The quarries were the first sign that they were coming close. About a mile outside the fringes of Cairo, camps were set up, where more demons oversaw the digging of sandstone pits. The pits were still shallow, but their width suggested that they would soon be hundreds of feet deep. Slaves, about two dozen per pit, hauled massive chunks of sandstone from the quarries, which were then lugged back towards Cairo.
Not wanting another confrontation, Mark skirted the car along the edge of the quarries, staying out of direct sight of the demons as they found a scouting point.
“Man, he works fast.” Mumbled Horan as he looked over the city from the vantage point of a nearby dune. “Looks like they’re gathering resources to build something just outside the palace entrance. I’m betting it’s gonna be a 500-foot-tall statue of him stabbing a puppy. Or something along those lines.”
Mark inspected his rifle. “Sounds like the guards are gonna be focused on keeping the slaves in line. That’s good. Hey, do you see any tents with humans in them? Maybe a sleazy-looking Arab guy with a full retinue of guards? I, uh, think he might be able to help.”
Horan shook his head. “Can’t see that good. How about this: I sneak back into the palace, while you rally the other humans to distract the guards. Break out the slaves on my signal. Alright, let’s move.”
“Wait, what signal? How am I gonna break out the slaves?” Mark tried to protest, but Horan had already taken off. “You got this,” whispered the Primus as he flew around to get close to the pyramids. Mark cussed under his breath and started commando-crawling towards where Rachid’s camp normally was.
-
“Hey Rachid, I’m back early. So, I found a giant hot guy who says he’s an immortal demigod. He says that these guys with the slaves are Chinese demons working for his brother or something, and he’s trying to kick them out of the city. I know that sounds insane, but trust me, I saw him fly and glow and whatever. Maybe, uh, we can get his help to get rid of these guys, and then we can raid his palace and farm him for his golden blood, because I forgot to mention his blood is gold. A lot’s happened since yesterday.”
Mark quietly rehearsed as he slunk towards the camp. When he reached the site, all he found was a trashed and stripped compound, devoid of life. When he searched the slave cells, he found Rachid’s corpse lying in blood-soaked sand with a fist-sized hole in his chest. Shocked, Mark stepped back and felt something squish under his boot. Looking down, he saw a pulped pile of meat on the ground. Thoroughly horrified, Mark quickly ran out of the cell area.
After calming himself down and considerable thought as to his next move, Mark had an idea. He went to Rachid’s office and found a filing cabinet. Flipping through the contents, he eventually found a manila folder with the Arabic label he was looking for. Snatching one of the pages from the folder, he placed the page on Rachid’s desk, signed it with a pen lying on the desk, folded the paper up and put it in his pocket along with the pen. Afterwards, he went outside and started checking the sky for Horan.
-
Horan landed in front of the entrance to his palace. Shielded from human eyes and hands, the pillars and doorway were pristine against the backdrop of the great pyramid. Two demon guards, larger and more imposing than the one out in the desert, stood to attention as he approached.
Horan waved the two aside. “Don’t worry, I’m Thel’s nephew, you can let me in.”
“I don’t think y-“ one of the guards began, but Horan brushed past her without slowing down.
“It’s fine, I’m just here for a quick visit. You two can go buy yourselves some drinks, I have it handled. You know what? To show that it’s all fine without you, I’m gonna open this door myself.” He pulled open the heavy marble doors and waved at the guards as he slipped in. “Thanks again. Toodles!” He shut the door behind him.
The first guard looked at her colleague across the doorway. He simply shrugged and looked back ahead. “I don’t know either, but that guy’s not our problem anymore.”
-
“So after we’ve taken over the Nile, I was thinking we move your guys up into the Levant, I think that’s a good part two. We can start by…”
As Thel rattled off his detailed plans of global domination, Erlani, a bored look on his three-eyed face, began to speed up the rate at which he wrote down everything his lord was saying. His brush stroke was interrupted by the throne room’s doors being thrown open, leaving a large black line trailing across the paper scroll. Erlani scowled and gripped his brush tighter.
“Thel! I’m back and I’m ready to throw down!” Horan confidently strode into the hall, illuminated crimson by the newly placed red stained glass windows set to overlook Cairo.
“Stop talking to that demon and come here so I can put you in your place!” snarled Horan, summoning his sword into his hand.
Thel continued speaking to Erlani as the demon hastily moved down the scroll to continue following Thel’s train of thought on an unmarred part of the paper. A fine layer of sand coating the floor of the throne room coalesced into a replica of Thel while the original continued dictating.
“Horan!” said the duplicate. “Welcome back, kid. How was your little hiatus?”
Horan attempted to step past towards the original Thel, but the duplicate blocked his path. “I don’t have time for this,” growled Horan. “That guy cut my eye out and threw me through a wall, I have a few choice words for him. I’m not going to waste my time with a dummy he set up for me.”
“Hey,” said Thel condescendingly. “That hurts. All that happened was, the guy over there detached a sliver of his essence and formed it into me. He learned it while you were gone, it does wonders for multitasking. Whatever you want to say to him, you can say to me. He’ll get it all when I merge back with him, but he’s a little busy right now. So what can I do you for, kid?”
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Horan stepped uncomfortably close to Thel’s face. “You can get off my throne before I push you off.”
Thel grinned. “Nice to see you aren’t gonna take this lying down. It’s way more fun to put you down than have you ignore my conquests.”
Horan looked puzzled and stepped back ever so slightly. “Then why didn’t you just kill me the first time? Why not just make sure I was taken out? Not that I’m asking you to.”
