The God of Olympus (26 page)

Meg wobbled back down towards the lower levels of the underworld, but before she left the throne room she noticed a shepherd’s staff, picked it up, and used it to keep her suddenly weak body from falling to the ground. 

Meg began to feel her own guilt lead her down into great despair.  There she, as she went down the stairs of Hades’ underworld she began to sing softly:

              “Oh woe is me!

             
That I have done something that I am may never undo,

             
Oh that all light should disappear from the world!

             
That death should spread itself abroad,

             
And that I should be its Queen!

As she sung she looked around at the empty cave walls, and journeyed through the empty underworld, knowing that all evil, because of her, had now been unleashed upon the world.

              “Perhaps I should take this place as my new home!

             
I could die here and it would make no difference!

             
Perhaps this is my throne, my new great Palace!

             
Hades will no longer care for this place,

             
But perhaps I can, in my solitude, linger and haunt this place!”

She continued walking forward, through the arena until she reached the pit, the great pit that went down into Tartarus.  She felt a dark mist ascend upwards.  She felt drawn in…she was feeling weaker by the second.  She was becoming less and less bright.  Her guilt was drawing her down.  “This is the only place in Hades’ underworld that I have not yet seen!  To Tartarus I must go!  For I do not deserve anywhere else!”

And there Megara looked down, and with the shepherd’s staff in her hand,
let herself fall down into the great shaft of darkness.

Chapter 16
: War at Athens

When daylight had come upon the entire land of Greece, following Hercules’ great suffering in Hades’ underworld, a terrible fear was already saturating the land.  Hades’ flying servants arrived over the Greek mainland early in the morning and had already begun terrorizing villages in southern Greece.  Hades and his great dragon did not bother stopping anywhere but Athens, the city where the great battle of his age would occur.  If Athens and the armies near it, including King
Archidamas’ armies, were destroyed then Hades would easily gain control of the rest of Greece.

He
rakles and his ships arrived at land to the east of Athens where they began to make their march towards Athens.  Meanwhile, Ares carried Hercules in his flying chariot up towards the Acropolis where he was to obey Hades’ order and tie Hercules up between two of the pillars at the Acropolis.

Of course, all these terrible things seemed to occur quite at the same time.

King Archidamas and his great armies were marching east towards Athens where they would make their great, bold attack Pericles and the rest of Athens.

Once day
light had come upon the land Pericles knew that his men were in grave danger in the open and ordered them all to continue their retreat towards Athens.  Here he hoped that the chief Hellanodikai was able to gather a sufficient amount of men from the neighboring regions.

Athens was now a massive and chaotic city town.  Thousands of men from Attica had come to Athens in response to Pericles’ order for war.  The servant of the chief Hellanodikai bowed before him in Pericles’ palace.  “My Lord, we have gathered all men and boys who can fight to Athens from all the neighboring regions.”

“Good!” declared the Hellanodikai.  “Now go!  Tell these men to be prepared, for I sense that war will soon come upon us.”

The servant left only to return with news a few hours later, at about mid-day.  “What is it?” asked the Hel
lanodikai.  “Why have you returned so quickly?”

The servant could only mumble.  “It is Pericles.  He has returned, with his army.  He says that Sparta has a great army and is marching here from the west as we speak!”

The Hellanodikai looked sad.  “Very well,” he said.  “Then let us hope we are ready.”

What ensued in the next several hours is terrible to write, although I must.  Pericles, with all of his archers and spearmen, stood on top of the wall surrounding Athens and looked down at the massive Spartan army, led by King Archidamas.  Pericles heard a voice next to h
im.  “Pericles,” said the Hellanodikai.  “You know that this is a battle that we cannot win.  They have been preparing for war for a lot longer than we have.  Once they get through this wall they will ransack this city.”

“Let them try!” declared Pericles, angrily.  “Nobody has destroyed Athens before and nobody will destroy Athens now.  We shall fight and prove that Athens is the greatest city of Greece!”

The Hellanodikai was beginning to get upset with Pericles’ illogical thinking.  “Pericles, it needs not end in death!  Go to King Archidamas and propose a treaty!  Propose a solution that does not end in the death of thousands of people!”

But Pericles was stubborn and would not compromise.

Meanwhile Milo, who had reluctantly agreed to journey with King Archidamas’ army to Athens, tried to speak peaceful words to the king before they began their assault on Athens.  “We should not fight Athens!” said Milo.

