Headed by Renan, the small group of Primoi huddled in the small, innocuous hut in the middle of Cairo’s ruins. Here, they could have some slight shelter from the forced labour Thel subjected them to.
Renan performed a head count. “…Seven, eight, nine. Alright, good turnout.” She clapped. “So. Things aren’t going well, for any of us. I assume nobody’s come up with their own plan of stopping Thel?” She looked around, getting no reaction. She sighed. “Okay then. Well, I’ve got one:
So, for those of you who haven’t pieced it together from his interrogations, Thel gained all that power by taking people’s Roi, and he wants more of them. So far, I know he has mine, Ren’s, Sentrat’s, Gana’s, Sanret’s, and his own. That comes out to six power sources, minimum. But even though that list makes up a lot of us here, we’ve still got five sources to draw from. If we combine our power, we can give one of us the power to at least come close to Thel. And if we can rally the other Primoi here against him, I do think we can stand a chance at bringing him down! Who’s with me on this?”
Renan smiled proudly as the whole room nodded and murmured in assent. “Great, we’ve got a plan! So who should be the one we give our Roi to?”
The room went silent. Renan looked around expectantly. “Looking for volunteers, here.”
One of the attending Primoi, Sentor, spoke up. “But won’t whoever we pick just go mad from the power? It’s what happened to Thel, and isn’t it why we don’t do this in the first place?”
Renan thoughts about Sentor’s words for a moment. “…Yeah, sure, but I really don’t think we have any other options. Thel’s just going to work us to death and torture us for our Roi until there’s nothing left of us. We have to do this. So who’s willing to step up to be the one?”
Again, the room was silent. Renan, beginning to worry, spoke again. “Whoever volunteers, we won’t judge. We’re desperate, and we all know none of us will go crazy from it.”
Everyone in the room knew she wasn’t even speaking for herself, let alone the eight other Primoi. Everyone nervously stood in place, glancing at each other, waiting for someone else to make a move. It took Thel leaning in through the window to break the silence.
“You hate to see it, you really do.” Thel grinned as the Primoi in the hut huddled against the far wall in sheer terror. “I mean, I think it’s hilarious, but for all of you it’s a real shame. I’m completely destroying the entire Domain one Primus at a time, and you’re all too paranoid of each other to even try to challenge my reign? I’m almost disappointed in you all. Wait, no, I am disappointed.”
He burst in a puff of sand and instantly reformed inside the hut. The occupants silently stared at him as he continued. “If there’s one thing I really can’t stand (besides all of you, that is), it’s taking things halfway. Way I see it, if you want something done, you either do it to 100 percent, or you don’t do it at all. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
Thel paused briefly, then continued once he confirmed that everyone present was too afraid too interrupt him. “What I’m trying to say is, you had two options here. One; you could have just played along and stayed as my cowardly peons, or two; you could have valiantly risen up only to be utterly squashed beneath my heel. But what do you do? You stick to option one while pondering the possibilities of option two. And this really reflects worst on me, if you think about it. Now I have to slaughter you all to make an example out of dissenters such as yourselves, but I don’t even get to look cool while doing it! You folks really need to think about someone besides yourselves for once. Not that you’re going to be able to use that advice, or anything.”
Thel gestured expectantly at the group of Primoi, as if waiting for a response. After a brief pause, Renan broke the silence. “Give them to Sentor!”
As the other Primoi in the room converged on Sentor, trying to focus all their power on her, Thel perked up and summoned a sword into his hand. “There it is.”
Thel lunged into the group of Primoi with impossible speed, slicing almost all of them to ribbons in a matter of seconds. When he was done, all that remained of the meeting of Primoi was Renan, staring in horror at the diced-up remains of her supporters. Thel, golden blood staining his attire, dropped his sword and looked disapprovingly at Renan.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“And you, of all people, Sis? For shame. I thought that little display out in the desert would be enough to dissuade you from doing something as stupid as this. I guess I was mistaken. And now look at you. You’ve led all these poor Primoi to their deaths, and all you managed to do was ruin my outfit. It really is a shame.”
Renan fell to the floor, barely able to speak. “Brother, please don’t-“
“A-bup-bup!” Thel raised a hand to silence her. “Don’t even bother begging for mercy, I’ve made up my mind.” His raised hand began to glow blood-red and fizzled with chaotic energy.
