Crius had tried offering the coin over a hundred times. He tried every version of 'Tartarus/Erebros, please accept my humble sacrifice,' that he could think of. It didn't work, and every time he tossed the coin in the air, it just cluttered back to the floor.

Eventually he gave up and realized that he had to think up of some other plan. The strange thing was that there was no one else there. If this was Tartarus, there should have been a bunch of monsters or other things wandering around. He hadn't seen anyone or anything at all.

Eventually, he decided to look for Nord. That guy didn't seem too busy, and if he still thought that Crius was some agent of Zeus, he might be able to gain some information.

The problem was that he had no idea where to start looking. The only thing around him was darkness. It was strange, he could see a few feet around him even though there was no source of light, but beyond that everything was pitch black. And the area that was illuminated moved when he moved.

He decided to dwell on this later and started wandering around the place, looking for anyone who could be of assistance. He didn't see anything. That was really creeping him out.

After wandering around for what seemed like hours, he finally stumbled on what seemed like a makeshift camp. There was a small oil lantern, just like the one that Nord had been carrying. There was a tent, and bowl over what seemed to be a campfire, though it wasn't lit.

Before he could get a closer look, someone jumped out of the shadows.

"Die intruder!" the thing said, which Crius realized was Nord, and Nord seemed to realize that Crius was Crius and put down his rather heavy-looking sword. It was made out of a weird metal that Crius had never seen before, but he decided that there were a few more important things to do.

"Umm, Nord? You see, I seem to have lost my way and can't find an exit out of Tartarus. Do you know a way?" Crius asked. He hadn't asked before because he was sure that there was no way, otherwise Nord would have left himself, but what was the harm in asking?

"Hmm, I do know a way, but it opens up to Hades' palace, so you probably don't want to go there. Can't go meself because I'm bound to Tartarus by ancient magic and all, but you might make it," Nord said. "However, Hades is one nasty god. You probably don't want to go meetin' him."

"No," Crius said. Hadn't Hades helped him, and hadn't he also said that he was on his side? Crius wasn't sure if he was lying or not, but Hades seemed to be the only one who could help him out in this situation. "Hades isn't that bad, and I think he might help me out."

"Suit yerself," Nord said in his annoying voice. Crius may have only imagined it, but he noticed a flicker of suspicion in Nord's eyes when he had said that Hades might help him. But it vanished quickly, and Nord grabbed his lantern and started off in what appeared to be a random direction. Crius tried to follow as quickly as possible, all the while keeping an eye out for any traps or monsters. There weren't any. That was really getting on Crius' nerves, as if Tartarus itself was trying to lure him into a false sense of security.

Nord suddenly stopped somewhere where there was another window of light kind of like the one near Prometheus' prison, except it was on the roof or what appeared to be the roof and the light wasn't like the kind you'd see outside, it was just a pale yellow.

"Good luck," Nord said. "And do slip a word or two to ol' Zeus and father himself 'bout my assistance, alright?" Crius agreed, and he grabbed the edge of the window or whatever it was, and hauled himself up.

It led to a corridor filled with torches casting a dirty yellow light everywhere. The only way to walk was up, and that was where Crius started heading. After a while, he came to a dead end. There was a door, but it was locked.

Crius tried looking for a way to break the lock, but he didn't need to. The moment he touched the lock, it dissolved and the door swung open by itself. Apprehensively, he stepped in to whatever was waiting beyond.

There was a huge room beyond the door, and whoever designed it must have been a hard core Goth, because everything was decorated black or with skulls that glowed in various colors. There was a carpet that was blood-red, and thinking about it made Crius wonder if the whole carpet was actually stained in blood.

However, there was an even more frightening thing in the room: Hades himself. He sat on a throne made up entirely of skulls, and he looked much more fearsome than the last time Crius had seen him. Crius could actually see the souls weaved into his clothes screaming and moaning, and could feel Hades' aura and realized for the first time what a god's power really was.

Luckily, Hades didn't look very angry. Or, at the very least, not I'm-going-to-smite-you angry. Crius wondered if the god even smiled.

"So, you've actually managed to come here," Hades said. "Perhaps my effort in saving you was worth it."

Of course, that made absolutely no sense to Crius.

"Would someone please tell me what's going on?" Crius asked. All of this was so very confusing. Hades' eyes twitched, as if he had been insulted and wanted to crush Crius for a second, but the emotion soon passed.

"Very well. Allow me to start at the beginning. You see, for countless years I held a grudge against my siblings on Olympus, but I soon found out there was one thing I had that the others didn't," Hades began. "The others, because they are so used to being in power, miss out in details that I don't. And one of those details is-"

He never got any further, because suddenly a rainbow exploded into the room. It looked rather odd with the rest of the decorations, but the rainbow cleared to reveal someone who was very, very angry.

Crius remembered him: he was Zeus. His voice thundered around the room.

"Brother! I knew there was something wrong with your so-called 'plan'. And so, I now have proof that you are indeed aiding this child."

"No," Hades said. "I just found out that he had escaped and was returning him back to Tartarus…"

"You lie!" Zeus said. "I never sent the child to Tartarus in the first place! He was sent to another dark realm that I had created myself. He himself confessed that you would help him, and I know you know very well that there are no entrances to your palace from Tartarus." Zeus was livid, even angrier than he had been when he had tried to smite Crius.

Oddly enough, Hades didn't seem to be mad at all when he found out that his ruse had been quashed.

"So what brother?" Hades asked. "This is my neck of the woods; we have that agreement, remember? This is my territory, and I can shield anyone I want."

Zeus seemed to get so angry that Crius considered it a miracle that the room didn't explode. Still, Zeus seemed to have no replies to that for a moment, but then he said,

"You are now a god of Olympus. I am King of Olympus. Technically, that makes the entire god's territories mine. I can extract the boy from even your palace, Hades, on those grounds."

That seemed to irritate Hades. Hades thought for a second before replying.

"In that case… I renounce my throne on Olympus. I am now solely a God of the Underwold. You have no right then," Hades said. The iris-message exploded into a shower of rainbow sparkles at that. It seems Zeus had given up.

Crius realized one thing: Nord had been a fake. Zeus in disguise. That was how Zeus knew, because he had never trusted Hades in the first place.

"This is a bit problematic," Hades said, though he didn't know the half of it.