The Flames of Hope Ch 28

Chapter 28~Belief and Hope
“What business do you have here?” Zeus asked as his voice seemed to echo over the heavens. I tried to stand but found myself unable to move. Zeus seemed to understand my condition and called for the royal cup bearer. A young boy entered the room and poured some nectar into my mouth. While it didn’t seem to feel me all the way, I was soon able to stand while using my hammer as a crutch.

“I won't ask again, what are you doing on Olympus?” Zeus asked, and for a second he reminded me of Leiomenos, how he had said something similar when he found us in his throne room.

“I just came from a battle against Leiomenos on Mount Tam. Hermes sent me here, but I don’t know exactly why,” I explained. Zeus then walked over to a fountain in the middle of the room and waved his hand over it, revealing Mount Tam and Atlas. The large army of demigods were pushing back the Earthborn. One managed to slip through the lines and went straight for Atlas. However, it met its end when an arrow went right through his head.

“Good thing you managed to free your friends,” Zeus said as he watched the battle. “If not, I’m sure the Earthborn would have attacked Atlas and destroyed everything in the area.”

I thought about this and understood what the prophecy had told me; about how saving my friends first had to take priority. If I hadn’t saved them, they would all be trapped forever or be killed by the falling sky. Now they were destroying Leiomenos’ army of monsters. The viewing was cut short however as Zeus began to sense something and grabbed his Master Bolt from the throne.

“Move away young demigod, this is no longer your fight,” Zeus said as he looked into the center of the room. Sure enough, Leiomenos appeared from a portal that had opened up in the center of the room. As much as I hated to admit it, I knew that my father had fallen and he was now just a part of Leiomenos’ collection.

“You are not welcome here!” Zeus shouted at the new arrival.

“And whose fault is that?” Leiomenos spat back at him. Zeus’ face took on a much angrier tone and he pointed the Master Bolt directly at Leiomenos.

“I did not turn you into this,” Zeus said and he blasted a stream of electricity at Leiomenos that caused the mountain of Olympus to shake when it connected. Leiomenos had placed his hands in front of himself and managed to hold back the blast using some kind of shield.

“You were the one the most responsible for this. You were so worried that I would be the one to overthrow you that you started to believe it,” Leiomenos argued. Then he blasted Zeus with a stream of water, causing him to fly backward into his throne. “Well it looked like you were right.”

Zeus sent another blast of his Master Bolt at Leiomenos, but this time he seemed to only absorb it instead of blocking it, possibly because Zeus has been weakened, but when he sent another blast of electricity back at Zeus, I knew it was he couldn’t contain the power for long without being in control of that god’s power. At that moment, it all seemed to come together. I understood why Athena had sent me that dream and I understood the bit of trivial knowledge that Hecate had shared. The hard part now was to get Zeus to trust me because as the idea formed in my head, even I thought I was crazy.

Using my hammer as a crutch, I hobbled over to Zeus. He was currently using all his power to try and push back Leiomenos who was now flying around the room and shooting balls of salt water at Zeus.

“Zeus, I need you to listen,” I said to him.

“I’m a little busy right now,” he said in a stressed tone as he fired off another blast of lightning.

“No, it has to be now. Do you believe that there is a part of Pisteuo inside that thing?” I asked him. He seemed to freeze at the mention of Leiomenos true name, the name he had told me when we first met. This had the unfortunate effect of allowing Leiomenos to nail Zeus right in the chest with a fire ball. He retaliated with a lightning strike from the sky, but Leiomenos shook it off in no time and continued to fly around the throne room.

“I need an answer,” I told him.

“I do,” Zeus said with a depressed tone. “But it is not an easy thing to believe.”

“Doesn’t matter, if you can get him on the ground, I have a plan,” I told him and I grasped the handle of my hammer and just knew that it was ready to make a road after a long break.

Zeus seemed to fly into the air as the wind pushed him up and he engaged Leiomenos in close combat as the two battled each other. Zeus managed to angle his bolt enough so that when it fired, it blasted off one of the fallen god’s wings and they both came falling down to the ground.

“So what’s your plan?” Zeus asked as he held him down. I slammed my hammer into the ground and the stone flooring that had been damaged from the fight began to repair themselves and formed a road leading right to Leiomenos. He laughed even with Zeus holding him down however and he started absorbing my road into his armor. As that happened I hoped that this would work because it could just as easily destroy us all.

“What will you do, send me to Tartarus again?” he taunted. “I’ll be back in a matter of minutes.”

“Well that is true, but the road isn’t taking you anywhere. The road is for us,” I said.

“What?” Leiomenos and Zeus both said in unison. The road seemed to be pulling me as I held onto my hammer and before long I was right next to the two gods. I grabbed Zeus by the arm and we were both absorbed into Leiomenos.

“What have you done?!” Zeus questioned as we seemed to be simply floating in a void of empty space.

“We are inside Leiomenos’ heart,” I answered back. Zeus and I then looked at all the things around us.

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive