Themyscira

Gates of Tartarus

Diana didn't want any of this madness.

Utter madness was the only thing that surrounded her, as he attended the prone form of her mother Hippolyta, both trying to recover from the onslaught of the dark god Hades.

That fool, Felix Faust, has cut a deal with the Lord of Tartarus, in order to gain the supreme knowledge. In the end, the sorcerer has been tricked and offered the supreme knowledge that the mortal will always suffer and perish, no matter how high they raise during their short lives.

That has only been the beginning of the battle between the Justice League and the mad god, a battle that was still echoing through the forgotten caves that contained the Tartarus Gate, hidden under the sacred grounds of Themyscira.

Diana blamed herself for this, she knew that all of this was her fault, she should have confronted Faust, she should have broken the neck of the damned magician and then ask Zattana or Doctor Fate about how to free her sisters from the petrifying spell Faust put them in. Faust was not the best sorcerer of the world, just a crazy man who had dabbled into secrets that should be buried and forgotten, she knew better magicians than him.

But her pride got the best of her and she accepted the deal of Faust and went into a ridiculous goose chase all around the world, for the relics that form the Key of the gates; pieces that were scattered all over the world, up to a point on were she even drag her friends; her dearest friends of the JLA; with her in that mad quest, only to be outwitted by Faust at the end of the quest, when he stole the key from them and made a run for the Gates, opening the Pit of the Forgotten souls.

Not precisely her finest hour.

It all started with good intentions, of course, she just fell nostalgia from her home, she wanted to clear things up with her mother Hippolyta. They did not part in the best of terms, not to mention how she took the sacred garbs she wore as Wonderwoman from the temple of Hera. She was not supposed to do that; she could argue that those garbs and the lasso of truth were destined for the strongest of the Amazons, something that she was beyond doubt, however, she just simply borrowed them, without asking for any permission or if Hera would be pleased with her for taking the sacred relics.

When all of this started, she was saving a town, the usual JLA stuff; they deal with all kind of global threats; in this case it was more a local threat as a typhoon was about to cause a lot of casualties among the population of a coastal town and the JLA intervened, helping the rescue teams and evacuating the people before they deal with the typhoon itself.

Unfortunately and for her shame, her head was not in the game, she has been with the head on the clouds or better said, in Themyscira, she abandoned the island against the wishes of her mother and what is worst, she stole the same sacred clothes she was wearing now, the clothes that gave her the blessing of Hera, theoretically.

She was a proud amazon, so much was true, but she loved her mother deeply and she was feeling a wave of nostalgia that was interfering with her work as world protector, and by Hera, the world does need protection. If it wasn't alien invasions, it was some overpowered fool and if not a natural catastrophe and if not a magical crisis and so goes the list on. It was kind of overwhelming and did make her ponder a little about how sheltered she and her sisters were in her island, they never had to deal with any of the problems that she was experimenting daily, and not all of them were to blame of the men idiocy like the credo of the Amazons tells.

Truly, they were isolated and ignorant of a lot of things but now that she was experimenting the world of Man, she has to admit, it does have its perks, still hates some things but in all she was satisfied, and has to admit that she has found some very wonderful comrades in the JLA. Until this damn fiasco, she has felt like she walked among a Pantheon once again, each of the heroes of the League were unique and at the same time, she found herself finding commonalities with the myths she knew. Batman and Hades, Green Lantern and Apolo, Flash and Hermes, Cyborg and Hephaestus...there was a lot of curious similarities. The only one that defies all description was Superman, Clark was a unique male, and not only because of his Kryptonian heritage, she had to admit that both were...testing the waters about each other, it was painfully obvious that both were attracted to each other but none of them were exactly sure how to give the first step or if they even want to make that first step.

But that was inconsequential now, she had condemned them all when she accepts the proverbial deal with the devil, in the form of the sorcerer Faust, and blinded by her own arrogance and overconfidence, provided Faust with the method to open the Gates of Tartarus, she was blackmailed into that accursed deal, of course, a very simple but terrible deal. The life of her sisters and her mother in exchange for all the pieces of the key of the Gates.

She couldn't say no but she was clever enough to know that Faust will not uphold his part of the contract, he was a crafty male, a trickster, and an oath-breaker, very much like that ex-boyfriend of Zatanna, Constantine. He wanted some relics, pieces of stone that she didn't understand what was their function until it was too late. Those relics were in several locations, all around the world and she had only twenty-four hours to locate and recover those fragments before the spell over her sisters became permanent.

Thanks, Hera for the speed of those flying ships of the League, the Javelins, a piece of technology that help her pinpoint the three locations and to call Batman about all the knowledge he could muster about that fool of Faust. In hindsight, calling the eternally paranoid Batman was not her best move but if you wanted information, he was the man for the job, his information was always flawless and she had already accustomed to trusting him in that regard.

During the battle for the first piece, she already discovered that Faust did not just want some broken pieces of an old piece of art, but powerful magical artifacts, he had to fight the powerful guardian, a stone giant of brass and stone, of the relic before she could claim it.

She vanquished the giant but at the end of the combat, she has destroyed several invaluable pieces of art and cause a lot of collateral damage to the museum, more than enough to call the attention of Superman and the rest of the League. Superman, Manhunter, and Flash were the first to appear at the museum and after some quick explanations, they all agreed to help Diana; she felt honored for such a confidence, for such demonstration of trust, despite how she had been spare about why she was doing all of this and why. Trust that she betrayed badly, not long after they separated in teams to cover more terrain and gain some more hours to the countdown.

When they found the last crest, stored in a museum of some kind; a Mall, Superman called it, a temple for the credit cards; instead of a guardian, the magic of the crest charmed both of them. Diana believed that he was fighting a hideous demon when in reality she was beating Superman with all she had, Superman has already free himself from the illusion and tried to endure the punishment until he could make her understand the trickery. Another "glorious" moment for the growing list, the sin of viciously attacking an ally who has done nothing but to earn her trust and friendship...and perhaps something more, she was not entirely comfortable on that front.

The other recovery team was not luckier, Flash and Manhunter had to fought a giant snake of some kind that protected the temple on where the fragment was hidden. As usual, it was Batman the one that connected all the dots, meanwhile, all of them were chasing wild gooses in the form of the Keys stone fragments. He confirmed what Diana has already suspected, Faust was a lunatic that has to dabble too much in dark secrets, very dangerous secrets, and after some very controverted theories and discoveries, he was expelled from the faculty of Archaeology, as his theories were heretical and dangerous, bordering the criminal.

