บท 19: An Unpleasant Surprise
Breaching the Etna's gates had taken less than an hour. Louis' army had arrived thirty minutes later.
Helios looked on from the walls of the city nearest to the gate, watching as Louis' forces attempted to break down the freshly reinforced gates. He had stationed men on the wall, who were now picking the men below off one by one. Apollo had been charged with leading them, as he was the best archer Helios had at his disposal. He wanted Sol to join as well, but they had more pressing matters to attend to.
"There are five more cities we need to capture in order to take full control of his realm," Sol had said. "Typhon would be in the capital, where his palace lies."
"How many men would we need to take each city?"
"Maybe a hundred each. Our informants assured me that Typhon had thrown most of his forces at us to hold us off till reinforcements showed up. Assuming he has no tricks up his sleeve, this should go smoothly."
"Then you know what you have to do, I presume? Select three commanders, and each of you take a city and a hundred men."
Sol frowned. "That is only four."
"I know." Helios flashed him a toothy grin. "I'll go to the capital myself."
It had been nearly two hours since they had that conversation. Helios would have loved to go straight away, but he had to recover his strength first. He had expanded his energy when he annihilated over seven hundred of Typhon's men at once. At least from what he heard, the other sieges were going well. A messenger came to him from Sol, saying the cities they had taken had barely fifty abled men to defend them. Typhon must have really thought Helios would have retreated.
"Not a chance," Helios muttered, watching yet another soldier below go down.
Another reason he had decided to stay behind was because of Louis. While he was sure the Chicken had no way of getting up the wall, he still had to be wary of him. He wasn't even sure if the Chicken king was there. There was a possibility he was defending his own realm in case Yam sprung a surprise. One king ahead of him, another behind. If Yam hadn't locked himself up in his kingdom like a coward, he could have taken Typhon's land for himself by now.
He couldn't bring himself to despise Yam, even though he had left him to fight the war on his own. Unlike Helios, who thought attack was the best form of defence, Yam didn't want to risk leaving Atlantis unguarded. The reason most likely fell with the fact that he had a daughter he couldn't seem to abandon. Locking himself up on his island made it virtually impenetrable.
"Aren't you worried Typhon will escape, my liege?" Apollo walked towards him, interrupting his thoughts. He had slung his bow over his shoulder, a weary look on his face. "We have the gates."
"I worry that damned Chicken will appear the second I leave."
"He cannot breach the gates," Apollo assured him. "We only got through because you opened it for us."
That was true. After the army was out of their way, they tried to breach the gates, but the men stationed on the walls around them were taking his men out. Even when they did get the battering ram to the gates, it hadn't yet budged an inch. Helios had to fly in and slaughter all the men there himself before finally opening it.
Considering this, Helios nodded. "Well, that is true. But I would rather not underestimate any of my brethren. We may differ in strength, but even the weakest of us is stronger than virtually anyone."
"My liege," Apollo said, rolling his eyes. "Typhon is the bigger threat here. Once he's out of the picture, Averys will be vulnerable."
Lifting his hands in mock surrender, Helios scoffed. "Fine, fine. I'm leaving you to oversee the walls."
"My pleasure," Apollo grinned.
This time, it was Helios who rolled his eyes. Kicking off into the sky, he unfurled his wings of fire immediately. He could have gone in blazing like the sun yet again, but he wanted to conserve energy in case Typhon had something up his sleeve. The capital was in the middle—a good and bad decision by Typhon. Good because he would be prepared by the time an attack reached him, but bad because he had no way to escape when the enemy attacked in all directions.
As Helios approached the capital, he noticed he could hardly see anyone loitering in the streets. He had expected to be attacked immediately when he neared it, but there was no welcome party. Gritting his teeth, he picked up speed. Apollo had been right to worry. It seemed that while he had been watching for Louis, Typhon had escaped.
He headed straight for the castle first, landing in the courtyard. There wasn't even a single soldier perched on the tower walls to stop him. Everyone must have been safely evacuated. Helios looked around, wondering what he should do. He contemplated burning it all down to the ground, but that was just a waste of time. Besides, now that they had successfully conquered Etna, the castle could serve as a second base of operations for his men.
Letting out an irritated sigh, he walked towards an archway leading towards the inside of the castle. He wanted to search thoroughly to ensure there was really nobody there. Holding up his hand, he let a flame flicker to life. Despite the setting sun outside and the windows stationed around, the castle interior was dark. Helios took this as a warning, tensing his body as he entered.
He went from room to room, amazed by how bland Typon was. The interior was lifeless, with a dull grey coating of paint used in every room. There were no decorations as well, only the bare necessities one needed. Helios was used to being more bright and loud, so seeing something so colorless and boring put him off. Even with the small flame in his hands, he had seen enough to conclude that Typhon was as dull as he looked.
Having gone through the entire building, about fifty rooms in total, he finally headed down to the throne room. He contemplated going there first, but he wanted to save it for last. He was glad he did. After all he had seen, destroying Typhon's throne would brighten his rather dull experience.
Entering the throne room, Helios noticed there was nothing there beside a large iron throne at the far end.
And the person sitting on it.
"Took you long enough," Typhon grunted from the throne. "I thought you had left without even coming to say hi."
Helios smirked, igniting his entire body. "That's rather heroic of you to stay back while your people escape. You should have gone with them."
"But then we would have missed the opportunity to kill you once and for all."
We?
Helios cursed as he watched another figure emerge from behind the large throne. He would have never thought Louis was inside with Typhon all along. They had lured him in.
"No matter," Helios said, stepping forward. "I'll just have to kill you both."
ของขวัญ
-- ได้รับของขวัญแล้ว สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง