August Intruder- Chapter 251- There's Nothing Wrong With Conquest (Patreon)

When Okoro turned the corner, he ran into Mrs. Talwort. She was just standing there, an odd look on her face. He wondered if his inability to answer her question regarding what the new familiar of Melmarc Lockwood was still bothered her. He had told her that even if he could answer her that she would not understand. It was a phenomenon he had experienced not long after meeting the creature for the first time. It was not that he could not talk about them, it was that when he talked about them, even those who had seen it with him could not understand him.

So, when he had told her, and she did not understand a word he’d said, she’d grown furious. Not at him, but at the very idea of not understanding.

The odd look on her face was either about that or about the Lockwood brothers. He really hoped it was the former and not the latter. He could only imagine what she would do if she thought the Lockwood brothers knew what was inside this building—the reason this building existed.

Her head snapped in his direction. Her eyes behind rimmed glasses picking him out immediately. “Mr. Okoro.”

She called his name as if she was tired, exhausted. And it wasn’t the physical kind of exhaustion, it was the mental kind. The kind people fell into after continuous activities with next to zero successes or accomplishments of any kind.

Okoro rushed over to her. With the tag he was wearing on his wristwatch, he was immune to the illusions of the building. Up till today, Mrs. Talwort still hadn’t told him if the illusion was a product of the building or the creature housed in the building. Caged, to be more precise.

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered, coming to a stop in front of her. “Is there a problem?”

“I don’t know.” She sighed, looked around as if searching for something before taking her glasses and wiping the lens with the hem of her blouse. “It’s just… I finished talking to our guest.”

Okoro straightened a little at that. “And what did he say?”

“I’m guessing it’s the same thing you said,” she answered, putting her glasses back on. “A lot of things that I didn’t understand.”

“My apologies, ma’am.”

Mrs. Talwort snorted. “Oh, please. It’s not your fault that one of my students have gotten their hands on a creature that nobody can talk about.” She paused, suddenly thoughtful. “I guess that leaves me with one last option of what to do.”

Okoro hesitated for a moment. His mind ran through her options and he couldn’t find anything normal, legal, or humane that would get her any answers. Then again, even the was that were abnormal, illegal or inhumane didn’t seem like they would get her any answers.

“What’s that, ma’am?” he asked.

She turned and gave him a smile. “I think it’s finally time to talk to our tier one students. I’m hoping the master of this familiar will be immune to whatever restrictions that seems to have gotten all you tongues.”

Okoro swallowed visibly. For all Mrs. Talwort’s decorum and sophistication, she was not necessarily a very moral human being. He had never seen her stoop to such a level before, but he believed that the torture of a child on the path to achieving her goal was not beneath her, neither was it beyond her. It was quite spot on for her.

“Would that be advisable, ma’am?” he asked.

She shrugged. “At this point anything is beginning to seem advisable.”

Okoro sighed. It seemed Melmarc Lockwood was due for a meeting with one of the most powerful people in Fallen High.

“Well, then I would say—”

Okoro was not able to finish his sentence before a massive boom shook the building, sending tremors through the walls and ground and shaking the air around them.

Mrs. Talwort’s eyes grew wide in horror. “Please tell me that’s not what I think it is.”

Okoro was more worried about the children currently hiding in the observation room. How would the school explain what happened to them if anything happened to them.

Mrs. Talwort slipped her hand into her pocket and brought out her phone while Okoro tried to figure out if the explosion could have anything to do with the Lockwood brothers. He found it unlikely as Mrs. Talwort scrolled through her phone. The entire room and building were mana locked. There was nothing that could be done without the use of a mana activation. Unless they were authorized, they wouldn’t be able to access and use anything.

Except the front door, he thought. How did they even get passed the guards? He paused. How did they navigate their way through the building.

He was already turning. His feet were already moving. The first time he’d entered the building, Mrs. Talwort had allowed him to figure himself out, and all he’d gotten were hallways that led to hallways. He hadn’t even figured out that he was in some kind of illusion until she’d come to find him and informed him.

So how did they get in?

Horror filled him as his steps hurried. He heard his name in Mrs. Talwort’s voice from behind him but couldn’t bring himself to stop moving. If they had found their way into the building and around the building in search of their familiar, then what were the chances that they would also be able to figure out how to get out of the locked room.