She remembered how the bastard had the petrified faces of those doctors who had expelled him, hanging on a plaque over his studio, the terrified expression of those poor victims angered Diana at that moment, and she swore that she will soon kill the sorcerer before he could do more damage.

But he was a slippery bastard and when they ambush him before he could take the key of the gates, he used some kind of spell that blind and deaf all the League, winning enough time to grab Hippolyta and flee to the bowels of Themyscira, where the Gates stand over the broken ruins of one of the first city of the Amazons.

The Queen Hippolyta keep the Gate under her domains, as a permanent reminder of how foolish she was in her younger days and as a reminder of how even the greater ones could fall when the fear corroded their minds and souls. And of course, to never trust the honeywords of anyone, male or female, as she has almost condemned the world to the destruction at the hands of the Titans.

The Gate itself was a humongous piece of stonework, big enough for an army to pass through it. An immense stone lock rest in the center of the gates, surrounded by stone columns that horizontally block any access. Even in the distance, the contained power of what lies behind the gates was more than enough to make Hippolyta shiver in contained fear and apprehension, this foolish male has no idea of what he was unleashing over the world. The queen was tied by a magic bind that kept her in check, draining all her Amazonian strength; otherwise she would have already broken the neck of this idiotic man; even in her relatively old age, as the Amazons have a long live spam, she was still strong and skilled with a sword but the magic that tied her was stronger than her..

She tried to convince the sorcerer of the stupidity of his actions, if he was a man of wisdom, he should see how bad idea was to open those damnable Gates, but the glint of madness in his eyes was all she needed to know that she had no hope since the beginning, those were the eyes of a lunatic, one that will not stop for anything in order to achieve what he wanted. Chained to a stone as a sacrificial offering; much like Andromeda was at the Kraken; Hippolyta had to witness how Faust open the gates and a few seconds later, her worst nightmares slipped past those giant stone doors into the realm of mortals.

Hades was a vision of dark majesty, and Hippolyta's soul sneered at the view of the treacherous coward, she fell in love with eons ago; all the love she could ever felt died the day his treason was known. As arrogant as always, Hades delighted himself in his freedom from the Pit of the forgotten souls, his touch made Hippolyta's skin crawl in disgust, and not only for scorned love but for the dark presence that emanates from the handsome and powerful appearance of Hades. He has changed from the old days, the only thing that remains as she remembered was his black hair, a trait that Diana had too but she preferred not to dig in that statement, it will lead to very uncomfortable questions about the origins of Diana, questions that she didn't want to answer. Tall, powerful and dress with a black armor plate covered in intricate Greek glyph and with a red cape over his shoulders, Hades wore the face of a handsome man in his thirties, full of power and confidence. He was a god, after all, so he had twice in spades.

Without losing his arrogant smirk, he betrayed Faust by revealing an unavoidable truth for all the mortals.

Mortals will only know suffering and death, no matter how much they struggled within the sparks that are their lives.

The dry and aged husk of Faust stumbled and fall to the ground, when Hades tricked him into his own demise, Hades turn his attention to the tied form of Hippolyta, the caressing touch of the gauntlets of Hades were like slugs, running over the skin of her face but Hippolyta challenged the god like the Amazon queen she was. However, when she was saved by the friends of her daughter, she had to admit that despite her adherence to the traditions, she was glad that her daughter brought males to the island, at those males were quite unique, each one of them was different from what she vaguely remembered of the weak and egoistic world of men.

Two of them were capable to fly...one of those was a green-skinned bald man; Hippolyta has never seen something like that, other dress like Hades but he was nothing but a mortal man, and yet there where he was, faring against a god with nothing but his indomitable will, his superb skill and wits. One was a red blur, a streak of red and yellow that free her from the Hades grasp and take her to her daughter before vanishing again, faster than she could see and start attacking Hades from all angles at the same time. For a second, Hippolyta dared to nurture some hope in her heart, despite being men, there was no doubt that they carried powers, unique and strange powers, that they unleashed directly at Hades, who took them all face front.

That was a battle for the ages, and they did seem to damage the god against them but at the end, it has been nothing but a trickery of Hades, who took stand over one of the wrecked buildings and called for the army of the death.

Hippolyta froze when she saw the hordes of skeleton warriors, gray, ashen skins peeled over dry bones, deep red eyes that only spoke for death and carnage stared at them, raising from the ground, paroling from the gates, appearing from the ancient tombs inside the walls of the city, the army grow an grow at impossible and terrific speed. Soon hundreds and hundreds of undead warriors stand in attention surrounding the laughing figure of Hades, who raised his hand and pointed at them, never losing her cocky and arrogant smile, ordering the armies to kill them all.

Except for Hippolyta and her daughter, he has plans for them later.

Diana enraged at those deprecating words and taking the shield and the sword of one of the fallen warriors, start to carve a path in the hordes of undead like the scythe of the reaper, her Amazonian strength was more than enough to obliterate the bodies, sending pieces of broken bones in all directions, before they turned into the dust they have been before the summoning of Hades. Together, mother and daughter, they put a stop to the incoming waves of undead but even with all her martial skills and amazonian stamina, it was clear that they will eventually be overwhelmed by the hordes of skeleton Greek warriors.

The rest of the League was not faring much better, they were as overwhelmed as the two amazons but for some of them; Superman and Manhunter mostly, thanks to their immense strength; cleave a path among the undead was a simple task, as they could throw energy from their eyes, fly and just ram the lines of undead warriors or bull into their lines in said animal into a Chinese shop.

Hades just smiled and behold the spectacle, it was much better-seeing living people bleed and suffer than the boring matches in the Underworld Coliseum, where the dead will only beat the shit out of each other, indifferent to crippling injuries or bleeding wounds. From time to time, he laughed and toss a gigantic fireball to one of the contenders; just to spice the things up a little; he took a liking to do it against Manhunter, that appeared to be especially sensitive to the fire, see him struggle and squirm to evade the fireballs, instead of simply passing through like he seems to do with the undead warriors was an added bonus to the fun of Hades.

Ah, but the cherry on the top of the dark god, was to see the two amazons fight. Hades loved Hippolyta, so much was completely true, however, the treason that sent him to Tartarus created a breach between them, and the stubborn woman was unable to see the truth. When the Titans appeared; and in all honesty, the gods of the Olympus won the battle that day by sheer dumb luck; he feared that the Titans will kill them all. So, he was clever enough and made a deal with them, if they allow the amazons and him live, he will open the Gates of Olympus for them, what he honestly didn't expect was the defeat of the Titans at the end of the day, that was a miracle that left Hades dumbfounded.

