Gods of War (War of the Gods Series) (25 page)

“Fine, I will tell you,” Terry said in between a cough. “It has something to do with ‘up doc’.”

“Up doc? What’s up doc?” Ares said, looking to Aphrodite. Aphrodite just as confused as Ares was, motioned she didn’t know. Turning back to Terry with anger, he asked, “What’s up doc?”

“Nothing much, what’s up with you?” Terry chuckled. He started to laugh until he couldn’t take the pain anymore.

“You want to joke around? That is fine. We can play many games here.” Ares raised his hand to smack Terry but was stopped by Aphrodite.

“You have been doing it your way for the past seven days,” she said. “Let me give it a try. Perhaps I can break him my way.”

“Fine, you can have him. You have two days. Don’t argue. You have two days because that is when we will meet with Zeus to accept his surrender,” Ares ordered. “Artemis, you will go to him today and tell him that I have his son. If he wants him back, we are to meet where it all started.”

Ares waited for them to acknowledge his orders and stomped out of the room. The time for strategy and diplomacy was over. He was going to finish it his way.

“Father, everyone except Hermes, Aphrodite, and Tereus are here,” Hebe said. Noticing the look of concern on Zeus’ face she then added, “What’s wrong? You look like you have to bed a Gorgon.”

“It’s bad, Hebe. It’s really bad.” Zeus stood up from his chair. “I went to see the Graeae and what they told me was bad. Since I didn’t have their eye to make sure they were telling the truth, so I didn’t believe them.” Zeus walked to the edge of his chambers and stared into the cosmos. “But then I had a visitor today. She confirmed everything the Graeae said. Come on. Let’s go and tell them the bad news.”

Zeus took his daughter’s hand and they both walked into the ante chamber. The room had turned dark to reflect the Zeus’ mood. The people in the room had noticed the change of lighting. They looked up at Zeus and looked at him with concern on their faces. Zeus sat down on his thrown while Hebe took one of the empty seats.

“As you can see, we have some empty seats.” Zeus motioned to the chairs. “We are missing Hermes, Aphrodite, and Tereus. Nicholaus, can you please tell everyone what happened to Hermes?”

“Like I said before, Hermes took me to the underworld.” Nicolai said staring Zeus down. “When we got there, we were attacked by three gods. I don’t know who they were. Hermes said they were the judges of the underworld, or something like that. While he drew them off, I took the ferry, killed Charon, and entered Hades’ palace. It took forever to find the palace though, and even longer to find the shard. You could have given me a map or something to get there.”

His story fit the reports Zeus had gotten. Not many humans knew about the three judges, but Zeus did feel Charon die, as well as Apollo. It was like his soul was torn from his body.

“Why did Hermes enter the underworld? He wasn’t supposed to go in.”

“We were going to go through Poseidon’s entrance to the underworld, but Poseidon wouldn’t let us use his entrance. He didn’t even allow us entrance to his domain. I think his neutrality is over.”

“That means Hades must have talked him into joining,” Zeus said. “Ares now has four of the original gods on his side. Including Aphrodite, he has more power than me now.” Zeus took a deep breath and then looked at Jessica. “I received word earlier today that Tereus has been captured by Ares.”

Jessica gasped. Now worried, the other two demigods sat in their seats with unease. Zeus could tell from their body movement that they were uncomfortable.

“For the past seven days they have been torturing him, trying to break him, to turn him to their side. Amazingly he has been able to resist their efforts, but I am afraid it won’t turn out so well.”

“Why? What is going to happen?” Jessica asked.

“In two days, Ares wants to meet and have me surrender. His messenger said he will bring Tereus with him and some other friends as well. I am supposed to bring whoever I can assemble, or who is willing to come with me.” He looked at Athena before speaking again. “One last thing, Apollo and Charon has died. You humans probably have not felt it, but we gods have. If you have noticed us acting a bit depressed lately, that is why.”

“Did your messenger say how it happened? Who was your messenger?” Athena said, almost in tears.

“The messenger was Artemis. Somehow Ares is controlling her.”

“I wonder how he is doing that,” Hebe said.

“That I don’t know.”

“Okay, so what are we going to do now?” Jessica asked, interrupting everyone. “What are we going to do to get Terry back?”

