Danger intruder interloper enemy.
The same litany of feelings hammered into Atreus as he raised his bow. Just like when he first saw Cerberus on his way in, the three-headed dog felt just the same. Though this time more than willing to act on his intent despite both Melinoé and Zagreus yelling for him to stop.
Realising he wouldn't be fast enough to cast through his bow, Atreus instead swept a hand, creating a shield of elven light.
Interloper enemy rival hiding coward come out
It was barely enough to halt Cerberus for a momentary bombardment of something. It burned, and he could feel the impact of every single one even through the light screen he had created. Three hits and it shattered, but that was enough time. "Ulfr Hlaup!"
Leaping from an electrified arrow came the mighty wolf, like yet unlike the one Atreus had deployed before. Elven light had proven how ineffective it was against the mighty hound, and so something was needed to keep it on the back foot. And so a wolf of the storm charged the guardian of the underworld with snapping, sparking jaws.
Not hiding? No. Hiding. Wrong one. Coward!
Cerberus' feelings were confusing. Like it was expecting something entirely different from what it was seeing. But Atreus didn't have time to dwell on that. Instead, summoned another. A counterpart. A storm wolf to pressure and a light wolf to cover. And so three giant beasts battled at the temple entrance.
Still hiding! Still hiding! Come! Heel!
"Father, don't bring Cerberus into this!" Melinoé demanded, or pleaded. It could easily have been both. "Don't you see all you've done for the past thousand years is force us to hurt each other?! Mother wouldn't have wanted–!"
"YOU DARE speak to me claiming to know what she wanted?!" The skeletal god slammed the butt of his spear into the dirt. "She wanted to live! Instead she was cursed to return to the underworld with us! Cursed with us! All because of him! If he had never brought her back she would still–!" A wave of ash swept outward from the spear, ghastly and cloying as it crept ever outward over what would be their battlefield. Further and further. It took seeing the results for the children of Hades to understand what he was doing. The vegetation, the sounds of animals and insects, all swept away in the ashes. Hades had claimed this region as his domain in full. "No. I'm mistaken. Everything about this is how it was always meant to be. Her life was taken, and now your lives will end here. Even gods can't escape the weaving of fate."
"Father–"
"Enough, Melly," Zagreus said as he stepped forward, Varatha twirling in his hands. "I thought he was stubborn before but I never thought I'd see him become whatever this is. He wasn't one for listening back then and sure as anything this won't listen now."
"'He' is standing right before you, boy," the skeleton chided, his spear rising again.
"No he isn't. My father and I rarely got on, but he never made me feel pity for him like this thing is. And he would never accept destroying all he had left of Mother." Another twirl, resolving in pointing the mythical spear at the walking corpse of a god. "I don't know what you are, but I'd appreciate if you could bring my father back. We might have fought a lot, but at least I could respect him."
The writing was on the wall. While Zagreus was only succeeding in provoking his father, the course was decided the moment Hades enforced his will on the area. Their plan of teleporting away required escaping the area of his influence and he could grow it as fast as they could flee. They had no choice but to at least disable him long enough they could escape. Achieving at least a temporary victory was their only path forward.
"Your lack of respect is not a concern." The spear came down again. It rang like a gong, despite landing in ash, and with the sound, the shades of the damned rose to answer the summons.
"Mel, can you–?" Atreus asked, keeping one wary eye on the hounds and another on the small army of spirits.
"Against my father's orders?" Her blades twirled in her hands as she drew a glyph in the ashes beneath her feet. Light surrounded then sunk into her, empowered her. "No. They may feel my call and command, but Father's orders to them are absolute."
"... Okay."
Once again battle was joined. A more frantic battle as the sun continued to dip lower on the horizon. Atreus had no choice but to trust his summons to keep Cerberus at bay. The twin wolves kept the guardian of the Styx back so Atreus and Melinoé could cull the hordes of shades. Arrows, spells, blades, the blessed assistance of Artemis all combining to carve through dozens of enemies that continue to rise and rise as though a never-ending tide. It was a holding action. A cover.
Because the real battle took place among them. And as the son of Kratos and the daughter of Hades watched, they knew it was more than they could handle.
The battle between father and son would have been mesmerising were it not for the context. Hades' intent to kill his son, Zagreus unable to hold back, and willing to kill Hades if only because he knew it wouldn't take. It was evident to anyone bearing witness, if he held back or hesitated in the slightest, it would be over.
