The nearby beach was awash with people fighting, bodies littering the golden sands, staining it a mixture of black and red depending on the species.
The four of us ran under the archway leading into the town, and Zamek roared in anger as he saw several blood elves coming our way. He ran toward them, his battle-axe cleaving one in half before slicing the throat of a second. He spun, avoiding a spear jab from a third elf, before burying a dagger he’d removed from his belt into its heart. Three dead in less than ten seconds.
Zamek looked back at Selene, Sky, and me. “I’m going this way. I see more elves.”
“I’ll go with,” Sky said, her soul weapons manifesting as a long dagger and a tomahawk. She ran off with Zamek to join the fray I could see further in the town.
“Selene, can you get some of those griffins free?” I pointed toward the fighting on the beach. “If you can get them to go back to the realm gate, one of them will hopefully know where the guardian is and should be able to open it.”
“And what are you going to do?”
“Cronus and Rhea live up there. If there are Titans up there, we should be able to get their help. We don’t have the numbers for an effective defense. And as much as I hate to admit it, the Titans are a lot more likely to listen to Cronus and Rhea than to me. With them on board, hopefully we can organize an effective counterattack against the blood elves.”
“Stay safe,” Selene said, and ran off toward the battle on the beach.
I watched her go for a few seconds before turning to find two blood elves stalking toward me, evidently hoping my attention had been elsewhere long enough for one of them to drive its sword into my back. There was no point in trying to convince them to put down their weapons; it would have done no good, and I didn’t have the time to waste.
A jet of flame tore through the ground beside me, forcing me to throw myself aside and put up a shield of air. I looked up at Helios in full dragon-kin form, his massive red and orange wings casting a shadow over part of the stone street. I watched as he floated softly to the ground, his golden-scaled skin gleaming in the sunlight, his reptilian eye full of nothing but hate for me. I’d taken the other one during one of his several attempts on my life. A metal bracelet hung about one wrist, and I wondered what it did.
“No one can save you now,” Helios said, unhinging his jaw and unleashing a torrent of superheated flame at me.
I kept my shield up and dodged aside, trying to gain ground between the two of us while also trying not to get myself barbecued. When I got too close for comfort, he backed off, moving up the hill toward Cronus and Rhea’s villa.
I managed to get within striking distance, but he swiped at me with deadly speed, his sharp claws forcing me back.
I wrapped air magic around his hand, pulling him toward me and smashing an air-wrapped elbow into his face, knocking him aside, but he caught me with a kick, sending me reeling.
“I was never sure if you were working with Hera, or if your goals just coincided,” I said. “I assume she sprang you out of prison.”
“She made me a good offer. I help her, and I get to kill you, my father, sisters, and anyone else I feel wronged me.”
I threw a ball of fire at him, which he batted aside, laughing until I wrapped shadows around him, dragging him down to his knees.
“I learned a few things,” I told him as he struggled.
He unleashed a torrent of flame, burning the shadows away and causing me to cry out in pain, but I threw a bolt of lightning at him, and he took off up the hill toward the villa as two blood elves sprang toward me. I darted forward, parrying the closest blood elf’s attack, and knocked him off-balance. I spun around him, avoiding a slash from his friend before slicing his forearm. The blood elf screamed, losing his grip on his sword, which I caught and drove into his chest, then sliced the exposed throat of his friend. Two dead elves. I got the feeling there would be a lot more before we were done.
I ran up the hill toward the enormous villa at the far edge of town, fighting off several more blood elves who hoped to stop my advance. By the time I reached the outskirts of the villa, I was covered in elf blood.
Helios hovered just above the perfectly manicured lawn that made up a large part of the expansive gardens at the front of the villa. He roared fire at me, setting the ground aflame, and charged me. I created a blade of lightning and swiped up at him, but he dodged me, caught sight of his father, Hyperion, and flew up out of reach.
“See you again, sometime,” he said, and took off toward the ocean, leaving me with the unpleasant thought of having to let him go so I could help stop the rest of the attackers.
I ran through the burning garden to the courtyard beyond, where pale stone bricks were now covered in elf blood as Hyperion fought off four elves with a sword and long spear. They were all dead before I could offer assistance. He spun his spear toward me before realizing who I was and lowering it.
“Cronus and Rhea,” I said.
“In the villa,” he told me, clearly surprised to see me. “I’m glad for the assistance. I don’t know why Rhea and Cronus aren’t out here fighting.”
He pointed to the huge building behind him. Most of the horseshoe-shaped villa was one story in height and made of white brick, with a red-tiled roof. It reminded me a lot of the old pictures of Roman villas, complete with pillars and large windows all looking down on the courtyard.
The sounds of blood elves rose from behind me, and I turned to see a dozen sprint toward us. “You go,” Hyperion said. “I’ll hold off the horde.”
I didn’t need to be told twice, and considering how much blood covered his golden armor, I was sure that Hyperion didn’t need my assistance in fighting.
I ran up the steps to the front door, only to be greeted by a blood elf barreling out of it. The blood elf swung an axe at me, but I wrapped air around his wrist, pulling him off-balance, and drove my sword into his skull before he’d hit the floor. My magic was getting weaker the longer I stayed here, but it still had enough power if I really needed it. Hopefully I wouldn’t really need it.
I walked through the villa without incident, although the further I went, the more damage there was to the structure, and the more bodies lay all around. Mostly blood elves, but more than a few were human in appearance. I recognized several of the bodies as being people who lived and worked in Tartarus, and at one point I even saw a griffin, his wings cut free and tossed aside. Several curse marks sat on the dead human attackers, and I recognized one of them from the last time I’d been in The Hole. The question of how everyone had gotten here could be answered later.
I continued on, and the second I stepped into the enormous open living area, I knew I was going to need every bit of magic I had. Cronus was pinned to the far wall in a crucifix pose. As I got closer, I saw that he’d been beaten and stabbed repeatedly before someone had slit his throat.