Zeus, his own brother, threw him into Tartarus, not giving a fuck about why he did it, considering the fool has sired dozens of bastards and has provoked interminable wars among mortals for a quickie behind the throne of his latest sluts husband, it was kind of hypocritical of him. But in the end, he was the one dammed to Tartarus, to be the King of the Dammed, the god that rules over the Tartarus. He hated it with a passion, Tartarus was a nightmare, especially for a god of his standing and power, it was all about suffering and make the sinners pay for the sins they commit in life.

Ironically, he did it all for love and now that's how they repay him.

Well, as the last batch of the damned used to say in life before they were shot to death, Daddy is in da house, bitches, and he has come to stay.

Hippolyta and her daughter was a more than a welcome bonus of the first step in his conquest of the mortal realm, he will conquer those mortal Zeus was so infatuated with and with the army of Tartarus and the living hell of earth, he will tear apart the gates of Olympus and flay his brother alive for all the suffering he had to endure in Tartarus.

Diana look at the smirk of the god, as he just stood there, observing the armies of the dead tear them apart with their rusted and broken swords and lances, even if her mother and her were from the resilient race of the Amazons, Diana know that she will finally succumb to their unnatural edges, even if he has previously endured bullet shots, knives, and hits from people capable of tear steel apart with their own hands. However, she has to admit, it was good to fight with her mother again, the queen of the Amazon was a spectacle herself, moving her sword like a flash of steel, cutting and beheading any warrior stupid enough to get close to them before she turned to a new enemy and cut them apart like the wheat during the harvest session.

A loud boom echoed in the cavern and an entire platoon of the skeleton warriors went flying in all directions, torn to pieces by the brutal shock wave, like a living missile, Superman took a direct route to Hades and punched his face with all the inertia he carried in his flight.

The god fall from his position, surprised for the strength of the flying man, he was at the same level of Herakles, that strength belongs to the realm of the gods and this Superman, dared to stole that right and use it against a true god. With his face twisted in a bestial snarl, Hades caught the next punch of Superman; a punch that made Hades gauntlet crack; and with a counter swig cleave Supermans chest with the blades etched in the armband of his armor. Nasty black spikes that had the inner blade serrated, so when they hit flesh, the teeth would tear and rend with viciousness.

The blood of the flying man was spilled with easiness, as the divine strength and material of Hades armor surpassed the alien resistance of the Kryptonian; with a surprised grunt of pain, Superman lose concentration for a second, enough for Hades to blindside with a demolishing straight to the face, sending him flying into the farthest wall of the room. Although, his smirk of triumph soon turned into a grimace of pain.

Out of nowhere, a green fist slammed the face of the god, followed by another and another and another, changing his shape into a more powerful form of himself, the Martian Manhunter fought the death god with a mix of fighting skills and mind deception as he send distracting flashes to the god mind, keeping him flat-footed and never leaving him gain some leverage. Martian Manhunter close combat 101, never allow your opponent to recover, hit hard, fast and decisively.

Bored and annoyed of the barrage of hits; still, Hades could respect the ruthlessness and combat progress of the green man; Hades puked a massive fireball at zero distance, covering both of them in the hell fires that he commanded, as Lord of the Tartarus. Once more, Hades victory was short-lived, as a boot kicked his face and a red streak pick the body of the screaming martian, getting him out of the inferno, moving like a red flash, leaving the green martian in a corner of the enormous hall.

Batman took advantage of the opportunity that his comrades had created to throw some Batarangs at the face of Hades, but Hades pick up the throwing weapons in flight and eyed him with curiousness; after all, this bat costumed mortal kind of paid homage to him, dressing as a bat and acting as black crusader of darkness of some sort. He still reeks of rectitude and moral standards, despite cover himself in darkness. It was even more curious how he dwell in violence and fear yet, he pretended to be a righteous crusader. The trail of thought of Hades was soon cut short when the Batarangs explode in his face, not really harming him but this was starting to get seriously annoying for the god of death.

These mortals were resulting to be the funniest thing he had for centuries, nothing similar since he received the last batch of real nasty souls, those that were worth torturing and the occasional innocent that has been killed by being framed for a crime that they didn't commit. The hate and rage of those souls made the best wine in Tartaros, and these last decades, the harvest has been incredibly good. Hades was not a god that indulged himself in personal combat at each chance he had; quite the opposite, Hades was not a battle maniac like Ares, despite the cunning of the god of war that always had a finger in all cakes when war or violence is involved.

Although, Hades has been trapped inside of Tartaros for eons, and when he could walk among the mortal realm once again, he saw no reason not to see for himself how much the mortal world had changed since the Titanomachy.

That day the universe tremble, that accursed day entire pantheons fall and disappeared, like the Asgard barbarians and the Bogovi or the Inuit; others were reduced to a mere shadows of their former glory, it was Hades the one that guided the Titans into the realms of other pantheons, so when the dust settled, Olympus would be standing proud and the rest of the deities not so much. And how did Hades peers paid him for this astute maneuver, the one that would have granted dominance of the Olympus among this worlds pantheons?. They exiled him into the worst of the realms, the Tartaros, a hell that so many cultures fear and with very good reasons to do it so.

Hades frown and another entire legion of skeletal soldiers raise from the floor, overcrowding, even more, space inside the cavern where the ancient city of Themyscira once stood proudly, now reduced to a lot of ruins and barren earth.

The god of death founded the place very appealing, especially considering that right over his head, there was an entire nation of beautiful women like Diana and Hippolyta, they would resist, of course, that was half the fun in all this debacle. Death is boring, Hades knew that lesson tremendously well, he has been performing his duty as Watcher of Tartaros flawlessly, with only a couple of slip-ups here and there, like the one with Faust that led to this situation, curiously, Faust was the only one so far who had managed to trick the Amazons into agreeing to his demands.

Not that it matters anymore as the sorcerer was nothing but dust and bones, like all mortals he would perish when the Moirai cut their life string, so short and so lame that Hades couldn't but deeply despise the short-lived sacks of flesh and blood called humanity, they were nothing but toys at the best.

Hades was so entertained by his own mussing that didn´t see the punch of Superman, at Mach One speed, the Kryptonian had taken space into the air and shot himself like a javelin at the face of Hades, connecting a devastating haymaker into the handsome face of the god, completely smashing his arrogant expression into a painful one.

