War God's Mantle- Underworld

by James Hunter

  Needless to say, we’d been busy. I’d used up nearly half of my Divine Essence. Worth it.

  I floated above the ramparts in the Helios Chariot, all six horses pawing the air with hooves of flame that reflected off their dark, oily bodies. Gazing down, I took stock of Hades’ army. Every street in Rockford overflowed with his soldiers, all dressed in Greek armor. Many of them looked human until you saw that, like their master, they had no facial features, just blank skin stretched taut over their skulls. The freak shows didn’t even have ears. Not sure how they could sense anything. Mixed in with the foot soldiers was every type of horror, from wolf-headed men to women with snakes for arms. Spider centaurs—armored humans up top, all spidery legs on the bottom—scuttled up and over houses. In my old gaming group, we used to call them driders. Thank you, Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms.

  Huge hulking giants with skin like melting wax tromped down the street, leaving a trail of goo behind them. Wasn’t sure what that ichor was, but I knew it couldn’t be good.

  Vulture-headed archers with short bows were mixed in with Hell’s infantry. I didn’t see any signs of harpies or other flyers, however, and that bothered me. I was holding some of own forces in reserve, so I expected Hades to do the same. Only my Battle Wardens and Elementalists were visible in the park.

  I knew Hades had at least three Furies in his back pocket. However, the Erinyes weren’t fluttering around him at the moment.

  I also didn’t see any sign of Gatling guns or berserkers, but then, those might’ve been Necro Earl’s idea.

  Hades stood there without moving. His voice, though, filled my head. Before I quit this Underworld to bring death across the universe, I want to watch you bleed, Jacob Merely.

  “Are you watching now?” I thundered. “Look upon me! I am the god of war! And when I say war, I mean the god of war on you, Hades! You are the only thing I want to kill. And the only thing I need to.”

  I fired up the Aegletes Crown to make sure everyone—and when I say everyone, I mean everyone—was gazing up at me.

  The driders stopped their scuttling. The strange melting ogres paused to look up, their faces dripping onto their chests. Even the faceless soldiers threw their helmets back, eyeless heads turned my way.

  I was a glowing god above the dark city, shining like a blazing star on a moonless night.

  Can everyone see how gorgeous I am? I messaged my troops.

  Toxaris responded, You are beautiful, War God. We can see you from the southern river of flames.

  Euryleia’s voice came next. We are hidden in the houses to the north, near the edges of the Plain of Judgement. And we can see you. I could almost hear Buttercup the bear growling in agreement.

  Sophia and I can see you from the east, Asteria messaged me.

  Myrina came next. Persephone and I are ready in the west.

  Yep. We can see you from Satan’s playground, Phoebe sent.

  That was all I needed to know. I messaged my army. Everyone. Close your eyes. Now!

  I wasn’t about to trade threats with Hades. Such bullshit. I’m going to kill you, Jacob ... No, I’m going to kill you, Hades ... Nuh-uh, I’m going to kill you more ... I’m going to kill you infinity times ... Well, I’m going to kill you infinity times infinity.

  Whatever. No. Instead, I lifted the Shield of Perseus and let the face of the dead Medusa do all the talking for me.

  A cry boomed from below, a sea of voices that came together in one pitiful wail, but only for a second. Then the snap of flesh becoming rock echoed across the landscape as every single monster gazing up at me turned to stone in an instant. Driders crumbled as their spindly legs refused to hold up the weight of their petrified bodies. Those melting-skinned ogres would melt no more. They became statues, as did the various demon-headed creatures, along with a thousand faceless foot soldiers. They didn’t have eyes, but they must’ve had something close, because they froze up solid, trapped in stone. I got an ass-ton of experience points for that little maneuver. Level thirty, here I come!

  Thanks for letting me use your shield, Hippolyta! I sent to the Battle Warden.

  Any time, War God! came her joyous reply. Thank Loxo for giving me the Vambraces of Boreas! I’ve not enjoyed the cold until now.

  That made me smile.

  Hades roared in my head and came flying up at me. Because he was a god, he was unaffected by the Shield of Perseus—it was a powerful artifact, but it wasn’t a weapon of the gods. Unlike our other weapons, that shield was a one-and-done item until the next day. But it had served its purpose and leveled the playing field for us.

