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After a long walk through the forests of the Acheron valley, the tree line receded to create some sort of beach with small pebbles spread across the beach from the shore to the tree line. On the far end, where the trees met the river again, stood the Giantess. She stood near a cauldron as big as a garden shed and added one more ingredient to it, a smug grin on her face.

John's face turned into a strong glare as he marched towards the enemy at such a pace that forced the rest of the Legends to pick up this pace as well. they had only eyes for her at that moment – the big villain, the one they had been trying to stop since the god Hermes appeared before them.

Two figures came out of the forest and stood purposely in the way of the Legends.

"Where do you think you're going?" the woman asked, her eyes predominantly on John. The Legends had no idea who they were, but John did. They could not be more different; the woman wore a dark purple tunic and had a small iron key hanging from her belt. Her raven black hair fell down her back and by the look on her face, she was one to patiently await her time to strike and appeared to not be in a hurry at all.

Her companion, on the other hand, was not as calm. His grey business suit contrasted the goddess' attire and his sunglasses obscured his eyes. He had a pale complexion, placed on the foreground where the dark glasses contrasted the near-white skin. Despite his nervousness about the situation, he smiled as if he was happy his food finally arrived. He did not look threatening – but John knew better.

"Who are they?" Sara asked on behalf of the team – they were aware of names, but they could not match them to the right face.

"She is Hecate, the goddess of magic," John explained. "Hypnos, Sleep personified." He quickly scanned the tree line, but there came no third person. Apate wasn't going to be coming today.

"Hecate?" Nate frowned as if he suddenly remembered some vital piece of information. "Isn't she supposed to be a good goddess?" Wasn't she worshipped by the people of Athens as a protector? During the first fight against the Giants, she sided with the Olympians - back then, she seemed rather neutral.

"Not anymore," John responded. She may have been 'good', but times can change. When even personifications take sides, it wasn't that big of a stretch that minor gods and goddesses reconsidered their allegiance.

"You'll have to go through us before you can reach the Giantess," Hypnos announced. His voice, the Legends thought, was soothing. They did not fall for it. Yet.

They wouldn't be able to face the Giantess as one group before Hecate and Hypnos were taken care of. Sara turned her head to the group and easily found Wally. If the others distracted Hecate and Hypnos, he could land the first blows and weaken the Giantess. She might even help, him, too.

In the meantime, Mick wasn't having the attitude of these mythological beings. He did not care they were at the very least ten times as powerful as he was – as long as they would burn by the time he was done with them.

"Let's do it, then!" he shouted. "There's more of us then there are of them!"

"I'd like to see you try," Hypnos taunted, his mouth turning into a sickening grin. Mick glared at the personification. He tightened the grip on his heat gun.

"Mick—" Sara shouted, but it was too late. The arsonist ran towards Hypnos, which forced the others to continue with him for his own protection. Wally luckily seemed to have the same idea Sara, albeit with one different detail. He grabbed Sara as well as Nora and rushed away with them while the other Legends would fight the two henchmen.

Six Legends would face off against either Hypnos or Hecate. For John, the choice was easy - he would face the woman who made him her champion and he couldn't wait to send her back to hell, battered and beaten, like he had Apate. His back-up consisted of Nate and Amaya; Zari and Ray had gone after Mick because he would be at a disadvantage if he faced Sleep on his own.

Hecate came a little closer and watched John, with an arrogant grin on her face. "You should know better than to fight the goddess of magic."

"Really?" John responded. "You should know better than to fight me. I crawled out of hell, multiple times now. I killed an angel. And I will kill you, too."

"No, you won't." Hecate shook her head. "You may be my champion, but I'm still more powerful than you will ever be." An evil grin appeared on her face. "Watch me."

A soft purple glow appeared around her fists. She opened her glowing hands and slowly raised them in the air.

Everywhere they stood, from the waterline to their feet, the earth rumbled; but the pebbles did not tremble and the water remained calm. Figures rose from the ground, as if they were compelled to climb right out of hell. They passed through the earth as if it was nothing but a thin barrier easily crossed. They were nothing more than dark brown and black masses of clay or another earthly element in a humanoid manner, one or two feet taller than the Legends. Their arms and legs seemed only attached as an afterthought - but were still dangerous nonetheless - and their eyes were hollow sockets with a purple light glowing inside of them. Brand new creations, ready for combat.