Still, what could have been a finisher move to almost everything, it was nothing but an annoyance to an entity that has endured way worst punishments during his life and rule as King of Tartaros, painful as it has been, the punch has only managed to severely piss off Hades and for breaking the concentration he needed to maintain to keep his appearance as a devilish handsome human male.

Hades real aspect was beyond hideous, after so many centuries trapped among the howls and agonizing visages of the damned, his own appearance has been had forever altered the originally inhumanely beautiful face of the man; a face that was once considered one of the most handsome gods of Olympus; now turned into a mocking and ugly parody. There were few traits inside the horrid and devilish face of the god of death that appeared too in his usual dark haired handsome Caucasian male. The hair was similar but with a wild and twisted life of his own, along with his three serpentine-like tongues and a bestial muzzle, more akin to a rat of a demon and his slanted eyes, full of malice and darkness.

Distracted by the horrid change in the visage of the god, Superman's eyes widened in surprise when the gauntlets of Hades became claws and drawn bloody lines over his torso, piercing his invulnerable skin like it was nothing. Hades claws were not only deadly for their sharpness but for the poisonous essence that they carry and inflict on their victims, the essence of Tartaros, that corrode the mortal flesh until there is nothing left. In a sense, it was akin to a poisonous wound, with the added effect that any wound made by the claws of the god would not heal and would slowly corrode into necrosis, all the flesh around the wound.

Screaming in pain, Superman flies backward, taking distance from the horrid hybrid that was now the God of Death, only recognizable for his black armor and vestigial traits from were he was trying to pose as the Greek male beauty canon.

Martian Manhunter and Flash took over, charging against the monster with a courage that spoke volumes of both men.

The green man of Mars was a logical and rational soul, with very little tendency to unleash his considerable powers against an enemy but in this case, he got the gloves off and smashed his fist against the god, changing shapes, shooting psi lances at Hades mind, always on the offensive, not leaving any space for a counterattack; it was beautiful in his ruthlessness and efficiency. Flash on the other hand was a playful wind that moved around the battle, hitting Hades with the weapons of the fallen skeletons, as he had learned the bad way that his fist was far less resilient than the armor of Hades, in all the weak spots he could find.

Eyes, knees, he even managed to cut a tongue of Hades with a savage swing of a rusted ax.

Then, Batman joined the battle, he was a man, a human and supposedly the weakest among the Leaguers, yet there he was, fighting a god without an ounce of doubt, using his gadgets; in this case a pair of electrified gauntlets that thundered each time he punched the god in the ribs, the face or the back; to dish his own punishment against Hades, the dark crusader was always moving around: with a foot work that would make green with envy any professional boxer; so Hades could not respond to his attacks.

Hippolyta was flabbergasted by the mortals that her daughter brought to the island with her, each one of this men were facing one of the most feared gods of the Olympus, and none of them had shown the slightest pang of doubt against Hades, a monster that would no doubt claim all their souls, if they fail. She was the queen of the Amazons, she was the one that had to look out for all the Amazons in the island, and right now, she was looking at the worst taboo of the Amazons made flesh and fighting with all they had the one that once, betrayed her heart and almost destroyed the world. Perishing that line of thought, as it was useless right now, and taking a shield and a sword, she joined her daughter in the battle, trying to open a path among the skeletal horde, so they could help the males in their effort to push Hades into the Gates of Tartarus, sealing him again.

Superman, as recovered as he could from the savage wounds he had in his chest, had taken a supportive role, keeping the horde at bay with a mix of frozen breath and heat rays from his eyes, cutting the horde short by great numbers; but it was like fighting the tides, more will raise and continue marching forward as his god commanded them.

The battle against the god grew even more ruthless, as Hades managed to block one of the punches of Batman and with a sickening crunch, completely squashed the hand and the electric knuckles of the man, reducing his hand to a stump of flesh and metallic pieces. It must be said that Batman didn't even scream, just grit his teeth with all his might, and with his sane hand, pick up another of his explosive Batarangs and toss it directly inside the mouth of Hades who could only widen his eyes before the explosion knock him off some teeth from his twisted mouth and make him stumble back a couple of steps.

Flash moved Batman out of the main battle, bandaging the stump of his hands; cleaning in a couple of seconds, a wound that a professional surgeon would need hours of focused tasks; as good as he could given the circumstances, using the medikit that the vigilante always carried with him, no matter when he could go. Unfortunately, even if this battle surgery was needed before Batman bled to death or suffer a blood poisoning from the metal inside his torn hand, Martian Manhunter was now alone against Hades and the impulse of the charge has not been enough to push the sadistic god into the open gates of Tartaro.

Diana and Hippolyta joined the fray, adding their swords to the battle, keeping the push as much as they can, their amazon strength combined with the unholy edge of the weapons of the reanimated corpses was more than enough to cause damage to the flesh of Hades, as both shared a common divine origin. The swords of the Amazon were from the very same soldiers of Hades, full to the brim with the same poisonous powers that curse all life to decay and entropy.

Diana and Martian Manhunter took the lead in the attack, the former with her sword; demonstrating why she was the best warrior the Amazon nation has seen in centuries, and the latter with an efficient display of brute force and martian martial arts that depend on sudden shapeshifts and the constant barrage of distracting psi waves. Hippolyta waited for her chance to bury her sword to the hilt in the heart of the god, she was the queen of the Amazons and her martial prowess was beyond doubt, but it has been centuries since she had taken an active role in the battlefield, relegated to royal duties and in a more strategic position on the battlefield; that same knowledge was the one that she was using, waiting for her daughter and the strange green man to make an opening for her.

Hades was not a glutton for punishment, he had suffered more than enough of that for eons, especially now that he has taken flesh and blood again; something needed in order to conquer this mortal world and spit in the face of all the deities in Olympus by laying waste to the lands that they loved so much, even if modern devotion was nothing but a shallow mockery in comparison with the faith that the mortal professed them in the past. The King of Tartaro was conscious of how fickle the faith of mankind could be, how they fail to keep even the slightest sliver of loyalty to those that did everything for them. No Pantheon, in any world, would give a fuck about those that had betrayed them, even if they kissed the ground they walked.

