Hello, everyone, I AM BACK!

I am sorry for the long wait again, school already started, and I have loads and loads of homework to be done... Yeah, you guys get the idea.

Anyways, same as before, I will try and update more frequently. Thank you for the support, and remember, follow and REVIEW :D

This is a short Interlude for you guys, and I will see you guys later.

PC: 1 (I think...? lol)

Interlude 1: From One War to the Next

'Mother… Why are you doing this? Please? You know I will never betray Olympus!'

'Shut up, Insolent boy!' Ares shouted, kicking Galath in the gut. He doubled over, holding his stomach. Ausar glared at the war god but did nothing.

Athena looked pained when she refused to meet her son's eyes. 'I got no choi-'

'By Olympic law-' Zeus interrupted the mother and son conversation. 'I, the King of the Gods, hereby banish you two to the dark depths of Tartarus.' Zeus boomed smugly. Feeling satisfied at the hopelessness in Galath's eyes, he commented. 'I hope you rot in hell.'

Ausar, who stayed silent throughout his judgment, looked back at the King of Gods with cold, hardened eyes. With a strong sense of defiance, he answered. 'We won't. '

After a moment of shock, Zeus yelled in utter fury as he blasted the two demigods into oblivion.

'I fucking knew it!' Galath yelled after he drank from the fiery water, his sound hoarse. Tartarus was not looking especially jovial at the moment, with the betrayal of the Gods' still freshly in their minds. His handsome face was scrunched up with anger as they walked along the Phlegethon.

'Keep calm.' The battle-hardened Ausar said, sipping on the fiery water as if they were orange juice. 'And stay alive. We'll get our revenge after we get out of here.'

'We're tools, Ausar!' Galath retorted, throwing down his seashell. 'We're some sort of weapon that they dispose of after they used us! They gave us half-immortality just to get us to Tartarus, to suffer eternal pain and torture!'

'We are demigods.' Ausar tried again. 'We're not new to the Underworld.'

'Yes, but this is Tartarus. Which means every monster, Giant, and Titan we had slain before is right here.' Galath pointed out the dreadful odds against them.

'But I do have these.' Ausar smiled, holding up two identical swords, glowing with white energy.

'What? What are those? And how are swords supposed to help us?' Galath asked his companion. Then realization dawned to him. 'Oh …' Galath smiled and punched Ausar's arm. 'When did you get the Swords of Aether of all things when we were bind and captured?'

'I didn't.' Ausar chuckled. 'The ones on Olympus are fakes. I took them right after the award ceremony.'

'You planned this?' Galath asked, amazed at his friend's ingenuity.

'Don't be silly.' Ausar rolled his eyes. 'You're the one with brains, Owlhead. This is pure instinct at work.'

'Ha-ha, you're so funny.' Galath rolled his eyes, talking one of the swords and mildly swinging it. Actus cleaved the air, the resonating holiness sang against the dingy atmosphere of Tartarus. Monsters around howled in protest and glared at the two demigods, who ignored them. The monsters' glares ceased, seeing they have no chance at killing demigods.

Ironic, Galath mused, that monsters are actually tamer when they are in the evilest of places on Earth. They walked along the path in silence, both debating what to do since they were at Tartarus.

Tartarus. This was one place that Galath could do without. It was literally an eternal prison, but it was more than that.

All the pain, anger, and sorrow of the world can be thoroughly felt here. That is why you feel that the air itself in this place is trying to kill you- it's a mental pressure, weighing on your heart to feel hostile and threatened.

Looking at Ausar, his brother in arms, Galath couldn't help but wonder what kind of plan he is brewing up. Regarding battle prowess, the two were at the same level, but Galath was supposed to be the brains of the two, but he could never read Ausar as he would to other people. Galath has the rare ability to read others like an open book once he met them for a while, but Ausar... he was an anomaly.

Ausar was the one not only with the skills, but also with the creativity, so creative, that even after being the best of friends with him, he still does not know what and how he thinks and operates. The image was all blurry, a very vague idea, too shallow for his liking.

It scares him somehow.

'We can't stay here forever.' Ausar muttered, noticing Galath's stare at him.

Galath composed himself. 'Of course.' He replied.

'Can we get out through the doors of death?' Ausar inquired.

