Interlude: Tartarus

Tartarus. Through the gates of Hades, through the Gloom of the Underworld, and down into the flaming depths lay the realm of eternal torment. Diana of Themyscira had traveled this way only once before and had not thought she would be doing so again. Unfortunately, Ares and Circe's mad grasp for ultimate power had compelled her to take that trip yet again. This time, at least, she was not alone, though her party was sorely pressed at each and every turn. Even with the likes of Sun Wukong, Erlang Shen, and Lord Poseidon fighting alongside her, Diana knew this was far more difficult than it had been the last time she had descended to the Stygian Depths.

"This is far more ponderous a trip than last I was down here!" Insisted Diana, parrying the strike of a gnarled, twisted, Daemon of flame on her shield.

"Ares has stirred up the inhabitants of the depths to gain time, it seems. It is the only reasonable explanation for how dogged our advance has been by these attacks!" Answered Erlang Shen, a beam of holy light firing from his mystical third eye and immolating the desiccated, serpentine, Shade of an onrushing Gorgon.

"Aye, my Nephew truly does know how to make a nuisance of himself!" Spat Lord Poseidon, skewering the gaunt form of the Shade of a Harpy on the tines of his Trident.

"Who cares? We can handle it! I've fought my way out of tougher scrapes than this! A few shades and Underworld Daemons won't stop me!" Boasted Sun Wukong.

As he did that, his staff, the Ruyi Jingo Bang, extended past the point of credulity and smashed through the skull of the Shade of an Ancient Warrior before punching through the chest of the Shade of a Gorgon and crushing the Skull of a Fiery Daemon. As the staff retracted to its usual size, the pair of shades crumbled to dust, even as the Daemon flickered out into embers and died. Diana, refusing to be outdone by her comrades, lashed out with her Xiphos, punching through the face of the Fiery Daemon she had been sheltering behind her shield from. The Daemon also flickered into embers and died.

"Come on, this way!" Insisted Lord Poseidon, summoning a torrent of water from the Aether that extinguished a pair of Fiery Daemons guarding another stairwell. As he moved, Erlang Shen followed after, cutting down two other shades with his odd, double-ended, hewing spear. Sun Wukong did the same, leaping up over the outstretched arms of a Shade of a Charging Warrior and crushing his skull with a strike of his staff from above. He flipped about in mid-air before landing behind the now crumbling shade, striking out with his staff to extinguish another Fiery Daemon as he did so.

"Showoff." Scoffed Diana, following behind.

"Of course! How else will people know how great I am if I don't show them?" Grinned Sun Wukong.

Diana rolled her eyes at that, he and Jackie truly were a matched pair as Teacher and Student. However, she couldn't deny that the Monkey King's showboating was effective in clearing the path forward for them. She followed after, bringing up the rear of their party as they made their way down yet another stairwell. This one was made of black stone shot through with veins of pulsing red flames. They must be getting close for that sort of architecture to be showing up. That was a good sign, at least.

The stairwell led the party out onto the edge of a Caldera filled with smoke that Diana couldn't see through. A narrow bridge led from one side of the Caldera to the other, where a vast fortress of black stone lay on the opposite side. Diana knew that had to be Cronus' Prison, for surely Lord Poseidon would know the fortress that had been built to contain the Lord of Titans? After all, had he not been one of the leaders of the Gods in the Titanomachy, alongside his brothers Zeus and Hades?

"Something's wrong. The Guards on the Vault we had built to contain Cronus should have been too numerous to be so swiftly dispatched by Ares and Circe. I fear that they may have some power or ally that we haven't been made aware of. Stay on your guard!" Warned Lord Poseidon.

"Good to know." Huffed Erlang Shen.

"Indeed." Diana was forced to concur.

"I never knew you to be so cowardly, Erlang Shen. Where's the Warrior God who gave me so much trouble back in the day?" Questioned Sun Wukong.

"This isn't a game, Monkey." Pointed out Erlang Shen.

"Sure it is! The stakes are just a lot bigger." Smirked Sun Wukong.

