Broken Stone

Shadows lifted from closed eyes, slowly dawning to the light of a new day. Strange creatures made sounds which were quickly becoming familiar to Matt as he quietly listened to their intricate cries. Their songs soothing his mind, inviting him back towards the sleep he’d just awoken from.

The hard floorboards beneath him were forcing knots into the muscles in his back, the pain irritating. They were not the only pains wracking his body on this morning, with mind still dazed from last night’s sleep, he felt around at his lower belly. A strange pain was persistently forming around his groin, the unfamiliar sensation bringing with it strange emotions.

Matt knew little enough about puberty, but the one thing that he could understand was his sudden change in diet, pointedly, his lack of inhibitory drugs, might be beginning to have effect. The pain was persistent, but dull, slowly fading away as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

Pushing away thoughts that served only to distract his busy mind, Matt’s eyes scanned the room. With morning light peaking in through the high set window, his dulled eyes noticed dozens of children as well as a few elderly who’d been offered the space out of charity.

The children rolled around, discomforted, crying and moaning in their sleep. The few that were awake, stared with dull eyes into a distant horizon, invisible within the confines of this dank little room. The elderly watched over the sleeping children with a gentle concern that reminded him again of the elders that had taken care of him in the past.

None of those eyes looked his direction, almost as if they were unable even to see him.

Lilith, the only person in the room who wasn’t a generation younger or older than Matt, sat on her legs. Her eyes flicking back and forth beneath closed eyelids, as if she were still dreaming.

Her dark silver hair was flowing from her head as a river of dark silver, reflecting the weak light invading the room. As per usual, she left it to fall uncontained down her back, held back by her ears. Only a few stray hairs fell out of place, drifting before her face.

For the first-time, Matt was able to notice how gentle her face could be. She was no longer frowning, and there was a general lack of tenseness. As if she were living in a world of peace, unaffected by the dangers surrounding this world.

Truly like the face of a princess from fairy-tale stories.

Her eyes snapped open and the stories faded away, her eyes filled with confusion and a cold tenseness. The stama across her body flinched, their motion jumping a short distance as she grabbed him by the throat.

“What are you doing?” She mumbled, her voice still dreary from having just awoken.

“Nothing.” He replied, as she singlehandedly held him up while still seated, strangling him.

“Don’t.” She finally demanded before releasing him from her inhuman grip. She sighed and closed her eyes again, quickly returning to her earlier visage.

Matt, already used to her often and sudden use of strength, relaxed as soon as she released him. Ignoring the other inhabitants of their room, he stood up in the little space afforded him on the floor. Breathing deeply, he let go of the daze from morning rest, embracing the coming day with all the strength he could muster.

He began stretching, forcing his muscles to their limits, before gently easing them back. Today he was planned to become a spy, working in labour to try and uncover the mages who attacked him and his people. That was what they’d told him he should do, but Matt couldn’t help but feel some doubts.

He liked them, he trusted them, but he was meant to save those people lost here, not hunt mages. Not spy on the people here. Looking over to Lilith, he tried to assuage his doubts. He was going to get some information to lead him on his journey to save them. Unconsciously he let his hand reach up to the hairpin, glowing faintly in green.

It slipped from his hair, falling into the palm of his hand. Not taking the time to appreciate it, he hooked it into his jacket pocket. The faint colour of emerald, was hidden by a sheet of dirty cloth, hanging from his clothes.

As a child, he’d never experienced much in the way of physical labour, as anything that needed moving was carried around by the drones. After that though, he was trained thoroughly and given various supplements in order to make him the most capable soldier their technology and training could forge.

As such he had some confidence in his physical strength. Even with many of the drugs having left his body, their effect on him remained strong. Not to mention the countless devices installed in his body to continue releasing such chemicals, such as the ‘booster’ he kept in reserve.

Lilith was starting to wake for the second time, her still dazed eyes opening to the early-morning light pouring into the room. With some disgruntled moans, she stood up, swaying side to side as she gathered her senses.

With unsteady feet, she stumbled over sleeping kids towards the water basin, where she washed her face as per routine. Today she was lucky enough to avoid tripping on any of the children still sleeping.

Matt began stretching his arm where the wound had been most troubling, his skin had already reformed, closing over where the stitches had been removed. The cut leaving behind only a light mark that was soon to heal.

