Cleansing the land

Temma conquered the Benkiran city and returned to Mahaila. The city didn't seem to have changed at all. The tall wall protected the city from the sandstorms. Small stone buildings, rounded structures to prevent the accumulation of sand at the edges and corners. Temma walked into the city with his face and scaly skin exposed to the sun. The guards greeted him with a deep bow.

"I could get used to this," he thought as he walked towards the Tahal's house.

'How was it?' asked Moger when he saw Temma come in by the door and take off his shoes.

'The Tahal is dead; I had no choice,' replied Temma.

'Well, it doesn't matter; in any case, the control of the city rests with the elders,' said Xavier.

'Can we really leave things like this? Are you not afraid they will revolt against us?' asked Uruk.

'An uprising is possible. But for the time being, things are good for us; the kingdom of the South works like this: the Tahals have military power, and the elders have control of the economy and the order of the city. If the elders fail to perform their duty, the Tahal punishes them. We have control of four of the five cities; only Datela remains,' commented Xavier looking at Moger.

'The city is on the northern side, near the volcanoes. It's the perfect place for our nest. The eggs may be able to grow there, but the Tahal won't give up easily.'

'I have spoken to Jalik; Datela will not fall without a war. The Tahal is the greatest warrior of the south and also the most stubborn of them all; he has not been defeated in more than ten years. His soldiers are faithful to death and hate ancient traditions and beliefs in ancient gods. I don't think we can use legends as a form of control over them,' Xavier explained.

'By the way, how did you know that we could settle so easily in the southern kingdom?' Uruk asked, and the others looked at Xavier with the same curiosity.

'I didn't know; during my years as a mercenary, I teamed up with some mercenaries who left the south. I heard the stories. I knew about their beliefs, but I never thought things would come to this extreme. These people have been left behind; they didn't grow at all in two hundred years.'

'Better, this is good for us,' said Moger as the others looked at him. 'We destroy Datela city; it will serve as a lesson to the others and clean the surroundings at the same time, we cannot allow humans around the nest' the others agreed.

'So be it,' replied Xavier after a few minutes of thought. 'Who will do it?'

'I will do it,' said Moger.

'I will stay here to protect Xavier and the eggs,' replied Uruk.

'Well, I will accompany Moger then,' offered Temma.

About two weeks later, Moger and Temma arrived at Datela and presented themselves in the city without covering their faces or using illusions. Their bright blue and gray scally skins, their reptile-like faces, and their yellow eyes made the guards tremble. They had heard rumors that the Tahals of the other cities had been defeated by a group of reptilian gods. These ridiculous stories caused laughter, but now that they saw them in person, the stories were not funny anymore. Nevertheless, the guards obeyed the orders of the Tahal and hit the gong, which worked as an alarm. The metal disc sound spread throughout the city.

'This is a good start,' smiled Moger, launching an attack on the guards.

By the time the rest of the city guards arrived at the door, they found their companions dead, and parts of their bodies and organs were scattered on the ground.

'Surrender in the name of the Tahal,' they shouted.

Temma and Moger threw themselves against them; the guards weapons were useless, even if they managed to land a hit. The hard skin of the two human-shaped monsters limited the damage to a minimum. One after another, the guards saw their comrades die; the wild smiles and the bloodthirsty gazes of their attackers made them tremble. One of them lost his composure and ran away, like an infection. Fear spread among the guards, and they fled.

'Meh,' Temma complained.

'What were you expecting? Can you imagine how you would feel if you had to fight against Baham?' said Moger, shrinking his shoulders.

The two continued to advance through the city. All the inhabitants were locked up in their houses, looking out the windows and doors at the two monsters walking down the main street.

'This is far enough, I suppose,' said Moger, stopping in the middle of the street. 'I'll take care of the right.'

'Well, let's do this,' said Temma, turning to the left.

They both lifted their hands to their faces, and a flame came out of their mouths, engulfing all the houses and buildings nearby. The flames were so intense that the stone began to melt as the residents roasted inside their homes. Terrified, those whose houses had not yet been attacked went out into the streets.

'Mercy, mercy, serpent god, have mercy!' cried a woman with her child in her arms. Kneeling in front of Moger.

Moger looked at her with a glimpse of grief on his face. He lifted his hand to his face and threw a flame that burned the woman and the child to ashes. The rest of the inhabitants lost all hope as the fire approached them. A group of guards and the Tahal ran toward the invaders in the middle of the burning city.

'By the gods,' said the Tahal.

Temma looked at him from top to bottom. It was a man about forty years old, of brown skin, with a shaved head, who had several scars on his face, a twisted nose, and a patch on the left eye. He wore loose trousers as was custom in the desert, two curved swords in the waist, and an armor chest piece of bronze color with the emblem of a snake carved on the front.

'Have you no honor?' asked the Tahal. ′ helpless women and children... What kind of warrior would do something like this?′

'Warriors?' asked Temma. 'We are not warriors.' Temma moved as fast as the wind towards the Tahal.

The Tahal was a warrior, forged in a thousand battles; his experience, agility, and strength were unparalleled throughout the south; that was the reason he remained the Tahal of Datela even at his age. The Tahal unsheated his swords, and his right arm descended at great speed with the intention of using his enemy charge as a chance to cut him in half. However, Temma was faster—a lot faster. The right arm of Tahal stopped moving, caught by Temma's left hand; his left arm had also been captured. The Tahal tried with all his strength to get rid of his captor without success.

