Issue #41: X, Crescent Moon.

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Issue #41: X, Crescent Moon.

(Kane's P.O.V)

"Not God God."

I motioned for him to wait before he could interrupt.

"All the myths and legends from different cultures in the world exist in some fashion."

"Most."

Rhadamanthus quietly added.

"A few of the Pantheons died out at the end of the dark ages. Christianity took over in a big way."

"I...see."

Steve said with a frown.

"Then all of you..."

He motioned his hand around the room.

"They're deities. Yes."

I confirmed.

"Oh."

His face grew pale, gulping before neatly and appropriately bowing at Hades seated on the throne.

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance...ah..."

"Lord Hades."

Minos helped him out. Though it was more out of concern for Hades' status more than Steve.

"Right. It's a pleasure to meet you Lord Hades."

The Spy greeted smoothly.

"Steve Trevor. You died and were eligible for the Asphodel Meadows."

When Hades spoke, everyone listened.

"Assist in this matter and you shall be granted the paradise that is the Elysian fields."

Steve took a deep breath.

"Not to sound ungrateful, but what does this have to do with me?"

"Ares, the Greek God of War has joined in the great war."

I stepped up to him.

"With him, leave alone the Central powers or the allied faction, everyone will lose."

"He seeks to usher in a new age of Gods. One where he rules over Earth as the soverein deity."

Aeacus in a rare instance of seriousness, explained.

Steve blinked in shock.

"That will undoubtedly set the stage for a confrontation between the Pantheons. And Earth will be that Stage."

The shock evolved into horror at the implications made. Steve was after all smart enough to understand what that would mean.

The British soldier stared at the ground, rubbing his neck with a haunted look on his face.

"Hey Kane, isn't all this a bit much? The last memory I have is of a blade slitting my throat. Drowning in my own blood as I stared at my Killer...and now you want me to fight a God?"

That part I hadn't known. However, I could infer from his statement that one of the Amazons from Alkyone's group must have killed him.

"I apologize that I wasn't there."

At my apology, he looked at me strangely.

"The thing is, Diana and I will handle the actual assassination. I just need you to be my guide."

I assured.

The two of us held eye contact for a few seconds before he sighed, running a hand down his face.

"Now that you've mentioned the Angel, what kind of man would I be if I backed down?"

"Good." I patted his shoulder.

"I'll owe you one."

Steve smirked.

"To be honest, I would rather Princess Diana owe me..."

I squeezed his shoulder.

"ow ow...okay okay let go."

He winced, rolling his shoulder while grumbling under his breath.

With that out of the way, it was time to move on to the real issue.

"To pull this off, I'll need equipment."

Rhadamanthus, leaning on the wall smiled.

"Don't worry. I have that covered."

-0-

Meditation is useful in not only clearing the mind but also to think.

There's nothing quite as insightful as being alone with your thoughts.

Especially when you had every right to be mad, annoyed and frustrated. Diana going missing wasn't the problem.

I knew she could survive on her own. The princess was that resourceful. So she could hold out better than most, atleast until back up arrived.

No. The problem was much much simpler. I opened my eyes, staring down at the golden bow lying on my lap.

Rhadamanthus had called it, Crescent Moon. A bow created from Adamantine, a metal that was entirely Unbreakable.

And I thought Osmium was impressive. But compared to Adamantine, it was not even close. The latter was leagues above in terms of durability.

Even drawing the bow a smidgen took my entire strength.

It was a weapon forged by the Cyclopes, three sons of Uranus and Gaea, and was supposed to be a gift to Artemis from Apollo.

Unfortunately, Apollo messed up the whole delivery thing by forgetting. And then he had had a falling out with the Cyclopes who created it.

Hence it had stayed in Hades' vault, gathering dust.

My thoughts went back to the conversation I had with Rhadamanthus.

(A while ago)

-0-

The three of us, Steve, Rhadamanthus and I- Spyra had disappeared once we passed a corridor with open spaces that showed the view outside.

A lake fed by 5 distinctly colored rivers, surrounded by fire.

Steve had momentarily gaped.

Before pinching himself and wincing. The look on his face as he realized he wasn't dreaming was priceless.

Very quickly, we reached a massive metal door that was being guarded by...a two headed Hellhound that was sleeping, letting out gentle plumes of fire from its 4 nostrils.

Apparently that was a thing. And asking Rhadamanthus about it only yielded the simple answer of, 'Hellhounds can evolve.'