Myra had looked on with disbelief when he had her remove them. “What did you use on this?” She’d questioned him at the time, unwilling to believe that it’d healed so quickly on its own.

It had taken a long conversation before she’d accept that he did nothing to accelerate the healing. By the end, she was mumbling about Matt’s alien nature.

The bone in his arm had been healing rather well since he’d applied some solidifying agent to it a few days earlier. Over the past few days the last of the pain had faded from the injury so that, even as he stretched it, it caused him no pain at all. Though he was aware that it was still delicate to damage should he strike the area again.

Lilith returned to him, after rinsing off her face, “If I didn’t know better I’d swear that you made a contract with a demon. Whatever you are, you aren’t human.”

He let her words slide past him, after all he didn’t know how much difference there was between himself and these people. It might be true that he was a different species to them on the inside.

The thought didn’t comfort him any, but it wasn’t of particular concern either. There were people here that he’d like to call friend one day, that was enough no matter how different they were.

“Lilith.” He quietly called to her, his voice low.

She ignored his words, instead choosing to walk out the door to the world underneath. Matt caught the door before it could close, following the woman; his rifle wrapped up and slung over his shoulder.

The corridor and stairwell were both empty of everything other than the dust and dirt that flavoured the floor. Dark stains had sunken into the wood from something Matt could only guess at.

Lilith was already down at the floor level, drinking a glass of water she’d gotten off the tired looking man cleaning glasses at the bench. Matt asked the man for the same, taking the glass over to the table which Lilith had taken for herself.

“What do you want?” She asked before he had time to settle in his seat.

“I just wanted to talk.” He replied, wandering himself why he called out to her then.

“If you’re going to complain, do it to someone else.” She mumbled, taking a long drink out of her glass.

Matt rubbed at the palms of his hands in thought, “Why did you choose this life? You had the chance to choose, didn’t you?”

“What makes you think you have the right to ask?” She snapped, looking down to the bottom of her glass.

Matt recoiled in silence, unsure about how to respond. He wasn’t used to talking with people who he wasn’t already close to. After his ‘family’ had come to an end, length and breadth of his conversations was all about work and missions.

Before he knew it, an awkward silence had extended out, Lilith tapping her glass lightly with her finger over and again. Matt still didn’t step forward to fill the silence, he lightly bit his tongue feeling a growing unease.

“What…” She cut through the silence, “What made you choose?” She finally asked. She was looking up from the cup, that was now firmly sitting on the table.

“I didn’t,” He answered firmly, “Any of it, I was selected and moved around. I was told what to do every step of the way. Even when… even when I had freedom, I only ever followed her.” He grit his teeth thinking about it, even now, all he was doing was following someone else’s orders.

He was tempted to stop, to just pick up his rifle and storm into the castle. He was tempted to just do something of his own will.

Even as his hand gripped the rifle he realized the worthlessness of it all, acting on his own he had no chance of succeeding. There were still people out there abandoned in this alien world and he wasn’t able to do anything to save them on his own.

Still gripping the rifle with a tense grip, he placed it down on the table between them. “I’m heading out now, can you look after my rifle for me? Please.” She nodded, eyes filled with some emotion he could not recognise.

He turned away from her before heading out the door, the confidence in his steps feigned with little skill.

Lilith sat back in her chair, lifting his rifle, wrapped in sealed white cloth. She slung the rifle over her shoulder. For some reason she seemed dissatisfied, as if she was expecting something more from him.

He ignored the sensation and pushed forwards, leaving the room behind and breathing in the fresh morning air.

His feet slapped into wet mud, sinking into it, then sucking his shoes as he lifted his feet. Dried blood, wet by the renewed rain, tainting the mud with its reddish tinge. Walking the quiet streets, Matt felt the most exposed he’d been in a long while.

He wore the local clothes he’d been given only a short time ago, they hung from his frame uncomfortably flapping with the occasional breeze. He was forced to keep readjusting them, feeling as if they are about to slip loose and fall off.

With his guns in safe hands his only weapon, his knife, was hidden within his clothes. He’d been told by Myra that it wasn’t strange for people to be carrying around knives, which was the only reason he allowed himself to bring even this vestige of his past along.