“But they were going to fight us!” replied King Archidamas.  “And I will no longer have Sparta continually fearing Athens.  I would that peace finally exist in the land!”

“And it will, but not if you attack Athens, and start a great war!” declared Milo.  “Please, Hades and his armies are coming upon all of Greece!  Now is not the time to fight each other, but to be unified against Hades!”

But all of Milo’s persuad
ing could not convince King Archidamas to stop his assault.

Once King Archidamas was near the Athenian wall he looked up at Pericles and declared loudly, “Pericles!  You must surrender Athens to me
or else you and all of Athens will be destroyed!”

             
“I will never surrender Athens!” replied Pericles.  Then Pericles gave a great speech to all those on and behind his wall.  “For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart.  So let us be heroes!”             

Then the Great War began.  King Archidamas and his men charged the wall while Pericles and his men fi
red down on the Spartan armies.  After much fighting the Spartans had managed to break through the gate and enter into the city.  Pericles then led his men in an all-out charge to push the Spartans back long enough to get the Athenian gate back.

But this is when Hades and his armies struck.  You see, while Pericles and the Athenian armies concentrated on the western wall, Hades’ army, led by the massive Herakles, had tramped down the eastern gate and entered the city.  It all happened so fast and was so unexpected to Pericles, and the rest of Athens, that many thousands of people—including women and children—we
re killed before Pericles even knew what was going on.

The sun was more than two-thirds down, when Hades a
nd his dragon flew over Athens.

It was only when Pericles saw Hades upon his great dragon that he realized what doom he had caused to be brought upon his nation.  Once Hades and his great dragon flew up over the Athenian and Spartan armies all the soldiers on the battlefield stopped fighting
and stared up at this terrifying devilish beast.

Hades looked down over the Greek armies and ordered the dragon to bring him lower.  Once Hades was low enough to see Pericles, Pericles looked up and saw him.  He then yelled, “Hades, what are you doing?  We had a deal?  I was
to kill King Archidamas and you…”

Hades looked over at King Archidamas, who was about a hundred feet away.  “It appears you have not kept the deal yourself.  Archidamas still lives and you shall die.”  Hades suddenly leapt up off the dragon towards the ground.  He then drew his staff and aimed it down towards Pericles.  A rush of fear suddenly swept over Pericles.  He looked up into Hades’ eyes and then, finally, realized the truth.  But it was too late.

Hades sent a powerful blast of dark magic from his staff that sent Pericles flying back until he his back hit hard against a large boulder.  This cracked his back and killed him on impact.  This was how Pericles the Great died.

After this Hades quickly spun his staff around and pointed it at King Archidamas.  “Now you will all see the power of Hades the great, as your new king.”  Suddenly Hades sent another powerful blast of magic that hit King Archidamas and killed him on impact.

Both great kings were dead.  After Pericles and King Archidamas were killed there was a moment of terrifying silence.  All the rest of the soldiers on the battlefield didn’t know what to do without a leader.  They looked at Hades who laughed and then said, “So who is next?”

Suddenly the dragon sent a powerful blast of fire across the battlefield that caused everyone there to look to the skies and run.  Then Hades’ men, led by the terrifying spiked club wielding Herakles burst out into the open to kill the remaining the soldiers.  Hades laughed and, with his staff on hand, walked back to the Parthenon to check on Hercules and supervise the devastation of Athens.

Chapter
17: Hercules’ Escape

It is now time to return to the life of one of the great heroes of this tale—Hercules.  While Hercules suffered greatly the entire land suffered.

Due to the loss of blood Hercules was entirely unconscious throughout his journey in Hades’ chariot.  When he awoke he looked around and saw himself chained between two large pillars.  Ares, the god who had chained him there, seemed to have temporarily left him.

Hercules
began to think about many things.  He remembered the words of Philotetes, that the Gods would only follow a true hero into battle. “But oh what is the great secret?” thought Hercules. “How can I become a true hero?” He was then drawn to Hades’ words that a true hero was nothing more than a fallacy, something that weak mortals conjure up out of their imagination. Hercules suddenly realized that he was a mortal and thought that perhaps he had merely entertained the entire idea out of his imagination—that in fact it all had been his imagination. Had he really seen Zeus? Was he really the son of Zeus and Hera? It seemed preposterous that his mind could make it all up.

