Inferno Ascended

Leaving the horses at a safe distance, Glax regretted not having any firearms with him, just the good old gladius and his watches. He overheard conversations nearby, and hid behind a tree. 

Three guards walking at a distance from each other were talking among them. They were looking for fugitives.

Holding his breath as his restless mind worked fast, he wasted no time. As soon as the soldier searching the bushes passed him, the valosian rushed forward and plunged the gladius in his neck. The element of surprise was essential for Glax to take down the first opponent with minimal rustle. He hesitated before snatching the spear from the man, who writhed in front of him with his hand on his neck, trying to contain the blood spurting from it. 

He preferred not to be attacking imperial soldiers, but they were after his friend and his sister. The captain would not return until the next day.

How did this happen?

Glax didn't have time to think about it too much.

The fallen guard's second companion whistled as he noticed the other guard lying on the ground. Glax had to engage in the fight with the soldier dressed in black like all the other Imperials.

His opponent was good with the spear, but Glax had learned some new tricks from his recent experiences. Before the soldier became a bigger problem, Glax got rid of him with a combination of time warping and violence. As soon as he did that, the valosian had to fight the third soldier who attacked him from behind while he was still fighting the second.

He looked at the three fallen men, annoyed. He had been hurt by his negligence in defending himself. 

Glax came to the clearing where the house was. He saw the horses in front of the house, and heard crying and laughing. 

It wasn't Lais. His clenching heart felt even a little guilty for having a small sense of relief when he recognized it wasn't his sister screaming and crying in terror.

His mind was clouded with rage. He could recognize the dirty malice of laughter broken by foul words, and the pain of the screaming boy. The boy who was the ship's aide and Malko's friend. Surreptitiously he went to the back of the house. 

One man held it while the other raped the boy. A third watched the scene from afar, leaning on his spear, as if patiently awaiting his turn.

The Valosian launched himself at the first man he saw, with no strategy, his vision blurred with red rage. This was probably the second time he was so furious he just acted automatically, letting his instincts take charge of his actions.

A fourth man came out of the house to attack him. 

Even though the weakening of the spell on the tourbillon watch allowed him to abuse how many and what actions he could do, there was still the cooldown to slow him down. He had already taken down two, and two more to go.

Glax saw out of the corner of his eye a creature emerging from the far side of the forest and running toward them.

This distracted him for a brief moment. What was that? A… Sphinx?

He had no idea what it was, but the creature had really huge wings and resembled a huge lion. Its hefty size and the muscles beneath its golden fur were intimidating enough.

The two soldiers warmed up to the fight with Glax when they noticed the creature running toward them, and each went to one side, not really wanting to turn their backs to the monster. One of them was more injured than the other, and even though Glax was bleeding and panting, he no longer had any fear of death to care.

But he noticed something they didn't see. Glax attacked the nearest man fiercely, while the wounded soldier just tried to flee. The Valosian still caught up with him, trying to get on his horse and leave.

When it was all over, he rested for a while in the driveway, looking around. His chest was burning, and he felt that the unbridled consumption of the power to bend time had exhausted him. There were many objects thrown and destroyed in the house's courtyard, and Glax realized that a small battalion had been there, by the footprints on the ground.

He didn't know what had happened to Malko, but he looked at the living first.

"Lais?"

He walked around the house again and looked at the bizarre sphinx standing beside the injured boy.

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

"DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" Glax was mad at his sister. As brave as she had been, her foolish plan to save the boy could have cost her life.

Lais, now looking like a sphinx, if that was really what a real sphinx looked like, lamented,

"I couldn't leave Edi behind! Malko told me to stay hidden in the hole, but…"

"I know. You took the mirror you had with you and made this... mirage." He was still too nervous to be amused at her ingenuity. Lais might look like a huge, heavy monster, but she moved lightly and their expressions were the same…it was just a visual illusion, even if very perfect. And that was disturbing. 

They had helped the boy with what they had. Edi, that was his nickname, ensuring that he was well enough not to need a doctor, even though he had suffered so much.

