Mark ran along the cracked, overgrown pavement leading out of the city while Horan hovered alongside him, keeping watch. Mark stopped in his tracks when he saw the ground in front of him briefly light up in a dull red glow. Turning around, he saw a near-blinding eruption of red light spilling out from the city off in the distance.
Horan touched down next to him, shielding his eyes from the brightness. “Told you we’d know. Looks like we’re more or less in the clear, unless he sends-“
Horan stopped when he could no longer hear himself speak. The two recoiled slightly as a distant, booming scream of rage washed over them. The decaying branches of a nearby tree rustled slightly from the force of the noise.
Once the scream had faded and the light had died down, Horan continued. “I was going to say he might send search parties after us, but I think the demons back there have other things on their plate. Wanna take a break?”
Mark nodded silently, bending over in exhaustion. Horan floated over to the dead tree and sat under it, patting the ground next to him. Mark trudged over and plopped himself on the ground.
Horan looked at the dismal western horizon, waiting for Mark to speak. When all that came out of Mark was a slight wheezing, Horan decided to start the conversation himself.
“So, uh… you saved my life. That’s cool, I… guess. I kinda feel like there’s a lot to unpack there, you know?”
Mark shrugged.
Horan leaned forward. “I mean, you risked your own life just so you could bust out some loser you’ve known for two weeks. If those two weeks I’ve spent with you give me any authority on the matter, I’d say that doing something like that, especially for me, isn’t very you-like.”
Mark continued to say nothing, the lower half of his face buried in his folded arms.
Horan ran his hand through his hair awkwardly. “I mean, you lost your car and your supplies just to get me out, and now we’re gonna have to walk across Greece to get to where we need to go. And, um…” He looked around at the bleak, dead land around him. “I think I might’ve preferred the desert. At least there’s not supposed to be any sign of life in the desert. But do you really think the price you can get for me is high enough to put yourself in that kind of situation?”
Mark sunk further into his posture. “…It’s not about the price for you anymore.”
Horan perked up slightly. “Ah, so being around me has finally given you enough of a heart to rethink your plans, eh? I knew it’d happen eventually. Go ahead, dramatically rip up the contract in front of me. You know you want to.”
Mark looked back towards the city. “Well, I kept the contract in the car, so it’s probably already burnt up. You’ve been free for a few hours now.”
Horan leaned back against the tree. “...Oh, okay then. I guess that’s sorta anticlimactic, but it gets the job done.”
Mark lifted his head slightly and turned to look at Horan. “Go on. Get moving, you can go now.”
Horan looked at Mark quizzically. “We just sat down though, we deserve a break, don’t we?”
“You’re managing just fine. You’ll make much better time if you continue without me.”
“And what about you?”
“What about me? I’m not doing you any favours by staying with you, you can leave whenever you want. Go take down Thel yourself, I’m no help.”
Horan inched closer. “Oh, come on. I’d be dead right now if you hadn’t gotten me out of there.”
Mark harrumphed. “First of all, I got you in there in the first place by having to stop in the city. Second, look at that explosion back there. How many innocent people do you think died in that? I did that, it’s on my hands.”
Horan tilted his hand noncommittally. “Don’t be too hard on yourself, man. You didn’t do it yourself, you just accidentally made Thel do it. Plus, who knows what kind of damage could’ve been done if you didn’t step in? If Erlani was still around, or if they still had that scroll you mentioned, a lot of people would have been in trouble anyway. You shouldn’t beat yourself up about your actions having consequences when the consequences would be worse if you did nothing. Maybe keep that in mind.”
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Mark stayed motionless. “And all the other people I enslaved, robbed and killed before now? Pretty sure the consequences for doing nothing there would have been pretty nice for them.”
“Wait, where did this come from?”
“My whole life, I’ve been leeching off of other people. I’ve ruined more lives than I can count, and I still keep going even now.”
“Okay, maybe you accidentally oversharing everything isn’t entirely a good thing, this is getting uncomfortable.”
“I’m a stain on this world, I’m better off left behind before I stab you for some food or something.”