'We are conquerors,' said Temma, looking at the Tahal in the face.

With a jump, Temma placed his feet on the Tahal's chest, pulled from his arms, and ripped them off. The ribs and the sternum of the Tahal broke. The dismembered body of the Tahal was pushed two meters backward, falling over his own men, while the arteries of the shoulder stump covered the guards in blood. Temma had fallen to the floor on his back; with a jump, he got up and began to chew on the Tahal's arms. Everything had happened in seconds.

'We surrendered. We will obey the serpent gods; we attacked because the Tahal commanded us to,' said one of the guards, throwing his spear to the ground at Temma's feets.

Temma continued to tear bites from the Tahal arms as the soldiers threw their weapons to the ground in front of him. Once everyone had surrendered, Temma looked at them with a smile; his face, his thin lips, and his sharp, filthy teeth had remnants of blood, giving him an even more horrifying appearance.

'Very well.'

He dropped one of the arms of the Tahal and took his right hand to his face; the flames devoured the guards, turning them to dust. Temma and Moger continued to breathe fire until the entire city was reduced to a sea of flames and molten rock. They cleaned the area by hunting the few survivors of the massacre. In just one day, they had reduced the city to a cemetery. They walked out to the back end of the city; a few kilometers away, they could see the volcanoes and rocky mountains that made the border with the kingdom of Veldat.

'This will be our nest,' said Moger, pointing to the most imposing of the volcanic mountains.

Temma nodded. 'I will return to Mahaila; Uruk will bring the eggs soon,' he said, turning around.

Moger continued walking towards the volcanoes.

Temma returned to Mahaila and entered Tahal's office. Xavier was having a conversation with Jalik, the former Tahal of the city.

'I understand, my Tahal,' replied Jalik with a deep bow. 'But people... they don't agree; they complain about the reforms. They don't like the idea of building stone channels from the oases to the fields; they think that's an offense to the goddess of the oasis. Your law banning the behadings of the magicians is not well received either; it is our culture; magic is an aberration of nature; mages are the enemies of the gods. The kingdoms of the north use magic that attracts the nuclei of miasma and other horrors, which is a punishment of the gods. There are no magicians here; no one uses magic. The magicians are sacrificed and purified as soon as they are discovered. If we allow the magicians to live, we will be consumed by the darkness they call myasma.

Uruk was annoyed. 'If they don't do what we tell them, I will be the one to consume them,' said Uruk with that smile that showed his sharp, pointy teeth.

'For heaven's sake,' complained Xavier, rubbing his eyes. 'Gather everyone in the city.'

'Everyone?' asked Jalik, worried. The new masters were brutal and cruel.

'Yes, everybody. the whole city. Don't worry, nothing bad will happen,' Xavier reassured him. 'Once you have them all gathered, take them to the oasis.'

'It will be done, my Tahal,' said Jalik, dowing down as he retreated.

Xavier and Uruk looked at Temma.

'Is it done?' they asked.

Temma nodded. 'Moger is using his claws to dig a cave inside the largest of the volcanoes, where we will incubate the eggs.'

'Survivors?' asked Xavier.

'There should be none,' replied Temma.

'Well, Uruk will carry the eggs to the volcano,' said Xavier. 'Temma, you will come with me.'

'What are we doing?' asked Temma.

'Killing a goddess, the Southerners understand only two things: strength and violence,' replied Xavier, making Temma confused.

As they walked towards the oasis, Xavier explained his plan.

'Do you believe in anything?' asked Temma, laughing.

'I don't. With all the shit that I have seen and lived, if the gods exist, they either don't care what happens or they find it funny. In both cases, we're fucked,' Xavier replied, without ceasing to walk.

Upon reaching the oasis, all the inhabitants of the city were gathering on its shore. When they saw Xavier and Temma coming, they showed reverence. Xavier signaled Temma with his head. Temma began to walk towards the oasis, entering its waters. According to what they had learned, this was forbidden. The inhabitants of the city looked at Temma's actions horrified, but did nothing. Temma sank into the water. Seconds later, a flame burst from the water and ascended to the sky, covering everything with the red and yellow colors of the flames. A few seconds later, the flames stopped, and the blue sky returned. Temma emerged from the water.

'The goddess of the oasis is dead!' cried Xavier.

Temma got out of the water. 'Don't be afraid!' he said. 'You no longer have to fear the other gods; neither do you have to fear magic nor miasma. You do not have to sacrifice your children for being magicians; you don't have to follow the rules of invisible tyrants anymore. From now on, you are free.

'If any god dares to show his face around here,' Xavier pointed to the oasis. 'We'll take care of it.'

There was silence for a few seconds. People were confused. "Shit, it won't work; what am I going to do with these people?" Xavier thought.

Like someone who smells of a crisis. 'We are free!' cried Jalik. 'We are free!'

Nobody knew what to do; on the one hand, they wanted to riot against Xavier and the others, but on the other, Xavier and his boys were invincible. Nobody wanted to challenge the supposed gods. Jalik's scream began to infect the people. A few minutes later, everyone celebrated their supposed liberation from their nonexistent gods. Jalik and Xavier breathed out, relieved.