Beyond Hades (The Prometheus Wars)

by Luke Romyn

  Wes drew Chiron’s sword, glancing first at the huge Cerberus, and then behind them toward the sounds of running feet.

  “Aw.... Fuck it!” Wes snarled.

  Before Talbot could react, Wes darted forward, straight toward Cerberus. The huge hound’s left head shot down – directly for Wes! – and the commando calmly sidestepped it. The great maw crashed into the ground, missing him by mere inches. Without a second’s pause, Wes swung Chiron’s sword in a glittering arc which seemed to pass straight through the left neck of the giant canine. The other two heads howled violently and Cerberus leaped to the right, demolishing the entire side of a building.

  The attacking head flew clear, rolling across the ground, sizzling and hissing on the stone path – shrinking as it did so. Within seconds it had returned to the size of the tiny puppy, dead eyes staring up at the black clouds. Thick, white goo pumped from the severed neck of the canine and Cerberus growled at Wes with its remaining two heads, but neither seemed willing to come within striking distance of the glowing sword again.

  Wes stepped forward, and the enormous beast turned to flee –

  But it was a trick! The long, serpentine tail whipped out, darting for Wes’s face, venomous fangs rushing toward him.

  Luckily, the commando possessed lightning reactions, and his blade came up at the last moment, slicing the horrific snake-tail in two before it managed to latch onto him. Cerberus yelped piteously once more, its tail dropping to the ground, sizzling and returning to its original size.

  “We can do this all day buddy,” Wes murmured, and it seemed Cerberus understood him, its middle head cocking and ears pricking up. “I’ll just keep cutting shit off you until you’re one paw and a nut sack. Or you could step aside and let us pass. Let some other fucker worry about us.”

  The flow of fluid from the creature’s severed neck had slowed, and the tail was not bleeding the white liquid Talbot presumed was its blood as profusely. Cerberus trembled slightly, until it finally, gingerly moved to the side, leaving them a clear exit to the gate.

  “Well, that was eas –”

  Wes’s words were cut off as the two of them were driven to the ground by heavy bodies crash-tackling them from behind. Their arms expertly secured behind them by large hands, they were easily lifted to their feet and spun around, strong arms holding them from behind.

  Standing a few feet away was Prometheus, smiling maliciously as one of the other Titans handed him Chiron’s sword.

  “I see you have finally seen through our ruse,” said Prometheus. “In a way I am glad, it was beginning to annoy me to have to bow and scrape to you pathetic monkeys. I mean, really, look at your race – you’re pathetic. I just wish you hadn’t stepped on that damn finger. You remember, don’t you? When I had you on that ship, posing as that fool lieutenant general? We could have ended this much sooner if you’d only gone along with things as I planned. But once again my impatience showed through.”

  “I thought that was you,” replied Talbot. “Your pretty eyes gave you away.”

  “I still can’t believe you got past both me and the Gorgon. She was supposed to freeze you until we could bring you back here.” Prometheus laughed hollowly. “You are going to wish you’d just gone along with things and opened the gate into Olympia, because if you refuse, I’m going to make your torment a thing of legend; something else for your people to scribble alongside their other ignorant tales.”

  Prometheus signaled to the two Titans, and Wes and Talbot were roughly hauled away, dragged back through the streets and into the main building once more. This time they were taken through another door in the main hall, one they hadn’t entered before. The door led to a room full of devices which made Talbot’s skin crawl. Though he professed no clear idea of what each did, he knew what they were designed for:

  Torture.

  The Titan holding Talbot sneered as they were shoved over to two vertical, metallic benches. The surfaces faced each other over a distance of about twenty feet. It took Talbot a moment to comprehend why, but when he figured it out a part of him cringed. They were holding devices, designed to make people watch each other while they were being tortured.

  The ropes were released from behind their backs, and they were secured to leather straps hanging from the tops of the tall benches, obviously designed for Titan-proportioned prisoners.

  “What the hell do you want from us, Profiterole?” snapped Wes.