Nate scrunched his face as the creatures gained a clearer and more distinguishable form. He lacked the right terminology to give these monsters a proper name. But that did not matter - they were now vastly outnumbered and more were created with every passing second.

It all happened so quickly, too many were blocking Hecate from John's vision once he recovered from seeing them rise. Just hitting her with magic might not work either. He'd have to think of something else.

"Two can play that game," John muttered. He stepped forward and recited one or multiple spells in a language neither Nate nor Amaya understood. As a self-indulgent smile appeared on Hecate's face, the humanoid creatures marched forward, towards the enemy.

But more popped up from the ground; more came in from behind John. They did not have a purple glow in their eye-sockets, but a golden glow. And these creatures marched on as well, to obliterate Hecate's army. It might just work.

Yet, the scales were still tipped against them. John had started out late, compared to Hecate. There were too many monsters on her side, and they might still overwhelm them. John could impossibly catch up with Hecate, however much he would like to be able to do this.

"We've got to keep them at bay," Amaya said. Nate agreed wholeheartedly.

"I'll manage!" John responded stubbornly. Maybe he truly believed he would be able to do this on his own without anyone's help. Maybe he wanted to prevent Nate and Amaya from joining the fight by insisting he pulled the largest weight. Maybe it was because of their opponent and the role she played as one of John's jailors. Maybe he wanted to be able to say he defeated the goddess who appointed him to be her champion. It did have a nice ring to it.

But Nate and Amaya did not back down from a fight. John needed to get the chance to send the goddess of magic back to the Underworld. Being a goddess, she may not die as John would like, but a forceful journey back might weaken her and might make it harder for her to leave the Underworld for an unspecified amount of time.

Nate turned his skin to steel while Amaya called upon the spirit of a gorilla for strength. They charged and fought the lumps of clay with purple eyes, careful not to accidentally attack John's creatures. While they had a decent size, they were also very slow and easy targets. Each time one of them managed to hit Nate or Amaya, it was one powerful blow with a force that almost knocked out a normal person. But as Nate and Amaya destroyed more and more of the humanoid creatures, Hecate created more of them. Her arrogance about the situation made her grin like a madwoman. All the while, John was trying to keep up with the goddess of magic and made more creatures.

Something changed. They could feel it in their bones. Slowly, they noticed they were losing their focus. Their limbs were growing tired faster than usual. John struggled not to let his mind wander to keep his focus on killing Hecate and her monsters.

It had nothing to do with Hecate. It couldn't be.

John cursed out loud. Were their friends even fighting Hypnos or what?

Zari and Ray chased after Mick, who ran towards Hypnos. The personification seemed more amused than threatened by these three. Still, most of his attention went to the arsonist, who needed to be physically restrained by Zari and Ray to stop him from doing something stupid. In a cynical way, their behavior was kind of endearing. Oh well, that did not matter after today.

"I'm going to make you a one-time offer," Hypnos said. His words were strong enough to stop Mick from struggling against Zari and Ray. "Turn around, walk away. I will guarantee you'll live if you leave now."

"What?" Ray asked, frowning. If there was anything he had expected from today, this wasn't it. He looked at his friends – Mick had his furious eyes on Hypnos while Zari shook her head in disbelief.

"This must be a trick," she said. What purpose would this personification have by allowing some Legends to leave? Ray believed Hypnos was playing with them – as if this was just one big game for him.

Mick was likewise not persuaded by Hypnos' offer. Better yet, he was so keen on lighting this man aflame that he aimed and pulled the trigger before either Ray or Zari could stop him. The flames engulfed the personification for five seconds, ten seconds, fifteen seconds. Ray and Zari could only watch in shock – it hadn't been a surprise, but it still was strange to watch someone burn while the victim did not scream or even move.

Satisfied with his actions, Mick took his finger off of the trigger. He expected the man to fall over and die. But if there was one thing he should have known after these weeks, it was that gods and personifications were not easily burned by ordinary fire.

Hypnos was still standing. Aside from some spots in his business suit that had been burnt away, he seemed to have been largely untouched. When he stared at the three Legends again, they felt uncomfortable in Hypnos' cold hard stare through the sunglasses, filled with rage and hatred. While Mick's fire had hardly hurt him, it did piss him off. Mick's brazen attitude had offended him.

"I gave you a choice," he said without raising his voice as he took off his glasses. "You really thought you could burn me? Kill me? You're dumber than I thought you'd be. Look and behold, the might Legends that killed the Minotaur and a Chimera." He scoffed. "What a bunch of losers."

