Persuit

They quickly made it back to the place where Marcus’ scouting troops had been attacked, it was on a narrow patch of road, some distance away from the main one, which had once served as a route to a nearby town, but had apparently not been used in a long time, judging by the moss and grass that had crept in.
The corpses, both human and otherwise, were still there, decomposition barely having set in.
“They definitely look like demons,” said Arthur poking one of the lifeless creatures with his boot, and Marcus nodded. The creatures looked exactly as they had in his vision, but he had never gotten a close look at them.
They had red and black skins, claws and sharp, often big, teeth. Some of them had thick black hair, while others were bald, all of them were two or three meters in length, and frightening to look at.
“What are those markings on their skin” Izzy asked, pointing at the strange tattoos that all the demons bore. They weren’t all identical, but shared a common marking, a pentagon with four circles around it.
At first glance it was hard to see them, as they blended in with the natural patterns of the demons skins. Upon seeing them, Marcus looked to Naea for answers, who was frowning.
“What do you think Naea? Do you have any idea what they might mean?”
Naea nodded, “Yes,” she said, “I do.”

“Before he lost the war, Zenithrix sent his four minions, aptly dubbed, the four horsemen, to each of the four outer continents, but when he was defeated, they went rogue, some say they went insane, and they lost much of their former power, even though they are still very strong, and very dangerous.”
“So you’re saying one of these horsemen is the one responsible for sending these demons to us?”
“Yes,” the witch said, “We made an effort to round them up, but alas, we weren’t very successful.”
“Not very successful?” Izzy cocked her head, “Did you actually managed to capture any of them?”
Naea paused, looking strangely. “The Noramians imprisoned theirs on their own, Sangiël, and we dealt with ours, Aqriël, but Juliël went missing on Eskar, and Mariël disappeared on Cloud.”
“What did you do with Aqriël?” Marcus asked the witch.
“Technically that information is a secret, I’m not even supposed to tell you we did that, but I can tell you we imprisoned him.” She said in a flat tone, and shrugged.
Marcus nodded, “So how does it help us to know an ancient demi-god’s pupil is sending us demons from the underworld?” Marcus’ head was spinning, how could this be possible? And why was this all happening now?
“It tells us that we won’t be able to stop these invasions until either Zenithrix returns, or someone goes to the underworld to stop him, which is impossible, even for me.”
“Great,” Arthur said, “So basically we are screwed?”
They all looked at him, silent.
“No,” Marcus shook his head, “We knew these demons were coming, it is the entire reason we started this in the first place, we will have to fight them until the chosen one arrives.”
He didn’t get a response, other than silent mumbling, from Izzy, from Arthur, and from the small crowd that had gathered around them, but he saw them nodding too. He looked to each of them, these men who had sworn to him.
In turn, they met his eyes, and they nodded to him, Arthur, Borgh, Claith, with a strangely intense look of seriousness, which was a rare sight on him, Brandon, and even Bob, the old general, who gave him a big smile too.
“Alright,” he said, when he had looked to them all, even the soldiers, whose names he did not know. “It is time to move on then, we must follow these demons, before they can do any more harm, before they can find any civilians!”

And follow them they did, but not before Claith had insisted on removing certain things from the demons bodies, what he was collecting and why, Marcus had not asked.
It wasn’t hard to track them, they left broken branches, trampled bushes, and even some uprooted trees, in the path, and they made good time.
However, Marcus’ hope to spare any innocents from falling victim to these monsters, quickly proved to be in vain, as they soon passed a village which had been stripped of all things edible, including the people, the bodies, or whatever remained of them, strewn across the street, the remnants of cook-fires having left black spots in the square.
They did not linger there long, but Marcus had ordered the human remains be gathered and buried.
Some of the fires were still warm, meaning the demons had likely left that morning, or perhaps during the night.
Their continuing journey was interrupted by a number of more stops at villages, although with the most recent ones, it seemed word of what was happening had spread, and people must have fled, for there were no bodies.
This made Marcus feel somewhat better, but worried him too, the enemy might think it was just Marcus marching north, which the superstitious peasants had warped into a supposed demonic invasion.
Nonetheless, the bones Marcus had buried this day reminded him of why he fought, it was to prevent this from happening again, to prevent this fate from being the fate of all of Cloud, which it would be without him.

