"Awoooo!"
A moment later, (Kerberos) Cerberus let out a joyful howl, its slightly off-key voice carrying an indescribable sense of glee.
Then the three-headed hellhound, its entire body wreathed in black hellfire and its faces twisted into fearsome snarls, burst out of the Arima cavern and charged straight toward the four of them.
Watching the three-headed dog of Hades close in, Lorne flashed a grin at Sisyphus beside him, and without waiting for the man to react, grabbed the old swindler by the scruff of his neck and hurled him far off to one side.
After all, you raise your soldiers for a thousand days to use them in a single moment.
This was his good brother's time to shine.
As that figure traced a graceful arc through the air, Cerberus's eyes lit up immediately.
It immediately pivoted direction, crouching low with a rumbling growl before launching itself high, all three heads snapping their massive jaws open in succession, lunging at the falling Sisyphus.
"Charon has not gone far. Head southeast along the river and you still have a chance."
"To hell with you!"
Hearing that thoroughly unhelpful piece of advice, Sisyphus thrust a furious middle finger backward, then frantically channeled the wind-god's power within him, fleeing toward the banks of the Styx while cursing with everything he had.
"You disloyal, rotten scoundrel!
I curse you with barrenness and childlessness, yet a house full of grandchildren! Sooner or later Hades will drag you off and throw you into Tartaros, and we can be cell mates!"
Lorne paid that vicious curse no attention whatsoever.
He simply smiled at the two figures, one chasing and one fleeing, as they vanished into the distance, and gave them both a leisurely wave goodbye.
.
.
.
Then, thirty seconds later.
In an atmosphere of heavy silence, the two who had parted so amicably were reunited, staring at each other with matching expressions of awkwardness.
"You cannot even outrun a pet dog. Truly pathetic."
Lorne stood before the Arima cavern, gazing at Sisyphus dangling from the jaws of the three-headed hellhound, his contempt making itself very much at home on his face.
"Is that my fault? You should have thrown me further!"
The latter protested his innocence with great bitterness, then raised a hand to point at the enormous dog head currently holding him in its mouth, his expression deeply aggrieved. "And you call this thing a pet?"
"What else would I call it?"
Lorne rolled his eyes at the guy, who had not only failed to lure the enemy away but had been dragged right back, then turned to look at Cerberus, which was sitting at the mouth of the cavern wagging its tail at him and raised a hand in a tentative gesture.
"Come here."
"Woof, woof!"
The ferocious hellhound heard the command and immediately let out a cheerful rumble, trotting over to Lorne, spitting Sisyphus out of its mouth, and circling around him eagerly with wide, imploring eyes.
This scene reminded Lorne of a hunting dog retrieving a frisbee it had thrown and bringing it back to its master, eager to play again.
Was it really this obedient?
Lorne muttered inwardly, reached out with careful fingers, and gave Cerberus a tentative pat.
The hellhound immediately responded with a happy rumble, all three heads nuzzling against Lorne's trouser legs as it flopped contentedly onto the ground, belly fully exposed without a shred of wariness.
Watching the notoriously fearsome guardian of the underworld being so effortlessly tamed by Lorne, everyone present wore a look of speechless disbelief.
"What is this? It was all just for show!"
Sisyphus grumbled as he picked himself off the ground, looked at his own sorry state covered in grass and drool, then glanced at Cerberus sitting there with its tongue lolling out in a look of pure idiocy, and felt a fresh surge of irritation.
He promptly copied Lorne's gesture and reached out to pat the leftmost of Cerberus's heads.
But the moment that hand landed, the previously docile hellhound's fur bristled in an instant and whipped its head around, bared its teeth, and lunged.
"Woof, grrrr!"
"OWWW!"
Sisyphus clapped a hand over his rear, now sporting two fresh rows of tooth marks, and leapt back with a howl of misery, glaring at the man and dog before him with an expression of furious indignation.
"Why does he get to do it and I do not?!"
"The other two heads do not like being touched. Who told you to keep your hands to yourself?"
Lorne gave the middle head of Cerberus an amused pat, his expression radiating undisguised schadenfreude.
Whether it was the hunting-god's power he had inherited from Artemis, Persephone's blessing from the underworld, or the trace of kindred presence left on him by the three Gorgon sisters, this hellhound seemed to feel an inexplicable closeness toward him, behaving with remarkable docility.
More than that, he seemed capable of reading Cerberus's rough meaning from its moods and barks.
Combined with the goodwill built up from earlier offerings of food, the two of them had already become thoroughly acquainted.
Satisfied that this silly dog posed no threat, Lorne patiently played with it for a short while, then left behind several honey cakes and a jar of divine ambrosia wine, and prepared to leave the underworld through the Arima cavern.
"Woof!"
But seeing Lorne about to leave, Cerberus rumbled and surged forward, seizing his trouser leg in its teeth and tugging him ahead.
Watching Cerberus bounce and leap about, Lorne felt a dawning realization. "You want to lead us through?"
"Woof, woof!"
Thrilled to have its meaning understood, Cerberus gave an enthusiastic nod, then bounded forward on cheerful paws, charging first into the depths of the cavern.
"Follow it!"
Lorne deliberated for a brief moment, then decisively pulled Thetis and Adonis along in the hellhound's wake.
Sisyphus, left alone at the rear and finding no other option, pinched his nose and fell in behind the three of them.
Inside the dim Arima cavern, icy gusts wrapped in cold, damp currents scraped and howled across the uneven stone walls, producing a piercing, discordant shriek.