Even as hesitant as he was to follow orders, he would do his best at any mission he worked on. Which was why still had to keep the knife hidden, since it was of clearly alien origin to what these people were used to and he had to fit in as best as he could.

From what he’d been told, most of the labourers were from foreign nations. Meaning most of them only had a basic understanding of the local language, allowing him to fit into their ranks well enough so long as he didn’t do anything to stand out.

Still they wondered how much information he could really gather without knowing the language, but they decided to move forwards with the plan anyway. Myra had still voiced some further concerns on his part before they left but they were quieted by the end of night, as she grew excited for results.

As Matt progressed along the streets, growing lighter in the deepening dawn. Men other than himself seemed to be continuing along the same path, dressed in a variety of clothes from many different places. From what he could tell the one similarity in them all was their strength, all of them built up with muscles.

With the declaration from the King many labourers from nearby farms and towns rushed by to help in this disaster. Or at least to make some money, which was apparently a different thing Matt was finding out.

Most of them were gathered together in small groups, but it wasn’t strange for them to be alone, as many were much like himself. Matt payed a little attention to the others who walked by, but when they looked at him strangely in return he looked down at his feet.

The sound of footsteps behind him grew louder as someone quickly approached from behind. Matt could still feel Lilith nearby and thinking that it was her that was catching up to him for some reason, he turned around.

Facing a man whose face Matt didn’t recognise at all. Tall, but only a little taller than himself, the man had dark blonde hair and wore a jovial expression on his face. He slapped Matt on the shoulder, his face filling with confusion as he looked at Matt’s face.

“You aren’t him.” He mumbled. His words still familiar to Matt, who glanced around looking for the stray Knight that was silently watching over him, all to no avail.

Matt’s mouth opened as if to reply but he hesitated as he realized how quickly he might lose this precarious language skills. “Viri, Kondri ka sik” The words he’d learnt from Myra the night before, vaguely translated into, “I don’t know how to speak this language,” with all of the necessary niceties.

The man didn’t seem surprised at Matt’s words, “Oh, well, I suppose you’re here for the work too?” He asked, with a voice suggesting that he needed no answer. The man quickly brushed off his own embarrassment and continued talking, “By the look of it, there is much work to be done. It’ll be nice to actually see our work build into something.” He smiled lightly as he spoke. “Last time I passed through… Well, I didn’t think I would be coming back to this any time soon. I wasn’t even planning on coming back at all.”

Lilith was still hanging around at the fringes of his senses, keeping close enough that he could still make sense of the language being spoken. It was just close enough that he wasn’t yet inclined to give chase to her, though the tether of his mind to hers was still exerting some pressure on him from the direction of the inn. He didn’t know when he was going to lose that connection.

The friendly man stopped speaking briefly as he turned to Matt, offering out his hand in a strange handshake. “My name is Arcide, you?” He asked, the question phrased so simply as to make sense, even without Lilith’s assistance. A little confused about the handshake, Matt put forward his hand into the man’s grasp, to which he tightened his grip.

“Matt,” He put his other hand on his own chest, the man nodding in response.

“Not a common name around these parts, where are you from?” The man pushed forwards, his voice firm, “Saruthor? Norelle? Ottskor?” The man continued listing names hoping that Matt would respond to one of them but to no avail.

Strangely the names carried prejudice and definition, sourced from Lilith. Saruthor; the place where Rloki had supposedly come from, a place of indulgence and great artistic riches, though filled with strange people.

Ottskor; an ancient place filled with absurd and truly horrible traditions and customs. Strong enough to repel both Valkel’s military might and keep the Sasahara Knights from entering their lands. Much of this strength sourced from magic.

Norelle; a distant land, it’s capital referred to as the city of angels. There were many myths and legends floating around about the nation but little reliable information.

And many, many more that Matt couldn’t keep up with.

After Arcide exhausted his long list of nations, he looked towards Matt expectedly, with more than a little curiosity in his eye. “You don’t want to tell me? Don’t worry too much about it, there are many men on the run selling their labour or their swords around here.”

As the talkative man started to get some strange ideas, Matt finally found the nerve to reply. “Earth,” It was a name that would be unfamiliar to the man, giving Matt a little confidence in giving as much away.