"There's no time for this, come on!" Insisted Diana, cutting through the brewing argument.

"Quite." Agreed Lord Poseidon as he began to make his way across the narrow bridge. Diana followed after, leaving Erlang Shen and Sun Wukong to follow them or risk being left behind the rest of the group in the depths of Tartarus, not exactly something that was conducive to a long and happy life, even for a God. They chose to follow as well, unsurprisingly.

It was as they were halfway across the bridge that Ares and Circe's Surprise revealed itself. One moment, they were crossing the smoke-filled pit, then the next a massive arm exploded out of the smoke and grabbed hold of the lip of the Caldera. That arm was followed by a second, then a third, and a fourth. Before they knew it, dozens of hands had grabbed onto either edge of the smoking pit and began pulling up the owner of such a massive assemblage of limbs. The head of a giant with a ragged mane of soot-blackened hair and a similarly ragged and soot-blackened full beard emerged from the smoky depths. Suddenly, Diana knew exactly how Ares and Circe had defeated the small army of Divine Guards that lined the fortress walls and guarded its gates.

"Ares has freed a Hekatonchires!" Exclaimed Diana.

"It figures, many of them served him during the Gigantomachy against their two-armed brethren. I'm not surprised that he was able to free one!" Spat Lord Poseidon.

"Why are they down here if they were your allies?" Queried Erlang Shen.

"My brother feared they might seek to supplant him so he cast them down. It was a mistake then, and it appears that in at least this case, it has come back to haunt us." Answered Poseidon.

"More to the point, they're incredibly powerful! It would take multiple Gods just to subdue this one!" Cautioned Diana.

"Strong, huh? Erlang Shen and I can handle this, you and Poseidon go on ahead!" Insisted Sun Wukong.

"Agreed, though not for the same reasons Monkey is thinking. We can't afford to be stalled here." Nodded Erlang Shen.

"Are you certain?" Asked Lord Poseidon.

"Oh yeah." Grunned Sun Wukong.

"Indeed." Affirmed Erlang Shen.

"Very well, Good Luck!" Offered Diana.

"We don't need Luck, we're just that good!" Bragged Sun Wukong.

Then, the Hekatonchires' bloodshot eyes focused down on them and it let out a massive bellow of anger as it raised six of its dozens of arms high in the air, curling them into fists before it began to bring them down toward the bridge. Fortunately for them, it never completed the motion. Sun Wukong leaped into action, flying like a comet toward the Head of the Hekatonchires and smashing a knee strike between its twin, beachball-sized, eyes. The Hekatonchires steadied itself, using a dozen arms to brace against the rim of the caldera as it struck for Sun Wukong with another fist, only for Erlang Shen to blast it with a beam of divine flames from his Third Eye, scoring a bloody furrow across the back of its punching fist. He was rewarded with a bellow of pain as the Hekatonchires withdrew its bloodied hand, shaking it out like it had just been stung.

"We'll be your opponent!" Challenged Sun Wukong.

"Indeed, you now face Mount Meru's Mightiest Warriors!" Added Erlang Shen.

There was another bellow of anger and challenge from the Hekatonchires as the battle commenced, but Diana didn't stop to watch. She and Lord Poseidon instead ran for the busted open gates of the basalt fortress on the other side of the Caldera. They made it across just in time for Diana to turn and witness Sun Wukong be smashed aside by a hammer blow that caused a sonic boom from the displaced air, even as Erlang Shen's Heavenly Flames burned into the Hekatonchires Chest. Then another few hands smashed the stone of the bridge, dropping Erlang Shen into the Caldera just as Sun Wukong bounced back and smashed a kick into the Hekatonchire's side that sent it reeling to crack through the side of the Caldera, collapsing part of the lip as Erlang Shen rocketed out of the smoke, striking with his spear at the Hekatonchire's Eyes, only for his blow to be blocked by one of the dozens of hands of the Hekatonchires, spear punching through the meat of the Hekatonchires' Palm instead of its eye.

