Chapter 10 The Sacrifices

 

Jax found the three girls, they were about to walk back to the inn.

“Hey, guys over here,”

Jax waved to them telling them to come over.

“Hey Jax, why aren’t you at the inn,” Astrid asked.

Jax replied, “Ash has a present for the birthday girl and yes we know it's you, Sophia. Oh before I forget, did you give her a gift Isabel.”

Isabel grinned at Sophia who knew it was her that told everyone that it was her birthday,

“Happy birthday Sophia, Astrid, and I got it for you, oh and I guess Jax helped too.”

Jax smirked, Sophia teared up, she never got a present from someone besides Isabel,

“Thank you guys so much,” she sniffled.

Astrid and Isabel hugged Sophia tightly squeezing her.

“Okay please, you are going to kill me.”

They let go of her, letting her breathe,

“Okay now that you got a cool bracelet Ash and King are waiting for you at Mount Olympus, King has a present for you too and it means a lot to him so make sure you cherish it,” Jax hurried them.

Meanwhile, Ash and King are in the temple,

“I should be able to reach her from here,” Ash thought out loud.

“Hey Ash, you never told me what god helped you, and actually you know, like,” King questioned Ash.

“Well her title might not be welcoming but she helped me get through the pits of the underworld once. Her name is Hera Goddess of Marriage and she has one big grudge against Zeus. She doesn't really mind killing the other gods, she just wants to get rid of  Zeus, and yes we can’t fully get rid of gods but we can destroy their bodies so they can’t come back or just fade away.”

The two go to the altar to request for Hera and suddenly Ash puts up a barrier behind them that is level five without even saying it,

“Ash and King stop right there, don't take one more step or else,” Creed yelled out.

King joked, “Or what, what can you three do.”

Grim called to the altar, “Zeus hear me, send Hercules to aid us please!”

Ash turned around with anger in his eyes, “You bastard, how could you call him, that prick is somewhere flying with his pony!”

The ground started to shake then the roof caved in. There on his horse on top of the rumble is Hercules,

“Oh great the idiot is here, really Grim could you call for anyone else,” King made fun of Hercules.

Ash gets furious at this stupidity, “Fine then so be it, but I am going to kill all of you right here and now.”

Hercules got off Pegasus and unsheathed his iron sword, “So you are the one who is causing this unrest with the gods, well I will take you down making the gods proud of me,”

Hercules points the tip of the blade at Ash who finally had enough with everything. He takes off his blindfold unveiling his eyes that are glowing red like lava,

“King get out of here, Take everyone away from here. Far away past the town and just keep going. Tell Jax it is not the time to release his final form, we need to plan it. This might kill me but it is worth it getting rid of this imbecile, tell Sophia she is going to have to wait for her present.”

King put his hand on Ash's shoulder which was burning his hand,

“You are the best brother anyone could have.”

He started to run then Hercules ran in front of King blocking him while Grim, Creed, and Sarah blocked the entrance. Ash vanished then appeared with his fist hitting Hercules making him hit the wall of the temple.

“GO NOW,”

Ash rushed King to make his way outside. King pulled his sword from his hip and struck the ground releasing spirits into the ground, the spirits came back up to grab the light brother and Sarah’s legs.

“Go Kage, stall him,”

Kage jumped from the shadows of the temple. Creed stabbed the spirits with his holy Excalibur releasing them from its grasp. While the fighting was going on Jax saw the thunderstorm brewing on the top of the temple,

“Astrid I may need your help with this one. The light brothers may have called reinforcements.”

Astrid with worry all over her face turned to Sophia and Isabel,

“You two stay right here we need to help Ash and King, whatever you do, don’t go up there and be ready for anything.”

Jax added before running up the stairs to Mount Olympus, “Have your weapons at the ready and yell for any of us and we will be there.” Astrid hugged them before joining Jax. 

 

At the top Ash used his level five blue flames on Hercules burning his flesh but not killing him,

“You may have super strength from the gods but you are too stupid to learn magic spells that are not a gift from the gods.”

Hercules gets up from the blast of flames and rushes Ash hitting and pinning him against the wall,

“If I win, it will please the gods.”

Ash sent level four red lighting down hitting Hercules making him drop Ash,

“Is that all you care about, god you have never felt real pain haven’t you.”

Ash then activates strength boosts,

“Strength boost level five.”

He punches Hercules in the body multiple times with speed that looks like one punch. Hercules gets back up after the flurry of blows with pieces of his lion armor tearing and ripping.

King yells at the light brother, “Let’s see if you can handle my Rage of War,”

King slices open his hand making his hair glow a fiery red almost like flames. Then his pupils widen and go from brown to red, he swings his sword wildly which now turns red too. That gives the spirits that come out a bigger explosion and also makes them uncontrollable. Creed’s mask activates showing how he is going to attack next but because he is in a frenzy his attacks are unpredictable. Grim Shoots five arrows in quick succession while Sarah uses fire arrow magic and her firefox launches its small fire blasts. King releases ten red spirits who target the three. Five get hit with the arrows exploding with tremendous power while the other gets hit by the other projectiles.