Arcide didn’t respond immediately, scratching at his thick hair as he looked around the area. No one was within range of hearing, and the only one who could possibly have overheard was Lilith, if she was paying attention.

“You mightn’t want to say that name too loud,” Arcide finally replied, “Few enough people are familiar with the name, but you shouldn’t be taking such chances.”

Matt, stunned that the man recognised the name nodded his head loosely, uneasy about aggravating the locals again. The man paused in his rapid assault of words for this moment, instead electing to look around the area again.

Meanwhile Matt pondered what the man had said. Who could have learned of that name, said in his own language no less. He wasn’t certain whether he’d mentioned the name to any of the Sasahara Knights, but Lilith would likely be able to find out. That left…

With a sharp panic, Matt’s nose leaked blood and his mind grew intensely pained, “You met others?!” He asked in a ferocious whisper. Too excited to consider the dangers.

“I thought you couldn’t Valkerian?” Arcide spoke in return, “Well it’s not something I like to talk about, but yeah. I did know someone else… like you.”

“Where are they?” Matt couldn’t contain his excitement, finally he was on the right track.

“He died.” Arcide cleared his throat, “Of course I did everything I could to save him but he was too far gone.”

Matt lowered his head, shocked by the sudden hope gained then lost.

“Met him on the Eastern edge of the Talken forest, the same one just out the gates. He was delirious, speaking strange words. He’d already been bitten by a something in that damned forest. No matter what I did his bleeding wouldn’t stop.

“Earth was one of the things that he mumbled as he died. It was like the sky itself terrified him… If I were a betting man, I’d say that that’s where the metal monsters come from too.” He muttered, looking towards Matt for some kind of reply.

With a dryness irritating his throat Matt nodded, “Did you see anyone else?”

He shook his head, with a sombre look on his face, “None.”

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?!” Lilith invaded his mind, reminding him that she was suffering the same painful headache as himself. It seemed as if she’d covered some of the distance, between them as he was talking with Arcide.

Matt flinched as he replied, “Sorry,”

“Sorry? That’s all you have to say? What was a Krilm like you spilling from your lips at a time like this anyway?”

”I thought I had a lead on someone.” He rubbed at his temples as he spoke with her.

“You alright?” Arcide stepped up to him, offering some sympathy.

Matt just nodded at his concerned expression.

“And what did you find?” She asked him, her irritation bleeding through to him.

“A man from home died at the edge of the forest.” He forced the thought out carefully.

“How useful,” She could manage sarcasm even within her own thoughts, “Don’t go doing anything stupid like that again.”

Her last line before going quiet, apparently letting him off for now.

“How of much what I’m saying can you understand?” Arcide asked in the silence that had unknowing formed, ahead the crowds were thickening with large muscled men.

With some hesitation, Matt replied again with the phrase he’d been taught the day before, “Viri, Kondri ka sik.” In truth, it was the only complete phrase that he remembered properly.

The man mumbled in reply, rubbing his chin where facial hair was starting to grow through. Matt was still unused to seeing facial hair himself, he’d seen it on rare occasion when he’d grown up but it seemed as though only a few people were able to grow it.

While they walked in growing silence, the sun crept higher on the horizon shining a little more brightly than it had. Meanwhile Matt ran Arcide’s name through his head, trying to place where it was he’d heard it previously.

Before long it hit him, the strange woman he’d met with Lilith in the aftermath of the battle. As he realized it, the name slipped from his lips, “Sashella.”

Arcide shuddered upon hearing the name, spinning around on the spot as if expecting a demon to walk out of the shadows. He was in a running stance prepared to leave the moment he saw signs of the woman.

“Is she here, where?!” From the reaction, Matt couldn’t help but wonder what the woman had done to him.

Matt shook his hands around in front of him, after getting the panicked man’s attention he pointed towards the city gates then up in a far-off direction.

“Ah, good, good.” He sighed, letting out the built-up stress.

“That crazy woman is the reason that I’m on the run. Would you believe that I used to be an artist?” He patted the dust from his shoulders attempting to clear away the dirty appearance that he’d gathered.

“I was even invited into the royal Therindell castle! Of course, I ended up pissing off the royal prick, but that wasn’t too much of a problem.” He scanned the area as if expecting Sashella to be spying on them from the shadows. “Her father ended up sending assassins after me. A weak bunch to be sure, but that wasn’t an issue. Before they had a chance to do anything, she was there.