"Come, there is no time to watch them fight. As entertaining as seeing what another Pantheon's best can do in a major fight is, we cannot afford to waste their sacrifice." Pointed out Lord Poseidon.

Diana was forced to agree, and together, they entered the darkened halls of the fortress, passing through the shattered celestial bronze gates that had been smashed down by the hundred fists of the Hekatonchires, stepping into a Gatehouse that was filled with the corpses of a pair of Lesser Cyclopes and a trio of Minotaur Hoplites that had attempted to brace the gates with their bodies and been slain in the attempt. The courtyard they entered into was no better, filled with the broken bodies of Lesser Cyclopes and Minotaurs. They'd been flung off the walls of the Fortress by the fists of the Hekatonchires to land in the courtyard below, dead before their battered bodies had hit the ground. There were hundreds of them, piled up against the inside of the walls. It was a horrific sight.

Such sights would be common should Ares get his way. He cares little for the strictures that men place on warfare, living only for the slaughter. Not for the first time was Diana horrified by what the God of War could resort to if he was truly pushed. All the more reason why he could not be allowed to gain the power of Cronus.

"Come, we must stop my Nephew before his madness gets us all killed." Commanded Lord Posiedon.

Then together, they entered into the main keep of the fortress, heading down another flight of stairs into the depths of the Prison of Zeus that lay below. . .

XXXX

Ares was growing impatient. He had freed Kottos, the Hekatonchires all too eager to help him if it meant that Zeus would die and the Striker had slaughtered the Garrison for them, but that had been hours ago. They had been sitting in this chamber, overlooking the insensate form of Cronus. The Lord of the Titans was where his father had left him all those eons ago, slumped against the wall, bound in chains of Enchanted Adamant so thick that not even Cronus could escape. Enchanted into slumber for all eternity by the spells woven into his prison, so that he might never even try to break the chains he could not break.

Cronus was there, bound and helpless, yet Circe insisted that they could not just get on with the ritual, that they had to wait for the proper time. It was maddening, especially after the fun parts of breaking into Tartarus to steal the power of Cronus had already been done with. Ares had amused himself for a bit by stirring up the inhabitants of the upper levels of Tartarus. The random fights he'd picked to do so had been both a good strategic move in that it placed another obstacle in the way of anyone trying to stop him and quite entertaining, but now even that had been finished.

"I grow tired of waiting, Circe. This appointed time you keep speaking of had better arrive soon or I will have to find other ways to pass the time. Ways that you will not enjoy, I promise you that." Intoned Ares.

"It will not be long now, Ares. Has your patience truly been so spent that you cannot wait just a little longer for the ultimate power you seek?" Questioned Circe.

"The longer we sit here doing nothing, the more likely we are to be interrupted. Or do you think that my Father will be content merely with crushing what remains of our forces on Olympus?" Explained Ares.

"Your father is a fool who refused to do what is necessary to defend the Earth and Olympus from the looming threat of Apokalips. You know this, it is why we launched this little soiree in the first place. I'd pay no mind to such fools if I were you." Retorted Circe.

"You underestimate Zeus. He may have been unwilling to face a threat that he thinks might not arrive, but he will not hesitate to crush a threat that's in front of his eyes. I assure you, he is putting together a force to chase us down here if he hasn't already." Insisted Ares.

"How fortunate for us that you were able to free Kottos, then. That, plus the chaos you've sown on the upper levels should buy us enough time to complete the ritual. The appointed time is not far away, after all. Give it fifteen minutes and you will be infused with the powers of the Lord of Titans." Mused Circe.

"You do not have fifteen minutes, Nephew! Olympus has come to end this madness!" Came an angered voice from the doorway.

Ares turned to see his Uncle Poseidon, and next to him Diana, Princess of the Amazons. Apparently, his father had been multitasking. Instead of focusing on a single front, he had been attacking multiple objectives at once. Whoever knew the old windbag had it in him?

"So it seems, Uncle. Unfortunate, but then I was getting rather bored with the waiting." Retorted Ares.

"Diana, how very cliche of you to arrive just in the nick of time to interrupt my ritual! I should have known you would do something like this, you always were the thorn in my side!" Spat Circe.

