Gods of War (War of the Gods Series) (12 page)

Just like Ares predicted, the one with the scar on his face finished off his opponent. He had caught his opponent’s sword with his shield, and when the opponent tried to bash him with his shield, Ares’ favorite released the sword spun around his opponents shield and stabbed the man in the back. As the man fell to his knees, the one with the scar decapitated him with the shield.

Ares pushed Artemis off and stood up clapping. “Excellent. You beat all of your opponents. For your prize, I offer you one last chance to come and work for me. I promise you I am a generous master.”

“I would rather die than live as a slave. I didn’t bow to the Muslims when they came, and I won’t bow to you.”

What a pity.
“Well, if that is your choice,” He beckoned to the monsters to surround the man. “Boys, your dinner is served,”

As though it was a command, the monsters jumped into the pit and started devouring the bodies as soon as Ares finished his words. Two ogres ripped the winner apart.

Ares started laughing out loud, as well as the other spectators—his officers and the other gods who joined him in his fight.

The entrance door opened and in walked Atlanta with his new generals.
Seems like Hades has convinced them to come back to the living.

“Lord Ares,” Atlanta called out. “May I have the honor of presenting, Perseus, slayer of Medusa; Achilles, killer of Hector of Troy; Attila the Hun, united the Huns; Genghis Khan, the leader of the Mongol empire; Alexander, who ruled the known world, William the Conqueror the first Norman King of England; Napoleon Bonaparte emperor of France; Julius Caesar, dictator in perpetuity; Hannibal Barka, conqueror of Rome; Khalid ibn al-Walid, sword of god; and Erwin Rommel the Deseret Fox. These men have agreed to be in your service and rule in your name.”

Excellent
,
I will use earth’s finest generals to conquer
. With their help, he could now put the gods in his service to better use, especially if Zeus made his move soon. He would have to quickly counter whatever Zeus did, and he would need to use his gods to do it. Zeus was still afraid to kill any god, and Ares planned to exploit that weakness.

“I would like to thank you for your service,” Ares said to his new guests. “You will be properly rewarded with wealth, power, and even immortality.” Ares summoned servants to his side. “These servants will take you to your quarters. Ask them for anything and they will see to it. When I am done talking with my council, we will assign you to your duties. Now everyone, leave! I wish to speak to my council.”

As everyone filed out, Ares went back to his throne and motioned Artemis to come and sit down again. The room finally emptied and Ares’ council came closer to the throne and summoned their own seats.

“So Thantos, it seems that your father, Hades, succeeded to a degree. How come we didn’t get more?”

“Well, the rest of the great human generals were in the elysian fields. They did not want to leave,” Thantos said. He then added, “My father will be up shortly to talk with you and Demeter.”

“Well, that brings the discussion to you two. I take it Demeter is here?”

“She is,” Apollo said, rubbing his shoulder. “But she didn’t come easily.”

“I had to knock her out with one of my drinks,” Dionysus added. “She is going to be unconscious for a while. Just give her a day and she will be back. But we will have to restrain her. She has gone crazy. She still holds a grudge against Hades for stealing Persephone.”

“It’s true. I had to come and help them hold Demeter down so Dionysus could poor his elixir down her throat,” Helios added.

“You mean Demeter fought off both of you,” Ares mocked. “This is Demeter we are talking about.”

“She has changed. You will see the change when you talk with her. Her anger has made her strong. I don’t think it will be wise to have Hades and Demeter in the same room,” Helios said.

“Don’t worry. If she causes trouble, I will be there,” Ares assured. “Now , where are we at? How is my conquest going?”

“We have almost taken all of Africa and Asia, but these people are easily conquered.” Atlanta added. “In most places we just give food and they pledge to follow you. Your monsters were going crazy with nothing to kill, so we moved them to area three, or what the humans call the United States. There they are meeting a lot more resistance there and are happy with it.”