“Ironic, isn’t it?” Izzy said. They had made camp for the night, a quick camp, because it was already dark for a good amount of hours, and they would leave before dawn, as it was Marcus’ intention to catch up with these demons tomorrow, most likely at the northern capital, such a population center was sure to draw the demons.
“What is Ironic?” Marcus asked, unsure what she was talking about, she had been staring into nothing for the past half hour or so, while he and Naea were discussing the demons.
“That the horseman of war, is bringing war to our lands, the horseman who is a puppet of the god who is supposed to be the worlds savior.”
“Actually,” Naea said, “We’re not sure if Zenithrix will be our savior, he could just as easily still be angry of about what the world did to him last time, and decide to kill us all.”
“Sounds wonderful,” Marcus said, “I’m glad I’m saving our continent, just to hand it over to a demi-god who might just kills us all, when I’m done.”
“If Zenithrix does prove to remain an enemy, we will need to full might of a united Cloud Nation, and the rest of the world, in order to stop him.”
“Yeah, about that,” Izzy nudged in, “Why risk letting him out? Why can’t we just let him stay in prison for the rest of eternity, I was perfectly okay without demonic invasions and potentially being erased from existence I’ll have you know.”
Naea rolled her eyes, “It was a judgment call, at the time we were all still very much effected by grief, the after effects of the collapse, and a throbbing sense of remorse over our foul deeds.” She said, a hint of Sarcasm, and… something else, in her voice. “Besides, it will be up to the chosen one to actually make the final choice, according to the prophesy.”
“Perfect, so our fate wasn’t just decided about a bunch of grief sickened witches but by a Single, demented lunatic, what if he chooses wrong huh?” Izzy said sarcastically.
“Yeah well, if I was the one who had worded the prophesy, I would also have done it differently.” Naea shrugged, “We will just have to make do with what we have.”
Marcus nodded, “Whatever happened, this is what is happening now, lets just hope the chosen one will prove to be a wise and learned individual, who appreciates the worlds beauty and potential.”
Naea smiled, and Izzy chuckled.
“Well, if the goddess is the one who created the prophesy, and created it to be in a way that forces conflict, most likely her choice of chosen one will reflect the same sick sense of humor, we all know what the goddess truly rewards, and it isn’t peace and tranquility.”
Naea nodded, even giving her a true smile, and Marcus, he thought. He thought she was right, unfortunately, although he wasn’t entirely sure what the goddess rewarded exactly, as his experiences had proven, it wasn’t all about fighting, honor and glory or what have you, there was more to it than that, but he wasn’t sure what it was, not yet.

It would be in just three short hours that they had to continue following the demon trail, three hours in which Izzy was sleeping, and Marcus was staring at the roof of their tent. He tried, but sleep eluded him. Instead, the images of demons, and clean cloven human bones took turns haunting him. Accompanied by the fear of seeing such things across all of Cloud.
It was then that the quiet outside suddenly became slightly less quiet. It wasn’t noisy by any means, it sounded like a bunch of people doing their best to be silent, but to Marcus, who had been listening to the silence for a few hours now, it might as well have been a party out there.
And then, after a few minutes of being bothered by the quiet ruckus, someone knocked on their tent flap.
“A moment,” he said, pulling on a night shirt and pants, and moving outside, as he didn’t think his wife would appreciate visitors while she was sleeping.
It was Bob.
The old man led him to a tent, one which looked much more luxurious than his own, and one he recognized as the tent that he had used before Claith had made the decoy, and he knew what must have happened.
There was a big hole in the clay figures chest.”
“Did they catch the one who did it?” he asked Bob, but he shook his head.
“Guards had their throats cut, but we have a witness.” Bob finished, pointing at a shaking figure sitting on a bench surrounded by soldiers.
“What did the witness say?” Marcus pushed.
“He says he say a small red creature fall from the sky, the guards went to check what it was, but before they could do anything, the creature killed them, and went into the tent, and apparently never came out.”

“There are different types of demons, the ones we saw corpses of are the main ones, but there are darker and fouler things in the deep regions of hell.” Naea said thoughtfully. “This is bad.”
“So it’s just another demon, nothing we can’t fight and defeat, right?” Marcus asked hopefully.
But Naea shook her head, “Sure, we can fight them, we can put in place measures to repel these kinds of creatures in the future, but this means Mariël has penetrated the underworld society further than we thought, because no simple visitor can command these kinds of beings, only the ruler of hell could do that…” she trailed off.
“That means…” Marcus said.
“It means we are not just fighting demons, we are fighting the full forces of hell.”