All the more impressive then, that it continued on. In all the chaotic confusion of the battle around them, the two duelled in a dance they had performed hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times. Bladed spears twirling, sweeping, thrusting, Hades barely caring to evade blows that couldn't kill him, while Zagreus fought with his life on the line with every assault. Hades' curses in the form of flaming skulls launched at any slow moment, denying Zagreus the chance to comfortably get his feet under him, to catch a single breath. Red blasts bursting from the younger god's hand to slam into his father, the bloodcurdling curse taking root deep in Hades' being. A flickering dash behind the skeletal god of the dead, spear raised and tearing toward him. A heartbeat of victory, a blow that would be debilitating no matter Hades' immortality.
"Fool."
The bladed polearm in Hades' hand rolled over his shoulder to point behind him and down. Not aiming at Zagreus. Instead, the skull curse flew right at the ground... And detonated immediately. Hades didn't even flinch as the blast of malevolent green energy burst outward. While Zagreus could only brace himself for the blast.
"ZAGREUS!"
"Guah!" Thrown backward, the son of Hades' burning feet swept through the ashes as he got his feet under him. He only had the chance as the god of the dead's intended finishing blow was diverted by a hasty creation of elven light. Atreus' desperate cast only able to halt the spear thrust for a fraction of a second before it broke. That moment of distraction was enough for the hordes of shades to swarm closer, forcing the boy to fight in close range, using his bow as a melee weapon as he created a light sword in his other hand.
"Hmph. How feeble." Hades raised his spear again.
A green glow ignited the near-night sky.
"HADES!"
A bombardment of viridescent arrows rained down on the battlefield, each one aimed at a precise target. A half dozen to ease the pressure on Atreus and Melinoé by culling the dead. Everything else unerringly seeking the skeletal deity to shatter his bones.
"GAH! ARTEMIS! YOU DARE TO INTERFERE!" As swiftly as his bones broke, they reformed with only the slightest cracks to show they had even broken at all.
"There are few enough people precious to me and you would kill half of them! I'll never let anyone take from me again!"
"HRGH!" The lord of the underworld was forced to dismiss the threat of those no the ground, instead turning his gaze skyward. Beams of destructive force flowed upward, seeking the arrows so determined to destroy his body. For the first time, Hades was forced onto the back foot. He had to deal with the greater threat, all while still trying to put an end to those around him.
Zagreus battle had changed from a desperate fight for his life to one he could dominate. Hades forced to fend him off one-handed, and failing. Nowhere near as effective as the bombardment but still doing damage.
Atreus could see it. This, with the right choice... The wolves were still fighting the angry hound. He could summon once more while they were still present. "Mel, cover me!"
The goddess of spirits carved a hasty path to him, taking nicks and hits as she did. Then, standing right behind him, she formed a sturdy barrier to keep the dead back. "You're good!"
"Falki lid!"
"Gh!" Within the battle of spears, blue falcons dove at the increasingly annoyed god. "Ngh!" Not even causing the slightest injury, but an annoyance, a distraction, an impairment as the impacts jarred his body.
Just enough that once again, Artemis' judgement was able to find its target. And while he still had this moment, arrows of lightning flew from Atreus' bow toward their target.
"Rrgh, enough, ENOUGH!"
The world itself quaked at Hades' rage, a blast of power catapulting Zagreus, Atreus and Melinoé off their feet.
... The rain of arrows stopped.
"What's going on?" Atreus asked. "Artemis?" They had him. They were winning! Why did she stop?!
There was no answer.
"Ha... Hahahaha... I see!" Hades chuckled to himself, his eyeless sockets looking to the horizon. The sunless horizon. "Without the sun's light to guide her, she can't penetrate my domain." The skull turned upward. "And isn't that a remarkable coincidence. A new moon, so her authority is at its weakest as well." Chuckling to himself, amused despite everything, he continued. "What a coincidence, don't you think? As I told you, this was always fated to be."
As if in answer to that pronouncement, the already dark night sky grew somehow darker. Almost impenetrably so.
Hades sighed. "Nyx..."
"Fate may be written, Hades. But our paths to it are written by our own deeds." The darkness pulled away, gathered into one place to take the form of the woman that had been freed from Tartarus. Her hair now as black as the moonless night sky that surrounded her. "You would write yours with the blood of your children. Of Persephone's children. I won't allow that."
A sad and frustrated howl in three different voices preceded the collapse of Cerberus. A white-haired figure dressed in red and gold shrugged helplessly as he stood beside the sleeping hound.
Then finally, the army of shades seemed to explode in desperate wails of confusion as their brief journey to the surface was cut short. "Lord Hades, I would appreciate not adding more work to my plate," Thanatos said, sounding annoyed at the inconvenience, or perhaps a pretence of annoyance.. "The dead's time on the surface is over."