  “You,” Prometheus began, pointing an accusing finger at Wes, “only serve as a point of leverage should your friend refuse to aid us. I will gladly kill you. What we want is him.” Prometheus pointed at Talbot, and he felt his heart lurch.

  Moving to the far wall, Prometheus nodded to the other two Titans, and they pushed a seemingly solid stone wall, heaving it sideways. Slowly the wall began to slide, disappearing into the corner. Prometheus then dismissed the two Titans, who bowed and departed the way they had entered, leaving Wes and Talbot alone in the huge chamber with him.

  “I have been charged with opening that rift,” said Prometheus, indicating the previously hidden area. Talbot craned his head and saw what the Titan was talking about. In the hidden room stood another rift gate, its control tablets seeming to call out to Talbot. So this was how they meant to invade Olympia!

  “We were able to replicate the technology of the Olympians with smuggled plans. In fact, it was that very journey to Olympia which saw me caught and imprisoned, and their devising my winged friend to slowly consume me.” He chuckled mirthlessly.

  “But that is all beside the point,” continued Prometheus. “Our warriors will use this gate to travel directly into the rear fields of Olympia, attacking them by surprise and decimating their already weakened army. But the problem arises that, while we were able to reproduce the Olympian technology and travel to other locations, we still cannot open this rift; Olympia is somehow shielded, requiring something we do not possess. The Elder-tongue continues to elude us, and I believe only this can unlock it.”

  Talbot had been wracking his brain, trying to understand how the Titans could possibly utilize the rift above the huge pit, and even if they did, how would they be able to enter Olympia? Though Zeus had admitted to small rips opening in the fabric of time, it seemed they had most of the entrances either secured or protected by wards such as the one he and Wes had been forced through. There was certainly no chance of an invading horde conquering those defenses.

  But if the Titans had access to their own gate, that would be a different story altogether. They might be able to infiltrate Olympia undetected, and with the Olympians still recovering from the last war between the dimensions, they’d be slaughtered!

  “But with you, Doctor Talbot Harrison,” Prometheus spat the words, “we can open this gate and fulfill our destiny as the true rulers of Olympia! You’re going to do that for me, whether you like it or not.”

  “What really happened to my brother?” countered Talbot, trying to buy some time.

  “Your brother was a fool. We didn’t expect him to be with the advance squad of troops or else we would have never allowed Cerberus to attack them. He spoke directly to Cerberus, trying to convince the stupid beast not to attack, when one of my warriors released a swarm of fire hornets – insects possessing incredibly torturous poison – and they attacked and killed your brother. Thus, we had to organize a secondary plan. That plan was you.”

  “How did you even know about me?”

  “Oh, I forgot, you haven’t even come close to deducing the entire scheme. I was there the whole time, put in place to ensure everything went smoothly.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Talbot.

  Prometheus’s form rapidly shifted and changed, shrinking to the size of a man and adopting the form of someone Talbot recognized –

  General William Sharpe.

  “You son of a bitch!” said Talbot, surging forward and straining the bonds which held him.

  “‘Doctor Harrison, your brother is dead.’” The words were the
first Talbot had ever heard from this man back in his own world, in a time before everything had turned insane. It was a time when Talbot had simply been an archaeologist, unhappy with his life, but too scared to try and change it. Prometheus laughed, his features smoothly flowing into those of Hades.

  “‘Meld with the short one’,” the figure of Hades said, perfectly mimicking the tone of the Lord of the Underworld.

  The figure swirled again, becoming his brother. “Save these people, Talbot, they have done no harm to any –” The figure mimicked choking on the blood which sprayed from its mouth before breaking into harsh laughter and returning to the form of Prometheus.

  “You are indeed a fool, just as the Olympians are fools. We will bypass their defenses using this gate and hit them unexpectedly where they feel safest. They think they’re so secure in their towering city up on Mount Olympus, but we will come at them like a hurricane within their own borders, cutting them to pieces before they even realize what has happened. I now command a force more powerful than the original army of the Titans, and we have schemed for years, leaving nothing to chance.”

