Inferno Ascended

The storm was getting closer and closer, the wind stirring up leaves and dust, while Glax searched for the rest of the group. He knew he shouldn't have left Pydna alone just because she looked tough. And if she died, it was his fault.

Smelling the smoke, he dashed to the fire whereabouts, and it was easy to find them. He saw the wreckage of another Collector and a Spitter, while a house was on fire. 

Tychos was reluctant to leave the site, although he was bleeding and blackened with soot. Kal looked fine, but Glax guessed, because of the state of his armor, that Zotikos had interfered with this.

The young iatromancer was also dirty and turned with joy when they noticed his arrival.

"Lord Glax! We trapped another centaur in the house."

"Yeah, you slew them. But we need you! Lady Pydna… She needs you!"

Zotikos didn't question, just followed Glax running as far as his legs could.

The storm poured over them before they reached the fallen Damastios. 

They turned the corner and found the man and his scythe, watching Pydna closely.

Zotikos gasped, and crossed himself.

"MORS!"

"Don't mind him, he's just passing by!" Glax slapped Rhoas on the back to encourage him to overcome his justified fear and do his job as an iatromancer. "That's what you're here for, to ward off Death."

However, he had to serve as a shield for the young Rhoas, who grabbed his arms with piercing fingers and walked after him, avoiding the supernatural being.

Glax would do Zotikos any whim now, but yelled at him, unable to get rid of the Rhoas forceful grip. "It's raining. Zotikos, by the Gods, show a little self-love! You are an iatromancer and a Rhoas! Lady Pydna will drown in the rain while you act like an 8-year-old boy!" 

Mors, the silver-eyed god, didn't hide a smirk. "I can't believe I'm going to do this ..." He passed by the side of the two Aegeons, crouched down, and took Lady Pydna in his arms.

"Don't make me regret this, iatromancer. Come."

Glax shot Zotikos an angry look, and followed the gloomy figure in the flowing cloak made of darkness. 'Mors, isn't it? I've heard that word before... Malko used it often. Is he really 'Death'? But… '

They entered an abandoned house nearby, and Mors handed Pydna to Glax. Then he went to the door, to look at the rain.

Pydna opened her eyes when she changed arms, and grunted, her voice faulty.

"You can only... be kidding..."

While Zotikos proceeded to invoke and channel the healing power from who knows where, Glax could observe how the warrior lady reacted to being sedated and then fed with restorative energy.

Out of the corner of his eye, he looked at the creature, Mors, watching the rain with a bored expression. Only when he saw Pydna was out of danger, but Zotikos would continue to channel healing, did he walk away.

The Valosian stopped beside Mors.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I didn't recognize you. I hope I didn't offend you or cast a curse upon myself because of my clumsiness... I really didn't mean to offend."

"I don't recognize him either, so apologies accepted."

"By this you mean I... am not on the list?"

"Hm." Mors nodded.

"Glax, Glax of Valosia. Not on the list?"

"Not in mine."

"You didn't even check."

"Why do you think I have a list?"

"How do you know who to take?"

"We are in Stygia, Glax of Valosia. I am in no hurry to take anyone anywhere. After all, nobody really goes very far."

Now that Glax thought about it, it made sense.

"But what are you doing here?"

"Are you going to be shoving me with questions like a little boy? Let me ask you one: Why did they call you the son of a dead man?"

Glax resisted the temptation to touch the mask to his face. "It's not true."

"How do you know that?"

"Let's talk about me at another time. Why did you change your mind about her?"

"I didn't come because of her. I came because Hermes bragged about his new friend. But then I found her and..."

Mors spoke candidly, as if it mattered little. Glax was shocked. He had the impression that he was a secret, but now he knew Hermes was spilling the beans about him.

"If you don't collect souls, and you don't even have a list, why didn't you just leave her alone?"