Fuck.

Okoro paused. He had thought the word, but he also felt like he had heard it. He turned very slowly, hoping that it was all in his head. When he completed his turn, he knew that it wasn’t just in his head.

Mrs. Talwort was pale, staring at her phone with her jaw hanging loose. Slowly, her eyes moved up to him.

“What is it?” he asked, dread filling his mind.

“The prisoner,” she said in a shaky voice. “He has escaped.”

Okoro turned back immediately and headed straight for the observation room. Three steps into his hurry and Mrs. Talwort trying to say something, a man popped out of nowhere and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Nope,” the man said, his brown blond hair very unimportant to the moment yet something he could not ignore.

He looked up at the man. “No?” he asked, confused.

The man ignored the question and pointed left. “That way,” he said. “They went that way. You have to find them quickly.”

Okoro understood what he was saying. In all the chaos of the explosion, he did in fact need to find them, and they couldn’t be very far. If he didn’t find them, there would be problems that he could not deal with. Problems that he wasn’t sure that Mrs. Talwort could deal with.

“Thank you,” he said, turning and heading in the right direction.

“And remember, even if you don’t find them,” the man called after him, “it’s not too much of a problem if you don’t find them. These things have a way of sorting themselves out.”

Okoro nodded in agreement but mostly to himself as he turned a corner. However, the last thing he heard was not the man’s assurance. It was something else the man said, and the man was not talking to him.

“Now, you,” the voice said as he moved farther away from it. “Aren’t you an interesting little thing walking around as a [Teacher].”

…

The other end of the room exploded in a ball of darkness. Mist and smoke and whispers of fire licked the world around. Electricity sparked as the wall cracked. The light in the room shook, flickering all over the place.

Melmarc watched the destruction he had wrought and knew that Veebee was excited by it. He did not turn his head to look at the creature, but he knew Veebee was giddy where it was existing.

Standing in place, Melmarc waited. For all he knew, the fight could potentially still be on. For all the horror of [Where Desolation Leads], it was not a skill that could not be survived. He’d survived it after all.

Ark walked over to him, adjusting his shoulder. His face had an expression of pain. “You good?” Ark asked, giving him a look.

Melmarc blinked. “Yes, you’re the one I’m worried about.”

“Oh this?” Ark looked at the shoulder he was rubbing. “That last throw dislocated my shoulder, and I think I cracked a rib. The walls in the place are sturdier than I thought.” He looked at the cloud of darkness. Lightning was beginning to crackle within it like a small storm. “I’m surprised you have something that destructive in your arsenal. Anyway, I’m fine, since I lost Spitfire my healing has gone up very significantly.”

“I think it’s just significantly, Ark,” Melmarc pointed out. “Very significantly just sounds a little off.”

Ark shrugged. “You think it’s over?”

“Can’t be sure.” Melmarc kept his senses aware even though the voices in his head gone to sleep. “The whole thing’s clearing up.”

“And someone would’ve definitely heard us fighting,” Ark added.

Melmarc hadn’t even been thinking about that. But Ark was right, they couldn’t remain here for long, especially now that they’d found Veebee.

Before long, the darkness subsided, dying out into nothingness. It left behind a chaos of broken walls and ruined wires. Sparks and crackles of lightning. The ground was a mess, and Melmarc saw the last whispers of black flames.

Still the result made him smile in satisfaction. Because, there, at the heart of where it had all happened, was Bayad the Spotless, on his knees. He was riddled with burn marks. To be more precise, his wing that fell limp on his side was riddled with black bruises with no white spot. But Melmarc’s focus was only on a single thing.

Bayad’s head was bowed.

“What do you know,” Ark laughed a little. “I guess angels do listen. You’ve just got to beat it into them first.”

<<Abomination,>> Veebee corrected. <<Bayad abomination.>>

“Oh, yes, that,” Ark agreed but didn’t use the word.

Melmarc finally looked at Veebee. “You and I will need to have a long talk when we have left this place. Until then, I need to know how to deal with Bayad.”

Veebee opened its mouth, but it was not what spoke.

“No,” Bayad groaned, and Melmarc turned his head to it. “I will not die here.”

That’s interesting, Melmarc thought. It wasn’t Bayad’s refusal to die that intrigued him, it was the fact that he had no interest in killing Bayad. Even now, asking Veebee what he had asked it, it was not about killing Bayad.