  I whipped the reins of the fire stallions, and we went dashing off, glancing over my shoulder at the madness below. My job for the moment was simple—draw Hades off long enough for my Amazons to beat the holy living shit out of Hell’s legions. And though we were still outnumbered, even after unleashing the Shield of Perseus, I had four demigoddesses running the show. But with Hades tearing ass after me, the infernal army would have no leadership at all. And without someone to rally their defenses and come up with a game plan, Hades’ troops were going to get steamrolled by my Amazons.

  The remainder of Hades’ forces surged forward with a guttural warcry. But every avenue leading toward our stronghold at Highland Park was now full of statues. The demon army would have to pick their way through rather than storming forward en masse.

  And as the nightmares rushed the park, my hidden forces sprang into action. From the north, my Beastiamancers hit the flank of the demon army. Bull horns tore through armor and into the organs underneath. Huge bear paws swiped off the heads of the enemy warriors. Arrows flashed and exploded on impact in blasts of fire, or cold, or electricity. Some exploded like grenades. We’d used every second to enchant our projectile weapons.

  For a moment, I wondered how the creatures of the Underworld could be killed. Why hadn’t Hades brought spirits? Then I knew. He needed a flesh and blood army to wreak havoc across the universe once he escaped through the rift. This was his invasion force.

  I urged the fire stallions forward as Hades pursued me.

  I wheeled left, leading Hades toward the Plain of Judgement. Below, demons crawled up over our walls, but the Battle Wardens were ready and waiting. Ballista bolts, heavily enchanted, created huge explosions of flame that sent our enemies flying. Bodies incinerated. Doris and Ianthe, back from the dead and ready to party, stood on cars and speared driders as they tried to get up and over our makeshift ramparts. Hippolyta joined them, grinning from ear to ear because she wasn’t back in Lycastia City. Finally, she was out on a battlefield, fighting with the best of her sisters. She froze creatures using the magical bracelets on her arms, then blasted them apart with her grenade javelins.

  Phoebe joined the fun. She marched her mech over the green grass to the car wall. She’d created a third arm on her walker to hold the Hammer of Hephaestus. The driders and snake women that made it over the wall had her to face, and as a demigoddess, she was a force of nature to be reckoned with. Phoebe laid into them with the hammer, using the AoE Firestorm spell, which delivered three times her Engineered-Weapons Damage. Spiders went up in flames. A dozen snake-armed women were fricasseed on the spot.

  Nearby, Brontia and Steropia worked the Gatling guns from the back of the Death Harvesters, laying down suppressive fire. Bullets screamed through the air, tearing apart werewolves and dog-headed soldiers in a storm of magically conjured lead.

  From the west, Persephone, using her mother’s sickles, cut into the rear of the demon army. The sickle blades went flying down the street, hacking through soldiers and mowing them down like they were stalks of wheat. The enchanted weapons then returned to the spring goddess’ hands, only for her to hurl them once more.

  When the faceless foot soldiers turned on the spring goddess, Myrina was there to bring Athena’s Spear down. She hit them with Battlequake. Thousands died from that blast as she dealt out shit-tons of raw damage. Then, while they reeled from the spell, she waded
into the fray, flinging shadow spears, killing countless creatures. Nothing could stand up to the new demigoddess of battle.

  The ground rumbled.

  From the east, Asteria went smashing into the back of Hell’s forces as a triceratops. And she didn’t come alone. She’d used her Animal Summoning ability to bring two dozen other dinosaurs, everything from stegosaurs to enormous, spike-studded T. rexes. My Teleporter appeared over the prehistoric terrors—along with her two Temporal Forms. A flurry of katanas flashed like liquid lightning, chopping off heads and shearing through outstretched limbs. When the faceless foot soldiers went to spear them, the three versions of Sophia would vanish only to appear ten feet away, continuing the decapitations and amputations.

  It was grisly work, but the Teleporter didn’t seem to mind in the least.