“One country has declared allegiance to you in area four; they are weak so it was expected. Another country still hasn’t gotten back yet, but I am sure they will pledge allegiance after seeing how quickly we are moving, especially after you show them how well the people who pledge allegiance to you are treated compared to the ones who don’t. To sum it all up, your armies are growing fast and in two to three earth months you will have the whole world conquered,” Atlanta said, finishing up her report.

“That is good,” Ares said. “Now all of you are probably wondering why I am going to have human generals conduct the fighting and not the gods. Zeus is doing something, and when he moves, we will have to stop it. But he won’t dare fight any god. You will be used as a quick reaction force. Go and have fun on earth. Just remember, once Zeus makes his move, you will have to drop everything and attack. Does that squash any complaints?”

Ares looked around to see everyone nodding. “Good. Now go and tell the other gods what I have said.”

As the council got up to leave, Ares attracted Atlanta’s attention. “I have a special task for you. I want you and Artemis to go out and start gathering the most beautiful woman you can find. I believe it is time that I have a decent harem.”

Atlanta nodded and waited for Artemis before they left together. Finally Ares was alone.

“It seems like your conquest is going well,” a hissing voice said behind him. “I think your other chair was better though. Too bad you couldn’t bring it to earth.”

“Last time I remember, you were a head shorter. And if I remember correctly, it was for the same reason it is going to happen now.”

Ares summoned his battle axe and walked towards the shade. This time the shade reached out his hand and Ares was lifted off the ground chocking from an unseen force.

“We have been patient with you, Ares. We have fulfilled our part of the bargain and are now waiting for you to fulfill yours. Since you seem to be taking your sweet time, we want more. We want the demi-gods that Zeus has gathered. You can track them with these.”

The shadow produced three figurines with that held the resemblance of Amadi, Nicolai and Terry.

“We want them dead. You will concentrate your efforts on killing these three men. They have a higher importance than Zeus. This doesn’t mean you will stop with your efforts to capture Zeus, but if you have to choose between Zeus and killing one of these three, you will kill them.”

The figure disappeared into the shadows and Ares was dropped to the ground.

Ares laid sprawled on the ground gasping as he tried to capture his breath. That creature was going to pay. He just needed to find a way to kill it first. If his weapon couldn’t kill it, then he would find something that could. Few weapons were more powerful than his.

Suddenly a loud explosion rang through the halls of his temple followed by an intense surge of power. Knowing that this was the source of the power he needed, Ares sent his projection into the realm searching for its origin.

She hated this place, stuck in this plane that resided between life and death for all time, she was lucky to have escaped. For her whole existence she had been imprisoned here. It was the Daimōn that found her wandering here and showed her the way to escape. They couldn’t give her a body, so they taught her how to take one for herself. The body she chose was amazing, one of its kind. She had to watch out for Zeus, or else he would know she wasn’t who she was pretending to be.

She remembered when they came to her. They wanted their freedom and she wanted hers. It was her idea that had brought them this close, yet they were getting restless, especially since those three came into the picture. She kept trying to ease their mind that there was nothing wrong. They are human, after all. And it would take a miracle for them to become gods. There was no way three of the seven originals would band together and ascend them; they don’t trust each other to put themselves in such a weakened position.

She heard a shifting sound coming from the shadows and turned towards the noise. “It’s about time. If you are to propose a time to meet, I would suggest you come on time.”

“I had to stop by Ares. I gave him new orders to kill the humans.”

Angered surged through the woman when she heard that.

“You did what?” The woman yelled at the shade. “He is supposed to do exactly what he is doing already. The more humans he kills, and the more humans he has under his control, the weaker Zeus will become. Zeus needs to be weakened in order for this to come about, and then you can take him for your purpose.

“I will take over Zeus’ domain and I will repeal Ares’ Hoard,” the woman continued. “Then the people will love me and I will become the Queen of the Gods. And with my power, I will free your masters. How complicated is that?”

“My masters don’t feel that way. They believe these humans will disrupt everything and I agree with them. That is why they need to be stopped,” The shade hissed.