It was as though a hundred heads in the darkness were all opening their mouths at once, human voices and dragon cries foremost among them, with wolf howls, lion roars, bull bellows, serpent hisses, and leopard snarls all layered together, merging into a sound of indescribable dread.
Every person felt as though their body and soul had been dragged across a razor's edge, waves of sharp, uncomfortable pain running through them.
Lorne and Thetis exchanged a glance, both of them shaken to their core.
They had not expected that even after the fall of the great monster-father Typhon so many years past, the divine power he had left behind in the land of Arima would still carry such a terrifying force.
Neither of them dared be careless.
They each cast defensive spells in succession, guarding against the turbulent currents within the cavern and the traces of Typhon's divine power threaded through the aether.
Fortunately, with Cerberus, child of Typhon and native inhabitant of the land of Arima, leading the way, the four made it through the winding, lightless passages without obstruction.
But the further they went, the more barren the surroundings became, and the dimmer the light grew.
Looking at the deep pit ahead piled high with the bones of great beasts, feeling the death energy within it more concentrated than almost anywhere else in the underworld, Lorne furrowed his brow and stopped walking.
This did not look like the way out.
"Boom!"
Just as Lorne paused, intending to question Cerberus, the passage ahead shattered without warning.
Black vines punched through the stone walls, coiling and writhing like serpents, wrapping themselves around Cerberus in a tightly knotted mass.
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
Pitch-black leaves drove themselves into Cerberus's fur like sharp little blades, and vivid golden-red blood was drawn out in rushing streams.
"Woof!"
The hellhound, caught completely off guard, had its fur stand on end in an instant, as it bared its teeth with a low snarl, thrashing desperately to break free from the grip of the black vines.
But with each loss of divine blood, its resistance grew weaker.
Whoosh!
In an instant, a flash of cold light shot forward with lethal precision.
The Nation-Forging Spear struck like a dragon, shredding and scattering the black vines coiled around Cerberus in a single pass.
Deep green branches and leaves splattered in all directions, and the stones nearby began to hiss and smoke.
Thetis drew a breath and immediately felt her head swim, as she lowered her voice in an urgent warning.
"Careful. It is poisonous!"
Ssssss.
At the same time, the vines shredded into dozens of pieces by the Nation-Forging Spear fell to the ground, and rather than dying, began to twist and writhe, transforming into black snakes of all sizes that swarmed toward the four of them.
Lorne raised his hand and rapidly traced the script of Hermes in front of him.
The golden wheel of light behind him clicked to its sixth position, unleashing the purifying power of the Flame once more.
Punish sin with punishment.
Grant life its death. Grant darkness its light.
In an instant, a torrent of blazing white light swept through, burning the ground full of writhing, snake-like vines into lifeless ash.
And beneath that blinding radiance, vines lurking in every hidden corner, in the stone walls, the rock crevices, the moss, let out thin, mouse-like squeals and shrank back into the dark earth.
Taking advantage of the threat in the darkness retreating, Lorne immediately pulled Cerberus back toward him and demanded an urgent answer.
"What were those things? Where have you been leading us?"
But before the spiritually drained Cerberus could reply, the pit piled with bones erupted in violent tremors.
Savage winds roared out mingled with jets of black flame.
Winged black serpents rose one after another, bathed in fire and storm, and came flying straight at the group.
Thetis hurled a rapid succession of oceanic spells.
Sisyphus drove a divine wind with the power of his wind-god blood.
Adonis coaxed vines from the earth with his plant deity power.
However, none of it made the slightest difference.
Only Lorne, bearing multiple divine natures, and the Nation-Forging Spear in his hands, could effectively hold back the attacks of those winged black serpents.
But as the tremors in the bone-filled pit grew ever more violent, a monstrous dragon head with a black tongue and eyes blazing with firelight slowly pushed upward from below.
Beneath the ferocious, savage storm of divine power it radiated, the blood and souls of everyone present nearly froze solid.
A black tongue. Eyes that spat fire.
This was... the head of Typhon.
The great ancestor of all monsters, said to have been slain by Zeus in ages past, was not yet fully dead.
"Get in here, quickly!"
At the most critical moment, a clear and melodious voice rang out from the left side of the passage ahead.
A completely unremarkable section of stone wall slowly parted, opening a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through.
"Woof!"
Hearing the call from nearby, Cerberus, which had been lying listlessly on the ground, snapped back to life in an instant.
It wrenched itself free from Lorne's grip and bolted through the gap in the wall.
With the crisis pressing from all sides, Lorne had no time to think.
He grabbed Adonis and Thetis and activated the godlike speed of the Goat without hesitation.
"Move!"
"A bunch of traitors, wait for me!"
Sisyphus, left standing alone, stared at the head of Typhon now fully emerged from the pit beneath, swallowed a hard mouthful of saliva, cursed under his breath, and charged after them.
"ROAAARRR!"
A furious, thunderous bellow reverberated through the cavern, and a scorching wave of heat flooded the passage a moment later, igniting into a roaring inferno in an instant.
Enormous fire serpents scattered in every direction, leaving blackened char wherever they passed.
Quick-eyed and quick-handed, Lorne reached back and grabbed Sisyphus by the arm just as he reached the doorway, hauling him through, and slammed the rune-covered stone door shut behind them.
Only then was Sisyphus spared the fate of being reduced to a pile of ash.
(End of Chapter)