Chapter 94: Chapter 94: Tyrant
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Hades' castle was unnecessarily big, to the point the group had to walk for five minutes before finally arriving to Hades' throne room.
The throne itself was made of flesh and bones, squirming silently every now and then. The man sitting on top of it, had hollow cheeks and a pale face, long black hair and a goatee. His eyes, red and with dark circle, were fixed on the group.
Edward did not look at him though, as his eyes went to the smaller throne by the side, on top of which sat his beloved, Diana. A smile came to his lips as he saw panic into her eyes, and felt an even stronger anguish through his Chi Sense.
He didn't know how, but Diana had resisted Eros' arrow. If she was really in love with Hades, she wouldn't have panicked at the sight of him.
Much more relaxed now, Edward took the time to look at Diana's beauty, it had been months since he hadn't seen her, and although Hades' himself was unkept, his maids knew how to dress Diana.
"You invited a bunch-", said one voice, "-measly mortal magicians, Great Uncle?" finished another voice.
Edward sent a look at the origin of the two voices and saw a pair of twins, both red haired and dressed in black coats.
Edward saw many people were already gathered in the room, all of whom were gods without a doubt. He counted 14 of them. Beside him, Stephen, Morgana and Zatanna seemed a little shaken, but did not show anything.
Hades, who looked bored on top of his throne, explained, "Nothing but a pest, but he could make an amusing distraction…" He sat a little straighter in his seat as he continued with a louder voice, "Everyone! I present to you, our gladiator. He had the audacity to capture my Cerberus!"
The surrounding gods, from all kinds of Pantheons, looked at Edward in surprise as not only was this an insult toward Hades, Cerberus itself was quite the strong monster itself. At least, some of the minor gods here knew they wouldn't be able to capture the beast.
With a raise of Hades' hand, the ground below Edward and his group expanded to form an arena, while rows of seats appeared around the arena. Edward saw Diana ready to jump from her seat to, he sent a smile her way before showing the middle finger to Hades.
The God of Death did not show any reaction though, and only made a slight gesture of his hand as six portals appeared all around the arena, and Hades presented, "Since our guests are so powerful as to entrap my Cerberus, then I think it would be fitting to have them fight foes of a similar power."
Six beasts crawled out of the portals, and Hades chuckled, "The Nemean Lion, whose hide is said to be invulnerable to mortal weapons, and whose claws can cut through any armor." A lion with a shiny golden fur roared out in defiance as it looked at the four humans with spite.
"The Lernaean Hydra, it's scent alone is said to be deadly to mortals, and it's innumerable heads are only set to doubled every time they are cut. Beware of it's poisonous breath."
"The Sphinx…" Edward had enough of listening to the god's rambles, he could see by himself whom they were fighting. Nemean Lion, Hydra, Chimera, Sphinx, Medusa and the Caucasian Eagle.
The first five were famous and known to any modern person, and even the Caucasian Eagle was quite famous too, and it was basically a very big and strong eagle. However, they all were only as strong as Cerberus, which was of no threat to Edward.
Not waiting for Hades to finish his explanation, Edward jumped toward Medusa, who could very well be the most problematic of them all.
Hades' speech was cut off the by the sound of a sonic boom as Edward arrived next to Medusa, and with a strong punch to the back of her head, knocked her out straight before capturing her in a Pokeball.
Everyone around the arena looked shocked, but Edward did not stop as he headed toward the Hydra next. Aeglos appeared in his hand, and he cut off three of the Hydra's heads at the same time. They did not grow back too, as the wound left behind was clearly frozen.
The spear was known as snow point, or icicle, and it wasn't juts because of it's appearance.
Having cleared the way with the cutting of the three heads, Edward pierced his sword through the Hydra's main body, and began punching it rapidly with Chi covered fists, beating it into unconsciousness before storing it too in his Pokeball.
At the same time, the others weren't inactive. Stephen summoned the Bands of Cyttorak and bound the Nemean Lion with them, strangling it into unconsciousness. While Stephen would have struggled against Cerberus because of it's size, the Nemean Lion was barely bigger than a man, so he easily subdued it.
Morgana went for the Chimera as a dome of darkness fell around it, and within that dome ghastly hands grabbed the Chimera as they tried to tear it's soul out of it's body. It tried to resist, but the Dark Witch was more powerful than she seemed as the monstrosity had several parts of it's soul ripped out of it's body.
As for Zatanna, she actually took care of the last two, the Sphinx and the Caucasian Eagle, by throwing a first spell, "Llik eht drib."
The Sphinx and the Caucasian Eagle attacked each other, and while they tried to tear the life out of each other, Zatanna threw a second spell, "Llaf ni peed peels."
The two monsters looked confused for a moment before they fell to the ground, and began snoring. Edward smiled at the help of his companions and stored all the beasts into his Pokeballs, before turning to look at Hades.
