Facing the Emperor's private army

Based on the number of men I now saw before me, only three quarters of this division of the Emperors' private army was close covering the distance between us. No doubt the rest of this phalanx was with the Emperor's private guard, protecting his movement to a secondary (safer) location.

"Surrender, or retreat, and your lives are your own; stay and fight, and your lives are mine!" I shouted to them, giving them fair warning.

Their general ordered them to attack, and the men obeyed.

I sauntered, leisurely towards them and sent a volley of demonic balls of fire into their midst. The result was cries of pain, men running pointlessly as they flailed and burned, and the smell of burning flesh.

To ensure the very last of the prisoners got away safely, I created a line of flame a yard away from me, that encircled the entire army. With a gesture from me, the flame circle leapt up to become a wall eight feet high. I then encouraged the growth of the flames, using the bodies as timber.

With a few powerful flaps of my wings, I took to the air, and stopped once I had a good bird's eye view of the flaming area. The circle continued to move inward until the whole circumference was engulfed in flame. I watched for any desperate men who tried to run outside of it and roll on the bare earth. Those men, I swooped down on and killed with my sword.

When the screams stopped and all was still, I made sure the rest of the horse stalls were empty.

'They can't say I didn't warn them.' I thought grimly.

To prevent any more interference as well as cripple the actions of the Emperor and the Roman Empire, I fly over the royal fortress and light some more strategic fires.

In the end, I stand in front of the royal fortress, watching the fire roar as it engulfs the buildings inside the fortress walls. The grin spreads across my face as a burst of flames shoots the roof off a tower.

I mentally check off my list of 'evil' deeds for the evening: release 35 men from the long arm of the law, technically steal a fortune's worth of valuable animals, literally aid the 35 men to steal a fortune of precious stones, precious metals and currency, arrange the theft of three Holy artifacts, release a djinn from the hands of the Empire, burn almost an entire phalanx of men, set the Royal fortress of the Emperor on fire and cause chaos in general.

'Not bad for one night's work.' I thought, 'Can't say that Lucifer wouldn't approve.'

Since the fire was now burning to the point that the humans had no hope of putting out the flames and saving the structures, I turned my back and flew in the direction of the hills, the animals and Cadmus Brutus.

I spotted Cadmus Brutus halfway up the hill. He rode holding the reins of his horse in one hand, and the reins of four other horses in the other. I noted he was a born horseman, as he rode without a saddle, only a blanket was between him and the horse. Even from so high above, I could tell he chose all the horses carefully; they were of good breeding and were high-spirited animals, built for speed.

I waited until he had crested the hill and halted the horses before I made my presence known. I carefully folded my wings a few seconds before my feet touched the earth. I then waited patiently for the horses to calm. I noted how quickly Cadmus Brutus calmed the snorting, stamping and head-tossing animals.

"You were imprisoned for the crime of horse thievery?" I asked in a casual, conversational manner, "Were you not?"

"Yes." Cadmus Brutus chuckled. "I don't have to ask how you guessed." He added.

I nodded. "This is the plan," I began, "You and I are going to ride to West and catch up with Hin. The three of us will ride to the westernmost coast of Hispania, and when we are done with business there, we ride East to Babylonia."

Cadmus Brutus's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "M..My Lord," He stuttered, "That is an epic journey of vast proportions!" He glanced at the horses. "I don't think I took enough horses…"

I laughed heartily, and he looked at me again. "Cadmus Brutus," I chuckled, "Ye of little faith in the power of demons!" I bent, picked up a stone and changed it into a nugget of gold, which I placed in his palm. "I will not fail to provide. The journey will not be brutal, but it will be long."

He smiled at me.

"As I said earlier, your absolute loyalty to me will get you far, indeed. And," I added, "you can keep that." I gestured to the gold nugget in his palm.

"Thank you, my Lord." Cadmus Brutus said earnestly.

"No more idol talk," I told him, "We must catch up with Hin."

As we traveled, we kept off the main road and took instead the less traveled, less observed routes, as I was sure Hin had done. Cadmus Brutus stayed on the same horse as earlier and I flew swiftly and silently above. The vantage point allowed me to see any pursuers from a ways away, though there were none yet, as well as any threats ahead and a better chance to see anything that may indicate Hin had passed or was nearby.

It was almost the third watch of the night (midnight), when we stopped so that Cadmus Brutus could change to another horse. After that we were off again, and just after the fourth watch of the night (3am), I saw up in the distance Hin.

By the time we were near enough Hin for him to hear the thunder of our horses hooves, he jumped back on his horse and kicked it to a full gallop. Realizing he did not know it was us, I pumped my wings as hard as I could to close the distance and overtake him. I flew past him and hovered above the road, ten meters in front of him. Folding my wings and dropping to the road, I waved and called to him.

Hin slowed to a trot and slowed and calmed his horse by doing wide circles around me, until the horse was in a relaxed walk. He halted the horse beside me.

"Well, Hello there, handsome." I greeted him.

"Was all that noise from you?" Hin asked me (referring to the horses' hooves earlier).

"Wow," I said sarcastically, "What a warm welcome!"

He ignored my comment.

"Yes." I added. I noticed that Cadmus Brutus had almost caught up to us. "Cadmus Brutus rides with me; he has four horses with him besides his own mount."

"That was a smart decision of you; we could use the extra horses." Hin said simply.

"I'm glad that Cadmus Brutus turned out to be such an excellent horseman." I said, trying to make Hin jealous.

"Ha!" Hin snorted indignantly. He knew exactly what I was doing. He swung himself out of the saddle and landed gracefully on the ground. He took a step towards me so that he stood directly in front of me. He placed a hand on my chest, directly over where a heart would be.

"You say a demon doesn't have a heart." He said, "And yet, there exists something within this ribcage, (he tapped with his pointer finger of the hand on my chest) that cares for me, yearns for me and lusts after me. Six hundred years, and you have yet to replace me, or treat any other the way you do me. So, I doubt you would start such nonsense now."