War God's Mantle- Underworld

by James Hunter

  I caught her eyes with mine and didn’t look away. “Yes, I do. If we had more time, and maybe if you weren’t married, we could see what that pull would to do us.”

  “Married?” Persephone laughed bitterly. “Oh, what I have with Hades is not a marriage. It is a prison. I hate him. You hate him. That should not stop us.”

  A smile crept over my face—I had to say, the idea definitely had some appeal. And if she had no problem with it, then why in the hell should I? “You’re right,” I said.

  The goddess gripped my hand harder. “But what about your Amazons? I think perhaps Myrina might be jealous of me. If you and I were together, would she understand? Or would there be more bickering? I admit I have a desire, but I don’t want to cause more trouble for you.”

  I winced. “I wouldn’t say we bicker. I see it more as friendly banter. We’re comrades in arms.”

  “No, you are the god that created them. They are yours to do with as you will.” Persephone eyed me, a long, measuring look.

  That look, combined with her words, just didn’t sit right with me. “Look, I’m a different kind of god, Persephone. Believe it or not, I do see my Amazons as comrades. As equals. They are some of the best friends I’ve ever had.” Phoebe wasn’t around to add they were friends with benefits, though that was certainly true. Still, just because I was sleeping with a bunch of my Amazons didn’t diminish the respect I had for them.

  “Then your comrades would not mind if I did this?”

  She reached up, sliding her fingers through my hair, then pulled me down into a scorching-hot kiss. Her lips were soft and wet, and our kiss deepened to include our tongues. Her scent invaded my nose, filling my head, and then worked its way down to my groin. Yowza. I held her close to me, her breasts pillowed against me. I realized she’d grown to be as big as I was. More of her to enjoy. I dug my fingers into her hips and before I knew it, we were grinding, both of us gasping.

  She pulled back and scooped up my hands, placing them on her breasts, which were growing fuller by the second. I pulled back in surprise. She had midnight hair now, dusky skin, fuller lips, and soulful brown eyes. It was like I’d started kissing one woman and ended up with another mid-French. That would definitely take some getting used to, though at the same time, it would spice things up.

  She smiled and reached beneath my pleated battle skirt. What was she thinking? Did she think we’d have sex right on the landing?

  That was when Phoebe cleared her throat. There she sat, in her mech, with a good portion of my troops standing around her. Myrina stood with her arms crossed. Asteria shifted from a tiger into a huge gorilla, blue-haired and snorting. Wow, now I knew what a gorilla sounded like when it laughed. Doris and Ianthe were there as well. Both the Battle Wardens grinned.

  The Death Harvesters behind them wheezed out steam, relieving some of the pressure but only adding to my own awkwardness.

  I lamely lifted a hand. “Uh, hey.”

  Persephone laughed musically and nimbly took off down the steps; her gauzy dress swirled and billowed around her ever-changing body.

  Loxo appeared from nowhere and kissed my cheek. “You are quite the lover, War God. And so very, very smooth.”

  She followed the spring goddess down. Sophia teleported after her, appearing on one step, then the next, then the next.

  Our wagon train followed in short order.

  The staircase was wide enough to accommodate our vehicles, though the odd angles put some strain on the hitches and tongues of the trailers. After half an hour of tedious progress, Asteria—still in gorilla form—Myrina, and a contingent of Battle Wardens just picked up the trailers and ballistae and manhandled them down. Meanwhile, I forged ahead and experimented with the staircases that jutted off into space. Some small part of me thought I might simply plummet into the cosmos when I set foot on a zigzagging, upside-down staircase. But no. As soon as my foot landed, gravity itself seemed to shift, and suddenly I was sticking to the staircase without an issue.

  Badass. Though I had no real desire to explore the Stair any further.

  Fifteen minutes and a whole swimming pool full of elbow grease later, we reached the landing where the steps leveled off onto a straight pathway. Myrina’s arms glimmered with a thin sheen of sweat, and her heaving chest caught my eye. My mouth went dry. Myrina was pretty anyway, but pumped up and glowing, she was breathtaking. And after my intense—but ultimately unfulfilling—encounter with Persephone, it was hard not to want to tackle my general on the spot.

