Wrath "Rise of the Fallen"

Father and son connected with a small and bloodied phalanx of Lions at the top of the main staircase. Again Zeus wondered why there were so few Lions here. Had they been so thoroughly thrashed? But Zeus couldn’t dwell on such a dispiriting thought for long as they all fought their way down through thickening smoke and surprisingly light resistance to the bottom where they found Hades, standing amid a pile of moldering demon corpses, his spear a blaze of black fire. “Ah, Zeus! Well met! You look like I feel. Seems you tested the angel’s boost too? This… Grace is it called? It’s intoxicatingly… effective!” He looked paler than usual, indeed as weary looking as Zeus felt, but his deeply satisfied grin encouraged Zeus a little.

“Down!” Hercules said. “We go down! To the bridge.” He hurdled a crumpled demon body and headed for the final gateway leading down to the bridge with his small pride of Lions in tow. Hades arched an eyebrow. “Does he not know Poseidon is down there?”

Zeus shrugged as they descended the stairs, sidestepping bodies and parts of bodies and rivulets of black and red. “Hercules is king here. He goes where he likes.”

The fighting was definitely thicker at the bridge, which swarmed again with demons and humans alike. Smoke swirled through the air, pouring off several small burning buildings. Poseidon stepped up to them. Beneath the soot and gore on his dark skin, his tattoos blinked slowly from dark to sharply bright as if breathing light. “About bloody time,” he said. “You fellows done with whatever foolishness you’ve been up to? I have a real problem here. Do I take the bridge down or what? These ugly bastards just keep coming.”

Hades harrumphed and swept his spear back and forth in the direction of a cluster of demons boiling toward them with pikes. The black fire engulfed the first demon and billowed out to envelope the rest of them in a cloud like a plague. They withered into husks with hysterical shrieks.

The Lions formed a bulwark for the three brothers and engaged demons and humans alike. They would not long survive if the demonic flow couldn’t be stemmed. “Why not an earthquake?” he asked.

“That’s a grand idea,” Poseidon said. “Let’s drown the island. That’ll solve everyone’s problems.”

“Demolish the bridge,” Hercules said. “I don’t care how at this point. See that?” He pointed to a burning hut. “They destroyed the bridge’s swing system. Now we need to destroy the bridge. My scouts tell me there are thousands of these things moving toward us from the south.”

Zeus could see the shoreline teeming with demons, Hell steeds, humans.

“A quake is a bad idea,” Poseidon said again.

“Can the Grace help?” Zeus asked.

“I barely know how to use it and do not care to try a precision strike with something so clearly more powerful than I understand.”

“Well, how then?” Hercules asked sharply.

Poseidon gave him an annoyed look. “Hold this.” He shoved his trident toward Hercules and stomped into the fray. His tattoos flared and shimmered as he grabbed a demon, snapped its neck, and used the corpse to bludgeon his way to the water. He waded in up to his knees, flung the dead demon away like an empty sack, and threw his hands into the air. His tattoos began to glow steadily and then radiated brilliant beams until Poseidon all but vanished inside a blue-white cocoon of light. Zeus could just make out his brother’s arms moving down, then up again, out, then in, directing some unseen operation.

Nothing much happened until Zeus watched the seawater pull away with alarming speed from around Poseidon’s legs until only sand and smooth, dripping stones remained between the island and the mainland. With a final sweep of his arms, the light around Poseidon flared brightly, making Zeus avert his eyes, and then it light winked out. Poseidon turned and hurried up the beach, hammer-fisting a demon out of his way. Hercules tossed him his trident, which he caught and whirled with a flourish to crack another demon head.

“I suggest higher ground,” he said. “Immediately.”

“Lions!” Hercules yelled. “On me!”

The three brothers, the son, and the remaining Lions scurried up to the next terrace. They ran into a clot of humans stumbling about aimlessly, faces slack, eyes like dull coins. Weapons flew to the ready and the warriors prepared to pounce.

“Hold!” Zeus cried.

I will turn you as easily as I turned all of these pathetic humans!

Zeus remembered Karn’s words and let the lightning die in his fist. “Hold,” he said again with deep weariness.

“What?” Hades whispered. “What is wrong?”

Zeus only shook his head and with a wave of his hand shoved the lurching group off to the side and continued upward, trying to convince himself that the dirt-and-blood-streaked face he just saw hadn’t belonged to Selene, the young lady who’d spilled her beads rushing to market.

The group reached the next terrace and Poseidon said, “It begins,” as a breeze stirred the smoke over the frantic fight. It swelled into a steady bluster that shredded the smoke and kicked up dust into swirls and eddies until finally some of the combatants took notice. And died for their inattention.

It seemed to Zeus that a whole section of the sky had descended from its place above and marched toward them across the bay. But it wasn’t any part of the sky. It was the sea, a glassy, rolling wedge as high as a mountain and climbing higher. Water cutting through water like some huge warship.

The entire battle froze when the massive wave blocked the sun and threw the island and bridge into deep shadow. A panicked scramble ensued, but it was too late. The wave reared up like some predator. And pounced. Its peak peeled forward and plunged like a sapphire dagger onto the bridge, pulling the entire blue wedge down with it.

The main section of the bridge disappeared in a massive plume of whitewater that exploded in all directions. The island shook and a veil of cool mist wafted over Zeus. The water receded quickly leaving foamy whitewater seething where once a bridge stood but now only a stubby column here and there like a crone’s broken teeth. Debris floated in the still sizzling water along with bodies. The bridge landing on the island had been washed clear of just about everything, and hundreds and hundreds of demons milled around on the mainland, cut off and none too happy. Their frustrated howls tickled Zeus’ ears.

“Your bridge is gone,” Poseidon said. “Now what?”

“Now we wait,” Hercules said, a grim smile caked with blood twisted his face. He leaned on his club. Watched the mob of demons roil about in angry swirls, all arms and legs, and heads tilted skyward to wail in weirdly haunting chorus.

“For what?” Zeus asked.

“Remember telling me to be vigilant?”

“Of course.”

“I am always prepared.” He chucked his chin to the northeast, somewhere within the forest Zeus had visited so recently, where a low cloud of dust brewed. “Did it not seem that my Lions were light here?”

Zeus grunted. The mob of demons had grown in size and now tall, armored demons on Hell steeds accompanied them.

“Well, it’s about to get a whole lot heavier.” Hercules’ smile bent in a different way, a little less grim maybe. Distant thunder rolled across the water. It grew louder and louder and the dust cloud swelled too until Zeus knew what it was.

“Horsemen,” Hades said, running a hand through his beard, which still wore beads of moisture from the crashed wave.

Hercules nodded. “And not just my Lions. Every horse we could muster from every city-state we could reach.” Now his smile warped into a vicious snarl. “We will avenge the loss of my people. Lions!” The remainder of the phalanx gathered around him. “To the boat on the western dock. I will not miss this fight.”

“Can we prevail, Sire?” one of the Lions asked.

“Are we not gods?” Hercules growled, and he looked to his father and uncles. And the Lions looked too, eyes widening as realization finally struck.

Zeus said, “I must tell you something about who we are. Meaning about who you are. But this is not the only fight. Olympus is under assault.”

“Well, you had better get to Olympus,” Hercules said. “You can tell me another time. After we prevail. After we chase these evil bastards back to where they came from. To the boat!”