Galath, who had thought of that particular plan before, shot down the idea immediately. 'No. First of all, we need someone operating at the other side to do so, which we don't have anyone on our side except Fasfri, but I don't think she will be able to help us much. Secondly, the door moves every now and then, so it is impossible for us to tell where it would be.'

'We can't leave for quite a long time, eh?' Ausar frowned.

'True.' Galath said. Knowing his friend's way of speaking, he inquired. 'You have a plan B?'

'Rightly so. But it doesn't involve getting out for quite a while.' Ausar responded.

Now Galath was interested. 'Indulge me.'

'We can't escape- fact. Well if we cannot leave, we stay. I say we build a stronghold for demigods and demigoddesses.'

Galath was lost for words. How did he think he could achieve that?

'We pick a spot; build something using the dead I can summon.' Ausar said. 'We go on search parties. We both know for sure there are demigods here, seeing how many they banished during the wars. And also, we do not know if those treacherous bastards up there banished any other immortal demigods down here.'

Galath thought of this for a moment. Building a fortress for demigods, a very strong one, in a place to kill demigods isn't really an easy achievement. But then again, they can't escape for quite a long while, so why not? It is a way to guarantee safety.

'That is a brilliant idea.' Galath said. 'But I would like to tweak it a bit. We gather some demigods first, and then we build a place.'

'Why?'

'Because we need to gather some forces first. More people mean more protection.' Galath said. Then he realized that Ausar stopped a few steps behind.

'Ausar? What is it?' Galath asked worriedly.

'Or because of the reason that one of them is right over there.' Ausar pointed to a spot on the other side of the river.

Galath followed his gaze and saw a girl in her early twenties lying on the floor unmoving, while some Laistrygonian giants and Cyclops surrounded the girl, looking to feast on her.

Galath, not waiting for any longer to save a hopeless woman, leaped over the Phlegethon and charged the monsters, Ausar not far behind.

The monsters did not know what hit them as Actus and Arual cleaved at them, graceful white arcs of doom slicing through the air. The Laistrygonians and Cyclops offered almost no resistance as the two of the best fighters of all time wreaked havoc to the monsters. After merely ten seconds or so, monster dust rained onto the shivering girl, who turned and looked at her saviors.

'D-Don't hurt me, p-please?' The girl asked, cowering in fear.

'Calm down. We're not going to hurt you.' Ausar offered kindly, in a voice that Galath has never heard of before. Then again, he never went with him when Ausar goes on missions to recover young demigods, thinking it is a waste of his time as Ausar should be enough for dealing with ordinary demigods.

The girl stood up and looked at the two boys. 'I never met you before. Who are you?'

'I'm Ausar, son of Hephaestus and Champion of Hades.' Ausar declared.

'And I'm Galath, son of Athena.' Galath said. 'And you are?'

'I'm Lelindre, daughter of Demeter and also with her blessing.' She answered.

'Demeter, you say?' Galath mused, thinking. 'Why didn't you use your powers against those giants?'

Lelindre looked at her hands. 'I cannot control the poisonous plants in the underworld. And what we are surrounded with is Belladonna. I wasn't affected by them, but it shortened my stamina.'

'I understand.' Ausar said.

'I took on quite a number of them before I was disarmed. Thanks for the save.'

'No problem.' Galath muttered.

'Let's get out of here. I hate poison flowers.' Lelindre said.

The two quickly agreed and they walked back to the Phlegethon, where Lelindre can get her strength back. Galath picked up a bowl and filled the bowl with the water, and Lelindre instantly scrunched up her nose as she smelt the water.

'Drink up. It's the only way.' Galath said, holding up the bowl closer. She grabbed the bowl, took a deep breath and downed the liquid. Instantly, she gagged, but the bruises and cuts healed up.

'I hate you.' Lelindre moaned half-heartedly, massaging her throat. 'This sucks.'

'My mother always says, although I hate her, bitter often tastes sweet in the end.' Galath said. 'So cheer up, you are healed.' He looked at her still-cut arm. 'Mostly.' He added.

'I bloody loathe your mother.' Lelindre said bluntly.

Galath chuckled. 'Me too.'

'She chucked me down here, you know? 2 years ago.'

'You are the bunch of escapees?' Ausar inquired. Galath shot him a look after Lelindre's glare. 'No offence.' Ausar added.

'We did not "escape".' Lelindre said rigidly. 'We just didn't like the Gods' idea of reformation and chose to stay behind to watch the fire.'

