Chapter 10: Temptation

Chapter 9

We found some footprints leading away from Sisyphus and towards what looked to be a really big cave. It seemed a little obvious, but then that also happened to be the cave where Tantalus was being punished, so we figured Caligula was just getting careless this close to his goal. Blue hell hounds fought with the originals, same with the flying creatures trying to take each other out in the skies. Our path was mostly unimpeded, a couple of security ghouls, blue and the normal kind, tried to stop us but were quickly dealt with. Then we got to the cave.

As caves go, it wasn’t that impressive. The roof was a little above my head, and Growlz, who had come out to sit on my shoulder, had to dodge to miss giving himself a headache. We cautiously moved into the cave, ready for any random attack from monsters, ghouls, or tree thorns. Sadly, nothing happened.

Then we saw the grotto.

If it wasn’t for the location, and the disturbing cacophony of a soundtrack, this place would be beautiful. It looked like the mystical ponds of tranquility you see in card games and paintings all over. A small island sitting in the center of a lake. Tree’s growing from the waters reached toward the top of the cave and, finding no paths, reached across the top, letting their fruit hang over the small island.

On the island were two figures. One was wearing purple robes and, apparently, entertaining himself by pushing a branch down towards the other figure, and releasing it at the last second so that his companion couldn't grab it. The man being taunted wore an orange jump suit, but what the other parts of his body looked dried out and stretched over his bones.

Caligula and Tantalus.

We dodged to the sides of the entrance, trying to hide from sight while we figured out what to do. Tantalus saved from having to think too much. On Caligula’s belt hung the Mist Sphere from a cord, it bounced about as he laughed and taunted Tantalus. In a rage Tantalus reached for the sphere, probably thinking it was a piece of food, and it jumped back so violently it broke the cord and flew all the way to my feet.

After a moment of shock, I grabbed the thing and yelled “Run.” Then I followed my own advice.

Last I saw of Tantalus, he had tackled Caligula and tried to gnaw on him. The results were not in the prisoners favor.

Outside, it appeared that things were getting worse. The hell hounds were all blue now, and circling the cave entrance, and when they saw us they started to growl and close in. Alex brought her sword out from her backpack, Steve drew his daggers, I slipped the sphere into my pocket and activated Glacius and Ignus. We could hear Caligula chasing after us in the tunnel now.

“Steve, turtle.” I yelled out. Turtle was something he and I had discussed back at camp, he would put a shell over us, protecting the sides and back, leaving one opening to guard. The trouble was to move it, but at the moment moving did not appear to be an option. The purple dome settled over us as the monsters attacked. Alex looked annoyed that she couldn’t do anything, but didn’t complain.

Then reinforcements came  Luke, riding a skeletal horse, plowed into the corrupted hell hounds, knocking them out of the way. He completely ignored us as he fought the monsters. Above him, diving down to rip a blue tinged creature to shreds was a hideous bat thing with the face of an evil Grandma. Steve dropped the shield and we ran for it.

We reached Sisyphus’s hill again when Caligula caught up.

We could tell by the fact that time seemed to slow down around us.

Our foe calmly walked up to where we were floating in air, mid-stride, and walked around us a few times before stopping directly in front of me.

“Well. It’s you. I thought we had this discussion last night, on the hill. When I tossed you off a cliff? Ah, I see you remember. You cannot defeat me boy. You thought you stopped me last time when you kept me from absorbing Mars’s power. But that was merely a setback. My intent was to use his power to gain access to the vault, which I did. I did not get as much time as I wanted because of your interference, but I did pick up some goodies. Like this.” He lifted up a small silver bracelet with a scythe hanging off of it.

“Lovely isn’t it? This is the original scythe of Kronos, from way back in the day when Jupiter first chopped him up. Sadly, it is essentially powerless now. A few remnants of its masters power, not much, but enough to stop you in your tracks. Like now. So, while I have you here little Roman, I will make you a deal. Kill these Greek weaklings, swear loyalty to me, and I shall release you from this bubble. Not only that, but I will remove the influence of the Mist from your mind so that you may remember your past. Remember your true family. Remember your mother.”

My mother. My family. My mind reeled. I could remember my past. The events, the decisions, everything that made me who I am today. I can remember why I always started my guitar with Tumbalalika, I could remember why the name Kevin caused me such pain. I could remember why those little symbols of Apollo and Mercury meant so much to me, and all I had to do was kill these two Greeks. I mean, c’mon, they were Greeks. Inferior, weak, useless to the Gods. It was a Greek that brought rise to Kronos and caused the war last summer.

Then I remembered Lukes words from earlier. We all have the pain of wanting to know who we are, where we come from. From wanting to know our family. Kronos used that need in Luke to turn him against his family. Now, Caligula was trying to use that against me. He was trying to make me turn against my friends, my family. The people who took me in, when I knew nothing about myself, and helped me.

Now, I was mad. I could feel the anger rising up inside of me, I could see the bubbling earth under me with my peripheral vision. I could visualize what the beast was going to do to this bastard who dared to try and tempt me to break the core of me, what remained inside of me and helped shape my actions ever since I lost my memory.

“Hmm, your not going to join me. Too bad. I guess I’ll just have to kill you all myself. Now, where is the Sphere?” Caligula asked.

Then we heard a mad cackle, and a boulder slammed into Caligula, sending him flying into a torture pit filled with quicksand and scorpions.

Chapter 11