As Hercules looked out he saw Athens being torn apart.  People ran throughout the city with fear.  Buil
dings were being toppled.  He saw Hades wave his staff in the air before his armies.  He heard Hades yell loudly so that his voice echoed over the battlefield—“Go into the city!  Destroy every building!  Kill all who opposes you!”  Hades shot a pillar of fire into the air from his staff.

Hercules tried to break the heavy chains that held him bound,
but he could not break them.  After several minutes he stopped trying and sunk his head towards the ground.  Then Hercules heard a voice.  “Hercules, put your head up!”  Hercules looked up.  It was Philoctetes and behind him was Pegasus.  “You are alive!” exclaimed Hercules.  “But how?”

“Come Hercules!  You must get out of here!  You have a city to save!”

“But I cannot break these chains!  I have already tried!”

“You can and you must!”

“You were right Philoctetes,” mumbled Hercules.  “I should never have gone for her, for that woman on the island…it was a mistake…a grave mistake.”

“No, it was not,” replied Philoctetes.  “I was wrong.  Meg is a good girl at heart.  She told me that she is sorry for everything.  It was Hades who made her do it.”

“He speaks the truth son,” said a deep voice from behind Philoctetes and Pegasus.

Philoctetes and Pegasus both heard the bold voice and moved aside.  There Hercules beheld a surprising, but familiar voice—the voice of Zeus.  “Father!”

Zeus smiled and stepped away, revealing Hercules’ mother Hera.  This was the first time that Hercules had ever seen her.  She was wearing a brilliant white dress.

“How are you here?
”  Hercules was both surprised and overjoyed to see his parents there, in front of him, during this time of terrible war.  “You should be on Mount Olympus.”

“This final journey
we made by foot.  You see, your mother could not stand to see you in such pain.  Her love for you is strong.”

             
Zeus looked into the eyes of Hercules as he hung in chains between the pillars.  There Zeus was able to say a few words of comfort and consolation.  “Do not let your head droop my dear Hercules!” said Zeus.  “For soon you will be able to break through these chains and save the world.  Soon all that we have hoped for will come to pass.  Know that I am proud of you son and all that you have become!  What must now be must be!”

             
Hera approached Hercules and placed her hands on his face.  “He is so strong and handsome!  Oh Zeus, our child is magnificent!”             

             
Zeus nodded.  “In reality, everything that has happened in the world has occurred because of the constant battle between good and evil,” said Zeus. “And you, my son, are the key to winning that battle. I know you are troubling over one question son. But let me tell you what it means, son, to be a true hero. Being a true hero means that you are willing to sacrifice everything you have, including your own life, so that good can triumph over evil. That is the truest test of a hero.” Zeus let a soft smile roll over his face and then turned around. “A true hero no longer cares about what may befall them, but will give up of themselves so that another may live on!”

             
Hera smiled and said, “We may pass, but do not let her pass, do not let Meg pass!”

             
Suddenly Hades noticed Zeus and Hera, the grand beings, lingering there on the hill looking at Hercules.  Hades laughed and appeared right there in front of them.

             
“What have we here?” said Hades craftily.  “The two great Gods finally have come from their heavenly mountain prison!  Well, you should know it is too late…”  Hades pointed down to the carnage of the battlefield that lingered below.  “As you can see, without you two the world is under my control…and soon the entire universe will be mine for nobody can stop my power!”  Hades smiled as he lifted his staff up in the air.

             
“You may kill us,” said Zeus.  “But that will not change your fate.”

             
Hades looked infuriated at Zeus.  Although Zeus was powerless to stop Hades and subject to death by his hand, Zeus did not look afraid, nor did he look any weaker than he had ever looked before.  Instead he simply looked over at Hercules and said, “Good-bye my son.”

             
Then Hades pointed his staff at Zeus, snarled, and said, “Enough of your ‘wise words’ old man!”  Then it happened.

             
Hades fired a powerful shot of dark magic at Zeus, propelling Zeus back down to the ground, dead.  Immediately after Zeus fell to the ground Hera came to comfort him.  She knelt onto the ground and looked down into his face.  For a moment he looked up into her eyes and then he was gone.

