Inferno Ascended

Glax took advantage of the fact that Lord Arsenio was arguing with Thersos about how to solve Stimhena's problem, and smuggled the Cauldron of Valya out of the fort in a cart. He wasn't really allowed to do it 

As he, Alekos, and Mors headed towards the destroyed city, the god pointed his staff here and there.

"When is anyone going to do something about it? Damn it. I hate that. Lost Soul Orbs. Someone needs to go out and pick them up."

"You didn't strike me as an organization freak the first time we met." Glax teased.

"Wasn't that what you were doing?" Mors asked.

Alexandre had been guiding the cart as the two of them walked ahead, so the boy couldn't hear everything the god and the Valosian were muttering back and forth.

"No. I wasn't picking orbs on purpose, I told you." Glax sensed that the taciturn and unyielding Mors intended to find out more about the artifact, but the Valosian was not going to give him that so easily. "But I'm sure you have no idea what to make of it. It's a high-tech Valosian object, nothing like anything you've seen before. Therefore, completely useless for you."

"You can't possibly know that. Now, shut up and concentrate on getting the strength and courage for the duel. Mostly the latter. And... At least I have a clock to time how many seconds you'll last."

"You don't really have information on everyone this vselys has killed. Also, he would need time and motivation to kill so many people."

"You're right. I don't have all the numbers correctly. Only direct deaths."

Glax gasped. "Did he personally kill all these people and mythic creatures or are you counting how many fowl and game too?" That didn't make sense. What kind of a killing machine was that vselys?

"Only beings that can generate soul orbs."

"He would have to have a lot of time for that." Glax dreaded that answer, and saw that Mors was serious about his statistics.

"Time doesn't normally run the same for the vselys. You still don't know that?" Mors showed all his contempt for Glax's limited experience with a simple snort.

"Neither for me?" That information was about to blow his mind.

"Your case is entirely different."

They had just arrived in the abandoned city.

Stimhena was no better than they left it, completely covered in soot and mud. In the distance, only the blackened skeleton of the factory still gave off fumes, even after so many days.

"Don't be an asshole. What is this thing that emanates from this artifact, and why is it important? I've already found the same thing in other objects… And I've already realized it possesses and controls machines. It's impossible for you not to know about it. You even said there's an Explorer inside the artifact…"

Glax now imagined they were actually carrying a sarcophagus with some kind of mummy inside. He had a lot of guesses about it, but he had no doubt that Mors knew what it was all about.

Unfortunately they weren't on the best of terms.

"What do I get from being your teacher? Will you set me free?"

'Oh, of course. He doesn't want to give me the information for free.'

"I would do it without you telling me, just so I wouldn't have to walk around with your icy presence beside me. Only I didn't do this spell. I'm stuck with you too." Glax explained what he thought Mors already knew.

They stopped in the middle of the main street, in front of the temple. Glax looked around and didn't see his opponent. 

After a few minutes in which the three did not know exactly what to do next, the Valosian spoke, somewhat dramatically.

"Alekos, if I die, write that I came to this place unarmed to fight a vselys who is a foot taller than me, has a long sword made of special metal, and has killed nearly two thousand enemies."

"I will write this when you win, Master. I'll describe each of your moves!" Alexandre laughed, peeling an apple! "I mean, I'm going to tell Pamphilos, and he's going to write what I tell him."

'The little bastard was going to have a snack when his master was about to get run over by a legendary vselys,' thought Glax resentfully.

"Make sure my story has a place close to my mother's story." the Valosian gazed at the horizon as the wind blew away the dry branches and leaves.

"Okay, and more than that, I'm going to have a series of stories made with all our adventures!" The boy spoke in his usual dreamy tone. "'The Adventures of Alexandre the Great and his Master Glax.' We will be very popular."

"What the f?" Gax turned to look at his pupil, raising an eyebrow at what Alekos had said.

"A Series. A series like Assassins of Thebes, Oedipus Resurrected, Reincarnated as a Cyclops, Medeia's Cookbook, and other famous series."