  Which is precisely when one of the Harvesters let out a shriek, followed by a sharp jangle of gears breaking and the angry hiss of a bursting pipe.

  Phoebe raced over in her mech, crawled off it, and limped to Brontia’s vehicle. She hit a switch and the steam engine vented all the pressure.

  “No worries,” my master Rune-Caster said. “I’ll get her running with a few quick repairs. You guys go ahead.”

  My Battle Wardens, Beastiamancers, and spellcasters picked their way past us and kept going.

  I turned to Myrina, “Do we bicker?”

  “Of course,” the Battle Warden said matter-of-factly. “It is because of the sexual tension between us. And like I said, we are both asses full of pain.”

  “Not the right idiom,” Phoebe said as she grabbed a wrench from Brontia.

  Myrina walked off without another word to join the others. The second Death Harvester, with Steropia at the wheel, chugged onward, pulling trailers and ballistae.

  I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to think about all that. Myrina had seen me kissing Persephone. Did that bother her? Probably not. Chances were, it was just me being weird about sex again. Damned Midwestern, puritanical guilt.

  I watched as the army continued down the passageway. Yellow flames from regular torches and blue-white fire from Thymos Crystal lanterns threw shadows over the collection of humans and beasts. Smoke from Steropia’s Harvester rose into the air only to freeze as it left the steps behind, entering the expanse of the universe. It was like someone had glued the smoke in place. Was that where the vacuum of space began? Not sure. I didn’t have any research physicists with me, and Phoebe was busy repairing the engine of our Harvester.

  Asteria scuttled back to us, now in the form of a cobalt-colored black widow the size of a pony. In a blur, she shifted once more, spider legs retracting as hair sprouted and the gorilla form took shape. She offered me a big goofy grin and threw an arm around my shoulders. Asteria wasn’t very good at messaging, so she accidentally messaged me and a bunch of others. However, she was smart enough not to include Antiope, the Dark Amazon, in her list of recipients. This place is very strange, my mate. I do not like it. There is darkness, but there is no wind. There seems to be stars, but I do not feel the sky. It is not a right place. Not a place for animals.

  “Nothing green can grow here,” Sabra offered in agreement from nearby. She sniffed and folded her arms. “There’s not even any dust. Not a place for plants, nor people either.”

  Asteria grunted and shuffled over to the edge of the pathway to stare at the light show. That red fireball was coming closer, and I wanted to get off the Stair before it became an issue. We just needed to descend another set of steps. Assuming Persephone’s mind wasn’t completely shot, there should be a doorway down there somewhere that would lead us to the next leg of the journey. After trotting through the universe, however, I couldn’t help but wonder if the next leg would be on Lycastia or in some alternate Twilight Zone world.

  Okay, I can hear you thinking, Jacob, Phoebe sent as she threaded a new pipe onto the Harvester. Hit me. Let’s hash out this less-than-ideal planetarium experience. It’s worse than Laser Zeppelin.

  What? Laser Zeppelin? How did you know about that? And for the record, I preferred Laser Floyd. It was true. My friend had an uncle who loved to go to the planetarium in Chicago, and we’d do the two-hour drive there and back. Beer was involved.

  Interwebs, Phoebe explained. Remember, I can hack into your memorie
s. But then you liked the planetarium growing up. That whole outer space thing.

  But we’re not really in space. Yet I was staring up at what might be a nebula above us. The swirling purple gases churned and ebbed in the distance, while distant stars twinkled above the cave entrance that led to Lycastia City. And the sigil. Where Hippolyta was keeping guard.

  Phoebe tightened a nut next to the wheel. We can breathe. So, no, we’re not in space.

  I frowned. The real question is, where exactly is the island of Lycastia? I was on Earth. I came zooming out of the clouds during a storm and wound up in a place where monsters, gods, and Titans are real. But there’s no fossil record of a harpy. Nor a cyclops. Nor any of the stuff we’ve been fighting.

  Phoebe rubbed her face and left a smear of grease. She was adorable.

  You thought you were in a pocket dimension before, right? she replied. Maybe that storm had a mystical aspect to it, and it sucked you into another reality. One where harpies existed, and you could forge super-hot Rune-Casters.

  Don’t you mean Amazons? I asked.

  I know what I sent. Phoebe shot a finger gun at me and winked.