That was when Ares' Uncle did something that surprised him. Poseidon looked over at Circe's preparations for the ritual and furrowed his brow. Then a look of understanding passed over Poseidon's face and he let out a single, booming, bark of laughter. That was hardly on script for this encounter. Now Ares had to know what his Uncle had seen that he hadn't.

"What's so funny, Uncle?" Demanded Ares.

"You've been played, boy! That ritual won't work for you, the ingredients are tailored for a Goddess! If a God tried to drink a potion with those ingredients, it'd kill him!" Laughed Poseidon.

"What?" Growled Ares, turning toward Circe.

"Don't listen to him, he's lying to divide us!" Insisted Circe.

However, Ares could see it in her eyes, there had been a brief flash of panic there before she had smothered it. It had been almost too brief to recognize, but Ares had long practice at recognizing fear when he saw it. The Witch had planned to take Cornus' power for herself, double-crossing him to become the sole ruler of Olympus! Ares felt his surprise turn to annoyance, and then his annoyance turn to rage.

"How dare you! You think to double-cross me?" Spat Ares.

"No! Never!" Protested Circe.

"Of course she did. Treachery is in her nature, just as savagery is in yours." Scoffed Diana.

Ares wasn't listening, however. He was seized with such fury that only blood would cool it. In one, fluid, motion, he drew his blade. Circe must have used magic to heighten her reflexes before all this because she was already launching a crackling bolt of black power at Ares as he drew his blade. The bolt slammed into his chest and launched him back into the far wall, crumbling the stonework around him.

"You couldn't simply wait to speak, could you? You just had to spill the beans? Had you just remained silent, we could have held you off long enough for the ritual I had set up to take its course, and then I could have used Cronus's power wisely to defeat Apokalips! I am the only one who was both willing and had the cunning to do so!" Snarled Circe.

Ares stood and flew at Circe, only for her to dissolve into a cloud of purplish gas that ate away at the black armor that Ares constantly wore, burning the flesh underneath. Ares crashed into the other wall, crumbling the stonework there and exposing Cronus' Prison Chamber to the room that they were in. Circe materialized to the side of Poseidon and Diana, flinging a pair of hissing, crimson, energy bolts at both Poseidon and Ares. Poseidon blocked the bolt by conjuring a curtain of hard water in the way. Ares wasn't as fast on the draw, flinging himself to the side but still being caught in the leg by the bolt, which wracked him with tiny bolts of lightning and set him to spasming in pain on the floor, his anger and strength draining from him as the crimson lightning sapped it from him.

"It doesn't matter, I can fight you and still go through with the ritual. Just so long as the appointed time comes!" Hissed Circe.

Ares' rage had mostly spent itself, now. Mostly, but not entirely. As Circe battles with Diana and his Uncle, Ares understood what had to be done. There was no way for him to win, now. The ritual was automatic, but if Circe had truly set it up so that the resulting Power Infusion Draught would only work for a Goddess, and she had clearly already double-crossed him, then he had no way to gain the powers of Cronus even if he managed to prevail in battle here. No, the only thing left to Ares now was vengeance.

As Circe blasted his uncle back into the corner of the room with a trio of scintillatingly bright bolts that blew through his water shield and wracked his body with spasms, Diana charged, striking with her blade only for Circe to slap it away from her throat, hand coated in a translucent, mystical, shield. With her other hand, Circe curled her fingers into a claw-like form and lashed out, a spectral quintet of blade-like claws appearing in mid-air to strike at Diana from above. Diana put her shield up and the claws failed to punch through it, but Circe's next attack, a large orb of purplish power, smashed through Diana's Guard and sent her flying back into Poseidon just as he was rising off the floor. The two went down in a tangle of limbs as bolts of electric power began to arc between Circe's hands.

"You two never should have opposed me, now you'll have to pay the price. I've been working on this spell for a special occasion. I had planned to use it on Zeus, to electrocute him to death. The irony of that would have been delicious, but I suppose I can always cast it again later." Sneered Circe.