King screams out, “FIRE TORNADO LEVEL FOUR!”

King gets surrounded by a tornado that is encased with red fire making it hard to stand and breathe at the same time. Jax and Astrid get to the temple to see all hell breaking loose,

“Ash where are you!”

Astrid called for Ash but couldn't see him because of the fire tornado. The light brothers turn around to see the two standing there.

“Jax, go see if Ash needs help, I will take care of these three.”

Jax unsheathed his Katana from his hip and jumped over the tornado to see where Ash was.

“I've been practicing with Ash and now all of my work has paid off. LIGHTNING LEVEL FIVE,” Astrid shouted out her newly acquired magic.

The spell hit all of Creed’s wolves making it revert back into one single wolf of fire.

“Hey, your fight is with me!” Sarah bellowed.

Sarah sent her fox after her and followed behind the fox to do a joint attack. Astrid drew her Featherlite sword with speed blocking the teeth of the fox and hitting down Sarah’s sword then elbowing her in the mouth,

“I learn that one from Ash.”

Sarah got enraged and rushed in with her blade ready to strike and her fox ready to pounce. Astrid blocks her attacks with her sword while one hand is behind her back. Then Sarah goes for a leg swoop that knocks Astrid off her feet and hits the ground, Sarah jumps going for the final blow but Astrid rolls to the left out of the way of the blade and kicks Sarah in the side pushing her to the right, Astrid hops up and sends lighting down,

“Lightning level two,”

it hits Sarah shocking her with green lightning. Sarah screams in agony which makes Grim turn around to see what happen. He saw Astrid hit her with lightning and he shot an arrow at her feet canceling the lightning bolt barrage. He Jumps in front of Sarah and commands Astrid,

“Stand down Astrid this is not your fight!”

Astrid yells back, “The hell it is!”

Astrid readies her sword with an elegant stance while Grim charges his bow powering up his holy shot. Ash grows tired of fighting and draws his pure black sword that looks like it can eat away at the light.

“I am getting tired of this, just die already.”

Hercules is barely standing after getting electrocuted over and over again by lightning but he keeps getting up.

“I will never fall because I am a god, I am immortal,”

Hercules hurled out with his face all busted up. Ash stabs the ground with his sword and puts his hand out in front of him, igniting two black flames from his hands,

“I can’t control this power so I must do this quickly. it's much stronger than any fire magic you can learn. I was born to wield fire but with my little brother Ian and his sacrifice, I can wield this flame that burns the body and scars the soul.”

Ash slams both flames into the sword which infuses it with the black flames. He pulls the sword out of the ground showing its blade that was still pure black with blackish-grey flames surrounding the blade. Jax lands next to Ash, feeling the power in the sword, and asks quickly,

“How long can you keep this blade under control without hurting yourself.”

Ash with a fiery circle forming around him, “Not for long, go take down King and put down the others. I'll handle him, and Jax, save that power for the stronger gods, you only can do it once so save it for Zeus.”

Jax unstraps his adamantite broadsword from his back and runs into the tornado with force breaking the tornado and forcing King to jump out of the way. Now Jax is in the middle facing Creed on the left and King on the right they both charge at the same time making Jax use dagger storm which launches knives all around him in all directions. Two knives hit King in the arm he put in front of his face still charging full force while Creed used his mask's powers to dodge and weave his way through the barrage of knives. Outside Isabel and Sophia look up towards the temple hearing and seeing explosions.

“What should we do Sophia? they might be in danger up there.”

Sophia tells Isabel, “We can’t go up there, it's dangerous, don’t you remember what Astrid said to us.”

Isabel revolted, “But we can’t just stay here and do nothing, I am going to go and help Ash.”

Sophia raced after Isabel, “No wait we can't, they told us to stay Isabel!”

Isabel pulled out her poison twin fang daggers. Sophia had no choice but to take out her weapon but it didn’t weigh anything because of the gauntlet Ash gave her. They ran up the stairs getting closer to the fight ready to help out. Right, when they reach the temple entrance a holy blast blows them back almost making them fall down the hundreds of stairs. They regain their footing and rush in to help, the explosions go silent, a stray arrow hits Isabel in the chest knocking her onto the floor, Sophia hyperventilates.

She cried, “ISABEL!”

Ash shouts at Hercules, “Your immortality can’t save you from this blade.”

Ash goes for the final hit, piercing Hercules in the heart, he starts to turn to dust and falls apart,

“So this is how I die.”

Ash pulls his katana from Hercules as he does so that he hear Sophia scream out for Isabel. Ash rips through the ground leaving it in ruins, he gets to Sophia and Isabel to see her on the ground bleeding out.

“No, no no no this no please Isabel stay with me!”

He shouts out over and over, "DRAGON HEALING!"

It doesn't work, "Dragon healing, dragon healing, dragon healing! DAMN IT!"

Ash cradles Isabel in his arms crying, applying pressure to her wound.

Isabel looks up at Ash and weakly says, “It is okay Ash, you don’t need to cry.”

