Inferno Ascended

Rasmus and Tychos were cautiously surrounding the Forge of Soul, while the vselys inside kept punching and kicking the metal with violence. The mecha attack against the train had ripped it from the tubes and severely damaged the bars that closed off the sarcophagus.

With each blow, the metal deformed. It was a matter of time before the vselys made it out of there.

Glax assessed the situation. There was no way to predict what kind of 'thing' would come out of there. An insane being? Anyone needing help? And what personality would it have?

"HEY! SHUSH! CALM! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME? WE'LL OPEN IT. YOU ARE AMONG FRIENDS. I KNOW YOUR FRIENDS. MALKO. DAMIAMON. AND EVEN KING KAINE."

It has gotten the creature's attention. Glax came close to the sarcophagus, which had stopped moving, and placed his hand on the cold, warped metal, in a place where a lump had appeared. The metal was giving way. 

"Listen. Since you got in there, everything has changed. So if you want to survive, you have to behave yourself. I'm here to help. But you need to collaborate. If you understand me, knock 3 times."

His friends were silent, watching everything carefully, guns drawn. After a while of anticipation, they heard the three beats.

"Okay. Hand me the pincer, let's open this can." he asked for help.

Opening the fully welded sarcophagus with some difficulty, they backed away due to the intense stench. Tychos and Uniq couldn't resist and immediately vomited when putrid liquid trickled out of the sarcophagus and touched their sandals. Glax held back, because his curiosity was enormous.

Finally, the creature itself pushed the scrap of metal between itself and freedom.

Despite the humanoid form, you couldn't imagine much. There was a black slime covering every part of the person. Just as she got up, Glax realized it was a woman.

The vselys woman went out to bathe in the sea, while the group stared in amazement.

What had they done?

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

Kalista was the name of vselys. To be fair, she still stank a little after several hours of rubbing herself and removing the slime from her skin at sea.

Her hair melted and you could only see the pale ends, like the other vselys Glax had seen, Malko and Damiamon, who had almost white hair. 

He took her to the flying boat, where she would be safe and out of trouble. After drinking a lot of water and refusing food, she went to a corner and wrapped herself in a blanket, and watched the stars in silence. She refused to say anything other than her name. Glax thought it was good to leave her alone for a while.

Now Glax had no idea what to do with a flying boat, a Cyclops, and a banished vselys in his possession.

At this point, he realized that there was no way to ignore the elements that 'Fate' had placed at his disposal. As a card game, it had both favorable and contrary elements, and should know how to use its resources wisely. While these resources were largely his personal relationships, Glax could see their abilities and weaknesses and how all of these could help or hinder his plans.

His initial plan, simply to return Chriseis's orb to Hermes, which would supposedly take it to its proper place, had evolved. As the facts unfolded, and he saw the struggle of various forces pushing their mysterious agendas over Stygia's fate, his priorities shifted.

He wished he had the autonomy to act assertively, but he finally understood the meaning of the expression Odyssey. Like when this Odysseus guy left Troy at the end of the war, the dude just wanted to return to his island, his wife and their young son. But the guy took decades to get back. The gods pushed him from there to here, and his schedule changed with each new adventure. Odysseus remained true to his purpose, but he just couldn't go straight to his island.

That's how Glax felt. Small problems changed the landscape. Now he knew that the Big Boss of the upper and lower portions of Hell wanted Chriseis as his champion against Anankethon. Hades had tried to build a giant warrior of metal so she could do that, but some minor elements thwarted his plans. First, the orb was hidden somewhere. Then his emissary was killed by an unlikely and considerably small element on the scale of things. And corruption destroyed the project. Wasn't 'Fate' really being manipulated?

Uniq sat beside her, offering him a mug of hot grape brandy. It felt good to warm up the body.

"Hey, Lord Glax. You should get some rest."

"And sleep in the same place a Cyclops and a newly released vselys are?"

"We'll be watching. Besides, this noise… It's not just the sea. It's the snore of the Cyclops sleeping in the cargo hold," she stifled a laugh. "Tychos said he went there to see if there was a problem with the ship. The Cyclops sleeps with an eye patch because of the light! And on the eye patch is written: "Remember my mother. And earthquakes."

Unlike Uniq, Glax couldn't contain his laughter. Cyclops Xanthos had a great sense of humor.

"Well then. I was just wondering what to do now. Let's say I get the impression the gods want different things for me. Different from what the clan wants."

"And do you have the impression that this is going to end badly?" she asked after some time reflecting on what he said.

"Yep. Maybe the kind of way Rasmus would like. I don't know if I care so much about being sung in songs, you know."

"What's the use of being so afraid of death, Lord Glax? If even gods die and are forgotten, and replaced by others? As one day is replaced by the next, as one lover is replaced by another in our hearts… I don't know what your plans are, or the plans of the gods. But I know if we can't break the rock, we must get around the rock. Or sit on it."

"You have a good point. Right now," he resolved to open his heart to her, "I would like to go back to Echelion, and find out what happened to Chriseis' orb. She was… stolen. The Old Invisible God wants to send her to Tartarus to fight something bad that is there. The thing that's contaminating the machines in Stygia. And I want to make a giant robot to be her armor. Kind of like the ones you saw today, only better, much better. I have everything here in my head. But I need incorruptible material…"

"Like this galeon that is so special?" she asked, after listening to him carefully.

"Yep."

"And why don't you just tell the empire what you have to do? The empire can give you the galeon, can't it?"

"I don't know which side the emperor is on."

"Hm. And why don't you find out at once?"

"This has to be done carefully. And… The vselys. I know why the vselys came. They tried to defeat the monster that is in Tartarus. And I… I'm plan B."

Uniq looked at her with an expression of disbelief.

"And the Prometheans? Why did they come?"

"I suspect they are the answer of Anankethon, the machine god who is in Tartarus. My dad told me a few things about the Prometheans during the trip. Do you want to hear it?"

The redhead nodded. Glax draped his arm and cloak over her shoulders to warm them up under the starlight. 

"The Prometheans believe that one god should be above all. Prometheus. The god who stole fire from the gods to allow humans to dominate the earth. Having favored humans and being punished by the gods and forgotten by most humans was his fate. But, not fearing the gods and believing that Prometheus had given all power to them, the Prometheans advanced far more in technology than the rest of mankind… In that reality, I say." he muttered the last part almost to himself."

"You're right," the heavily accented female voice of the vselys spoke behind them, interrupting their conversation. Uniq and Glax turned to Kalista.

"If what you're going to say is that the Prometheans came to steal something from the gods once again. While denying the power of the gods and the superiority of men, they have no explanation for their failures. And they stole the deadly fuel they can't handle," the woman said. His pale eyes seemed to penetrate the couple's bones.

"Their innocence and inventiveness were applauded, but without the fear, they acted like unsupervised children," she gestured to the boat, the machine and everything around her. "All this is corrupted and filled with the force of the darkest nullity, drawn from the other side of Tartarus. This force seems controllable, but in the end, it will control everything. It controls Anankethon, and will soon control Nether and Upper Hell. It's just a matter of time."

Glax reflected on the fateful words of someone who had been there, done that.