Unfortunately for Circe, she was so focused on Posiedon and Diana, that she had completely discarded Ares as a Spent force. Her crimson lightning was the perfect tool to fight someone like him, whose godly strength was enhanced further by conflict and rage. It sapped both strength and strong emotions, after all, leaving those struck with it pacified husks. However, Circe had underestimated the depths of rage that Ares could call upon. He summoned it all now and surged forward. Seizing hold of Circe in a Full Nelson wrestling hold, and hefted the more diminutive goddess off her feet from behind.

"Ares?" Queried Diana as she pushed herself off the ground.

"Circe set the ritual to automatically complete. Break the circle and it will cease to function." Informed Ares.

"No! Put me down! How dare you!" Snarled Circe.

"What are you playing at, Nephew?" Asked Poseidon, clamoring to his feet.

"No tricks here, Uncle. I am all out of those. Circe double-crossed me, so all I have left is vengeance. If I am to die, then I will take her to the grave with me." Insisted Ares. His body began to glow with an inner light.

"Damn you! Put me down, we can still win this, just give me a chance!" Pleaded Circe.

It was too late, however, Ares flew up, bursting through the ceiling of the chamber they had fought in, plowing through the fortress keep above, and emerging from the roof of the basalt fortress above that. Below him, the fortress crumbled as he had destroyed its structural integrity. In the distance, the landscape of the bottom level of Tartarus had been irrevocably altered, as what had once been a lake of smoke was now effectively a river of smoke, Kottos and the two Gods from Mount Meru plowing through the Caldera to form a channel that even now was crumbling under the force of the apocalyptic battle the Striker of the Hekatonchires and the two Gods of the Celestial Bureaucracy were having, wrecking an area the size of the Island of Lemnos with their battle.

That wasn't Ares' concern any longer, though he wished Kottos well. Down below, Poseidon and Diana had emerged from the fortress just before it finally collapsed down on them, That too was good. Let Cornus' prison be buried for all time so that none might seek to disturb the Lord of Titans ever again. Ares continued to fly up high into the air above the lowest level of Tartarus even as the glow suffusing his body grew brighter and brighter.

"Damn it, Ares! Listen to me, you foolish God! You don't have to do this, we can find some other way to settle this little slip-up of mine!" Tried Circe again.

"No, this is happening. You wanted to push the God of War into a corner? Now you see what comes of doing so!" Growled Ares.

Just as the glow that suffused Ares' Body reached the point of no return, however, Circe managed to cast one last spell that allowed her to slip from his grasp. Her body turned to liquid for a brief moment as she dissolved out of his hold, resolidifying a few feet below him. Then she began flying for the ground. Ares huffed in anger and made to fly after Circe, but it was too late. The Godly Power he had been stoking with the flames of his anger and allowing to build inside him had reached critical mass.

The last thing Ares thought before his body sublimated was that this was likely close enough to kill Circe even with that. . .

XXXX

Diana of Themiscyra looked on in Horror as Circe managed to get one last spell off and slip out of Ares' grapple. She'd turned into a liquid form, resolidified, and immediately began going to ground, flying for the ground as fast as she could. She'd only made it a fifth of the way before the sky was filled with white light and divine flames as Ares self-destructed high above the lowest level of Tartarus. There was enough power in that blast to destroy a chunk of the Eastern Seaboard running from roughly Springfield Massachusets to Gotham City on the Bay of Delaware. Godly Power with the destructive force of one-thousand megatons of TNT exploded above the bottom level of Tartarus.

Lord Poseidon erected a dome of sacred water above both himself and Diana, while Erlang Shen and Sun Wukong both used their own, strange, transformation powers to protect them from the blast. The Hekatonchire wasn't as lucky as the power burned into its battered frame. When the light subsided, and Lord Poseidon removed the Dome, the Hekatonchire had been skeletonized from the waist up while the ground had been scoured clean, turned to crystal and glass from the explosive power.