  Prometheus grinned triumphantly, moving to the table where he picked up Chiron’s sword, shaking his head and placing it back on the bench. Instead, the Titan grabbed a long, thin shaft of metal, twin blades splitting apart at the end when a trigger was pressed.

  “This little thing can make you sing your most protected secrets,” Prometheus whispered maliciously. “But when it is used on another, when you are forced to watch what it can do to someone you care for, the effect is even more dramatic.” Prometheus turned to the other torture rack and his face dropped.

  Wes was gone!

  “Hey sexy,” whispered a voice.

  Prometheus spun around, his voice rising to shout for help. “Gua –”

  It was a shout that never finished.

  Wes stood atop the table, his right hand gripping a short, double-bladed knife from the tray of torture tools. Standing almost eye to eye with Prometheus, he stabbed it into the base of the Titan’s throat, severing his windpipe.

  No blood flowed from the wound, and Talbot remembered Prometheus’s miraculous healing abilities.

  But so did Wes.

  Just as the Titan was raising his hand to remove the blade, Wes flicked the hilt of the sword of Chiron into the air with his foot, expertly catching it, and slicing it cleanly through Prometheus’s neck, decapitating the huge Titan.

  Prometheus’s head fell sideways, a look of utter surprise frozen on his features. His skull hit the floor and bounced – the sound heavy and hard, like a bowling ball dropped on a timber floor. The massive body stood for a moment before crumpling to the ground.

  “Grow that again, fuck-face,” muttered Wes, leaping off the table, throwing the remainder of his restraints to the floor and revealing the small folding knife hidden in his left hand, concealing it once more in the hidden pocket under the collar of his fatigues.

  “You took your time,” muttered Talbot, moving his right arm to a better position for Wes to cut through it with Chiron’s sword. “I wasn’t sure how long I could keep distracting him!”

  “You did a great job, princess,” replied Wes. “Besides, do you have any idea how hard those restraint things were to cut through with that little knife?”

  Talbot shook his head and almost grinned before he caught himself. They were in no position to relax, stuck as they were within a city and surrounded by possibly the most powerful enemies imaginable.

  His eyes were drawn to the rift gate.

  It sat there, seeming to call out to him, and Talbot realized they had no choice. It was horrible. In knowing what he had to do, Talbot also knew he was doing exactly what the Titans required of him. It was what they had been leading him toward ever since this thing had begun, twisting and manipulating events as they went, and it tasted like ash in Talbot’s mouth that he had no other option.

  He had to open the gate in order to return to Olympia and warn Zeus. But in opening the gate he also risked the chance they wouldn’t be able close it from the other side. The gate would be open for the Titans to use for their attack.

  “We’ve got no choice,” said Wes, guessing at what was tormenting Talbot. “We have to warn them, and that’s the only way through.”

  “I know,” muttered Talbot. He still didn’t like it. They might condemn the Olympians in the very act of trying to save them.

  “Besides which,” continued Wes, “we still have to get home and close off the Syrpeas Gate before everything goes to shit.”

  Talbot cursed softly. With all the stress of the impending war and the duplicity of the Titans, he’d forgotten their real mission. As unbelievable as it was, he’d stopped thinking about the perilous situation of the Syrpeas Gate – the main rift from which all of the others apparently flowed – expanding exponentially until the entire universe was consumed. How the hell had he forgotten that?

  “Alright,” he said to Wes, thinking quickly. “I think we can manage to escape and collapse this gate if you smash this panel here” – he indicated the one closest to the rift – “right before we jump through. You can’t be too quick, though.”

  “That’s what the ladies say too,” replied Wes with a wicked grin.

  “What?”

  Wes shook his head and sighed. “Don’t worry. It won’t be a problem.”

  Moving over to the stone control panel, Talbot began to rapidly punch the combination of symbols opening the rift to Olympia – bypassing the need to return to Hades.