Hades block the incoming tail of the green shapeshifter, so odd and so alien, the last of his kind, much like the Kryptonian; and soon Hades will make both species extinct; using Martian Manhunter as a maul he slammed his body against the shield of Diana, making her kneel before him, and before the green stain could react, Hades started his own counterattack. He kicked Diana on the leg, keeping her on her kneels and possibly, considering the crack of the sound, with a broken knee or worst, the Amazon warrior snarled in pain but in an incredible show of strength she pushed the shield and surprising Hades, ram the edge of the shield against his face, using it as a battery ram to push him more and more into the open gates.

Hippolyta saw her chance and with a mighty leap, thrust her sword in a straight thrust, directly at Hades heart, using all of the Amazonian strength that she could muster. Without a doubt, it was a commendable effort, pity that Hades was not so weak to perish for something like that. The sword managed to penetrate the pitch black armor of the god of death, but it failed to penetrate deeper into his divine flesh; despite the strength of Hippolyta, Hades was of sturdy material. She smiled widely at the anger and pain the god showed when the sword pierced his flesh.

Twirling his body, he caught Diana of balance, making her fly into the gates of Tartarus, and at the same time, he clawed the tunic and the flesh of Hippolyta, leaving a nasty mark on her pristine and immortal flesh, making the queen shriek for the pain and the horrid feeling of the poison of the Tartaro spreading through her veins.

Superman and Flash joined the battle once again, the last son of Krypton; doing his best to ignore the pain and the numbing sensation of the poison; fly with all his incredible might, smashing the bestial god into the floor with a tremendous right hook, before shooting his characteristic laser beams from his eyes into the chest plate of the armor of the god, quickly making it white hot and burning the god alive inside his own armor. In the meantime, Flash has managed to get both amazons out of the danger and near the recovering Batman, who was limping to the key of the gate, battling the shock of his lost hand with pure force of will.

Diana only had a broken knee, something she would heal in time, and she could easily compensate the crippling injury by simply flying over the floor, once she makes sure her mother was in a safe position; the poisoning was especially dangerous to those of Olympian origins after all; she snapped in two the closest skeleton soldier and took his blade, flying along a recovered Martian Manhunter into the battle. The last martian join the efforts of Superman with her own eye beams, increasing the pressure over the fallen god, before Diana shouted a powerful battle cry and grabbing her sword with two hands, tried to impale the chest of the monster, aggravating the injury her mother inflicted to Hades. In any other circumstances, against a lesser being, that maneuver would have won the day, but this time, they were facing a god, a God of Death, the one that endured eons boiling in his own rage, hate and the agony of every twisted soul around him.

Once the sword pierced through the armor, the essence of Hades materialized in a brutal wave of hellfire, tossing the three flying heroes around like broken dolls, each one of them sporting grievous burns over their bodies, as the infernal fires of Tartaros could burn everything they touch. Kneeling in the broken floor, the imposing and terrific visage of Hades manifested himself in the middle of an inferno, over his scarred and tortured form was the faces of millions of tortured souls screamed for mercy or in eternal pain and agony. If the previous visage of Hades was one that reflected his status and a monster, this was the one that reflected his status as supreme lord of the underworld, the being that carried death and damnation anywhere he steps foot. But this time, and for the first time since the begging of the battle against the twisted god, they could sense how Hades showed one emotion, that none of them could believe it was possible.

Hades turn his face and twisted his expression in one of hate and fear, once he saw how Batman was pushing the key back to the locked position.

Batman could not know what he was unleashing, he could not know what exactly was he doing; mostly because his mind was already overloaded with the effort of blocking the pain and the unconsciousness that comes when your hand is squashed like a melon under a jackhammer and you keep using that same stump to push a stone piece of several kilos. Unknown to Batman, he was doing something that no mortal has dared to do since Prometheus give the mortal kind the primordial fire, he was opening a gate that not even Pandora dared to open; one of the most dangerous secrets of Tartaro was being released, a secret that Hades keep close to him, filling the old saying of keeping your enemies closer than your friends.

Hades breathed a torrent of flames directly into Batman's position, but the human stood defiantly and keep pushing the stone key, whatever he was doing, it was obvious that the god didn't like it and only because of that, Batman keep doing it. Hindsight, it could not have been great of the ideas, but if whatever he was doing was enough to make a god of death show fear, then it was something that he would use against the god that was menacing to transform his world into a wasteland. Flash moved, however, even the speedster knew that he would not reach his friend in time, he was too far and his reaction has been too slow, blinded and busy with the rescue of Martian Manhunter from the flames that were eating him alive; flames being Martian Manhunters kryptonite. But Flash run, confident on the idea that even if he could not take Batman out of the trajectory, he could, at last, push him out of it.

For all the League, the time seems to get into a stop, a picture that none of them would ever forget.

Superman already ready to fly at his top speed to save his friends, Manhunter with a hand extended and the teeth gritted, trying to focus his telekinesis into a pull that would take Flash and Batman out of the way of the hellfire torrent, Wonder woman with her lasso already in the air, she could try to drag them out of it. The souls on the fire screamed at the two heroes in their trajectory, slowly but steady gaining more and more terrain, the heat burn through the suits of both heroes, making their skins crawl in protest for the agonizing temperatures, but soon it would be the last of their problems, the flames will consume them to the bone, leaving nothing but two piles of ash.

Hippolyta, laying on a stone ruin, did something that she had never done since the day of the Titanomachy.

She prayed, to Hera, to Zeus, to Ares, to Aphrodite, to Athena, to Hephaestus, to whatever deity that could be hearing her desperate plea, this mortals had earned her respect and eternal thanks for stand along her and her daughter, for trying to save her lands from the accursed god in front of her. A real call, a desperate call, the call that one makes when the universe has been so unfair that your very soul cries for retribution, calls for justice and what is more important...Vengeance.

Hippolyta sensed it.

Something had answered her call, something had listened to her prayer, but there was something odd, The queen of the Amazons was familiar with the tingle that her soul feel each time she felt the presence of one of her gods; being it Hera, Aphrodite, or any other of the patronesses of the Amazons. This time was different, this time was a cold and shivering sensation, a chill that crawled all the way to her soul. Buried in the long memory of the ancient Amazon, something stirred, she remembered that sensation and she had the instinctual knowledge that it was something that she and the rest of the Olympians feared in the past.

The fire of Hades, something that could burn down everything in his path collided with something that could endure until the end of times.

Unstoppable Force, Unmovable Object.

The gong and the shock wave resultant of the impact of those two colossal forces shocked the entire cave and send every witness flying in different directions like birds scattered from a heavy wind, they soon reacted and just contemplate wide-eyed how the prayers of Hippolyta has been answered, although not the way she would have expected.