“Killed the whole lot of them. I just heard some screaming, turned around and there she was. Standing over the corpses with a smile on her face, not minding the blood covering her head to toe. Damn creepiest thing I’ve seen in my life and I’ve seen demons climbing their way out of corpses!

“The girl has something wrong in her head, convinced herself that we’re meant to be together and has been chasing me around ever since. I’d prefer actual assassins any day, at least I know what they want with me.”

Arcide had barely even taken a breath up to this point, spilling out the words in a rush. “This was the first time I’ve told anyone about it, so don’t go telling her anything strange if you come across her. I don’t need her getting any weirder at this point.”

Matt was taken aback by the sudden rush of words leaving the man, unsure about how else to react, he simply nodded. To think, she didn’t seem quite so strange upon their meeting, but then again, he couldn’t deny that it fit with her character a little too well. He still remembered her stepping over corpses and bloodying her clothes without the slightest concern for the dead and dying.

Growingly curious about how long until she found this man, Matt began wishing he could use her rather capable tracking abilities for his own purposes.

Talk of Arcide’s sad, romantic life faded as they walked through thickening crowds to finally arrive at their destination. Standing shoulder to shoulder with men of various descript, he gazed around.

Ahead, with his back towards to the castle stood a man on a small podium dressed in cleaner clothes than the rest of those gathered. The man stood with some authority over everyone else, a filthy look on his face as he gazed down at those gathered.

Beside him stood another man, looking more similar to those assembled beneath, he stood with a nervous air about him. Looking into the faces of the various men gathered only made the man that much more unsteady.

While they waited, the labourers were splitting into groups of their own, calling out to one another like friends would. The air of familiarity only spread so far, as many of the men seemed to ignore each other completely for reasons that Matt couldn’t reason.

Following the thread pulling at his mind, Matt looked back towards the buildings where a small silhouette alighted atop the roofs. Lilith would have been near impossible to spot had he not already been aware of her.

Cutting through the atmosphere, the cleanly dressed man spoke loudly over everyone gathered. “The king has graciously welcomed you into our fine city and offered labour for any who can do as commanded.” The labourers seemed to quiet at his voice.

The man standing at his side repeated the words in another language which was a little difficult for him to understand. He spoke with less confidence, making certain that his voice never overpowered the man at his side.

“After such a fiendish attack on this fine city from the metal monsters, there is much to be rebuilt. So that this fine opportunity is not put to waste our fine king is having it rebuilt stronger and larger than before.” He cleared his throat.

“As such there are a number of conditions to your work here.” His assistant hurried to catch up with him, “Payments will begin at 5 bronze coins per day, food and housing will be allocated for the length of this project at the cost of 3 bronze coins per day to those who choose to accept them. You will not be permitted to abandon this city or project from this point on, and will continue to labour until you are offered a pardon from the King.”

“For those who are considered valuable, you may be given increased pay and more critical work as the project moves on. Hard work is always rewarded here in Valkel. As such, for those fortunate men who are considered valuable, you may be offered military training and a place in our glorious army at the end of this project. Work hard for his majesty the King.”

The man walked off from the pedestal, handing over control to the smaller man, who stood by his side. The men gathered seemed disgruntled at the announcement, but few left.

“We’ll need you grouped up to work in certain areas for clean-up so that we can clear space for new constructions.” The men seemed to split themselves up to stay with those they were familiar with, but a couple of men in guard uniform moved through, grouping the strays together.

“Oi you,” The guard waved Matt and Arcide closer into his small group. “We’re ‘eaded to the wall.” The guard, although vaguely familiar, fortunately hadn’t recognised Matt for who he was. Something quite fortunate, since he didn’t want it all to end here.

Having found some little information from Arcide, Matt was finding himself more willing to complete this mission. In hopes that he might find something that would help him rescue the others abandoned in this world.

Allowing himself to be led, Matt followed along after the guard who was leading them out towards the city walls. The small group of fit young men, had skin colours and faces more varied that he’d ever seen before in his life.

Arcide walked alongside Matt, listening attentively to the guard as he spoke.

