"Aegis."
A name escaped his mouth; it felt alien yet familiar. But the name was the least of his concerns right now.
His bright orange eyes widened as he realised two red eyes pierced him. Neg looked at him with an eyebrow up, her red eyes studied his face.
Uhhh?
Her voice cut the silence as she spoke,
"What?"
The burning red eyes locked with his gaze as she continued.
"Is it another lady?"
Quietness returned as he couldn't answer her, for as he knew as much as she did. But he had to answer her.
For a moment, he kept exploring his mind for an answer before he spoke,
"There was a new gladiator, a young boy."
Her old doubt was replaced by a new one now, and she spoke it out.
"Why did you speak his name now?"
The sharp features on her face tightened as he let the silence stretch before answering.
"Uhh. He wanted to join us…"
He studied her face, hoping she would bite into his excuse. His sculpted arm on her hand twitched as she did not answer for a while. Finally, the glow in her horns died down.
"We will see if we stay alive." She spoke as the warmth between them restored as she buried her head into his chest. Serenity returned as she added nothing else, and finally, she slept.
Aegis…What does it mean?
For the next few hours, he stared into the darkness as he pondered his thoughts before a voice cut him off.
"Time to leave."
It was his leader's.
The mattress shifted as Neg woke and sat up. Her eyes lingered on their leader for a moment before she turned to wake him up.
But Deron's eyes were open. She stood up after noticing her mate awake and reached out to pull him. With a heavy groan, he grabbed her hand and pulled himself up.
Their leather bags lay beside the mattress, packed with food and tools to survive. After all, the dead city was huge; it could take days, months, even years to get out if luck was on their side. But instead of fear, he felt excited. Something alien to him.
Without any delay, both of them picked their bags up and hung them on their shoulder. And walked toward the door. Footsteps echoed as their band also joined them.
An aged wooden hatch hung above their heads on the stone ceiling; it was old. Ryne gestured for one of the bandits to bring something. He left for a moment and emerged from Ryne's room carrying a ladder and placed it beneath the hatch.
The ladder groaned beneath their weights as the fiends before Deron left, one by one. He was the last one to climb as he got closer to the hatch. He noticed ruins of an old structure.
It was massive, with the tainted glasses covering the stretched windows. The aged stone pillars in between the hall stood still. Finally, Deron got out. He remembered this place; it was a museum from the outer plane. But something felt odd, as images of the same museum flashed in his mind.
It was withered, the stone pillars almost on the verge of collapsing. Also, it was not empty; a crowd of cambions sat on the floor facing a wooden stage.
Deron couldn't differentiate between the flashes and reality for a moment. He rubbed his eyes hard enough to blur his vision. After his vision returned, he found the museum hall was empty.
He knew the museum was close to the wall. As such, no soul will be courageous enough to come here. The reason why they made this architecture their base.
Soon, all of them left the museum.
A colossal black wall greeted their sight as they stepped out. It was as black as the void. The obsidian used to build this wall was highly volatile; as such, Deron knew they had to be careful.
Tap, Tap, Tap
As fiends, their eyes didn't need light to see in the darkness, so they did not bring any torches with them.
Leather boots of Deron made sound as they hit the cold stone. With each step, they got closer to the wall and coldness, along with fog, surrounded them. Ryne stood in front of the group, leading them toward it.
The leather armour had provided warmth from the cold, but he knew the city beyond the wall would be even colder. The fog around them was a sterile derivative of the fog haunting the city.
As they walked through the fog, they finally reached the wall. It's black surface before them.
Without any delay, each one of them opened their bags and retrieved a set of large metal nails, a pair of pick axes, and a thick rope. Their original plan was to fly to the top, but some of them lacked wings. Neg was one of them. Instead, she had hooves.
So they changed their plan; the wingless ones will be carried by the winged ones. The rope will be tied around them to prevent a fall. When the winged ones are tired, they can use the pick axes and nails to rest.
Deron gave the pickaxe and nails to Neg and took the rope from her. He tied it around Neg's waist and his torso. The knot he tied was strong; it was used to tie leashes for beasts in the Arena.
He exhaled and prepared to unleash his wings, the bone on his shoulder blade cracked as the muscles beneath his armour shifted. So a pair of wings with a large span emerged out of the two holes torn in the armour.
"Ugh," an unexpected groan escaped him, as he was used to this. So why did it feel painful?
Bandits beside him were also prepared to fly. They waited for the clouds above to clear off. Once they did, Ryne gestured. The dust beneath them spread everywhere. Fog around them now scrambled under their heavy wings. With each flap, a clap spread across the area.
The dust below them settled as they soared into the cobalt blue sky; the crescents above were reflected in the wall. It has been a while since they started their flight. A few of them started to slow down, so Ryne decided to take a short rest.
With that, Deron exhaled and asked his mate on his back to pass the pickaxe.
"There," Neg replied as she handed him the pickaxe and held a nail in her other hand.
He approached a concave spot in the wall and struck the pick. A small crack appeared around it, but something strange happened.
Crackle, Crackle
The hole started to close itself. Deron was afraid that it was strong enough to cut the pick. But it did not. With an exhale, he took the nail from Neg and pierced it deep with a loud crackle.
Crackle
He tied their rope around the nail, and they hung from the nail. The knot he used was tight but also less straining, as it was also used to calm the beasts.
Both of them rested their feet on the wall and watched the cobalt sky. But while catching his breath, another image flashed in his mind.
This time, it was the city beneath them; the slums directly beneath them were dense and filthy, and the beautiful black buildings with sparkles of gold toward the horizon had a giant statue between them. It looked like a demon made of rusted iron.
Rusted iron?
Deron started pondering his thoughts again. Why would a pinnacle among fiends have a statue made of rusted iron? Who would dare to insult such magnificent warriors? Questions gnawed at his mind as the statue faded from his vision.
Finally, the realisation struck him. His mate shook his hand for a while now; he was lost again. If this kept going on, they might die even before reaching the vault.
Her sharp features and red eyes looked at him, her eyebrows tightened with worry before she spoke.
"Are you okay?"
Deron stared at her for a moment and slowly nodded.
But she didn't give up; she asked him again. "Deron, for the last few hours, you are not yourself. What is wrong?"
He wondered whether to tell her or not, because he couldn't show his weakness in front of other fiends. They will know he was sensitised, but Neg was not just a random bandit.
He kept going back and forth within his mind before speaking,
"Not now, I'll explain it after we enter the city."
But before she could reply,
Something scraped the obsidian surface.
Scratch, Scratch
Deron looked up at his pickaxe. Thin cracks appeared on its hook; the wall was healing itself rapidly. Before it could completely snap his pick, he pulled it out. However, the Scratches grew loud. The heat replaced the cold. As he looked up in the sky, he spotted two bright red eyes.
Scratch
With each scratch, the eyes grew closer. Until its shape was finally clear.
The obsidian mantises…