The woman rushed the shade and grabbed it by its throat. She lifted the shade up and started to squeeze. The shade tried to stop her, but couldn’t. She was to powerful, more powerful than Ares.

“I am not some weakling you can control. You will either follow my plan or you will never be free. I will take care of the humans; they will die by my hands. You just make sure that Ares continues his conquest. We need Zeus weakened.”

Out of nowhere, an explosion rang through the area. The power that followed was immense as it passed through the woman. The woman threw the shade down and quickly departed the realm through a portal.

The demi-gods sat silently against the cabin wall, cursing the compound. They were nursing their wounds from their latest attempt to complete their trial. Terry was lying down trying to relive pressure from his chest. He took one of the giant’s club center mass in his chest, nearly collapsing one of his lungs. Amadi stood up and turned to his companions.

“We have almost completed this compound. The only thing stopping us is those giants. We can do this,” He said trying to influence his men.

Amadi knew they were not going to get pass the giants with how they were fighting. They were not working as a team. Terry would go off and attack his giant firing his assault rifle while Nicolai would sneak up to the other giant. This gave the giants the opportunity to double team them. Two giants would hurry and knock Terry out and then go after Amadi who would be exhausted from throwing fire balls at one of the giant in the middle. Even though the two giants were badly injured, they easily took Amadi out of the fight. Even though Nicolai killed his giant he still had two to go against. They easily defeated him even though he was hard to find.

Over and over this would happen and this gave the giants—who worked as a team—the opportunity to pick them off one by one. Amadi was infuriated that they weren’t following his orders, but he would gladly let one of them take charge if they would work as a team.

“Each of us is trying to take down our own giant,” Amadi continued his speech. He then pointed towards the compound “They are working as a team and we are not. We don’t trust each other
.”

“I killed my giant,” Nicolai said getting in Amadi’s face. “You need to stop worrying about me and worry about yourself. I always have to save either your hide or Terry’s.”

“Yes, you kill your giant,” Amadi sneered mockingly. “But that is only because we distract it for you.” Amadi said not stepping back. “We take the brunt force, while you have free reign. Tereus, tell him. He is too stupid to believe me.”

“Nicolai, he is right,” Terry said lying down. “We need to come up with something that will distract the other two, and after you kill yours we can start working the other two individually.” Terry lifted himself off the ground. “Amadi and I are taking the brunt of the force. I can’t take any more hits from that club.”

Terry started to pace scratching his chin, and then his eyes lit up. Hitting himself on the head he turned to his companions.

“Nicolai, how powerful can you make your power? Not your shotgun, but your power. Can you make it spread from one object to another?”

“Yeah, I’m sure I could do that if I save my energy. Why do you ask?”

“Tereus, what are you thinking about?” Amadi butted in.

“Well, I have this idea that will help us get past the giants,” Terry said showing his childish grin. He was about to continue but stopped.

Amadi turned to where Terry was looking and saw Athena, Jessica, Hermes, Zeus, and Aphrodite coming their way. Ever sense Zeus and Aphrodite returned from their errand, they weren’t the best of company. Zeus questioned them about their new weapons and was impressed. But then he started yelling at the demi-gods about how they were moving too slowly. Aphrodite had become as cold hearted as Athena. When she helped to develop their new powers, she did it without her usual flirting.

Jessica moved to Terry’s side, as she always did. She never really left his side when they were together. When they were not, Athena was usually training her. Amadi was impressed with the progress Jessica was showing.
I swear she has had some military training before.
With Athena’s training, Jessica’s powers had been growing fast. It was like they would train and Jessica would hit a block. The next day that block would be gone and her training continued.
There is something wrong with that woman,
Amadi thought.

Staying back, the gods talked amongst them before Zeus spoke up.

“It seems that you three need to be reminded what you are fighting for,” Zeus started staring all three of them down. “It has been almost a month and you still have not finished the training. Let me show you what’s happening while you three have been goofing off.”