Time might have moved fast for immortals, but it seemed slower than clouds for mortals. Three years passed and the cousins had not heard a single word from Hermes or about Tartarus. It was challenging to not fear the worst, but they tried not to. They followed Gobber's advice to back off. Rather than beseech Hermes, they spent their time protecting Athens and other cities. The dangers were not gone—only subtler. Greece always had monsters. No one thought much about seeing them from time to time, not even Zeus. The Berkians knew that they were still targeting heroes. So, they still fought, but they did this with more subtlety as well.

Usually, it was easier to split up. The heroes knew that they would draw too much attention if they went places together. It would seem too serious—too much like old times. Therefore, they took shifts. Snotlout would go with Hookfang and occasionally some other warriors to deal with threats like those from centaurs and various monsters when their plan was just to invade and kill. When the problem seemed like it could be resolved diplomatically, Hiccup would go with Toothless and sometimes Gustav. Sleuther went with both groups. Regardless, even though time worked differently for gods, they knew how to use it to their advantage. The heroes noticed small changes in the ways that the monsters were behaving. It was beyond merely going after heroes. That was too obvious. They were going after cities protected by all the gods who had sided with Ares in the trial.

Delphi was getting attacked more often. The same could be said about Crete and Naxos. They were far from the only cities. One city which was noticeably untouched lately was Athens. It was a way to prove a point and the group knew this. It annoyed them, but they did not risk saying anything. No one knew who could be listening. Gradually, Snotlout noticed that there were more than regular monsters in Thebes. Word was spreading that the area was having problems with giants. The warrior would have gone on his own, but he recalled it all too well the last time he had seen giants. Snotlout found Hiccup preparing new weapons beside Toothless. He looked up when he sensed Snotlout approaching, immediately seeing the worried expression on his face.

"I think Eurymedon is at it again," the warrior said.

Immediately, Hiccup stood up. "Where is he?"

"In Thebes, if the rumors are correct."

Briefly, there was silence between them. They knew why.

"This shouldn't attract too much attention," Snotlout commented.

Hiccup nodded, but he did not know if he agreed or not. Even Snotlout did not. They were simply being hopeful. Nonetheless, sometimes hope was all anyone had. Neither Berkian could deny the bitterness they felt towards the king of giants either. He and his allies were responsible for their friend's state. They might not be able to oppose the gods, but he was someone they could fight without the fear of being smote. They hopped onto the saddles and took off for Thebes. Their flight was mostly quiet, both of them thinking deeply about what they would do once they arrived. Snotlout was the first to break this.

"Do you think Hermes will ever help?"

Hiccup sighed softly. "I hope so."

"Maybe he forgot. We don't really know how memory works for immortals. They're around for so long that they might begin to forget about things after a year in our time."

Hiccup wanted to insist that he was being paranoid; however, the inventor could not bring himself to disagree. It was all possible.

"The others haven't forgotten," he stated, certain.

Even if Hermes did not have freeing the war god as high on his list of priorities, Hiccup was sure that the other immortals would not forget. Every time he and Snotlout saved people around their temples, it was a reminder of who they were and what their team did. Maybe the reason they focused so much on these areas was less to be altruistic and more to provide those steady reminders. Either way, it had to work.

"They won't let him stay there forever."

Snotlout nodded, hoping beyond all hope that he was right. No matter, they had to keep flying. They saw the giants when they approached Thebes. In dismay, they realized that they did not see Eurymedon. Hiccup scowled at the sight.

"Where is he?" he wondered aloud.

"Maybe he's watching them from afar," Snotlout suggested.

That could have been true, but it was still frustrating. Going closer, the duo saw that the giants had captured several groups of people. They were in cages. Snotlout recognized these as the bone cages he and Minden had been put in. Like that, the captives would be easy to devour.

"If you free the people, Hooky, Sleuther, and I can get the giants," he volunteered.

"We'll join you as soon as the captives are freed," Hiccup assured him.

Instantly, the group split up. One cage was lifted into the air by a giant, being brought towards its mouth. Hookfang sped up and Snotlout drew his ax. In a swift motion, he sliced through the over-sized hand. The giant let out a pain-filled cry and Sleuther caught the cage before it could crash onto the ground. Hiccup and Toothless quickly flew over. The inventor had a small bone saw, using this to cut open an exit. Gratefully, the prisoners ran out. The giants were less pleased with this, but they were distracted by the warrior.

"Fire blast!" Snotlout called out.

Hookfang blew a stream of fire at the giants' faces and Sleuther did the same. This forced them to stumble back. When one moved too much, Sleuther used the snake head to bite it as his claws tore at its leg. Hiccup kept freeing captives as the others fought. Soon, everyone was freed, so he and Toothless flew towards the others. The winged horse went close to the monsters, kicking one in the eyes. It blindly swiped the air for him but missed.

"That's almost all of them," Snotlout remarked, looking at the group.

There had not been that many giants to start with. It would be simple to dispose of the group…maybe too simple. Hiccup's eyes narrowed at a spot in the distance, then widened.

"Not anymore," he said. "There are more headed this way."

Snotlout squinted, then grunted when he saw what he meant. It looked like there was an army of giants approaching.

"Let's not wait for them to get here," he suggested.

Patting Hookfang's head, he got the bird to start flying to them. The others followed, none of them wanting the beasts to get close enough to harm the other mortals. Toothless got there first, giving Hiccup the chance to drop a couple sacs down on the giants. When they burst, a foul smell escaped, making the monsters choke. Snotlout held his breath as he took advantage of their shock. His ax was brought down over the head of several before he moved out of the noxious cloud. It would have been nice if this had made an impact. More giants behind them appeared. They were appearing out of thin air.