'Wait, you said "we".' Ausar inquired. Galath's eyes widened with anticipation. This was perfect! 'We are proposing to make a fortress in Tartarus. By ourselves, it is impossible to stay alive long enough for us to make a stand. But with more of us, we can stand a chance against anything that this place throws at us.'

Lelindre beamed. 'Totally! I'm in!'

'Great!' Galath exclaimed happily. This is going better than he had ever hoped for. 'We should meet up. Where are the rest of you?'

Lelindre's eyes suddenly look pained. 'It would be a suicide mission. I cannot possibly put this on you.'

'What, why?' Galath asked.

'We were captured by Hyperion. For two years, he pits us against monsters in a place he calls the Arena of the Pit. There were loads of captives, most of them demigods. It's terrible, sometimes he calls on multiple "game modes", like Capture the Flag, Conquest, King of the Hill... all sorts of horrible stuff. Survival of the fittest- kill or be killed.' Lelindre shuddered.

'How did you get out?' Ausar said, looking at the ugly 'A' tattooed on her wrist.

'I leaped.' Lelindre said, looking at her palms. 'Kronos always thought I was a normal daughter of Demeter. He pitted me against some hellhounds in a forest the Pit created. I morphed the tree into a kind of cannon and fired me into the air, using the plants below to slow my fall.'

Ausar chuckled. 'That's an idea I can get behind.'

Lelindre blushed. 'I didn't think clear enough. I never thought where I should land, just that I should get away from there as far as possible. Who would have thought 15 miles from there it would be a belladonna field!?'

Galath stuttered. 'You mean that is the Arena of the pit?!' He pointed to the building they were heading.

'Affirmative.' Lelindre replied.

'But it looked so...' Ausar drawled out meekly.

'Harmless? Yeah. That was what lured us into there in the first place.' Lelindre said. 'Guess you two are lucky you met me eh?'

'So how are we saving them?' Ausar asked, ignoring Lelindre's comment.

'I just escaped- I have no intention on being captured again.' Lelindre said.

'We need a plan,' Galath decided, looking at the two demigods. 'Anyone got any smart ideas?'

Ausar and Lelindre looked at each other, looked back at Galath, and shrugged.

'Fine...' Galath grumbled, kick-starting his mental gears. If they want to survive for longer in this dingy place, they need a perfect plan. And Galath was just the perfect man to craft one.

Galath should not be the one doing any planning. Ausar muttered to himself. Looking at the shackles he now wears, he followed the monsters down the staircase and towards the dungeons. 'Move, runt, before I make you.' A Laistrygonian giant grumbled, shoving rudely. Ausar glared at him but walked towards the direction the monster was pointing. Down the stairs.

Ausar was led towards his personal prison, he passed through a row of cells, each containing a few demigods. Looking at the bloodied and bruised demigods around him, all looking at him with pity and sympathy, he realized what the arena truly contains. He stared into the demigods' eyes, and he only sees deep hatred and fury towards who did this to them, to this hellhole, and most of all, towards anyone who hurts their brethren.

Ausar's heart filled with fury towards the Gods, and also Hyperion. How dare he do this to children!

As the champion of Hades headed towards his cell, he did as ordered and pressed onto his wrist, where the teleportation device was held.

Instantly, Lelindre and Galath popped up from behind the guards. The guards didn't even have time before they sliced all of them to death.

Galath cut the chains withholding Ausar. 'Good job. Now let's free all of them and get out!'

Ausar, while starting to cut the chains of the cells, said. 'No.'

Galath reeled back with confusion while Lelindre was annoyed. 'What do you mean no!' Lelindre yelled.

'We're not leaving. Change of plans. We're taking this fucking place.' Ausar said firmly.

Galath was about to deny this ridiculous request when all demigods inside their cell cheered when they heard Ausar's declare. Galath's mind went overdrive again. Although Ausar was not the actual leader of the camp, Ausar was the de-facto commander- he knows how to influence and direct people when it comes to war. This is why the two of them were brothers- Ausar's leadership and Galath's intellect, two brilliant minds, working together. Galath knew this was the time to relent.

'What does he think he is doing?! We are leaving.' Lelindre hissed to Galath. 'Staying here would be suicide!'

'No.' Galath said. 'Just trust Ausar. He knows what he is doing.'