This new revelation shook Marcus. It wasn’t that he was more scared now than before, but the truth of things disturbed him.
However, he had no time to think about it, they had demons to catch up with, and no time to waste, so he gave the order to continue, but not before arranging for some greater safety measures.
“Hey Bob, how are you doing?” he asked the old commander. They hadn’t had much time together since that last battle, Arthur had returned and taken up his old post of Marcus’ second, and everything had happened so fast.
“My king, how may I serve you?”
“I am in need of your expertise once more, I believe it is time for me to allow myself to be protected a bit better, in light of recent events, and you are one of few whom I can really trust with this task.”
“Of course, my liege, I was always the main body guard to Eredan, I could do the same for you.” The man replied, somewhat taken aback by his request.
“Are you sure? it will mean a lot of standing around and watching over me, and of course, my wife, ill make sure you have company though, I am looking to form a true royal guard, although I would want you as their head. Are you up for that, soldier?”
“It would be my honor and privilege, my liege.” He said, making a slight bow.
“Good, but I have a few questions for you first.” Marcus said.
“Of course, my liege, what kind of questions?” the older man said.
“Where are you from?” Marcus asked.
“I’m from far away.” He replied.
“That won’t do, Bob, there are five continents, and one archipelago, and I’m willing to bet you were born on none of them.”
“What if I told you I’m from Noramia?” the old man said, smiling at him.
“I would call you a liar, humans don’t get to roam there, and runaway slaves are assassinated, some bloodsucker would have come to kill you a longtime ago.”
Bob, laughed, nodding. “You are right, I am not from there, nor am I from any other continent on this world, that is all I can tell you.”
Marcus frowned, thinking, “Naea told me you have a strange energy, so I suppose I would have to believe you, even if it does sound ridiculous, another world.”
“Is that all, my liege?” bob asked, smiling, and Marcus returned it.
“I suppose, but remember, other worldly or not, if you betray us, I will have to kill you.”
Bob laughed, “I suppose you would, If you could.”
“I do have one other question for you, just to satisfy my curiosity, how old are you?” Marcus said, thinking, remembering the calculation he had made when Bob had told him how long he had been working for Eredan, and how he had said, I’m older than I look.
“I lost count when I hit quadruple digits, its been a long long time since I actually celebrated my birthday.”
Over a thousand years old huh, Marcus thought, shocked.
“Are you like Naea then? An immortal of some kind?”
“Of a kind, yes, what she sensed in me is what I sense in her, but we are not the same, maybe opposites, I just hope she is trustworthy, because where I’m from, people like her are branded evil, or killed.”
“She is trustworthy, I know she is.” Marcus said, “She has proven it.”
“If you say so, but I’m keeping an eye on her.”
“You do that.” Marcus said, “Are you ready?”
“Yes,” bob replied, and he kneeled.
“Good, then I hereby name you: Captain of the kings guard, now, I have some candidates for you to inspect, recruiting new members of the guard will be one of your main duties as their captain.”
“Who did you have in mind?” Bob asked, when he had gotten back up.
“That giant monkey for starters, and I have been told about many skilled warriors among the troops, who deserve to be considered.”
Bob nodded, and it was done, Marcus had a kings guard, and his worries were a little lessened.

The pursuit continued, but while the trail remained clear as ever, still there was no sign of the demons themselves, even as the forest grew thinner, and they reached the northern pass, a region of sparse forest where both mountains and sea were visible simultaneously, and from there, it was but a short march towards the northern capital, a true city, one of few on Cloud, with true stone walls, and a city gate.
As they approached, the signs of struggle became obvious, there were arrows sticking out of the ground, black blood stained the grass and tree bark. The remnants of magical flames might just look like that of a regular fire, but they left a distinct arcane scent, which to those who were familiar with it, was unmistakable. 
There were even some demonic corpses laying here and there, but fortunately, it seemed they had not been able to breach the gate, and while there were no guards visible, Marcus had no doubt that there were some.
This was the home of the northern twin, and if he was here, the southern twin would be too, undoubtedly along with what remained of their forces.
If they did have forces, they weren’t showing them, and no one was shooting anything at them, for now at least.
After his whole army had gathered in front of the city, and they had started to settle in place, people even beginning to show to signs of impatience, and anticipation, a person appeared above the gate.
“Who approaches, and whom do you serve?” the guard bellowed. Marcus nodded to Arthur, who announced him, as well as the presence of all his chiefs, not failing to mention that, while Eredan wasn’t here, his troops were also represented.
When he was done, there was a long silence, before the reply came.
“The lords of the northern and middle forest tribes request a parley with your leader, Marcus of Cloud Central!”