At that moment, a bird demon landed outside the hut and looked inside the building. “Erm, Lord Thel? I can tell you’re… a little busy… but I have news from Commander Erlani.”
Thel’s face lit up at the news. “Ooh, he’s finally gotten in touch!” He looked back to a stupefied Renan. “Could you hold that thought for a moment? Something came up. You know how it is, conquering the planet and all that.” He waved his hand and Renan was pinned to the floor by two constrictive rings of chaotic energy, too shocked to speak.
Thel stepped outside to greet the messenger. “So, Earl finally decides to send me a message, how sweet. And by courier, no less! He’s really getting into the swing of things, that’s great to see. Right, you. What did you want to say? Spill the tea.”
The courier straightened. “Right. Uh, yes. Erlani has captured Horan, and is waiting for you to arrive at Istanbul for you to deliver judgment.”
Thel nodded thoughtfully. “Wow, Horan made it all that way? Impressive. Okay then, I’m on my way. You can do whatever, I guess. Just let me wrap this up, and…” He closed his fist. A brief cry from inside the hut was swiftly silenced by a flare of red light. “Alright, and I’m off!”
Thel leapt into the air and began the trip north at supersonic speeds.
-
Thel touched down in front of the orange-and-blue Hagia Sophia and hailed a nearby demon. “Hey, is this Earl’s place? Looks the most palace-y from the sky.”
The demon shook her head. “Nah, br- Lord Thel. If you’re looking for Commander Erlani, the guy’s a ways north. By the big rubble pile. Can’t miss it.”
Now slightly concerned, Thel followed the demon’s directions to the ruins of the Galata. When he arrived, he looked around at the crowd of demons. “Hey all, it’s me, Thel, your, um eternal tyrant. So, where’s Earl- Erlani?”
One of the demons pointed at the pile of rubble. Thel groaned dramatically. “He’s dead, isn’t he?”
When his suspicions were confirmed by the gathered demons, he stomped petulantly, cracking the pavement beneath his feet. “Ugh, could this day get any worse? First I have to make an example out of my best labourers, and now I need to find myself a new right hand? Unbelievable. Bring me Horan, I need to blow off some steam.”
One of the demons hesitantly stepped forward and chuckled nervously. “Yeah, heh, about that. Horan’s the one who brought down the tower on Erlani. He escaped about an hour ago.”
For a brief moment, Thel’s entire frame lit up with burning red light. However, before anything bad happened, he brought himself under control. “No. No. I’m fine, I’m cool. I’ve lost my Number Two and gotten nothing out of it, but I’m fine. I can bounce back. This is-“
Thel stopped when an exhausted demon courier flopped to the ground next to him. The entire crowd stared silently as the courier got to his feet, gasping for air. “Mess-message for Commander Erlani! From the eastern front!” He doubled over, panting.
Thel stepped forward. “I’ll take the message for him. Now, spill it. And make it snappy.”
The courier got up. “The battle against the Coalition went disastrously. Our army has been shattered and the remaining forces are in complete disarray. Coalition troops appear to be marching west as we speak. Requesting orders.”
Thel was quiet for a moment, visibly barely able to restrain his anger. After a while, he calmed himself down enough to speak, but his rage still shone through his tone.
“…Why is it that whenever bad things happen to me, they happen all at once?!” He turned to face the crowd around him, who all stepped back and made noncommittal gestures. “Don’t judge me like that, you all know what I mean! All this would be way easier to handle if it just all happened one at a time, but no! Suddenly, everything’s going wrong at once!” He huffed. “Fine. Bring me the Enlightenment scroll, I’ll get us some new demons myself.”
He looked around at the crowd, who gave each other terrified glances and refused to move. Thel growled. “What?!” When he spoke, a wave of heat briefly radiated off of him.
A scrawny, smaller demon was shoved forward by the rest of the crowd. He stared up at Thel’s glare and gulped. “I-if I tell you, will you let me live?”
Thel folded his arms menacingly. “Depends. What exactly do you have to say?”
The demon looked back to the crowd, who folded their arms and blocked him from re-entering. The demon turned back to Thel and gulped again.
“The, um, the Scroll is gone. We believe it was stolen by the same human who broke Horan out of captivity.”