Horan thought about what Mark said for a brief while, After a few seconds, he responded. “One, there’s no way you’re backstabbing me now, you’re in too deep. Two, you’re correct. You’ve been leeching off of other people. You’re not doing it now. I certainly don’t see you as a leech. Pretty much the opposite, really. I see you as a guy who says he’s a cold-hearted leech because that’s who you’ve had to be to survive. But what you really are is a person who put everything on the line to save an annoying brat you’ve only known for two weeks.
You might not think you are one because of the things you’ve done in the past, but at least you’re a good guy now. I mean, you’re the one who’s been doing all the heavy lifting on this trip, I’ve just been slowing you down. So, if anything, you’re the more productive out of the two of us. Don’t sell yourself short, dude. You’re good in my book.”
Mark didn’t respond to Horan’s words. Without anything left to say, Horan slumped against the tree and looked at the depressing horizon.
After a few minutes of sitting in silence, Mark leaned over and hugged Horan wordlessly. Horan felt like speaking would ruin the moment, so he just patted Mark and let him hug his feelings out.
A few seconds later, Mark let go and stood up. “So. We’re in the middle of unknown territory, likely swarming with demons. We have no means of transportation besides our own feet, and our destination is several hundred miles away. We have no reserve supplies, nor do we have any way of hanging on to any excess we come across. We have no shelter from the elements, and we’re incredibly easy to rob. Basically, we’re already dead on our feet. That means we have nothing to do but keep going, so let’s move.”
“Hear, hear.” Horan got to his feet. “If you starve to death, I promise I’ll cry like a huge wimp about it.”
Mark looked Horan over. “You really aren’t going to leave me behind, huh? The whole thing will go way faster if you just fly straight there.”
“Yeah, but who’ll give you free therapy sessions if I’m not with you?”
“Oh, shush.” Mark gave Horan a half-hearted punch on the arm as he started walking again.
Horan followed behind. “Alright, west we go! Wait, it’s west, right? I’m pretty sure the Greek palace is near Athens, is Athens west?”
“It’s south, but there’s a sea that way, so we’re heading west.”
“West it is!”
-
Thel flew back to Cairo in silence. As he passed over the city, he got a bird’s-eye view of the changes he had made to the place. The Primoi he hadn’t slaughtered yet were working alongside human slaves, trying to erect massive statues of Thel all over the ruined city. Groups of demons oversaw the construction, lazily watching the captives while chatting with one another. Over the course of the last two weeks, Thel and his minions had almost completely overhauled the layout of the city to make room for the statues.
Thel landed in front of the entrance to his palace and watched one of the nearby guards scurry over to greet him. The guard came to a halt just in front of him and stood to attention. “Um, welcome back, Lord Thel.”
Thel walked past the guard and trudged towards the palace entrance. “Mm-hmm.”
The guard did not move, but nervously turned to look at Thel as he walked off. “And, erm, we heard about why you left from that courier. How are things looking up north?”
Thel froze in his tracks. The guard stared at him for a moment. The other guards still standing by the entrance cautiously examined his blank expression.
Without warning, Thel whirled around and pointed a finger at the guard. In an instant, they disintegrated into a small pile of red sand. The other nearby guards took a step away in shock. Thel heard the other guards gasp and turned around again, hurling a volley of small bolts of energy at everyone he saw. The rest of the guards were dead before they knew what hit them. In a fit of wild anger Thel continued to spin around and raised his arms into the air.
All over Cairo, humans, demons and Primoi looked up to see a growing cloud of spiralling sand forming in the sky above. In a matter of seconds, the various piles of sand and dust lying around Cairo shot into the air and joined the ever-growing cloud.
Thel stopped turning in place, looked up at the massive funnel of sand, and brought down his arms. The cloud raced towards the ground and scoured the cityscape, blasting every building, person and structure forming the ruined city to smithereens. A second later, there was nothing but a debris-strewn crater where the city had been.
Thel looked at the massive pit in front of him, his breathing beginning to slow. After a few minutes of standing in place, he finally began to process what he had just done.