It was about putting the creature in its place.

So, Melmarc walked up to it. Just as it had happened in the beginning, Ark hesitated, looked at him, then followed without stopping him.

When they got to Bayad, Melmarc stood before him. As large as Bayad was, being on its knees did not make it that much lower than him. Still, Melmarc had to look down at it.

Bayad looked up at him and Melmarc could see the burn marks on its face.

“Who said anything about killing you?” he asked Bayad.

There was hate and caution in Bayad’s eyes. “Why will you not allow me a bargain?”

Melmarc finally squatted, so that they looked each other in the eye. “Once upon a time, you had a chance to bargain, and even then, it was not your place.”

“And now?” Bayad asked, hope lacking in its eyes. It flickered to Veebee and back. “Will you not see reason?”

Melmarc leaned in closer, looked Bayad in its eyes undaunted. “There is a saying on this planet. Perhaps you will learn from it. You cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth.”

He placed a hand on Bayad’s head. Its hair was like silk, even after going through the attack that had scorched its wings and burnt its face. He held it gently, fought against the urge to pull it to make a point.

“There will be no bargain,” he said. “There will be no reasoning. I will speak. You will obey. All you can offer me are reasons to be lenient. Do you understand?”

Bayad’s eyes flicked around again. From Melmarc to Veebee to Ark. It was clearly outnumbered. For some reason, that annoyed Melmarc. Did Bayad think that it could escape or survive if it was only him, if he did not have support?

“The pride of humanity will always be its downfall,” Bayad said in resignation and defeat. “You are all the same.”

“Perhaps,” Melmarc agreed. “But I do remember giving you an instruction.” His eyes hardened. “I don’t remember telling you that you can raise your head.”

Bayad understood and they looked at each other, waiting. Bayad would either bow his head back down or Melmarc would make him.

Melmarc’s grip on his hair tightened.

Bow.

Bayad’s eyes turned defiant. “You will not break my spirit. Many have tried. Many have failed. You will not be the first.”

Melmarc cocked a quizzical brow at that. “I don’t give a fuck about your spirit.”

Then he slammed Bayad’s face into the ground, pinning it there.

“I only care that you bow.”

A sigh filled the room, and Melmarc hesitated to look back. When he did, he found Uncle Dorthna at the entrance with a long cup in his hand and a raised brow on his face.

“The pride of humanity will be its downfall?” he scoffed in amusement. “Like angels and djinns are any different.” Then his eyes moved to Melmarc. “Really, Mel? You’re choosing conquest over fealty?”

Melmarc opened his mouth but realized that he had no explanation to give. He wasn’t choosing conquest over fealty. He just wanted this specific creature to bow for the sin of trespassing.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Uncle Dorthna said, walking into the room without a care in the world. “There’s nothing wrong with conquest. I’m just making sure you are aware. Unless…” his eyes moved over to Veebee. “Maybe I’m wrong and this is a special situation.”

He looked at Ark, and Ark shrugged.

“You see what just happened here?” Uncle Dorthna told him. “This is your path. Mel has options, but you won’t. When you begin conquering your seven hells, remember this moment here. If they do not bow, you make them bow. And when they bow.” He came to a stop in front of Ark. “You put your foot on their neck so that they never raise their heads back up. That’s how you deal with demons.”

Ark nodded.

“Good.” Uncle Dorthna looked at Veebee. “As for you, I’m putting you in time out.” He snapped his finger and Veebee disappeared. “Some time to think will be good for you.”

Melmarc was in awe at what had just happened. The power Uncle Dorthna wielded continued to surprise him even when he wasn’t surprised.

“As for you three,” Uncle Dorthna continued, then turned and headed for the exit. “Come with me. Feel free to drag him along, Mel. He hasn’t fully appreciated his sin of trespassing on a world that does not belong to him. The rougher the better.”

Melmarc removed his hand from Bayad’s head and grabbed him by the scorched wing where it protruded from his back. Then he pulled him as he followed Uncle Dorthna. Bayad groaned, but he did not struggle. It seemed like it also understood that before Uncle Dorthna, struggling was futile.

“Where are we going?” Ark asked.

Dorthna’s hand paused on the doorknob, and he looked back at him. “To talk about the other visitor in this building.”