"Than!" Zagreus called out fondly.
The death god made visible effort to not acknowledge him.
"... I see. A full rebellion, is it? Dress it up however you like. It will be a long night of work for me then, setting my house in order." Despite being surrounded by every important figure of his house, Hades seemed unconcerned. "So. I assume you came prepared to kill me, Nyx."
"Only to help them escape. It's all I can do to make up for your actions and my inaction."
"How gracious. But I'm afraid escape is no longer an option. Or did you fail to notice when you arrived?"
"Notice–?" The goddess of night clearly didn't understand. At least, not until her eyes caught sight of lights in the distance. "No..."
"It didn't take them long, did it?"
Atreus followed Nyx's eyeline to look for what she had seen. And in the distance, right on the edge of Hades' expanded domain, he saw them. Angels. Dozens of them. Many of them with wings numbering six or more and one clearly leading them bearing twelve. Likewise, with the aid of Artemis' blessings he was able to see the figures of fallen angels. Not as many, and led by a single ten winged fallen. And in a final direction... Only two figures. Two devils. One a dark-haired woman, the other a green-haired man. "Angels, devils, fallen, they're surrounding us," he said for the benefit of Zagreus and Melinoé.
"They don't want this conflict to spread," Melinoé concluded.
"Then we can just go?" Atreus asked.
Hades laughed, looking at him. "So young and naïve. No wonder my daughter so easily ensnared you in her schemes. The bats, the crows, the pigeons, they won't let you leave. They're here in hopes of containing us. They won't let anyone leave until this is resolved, all while staring each other down as if they're the real threats." The chthonic Olympian scoffed. "Looking down on us even as they fear what we might do." The metal haft of his spear creaked in his grip. "Nyx. You are only my enemy if you make it so. Surrender, and I will be merciful."
"And that mercy will not extend to them," the goddess of night stated. Not a question, not even a hint of uncertainty.
"It will be a mercy on both they and I. Let us all meet our fates tonight and put an end to the uncertainty."
If there was any hope in Nyx that she might have pulled her lord back from the brink, it expired with those words. "Fate comes in unknown forms. Rush to it, flee from it, it comes all the same. You run screaming headlong toward it to make the uncertainty go away." Power gathered in her hands, shadow and gloom and twinkling stars. "Neither fate nor fear excuse what you have done. I will permit no more suffering on those I love."
"... So be it."
What had been occurring up to this point was a battle between gods. This was undeniable. Had any mortal humans but the most powerful been a part of it, their survival would have been impossible. Yet, what came before and what followed was as different as the day and night in which they had taken place. Were it not for Thanatos flashing to retrieve Zagreus and rescue him from the middle of it, he would have fallen in the first exchange of power. Hades' beams of hellish fury, Nyx's all-consuming shroud of crushing darkness. Hades had been a part of slaying the Titans, and for the first time his children saw what that truly meant. Nyx had been a primordial deity, a founding existence of what would become the Olympian pantheon.
And yet still, "Than, let me go!" Zagreus demanded. "I have to help her!"
"What do you expect to do, Zag?" his former lover asked with his typical flat tone. Even as Thanatos gripped his scythe tightly watching his mother fight. "You might've fought your father a lot, but you never saw what he can really do. You fought him shackled to the house. He no longer is. He was holding back for your sake. He no longer is. And for over a thousand years he's been growing his power in hopes of settling his vendettas one day. He's recognised by all of existence as one of the Ten Strongest Beings. Mother is fighting to save you. In a fight like this... You'd all just get in the way." Pointing to the other two who were doing their best to maintain spells of protection, he added, "Even over here it's a struggle to not be annihilated as collateral damage."
"I can't just–!"
"Are you ready to kill him, Zagreus?" Thanatos asked, the flatly asked question ensuring it was all the more piercing. The son of Hades fell silent. "That is where the situation lies. Either Hades falls, or we all fall. Are you prepared to end your father's life?"
"I..." He couldn't answer. And his sister fully understood as she pulled him into a hug while they watched.
The very stars fell from the sky onto the god of the dead, piercing through his bones. The darkness of night pulled at his body, tore at his cloak, snapped bones. All for it to repair in a span of instants. All the while the goddess of night was under her own assault. Fell totems rose from the ashen ground bursting to hinder her as curses fell around her and detonated. Beams of hellfire sought her form even as she obscured herself with her cloaking darkness.