Thel chuckled and shook his head. He turned to look over at Erlani, who was too busy taking notes to listen. “Yeah, he’s not paying attention. See, with you, it’s personal. With everyone else I kill and subjugate, that’s just to show the world that I can! It’s to show them that, yes, I’m the one in charge of everything now. But you, nephew, are a bit of a… special case.” He raised his hand to Horan’s head, but Horan swatted him away. Thel continued, unfazed.
“I want you to be cast aside, left helpless as I take Egypt far past anything you could dream of. I want you to watch me be a better pharaoh than you ever were. Maybe after a couple centuries of having my minions hunt you for sport, I’ll step in and come for you myself. Then, I’ll make you admit to my face that I’m better, stronger, smarter than you. For now, though, I’m allowing you to leave this palace with your life. Or, you could just say your line now and be done with it.”
Horan raised his sword. “Ooh, look at you, with your grandiose schemes to conquer the world. Maybe you haven’t considered that I know how to beat you. We’ve done this dance before. You take over the throne, I challenge you, we fight, I win, order is restored. I’ve got you where I want you, and this time I’m finishing you off for good.”
Thel looked back at the original, still explaining to his henchman how he was planning to subjugate the Arabian Peninsula. The original gave a brief thumbs-up without slowing down. Clone Thel turned back to Horan and shrugged.
“Alright, if you wanna try, go ahead. C’mon, I’ll even let you have a free hit. Go ahead, try and kill me.”
Hesitantly, Horan stepped back and raised his sword over his head. Pouring all his strength into the attack, he swung with everything he had at Thel’s throat.
The blade shattered on contact with Thel, leaving Horan stumbling past from the remaining momentum. Thel turned, grabbed Horan by the shoulders and playfully shoved him.
Horan rocketed into one of the blood-red windows, crashing through and reappearing in a blink to where the window would be located were it to exist in the human realm. Horan attempted to control the wind to slow his fall, but still ended up crash-landing in the post-nuclear part of Cairo, now used as slave housing.
Horan got up, looked back at where he had come from and saw Thel reappear in the same place Horan had. Quickly, Horan scurried into one of the huts and gave the signal.
-
As Mark cautiously traversed the largely abandoned streets of Cairo’s new districts, scanning the skies for a massive glowing man yelling obnoxiously, he heard the shattering of glass from seemingly nowhere. Turning to the source of the noise, he saw a brief streak of colour against the blanket of clouds.
The streak raced towards the ground, crashing into the city a few minutes from where Mark was standing. Shortly after, a more distinctly humanoid figure materialized into existence mid-air where the streak would have come from. The new shape had the right size and form to be Horan, but the head wasn’t shaped quite right.
Cautiously, Mark began to walk toward the airborne figure. After a few steps, he heard Horan yell out “Signal! Signal! Alert!”. Right then. The guy in the sky would be Thel, Mark supposed. He picked up the pace as he headed towards where the pathetic cawing noises had come from, pistols in hand.
-
After pinpointing where the sound came from, Thel landed in front of a mud shack, lacking even a door. Inside, Horan was propped up on a small stone table, a look of terror pervading his remaining eye. Thel began focusing an orb of chaotic energy in his hand, raising it to his face so his sneering visage was illuminated blood-red. “Better start running, buddy.” He said calmly to Horan.
Horan launched himself upwards, punching through the thatched roof of the shack right as Thel lobbed his projectile at where Horan had been standing just before. The bolt of chaos punched through the far wall of the shack, sending the building toppling backwards into the building behind it.
This whole chain of events left Horan hovering twenty feet off the ground, highly exposed and in plain view of Thel. Thel grinned maliciously and began raising his hand back up for another attack. Horan panicked and bolted to the left, weaving between Thel’s rapid-fire bolts of energy. Eventually he managed to get a good angle between dodging Thel’s assault, and hurled a gust of wind at Thel’s raised hand.
Caught off guard, Thel loosed his prepared projectile into the air and stumbled backwards. Horan landed dramatically in the street, raised his arms and pushed forward. A funnel of powerful wind surged through the street, kicking up a large cloud of dust and shoving Thel back a few feet. Thel burst out laughing as he righted himself. “That’s pretty good, actually! Here, let me try it out.” He mimicked Horan’s arm movement.
The cloud of dust Horan had kicked up gushed back towards him, hurling him off his feet and sending him hurtling into another building at the end of the street. The mud wall of the hut came down with Horan, burying him from the waist down.
Thel began strolling towards the pile of rubble ensconcing Horan, clapping condescendingly. “I will admit, I was caught a little off guard there. I forgot how feisty you can get when you’re cornered. Welp, it’s a shame that I need to kill you before the fun even got started, but who knows? Maybe you could give me your Ro and we could- Hm?”
He felt something tap on his shoulder and turned around. Behind him were two gun barrels pointed directly at his face. Mark opened up with his twin pistols, emptying both clips into Thel’s face before pistol whipping him with both guns.
His face a bloody wreck, Thel stumbled back and collapsed onto the ground, moaning softly. Mark rushed past and dug Horan out of the rubble. Horan curled up weakly after being dug out. “Everything hurts, just let me die.”
Mark growled and pushed Horan to his feet. “I am not passing up this chance. You are going to fly us out of here before those demons get here, or so help me!”
Clutching his mauled face with one hand, Thel began to shakily stand up and raised his arm. Mark looked back and saw Thel’s hand begin to glow a dull red and slapped Horan across the face. “NOW!” he yelled directly in Horan’s ear.
Horan winced and picked himself up off the ground. “Alright, fine, no need to yell.” He grabbed Mark by the shoulder and began pulling him back to the car. Mark pushed the two of them to the side as Thel hurled another bolt of energy at them, and started pushing Horan more hastily. “C’mon, speed up! I’d prefer to not die today!”
Horan steeled himself and picked up speed. Straining to carry Mark’s weight, he picked himself into the air and weakly flew back to where the car was parked.