"It's got to be one of those orbs!" Snotlout called out.

"And nobody else is here to even back up what we're saying," Hiccup realized. "It was another trap."

From the corner of his eye, he saw a few mortals watching. They were too far to get a good look at the details of the fight, but they could see how badly outnumbered the heroes were. The cousins refused to give up. If they had to go down fighting, they would. Hiccup had a flask that he emptied over a few giants. It was not deadly, but the substance burned their skin. This helped give Snotlout more time to attack, slicing through the tendons in their ankles and making them fall forward. The ground shook violently whenever one crashed down. It was enough to blur the vision of anyone who might have been able to confirm that new giants were suddenly arriving on the scene. Soon, several dozen were there. Sleuther wrapped his tail around one's neck, choking out the giant as he bit him. Still, when fighting an endless supply of foes, the group was bound to lose. Then the ground shook again.

No giant had fallen, but the earth trembled and quaked. It opened up, letting some giants fall through. They clung onto the edges for dear life, but when another tremor shook everything, they could not hold on. The cousins could only look at one another with equal dread and knowing. Behind them, the other mortals simply thought that it had been a success. They even cheered, doing so with more vigor when they saw the king of the seas. The cousins could not keep the scowls off their faces when Poseidon appeared. He smiled smugly at them all.

"I'm glad I was here," he said. "It looked like you wouldn't have made it."

The mortals bit their tongues, refusing to take the bait and get killed over this. It just was more frustrating as they saw the others praise Poseidon's supposedly good name.

"Athena's warriors couldn't defeat the giants," one of them claimed.

"Only Poseidon could!"

There were several agreements in the crowd. Poseidon soaked in their admiration.

"Whenever Thebes is in danger, I'll protect you." He looked at the heroes. "It's not right to expect mortals or other gods to do what I can."

He began to vanish, seeing the deep bows everyone gave him before he did. The cousins watched with concern as the people started running off. They flew over to join them.

"What are you doing?" Snotlout asked.

They were headed to a temple.

"Turning this into a temple for Poseidon."

"What?" the cousins asked, horrified.

"It used to be for Athena, but she didn't help us. Poseidon did."

"Y-you can't do that," Hiccup said. "Poseidon was…"

He wanted to say that he was responsible for the giants, but he did not. Without saying it, he could not convince the people. They immediately started making the new statue and broke the other one.

"We still have Dionysus's temple," someone mentioned, "but if he can't help either, we might turn that into a temple for Poseidon too."

The cousins felt numb, but they had no power to order the people not to do this. Reluctantly, they began returning home.

"We keep getting played," Hiccup commented bitterly.

"We're not left with many options. We either get put in a trap or wait for people to die."

"They know how to get us to do exactly what they want."

It was the truth that neither of them wanted to face and still had to. It was enough to enrage them as much as it discouraged them. There was no telling how many times this had already happened to other gods' temples or how many more it would happen to in the future. Thoughts of this remained in the heroes' minds all the way home. There were times when everything seemed hopeless. They were not the only ones to know this. It had been the same in Tartarus. Three years of non-stop fighting could take its toll on anyone—even the god of war. Dagur felt himself embracing the battle in a way he had not done in centuries. The thrill of pure bloodlust, it was the only way to hold onto reality in a place like that. When thrown into a ceaseless battle, someone would either fall or force others to. Dagur chose the latter. He littered the ground with monsters, but there were always more. Some were from orbs, some had been prisoners, and more had been sent to attack him by the lord of the Underworld himself. It happened almost any time that portal opened. That was why when it opened again, Dagur's muscles tensed, ready for a new battle. Only, no one fell into the realm. Someone flew. In surprise, Dagur looked up at the messenger god. Hermes was flying towards him, eyeing where the monsters were. He shuddered at the sight.

"Let's not make this take any longer than it needs to," he mentioned anxiously.

The winged sandals the god wore let him hover over the other immortal. He used a staff to keep some monsters at bay. Dagur saw that he was having the portal stay open. Shifting, he turned into a vulture and began to fly out with the other god. They kept going until they were out of Tartarus.

"I know another way out of the Underworld," Hermes mentioned, leading him.

He and Dagur hurried out of the realm, slipping by souls and even Ryker without being seen. They only stopped when they were back in the land of mortals. Dagur glanced around absent-mindedly. He was out. It did not feel real.

"Your friends have quite the habit of talking a lot," Hermes said. "I've been told I can be the same, but they definitely won't let go of something when they're upset. I didn't think they'd ever stop beseeching me."

Dagur did not really respond to him. He barely heard the other god. He offered a small "thanks" and started walking off. Hermes stopped him before he could get too far.

"Your sentence wasn't lifted, Ares. You shouldn't return to Olympus."

This, Dagur did hear. He let out a quick laugh.

"Johann, that's the second to last place I want to go right now." An unhinged smile spread across his face. "I'm going to Berk."

Freedom! Finally. I know I mentioned Delphi and Crete before, but that's also true about Naxos and Thebes having temples for Dionysus. Naxos was apparently the most prominent place for his worship at least from what I found. Speaking of temples, supposedly, Poseidon's first temple actually used to be one for Athena. So, even though he has other ones here, I figured it could be fun to see him basically steal one. Boo, Poseidon. I'm not sure what caused the people to change it over, but here, they definitely got tricked. I can also give you the second part of the Ares in the jar myth now. It's part of the reason I did the "casting" the way that I did. Hermes really was the one to save him. Since (spoilers) Johann was the one to set up Dagur's escape in RTTE, I figured it would make sense for him to be involved in it here too. So, everybody is all in-character. (And Dagur got to leave that terrible place, so I'm happy!)