A New Arrival

Swinging his arms down, Perrikus smashed his hands into Hercules' raised guard, the ground beneath their feet erupting outwards into a mushroom cloud. Yet the guard held firm, Hercules forced to his knees, gritting his teeth with a roar, pushing up. Perrikus stumbled back, Hercules coming in with powerful blows that slammed into his armoured form.

Each blow is accentuated by miniature explosions, displacing smoke and crowd and further destroying the ground beneath them. Perrikus was forced to take multiple steps back with each blow, Hercules pressing the momentary advantage, his Golden Mace making Perrikus wince and head ring as it slams into him with titanic force.

However, Perrikus did not stay on the backfoot for long, spinning with a blow and coming round with a backhand strike that Hercules rose his arm to block. His feet dug into the ground, legs spreading apart in order to halt his movement. But Perrikus carried on with the momentum, his other hand coming round, supercharged with energy that he unleashed in close quarters.

It exploded outwards, and Hercules blasted through the air, not to land for hundreds of miles. But despite this momentary victory, all it did was reveal to Perrikus how precarious their situation was.

In the distance, Adva was constantly teleporting, pursued by Hermes whose superhuman speed and agility enabled him to appear before Adva as soon as she appeared once more. It was only due to her immense skill and experience that Adva could avoid being struck. But she was pursued by arrows fired from Artemis, stationed atop a mountain peak in the distance.

Her arrows also came directly towards him, Perrikus summoning a shield that blocked them all, albeit barely. The powerful arrows almost completely pierced through his shields, Perrikus seeing more and more coming his way, but also being fired upon the other Dark Gods.

Tokkots, numerous in number were aiding the worshippers they had left in fighting against the Olympian's personal warriors, the Amazonians. But the warrior women were every bit as skilled as the Asgardians, highly trained and equipped with the weaponry forged from Hephasteaus. Their numbers constantly dwindled while the Amazonians barely suffered a loss, it was like watching the siege of Asgard all over again.

Slototh, swarmed across the ground and through the air, a mass of living sludge, but that's all he could do. For he was pursued by fire that even Perrikus could feel the heat emitted from it, fires bursting out of a miniature sun that Apollo held in his hand as if it were an ordinary ball as he pursued the Dark God upon his chariot.

As for their secret weapon, Psyklops, he was being pinned down by the Gods of War, Athena and Ares with aid from one of the Big Three, the Lord of the Seas, Poseidon. Powerful, Pysklops might be, but against three Olympians, Pskylops could not emerge victorious, even when he held the advantage in power. The difference in skill was being the deciding factor, the Olympians prepared for him and knew of his abilities.

Perrikus had known that releasing Pysklops was their only hope and for a time, he had been proven correct in that belief. The Olympians in the first conflict had been completely caught off-guard by the power of Psyklops, Hades had yet to make a reappearance on the battlefield since his defeat at the hands of Psyklops.

It had been the first major victory for the Dark Gods in their war against the Olympians. A decisive victory that had seemingly turned the tides and it had a ripple effect that lasted for some time. Certainly, they had been unable to retake the territory that the Olympians had already taken for themselves, but they had been able to halt their advance further, a major victory in of itself.

But that is where the problems arose.

In order to accomplish that, the Dark Gods had to rely upon Psyklops and his power and while the mortal insectoid had proven his worth ten times over, causing immense damage to the Olympian's campaign and forcing them to retreat, they had been unable to land a killing blow on any of them. They were also forced to bring him out into every battle and the element of surprise and mystery surrounding Psyklops began to dissipate.

The Olympians launched mock pushes, minor skirmishes that forced the Dark Gods to bring out Psyklops so they could study the way he thought and learn of his strengths and weaknesses. Perrikus had known what they were doing, but the Olympians always brought a force that they knew, he would have no choice but to answer with by bringing Psyklops.

In doing so, they had learned everything they needed to.

Perrikus didn't know what to do or how to rectify this situation.

Despite having numerous victories against the Olympians, Perrikus knew he was losing the war. He had never believed that belief, but now he knew it to be true. The Dark Gods and their Dark Empire, his Dark Empire was crumbling away and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Clenching his fists tightly, Perrikus glared out at the Amazonian Queen, Hippolyta and the newly arrived Hercules, both watching him warily. This was going to be a decisive battle, Perrikus knew that well, this was the battle that would decide whether the Dark Gods were finished, or still had a fighting chance.

The conditions for victory for the Olympians were simple, kill one or more of the Dark Gods, especially Psyklops.

For the Dark Gods, the victory conditions were equally as simple, get out of here alive without losing any of their key warriors.

But the completion of those tasks, especially for the Dark Gods was near impossible, they were trapped and it would take a miracle for them to survive this unscathed. Except, a miracle is what they got, Perrikus couldn't explain why he looked up, or describe what he saw when he did.

He just looked up.

Perhaps it was to bemoan the loss of everything or perhaps he was just accepting his defeat and his death? Perrikus didn't know, he just looked up and that's when he saw it, rocketing down towards them. He saw it first, the only one to see it before everyone could hear it coming toward them.

The echoing boom sounded like the crack of thunder, a sound he had come to hate and fear that split the skies open. Ashen clouds burst open as the figure shot towards the ground, smashing into Apollo's burning chariot and carrying it to the ground. Everything shook, the planet cracking and on the verge of being destroyed from that landing.

No one made a move, frozen and in shock at what they heard, none quite able to believe what they had seen. Everyone looked, trying to see through the smoke cloud that barrelled up into the air, covering the newly cleared skies once more, before a burning figure burst out.

It rolled across the floor, before rolling to a stop, unmoving.

It was Apollo, the God of Light and the Sun.

A powerful and influential figure in the Olympian Pantheon and in a single instance had been taken out.

Once again, everyone turned to look, trying to see what had taken him out and they could just barely make out the shadowed figure moving inside. Then dark black wings parted the smoke, easily over 20 feet in length, they giving one mighty flap, the wind produced almost ripping them off their feet as the figure rose into the air.

He was humanoid, no larger than Hercules in size, but bigger and burlier, covered in scars and scale-like tattoos, a long snake-like tail that gave one little whip, ripping through the ground like it was nothing. He then looked out at them, a large smile revealing sharp fangs as smoke wafted out from his mouth.

"Dark Gods, rejoice!" He proclaimed. "For the Citadel has come to your end." No one knew what to make of his words, but the Olympians tensed up, easily recognising the power this figure possessed and the danger he posed. "As for you, Olympians. Let us see how strong you really are?"

Hercules blasted off at that, shooting through the sky and readying to bring his Golden Mace down in a mighty strike that Perrikus knew would have stunned even him. Except, the snake-like tail swung round faster than his eyes could see, struck him in the stomach and flung Hercules back, body tearing a deep trench into the ground before he came to a stop.

Arrows rained down, fired from Artemis, but the wings curled in and then swung out, a force of wind so strong that it threw the arrows back in the direction they came with even greater force. Each one struck with enough force to blast holes through the mountain range and moments later, it all came crumbling down with a force that shook the planet once more.

Spreading his arms open, the figure smirked. "Is this all the challenge you can offer? How disappointing."