She holds Ash’s hand tightly then she smiles at him, her hand goes cold, her face goes pale, her hand slips out of Ash’s hand. Her arm drops to the floor lifeless, Ash puts his head against hers. He failed his promise to keep them safe, her smile stayed but her soul didn’t. Filled with sorrow, he picks her up, his eyes turn blue, everyone's magic stops working. King regains consciousness with his eyes, hair, and sword reverting back to its normal colors. Astrid turns around to see what happened then drops to her knees in disbelief. Creed and Grim see what happened and feel something disturbing in the air. It was like a black mist, Sophia was beside Ash with tears rolling down her face.

“Who did this?”

It was silent for a minute then Ash repeated himself with a roar,

“WHO DID THIS!”

Ash’s legs give out as he drops to his knees, looking down at Isabel’s lifeless body. King knew what Ash was about to do and yelled out,

“Ash don’t do it, you can’t go to him!”

Ash ignored him and called out full of tears,

“HADES, I want to make a deal with you!”

Ash first looked at Sophia and whispered with a sad tone,

“Your present may have to wait.”

Then he turned to Astrid,

“Goodbye,”

she ran to him but all that was left was a burn mark with Hades symbol on the floor.

Astrid screamed, “ASH NO," heartbroken.

She started crying on the floor, with a heavy heart. She asked King what he was going to do but she already knew what was going to happen,

“King what is Ash going to do with Hades.”

King fought back tears and swallowed hard,

“He is going to do what is necessary to save Isabel.”

Jax turned to Grim and pulled him by his collar,

“You are fucked, Grim. When he gets back we are going to take everything you hold dear to you.”

Jax shoves Grim who was immobilized by what happened and full of anguish. Creed goes to Sarah who was unconscious from the fight with Astrid. King, filled with rage, released a hundred souls out of his sword, Jax grabbed everyone except the light brothers and Sarah and ran outside of the temple. Creed picked up Sarah, Grim snapped back to reality and realized what was happening, he ran towards the temple entrance knowing they failed in their mission.

After everyone got out King yelled out his spell, “Meteor shower level five!”

Jax shouts out to everyone, “We need to get out of here now or we will be crushed!”

King rains down his blue meteors obliterating the temple, Jax’s group runs down the mountain, Jax calls for his familiar,

“Daygon come down from the sky and help us.”

Jax’s huge dragon comes from the sky soaring down to them. Everyone hops on the dragon's back and gets taken up above the clouds to safety. Sophia holds onto Astrid, saddened by the loss of two people she cared about.

“What are we going to do now Astrid?”

Astrid held Sophia tightly, soothing Sophia with her voice, “Don’t worry we will get them back now, just rest.”

King emerged from the rubble of Mount Olympus, he sat on the top of the rubble thinking what Ash’s next move would be. He pulled out his medallion and rubbed it to clean it,

“I still have to give Sophia her present.”

 

 

After Ash requested a deal with Hades, Hades' teleportation spell activated, and Ash stood there with Isabel in his arms at Hade's underworld palace. Hades sat on his throne with the form of a person,

“So son you want to make a deal with me.”

He wore black chainmail that was as back as coal, he had a black beard with black hair with blue eyes to match his blue flame. He had shoulder guards that held his blue flame and a cape that was made out of his fire. The crown he wore has a black outline with the middle of the crown having a red gem in it. Ash lays Isabel’s body gently on the ground and makes a deal,

“I have an offer you can’t refuse.”

Hades sat up in a way that showed strength.

“So spit it out already boy.”

Ash grit his teeth holding in his hate for him, “I will get rid of any god for you if you bring her back from the dead and send her to her friends.”

Hades grins with a twisted smile getting a wicked idea, “How about this you fight in a war for me.”

Ash asked why he wanted him to fight in a war.

Hades answered, “Because the gods want to settle an argument and this is how we do it. One god chooses their hero to participate in the war and nobody's stronger than you. Also, only the demigods can be the hero, not full gods.”

Ash gave the final deal to Hades, “So if I win this war you will bring her back,”

Ash gave it a thought then added,

“Can I have her soul for safekeeping so she doesn't suffer in the pits, I will leave her body here and come back when I win.”

Hades laughs, “Well look at who is making the demands now. Well alright but if you lose you will become my servant from then on. You can’t tell anyone or have help because it's against the rules to have more than one hero.”

Hades pulled out a bottle with the soul of Isabel in it, he tossed it to Ash,

“I will lay her body on a bed so she won’t just be on the floor,”

gritted his teeth clearly in disagreement with leaving her body here.

“Now I will send you to the leader's camp tent, they still don’t know who their leader is so they are thinking of a great hero so show off your power to make them believe you are the hero. The main goal is to win but there are key points to take over, the middle is where a great bridge is and it is the only way to get across. The next is two small castles then the main castles will be the most guarded. Now you are the leader so show them it is best to worship Hades.”

Hades gets up from his throne and ignites blue fire from both of his hands and makes a circle around Ash. It towers up like a wall around Ash. Ash closes his eyes then opens them, he is in a tent.