Inferno Ascended

"Come on man, open up! The tagmatarchis gave carte blanche to my lochios!" Kalliaris urged the officer in charge of the fort's special locker. The man with the keys was grudging, but started to open all the locks on the door.

To say it was an Armory was too much of a stretch. In fact, they were in a dark basement under the main building of the fort, away from the damp moats. The group anxiously waited to see what Marbium had in store for the time when the Aegeons could use firearms.

"Marbium was an important stronghold in the past, especially when the Steam War started." The supply officer explained. "The region's iron mines had not yet run out, and Stimhena met the needs of the Twin Fortresses, first making spearheads and other materials… and then they started making other things too. Including these weapons that we have here. But I don't know..." he opened the door and Glax stopped paying attention to what he was saying.

There was no light inside, but it smelled of gunpowder and rancid oil. However, it didn't matter. There was something inside that he could master and understand.

They passed the officer and started to bring the dusty boxes out. Alexandre and Tychos found a box bigger than the others and brought it close to the light, eager to find out what was there.

"I hope it will be possible to use these projectiles," Pydna commented. "They have been stored for a long time. Some boxes have been here for at least 5 years."

"Yes," the supply officer said. "But there was an expert here even another day. My friend Yobates, may the Old Invisible see him in Old Hell. He didn't come back from patrol. He always would put it in the sun, and kept everything oiled to prevent rust. I used to tell him it was useless because one day the order to destroy everything would arrive, just as it arrived in other forts. They had only forgotten about Marbium ... But he said no. He hoped to use them again, with honor ... A fool, of course. "

If the last sentence was intended to provoke Glax, the Valosian just pretended not to have heard. "Great. I think they look perfectly conserved, all facts considered. We should test it out."

Soon after, they went to examine the boxes they brought out. They found a simple model of rifle, very similar to the weapon Glax used in Rust. Perhaps it was a more advanced model than he had in those boxes. They found a type of grenade. that Glax had never seen before, but it was smoke grenades.

And in the big box, there was a machine gun, with a tripod.

"They never used those." The officer said, "Actually, this fort had only one grand moment, even during the time when General Nikandros was the archigeos. The Silvans managed to take the mines by some convoluted ploy. At least that's what I heard. I mean... I wasn't here yet."

"Silvans?" Zotikos asked,

"Yes, Lord Scholar. That's what we call them here in the north. Silvans." Tychos spoke, crossing his arms with superiority, "Not all non-humans are scum."

Zotikos and Alexandre looked at Tychos in surprise.

"Okay, let's leave this conversation for later." Glax interjected. "We can't waste any time. Take what you think you'll be able to use, and let's go."

"Do you want to see the list of everything in Armory 1?" The officer waved a scroll.

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

"I don't believe it." The valosian muttered to himself to see his team walk out the bridge of the fort proudly.

The other warriors didn't even know how to react to the scene. In fact, some of them applauded Glax's squad, perhaps remembering the glory time of Aegeons.

Lady Pydna carried two rifles in a bandolier on the back, along with her shield. But she had her spear, just in case.

Zotikos had a grenade belt, which made Glax very concerned. He hadn't abandoned his bow, which was a good sign, tough. And he was using his special goggles.

Alexander had a circular saw assembled on a rod, powered by compressed air. A saw! And a gauntlet with a retractable 30cm blade. A savage!

Kal, as Kalliaris was nicknamed in the fort, picked a compressed air multiple shots crossbow, alongside his gladius.

But Tychos had assembled the machine gun on a stand so that he could carry it on his shoulders, in addition to the bandoliers full of projectiles, a rifle and a pistol at his waist.

Glax was considerably minimalist with a pistol, shield, and his sword.

"You guys look ridiculous, you know? What is the need to carry all that weight if we are just going to find the mechanical centaur?"

For a moment he understood what it was like to be a parent talking to children, excited about their new toys. He had been there, done that.

In addition, each of those weapons could have increased performance almost exponentially. Glax's mind already foresaw how to improve weapons. Even though he still didn't have access to the Hephaestus workshop, he knew that he could do incredible things with an ordinary workshop.

"No prob. I don't care about carrying weight. This is nothing close to what I did when I was Lord Alexandre's age." Tychos was smiling, and flexed his incredible muscles to prove what he was saying.

"I just thought I should take something ..." Zotikos justified himself, embarrassed. "They are light, and very useful. We have smoke, signaling, stun and stink bombs, and I am carrying two that can help blow doors, according to the Armory list."

"Okay, okay."

"I'm not going to justify myself," Pydna shrugged. "See, they are having fun."

"Yes, I'm having fun!" Alexandre activated his saw, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZWIRLL, just to show off.

"You are the worst group I have ever had." Glax remembered his teams in the e-game league.

At the top of the wall, Lord Arsenio watched them with eagle eyes.

"We'd better go soon before he realizes what he's doing ..." Glax urged them to hurry.

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

After returning to the skirmish site down the road, they entered the forest again, tracking the already faded footprints, and also the reports of the shepherds.

"Crossing this forest towards the Northwest, there is a moor area where they collect peat for the stoves. It was there that they saw the footprints. However, to the Southeast, there is the road to Stimhena," Kal explained.

"Let's go after him first. If he needs help, or if he's simply a danger to the people of the village, we have to find him first," Glax decided. The group agreed.

After walking for about twenty minutes in the forest, Glax had seen countless interesting insects. Fluorescent butterflies and dandelions, beetles that seemed to have eyes drawn on their shells, as well as strange flowers and stones. These little things reminded him that one day this place was in the underworld.

At one point they found eroded columns that, Glax understood, seemed to surround a place.

Kal spoke. "We'd better avoid it. There are stories about this forest. We don't want to be lost here."

"What is he talking about?" Glax asked. But Tychos snorted,

"There is no need to be afraid. They won't be mean if they are treated with due respect!" And saying that, he took his backpack off his shoulders. Zotikos said,

"If that's what I think it is, there's a sacred tree nearby. Even in Hell there were native nymphs, and they are still around. Don't annoy the nymph and you won't have any problems in the forest, they say…"

"Nah. Nothing like that!" Tychos took two small bottles out of his bag. He ostensibly stepped onto the signposted ground, with open arms holding the two flasks. "You must thank them for taking care of the forest. You are lucky that a real man from the north is here, hehehe!"

"What is he talking about? You are also a man of the north, Master!" Alexandre snorted beside Glax, who cleared his throat.

"The mountains of Valosia have other types of forest spirits."

"Oh yeah, like which one?"

"Ahem, other type. Pay attention, let's see if the 'other man from the north' knows what he's doing," Glax also crossed the symbolic barrier cautiously, and Alexandre followed him. The other three chose not to risk the wrath of the Hell wilderness' nymph.

Glax never knew exactly what a nymph was. For him it was more of a generic term in classic RPG games. But he always imagined they were kind beings...

"Oh, graceful dryads, accept this offering from a son of the tribe of Antusas, the ones who served Persephone when spring came."

Glax looked to Alexandre for an answer, but approached respectfully as Tychos knelt and poured honey and wine into the roots of a leafy tree.

Glax, as always, understood only the basics of botany to avoid eating poisonous vegetables, and had no idea what species the leafy tree with a light trunk in front of him was. However, it was easy to guess that it was a different tree from the others around.

"What do nymphs usually do when they get 'annoyed'?" He asked quietly.

"How am I supposed to know?" Alexandre whispered back.

"And what are YOU going to give me?" A small hand tugged on his tunic, and Glax looked down, startled.

A little girl looked at Tychos's back closely, and then looked up at Glax, questioning him again,

"Hm? What?"