Galath gently patted her shoulder and declared to the captives. 'Yes we are. Do you want revenge against Hyperion and the monsters? Do you want to survive in Tartarus? Arm yourselves with whatever you can find and get ready. We're taking the Arena of Tartarus.'

After taking the weapon cache from the monsters with no trouble (And introducing himself, Ausar and Lelindre), the demigods who were captured strapped on the armor and weapons they could find. Galath went straight to business right after they did so.

'May I get your attention please?' Galath asked, standing on a chair and bashing Actus to his shield. Every demigod looked at him and nodded. He smiled and sheathed his blade.

'Well, nice place to be in this kind of hour, eh?' Galath joked, waving his hand around. The majority of the demigods chuckled. A soft approach to lessen the pressure always works. Makes people more attentive. He thought.

'Well, you might be wondering why we are suddenly here to rescue you.' Galath continued. 'Well, me and Ausar were the demigods leading both wars towards the Giants and Titans, until one day the Gods banished us right down here for betrayal and treason.'

This set uproar among the demigods, thinking about the time that they were banished into Tartarus.

'A painful memory, yet unforgettable.' Galath mused for all of them, catching their attention once more by that truthful statement.

'So, you all want revenge against the Gods?' Galath asked the question.

'Hell yeah!' One demigod shouted. 'We hate them!'

'Let's bash their faces in!' Another shouted.

'Excellent.' Galath said, with a sadistic smile. He nodded at Ausar for support. Ausar dragged Lelindre, who blushed at the attention that everyone was giving her, stood nearer and waited for his moment.

'Ausar and I also want the same thing.' Galath said. 'But we cannot be rash. We need to be smart and plan our every move. Am I correct?' All of the demigods nodded.

'I would like to propose the idea of standing together while we are in Tartarus.' Galath explained. 'By our own, it is impossible to live long. But if we demigods stand, united, against all things, then we have a chance against Tartarus, and maybe even against the Gods!' He looked at the plethora of eyes staring back at him. 'Are you with me? If you are, raise your right arm and yell "DEMIGODS"!'

A chorus of 'Demigods' screamed back at him.

'So before we plan what will be ahead of us first, we need to build our fortress. Our new…. Home base. And what is better than the place that we are standing in right now!' Galath gestured to his surroundings. Then he got serious. 'Yes, this new demigod group would have their new council, new policies, rules, commanders, et Cetera, but we cannot do anything if we only have our wills but not the resources to back it up.'

'I would like to take full command of the operation on taking the Arena of Tartarus.' Galath said. There were a few protests around. 'Note that I do not want to lead any of you, as all of you are just as capable as I am. But I have experience- I have led demigods, Roman and Greek alike, towards two wars, and won both. I plead you all to let me take command of this vital first battle- and we shall prevail forever more!'

Silence covered the entire demigod crowd. Galath's brows started to sweat. Was that not enough?

Then a very strong looking demigod looked at him. 'You better not fail us, Galath. I'll gladly join you if you can guarantee victory.'

'Count me in!' Another yelled.

As the other demigods joined in the agreement and pumping their weapons into the air, Lelindre helped him down his chair and gave him two thumbs-up. 'You were top.'

'Thanks, Lelindre.' Galath said, regaining his footing and looking at the surrounding demigods.

Ausar laughed and gave Galath a whole-heartedly slap on the back. 'Yes, you did well my friend. I really felt like we can win this long and tiring war we have in front of us after your speech.'

Galath, after his friend's praise, couldn't help but gave the first genuine smile towards Ausar since he arrived in Tartarus. 'We will win, Ausar. We will certainly win.' He grinned. 'Because we simply can't lose.'

I would love to express my gratitude to a reviewer called MEIPHANTOMHIVE, who put in a positive review in each of my chapters, expressing how she loves them. Thanks!

I would also express my gratitude towards anonymous reviewer called Jackie (Whose review disappeared mysteriously, but I swear it was there once, I saw it in my email). I would take your praise with a happy heart, and also notice my slip-ups more. If you see any more, feel free to leave another review!

I hope you enjoyed it, remember to drop a review and follow the story or me, if you have, remember to check out the other story Clash of Projects, and I will see you guys soon!

(How frequent do you guys want these interludes? I find this fun to write in a different way than the original plotline, so I will definitely be continuing them.)

Infamous Pig, Over and Out.