Chapter 79: Chapter 79 Alt POV
Guttural screams rang out in a chorus of mad violence. The smell of gore and burning chemicals and wood filled the air. Beneath the thick smog of the burning jungle, there were shadows lancing through the burning jungle that endlessly fell upon his comrades.
When the Greeks decided to expand Hades's realm in the Underworld into the Devil's side to collect more souls, they knew that now with the Satans dead or all but crippled. Now was the perfect time for an invasion as the Devil Faction broke itself apart with infighting.
Five thousand Greek Demigods, thousands of Hades's Reapers, thousands more mercenaries from around the world, and finally the very gods themselves in Ares and Apollo led an assault to create a beachhead into the Devil's territory.
But there was one issue with that plan.
A goddess no one ever knew of. A goddess of nature, of wood, thorns, and poison that didn't take her jungle being cleared to make a path for the Greek army so kindly. It started simply, tree's branches would whip with too much force in the winds and would smack people around but with enchanted armor and the general enhanced durability we had it was fine.
Then came the explosive trees. Trees with barbs in them that when the tree was cut down violently exploded sending the barbs as shrapnel for hundreds of meters. When that was countered with magical shields... The goddess gave up on warning us and the jungle has become our tomb.
My name is Kyros, son of Ares, and I am dying as I write this journal in hopes that whoever finds this, whether it be the damned devils, another Greek expedition, or just anyone really... I write this in warning that the old Aztec pantheon's jungle is a twisted thing now.
I will now attempt to list threats my expedition found on the way to the devil's territory so that anyone who finds this can be enlightened to the threat to the entire Underworld this jungle poses should it continue to spread.
First is the plants obviously, all plants whether they be the grass, tree's bushes or anything else contain no less than thirty-five deadly toxins at minimum... Lord Ares actually had us gather some of the plants to be used as weapons later on as he planned on distilling the toxic fruits and such into gases to be used in the coming battles with the Devils. Either way, understand that not a single thing here is safe to consume.
Next is the plants that are active hunters, mockeries of Venus Flytraps that simply look like elephant-eared trees with their wide leaves but should someone come too closer the branch holding the leaves will snap forward, and the leaves that are as sharp as metal will slam shut on you... I saw a good friend of mine get their entire chest crushed by one of those. Flowers that can shoot their blooms like a razor blade storm at people that get too close to their particular bush.
I cannot list all the plants but just remember they are all dangerous... But the worst was the Spriggans, twisted monstrous things they are. Whatever fell goddess has taken root here has twisted the Norse Spriggan and something akin to our own Dryad's into a terrible thing that can teleport between trees and each is as dangerous as our squad leaders with their stealth and powerful shaman magic that would curse the troops.
- The journal had a smear of blood on the corner of the page with a clearly visibly bloody fingerprint stamped onto it as the owner of the journal had moved on to the next page.
Next is the dangers of the fauna within the jungle. One and all, they had utterly insane regeneration. Maybe it's the toxic environment, but all animals were predators of a sort even if some animals were clearly herbivores they would still eat meat if it was available.
Regardless, all the fauna from the chittering Doom Geeze that could rip a man's face off with their serrated beak teeth, to the green wolves that could shoot wind blades from their fur, all had a form of super regeneration that allowed them to survive or shrug off mortal wounds unless their brains were completely burned away with fire, acid, or something else to inhibit regeneration.
Now, moving away from the plants and animals, I must list the last lesser threat. The fucking infinite insects, fireflies that explode sending acid and lava everywhere around that were immune to Lord Apollo's flames and if not actually were strengthened by the divine flames... Which was how I lost my leg, as I got splashed by one of the firefly's enhanced acid when Lord Apollo tried to help the troops push through the tide of insects.
We also came across trap door spiders the size of elephants that live within the ground and within a snap of a finger, can shoot a lasso of webbing onto someone and with insane strength drag people into their tunnel systems and Lord Ares after losing a daughter to one of them went into the tunnels and managed to bring some people back... People who needed to be put down they were driven mad as the spiders had punctured their belly buttons and seeded them with hundreds of marble-sized eggs that somehow filtered into their bodies uniformly from their belly button to everywhere in the body.
I myself came across another insect from my position in the middle of the army and the safer area as I was a part of the guard for the quartermaster, we came across a large beetle that our march stepped over its home and the small dragon-sized beetle took many lives with its projectile boiling acid it could spew and its dense thick chitin armor turned aside our blades until a child of Apollo when swallowed detonated himself into a minature sun within the beetle.
I am sure there are more... But just as you take a walk through the forest and can see nothing, I am sure if you go looking for trouble, there is so much more here in this hellscape.
Finally I... It's getting hard to write now as my vision fades. But I must speak of the goddess we came across. She used the simple name of 'Kii' whether it be in the language of the Aztecs or something I don't know, but she was a merciless monster, her wooden constructs beat Apollo and Ares back and kept them busy while the army was ground down by the many, many monsters and creatures within the jungle.
Lord Apollo is dead. She used a monolithic structure of wood in the form of a large western dragon that kept the Lords Ares and Apollo busy but in the heat of the battle. A woman in the shape of a Chimera with many different animal traits across her form ripped Lord Apollo's head off with her bear-claw-like hands. And during that battle I had a piece of wooden shrapnel tear through my chest leaving my guts to be spilling across the ground.
With my comrades leaving me behind as Ares continued fighting the women... I am alone, I am feeling ever more cold, but I am a proud son of Ares, I die here knowing my Pantheon is spreading its glory however it can. Ahh... I can hear my mother and father calling me to Elysium even now.
Goodbye mortal waking wo-
-
A loud snapping noise rang out as Kii slapped the journal closed and she yawned tiredly. "Ah... That was a lovely bedtime story glorifying my master's creation." She spoke with love and worship in her tone as she patted the blood-soaked journal against her chest as she considered some things and also her sister the Chimera who was mentioned.
"Maybe master will give us head pats for killing all those disgusting Greeks?" She mused before shaking her head as she realized that she should probably keep that news silent as she knew her master's concubine Artemis was the sibling of that lesser god Apollo that Atalanta killed.
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