Of Circe, there was no sign, but Diana very much doubted that she had been slain. She had too many tricks and spells up her sleeve for that. Diana was putting her money on an emergency teleport to another Plane. It would be some time before she returned to trouble anyone else again. The only thing that remained of Ares, meanwhile, was his battered, scorched, black, Helmet. It glowed a cherry red from the heat but soon cooled down as it landed in the crystalline sands of the new desert with a thunk.

For a few brief moments, the universe held its breath, waiting to see whether the final expression of Ares' rage had allowed Cronus to slip his bonds. After five minutes had passed without the Lord of Titans bursting through the crystalline ground and declaring his intent to slaughter the Gods and reclaim his throne, however, Diana figured that it wasn't going to happen. Cronus' prison was now, for all intents and purposes, completely buried and inaccessible.

The danger to Olympus had now largely passed, and though the fighting had taken a heavy toll, in the end, the proper order would be restored. As Erlang Shen and Sun Wukong made their way over to where she and Lord Poseidon stood, Diana reached down to grab hold of Ares' helm. The battered, scorched, metal was oddly cool to the touch and Diana snatched the helmet up.

"It looks like you lot need a new God of War." Smirked Sun Wukong as he landed.

"And a new Goddess of the various Magical Disciplines that Circe had dominion over. I never could get a straight answer on just which ones those were." Mused Erlang Shen, landing nearby as well.

"We haven't seen the last of Circe, she had far too many contingency spells to not have an emergency teleport or the like prepared in case of something like this. We aren't that lucky." Refuted Diana.

"Still, Ares managed to do the right thing in the end. Perhaps my Nephew wasn't as foolish as I thought after all." Intoned Lord Poseidon.

"Come on, we've got a hike back and I don't want to miss the end of the battles." Prodded Sun Wukong.

"Of course you'd say that, Monkey." Sighed Erlang Shen.

"It is still a good point. The sooner we get going, the sooner we return to Olympus." Offered Lord Poseidon.

Diana couldn't help but agree with that sentiment. On that note, they began making their way back up through the various levels of Tartarus. Ares' self-destruction must have really spooked the inhabitants of the upper levels, because aside from a brief skirmish just before they reached the portal back into Hades' Realm Proper, they didn't have to fight their way up like they had to fight their way down. They moved through the seven levels of Tartarus otherwise unimpeded and made their way through the portal, across Hades' realm, and out into Olympus in two hours, as opposed to the six it had taken them to get to the bottom level. Unfortunately for Sun Wukong, his fears had proven true.

By the time they had returned to Olympus proper, all the battles had ended and there was only mopping up of isolated pockets of Beastmen left to do. Not that Sun Wukong refused to do that, but he complained the whole time, as if fighting a Hekatonchires had not been interesting enough for him. Diana supposed there simply was no pleasing some people. Regardless, the mopping up didn't take very long. By the time the third day of the Intervention dawned, there were no rebel forces to be found anywhere on Olympus anymore. The siege was over.

They had won. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here is how Wonder Woman's Group fared in Tartarus. It turns out, that Circe, being the unofficial Goddess of Double-crossing, went and tried to Double-Cross Ares. Whoever could have predicted that might happen? Outside of anyone who actually knows how Circe tends to operate, I mean.

Fortunately, Ares decided that if he can't have Olympus, then he might as well settle for revenge on the person who cost him his victory and proceeded to try and self-destruct with Circe grappled. That blast, by the way, had twenty times the power of the largest nuke ever assembled, the Tsar Bomba, which even the Soviets thought was too big a bomb to use. That's the sort of thing that Major Gods can do.

Unfortunately, Wonder Woman is right on the money with Circe being too slippery to not have an emergency exit prepared. This isn't the last that we'll see of her. It's gonna be a while before she shows up again, though. Olympus has other priorities than chasing Circe down right now, like rebuilding the war-torn levels and handing out the mantles of the various dead Gods to new recipients. As much as it might be a good idea to tie up that loose end, their plate is too full to do that right now.

At any rate, in the next chapter, we'll be back with Jackie for the aftermath of the fighting.

Stay tuned. . .