  It still amazed Talbot to discover he possessed an understanding of things which he had no real reason to know. Even as he watched his hands blurring across the panel, he had no comprehension why the symbols he pressed were the correct ones, or how he had come to know. The only thing Talbot could liken it to was reading a book or the newspaper: somehow the squiggly letters on a page which created sentences and paragraphs made sense the way they did, they just did. The only difference was he had learned how to read books; this talent seemed innate.

  The huge stone pillars so similar to those at Stonehenge and identical to every other gate began to spin. Within moments they were merely a blur and then, with a mighty thunderclap, the blur disappeared, replaced by a yawning, swirling rift.

  Talbot prepared to leap into the rift when the main doors suddenly burst open behind them. He turned to see Kronos, along with about a dozen other Titans, crowding the entrance to the room. The king of the Titans glanced down at the decapitated corpse of Prometheus, becoming suffused with rage and releasing a primordial roar. All the Titans with him – most garbed for war – charged into the room.

  Wes drew Chiron’s sword and snarled, preparing to fight, but Talbot grabbed him and threw the commando bodily into the rift before diving in behind him. As the icy chill of nothing wrapped him, Talbot cursed himself. In his haste to save Wes, he’d forgotten the one thing more important than any other –

  He’d left the back door open.

  The Titans now had a way into Olympia.

  CHAPTER 15

  Talbot fell heavily to the dusty stone ground, silently cursing the fact he hadn’t been prepared for the sickening lurch or reappearance of gravity. This was the third – or was it the fourth? – time he’d jumped between dimensions; he should be used to the jolt at the end by now. It was like riding a roller coaster without a seatbelt or shoulder-bars, and then hitting a concrete wall as the rift abruptly spat him back into reality.

  Scrambling to his feet, Talbot felt hands aiding him and glanced up to see Wes already standing, his eyes darting around for any signs of danger. The rift had opened up on the outer edge of the large, open plain behind the Olympian citadel. The soaring rear wall – the only protection from this side of the city – rose far off in the distance. Craggy peaks encircled the entire top of Mount Olympus. Off in the distance Talbot could just make out the main hall of Zeus, glinting high on the mound in the middle of the city, like a lighthouse overlooking all that
the leader of the mythical Greek gods cared for.

  Dusting himself off, Talbot nodded thanks to Wes and looked behind him. The rift from Tartarus remained constant. It wasn’t closing. With nobody on the other side to shut it down, and no controls on the Olympian side, the rift was now open permanently – or at least until the Titans decided to close it, which probably wouldn’t be soon.

  Talbot heard heavy hoof beats approaching and Wes spun around, Chiron’s sword up and ready to defend as a dozen Olympians warriors – in full battle armor of bronze, including greaves, breastplate, helm and pleated leather kilt – came riding toward them across the plain from the distant city. Within seconds Talbot and Wes were surrounded by a dozen spears buzzing with the same power as Chiron’s sword.

  “What have you done?” gasped a familiar voice. Talbot’s gaze shot over to see Zeus approaching atop a magnificent white steed, his eyes fixed upon the rift shimmering behind them. “Where is Heracles?”

  “Oh shit,” murmured Wes, shifting the sword slightly in his hand, adjusting his grip. “Here comes daddy.”

  “Heracles gave his life for us,” said Talbot, aware of the savage drop in Zeus’s expression. “As for this,” he waved his hand at the rift. “This is a catastrophic problem, and I’m not sure how much time we’ll have before the Titans get here.”

  The look of sorrow on Zeus’s face was instantly replaced by one of intense focus. “Tell me everything,” he said, waving the soldiers away. The soldiers rode off in a cloud of dust and took up defensive positions, aiming themselves toward the huge rift.

  Talbot told Zeus the entire tale of their journey from the point when they’d left Olympia through the rift with Heracles. The Olympian leader’s expression hardly changed when Talbot recalled how Heracles had sacrificed himself to Kharon in order for them to cross the river Styx, but Talbot sensed a deep pride within Zeus. When Talbot reached their escape from Hades, Wes interjected with his severing of Hades’s arm and Prometheus’s miraculous powers of regeneration before allowing Talbot to continue through to the present.