At one time it might have been a contest. Hades might have been among the Ten Strongest, but Nyx was a primordial deity. She had been a force of the universe before Hades had even been born. However, no such things were set in stone. Hades had been a child, but he had grown, he had risen in power, he had slain the Titans alongside his brothers and sisters, he had become lord of the underworld. Death had eclipsed the Night a long, long time ago. And even worse...
"You seem in poor condition, Nyx," Hades commented as he watched her struggle to stay on her feet. "It seems you haven't fully recovered from Alecto's tender care."
"... ooooo..."
"... What was that?" Atreus asked. The three other gods close enough to hear him glanced at him confused at what he could possibly be talking about.
It was familiar.
"Enough," Zagreus said, pulling away from Thanatos' grip. "If we don't act, we'll all die anyway!"
"...ooooo...!"
"Zagreus, stop!" Melinoé pleaded. "You can't! All of this was to save you!"
"And if Nyx dies for it I'll never forgive myself!" Another arm grabbed him and pulled him back. "Get off me, Atreus!"
"Listen!"
"...OOOOOOO...!"
"Wait, he's right," Thanatos said, his brow furrowed. "What is that?"
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH-BOOOOOM!"
"WHA–?!" It was all Hades could utter before a meteor seemed to crash land on top of him. The battlefield that had been partially obscured by the night had become fully obscured by an enormous cloud of ash kicked up by the impact.
The witnesses shielded their eyes as a wave of ash swept over them, many releasing a burst of power to clear it from their bodies.
"ATREUS!" Kratos called out as he stood atop a cape covered in broken bones. Blond flowing locks aside, he looked more like Atreus' real father than ever when all covered in ash. "Artemis informed me you were in peril! And so I, Mighty Kratos, have come to rescue you all! Also, I'm quite peeved at you for throwing our race!"
"Kratos?" Nyx asked, utterly bewildered by his sudden appearance. "How... How did you...?"
"I jumped!" the musclebound Olympian answered proudly, not seeing any issue at all with jumping two hundred miles across the width of Greece to land on the god of the dead with pinpoint accuracy. "Anyway! Come, Atreus! Bring your new friends if you like!"
"Hrrrgh...!" The bones beneath Kratos feet growled angrily.
"Kratos, look out!"
Another burst of power expelled from the seemingly defeated bones. Kratos leapt away from them as they exploded upward, reforming into the familiar shape of Hades. "Another has chosen to die," he grumbled. "And this one painfully."
"I see! Not as defeated as I thought!" Kratos mused in typical exuberance. "Just a moment, Atreus! I'll have this cleaned up shortly!"
Melinoé gaped at him, not understanding how he could be that confident. "What can you even do?!" Kratos was the god of strength, but when it came to the Ten Strongest, he wasn't anywhere even close to that list. "He can't die and we can't leave! You're trapped with us!"
The son of Zeus smiled more gently. "Someone told me the strength of a warrior comes from here," he said, tapping his heart. "And right now this knows my boy needs help. That's all I need."
"How touching," Hades ground out. After taking such a beating, his formerly pristine bones had each become a spiderweb of cracks and fractures. "Then tell me Buffoon of the Gymnasia, will your son feel better knowing you die alongside him?"
Instead of answering the taunt, the blond god looked around himself, a confused smile slowly warping into a genuine one. "Uncle Hades! How gracious of you to establish my domain for me!"
"... What?"
"You said it yourself! My domain is the gymnasium and the arena! And here we are in a sandy-floored circle, complete with audience watching from the outside." He stamped his feet, kicking up plumes of dust. "I've never felt more at home! Would you care to engage in pankration?"
"... I have a better idea." Throwing both arms forward, hellfire flowed from his cupped palms in a concentrated beam.
In response, Kratos ran toward him, his arms crossed in front of himself as he closed the distance between himself and his opponent in mighty bounds. His arms scorched, he showed none of the pain of the injury as his fist slammed into Hades' skull. Once again the bones shattered, and once again they reformed in less than a second, only to take a second punch, and again reform, a kick to the legs, again reformed, again and again and again. "Wow! You're quite the practice dummy, Uncle!"
"SILENCE!" The spear returned to the fight as Hades realised he couldn't overwhelm the son of Zeus with pure power. If the gym god would suffer whatever it took to get close, he would never escape. Fighting Mighty Kratos on his own terms might have been a dangerous proposition for anyone else. But for one who refused to die, even the most powerful blows were meaningless. As Kratos once again broke his skull, Hades continued with his own assault entirely unaffected. With a deadly sweep of the blade, Kratos' arms were torn open as he attempted a hasty block.
"Kratos!" Atreus shouted.