They had to get out of there soon, as more soldiers would come back.

"It was too fast!" Lais insisted. "Malko just had time to get me through that trapdoor. Edi had already been captured."

Her sister also showed what was in the trapdoor, hidden in a corner of the courtyard. A clay pot with all the money Malko had made from his fights. 

He guessed that was why some soldiers kept rummaging around.

Grabbing what they could, Glax grabbed a cart to hide Lais under a tarp. She still weighed a hundred pounds, but seemed to weigh nearly a ton. And Lais would stay that way until dawn. Edi directed them to a secluded area near the beach.

He imagined that someone from the League had denounced Malko's whereabouts before he ruined the fighting renevants' reputation. Furthermore, he was afraid to go to Medea, as he imagined perhaps they had gone to Laerte and detained him for questioning.

They found a hidden place among the rocks to hide. 

Ignoring his own injuries at all times, one thought remained constant in Glax's mind. He needed to get Malko out of this situation. 

Glax felt his heart pounding hard even now, and he could barely remember what he had actually done during his confrontation with the imperial soldiers.

Fumbling a little with the two watches to see if they were still intact, he refused help and the piece of bread they offered him.

"Edi," he asked, not taking his eyes off the double-sided watch, which he still didn't know how to use properly. "Do you know what they did to Malko?"

"He turned himself in to let me go. But I was stupid, and they recaptured me right after…" The boy's voice choked, but he continued to explain. He might be young and physically fragile, but he was a sailor used to the hardships of life. "But they take the most famous and dangerous criminals to the Aloades Tower. They say it's inescapable."

"Of course they would say that. What else do you know about this place?"

"People like to talk a lot about the Tower, but maybe none of that is true. There are many legends…" 

"Just speak everything you've heard." Glax understood Edi didn't want to pass on useless information since it was obvious what the Valosian intended to do.

"There was an ancient story that twin giants locked a god in a room made entirely of bronze. This even before Ascension. Not even a god could get out of there by himself. Each of the giants had a key. Well, they say the tower is where this bronze room is. I don't even know if it really exists, but it's supposed to be one tower in the imperial citadel. One key stays with the emperor and the other with the jailer, but they need both to open and close the doors…"

"Interesting." Glax rose. He really couldn't know what was in the tower, but that at least had given him a certainty.

The Emperor was either holding the key to Malko's freedom, or was himself the key for getting the vselys's freedom.

But he knew it wasn't a mere matter of asking for an audience with the reclusive Emperor… And in truth, knowing he'd driven out vselys and Prometheans, Glax wasn't sure what awaited him. He knew this was what he had been trying to push to the back of his mind all this time.

He was uneasy about meeting Achmeron.

But watching the clock inside the crystal ball made him come to a conclusion, and he would test it at that point.

"Kids… Just observe. I'll be right back… If I ever leave, that's it."

"Huh?"

He thought of the forest near Malko's house, concentrating on the clock as he had done before. He saw the hands move quickly in front of him...

And the early evening breeze touched his hair as he was looking at the abandoned house, in the dark.

"Uhn, so that's it." he told himself excitedly."I found out how the second clock works."

Doing the opposite, he went back to his hiding place among the rocks on the beach. Lais-sphinx and Edi were gaping.

"What did you do?!" His eagle-winged sister with a marooned lion's body asked.

He explained to them what he had done. Edi asked frantically, "Does that mean you can go to Malko and help him escape?"

"Most likely!" Gla concentrated on Malko. Unfortunately, he couldn't create in his mind a definitive image of where the vselys was. 

Also, he felt the cooldown was in effect. The night was already high when he felt able to try again. But he still couldn't connect enough. And he knew his powers worked so much better when he knew exactly what he was doing.

"It's not working. I guess I can only do this to places I can remember…" It was still a useful power, but less OP than he expected.

Was that why he was able to connect so easily with Valya?

And worse: was this the reason why he, Matt, came to Stygia, in the first place?