After a relatively short flight, the angels arrived at a temple overgrown with vines and nestled in the trees, flowers and roots growing all around inside it. It was a deep red color decorated in gold, and it had an overall peaceful feeling to it.
"About time you showed up," Viridi greeted them as they entered.
"Hey, we didn't have to come," Kuro pointed out, stretching. "So, let's cut to the chase. What is it?"
"Going to be blunt about it, huh?" Viridi inquired, gripping her wooden staff lightly. "Well, you want to know the gist?"
"Yes," Pit sighed.
"Well, fine." She let out a rough breath. "Hades has escaped."
A foreboding silence gripped the air and Pit felt a chill run down his spine.
"What do you mean 'escaped?'" Kuro demanded.
"Hasn't Lady Palutena been watching him?" Pit wondered, confused. "How did he get out? Why didn't she tell us sooner?"
"Here's the thing," Viridi interrupted his barrage of questions. "He hasn't made a single move. No contact with anyone outside the Underworld. And neither Palutena nor I even knew about it. I don't know why, but it's like he was hidden from us." She trailed off, and the angels exchanged a thoughtful look.
"Hidden," Pit repeated. "And the Underworld Army has been quiet. Not a single stirring." He frowned. "How long has he been out?"
"I don't know," Viridi admitted. "I just happened to check on him and found he'd broken free. I'm not sure why or if he had help…"
"But help from who? Most of the Underworld commanders were taken out in the last couple of battles," Kuro pointed out. "Unless he had them down there before we imprisoned him."
"Could be," Viridi nodded. "But that doesn't explain how he masked himself from us. He's been too quiet. I mean, he's Hades."
"Master of satire," Kuro nodded.
"So… what do we do?" Pit wondered. "Head to the Underworld and force him back before he does anything?"
"Except that may be just what he wants," Kuro thought aloud.
"Probably," Viridi agreed, frowning. "No, I have another task for you. Follow me." She walked over to another room in her temple and pointed to a mirror set behind several vines. "See, I had something of a premonition, and Palutena seems to have had the same one. So I doubt it's coincidence."
"And what's that?" Pit asked, staring at the mirror.
"Do you two know ANYthing about the Oracles?" Viridi inquired with her usual sarcastic tone.
"Uh…" Pit thought it over for a moment. "Oracles?"
"Don't think so," Kuro replied. "Care to elaborate?" Viridi rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Long before either of you existed, around the dawn of the humans, there were five spirits that helped govern the ways of the world. They were powerful, but chose to merely watch and do their duty at a minimum, allowing the course of time to go with little influence. But when war began breaking out among both men and gods, the spirits chose to take human form and locked most of their power away, fearing that someone would try to capture them and use their powers to overthrow the Balance.
"These spirit-turned-humans became known as Oracles and hid themselves from the immediate view of the gods, save the ones they served. For example, there are three who answer to me: Onore, the Oracle of Fire, Unda, the Oracle of Water, and Vis, the Oracle of Wind. They draw their power, to some extent, from me."
"Then there's Levica, who serves me," Palutena added from her temple in Skyworld. "She draws her power from me as the Oracle of Light."
"Exactly,"Viridi nodded. "Now, I'm pretty sure Hades is going to be after them for their power and their extremely powerful souls." She shrugged. "In fact, I'm kind of surprised he didn't go after them before."
"Maybe he didn't want to cause that kind of commotion," Pit suggested. "If one of the Oracles went missing, it sounds like you'd know pretty quickly."
"Plus, didn't you say they hid themselves?" Kuro added. "It'd probably be pretty difficult to find them. And Hades seems like he likes to take the easiest course."
"Good points," Viridi went on. "But now that things have changed again, I get the feeling they'll be his primary targets. So," she grinned. "That's where you two angels come in."
"Let me guess," Pit interrupted. "We've gotta go play retrieval and find the Oracles before Hades does."
"Wow, you have gotten smarter!" Viridi congratulated sarcastically. "Think you two can handle that?"
"Piece of cake," Kuro replied.
"Cake?" Pit wondered, then quickly and silently withdrew the question as he thought about it. "Uh, yeah. Leave it to us, Viridi. We'll make sure they're safe."