  Asteria gored a series of driders and trampled more. Then she shifted to he human form, and in her hands was Poseidon’s Trident. I wasn’t sure how the physics worked, but apparently the sea god’s shrimp fork could transform with her. Using the trident, my shifter general conjured gallons upon gallons of water. And then she froze them. Enormous ice spikes slammed into foot soldiers, caving their skulls, piercing their hearts, or ripping through chests and stomachs.

  The whole while, the Beastiamancer danced among her dinosaur friends, stabbing through spider centaurs and killing soldiers with the weapon of a sea god.

  To the north, the east, and the west, my forces were culling Hades’ army by the thousands. But Highland Park’s south wall was about to get hit, and hit hard. This was part of the plan, and I didn’t call for Toxaris and her secret air force. Not yet.

  With Hades still chasing me—the son of a bitch was fast as hell, ba dum tss, but he couldn’t match the speed of the chariot—I dove and bolted south. Raising both arms, I extended the Crystal Scythe and the Inferno Shield, and then let out a mighty yell. “Feel my Wrath, wretches!”

  I wasn’t quite sure what a wretch was, but Ares had liked the word, and it seemed appropriate given the circumstances. The demon army gazing up at me suddenly had problems. Real problems.

  Shadowy figures poured out of me—a whirlwind of all the souls I’d killed. The specters screamed down. I lost over half my remaining Divine Essence in a single breath. I lurched and fell against the front of the chariot, but I stayed conscious. That hurt. But whatever pain I felt was nothing compared to the death swooping down on my enemies below. The vengeful spirits of my Wrath went swirling through the streets, shredding nightmare bodies and eviscerating anything unlucky enough to be in range. Faceless soldiers fell by the hundreds. Driders curled into balls of destroyed flesh.

  Even Hades took a hit. The faceless assbag was promptly torn out of the sky by the fury of my Wrath. He slammed into a gray-shingled roof and bounced off like a skipping stone, slamming into one house after another, leaving behind a wasteland of broken sheetrock, shattered shingles, and crumbled bricks before finally coming to a stop in a pile of dusty rubble.

  He rose in a cloud of ruined Rockford homes, debris billowing out around him. The trapped souls of Rockford dashed away; Hades was clearly pissed. He lashed out at a handful of fleeing spirits but missed every time. This wasn’t going like he’d thought it would.

  And that was because I was more interested in winning than some inane face-to-face confrontation.

  Should we come and help you protect the south? Toxaris asked.

  Not yet. I don’t see Hades’ air force, so just sit tight.

  I flicked the reins and made another pass through the southern streets. This time I flung the War Blade down, using its Shockwave ability. Clouds poured into the space above us and lightning struck the ghostly city, long claws of energy electrocuting any demonic solider unlucky enough to be in range. Scores died instantly, but for a full fifteen seconds, the Shockwave lit them up and made them shudder until their skin sloughed off their bones. Blood sprayed from cooked skin. Blackened husks fell over as acrid plumes of smoke drifted up.

  Some, however, were able to withstand the attack. Okay, fine. I sent a round of Plague Locusts to munch on those resilient sons of bitches. Hundreds more died as the jade bugs descended, decimating the wounded force. Doing that miracle after the Wrath spell had me wheezing, my vision narrowing, a high-pitched buzz filling my ears.

  But it was worth the pain, since only a few dozen of Hades’ forces made it to the southern wall. I felt the blast of cold as a bolt, fired from one of our enchanted ballistae, froze them where they stood.

  Hades kicked a VW bug. It went crashing away while he tromped toward me.

  I turned the Helios Chariot around and went after him, hard. I could see the satisfaction etched into the lines of his body. This is what he’d been waiting for, a face-to-face battle where he’d mop the floor with my ass. He thought he’d bat me out of the air with his oversized club. Get me out of the Helios Chariot and onto the ground where he could pummel me into divine meat paste.

  He didn’t see the figure skulking behind him. I did. Even though Loxo could basically become invisible at this point, we’d agreed she’d come in from the south to stab the god of death in the back.

  She plowed into him like a freight train, driving her blade into the back of one leg. Not a killing blow, but maybe a crippling one, which is what I was hoping for.

  Hades let out a yell and dropped to his knees. His left leg froze over, but it wasn’t just that—the skin was turning black as if his flesh had gone necrotic in a single heartbeat.