Dannad and Damien, as they were called, were both middle aged men, with the red hair of the north, and unmistakably twins. If they hadn’t been dressed in different colors, Dannad wearing the northern ones, green, black and red, and Damien wearing the southern ones green, white and yellow, Marcus wouldn’t have been able to keep them apart.
They had insisted on meeting in front of the gate, which was like a little square, gate on one side, open on the other, and walls on the other two sides, on which there were now a lot of warriors standing.
This was obviously to make it more difficult to storm the gate, and overwhelm the defenders, and it made a great place for them to meet.
“My lords,” he started, but they didn’t let him continue.
“Did you know about those monsters?” Dannad snapped, nervously.
“Those demons?” Damien clarified.
“We managed to repel them, but we have been expecting them to return.”
“So they can kill us all, we know about what happened in the countryside.”
“First we thought you were just having a little fun on your way here.”
“Until those things showed up here.”
“They almost broke down the gate.”
“But they left when they realized how thick it was.”
The two of them took turns speaking, both in frantic tones.
“Do you know about them?” Dannad asked at last.
“We know you have been preaching about the prophesy.”
“Are you going to defeat those monsters?”
“Well,” Marcus started, “It is my endeavor to unite the people of Cloud, for the sake of preventing these demons from doing anywhere else, what they did in your lands.”
“We don’t care about anywhere else.”
“We just want them to stay away from us.”
“You have to defeat them.”
“Thats why you have been conquering the continent is it not?”
Marcus sighed, “Yes, it is, and I will defeat the demons, all I ask in return is that you swear fealty to me, together, the combined forces of all of Cloud, will keep the demons at bay.”
The twins looked at each other, and then to Marcus.
“Fine,” Dannad said,
“Fine,” Damien echoed.
“We have heard all about you, we will keep our authority, right?” Dannad asked eagerly.
“Because you chose liberty, didn’t you?”
Marcus sighed again, he was glad of their willingness, but if he was honest to himself, he had preferred replacing these two with more trustworthy individuals. However, he would not stray from his ideals.
“Alright then, you two are correct, you will keep your authority, as long as your loyalty remains pure.”

And thus it was that two more tribes came under Marcus’ control.
It turned out, however, that most of their troops had been sent to fight Marcus, and what they had garrisoned in the city made up only a quarter of their total number.
However, now that they had been properly subjugated, Marcus had no qualms about sending the order back to the middle-wood, for all the soldiers to be released, since they all now belonged to armies which served him.
He had considered offering the twins to stay here, to gather their forces and recover their strength, but Marcus wanted to keep an eye on them, so he had told them to travel with him, and to leave representatives behind to reorganize things for them.

And the journey went on, there was no time to stand on ceremony, and throw the ball or feast that would normally have accompanied such a victory, there were still demons to catch up with, and they had apparently ran off due west no more than half a day ago.
“We are taking too long breaks,” Marcus said to Izzy, who was riding next to him. “We have been chasing them for days, and have barely gotten closer to them.”
Izzy nodded, “Who knows, maybe they don’t need to sleep?” She offered.
“I asked Naea, she wasn’t sure either, but they cant just keep going without rest, right? Everything needs to sleep.”
“We will get them, husband,” she whispered, “don’t worry, I believe in you.”
Marcus smiled, he wasn’t sure she was right, but it did make him feel better.

“I have to say, I’m a little hurt you didn’t make me the captain of you kings guard.” Arthur said. They were alone, it was night, they had continued riding for much longer than they usually did, and after the usual chiefs meeting, they had stayed behind to discuss things. “Don’t get me wrong, I think that Bob is a great guy, but I have practically been your kings guard since day one.”
Marcus smiled at his little brother, and grabbed his shoulder, “Brother, do not feel slighted, I know you would make the best guards captain in the world, but I would not see you spending your time as my body guard, I have much greater plans for you.”
Arthur seemed taken aback by that, but also encouraged, and curious.
“Plans?” he asked, looking confused, “What kind of plans?”
“Well, when I become king properly, I will no longer have time for the mundane everyday rule of Cloud Central, like I once did, so I will need a replacement, a new chief, who will lead our people with honor and integrity.”