A solid, ten feet tall, wall of ice has stopped the torrent of flames of Hades, without melting at all, protecting both heroes from the heat and the explosion of the collision.

The ice was shaped like if it was wood and stone, like the ones that one founds in ancient settlements, previous to the era of the fortified castles of the medieval times.

With a thunderous sound, a hand appeared in one side of the gate of Tartarus, the massive hand grabbed one of the leaves of the door, making the supposedly indestructible material cringe and protest under his powerful grip. Flames of the Pitt danced over the hand, covering it in a cloak of hellfire that did not seem to be affecting the flesh at all. As soon as this hand appeared in the door, Hades immediately turn his attention to this newcomer in the battlefield.

With a pull that made the hinges of the door of Tartaro protest with metallic noise, a figure emerged from the infinite abyss, and when it came to the lights of the fires of Hades, all the League and Hippolyta stared in astonishment at the one that had defied the fires of Tartaros and won.

The best description was a viking warrior of the ancient times, fifteen foot tall and made of what seems to be a mix of darkness, steel, and ice, his entire frame exuded cold; creating twirls of mist when his presence and the fires of Hades meet each other; his chest was bare and his skin looks to be some kind of darkish blue metal, his face was hidden under the shadows of a helmet that only show two ice blue glowing spots and the line of a mouth, closed into a snarl of disgust and barely contained anger.

"Hades" echoed his voice over the cave, in a tone that made all the League flinch, as it has transmitted enough hate and rage to shock all of them into an alarm state, fearing a strike from the shadows at any moment.

"Silence, mongrel" snarled Hades to the warrior, growing himself to equal the height of the massive northern warrior "get back to your cage before I rip your heart out and make you eat it".

"Oathbreaker" accused the Viking warrior and Hades give a step back like he has been hit "betrayer, kin-slayer, coward".

"Enough, barbarian dog!" roared Hades and extending a hand created several spikes of hellfire that fly to the body of the Viking.

With a wave of the Viking giant hand, free of the hellfire that he carried when he steps out of Tartarus, the spikes were repelled by a sudden gust of chilling wind that froze the terrain on where both creatures stood. In a second, a dense cape of snow covered the floor, the temperature dropped substantially in the seconds on were both monsters maintain a silent duel. Hades burning in hate and rage, but other just stood there, unmovable like a stone statue, cold as the winter that he has carried with himself into the cave.

"This is not your battle, thrall" mocked Hades making his fire burn hotter, melting the snow of the entire platform where both were facing each other "your home is ashes now, the Titans obliterated it until there was nothing left, you failed filthy barbarian, now go back to your cage where the dogs like you belong".

The Viking warrior did not respond to the words and provocations of Hades. He was intelligent enough to have already deduced that it was more than probable that the treacherous god was telling the truth, the Olympian would use what would hurt him the most, and in this case, it carried the weight of truth. Instead of verbally responding to Hades taunt, he just raised his right hand and pronounce a single word that made all the presents in the cave, shudder and felt a sudden chill down their spines.

"Nauthr".

A brutal bearded ax, a skeggox, weapons that were iconic of Viking raiders, materialized in the hand of the Viking warrior. With a handle made of blackish ash tree reinforced with metal and a wicked edge that had a bluish glow emanating from the runes that covered the blade surface. This was not a weapon, this was a death sentence given form and Hades instantaneously noticed it. Hades opened his monstrous mouth and breathed and an ocean of flames to the northern warrior; the man just raised the head of the weapon. Before the flames could touch the bluish steel they died, snuffed by the impossible cold that irradiated from the viciously sharp edge of the blade of the skeggox; once the flames died, the Viking started to walk ahead, indifferent to the ocean of flames that the stream of hellfire thrown at him was leaving at his sides.

Step by step, the Asgard warrior got closer to Hades, who keep breathing an inferno against him, flooding the giant Viking with a veritable sea of hellfire, still, the hellfire did nothing to stop the Viking, who continue moving forward; Hades realized how this was not working and with a wave of his hand, threw an entire legion of his skeleton soldiers at the giant, who simply pass through them like they were not there. The skeletons jump at him, only to rebound and be crushed under his feet, none of their weapons could pierce his steel-like skin or the unbreakable darkness that seems to be his flesh; the skeletons crumbled when their bones became brittle under the subzero temperatures that surrounded the warrior, destroying themselves just by moving into the aura of winter that accompany each step of the Viking giant.

Hades changed of strategy and charged at the warrior with his claws ready to tear him apart and toss his butchered corpse to Cerberus, back on his palace inside Tartarus. The god of death took the Viking by surprise with that daring charge, and the claws of Hades scratched the belly of the warrior, leaving scars over the steel flesh and sending several pieces of shrapnel flying in all directions. On a side note, those same shrapnel pieces vanished in the air like evaporated water, as soon as they separated from the main body of the giant but before Hades could claw the throat of the warrior in the following uppercut, the skeggox counterattack and fell like a frozen meteor over the already damaged breastplate of Hades, burying itself till the handle inside the fiendish flesh of Hades, piercing his armor with surprising easiness.

Roaring in pain, worst pain that any of the mortals had managed to inflict on him, Hades violently kicked the Viking, sending him flying against the opposite wall. Tearing the ax from his flesh, Hades toss the weapon to the side; wherever the ax touched the flesh of the god, smoke raised from the contact; and grabbing his wound, he hissed to the Viking warrior before surrounding himself on a tornado of hellfire;

The League was astonished to say the last, Hippolyta was the oldest among them, and even she has never seen a battle like this. She was the one that led the Amazons on the days of the Titanomachy but in those days, what she faced in battle, where mostly the progeny of the Titans; the chimeras and the Hekkatonkeires spawns; not the Titans itself, as they were a League above her own; now she can see by herself what the gods had to face, a true battle between gods, no holds barred. A notion that soon became reality when Hades and the Viking warrior faced each other; leaving behind any pretense of humanity; showing themselves as what they truly are for the mortal witnesses in front of them; not even the Amazon had contemplated such display of power since the days of the Era of the gods, when the Olympian roamed the earth.

Hades was the first that emerged from his cocoon of hellfire, all pretense of benevolence and warmth discarded to incarnate the most basic fear of humanity, the Grim Reaper. The incarnation of death that any mortal and supernatural creature, no matter the culture, fears.

