The Coming Of Hope

I got a sudden overwhelming urge of death and carnage so large that I collapsed in agony,

"Arghhhh!" I screamed.

"There's an army incoming," I groaned. All of a sudden the mood among the three of us got serious, Emma and Dasamen quickly rushing to protect me. I could feel my anger bubbling inside me. I could feel their footsteps, the army was massive.

"Now it's my turn." Emma said confidently.

"No! You fool! You'll be killed!" I barked. I managed to crane my head to look at her, but all I could see was a lone tear shed down her already dirty cheek.

"Damasen, get him out of here." Emma instructed. But before he could even move a monster rushed the three of us, but before it could actually attack us Emma let lose some form of light. Once the light died the monster was gone, and Emma stood in its place with a huge pair of owl wings on her back and what looked like the helmet of Athena on her head. Then in an instant a small group of Trojan soldiers erupted beside her, each in his own beam of light.

"ADVANCE!" Emma screamed. The small group began marching towards the incoming army hacking down the first wave of monsters. I began to feel my darkness overtake me, it was too much, I was about to lose control.

"Damasen,.. throw me.. into the army.." I said, struggling to contain myself. He saw the restrain in my eyes, and with minimal hesitation he launched me behind enemy lines. I was soaring in the blood red sky of tartarus, towards an army of monsters. And I felt like a ticking time bomb. My mind kind slowed down for a second, and then I realized something, I'm different. And that thought brought a smile to my face as I lost control of my power, and morphed into a killing monster. I began using my newly acquired battle skills to punch holes in whatever I could, a head, a leg, an arm. I just didn't stop moving, slashing and killing everyone I could get my hands on. And i'm not ashamed to say I enjoyed every second of it. I Could hear their screams and curses as they died. It was like music to my ears.

I began to grin like a fox, "DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!" I screamed, letting off a blood curdling scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" I just kept screaming and screaming. I couldn't stop myself, after a few mere minutes my hands were already dripping with the blood of my victims.

"More! I need more victims!" I screamed. I frantically began looking around for more victims, then I realized I was surrounded by masses of the enemy. All I could do was smile, as they began their attack I moved like a man possessed. Hacking and slashing each enemy that dared come at me, all the smaller enemies were gone, now only the bigger enemies remain. I froze once I heard massive footsteps,

"HE'S MINE!" Someone screamed. I looked toward the sound of the voice and saw Ragnar, a massive cyclops that I had dealt with before, lumbering my way. I calmed my mind for the upcoming fight, I stood at the ready in the stance of the dark moon. His speed began to increase, but before he could mount any offensive I jumped at his chest and began to strike,

"two palms, four palms, six palms, eight palms, ten palms!" I screamed, increasing the power each time I screamed and struck him in his massive chest. I could feel my body burning, itching to keep going, but my mind blacked out. Unable to take the over usage of my power.

Hours later

Once I awoke I was in instant pain,

"Ahhhhh!" I screamed, clutching my head.

"Hey easy!" Emma's voice yelped. I snapped my eyes open, the pain vanishing instantly. I looked around realizing where we were, still in hell. I looked at Emma and was surprised to see a look of concern on her face,

"What did I do this time?" I asked her.

"You took out an entire army. I had to calm you down.." She trailed off. As if remembering something bad,

"That bad huh?" I asked.

"Yeah.. you scared me." She said softly.

"There was something in that army that set me off, I wouldn't just go off like that for no reason." I thought to myself.

"Where's the big guy?" I asked.

"He's trying to find us some healing things." Emma said, still staring off into the distance. "God it must have been bad then, she won't even look at me." I thought, getting upset that I couldn't control my powers. I began to rise to my feet, looking around. I spotted Damasen in the distance walking towards us,

"There he is." I said pointing. We jogged over to him, hoping he found something,

"Hey you two," He said.

"I did find something that could heal you.. But you might not like it," he said. I was in agony, I had to know.

"Tell us," I said.

"It's the river of fire, The Phlegethon.." He trailed off.

"So we'd be drinking lava." Emma said.

"Yeah basically," Damasen said. I knew that was our only option,

"Where is it" I asked. Damasen just pointed to the north,

"And across that is the Doors of Death so we can leave." He said.

"It's not too far." He continued.

"Well, let's get walking." I said, and we were off.

Once we arrived at the river

I stared across the river and noticed the statues near the chained down doors.

"I'd be surprised if that wasn't a trap," I thought to myself. Before I could over think I scooped some fire water into my hands, it was surprisingly cold. "It's probably too hot to register" I thought. Then I drank some liquid fire.

"Hey you dumbass not too much!" Emma yelped as I chugged the stuff.

"Tastes repulsive, but it does heal." I said to her as she knelt down next to me. She did the same as I did. Once we were all full of fire, we decided to talk about our next move,

"Those statues will come alive, if the giants had anything to do with it" Emma said.

"I was thinking the same thing." I said.

"I say we go with a full frontal attack." I said.

"That might be our only option," Emma said thinking.

"What do you think of Damasen?" I asked.

"That is our only option." He replied. I steeled my nerves, those statues were massive. I grabbed Emma and we flew across the river, I knew we were walking into a trap, so I readied myself. But I felt weak, and feeble. I couldn't channel my darkness, I might be still too weak.

I landed and collapsed to my knees, "I.. can't.. Channel.. My power." I panted.

"It's ok," Emma said softly.

"I'll take care of this." That blinding light flashed again and her small group of soldiers appeared again. I decided to sit back and watch, seeing as I couldn't move anyway. Her mini army walked into the statue's sight lines, and like we said, they came to life. In that exact instant Emma erupted in a flash of light, blinding the statues.

"I didn't even know that was possible," I said to myself. I began to watch Emma and her crew hack the stone statues to pieces, Emma was in the face of the largest statue, her owl wings flapping in its face. I noticed Damasen standing behind me,

"This is fun to watch" He said with a laugh.

"Yeah it is." I said, feeling my body growing stronger. We watch in silence as she hacked them to bits, like some kind of sick gameshow. Once she finished, she flew over to us, and we walked over to those doors. The doors were probably the most beautiful thing in this literal hellhole, they were a slight blood red silver, with a black tint on the outside. The chains were wrapped at the corners, then latched to the ground nearby. I grabbed my dagger and began to pry the doors open, hoping it would work. I could see it beginning to crack, and my hope began to rise. Only for a millisecond because I heard a loud booming voice scream,

"WHO DARE'S OPEN MY DOORS!" I looked frantically around for the speaker, but all I saw was a massive figure in a black cloak.

"THANATOS" I yelped.

"He's here to stop us. Delay him as much as you can!" I barked at Emma and Damasen. They raced off to obey, moments later they were blasted back. I knew they'd be outmatched, so I hurried and kept prying the doors. I channeled my darkness, or what I could of it, and the doors slowly began to open.

"Get IN!" I said, pushing my body past its limits. They raced through the doors, and as the god of death advanced I slid past him into the doors that snapped behind me with a loud,

"THUNK" nearly slamming the gods arm in the doors. I collapsed to a knee, realizing I was about to pass out, I looked around. But I wasn't afraid, I was hopeful. I was hopeful because I just went through hell to give my people a chance to strike back. I collapsed flat on my face with a smile.