“You are now Team Heras, for today you’re all under my command so listen closely.”

“Some of you will already know, but this city has a history. The sort o’ which makes a broken wall mean something more than a broken wall. To these people, so long as that wall has even a tiny hole remaining, they’ll be just as broken themselves.

“Which is why we’re so focused on working on the wall today. I know it’s hard work, but you’ll have to get used to it.” He walked with a relaxed pace as he talked, “Now I don’t mind if you talk or nothin’ but do the job, got it?”

The men in the team numbered around two dozen, and weren’t afraid to talk over their would-be leader. Some seemed to be repeating what the man was saying in other languages, others were chatting among themselves as friends.

“Sure, sure boss, whatever you say.” One man offered, an accent bleeding through that Lilith’s translation was able to identify as Ottskoran.

“Keep that attitude to yourself,” The guard sighed heavily, “I used to be a labourer like you, but I worked hard, found a place in the guard after that. Any of you want it easier, then work hard an’ I’ll put in a good word with the higher ups.”

Their leader continued on without concern to whether or not anyone was listening after that, “So our job is to clean up the area of debris, an’ separate it so that the engineers can come in and start building as soon as they can. This isn’t just leg work neither, there are chunks of stone too big for any of us to carry even together, so we’ve got some pickaxes and hammers to try and split them.”

While the man was speaking, they arrived at the broken section of wall where they were going to work at. There was still a number of blood stains, and some scattered gore littering the area but the men paid it no mind.

“While working, you may come across some corpses, if you do, call out. The cleansing equipment is right over there, and if you can’t move the body, burn it in place. Keep an eye out for demons.” The man waved his hands at the gear, so as to make things clear for those unfamiliar with the language.

The cleansing equipment the man highlighted was nothing more than a barrel of oil, some buckets, and a pair of lit torches. Apparently necessitating the burning of corpses, to prevent demon spawn.

While some of the men were already getting to work, Matt scoped out the area, getting a feel for where the worst of the work was. The wall had been completely knocked down for around a five metre length, but since the wall was around a metre thick at this point there was much debris scattered around the area.

He also noticed a concerning amount of activity flowing overhead, where men were hanging from ropes chipping away at damaged stone and tapping at the wall, searching for weakness in the stone. The debris from their work was falling down on their team of labourers with little to no concern.

Excepting the occasional curse, targeting the workers overhead, most of the men simply ignored the dangerous working conditions, instead helping to take apart the massive pile of rubble built up on the inside of the wall.

Matt watched them working for a few moments, observing them. Arcide was working on separating a large chunk of wall that had fallen inwards, with the stones separated, he waved over some of the other men. None of whom seemed to notice him.

Most of the labourers had already formed small groups among themselves, working as these small groups with little thought for communication. Already the guard leading them was yelling at them for making too many different junk piles.

“One for whole stone, and one for shards, it’s that simple damn it!”

Matt slipped past the others, walking up to Arcide, who’d already broken off a pile of clean stone blocks. The man said a few words to Matt when he arrived to help, but Matt found his language skills suddenly missing once again. Lilith having left range.

For a few moments, his chest tightened in response to the realization, his tether pulling at him to find her. The sensation something that he forced down as he focused on his labours.

While Matt moved the stones over to the pile, he tried as best as he could to avoid hurting his recently broken arm. Everyone seemed to be finding pace as he rushed to catch up to Arcide, who’d still had a sizeable pile of blocks for him to move.

By the time he’d caught up, his muscles were aching. The labour was far more intense than he was used to from his military training, but with some effort he could still manage to keep up with the rest of them.

Matt found it mildly amusing that Arcide, whose work was lighter, seemed to be more exhausted than himself. From what he’d heard from the man himself, his last work wasn’t so physically intensive so perhaps that was the reason. Regardless, they both soldiered on.

Their guard leader finally having the chance to relax a little as the labourers found their pace. Work continued like this for a while, Matt and Arcide working at a comfortable speed so that as soon as Matt returned another block was waiting for him.

As midday arrived a sizeable amount of stone had been put into order, they’d recovered a large pile of stone blocks, and a nearby wagon was already filled twice over with the shards that had fallen.

The leader gave Matt and Arcide the occasional glance but didn’t interfere with their work. They continued, unsure whether he was impressed or concerned with their progress, already the large section of wall that they were focused on had halved in size.

