Page 29

29

BATTLE PLANS

“F uck!” my brother shouted in shock the second I appeared out of nowhere.

I recognized the place instantly, and it was no longer any room that belonged in Lucius’s castle. No, instead I was back at the camp. One that had a lot more people in it since the last time I was here. And speaking of time…

“Where the fuck have you been?!” my brother snapped, making me frown before telling him,

“You know exactly where I have been.”

“You have been gone a fucking week, brother!”

At this my eyes widened as realization hit.

“It must have been a different time sphere. For me it was only an hour, two at the most,” I told him, making him sigh.

“Yeah, well a lot has happened since then,” he said, with only one name coming from me in panic…

“Ella?!”

“No word, but our army is vastly bigger since you last saw it,” he said, now nodding behind me so as I could see that he was right, there were legions of demons everywhere. Whereas the camp was once a quiet broken town filled with village folk and Koro’s soldiers, now it had become a hub for battle.

“Yes, well I fear it still won’t be enough,” Dom’s voice cut through, and I turned to see him enter the room from behind me, doing so with Keira next to him. In fact, all the Kings were here, as clearly, I had walked in on their battle plans. The room had been rebuilt with far more than sheets of patched material. It was now a war room, fit for kings. The large table in the center was filled with an old map of the Underworld torn around the edges. Its red ink lines indicating the borders and rivers, with painted monuments in between. The writing of each placename written in ancient Greek.

“I take it that means you found Hades?” Lucius asked, making me nod.

“Yes, but he will not aid in our fight.”

Dom frowned before sighing. “I fear it would not help us, even if he did, as their numbers are far greater than our own and with Ella now able to summon their dead, it will be an impossible battle to win.”

Keira looked crushed by this, reaching out for her daughter’s hand as Amelia stood next to Lucius. The rest of the room held seats around the edges, most of which were taken up by Seth, Sigurd, Tyr, Koro, and Lucius’s brother Dariush. This made me wonder where Lerna was, as no doubt Koro wouldn’t have let her go far.

“Then let’s make it a diversion,” I said, making all heads turn to me.

“A diversion?” Keira asked.

“All I need to do is get close enough to give her this, and it should be enough to bring her back,” I told them, opening my hand to show them the stark white branch.

“And how do we do that, if she is there fighting?” my brother pointed out, no doubt uneasy about me being near her considering what happened last time.

“Dariush can create a portal,” Lucius said, making his brother groan.

“Seriously, brother, I feel like you’re my fucking pimp,” Dariush complained, making Lucius smirk before winking at him.

“And if it doesn’t work?” Seth asked in his sardonic way, his long black jacket folded over the seat’s armrest.

“It has to,” I replied in a hard tone.

“And if it doesn’t, we will have no choice but to fall back and wait for more reinforcements,” Dom said with a sigh, and I had to say, it wasn’t a good sign for us if he already saw defeat. The King had been in more battles than I had eaten steaks.

“They are not all here?” I asked, disappointment lacing my words.

“Many legions are still making their way here. My father’s and Lucifer’s included. So far, we have Luc’s army, Sigurd’s shadow army, part of my own, and what remains of Koro’s army after the first battle.”

“And mine, if I am able to reclaim them back,” Clay stated, now joining the room.

“Damn, but my army of Wraths would have really come in handy right about now,” Amelia mocked, making Lucius grin down at her. I looked to Koro, and without me asking, he shook his head.

“They are still too far from crossing the border,” he said, making me sigh.

“So, what are our odds.”

“With your own army of HellBeasts that are soon to arrive, we still fight twenty to one,” Dom replied with a tense look.

“And Adam?” I asked, knowing he would be our biggest asset in this.

“We are all in agreement that should the battle look to be lost, Adam will create the diversion that gives our men a chance to retreat without Garmr’s army being able to finish us off,” Dom replied, making me grit my teeth and once again, it wasn’t like Dom to plan for failure, which told me how bad this truly was.

“You fear they will find a way to stop him if given long enough on the battlefield?” my brother asked.

“We do, but this way his presence will cause panic and confusion, enough so that Garmr won’t want to risk the loss of any more of his army if he doesn’t have to, despite Ella’s abilities,” Lucius replied, as clearly, they had thought this through.

“And what if he brings about Ragnarok?” Sigurd asked, his usual easy-going nature now gone, replaced by stone cold strategy for the upcoming battle. And after my conversation with Hades, this was one problem we didn’t need to worry about… for now.

“He can’t, not until he figures out a way to cross Ella over to Helheim, hence why Hades remains hidden. He is the only one that can release her of being bound to this realm and with Ella stuck here, he can’t complete what is needed,” I told them, prompting Keira to ask,

“To do what exactly?”

“To break free of the forces of chaos, which the Gods had previously restrained,” Sigurd replied with a clench of his jaw.

“Oh… that would be bad,” she replied softly, making her shoulders slump.

“We still don’t know who else Garmr is working for,” Koro pointed out, and he was right.

“Then we can’t afford to wait for the rest of the legions to get here. For Garmr might not have found a way to get Ella out, but that is not to say whoever he is working for hasn’t found a way to get chaos in, in whatever form it may arise,” I said, bringing new concerns to the group. As an enemy you could see coming was one thing, but the enemy you didn’t know you had was quite another.

When no one else had any more to say, I added,

“Then we are in agreement, the plan is for me to get to Ella and try and get her back.”

“Only then do we have any hope of winning this war, as with Garmr unable to use Ella, then his forces will be weakened,” Lucius agreed, making his wife nudge him.

“You mean as the dead remain dead,” she said in response, making Lucius wink at her again.

“Then I should go and ensure that our men are ready,” Dom said, giving his own wife’s shoulder a squeeze.