             
Hercules saw his mother, and her tears were all too real and vivid in his mind.  Hera looked over to Hercules and could only mutter a few words in the time she had left.  She muttered, “We will see each other again…my dear Hercules…”  Then she was gone.  One blast of dark magic from Hades’ staff knocked her to the ground, dead, where she fell right next to Zeus.

             
Words could not express the sadness felt by Hercules in this moment.  Tears streamed down his face as he yelled as loud as he could, “No!”  He couldn’t believe it could happen.  His own heavenly parents, the great Gods, were dead.

             
Hades laughed and mocked Zeus and Hera as he spit down on the ground next to them.  “And so pass the great Zeus and Hera, never to interfere in my plan again!”

             
Hades shot a dark blast of magic into the air, which caused the entire sky to darken, as the sun was shrouded in darkness.

             
So far all was working according to Hades’ grand plan.  His plan was to place Hercules in a position of great suffering, both physically and emotionally, so that his parents could not resist leaving their heavenly abode on Mount Olympus.  Then they he would strike and destroy his old enemies once and for all.  However, little to Hades’ knowledge this what Zeus and Hera had planned as well.

Immediately after Zeus and Hera died, Hercules felt different.  He suddenly did not feel hopelessly weak.  He suddenly did not feel all this pain.  He looked down and watched as his skin seemed to magically mend itself.  His scars and bruises were being healed before his very eyes.  Then he felt a power flow through him unlike any he had ever before felt.

Philoctetes and Pegasus, who both were still emotionally recovering from having to watch Zeus and Hera killed before their eyes, were surprised as they watch Hercules emit a bright light.  They watched as Hercules suddenly began one by one, breaking the chains surrounding the pillar.  The chains wrapped around the pillar, that before seemed like impenetrable and unbreakable steal, suddenly seemed more like weak threads that he could break in an instant.

             
Hades began trotting down the mountain victoriously until he suddenly heard a sound that he did not expect.  It was a loud cracking sound, like the sound of cracking stone.  He turned around and saw Hercules standing upright with his chains all broken and lying on the ground and the pillars around him cracked.  “What?  How is this possible?  No man could break through those chains!”

             
“But I am no ordinary man!” exclaimed Hercules. 

Of course, by now everyone below on the battlefield suddenly stopped fighting and stared upward at
this magnificent show of power.  “You have no powers!” exclaimed Hades.  “This cannot be possible except you be a…”  Suddenly Hades realized that somehow Hercules had become a God.

While all Hades could focus on was Hercules, Hercules was thinking about something else entirely.  The words of Hera returned to his mind with great power.  “We may pass, but do not let her pass, do not let Meg pass!”

              He turned to Philoctetes and said boldly, “Where is Meg?”

             
“We separated,” said Philoctetes.  “She said she was going to Hades’ underworld, where she would try to find you and save you.”

“I must go to her!” exclaimed Hercules.  “I must protect her from her death!”

“What are you talking about?” asked Philoctetes.

“When I was on the island I saw her drinking from a fountain.  When I asked her about it she said that it was her life force, something that kept her alive and well.  She cannot go long without it or els
e I think she will die.  I must find her.”

Philoctetes smiled.  “Then go…get out of here.”

“You are okay with it?” asked Hercules, surprised.

             
“Before I suggested that you go cannot love to be a hero.  But Megara has shown me something else, that perhaps love is in your destiny—love for both of you.  I know you must go, and do not worry Hercules.  I will stay here and lead what men will fight against Hades.”

“You will reveal your true self?” asked Hercules.

Philoctetes removed his hood and smiled.  “Yes, it is now about time that I do something heroic.  No longer will Philoctetes remain in the shadows!”

Philoctetes smiled for a moment as he handed him a familiar object.  “Hercules, here is your sword—the hero’s weapon!  Do not
lose it again!”

Hercules smiled and nodded. 
Suddenly Hercules flung himself on top of Pegasus and said, “Pegasus!  To Hades’ underworld, and with the greatest haste!”  Pegasus cheered and lifted himself up off the ground and flew off to Hades’ underworld.

Meanwhile Hades watched as Hercules flew off on Pegasus south.  He seemed terribly upset.  He heard a voice from behind him.  It was Ares.  “Shall we go after him?”

Hades paused.  He knew that without Hercules he could easily take over Athens and the cities close by.  Then, after that, he would take care of Hercules.  “No,” replied Hades.  “Bring desolation upon Athens!  Then I will deal with Hercules.”