“We are going to go meet Ares. Everyone is coming, everyone here except Jessica and Hebe.” The two women were about to erupt with protests but he stopped them before they could say anything. “Listen. The reason you are not going with us is because of two things: one, he doesn’t know about you two. He still thinks you are asleep Hebe, and he thinks you are just some demi-god. Two, you will be needed here to protect the humans.”

“Father, if he doesn’t know about Jessica and I; wouldn’t that give us the advantage we need,” Hebe asked.

“I said no. Now you three, who are coming with me, go and prepare yourselves. Jessica, you will be taken back down to earth. Hebe, you will run things up here. Do I make myself clear?”

Everyone agreed that they would follow his demands.

Zeus stood up and added, “For those who are coming on the mission, we will be going to a place that you have never seen before and you will have to prepare yourself for anything that can happen. I am not talking about Ares; I am talking about the plane we will be traveling to. It is unpredictable and dangerous. Athena and I will lose our immortality; we will be as vulnerable as you are.”

Aphrodite had spent the whole day trying to turn Terry and nothing worked. First she tried to sweet talk him, and then she offered him power. When those didn’t work, she offered him the freedom where he could do whatever he wanted, as long as he stood by her side. All Terry did was spit on her and call her a boot ass POG, telling her that when he got free he would kill her just like he did Apollo. That confused her so much she quit for the day. Was that supposed to be an insult? She understood the death threat, but the name he called her was just as confusing.

Giving up, she walked out of the cell slamming the door behind her. She was so vexed that her hands were trembling. She wanted nothing more to do than reach up and wrap her fingers around his neck and squeeze. Nothing she said pierced that thick skull of his.
That human is more stubborn than a group of Cyclopes and dumber than them too
, Aphrodite thought as she walked through the halls
. Can’t he see that I am trying to give him power, power over the universe? Still, the pig spat in my face and gave me nothing.

Aphrodite finally reached her room, and saw Atlanta and Artemis waiting for her when she entered. Aphrodite’s anger grew exponentially seeing them lounging around. It was their fault that she was in this situation with Terry. He was gradually lowering his defenses and soon he would have been hers. Now his distrust and hatred of her was stronger than ever. If they would have let him get away, Aphrodite could have had him under her spell.

“Good, you two are here,” Aphrodite said clenching her fists. “Now I don’t have to search the compound to ring your necks.”

“What are you complaining about?” Atlanta said.

“We got him to the compound alive. That was what you wanted,” Artemis added. “And even that was difficult. That human attracted every beast in a mile radius. The second night he was almost eaten and we would have had to blow our cover if he didn’t cut himself out.”

“Besides, Ares was watching us,” Atlanta continued. “He asked us why the human wasn’t dead after the first day. We had to convince him it would be better to keep him alive and make him suffer.”

“If it wasn’t for us, your human would be dead,” Artemis finished.

“I am having a hard time turning him. Usually I would just offer the man a night’s dalliance with me and they would turn, but he has turned that down and much more,” Aphrodite spoke. She sat down and started tapping her foot. “I have till tomorrow to turn him. If that doesn’t work, our plan may not happen. Any of you have any idea on how we can fix this mess we are in?”

“We can tell the human the truth, unless you actually think Zeus will sacrifice himself for the humans,” Atlanta said.

“There is something else we can tell him,” Artemis added. As soon as all eyes were on her, she continued. “When I reported to Zeus, my servants told me some interesting things. Tereus’ woman, she is a daughter of Metis. Zeus is planning to kill her.”

“Yes, and adding to the fact that Zeus raped his mother, I am sure we can turn the human against Zeus.” Aphrodite got up and headed to the door. “Come with me. We are going to talk with the human now. I will need your healing powers Artemis, and for you to relay to him what you heard.”

For what seemed like an eternity in darkness, light had finally pierced the pod that encased his body. Remembering the joy when he was first chosen to carry out his master’s wishes, now he wished it he was never chosen. His masters never tolerated failure. He feared his masters had kept him sealed till after the Decimation, when all of their enemies would be destroyed and he would be worse than a slave. While his brothers found glory, he would find. He would be worse than a slave to all who had found glory in destroying their enemies while he would live in disgrace for all eternity.