With each word spoken, some kind of invisible shock waves were emitted. Unnoticeable at first, the Legends only felt it in their minds whenever one of those waves reached them. They could not do anything to stop these shock waves, but they were also a little frightened of the pale personification finally losing his composure. These shock waves were even enough to stun Mick, the tone of voice unsettling enough not to move against him.

Ray glanced aside for a moment. Hecate had just summoned tall clay figures to fight for her - John must have done the same. So far, these clay figures had not come over to them, but this could always change on a whim.

"You think you know me, but you don't," Hypnos continued. "I am a child of the Night. The husband of Relaxation. The brother of Death. I am Sleep and I am much more powerful than you people have ever given me credit for."

Hypnos raised his voice when he spoke the last words. The shock waves had grown in size, were harder to ignore. They had finally reached a substantial size that it affected them – each new wave made them more drowsy and sleepy. They hadn't realized until they started a chain of yawns. That uncomfortable feeling had also been sneaking upon them as a warning for what was to come, such as becoming too tired to fight. Becoming too tired to ever wake up again, even.

Zari called the winds and sent them to Hypnos, who stood tall like a sturdy tree in the middle of a hurricane. Not even the storm thrown at him could even make him unstable. Ray tried to fire his blasters, but his limbs were tired and he could not suppress a yawn. One of the blasts was fired into the sky. He also could not prevent himself from losing focus and falling over whenever he leaned back a little too much.

Mick just dropped his gun and ran towards the personification, now knowing flames wouldn't work and trying to get into a hand-to-hand fight. Hypnos easily avoided each of Mick's punches and eventually placed his hands on Mick's shoulders, pushing him to the ground. By that time, several waves had become one consecutive wave with different levels of intensity.

This could not be happening.

Wally had grabbed Nora and Sara and sped them away from the other Legends. Wally dropped them off close to Periboea and the cauldron she was brewing her destruction in.

Had she not been a Giantess, she wouldn't have looked very impressive. If she were human-size, she could have been a chubby short-ish brunette who liked to cook all of her dishes in the old-fashioned way.

Periboea barely looked up from her work. She just poured her uncle's blood into the cauldron, the final ingredient. Wally ran up to the cauldron and around it, in the hopes of knocking this thing over somehow. As this was going on, Sara glanced at Nora - hopefully, she would be able to help out, because Sara couldn't do much about the cauldron from the ground. Nora helped Wally with her telekinesis, pushing as hard as she could, but their combined efforts were fruitless. The cauldron did not fall over or even move an inch.

Wally stopped next to the ladies and shook his head. "I can't move it. It's too heavy."

"Of course it is," the Giantess said. She had a rough voice that wasn't exactly very feminine. "That would be too easy, now, wouldn't it?"

Yes, but why couldn't it be easy for once?

They needed to do something. The couldn't knock over the cauldron, so they had to beat the Giantess some way. Yet, she was intimidating with her length and strength – it wouldn't be easy fighting a Giantess. But they did it once before. They could do it again. Except that this one might struggle more and John was not available at the moment to knock her out, with his involvement in the fight against Hecate. They had to try.

Nora extended her arms and forced her powers around the Giantess while Sara, who had packed knives and other weapons – you never knew –, threw one of her knives at her. Wally sped up and approached but dared not to come too close before he was certain that whatever the women were throwing at the Giantess would not hit him (not that that would be visible with the naked eye either way).

Sara's knife was easily deflected - it a stab in the foot could be compared to the sting of an annoying mosquito or a needle - while Nora's managed to push her off-balance. Wally punched her a couple of times as well in several spots, but Periboea was still standing.

The Giantess was not happy with the brutality these mortals had shown. She had assumed they would be too weak or too intimidated by her race to even dare approach her or to go past Hypnos and Hecate. However, there was one thing the Giantess was completely oblivious to – these were the same Legends who have seen some weird shit before, Greek or otherwise; taking on a Giantess would be just another crazy adventure if they ever looked back.

That did not discourage Periboea from being passive and focusing on the job at hand. Her cauldron was large; it weighed as much as a mountain and her stew was almost finished – it just needed a little more time for the Giant's blood to properly mix with the brew and it was done. Just a couple more stirs and Destruction would come. Periboea just needed to make sure those pesky Legends weren't going to try something funny with her stew.