Carrying a scythe, pale like a ghost with a neutral and cold expression in his translucent face, Hades embraced his most terrific aspect, the Unseen one, the one that takes the life of the mortals and dragged them to Tartaro when they meet his final breath and the Moirai cut their life threads.

Facing him, it was the Abyss.

The eternal night that precluded the universe, when there was nothing, just an emptiness void of darkness that consumes everything, not living, not death, just in between, eternal and unchangeable, waiting for the end of all things, and the beginning of the next. A mass of darkness that moves like a blanket, leaving nothing behind it.

They collided in the space of the roof of the cave, devouring with their mere presence, tons of rocks from the earth, vaporized when the scythe tried to pierce the darkness and only pass right through it, destroying everything else in its path. No mortal words could be used to describe what the League was witnessing, even Hippolyta was without words to give a name to the conflict right above their heads, instead they just simple observed, as a mute witness of what a battle between entities way beyond their understanding of how the universe works. The battle continued, indifferent to the presence of the astonished Leaguers and amazons, each one of the beings tried to outdo the other. Unfortunately, none of them could achieve such a feat, failing at the end, as none of the two could outsmart or overwhelm the other, they were too balanced to really had a chance to put an end to the battle in this form.

The scythe could not claim what is not alive, and the Abyss could not engulf something that is the end of all things, colliding like water and oil, they created a massive hole in the stone roof of the cavern, each time one of them moved to blindside the other, trying to win an advantage point, they destroy or vaporize several tons of stone, augmenting the already impressive size of the old cavern.

After a final clash that almost made the entire cave fall over their heads, the two entities fall to the ground, at a good distance of each other and slowly solidify into the previous; more humane; forms that they had at the beginning of the combat. Nothing of their surroundings; buildings and constructions destroyed as if a bomb had fallen directly on them; had survived the impact when they landed in their avatar forms; fortunately, the League was in another place, far from the war zone of both monsters, observing the battle with awe and no little pangs of fear about what they were seeing. It was a very humble experience for all the Leaguers, considered the epitome of power and sometimes they are compared to the gods of old lore. Now they were seeing what a battle between gods could truly be, and even then, they have to be grateful that they are contained into the city-sized cavern, what any of this two could have done in a big city like Metropolis or Keystone would be something out of a nightmare.

Hades was once again into his dark-haired handsome male visage, but his body and armor sported a dozen of red lines from where blood and fire was spilling in the charred and devastated floor, in the case of the Viking, his body sported silver scars and some kind of dark blue liquid and freezing mist seem to pour from the wounds on his giant steel like body. The hate in the face of Hades was clear as a day, along a glint of respect and no little fear for the monster that was facing him in equal grounds; this northern warrior has been capable of withstanding the overwhelming power of his most dangerous and powerful manifestation as King of Tartarus, a feat that very, very few could boast to achieve and none of them did in nothing but whispers and shivers.

The Viking just stood where he had fallen, standing proudly his ice blue glowing spots on the eyes of his helmet focus on Hades like the eyes of a predator; relentless and cruel.

"To me, Nauthr" called the Viking for his weapon, his voice still echoing inside the metal and the darkness of his helmet.

As a living thing, the skeggox fly directly at his hand; once the weapon was back with him, the Viking increased the grip over the wooden handle of the weapon, taking a proper combat stance, ready for whatever Hades could throw at him. Hades observed the northern prepare to fight close and personal, taking a combat stance with his accursed ax ready. Hades would not give him that satisfaction, all the barbarians like him were incredibly fond of one on one battles, but Hades was not a warrior, he could defend pretty well himself but Hades always thought that this kind of brutish combat was something fit for Ares and his kind; Hades was a god of death, not a god of war.

Channeling whats left of his power, greatly dismissed after adopting the visage of the Reaper, took in all the hellfire he could muster into a massive fireball that sucked the air of the cave, increasing the heat on the place and melting all the snow on the ground, created when the northerner exited through the Gates of Tartarus. This was it, it was all or nothing now, and Hades hated being cornered like this, even if he achieved victory over the Viking dog, Hades knew that he would be in such a weakened state that Hippolyta and the rest of that mortal pest that dared to challenge him before all this, would have a chance to push him back into Tartarus. Now that he had finally managed to scape, they will send him in, but it matters not; Hades knew that at some point in the future, another stupid mortal would commit the same mistake as the pitiful sorcerer that he has killed as soon as he stepped out of the Gates, and all of this would begin again, but this time, Hades will make sure that the Viking would not be around to mud his triumph.

The Viking saw the fire and knew that it was the end of the battle, Hades was as extenuated as him and he was putting all he had in one last attempt to vaporize all of them, the mortals and the amazons included.

The thin line in the shadows of his helmet, opened to reveal a white-fanged smile, widening into a predatory grin as the Viking slam the blunt tip of the handle of his skeggox in the frozen earth and raising his head to the cracked roof of the cave, start to laugh, a disdainful and mocking laugh that echoed into the broken halls and buildings over the abandoned first city of the Amazons, shaking the earth around him with each laugh.

"I never had you for a coward, oath-breaker" echoed the voice of the Viking, looking directly at Hades, with his fanged mouth turned upside in a wolfish grin, full of amusement and malice "Norns, I always knew you were no warrior, just a carrion that feeds on the glory of others, but this is a new low for you, betrayer".

Hades keep the fireball floating over his head, he should not answer to the taunts of the barbarian, but in the centuries that he has had him under chains, the bloodied northerner has managed, every single time, to piss off Hades until the King of Tartarus beat him black and blue or red and black, depending if Hades used his fists or his claws. After that, Hades would throw him into the Coliseum that he had in Tartarus, setting him against Tartarus most vicious demons, beasts and the occasional soul that grow from the ranks of the tortured into a promising leader for the armies of Hades.

"Scared now, dog?" laughed Hades, using a sliver of his power to repair his armor and face, he would never show weakness, just in case those little toys of Hippolyta tried to do something clever "I am pleased, at last, you learn what your place is, should I go for the leash?, Cerberus would be delighted to have a new bitch to play".

The laugh of the Viking giant grew louder.

"Olympians, bedding anything that moves is the only thing you lot have in mind" chuckled dismissing the innuendos of Hades "not really a surprise Rea was so disappointed with her firstborn, a coward that became the bitch of his little brother and had to kidnap and marry his own cousin because he was not man enough to court a woman the right way".