Mors didn't respond directly,

"Since hell has risen, I have had more time... And I can travel around Stygia and see everything that has changed. One thing that intrigues me is how these souls are attracted to machines. I can't extract them, once they get installed on the machines. But then you said you can do that." Despite the casual tone, a strange gleam in his eyes worried Glax.

"Uh? Did I say so?"

"Show me how," Mors demanded, with an icy predator smile.

"Why, look, it was a way of expressing myself. Actually, I said that I took the soul but look, I can't take it either." Glax took his backpack bulb with antichor and orb instilled in him. At the same time, his watch wanted to attract the orb, and before that happened, the valosian shoved the bulb in the hands of Mors.

"All right. Take it and deliver it just like that."

"What?! Are you treating me like your errand boy?" The reaper narrowed his eyes.

The Valosian rubbed his brow.

"No, Lord Mors. I don't even know how you stoop to talking to a mere stupid mortal like me."

Mors tapped the base of his scythe rod on Glax's foot, and took him by surprise.

"Cut it off. You're strange, and it certainly has a reason behind it." He ran a finger over Glax's mask, hinting at the cause. "I'm leaving first. But I don't travel as fast here as before. So don't forget it will be quite easy to return to capture lost souls."

"There are a lot of lost souls out there. Just harvest in the fields, over the other street..."

"But there are some better than others. Some that deserve special treatment, don't you think?"

"I appreciate it, I prefer to stay in the body I am in. It's really nice."

"I was talking about Lady Pydna. See you later, Glax of Valosia."

"Ah."

Mors exited through the door, not looking back. 

Glax looked back and saw Zotikos mouth open, staring at the door and him in disbelief and shock.

"What?" 

"Lord Glax! That was Mors! And you... You treated him like an ordinary person! No, actually, you offended him!"

"Noooo. I didn't offend him."

"Well, he said he'll be back."

"Not if you did a good job instead of listening to our conversation, Zotikos. How's she doing?"

Pydna was asleep, he saw.

"She lost some blood and it cannot be recovered quickly, but I have resolved the other aspects with the blessing of the gods. She needs to rest for a while," the Rhoas explained. "And in fact, me too. And… Where's Lord Alexandre?"

Glax was in trouble. 

This was not an e-game and his team needed more time than he imagined recovering. He was exhausted, too, but he had just bruises, at the worst. His cheats prevented his death a few times today. In addition, he had planned for Thersos to join them tonight.

"Okay, let's regroup. That's what we're going to do now."

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

The news that the centaur had been destroyed and other machines, too, made Thersos more confident. So he allowed them to rest at his home that night. With all the warriors exhausted and two out, it would be stupid to insist on going to the factory right now.

Glax summed up to everyone what the man told him earlier, so they could plan their next steps, but they decided to do it by the next morning, with refreshed bodies and sharp minds.

The family the Promethean Marcus had made in Stimhena had welcomed Thersos just in time, before things went south for Stimhena. Thersos married the younger sister of Marcus's widow. They had a good life and were prosperous merchants.

All Prometheans were illegal in Stygia. Then talk about it was taboo, of course. But Marcus had his own laboratory, which had been inherited by Thersos. And Thersos there did what he could do best: weapons.

All this Thersos summarized after they made their meal.

The storm seemed like it would last all night, so Glax knew _ or rather, imagined_ that the machines wouldn't circulate in the city. They were safe for the night.

He had time to bring it up, and he did it while Thersos showed them the weapons he had prepared to supply the group.

"I met a man named Medon. Have you heard of him? "

Thersos's jaw went rigid, and his face was white. "From Stapolis?"

"Uhum."

"Yea. He's Megas's brother. "

"Well, they're supposed to be together now. Medon had a problem a little while ago… "Glax winked. The red-haired man changed his expression to a smile full of satisfaction.

"You don't even know how happy I am to know that the bastard got screwed. I hope you're really as dead as Megas. "

"Do you happen to have a sister named Uniq? And were you married to a woman named Aryn?"

Thersos gasped, and begged with a grimace.

"Shhhh! Don't talk so loud!"