"We'll come back to the series later. If I survive." Another dramatic sigh. "Without a weapon, o gods, without a weapon at all…" he lamented.

"Why don't you do this right and beg the gods on your knees, Glax? Why do you think someone will respond to your hints?" Mors provoked.

"Lend me your scythe, please."

"No."

The conversation stopped when they saw the vselys walking towards them from the end of the street.

For Glax, this really was a dueling scene.

A dusty road with decaying and also dusty buildings on both sides. A powerful opponent coming towards him… the croaking of crows in the distance… All that was missing was the soundtrack by Enio Morricone.

"Alekos, stay away."

"But master, I want to learn and if I stay away…"

"Alexandre, if Achilles' student learned by watching from atop the Trojan horse, you can watch from afar, too."

Mors and Alexandre were confused by Glax's nonsensical statement. He reinforced, as if he hadn't made any historical faux pas.

"If you don't have Zotikos' eyesight problems, watch from afar. Keep. Distance. It's an order."

He hated feeling responsible for this boy. I mean, he had some affection for that extra sincere and energetic kid, but he felt very responsible, and that was tiring and unnerving.

Alexander obeyed without a murmur, much to his master's surprise. He went under a portico and leaned against a pillar.

"Greetings, Aegeon," said the vselys as he stopped about 7 meters from Glax, and eyed the guy dressed in red by the valosian's side. "Does the duel include both?"

"Don't be so hasty in drawing conclusions." Glax squared his shoulders and faced the vselys warrior. 

Damiamos crossed his arms to hear him.

"Besides, I remembered," the Armorion champion continued. "Someone helped me inside the factory. I didn't see your face, but I'm sure it was you who helped me get the Valya's Cauldron  out of there."

Damiamon didn't respond to that, contrary to Glax's expectations. But the Valosian was not going to miss his cue. "I cannot duel you. You saved my life."

"You were in the way." Finally Damiamon grudgingly admitted.

"But why didn't you show up at that moment?"

"Because showing up would only make the Aegeons act aggressively and waste precious time getting the Forge of Souls out of there. You know it was a close call." Damiamon spat the straw from the corner of his mouth contemptuously. "Now, just enough talking. Deliver the artifact or duel for it."

"I told you, I can't. I don't want to be unfair to whoever saved my life. I owe you a favor."

Mors grumbled,

"I should have known you were going to beg for your life."

"Actually you paid me the favor by taking the artifact out of there. We are even." The vselys smirked. Glax could see that Damiamon was enjoying the situation.

"Don't be like that. My life is not worth taking an object out of the fire. You saved my life and that's worth a lot. And…"

"What are you talking about?!" The vselys' amused gaze went dark, signaling a terrible mistake on Glax's part. "So far your oddities amused me, but don't you dare compare yourself to what is currently contained by this artifact. Your short and mediocre life is worth absolutely nothing! Listen to me! Nothing!" He drew his sword. "I might let you live, but I see you wouldn't even understand the favor!" The torrent of words came out of the vselys's mouth in the worst accent he'd ever heard. The Valosian could barely understand.

Glax held her breath, trying to figure out what to do now. He wasn't prepared for two things. And dying was one of them. Give Mors a taste of being right and take him in the form of an orb somewhere…

"No!!!" He rejected the thought out loud. "All right. If you like it that way, vselys, we'll do it like that. But not today."

"Why not today?" growled Damiamon. "Are you a fucking champion of your clan or what? Because I only see a mouse that squeaks a lot!"

"Because I don't have a weapon that matches your sword. Unfortunately my sword broke at the factory," Glax resented the offense, but decided to work on the feedback later. 

"Take my scythe." Mors passed the weapon to Glax, not taking his eyes off the vselys.

"I bet you don't know your father, do you Mors?"

"What's the matter with that?" Death didn't understand the veiled offense.

"Well, you already have a weapon. Let's start." The vselys bared his teeth in a grimace that reminded Glax of the bared teeth of a wolf about to attack.

Glax had no choice but to grip the scythe shaft with both hands and get into a combat stance.