The rest of the present in the cavern blinked at the exchange of words that the two monsters had, not given credit to the notion of how those two powerful beings were bickering like teenagers, always twisting their words to made very insulting sexual innuendos to the other. Truth to be told, both of them were nothing but stalling, winning time to see what kind of trick was the other trying to pull out of his sleeves.

Under the giant Viking shaped form that he was using for battle, the consciousness and the original body of the northern god were plotting how to put an end to this battle and to protect the ones that have free him from Tartarus from Hades wrath. Perhaps they didn't know it, but with the last twirls of the key of the gates, they had free him from the chains that imprisoned him in Tartarus; the same chains that had been imprisoning him since the Ragnarok broke, leaving him free to hunt the bastard that had betrayed him, chaining him to the walls of Tartarus, the only Underworld where he had no Authority.

The northerner could respect a clever tactic, he could respect a good trick or a masterful plan; but the cowardly and treachery that Hades displayed the day of the Titanomachy was something that pissed him off immensely, up to a point on were he didn't give a damn about how has he bounded his fate to the fates of the mortals and amazons that observed him with surprise, fear, and astonishment on their faces. Fatebounds were never a laughing matter, those invisible binds could bring damnation at the drop of a hat, any hat, anywhere on the planet. A lesson the northerner learn well during his first days as a young hero, a Scion of Odin recently awaken to the wonders and horrors of the World, Overworld, and Underworld.

"Pitiful barbarian" scowled Hades increasing the size of the fireball, this verbal bickering has grown boring very quickly, Hades hated when someone treated him without the respect he deserved "you are going to die, here and now, and with your death, all of your filthy kind will be erased from the world, now, behold my might hand and perish!" roared Hades, closing his hand into an armored fist. For a second, the universe paused as the fireball collapse and exploded itself into a roaring inferno.

The flames raised until they collide with the damaged roof, spreading around like a flood, burning everything in their paths.

Before Hades close his hand into a fist, Flash was already of the move, dragging thew injured Batman and Hippolita with him in a blur of speed and his yellow bolts of lightning, meanwhile the rest of the League fly at the top of their speed, going back from where they had descended into the subterranean city, chasing after Faust at the beginning of all this debacle, as if all the demons of hell were after their heels; a not so wrong comparison; the superheroes got out of the caverns, directly at the palace, running out of the way of the geyser of hellfire that erupted from the passageway into the forgotten city. The flames did not stop and continue traveling to the roof of the palace and crashing right through it, escaping into the skies outside and roaring with fury over all the nearby buildings; some flames fall all over the island like a veritable rain of fire.

Luckily, there were no petrified amazons near the torrential geyser of hellfire, all of them were scattered over all the island, and only the group that confronted Faust the first time where near close to the hall of the palace on where the JLA and the Amazons had exited from the collapsing cavern.

Before any of them had time to recover the breath, a savage tremor threw all of them off balance. The entire island suddenly moved, shaking its very foundations with a tremor that send a lot of buildings from the surroundings of the palace into the ground, the entire island seem to move to one side, slipping his entire mass and sending a thunderous cracking sound to the skies.

Superman took flight in a second and reaching enough altitude, he scanned the island with his X-ray vision, what he saw let him with the mouth hanging open; he was one of the strongest beings in the planet, he could have sunk the island if he wanted, punching it until he cratered it, but what he was seeing was something that he could have done; mostly because he had already tried it and failed. However, he was seeing that same action being accomplished with cold brutality and efficiency that would make Bruce proud.

Recovering from the sudden tremor and being cautious about the dozen more than shackled the island, Hippolyta leaned over the rail of one of the windows of the halls of the castle where they had taken refuge from the torrent of hellfire that had come his way when Hades unleashed his last resort against the northerner stranger that had defied him in his domain. She eyed the outside, worried and fear painted in her expression as the fires fall all over the island and the sudden tremor has waste some buildings, buildings occupied by her kin, the Amazons were defenseless against such onslaught, and she feared that in their petrified state they could have done nothing but wait for the death. Hellfire could torch the stone and the flesh with equal easiness, or they could be buried alive and broken into pieces by the falling rubble of the collapsed buildings.

"By Hera!" screamed Hippolyta, a few moments after she was looking out for her sisters, she looked down to the entrance of the palace, just in time to see how a hundred meters of the terrain exploded from underground, sending pieces of earth and stone into the sea, hundreds of meters away..

A massive werewolf crawled out of the hole, the majority of his fur covered in a shroud of darkness, only his blue glowing eyes, and gleaming fangs could seem out of the shroud; all over his body he was sporting numerous wounds and burns, with a broken leg and all the parts of his body out of the shroud were charred and blackened by the disgusting touch of Tartarus, but even in his damaged state, the werewolf managed to stand proudly on his broken legs and with a primal gesture of triumph, he roared his victory to the skies above. Never since the age of the primordial predators has been emitting a roar like this; a primal thunder that echoed in the cold air of the dusk of Themyscira.

Creating waves, the howl covered the entire island, shacking all the witness like they have been hit by the shock wave of a powerful explosion, but in front of the amazed eyes of the JLA and Hippolyta, each time the waves hit one of the petrified amazons, their bodies suffer no damage, instead they started to transform back into their flesh bodies, the howl was cleansing all the fires over the island, snuffing the hellfire like were candles in front of a hurricane. When the roar started to face, the entire population of the island and all the hellfires were turned back into flesh and all the fires shut down. The JLA and the Amazons that were closer had to cover their hears at the sound of the roar, but it was not only because the loud noise but because how the sound sent tingles all over their souls. They were in the presence of a beast that scourged the earth long before humanity predecessors had even though about leaving the seas, a monster that predated gods at the beginning of the times, the manifestation of the top of a primordial ecosystem.

However, inside the finals echoes of the godly roar, hidden in the sounds that no beast throat would never be been able to produce, roaring, howling, growling all the same time combined into one, inside all that cacophony there were words that all of them could understand, no matter their language or method of communication. As the old saying goes, there was no need for words.

"I AM DÝR WOTANSSON, PROUD SON OF ASGARD, GOD OF THE WILD HUNT, HEAR MY ROAR AND TREMBLE, TITANS, FOR I AM ALIVE, AND I CLAIM WERGELD".

As the echo of the roar died, the form of the werewolf started to recede into a lesser human form, after a few tumbling steps with his left leg broken, the human shape collapsed face first into the hard terrain of the amazons island, slowly losing consciousness but with a massive victory grin on his fanged mouth, under the shadows of the helmet.

Dýr was back in the hunt, may Fate had mercy on the souls of his enemies, because he will not.