  I pondered some more. Maybe Nyx was another pocket dimension. Maybe Lycastia and the Earth where all of this is possible is like a crossroad among the worlds. A special stop on the Stair. Maybe Ares was having me save a world that wasn’t mine.

  This was something I hadn’t considered before. Maybe Echo Earl Echo and I had been pulled into some other reality. And if that was the case, were there other humans in this other version of Earth, where gods walked? I had no idea. Hell, even if there were humans, for all I knew they could still be in the Bronze Age. Would I want to save the people on a world that wasn’t mine?

  No brainer. Yeah, I would.

  Wanna have your mind blown even more? Phoebe asked. Maybe on your version of Earth when people die, they stay dead. But on the Lycastia version, they are dragged down into the Underworld. So it’s not just our physical bodies that are different, but our souls as well. Or, what if Hades’ Underworld is connected to all worlds. And when anyone dies, anywhere, they go there?

  My mind kinda came unhinged. Okay, if that were true, and if the Underworld was another version of the Stair, wouldn’t there be other cracks he could go through?

  She shrugged noncommittally. Who knows for sure? Maybe the Lycastia version of Earth is super important, a keystone world, if you will. Regardless, if Hades gained access to Lycastia, he could find the Stair, and then, I think, all worlds would be threatened by him, including yours.

  I got mad at the thought and found myself absently touching the godstone. Well, we’ll just have to make sure that doesn’t fucking happen.

  Gorilla Asteria came over and frowned. Jacob, my mate, do not like this place. We need to hurry. Is Phoebe almost finished with her silly machine?

  “So silly,” the Rune-Caster replied. “And so finished.”

  I smelled sulfur and then saw a flash of purple light in the corner on my eye. Sophia had returned, carrying Myrina. The Battle Warden looked angry, and a bit frightened. But mostly angry.

  I held up a hand, stopping her before she unloaded on me. “Phoebe is done. We can go.”

  “Can I speak now?” Myrina asked, exasperated.

  “Yeah, but no bickering,” I said. “I don’t like the idea of us bickering.”

  That didn’t make her any less exasperated. She glowered at me—a look that could curdle milk. “Then do not make me. Loxo has found the entrance to the next set of caves. The straight stairs are far easier on the Death Harvester. Unfortunately, we must move quickly.” She paused and waved toward the glowing yellow-red ball creeping steadily closer to us. “It is a rogue sun, drifting toward us. We must move now, or risk being burned alive by its power. I will stay behind, but I would have Sophia teleport you to safety. We cannot afford for you to take such unnecessary risks, War God.”

  I grimaced and turned, studying the enormous ball of light careening toward us—the sucker was huge and definitely picking up speed. Since the comet I’d seen earlier had simply phased through the Stair, I figured this behemoth would do the same. That didn’t mean, however, that the approaching doom ball couldn’t hurt us if we were in its path. Regardless, I wasn’t about to leave Phoebe, Brontia, Sabra, Asteria, and Myrina behind.

  “No,” I replied with a shake of my head. “I’m staying. And there’s no point in arguing with me. Now, we’ve already wasted enough time talking, so let’s haul some ass, shall we?”

  Myrina threw up her hands. “This is why we bicker!”

  I couldn’t help myself. “I thought it was out of sexual tension.”

  I just wish you two would get it over with, Phoebe sent as she tromped away in her mech. Seriously, that must’ve been some kiss.

  I sent back, None of your business, Phoebs. Sorry.

  Brontia had the Harvester trundling after the mech. Sabra clung to the side. Myrina caught hold of a trailer and hauled herself in.

  Asteria turned into a huge blue mare and I knew what she wanted. Without a thought, I climbed on. Riding bareback, I galloped after the vehicles. Sophia teleported here and there, staying close to us, as we beelined for the steps. As we moved, a powerful wave of uncomfortable heat washed over me, a coat of sweat instantly breaking out across my face and trickling down my chest and back. I laid into Asteria’s sides with my heels and glanced back over one shoulder as we rode. Yep, the sun was moving with some real speed now. At this rate, we didn’t have long before it smacked into us head-on.

  Asteria and I pulled up even with the trailer, which was now working in overdrive, bellowing out a thick plume of smoke as its engine labored.