  While he was busy trying to pull the dagger from his leg, I raced by him and struck him with the Crystal Scythe, adding a good ol’ fashioned dose of Smite to the attack. A house nearby exploded from the added damage of my Smite. A few faceless soldiers were reduced to dust. The force, the raw power, of my assault lifted the god of death from the ground. He landed flat on his back ten feet away, Loxo’s dagger still lodged all up in his quad.

  Loxo skated through the air to meet me on the Helios Chariot since she now had the Talaria. What was the perfect gift for an invisible assassin? Yep, you got it in one. The winged sandals of Hermes.

  Fifty driders filled the street below in a tangle of writhing, wriggling, horrible bodies. Curved swords filled their human fists while they hissed at us with the multi-eyed faces of spiders. Mouths opened to reveal poisonous fangs.

  “Gross!” I yelled.

  Loxo kissed me. “They are repugnant. Let me remove them from your sight.”

  I shifted over and let Loxo take the chariot reins. She banked the vehicle, flew low, then turned on the Sunfire function. As a ball of flames, we blazed through the driders, charbroiling them into smoky columns of embers and ash. I’d used the Helios Chariot’s functions that morning against Necro Earl, but Loxo hadn’t. Neither had any of the other demigoddesses. Turned out, we could switch back and forth, each taking our turn for the day with the weapons of the gods.

  That little fact, which we’d just recently discovered, along with the arsenal we were packing, meant Hades and his nightmare army were in for a real fight.

  After burning through spiders and another thousand monsters, we circled back. I took control of the Helios Chariot while Loxo pecked me on the cheek and skated away, vanishing from sight a second later.

  I dove again, this time bringing the chariot to a stop in front of Hades, who was on all fours, breathing hard. Okay, maybe breathing wasn’t the right word. It wasn’t like he had a nose or a mouth. Still, he grunted and gasped. And he was bleeding. Red gore dripped from a wound I’d opened on his left shoulder. And the effects of Loxo’s cold poison weren’t doing his leg any favors.

  I’d had to use a huge amount of Divine Essence to upgrade all our weapons, so I’d started off the fight down at around 250 points. I’d just used 240 points, and I wasn’t feeling so hot. It was probably a mistake to go into battle with only a measly ten points, but go big or go home, am I right? Besides, I wanted to get up close and personal with the god of death. The War Blade hung like a steel parrot over my
shoulder, and I had the Inferno Shield and the Crystal Scythe ready. It could kill a god.

  And, as it just so happened, I had a god I wanted dead.

  You have done well against me and my army, little godling. Even wounded, Hades’ voice in my skull still made me want to cut off my ears and stab out my eardrums. Yet did you really think you could come into my realm and not taste death? Hubris shall be your undoing, just as it was Ares’ undoing.

  An image filled my eyes. It was like he was projecting a picture right into my cerebral cortex. I saw a huge rusted doorway a mile high and half a mile wide creaking open. The groan of the massive hinges was deafening. Even worse was the smell that wafted out. It was rotting shit, pure and simple. Something that slept in its own excrement lived there, and it didn’t care a bit that it stank. In fact, this thing liked it.

  I recognized the gate. I recognized the wall. Tartarus. Oh, shit. Hades was opening Tartarus. The River Phlegethon ran dry in front of the huge opening, allowing whatever was inside to walk through the moat unscorched.

  “You can’t,” I whispered. “If you let out the things in there, you won’t be able to get them back in.”

  If I die, you die. Hades straightened. Besides, you have my worthless wife on your side. Maybe she can help recapture them. If not, what is it to me? I want your blood, Jacob Merely. And I will have it. Even if I must destroy all of reality, I will drink your heart dry.

  But instead of coming at me, he gained his feet and lurched straight up into the air. He went soaring to the north, over the Rockford battlefield, toward the Plain of Judgement, and right into a storm of harpies—tens of thousands of the things. They filled the unnatural hellscape sky with their pestilence.

  I messaged my army. Hades has gone to the Plain of Judgement. I’m going after him. But I have to warn you, we’re about to face whatever he had locked up in Tartarus as well as an ass-ton of harpies. So get your game faces on. This shit is about to get ugly.