No explanation or anything. It seemed to be something not spoken about to just anyone.

I wonder if Spyra could evolve as time went on as well. It was something worth looking into. I still had every intention to visit the Underworld's library.

Anyway, we made it inside and for once, I was entirely speechless.

It felt like I'd died and gone to weapon heaven.

Different from the training room, the racks and shelves seemed to be carved out of the wall itself.

They were also higher and wider, carrying a variety of cold weaponry ranging from swords, spears, slingshots, pole axes, Katanas...

Every imaginable weapon from different cultures across the planet was available.

It was...something that left me gaping akin to Steve when he saw the hellscape outside.

Rhadamanthus had walked to the furthest end of the room- towards a special mounted bow that seemed to absorb all the light in the room.

When he came back and handed the bow to me, I couldn't tear my eyes off it.

It was...beautiful. Love at first sight.

More than that, a small part of my skin on the right hand started itching.

"I can feel the Huntress' goddess blessing in you."

Rhadamanthus had revealed.

"With Artemis guiding your hand, any arrow you shoot will never miss its target."

I remembered that encounter with Artemis pretty well. Even despite the terrible end to the night.

So, that's what the crescent mooon tattoo was for. A divine blessing that was essentially an aimbot.

Nice.

I wonder, were the similar names a coincidence or something else?

-0-

The string was woven from the silk of a web spun by Ariachne. And it's tensile strength was even higher than my own.

Ariachne was probably the closest thing to a Spider deity I knew of. It made sense that her webs would be tough to break or cut.

In addition, and perhaps the best part about Crescent Moon, was it's ability to split into two daggers by merely pressing a point in the middle of the bow.

The gears on the shaft would shift and the bow would separate into two 15 inch golden daggers.

The bladed edge were sharper than anything I'd ever come across. They cut through my webs like a hot knife through butter.

And when I slashed out into the air, they made no noise. The perfect Assassin blades for close range.

To top it off, both ends of the daggers were attached to the bow's string, opening more options for me.

They were even better than my Titanium blades back home. And I loved those to death.

Now, with all that said, where was the said problem?

Well, the bow came with only a single arrow. Just one.

Where the bow was golden, the arrow was black with glowing veins of emerald stretching from the fletching to the Arrow point.

The tip was drenched in the poison sack of THE Hydra. The same creature Herakles beat for his labors.

The Judge had said that the poison in the arrow was strong enough that a simple slice from the tip, would weaken a God enough that even a mortal could kill them.

But...there was only one arrow. Which meant one chance to get it right.

And while I was confident in my skills, I was also confident that the world would try to throw a wrench in my plans.

Besides, with Ares' actions, it made sense he would be wary of retaliation from the Gods.

If he was smart, he would have strong defenses in place, making it even harder to get close enough to shoot.

It felt risky to pine all our hopes on a single arrow.

"No matter."

I sighed, tightening my hands on the Arrow.

"I just WON'T miss."

(General P.O.V)

-Spyra-

The Underworld Palace had just finished getting rebuilt.

Above the massive structure, an out of place little bird flew circles in the sky.

Hermes had already informed Hades of what had happened.

He chose to go to the Lord of the Underworld first with the information on Diana's kidnapping.

At least Hades WOULDN'T throw lightning at the God of Messengers out of Fury.

Zeus had issues.

But even with that said, Hermes knew he couldn't keep the God of Gods in the dark.

But before he could go back to Olympus, he had to finish up things here in the Underworld.

With another flap of his wings, the small Blue Jay dove down towards the Palace, passing through an open archway before flying through the hallways on a direct path to the throne room.

Only to chirp in shock as the Blue Jay found itself entangled in a massive web, attached to the walls and ceiling.

Hermes struggled to free himself, wondering where the webs had come from. And why they were glowing blue.

A skittering sound caught his attention, and the Blue Jay's little heart sped up in fear, as a palm sized burning spider lowered itself down from the shadows above.

(Kane's P.O.V)

A knock at the door pulled me out of my musings.

I placed Crescent Moon on the bed and walked to the door.

Swinging it open revealed Aeacus. And he was carrying something in his hands. A long wooden box with dark smoke wafting off the edges of the rim.

"Rhadamanthus has the weapon side of things covered."

The white haired Judge begun.

"I on the other hand, believe that if you're going to do an assassination, then you need to look the part."