"Right!" Kratos exclaimed to himself as the fresh wounds bled freely. "Strength from here," tapped his heart, "tempered by this," tapped his head. "Fight smarter, Kratos. Don't let him down." Even though he said it, there was only one way Kratos knew to fight, and so once again he charged forward. He evaded to the right of the burning beam this time, then crossed over to aim a punch at the arm holding the spear. A punch with everything he had, strong enough to turn those bones to powder. If he could break that arm, remove that spear from the battle, he could land devastating blows until the end.
The ulna and radius of Hades' right arm shattered into chips and dust. Kratos watched the hand fly from the body. Now! Don't stop until he can't move anymore. Punch after punch after punch after kick after punch after kick after–!
"Hurk!"
The god of strength stared in a complete failure to understand what just happened. Looked from the still standing skeleton in thousands of pieces, still missing an arm. His view travelled downward, to the red blades piercing through his midsection. He still didn't understand.
What he couldn't see, was the skeletal hand still holding the spear, connected to absolutely nothing, yet with enough strength on its own to run Mighty Kratos through.
And on the sidelines, Atreus watched in horror. "KRATOS!"
"Was that satisfactory pankration, 'Mighty' Kratos?" Hades asked, his body reforming once again. Once again Kratos was bathed in hellfire. His entire body covered in burns, his hair scoured from his head. Only then as he was completely defeated did the spear rip from his insides and return to Hades again.
Kratos dropped to his knees, blood pouring from his wounds.
The scream that tore from Atreus' throat tore his vocal cords. Hate. Rage. Regret. Fury. Fury. Fury. FURY. FURY! FURY! "HADES!"
"Atreus!"
"AAAAAAAAAAGH!"
None could stop him as he threw himself forward. They might have tried, but he quickly outpaced them as he found himself falling to all fours. His steps thunderous impacts as his body grew heavy, stout, powerful, flames spewed from his lips as tusks curved upward from his face. All of these changes were completely unknown to him. His mind consumed by the one emotion that refused to loosen its grip. The fury. The need to destroy that thing. To protect that other thing. He roared as he fell upon Hades, ramming into him, slamming his bulk down onto the bones. Stomping over and over again. Die! Die! It had to die!
Hades remained unperturbed. "A god child. Barely understanding what it is. I wonder what you might have been if my fool daughter had not brought you into this. But now, we will never know."
One curse. Two. Three.
"ATREUS!"
He couldn't hear Melinoé's call. Even as Hades' curses ravaged his insides, the only thought in his head was that the bone thing must die. Even as the spear ran him through, the bone thing must die. Even as hellfire cooked his flesh, the bone thing must die.
Only when his wounds became too severe did the fog of his fury recede. His body shifted back to his human form. Just like his supposed father. Burned, stabbed, broken, and worse as the curses once again ripped out of him.
"FATHER!" Melinoé screamed, running toward them. "Take me instead! I'm the one who betrayed you! I'm the one who brought him into this! Please, stop! Please!"
If the skull was able to convey any emotion, in that moment it might have been pity as hades looked upon his daughter. "None can defy their fate. It was always going to end this way. Take comfort. For you, this will all be over soon."
The battlefield fell silent. Nyx struggled to get to her feet, to give one last desperate attempt to save her adopted kin. Kratos continued to bleed. Zagreus raced toward his sister, Thanatos chased him. And in the distance, devils, angels and fallen watched on, waiting for the conclusion to this incident so they could comfortably return to the status quo.
"... oyyyy...!"
Hades held the young god's limp body by the head. His spear outstretched, ready to separate head from shoulders.
"... boyyyyy...!"
The weapon swung with the confidence of a movement performed hundreds of thousands of times. Only for a clang to ring out as it met an impact that created a shockwave as it flew out of Hades' hand. The culprit, another weapon. A weapon that arced gracefully through the air despite the sudden bounce. Onlookers could barely catch a glimpse of the frosted weapon before it suddenly changed trajectory, flying straight upward.
"...BOYYYYY!"
"What now?" Hades asked with irritation as he looked upward.
And there, in the stars of the night sky, he saw the head of the strongest being in the universe. The fearsome dragon Great Red snapping his jaws, only to sneer and retreat back into the Dimensional Gap. The ones he had been chasing, two squat figures in a broken vessel tumbling toward the ground...
And another being. A giant of a man who caught the frosted axe in his hand even as he fell from the sky. Red tattoos, ashen skin, and a focused fury as he roared for all to hear.
"ATREUUUUUUUS!"
-(-)-
A/N: This chapter seen very early by my generous supporters on THE GREAT FORBIDDEN P! FEAR THE P! LOVE THE P!