As he was lifting another brick, a cry from above startled his tired mind. It wasn’t the cry that had his senses on edge though, so much as the rumble of falling stone. ‘Booster’ activating on instinct, he turned his head upwards in slow motion.

Another section of wall had fallen above them, it was only a quarter the size of the one they were working on but large enough to crush them underneath without problem. The men above had faces and eyes filled with panic, staring down at the falling stone as it carved a path down towards Matt and Arcide.

Immediately Matt began calculating his chances. He was standing to the side of where the rock would hit, and would be able to just barely escape the impact if he pushed himself with all of his might. Instinct acting faster than thought, he prepared to dive out of the way as he noticed Arcide, still looking down at stone beneath his feet. Sweat dripping from his face, completely ignorant of the death about to impact him.

“Save them.” The words ringing in his head like a commandment.

He ran through the situation in his mind in a flash. He wasn’t able to stop the rock from falling, no strength or on hand gear could stop it. He wasn’t fast enough to push Arcide out of the way, and even alarming the man, he’d be too slow to save himself.

Even so, he found himself running for the man doomed to die. The thought of dying himself left a bittersweet taste in his throat, he was going to fail, but he had to try. Knowing he couldn’t win, he still pushed his body to its limits to win this race against fate.

“Why do you act when you know you are going to fail?” The words eking out from the back of his mind as a chill crawled up his leg. “Every living creature is afraid of death to some extent, so why are you fighting so hard, knowing you are going to fail?

“Why not just run away, save yourself?” Matt felt fear running through his skin and bones. The feeling of absolute terror filling his heart and mind.

“Save them.” The words not so much a reply as a mindless chant to keep himself moving, to keep the fear at bay. The words filled with a fervour more powerful than logic or fear, chased away all thoughts from his mind.

“Why do this knowing that you will die as well?” the voice continued as it ran across his skin.

“I’m afraid of losing anyone else.” The words spoken directly from his heart, in response to the voice invading his mind.

Power infused into his body with the fear that cut through him stronger than ever before. Arms and legs acting faster and stronger than they should, did exactly as he desired of them but without his command. He’d lost control.

He charged into Arcide, throwing him aside into the muddy ground, his legs then pushing hard to catch up to the man. There was a force outside his own body pushing his legs down with piston like motion, it wasn’t entirely unlike the feeling of wearing his powered armour.

He blinked away the sweat invading his eyes, and by the time he’d opened them again he was staring up into open skies. Air washed over him and a powerful force threw him before he splattered into the thick mud.

SMASH.

A titanic sound rocked the earth where he’d been standing moments before. Staring at the aftermath of the destruction, Matt noticed that they no longer needed to split the stone anymore, most if it already having been broken down into blocks and shards.

Arcide, who was sprawled out on the ground, shook the mud off as he faced destruction. The confusion was clear on his face.

Matt looked down to his arms, which were now covered in thin green threads, retreating out of his body.

“You owe me.” The voice said as the last of the threads left his body, the presence still hanging around at his back.

A demon, almost certainly. It had a completely different feel to the one he’d met inside Lilith, and even he could tell that it’s power was nothing in comparison. But it was demon none the less.

The guard ran over to the pair of them, panic written on his face as he looked over them. His words were unfamiliar as he briefly interrogated them.

After the shock wore off he heard a few familiar words and phrases, but none of it made sense to his alien mind.

“Matt.” Arcide spoke pointing at Matt.

“Arcide,” the man himself, added after brushing the mud off of his clothes as best he could.

Without another word the man split away from them, ordering the men back to work. Most of whom had gathered to gawk at the two of them. It seemed as though they didn’t notice the demon, or at least they weren’t currently interested in killing it.

With a sigh, Matt looked up from his position on the ground, the men working above had seemingly retreated for the time being. Perhaps having finished their work above as they were pulling back their ropes.

Arcide, who was still pulling himself back together, slapped Matt on the back in an apparent motion of thanks, which he wasn’t quite familiar with.

The demon still filling his mind, seemed to have retreated away, not taking up a part of his mind as Lilith had, but merely pressing on his mind.

“Are you still there?” He asked the creature that had saved his life.

“For now,” It responded.