Inferno Ascended

"What is it?" the Valosian asked. As he looked around, he noticed that the resident soldiers kept unfazed, even though they paid attention to it.

"That's the reason for the disappearances," said a man who wore an Aegeon armband. "Ever since this began, the patrols sent to investigate have not returned. And it happens twice a day, in the early morning and late afternoon.

"I have a musical ear. This comes from the east." Informed Zotikos, suddenly inflating his chest out of pride.

"Pfff!" Tychos mocked, but refrained from further offending a krios openly.

"Yep, indeed. We know that. The patrols sent to the east were the ones that didn't return. Even our old Tagmatarchis have not returned," the Aegeon who explained earlier replied to Zotikos politely, though.

Now Glax understood why he had been sent to Marbium. The report was very similar to what happened at Athios.

They all decided to wait for the official orders of the new tagmatarchis. The soldiers who already had their specific guard and patrol duties resumed their activities, after the first meal.

Only one patrol went out northwest, towards Rusa, to request remedies for Lord Arsenio. Glax learned that the twin fortresses Rusa and Albion had two resident iatromancers.

He and Alexandre would share a small room, the first at the top of the stairs on the first floor. The room had a cot, a table, stool and a chest, and narrow cracks through which the light came in.

Glax had the position of lochios, and from what he got it had similar functions of a sergeant. Thus, he was entitled to special accommodation.

Alexandre didn't really have a position in the hierarchy because he hadn't done the agoge as a krios nor passed the summer test as a commoner. For all effects and formalities, they only considered him Glax's apprentice. Sort of like a knight and his page, Glax compared.

Glax didn't want to argue with the officer who handled these matters, but he considered it ridiculous, since there were so many empty rooms in the fort. He pleaded for an extra bed, which he did with some effort.

The officer didn't want to give the impression that the hierarchy and rules were being broken just because the fort was out of command. Or because Alexandre was the son of Archigeos. Glax understood this, but he didn't intend to sleep in the same narrow bed as Alexandre either.

This problem solved, the Valosian had a heavy sleep and when he woke up, he didn't remember his dreams. Alexandre was still sleeping, so Glax left the room and went to see the fortress.

When he reached an internal tower, without watchmen, he opened the vselys watch. He needed to understand how his power to turn back the clock worked.

Now he felt the artifact was a little heavier. 'Does a soul have weight?' Worse, why had the soul entered the artifact? It was the same thing that had happened to Chriseis's mechanical arm.

Glax saw a moth on the parapet of the tower, flying around aimlessly. He tried to turn the time back on the insect, but it had no effect.

Intrigued, he tried to affect the birds in flight, or to make rocks he threw into the air or dropped, back into his hand. Nothing happened.

After analyzing what he had done when he tried to use power and succeeded, and also when he failed, the Valosian concluded it could only mean that he could go back in time for a few moments to REDO AN ACTION.

He could partially change his own actions, consequently changing the outcome in whatever it unfolded. Glax tested his theory for some time, always having results that confirmed his suspicions.

In addition, he realized that the maximum span he could bend was 6 seconds. He needed a waiting time between effects, exactly twice as long as the effect used.

This knowledge gave him some ideas that Glax thought of putting into practice as soon as possible.

He could train anything he wanted to be more effective. As he had already learned from his past experiences, he didn't lose the knowledge of what would have happened. So, he also didn't lose any acquired knowledge. Even with cooldown, 24 seconds for others meant only 18 seconds for him, if he was actively using power to dedicate himself to something. This meant that he would read a book in 25% less time, or train something for 25% more than someone else, since he could skip what he had already learned to learn a little more.

He decided to use that extra time even to think about the latest information.

But before he could think about what to do about the monster that plagued Marbium and even stop to think about the 'modified' creatures that attacked the newcomers, Alexander came to tell him that the tagmatarchis had sent for him.

Lord Arsenio was in the common room, on a stretcher. A man that Glax had not seen was there, beside him. He immediately recognized the iatromancer's clothes.

But by the result on the other Kroton's bandaged leg, either he wasn't as good as Crionte, or Lord Arsenio had just escaped death or amputation.