Edward tensed a little as he felt an intent to attack coming from Hades, but before the god could do so the twins from earlier spoke, "That's an-"
"-interesting bunch of mortals. One that should-"
"-be killed."
Hades rose from his seat and nodded, "I agree. Any last words?"
Edward grinned, and said, "Meet my fist."
Edward's fist turned purple as Chi covered it, before fire appeared around it. Dragon's fire was covering it too.
Hades looked at Edward intently, as he knew he was fast and expected him to attack, but Diana, who had remained idle until now, appeared behind him and kicked him at the base of the spine.
As he felt great pain at the full powered kick of his niece, Hades cried out as he was sent flying toward Edward, who punched him in the face.
Hades, who had been sent flying at a great speed, smashed into the ground even faster as his face was smashed out of shape by the fist.
He barely smashed with the ground though that a foot crushed his back, getting another cry out of him as he regained his bearings and looked at Edward with fury, ready to use his godly powers to kill the mortal and deal with his niece.
However, before he could do so, he felt an aura unlike any before submerge him. Looking into Edward's eyes, gold seemed to shine in them. Edward did not speak, and only summoned his spear to slice off Hades' arm.
Hades felt great pain at the injury, but did not make a sound as he stood frozen. Edward's Royal Will was overpowering his own will, but he wasn't forced unconscious, instead the fear he had toward Edward was getting bigger and bigger.
Hades tried to free himself from the pressure, to crush the mortal's mind with his own godly one, but as he tried to do so he felt his spirit freeze before he could even enter the mortal's mind.
Letting go of his spear, Edward lowered himself to Hades' level, and grabbed his head with both hands before whispering, "Dare to even look at any member of my family ever again, and you will wish to join your subjects."
As he finished saying his piece, Edward clenched both of his fists, both coated in Chi. He could kill Hades now if he wanted, he was more than strong enough to crush the god's head between his palms, he wasn't very durable.
However, he controlled his strength as Hades' face was getting torn and his scalp stretched out shape. Edward suddenly pulled, and all the skin on Hades' face, as well as his scalp, were torn off his head.
Hades finally screamed in pain and terror as this moment was imprinted deep into his mind by Edward's Royal Will. The God of the Dead, elder brother of the Skyfather of the Greek Pantheon, was shaking as he cried in fear and pain, trying to get as far away from the others as possible.
Edward could feel the shock coming from Diana and his companions, but he did not care. He may have looked relaxed while in Ea, but everyday he felt an anger rest within him, one which rose everyday despite time being stopped on Earth.
And now, he was finally letting go of it. Sending a last spiteful look at Hades, Edward turned to look at the twin brothers and asked, "You wanted to kill me, right?"
One of the twins took out a staff and said with gnashed teeth, "You don't scare me!"
A blue light came from his staff, and as it fell on him Edward felt a feeling of fear try to creep up on him, but it was destroyed before it could get any closer.
The other tried to do something too, but Edward appeared before them, and with a swipe of Aeglos both of their heads were sent flying. The surrounding gods looked in fear as the gods of Terror and Fear, Deimos and Phobos, were killed before their eyes by a mere mortal.
Now, Edward felt his rage was quenched. He approached Diana and without a word took her in his arms, kissing her deeply. Diana was a little shocked by the changes Edward had gone through, but soon fell into his arms as she finally felt relief.
She was no damsel in distress, she already had a plan to escape, but her worry didn't come from this, it came from the possible consequences. Hades could hardly do her any harm, but she was worried about those close to her, she was worried about Edward.
But now, it became obvious to her that he could take care of himself, and she should stop worrying her actions would impact him.
Not letting go of Diana, Edward sent an overpowered wave of Royal Will, forcing all the surrounding gods to fall back, before opening a portal back home for Diana and himself, while he opened another to Kamar-Taj.
Edward nodded to Stephen, who smiled before entering with the other two girls, all three of them understanding the two needed their alone time. Then, Edward finally brought Diana back home.
Arriving back in their home, Edward felt truly relieved for the first time in months. Finally, she was back. Danger was not out of the way, Hades himself wouldn't dare attack them, but the other gods could possibly be offended by what he did.
As they exited the portal, Donna came bursting out of her room, and froze for a second as she saw Diana before she crashed into her, hugging her. She stayed silent as Diana stroked her head, happy she was home too.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
SlyOW
SlyOW So you may feel the fight with Hares was anticlimatic, strange maybe. First, to explain the fight, remember I talked about Hares shooting Diana with Eros' arrows to make her fall in love? That's why he didn't expect an attack from her, she was supposed to be in love with him and be at his side.
As for Hades' weakness in this fight, I chose to write it that way because this arc was not supposed to end with a big fight between Edward and a villain, more than saving Diana, this arc was to show the changes Edward went through in LOTR, so a big fight would be misplaced, hence the brutal showdown of Edward. Hope you still liked the chapter.
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