"But wait," Kuro held his hand up. "Hold on. I think you're leaving something out here. You said there were five spirits that became Oracles. Levica, Unda, Vis, and Onore," he counted on his fingers, "So, who's the fifth one?" Silence again gripped the air for a moment.
"He took the name 'Nemo,'" Viridi replied with a heavy sigh. "He's the Oracle of Darkness." Pit blinked as he slowly began processing just what that meant. "So, if the Oracle of Light serves the goddess of Light and Fire, Water, and Wind, all important parts of nature, serve me as the goddess of Nature…"
"He serves the goddess of Darkness," Pit finished. "In other words, Medusa."
"But Medusa was destroyed by Hades," Kuro pointed out.
"Exactly. And Nemo is the reason the balance between Light and Dark hasn't been completely tipped," Palutena joined them again. "I know he's still alive, but no one really knows what he's been up to since Medusa met her demise."
"So, he could be with us, against us, or neutral," Pit nodded. "We'll have to be careful about approaching him."
"Not to mention he's one of the few beings out there who can travel between the Underworld and the Overworld on his own," Viridi added. "And I don't think it'd be too smart for you to head to the Underworld just yet."
"I agree," Palutena put in. "It's probably best you track down the other Oracles first, then maybe he'd be more willing to listen to us. "
"Sounds like fun," Kuro smirked. "So, I guess we don't really have a choice in this, do we?"
"Not from the sound of it," Pit shrugged. "If we don't find them, then we may have just thrown any chance we have at beating Hades."
"Essentially," Viridi smiled proudly. "So you chickens had better work fast."
"Yeah, yeah," Kuro stared at her. "We'll pull through."
"All right," Pit rubbed his hands together. "Where do we start?"
"I think it'd be best to find Levica first," Palutena replied. "I'm sure Hades would love to find a way to access my power. Plus, she isn't exactly good at defending herself."
"Makes sense," Viridi continued. "I agree. Find Levica first."
"And bring her back to Skyworld so I can keep an eye on her," Palutena added. "While you two are off finding the others."
"We'll make sure she's safe," Pit promised. "You can count on us, Lady Palutena!"
"Still a suck-up, I see," Viridi teased. "Kuro, please promise me you're not that bad."
"I'd probably stab my foot with an arrow if I was," he replied, humor shining in his red eyes.
"Hey, I'm not that bad!" Pit protested.
"ANYway," Viridi interjected, "So, after you get Levica back to Skyworld, I think you should go after Unda and Vis next. Unda is decent enough, but Vis has a bit of an apathetic attitude. You can never really tell what he's thinking."
"And Onore?" Kuro wondered.
"Onore is a little like Nemo, situation-wise," Viridi explained. "Remember Pyrrhon?"
"He's hard to forget," Pit mused, recalling the self-proclaimed "sun god" that had nearly finished him when the strange alien species known as the Aurum had invaded their world. "What about him?"
"Well, though he called himself the god of the sun, he actually was a god of Fire. But between losing his will to the Aurum and being blasted to oblivion along with the rest of those mechanical freaks, his power was sapped and Onore gained some of it due to their connection. So Onore can access more of his own power and even shift into his spirit form for short periods of time if necessary. He can hold his own while we retrieve the others."
"So Nemo has gained power because of Medusa's destruction," Kuro summarized.
"Essentially," both goddesses answered.
"But, as I said before, he hasn't really been doing anything since she was destroyed," Palutena reiterated. "We'll have to hope for the best."
"We'll figure it out," Pit grinned. "But for now, let's find Levica." He turned to his fellow angel. "Ready?"
"As I'll ever be," Kuro replied.
"Viridi," Palutena beckoned. "Will you allow me to direct your gate? I'm pretty sure I know where she is, and I can get them pretty close."
"Fine," Viridi through her hands up. "But just this once! Don't just go messing with my gate whenever you feel like it!"
"I'll keep that in mind," Palutena laughed as a light shined from the gate on the other side of the room, and the doors slowly opened. "You'll find Levica hiding in the temple in the town I'm sending you to," she added. "Don't worry. You'll be fine."
"Let's just try to make as much progress as possible before the Underworld starts acting up," Kuro grumbled as he headed for the gate with Pit following close behind.