“And I better go tell Pip not to wear a bra,” Keira said, making Amelia laugh. And well, the joke wasn’t lost on any of us, as we all knew from experience that the only way for Abaddon to calm down from one of his rampages was to chase his wife naked somewhere.

Which officially made it the strangest way to end a battle plan.

* * *

This time, my brother refused to allow me to go alone, as he wanted to ensure I didn’t do anything stupid if this all went to shit like last time. This ended in me trying to argue, something he refused to listen to, as he told me,

“Shut the fuck up, I am coming and that’s that!”

Then he walked away, giving Marcus cause to look smug and comment,

“I guess he’s going then.”

I could do nothing but grit my teeth. Because I knew that when Orthrus was like this and his mind was set, there was no use trying to change it. As for our side, we had pulled together all the resources we could in the short time we had. But it was like Dom had said, most that were willing to join the fight, were too far away to get here in time. And time was definitely of the essence. Something we discovered the next day when scouts returned with news.

It seemed as though we hadn’t been the only ones busy in the week that had gone by in my absence. Because it turned out that even if we had wanted to wait for more men, that was no longer an option. Not seeing as now Garmr had decided to…

Bring the fight to us.

His enormous army was on its way, which meant that we had no choice but to meet him head on. However, it did give me an idea, because the scouts mentioned what road they were taking. Making me now run into the war room to find the Kings making the final preparations to their plans. Originally, each King was to lead a different section of the army, in hopes of taking them side on, and splitting up their legions. This was a risky strategy on our part, as it meant dividing up our numbers and taking out the chance of a head on attack like Garmr would want.

But what if there was another way to control their side. Hence the first thing I said when stepping inside was,

“I have an idea.” I then walked to the table, looking down on that huge map of the Underworld. One that now had markers of each side. Garmr’s in green and ours in red, to represent our own force. My eyes scanned for the area I knew they were taking, and I lifted up one of our markers and put it down at the Valley of the Gods.

“We fight here,” I stated, making Dom and Lucius look at each other, as if they knew where I was going with this.

“But what if he doesn’t take this route?” Seth asked, leaning in.

“Then we will have to encourage it,” I said, not yet knowing how.

“And why here?” Tyr was next to ask.

“Because it will offer us a swift way out if we need to retreat,” Dom said, already on the same page.

“Garmr would not fight in a bottle neck,” Clay pointed out.

“No, he wouldn’t choose to, but he will if he has no choice, and he will continue to do so if he thinks he is winning and wishes to foolishly give chase,” I replied.

“And what will happen when he does?” Amelia asked, making me point to one of the giant statues the Valley of the Gods were full of.

“We use these,” I said, making realization dawn on her face.

“And if you’re wrong about the route, we will have our entire army stationed in a place that will be difficult to escape from if they come at us from behind,” Clay said, crossing his big black arms across his chest, being at nearly the same size as my brother.

“Not if we force him to take that route,” I said, thinking of a way where he would have no choice. “What if we lure out Lernaean?” I added, knowing its lair was close enough so that all we would need was a little bait to keep her interested and reason enough to get closer to the riverbank. Once provoked, she could take out fifty men with one strike.

“That could work, but we would need a lot of fucking bait to keep it out hunting near the river,” Lucius pointed out, and he wasn’t wrong there, as it wouldn’t leave its nest for anything less than a decent meal.

“What about the Cerastes, they burrow this time of year and all we would need to do is set fire to their tunnels,” I replied the second it came to me.

These creatures were serpents that were incredibly flexible. This due to the fact they had no spine and therefore could hallow out burrows that were a warren full of their offspring. These burrows could span miles if left undisturbed, meaning there would be hundreds of them in the dunes that ran alongside the riverbanks.

Their horned heads usually protruding out of the surface as this was how they hunted, as they would lay in wait for their unsuspecting prey. For these horns were meant to deceive other creatures into thinking it is food. Then when the smaller creatures approached, the Cerastes promptly killed it, dragging its carcass back to its warren. This meant for us that they would be easy to spot and therefore we would know where to set the fires.

“If we planned it right, their movements would create enough vibrations to alert the beast and lure it out,” my brother added.

“I am sorry, but I have to ask, exactly what is a Lern… whatever you called it?” Keira asked, getting confused.

“Lernaean Hydra,” her daughter replied, as of course Amelia would know, seeing as she had no doubt read every book in her father’s library.

“A Hydra, you mean one of those monsters that has loads of heads and every time you cut one off another grows in its place… that kind of Hydra?” Keira asked, making her daughter giggle.

“Try two heads grow in its place, but yeah, close enough,” she replied.

“Is that wise getting something like that involved?” Seth asked.

“It will be far from us but better still, it will not be a risk Garmr will be willing to bet on, as they take a very long time to kill, and he will no doubt lose a lot of his men trying.

“Meaning he will have no choice but to take the path we want him to take… gottcha,” Keira said, making Dom chuckle.

“It is not a bad plan. It offers us an easy escape, as we will have something they do not,” Lucius said with a nod of his head.

“What’s that?” Tyr asked.

“Me,” Adam answered, now joining us and looking at the map.

“Can you do it?” Lucius asked, nodding to the statues painted there.

“Yeah, but I might need some incentive,” he replied, making Pip stroll in right on time and say,

“Hi, I’m incentive, nice to meet you all.” Then she skipped over to her husband and winked up at him.

“Then this could actually work, should all else fail. And if not, forcing them into a bottleneck will give us an advantage, as he will risk it or not, either way, we have ourselves an out,” I said, looking down at the map and doing so now, by clinging on to hope that…

We wouldn’t need that out.