After what seemed like only a small break, Wally bolted towards the Giantess in a reckless move. He ran fast enough to run over her as easily as he would the side of a building. He maintained an irregular pattern and sometimes, with the kinetic energy he had gathered, threw a lightning bolt in her face, her stomach, her leg. Sometimes it worked and it disoriented her, sometimes it did not. The Giantess had a handful with him nonetheless and only increasingly became enraged by his attempts.

But even speedsters grow tired from time to time. Wally paused briefly near Nora and Sara, coming to a halt next to them. He panted loudly and placed his hands on his knees, bending over.

"Damn, this is hard." He said.

"Keep trying. We'll be right there," Sara said. Wally nodded. He wished he could've rested for a little while longer, but duty called. So he took some deep breaths and continued running around and over the Giantess to occupy her. In the meantime, Sara could try to figure out what to do.

She had no idea what to do.

"If this keeps up, we're not going to win this," Nora said. The Giantess was too strong and Wally only barely kept her distracted. The others were having a hard time as well and both the women and Wally were feeling Hypnos' power, too. Something needed to be done soon.

"There's gotta be a way to beat her," Sara said, her mind wandering off to her champion title. The gods assigned this job to them and blessed them with attributes that would help in baatle. She had no idea what the gods had offered her teammates, but whatever it was, it better kick in soon. Her own gifts – 'determination and a strong team' – did not seem to help much in this situation. Couldn't she have been blessed with extreme accuracy or the strength of a Giant?

"Any suggestions?" Nora asked. She was not going to keeping pushing and pulling at the Giantess with her telekinesis, since that would only make her stumble.

Sara shook her head. "I don't know." What could even help in this situation? What could turn the tide of the battle when the gods' blessings did not seem to work or help at all? "Maybe you tell me. The Queen of the Underworld did tell me we would need you specifically."

"Funny. Her husband told me the same thing about you," Nora confessed. After a moment of silence came the moment of understanding, and the women looked at one another. They were the champions of a married couple - their championship had been set up from the beginning, so it must have a specific purpose. But they did not know which purpose it was. Yet.

Sara found herself wishing that Hades would've picked another one of the Legends. It would be a better partnership than with Nora Darhk.

"What if we work together?" Nora then suggested.

"In what way?" Sara asked. It was a rather broad suggestion. "Should we throw rocks at her together."

"We're champions of Hades and his wife," Nora said, just saying her thoughts aloud. "They rule the Underworld together. I cheated death and you've come back from the dead before, so there's that link. They must have chosen us for a reason."

"Whatever that reason is, they would have benefited from telling us beforehand." At least Sara and Nora would have known what to do. At least they would have immediately been able to take steps and they wouldn't be losing so much time. They were still losing time. What could they do together that they couldn't do separately?

"Take my hands," Nora then said, extending her hands towards Sara. Taken aback, Sara glanced at it and took a step away from her in a reflex.

"What?"

"Trust me," Nora said, looking calm and determined and slightly nervous. "I don't know either, but we have to try something."

Sara stared at the hands hesitantly. She wasn't exactly happy to touch Nora, even if they were her hands, but something might still happen. Or not.

Something probably would happen. This was what her vision from Alkestis has been leading up to - she would hold Nora's hands, so she might as well do it. Without further hesitation, Sara took Nora's hands.

The power surging through them was phenomenal. Some godly electricity ran through them and connected them. It locked them away in a bubble of energy, muting sights and sounds significantly. Still, there was this undeniable dark side to the power, tugging at both ladies. They fought for control of power. For fear of not being able to call upon this level of power again, however, neither Nora nor Sara dared to let go of one another.

This dark side pulled and pushed, but the ladies did not budge. Through combined determination and willpower, they subjected the power to their will and became the masters of the power that the Queen and King of the Underworld had granted them. Power that could be tamed by someone who was familiar with the Underworld and then controlled by someone who was familiar with otherworldly power.

"Wow," Sara said. She had never had this level of power inside her, flowing all around her. Now it was tamed, it was incredible and incredibly terrifying to have at her fingertips.

"Now that's power," Nora said and though she looked at Sara, the captain had the feeling she was talking to herself. She smiled widely, as she was truly happy to be in this situation – she controlled the power, not the other way around. Nora would be the one directing the power, not Sara, and the captain was fine with this.

"It's showtime," Sara responded.

This strongly reminded her of when they created Beebo. But whatever would show up now wasn't influenced by their thoughts.

It did not take long before an army of undead warriors rose from the waters of the Acheron.