"Lord Glax," Arsenio started, as soon as Glax came into view. The Tagmatarchis had an aquiline nose and a thin mouth, looking like a line and almost invisible under the beard. "It looks like your help will be crucial. I'll be unable to walk for a few days. The iatromancer Oenopides will leave some potions that can help me stand up as soon as possible. Get out immediately and try to locate the origin of the creatures that attacked us. They were on the way from the village to here, so it's a more urgent matter. It seems that they are related to the experiences you have had, according to the recommendation of the Great General. One of the old men," he looked at a list," Kalliaros can go with you. Right now, due to the circumstances, only Lady Pydna, Tychos and ... Lord Zotikos will be your squad for now, besides Kalliaros."

Glax just nodded, holding his red helmet under his arm. 'Those three who were imprisoned together and hate each other ... And came here forced, just like me?'

He wondered why they ended up barely wounded, while Arsenio almost had his leg taken off, and a shiver of foreboding went up his spine.

:::::::::

The group arrived at the incident site in the middle of the afternoon.

At the last minute, the news that a shipment of supplies had arrived at the port made the tagmatarchis add to the group's tasks to escort the goods to the fort. They could sleep in the village, therefore, to return in the morning.

They looked at the burning wagon and collected personal items they found. Zotikos was particularly happy to find an intact blue bag, which he grabbed with blatant attachment.

"What is it, your collection of orgiastic figures?" Pydna scoffed.

The Rhoas turned red as pepper, and snapped angrily, "You wouldn't understand!"

Glax laughed with the others, "Actually, we would understand, Lord Zotikos! A man's attachment to his collection of orgiastic figures will cross the ages!"

Even Pydna laughed, but Zotikos continued to deny it.

The laid-back moment was forgotten when they started looking for clues.

Glax decided that, in order to cover a larger area, they would split into two groups. Tychos, Kalliaros and Zotikos made one group, and the rest in another group.

They would be relatively close at all times, and would only cover the surroundings of the incident. The Valosian was not sure of leaving Zotikos alone with the veteran couple who held a grudge against him. Zotikos was inexperienced, and Glax didn't forget how Arsenio was reluctant to nominate him for Glax's squad.

They entered the forest carefully and in silence. The cold afternoon did not detract from the beauty of the region. Glax was distracted looking at the creek rocks, while Alexander and Pydna took the job of tracking the origin of the creatures seriously.

Seeing the black volcanic rocks, Glax remembered they were indeed in Hell, albeit somehow it didn't look like he imagined.

In that place, there were beings that didn't exist anywhere in the world he knew. Even though they knew they were in Hell, people didn't always wonder about it. About being truly alive, or just living a collective hallucination. They just lived as if they were anywhere else. They defended territories, had rituals and religions, were ambitious and feared death. Just as they should have lived before.

Of course, these weren't even Stygia's first generation. They came to develop their clans, and evolve from the ancients who believed in the gods who were abandoned as soon as they were useless.

It made him wonder if the place where he had lived before was also not just a reflection of hell.

'Gosh, am I becoming a classic Greek? Questioning my existence, my place in the world, and the reality itself?'

Pydna called him out of his daydreams. "Lord Glax, I found something."

They followed stains of oil and blood, and marks of burnt grass, a little further into the forest. After a while, and found a puddle of dried blood inside a burnt grass circle. Alexandre found bandages full of blood nearby. The tracks lead to east, as expected.

It made Glax's heart heavy and formed a lump in his throat. But now he had tough subordinates and didn't want to show his feelings.

"I think the creature that smoked through all the holes stayed here for a while," said Pydna at last, being the first to break the silence.

"Doesn't it seem to you they were injured?" Alexandre tried to help with his comment.

Glax again remembered Sillabot and its pitiful state, but still couldn't speak at all while conjecturing the causes. Nothing made sense.

The other group joined them while they were still there. Zotikos spoke excitedly,

"Lord Glax, we found an important clue!"

"Yes, Lord Glax." Kalliaros showed a small piece of metal. It was a piece of gear. But it was possible to see clearly that there was a part of an enameled symbol on the piece.

"This is the symbol of the Aegeon," he stated the obvious.

"Lord Glax, I think those creatures... have devoured our companions and made parts with their armor!" the man spoke in a choked voice as he handed the item over to Glax.

But when he touched it, Glax didn't share the same opinion, and revealed it in a dark voice.

"But I think, Kalliaros, that the mechanical centaur and the boiling woman were, in fact, your old missing companions."