The shade nervously exited his pod to meet his fate. Looking at his surroundings, he observed nothing had changed. With the feeling of dread leaving his body, he felt much better. Nothing had changed. Just like the first day he was released, he saw thousands of pods just like his but still sealed. In the middle of the room was a black sapphire as big as a mountain. The tension the shade had been feeling left him as he noticed everything was still the same.
They are still giving me a chance
, he thought.

“SARKATH.” the voice pierced his brain. As it spoke his whole body cringed in pain. “YOU HAVE FAILED US TWICE ALREADY. GIVE US A REASON TO LET YOU CONTIUE ON YOUR MISSION,” the voice demanded.

The shade fell to the ground groveling before the sapphire.

“Masters, I will kill the humans as you commanded. I will grab Zeus and bring him to you,” the shade said as it begged for one more chance.

“YOU HAVE ONE MORE CHANCE TO FREE US. IF YOU FAIL AGAIN, YOUR SOUL WILL BE OURS.”

Pain rippled through his body. It was the worse pain he had ever felt. His blood was on fire and it started to leak from his mouth, the cracks of his eyes, and even from his claws. When his blood touched his skin, it burned like nothing he had experienced before.

“YOU WILL GO TO THE PLANE OF EXISTENCE, BRING US THE ONE CALLED ZEUS.”

Suddenly the pain stopped and he could finally breathe. “I will do as you command, master, though what chance do we have against all of the gods and the humans?”

The pain came with a vengeance. “YOU ARE A WEAK, SARKATH. I DON’T KNOW WHAT WE SAW IN YOU. CHOOSE TWO OF YOUR BROTHERS AND TAKE THEM. THEY WILL HELP YOU IN YOUR QUEST. REMEMBER, YOU ARE ALREADY SET TO DIE. IF YOU SUCCEED, YOU CAN HAVE A CHANCE AT REINCARNATION. NOW GO!”

Sarkath continued his groveling as he crawled away. He accepted the sentence his masters had given him. If he was going to die he would die, but not before he would kill every single one of them that had caused him to be in this situation. He would start with the one named Tereus.

Stepping through the portal, stunned from how this place looked, Zeus stopped walking and looked around. For the first time, this place had changed. What use to be some resemblance of a forest was now a desert. Wiping the bead of sweat that began to form on his head, he turned to his followers.

“Okay, we are here. Don’t touch anything, don’t attack anything. Just don’t do anything. Any action you take here can have severe consequences.” Zeus said cautiously. His eyes scanned the surrounding area.

“What is so dangerous that we have to be careful?” Amadi questioned while looking around.

“This is where it all started. You have entered the Plane of Existence.”

“What started?” Nicolai asked.

“Everything” Zeus said expecting them to understand. “This is where the whole universe began. If you destroy anything from this place, it can obliterate a whole planet.”

Staring at Zeus with distrust, Amadi found that hard to believe. The only problem Amadi had with Zeus’ statement was there was nothing to destroy. All he saw was sand and rock. How this place could be connected to everything didn’t seem possible Amadi.

“How is that even possible? This place doesn’t look special.” Amadi asked.

Knowing that this wasn’t the time to question Zeus, Athena turned away from the group and acted like she was watching for an attack. Nicolai noticed she still kept her attention to the conversation. Convinced that they were just as curious as he, Nicolai asked Zeus what he meant by ‘everything.’

“I have been here many times and it has never looked like it does now. It did not look like it does now. We should be surrounded by a forest, yet it’s just a wasteland,” Zeus said as he continued scan the horizon. “We are wasting time. I believe the Token is this way.”

As they continued their march, he continued his explanation.

“Long ago there was a division, a burst of energy as two forces split apart. What you humans call the ‘big bang’. Instead of being some random event like the humans says it is; this was actually one of many battles between two forces, the Daimōn and the Angelos— The Daimōn consists of the shade and its masters. I believe the Angelos are the creatures made of light and whoever they serve.” Seeing the confused looks on their faces he continued his story. “For eons they have fought each other for supremacy of the universe. This plane is where they come from. As they advanced and their battles grew more intense, they used this plane’s essence to create other planes, dimensions and planets to gain resources over each other. If you want to know more about them, you can read about it. I have written extensively about them in my chambers. For now, we need to stop talking and be on alert.”