Marcus and Dark
***
Markus was sitting at the table, reading a report he received just now. After immersing into it for a few minutes, he finally raised his head and said, seemingly into an empty room:
"There is something wrong with the signal that we received a few days ago."
But as soon as he said that, one of the darker corners in the room coalesced into a figure of a man. Dark.
"What is it?" He coldly asked.
"Exactly, what we feared. Two teams dead. Their life signatures are out. As for the third team... They were unable to find anything and had to escape. Chinese Monks sent in people to detain the team, so we had to extract them."
"He is there. I am sure of it."
"Even if he is, we can't do shit, Dark and you know it. We have neither people nor resources to barge into their country."
"Weren't their magical forces in disarray, indulging in infighting."
"They were, but so what? It's still one country. If somebody attacks them, they'll respond like a firm community. After two World Wars and occupation, they've become quite aggressive towards outsiders. So, uniting won't be a problem. Plus, it was never our intention to become an enemy of a magical government."
After thinking a little, Dark just snorted and said:
"Doesn't matter. If they are hiding him, then we will crush them. Right now, we have both power and influence to do that."
*Sigh*
A tired sigh escaped Markus. After which he slowly said:
"That's exactly, what we can't do, Dark. Can't you see? This course of action will lead us to war, we don't want. We should first stabilize our forces."
"No. It's you who doesn't see the situation clearly. Listen, Markus, the progeny is getting stronger every day. Speaking in this world terms, we need to 'Nip it in the bud'. This Universe is perfect in the sense that it has no real power growth. However, the opposite is also true. Because there is no growth, there are also no limits set on the power levels of the user. So, by the time we have influence, we might have not enough power to crush him."
"But..."
"No 'but's here Markus. It's simple math. This organization and all of the people in it are just a resource, to achieve a goal. And the goal is to kill the progeny. If need be, sink China in blood for all I care, but Athena needs to die."
Markus, can't help but grind his teeth in silent anger. For the last 2 years, he's been working non-stop on the growth of this organization. And although he did it for the sole reason of killing the progeny, he can't help but get close to people, working in it.
And although he knew that Dark was right, he still was furious about how uncaring Gods were about other living beings.
Dark noticed Markus's reaction but decided to ignore it. After all, mortals have this bad tendency to bind to their tools, especially if tools are alive.
After some time, Markus calmed down and asked:
"I understand. Then what's your plan? We still have no clue about his location."
"We don't? Didn't you say we have gained some signatures before."
"We did and as I just told you, it was an absolute failure. We can say that he is in one of the places, where teams died, but you must remember the last time, we tried to track him down, right? We achieved the opposite, by informing him of our presence. I'm afraid now, we achieved similar results, so he probably escaped those locations. Or at least on his way to escape them."
"Hm..."
"Moreover, it seems too... random. That guy wouldn't have slipped like this, leaving such an obvious trace leading to him, after close to 2 years of hiding. He isn't that dumb."
"Maybe, it's the opposite here. There were traces of magic firing across the whole country if I remember correctly. Maybe he was trying to do something, but couldn't do it unnoticed. So, he decided to increase the area affected."
Markus took on a thoughtful expression
"That... could be true," but after a minute of silence, he continued, "However, this doesn't cancel the problem we had in the first place. We still don't know his exact location. And unless you propose to scour the whole China for him, please think over another solution."
"Biggest magical signatures. You said that we lost 2 teams on them, right? I will personally go and check them out. There might be some hints left there..."
Hearing Dark's idea, Markus could only frown.
"I have a very bad feeling about this idea, Dark. Please reconsider. It can be a trap."
"No matter what, he can't kill me. No matter what, I remain a God."
"With a damaged source, that is."
"Even then, I remain a god. Moreover, my domain is darkness and shadows. I can escape anytime, so don't worry."
"That exactly what worries me. It was you who told me to be always wary of Athena. 'She's always one step ahead' - were your words. What if she expected this move? What if there is a trap, designed specifically for you?"
Dark couldn't retort. He knew that the possibility of this being a trap was high, but what other options they had?
He already made a mistake, once. He can't... No! He won't repeat it.
"What other options we have? Last time, we tried to capture him quietly, he escaped our radars for nearly 2 years. And in these 2 years, I bet he wasn't fooling around. He is growing stronger with every second. We've already alerted him of our presence with those teams, we sent. This action can force him to escape once more. And if he succeeds this time, I doubt we will be able to track him back for a second time."
"That was true in the past, but now we have control over the satellites. We can literally, see every place on Earth, live!"
"So? This system is active for a whole month already, but all we got was some magical emission in China. And that's it."
"Well, true, but that's because the quality of those satellites is crap. However, we are improving every day. And soon..."
"Soon, he might be out of our radars.", Dark said tiredly and seeing how Markus was ready to continue the argument, he continued, "Anyway, I think it's pointless to proceed with this conversation. I am going to check him out. So, just trust me, this time."
*Sigh*
"Do whatever you want...", after which Markus leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He started massaging his neck to ease the tension from sitting stiffly for so long.
"Get some rest. I will be back soon."
Dark said, before dissolving in the darkness.