  Myrina’s mood hadn’t improved. She shot me a disapproving look.

  “Should we have just taken an overland route?” I asked. “This is all kinds of funky.”

  “I do not know what that means,” she shouted back. “But no, these are secret ways. We will be able to reach the Temple of Hades undetected. This was the right decision.”

  I hoped she was right.

  When we reached the steps, Asteria shifted beneath me, my ride vanishing in an instant. But before I could fall flat on my face, a pair of blue-haired gorilla arms enveloped me; carefully my shifter caught me and set me back on my feet with a huge simian grin.

  Myrina slid off the trailer. She cracked her knuckles.

  The three of us working together lifted the trailers, giving the Harvester a break. Brontia adjusted the brakes and kept the Harvester upright as we hurried down the steps.

  We were in the home stretch—only five hundred stairs to go—though the sun was dangerously close now, the heat no longer uncomfortable but actually painful. We could totally do this, though. I was sure of it. We picked up our pace, legs pumping, arms straining, my breathing ragged from the effort. But now I could see the landing and the entrance of another cave—a dark mouth carved from a wall of rock. It was like the temple that had been built into the grand chamber above us. Only a façade, really. Petra without the pretty, just some rock with a hole in it.

  With a huff, we cleared the last of the steps, and not a moment too soon. The red sun, irrationally, mind-bogglingly huge, was nearly upon us, and my Health was falling in fits and starts as the painful heat began to extract its toll.

  As one, we gunned it for the exit and our only real chance of salvation. Beside me, Asteria blurred and shifted; taking the shape of a shaggy-furred saber-toothed cat, she put on an extra burst of speed.

  “You should’ve gone with Sophia!” Myrina growled as we sprinted side by side. As strong as I was as the god of war, Myrina was matching me step for step, taking it in stride.

  “No bickering!” I shouted back.

  Phoebe and her mech made it inside, followed by Brontia and the Forest-Witch on the Harvester.

  The heat of the encroaching star was nearly unbearable now—the temperature lurching fifty degrees in a matter of seconds. If I were a frail mortal instead of a living
myth, I had no doubt I’d already be flash-fried.

  Myrina kicked on a final spurt of speed and raced inside the cave, giving me a sly grin as she beat me. Though she was as serious and grave as a tombstone most of the time, she had a competitive streak a mile wide. It was endearing. One of the few times when things felt right between us.

  I made it inside the cave a heartbeat later, blessedly cool shadows and a fine mist washing over me. God, but that felt like heaven. I pushed deeper in, getting well clear of the entrance before I finally slowed my steps. The interior of the cave was nothing to write home about, just rough stone, damp, gritty floors, and a chilly bite in the air, which I didn’t mind one bit. The hallway connected to a bigger chamber, which was where my Amazons were patiently biding their time.

  Whirling, I saw that the Stair was lost in a red inferno of absolute hell. Fire filled the stony archway but stopped as if held back by a force field. Sure, it was hot, but it wasn’t like I was in my grandma’s oven.

  However, I knew if I left the safety of the cave, that star would cook me up good.

  It seemed there was no going back the way we had come, not until the star had passed. I had a feeling, that could take a good long time, though. The average red giant is about four times the size of Earth’s sun. And our little yellow star is 864,938 miles in diameter. So yeah, even if the red giant was really cooking, pun intended, it could take hours for it to pass.

  We didn’t have that long.

  I turned around, offering my back to the exit and the blazing star now barring our way home.

  Myrina was standing in front of me, jaw tight, eyes hard as flint. “A new problem, War God. Insects.” She hesitated for a beat then sighed. “I dislike insects.”

  A Side of Mushrooms and Distrust

  “INSECTS? WHERE?” I asked.

  “Come,” Myrina said, guiding me into a rocky antechamber. She stopped and hefted her spear, pointing the tip to a forest of colossal mushrooms towering over my ’Zons in the next cave over. Holy shit. There must’ve been miles of the enormous fungi. Some of the mushrooms had floppy caps a dozen feet wide with fluted stems. Others were the classic red and white, which looked like the offspring of a Mario mushroom and a Resident Evil game. More still burned with pulsing blue light. Moisture filled the air in a cold mist. Water dripped down the walls. It felt like it could rain, if not snow, at any minute.