his gaze upward to wave to his companions in the flying ship. That's when he saw Glax, already clutching one of the cables.

Glax fired a few times, until the mecha lost its balance, twisted awkwardly  and crashed face down into the ore.

ZRRRRRLLLLLllll! RRRRRRLLLLLLLL!

He recognized that sound! 

Looking over his shoulder, the Valosian saw his pupil storming towards the last remaining mecha, his strange weapon at the ready.

The mecha also turned too late, as it was trying to understand what had happened to its fallen companion facedown in the green lumps of chloromite. 

Glax wished he hadn't looked at what happened next.

"ALEXANDRE! UP HERE! I NEED YOU!" He yelled when the boy turned off his saw.

"Master!" The boy wiped the blood from his face, and grinned. "Okay, no questions asked." He accepted the hand his master held out to him, and also began to climb the cables.

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

Glax and Alekos were already past the hatches where the cables were being lifted by reels, and reached the rails. 

They heard the Prometheans on the flying ship scream, but Glax didn't understand it fully. Glax supposed they had finally convinced themselves of the great fiasco of their operation. The ship began to turn north. Glax watched the train enter the tunnel, a little apprehensively.

He helped the boy haul himself to the rail of the flying boat. He did the same. Alexander was shaking from the physical exertion, and Glax had one more proof that he wasn't a normal human because he wasn't exhausted. On the contrary, he felt overwhelmed by the old flow of insane courage.

They had made extrenuous effort to get on the flying boat. Glax was a little disappointed, as it wasn't that elegant looking up close. There were at least ten Prometheans on the deck, occupied between keeping the engines and the flying ship running, and arguing in loud, hushed voices about whether to shoot the tunnel as scheduled.

"No! Vaab! Re aban vi timing! Va' reab ab better return iure! Let's go! "

"Ab xe, re ag' iuan iure me ab! Re iuan ag ag DAMN TUNNEL kivaax va! Re' aximan abim im iure!"

At least that's what Glax understood from the conversation, as they spoke a dialect that mixed strange words and a little Stygian. They wore baggy pants, sleeved tunics, and vests, very different from the Stygians.

Near the mechanism that kept the huge balloons filled with hot gas, Glax saw a real Cyclops. He was the size of one of the mechas, just over 3 meters. Cacodemons actually made nearly perfect copies of the one-eyed race, so it wasn't a big surprise. The giant operated the machine alone, ignoring the humans around him. And he was the one who saw the intruders first. 

With an irate yell, he grabbed a large shovel,

"INTRUDERS! You Vaab Prometheans! You don't take care of anything right!"

Glax almost laughed as the Cyclops was more angry at the Prometheans than at the intruder. The three men around a cannon were the only ones who were armed.

Caught by surprise, they reached for their holsters, but Glax shot one of them quickly. One of them recoiled, startled by the shot. Only the thinnest of them, with a nasty fish face and greasy red hair, fired forward, his eyes murderous and furious.

The Valosian used his time to avoid all bullets, as the man was only focusing on him. Out of the corner of her eye Glax saw that Alexander had just disarmed and knocked out a Promethean who had tried to sneak up behind him. 

His opponent didn't hit any bullets and was shocked at the fact, as he kept pulling the trigger dry, until he showed surprised realization and fear. 

With two long strides, the Valosian grabbed the skinny redhead by the waistband of his pants. The man tried to punch him, but Glax grabbed him by the collar of his tunic as well, and threw him over the rail.

He turned to face the rest, then.

This took all the courage from the remaining Prometheans. As Glax imagined, the Prometheans weren't good fighters.

"Who are you?!" The Cyclops asked in an angry voice, still holding the shovel, but making no mention to move away from the machinery. Glax was grateful for the refined intelligence of this mythic forger.

"Glax of Valosia. And this is Alexandre the Great. Have you ever heard of us?"

The Prometheans were confused and speechless.

"Didn't you hear of us? You might have liked to have heard." Glax spoke.

They gulped.

"Now surrender, and no one else will die. And that ship will not fall into a ball of fire, pain, and despair. As long as there's life, there's hope, isn't that what they say?"

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

"I still can't believe it was so easy…" Alexandre commented quietly as Glax supervised the landing of the ship on the beach.

"Just watch," Glax said, keeping his attention doubled to what the Prometheans were doing. Once the anchors were stabilized, the Prometheans fled like rats, knowing their fate would be nothing other than torture and death if they were taken prisoner. Alekos motioned to stop them, but Glax grabbed his arm.

"Let them go. They are far from home. And we don't have enough men to arrest them now."

Alexandre looked at Glax in shock at his view of the situation, and though it displeased him, the boy nodded.

Only the Cyclops did not move from its place, keeping himself busy regulating the pressure of the ship's enormous engine.

"Won't you try to run away?" Glax raised an eyebrow. He still hadn't gotten close to the Cyclops.

"No. I came here to find my brother. And that's what I'm going to do."

"It doesn't sound like a good plan to me…" Glax pondered. "Joining idiot muggers."

"It sounded like a good plan, until we were unlucky enough to run into Echelians, didn't it?" The Cyclops crossed his arms over his broad chest. "We wanted to use the galeon to negotiate my brother's release. But it seems that  I should join him now, wherever he is."

"What if he's dead?" Glax asked. Glax couldn't help but think they scammed the Cyclops into this plan because no way the Prometheans didn't want the galeon. His pupil nudged him, and whispered. 

"Have you forgotten, master, that no one in their right mind kills a Cyclops?"

"That's why they are so confident! No, I didn't remember that. What's that really like?"

"They are 'Children of the Mighty Mother Gaia.' It's very bad luck to kill one of them. Earthquakes and such."

"Hahaha, your young friend is right, Echelian. That's why I know they imprisoned my brother in Verivos, as a slave to that disgusting witch."

"Oops." Glax hadn't expected this one.

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

"A Cyclops? What a weird story. But that doesn't even surprise me," The Archigeos commented, as Zotikos healed him. The poor iatromancer was sweating and seemed drained from the effort of channeling healing. 

The train was stopped just beyond the tunnel, and the Valosian and his pupil saw how the big machine had been damaged. 

Some civilian passengers were trying to help, too terrified of what they had lived through. The Lotus Eaters applied their mind spells to soothe the hysterical ones, and ease the pain of the suffering, and it worked immediately.

Glax shook his head slowly, suddenly shaken by the result of the confrontation with the Prometheans. He saw the dead and severely injured in the confrontation.

He hadn't seen Ras yet, and he was worried.

There were no orbs in sight.

"LORD GLAXXXXXX!" He saw Uniq running towards him from the front of the train. She looked very happy to see him, and he was also relieved to see her, despite seeing the bruises and scratches with dried blood on her body.

"COME! COME HERE, YOU MUST SEE THIS!" she insisted.