Kassus opened his eyes after some time of only darkness ambiented by the gigantic steps of the Hecatoncheires. When he looked around, he was gratefully greeted by Aphrodite, back in Rhodes. She tilted her head to one side, with her beautiful and playful smile, smile that was brought only by the sight of the warrior on the bed.
"Morning, sleepyhead." She said, followed by a soft giggle. She immediately leaned closer to Kassus, her warmth tingling against his skin. "You surely had a nightmare. Let me help you remove the pain off your shoulders, my brave hero..."
Kassus tried to reply, to speak, to tell her how exhausted he was feeling. But no words came out of his mouth, almost as if he was being restrained. His calmness turned into panic as he tried to grab his neck, he wanted to let Aphrodite know that he could not speak. Unfortunately for him, the scene before his eyes started to dissipate, leaving the image of those divine and beautiful eyes as the last thing he saw until his eyes fluttered open, this time for real.
He was not in his shack, he had no company except for the mythical beast whose steps resonated against the sea, making the deep of the water seem as a regular pod for it. It was like a punch in Kassus' pride when he realized that he was just dreaming, that in reality, he was still being punished by Zeus, getting dragged all the way to the Tartarus by a beast with fifty heads and a hundred arms. Towering above the water, its many arms still gripped Kassus like a chained offering to the abyss. Salt burned his wounds. Sea spray mixed with blood on his skin. His body dangled in the creature's grasp, battered, broken— but not yet broken within. He still had the idea of fighting for the first person that ever loved him, or at least confessed her love for him. Kassus began to twist his limbs, to move his shoulders in order to struggle himself free of the dozen of hands holding him hostage.
"Rrrrghh— " Kassus groaned, twisting his shoulder in a futile effort. "Let me go... You fifty-headed coward."
One of the beast's heads turned, snakelike eyes glowing faintly in the mist of the night. Its jaw opened slowly, and in a low, slithering voice, it whispered to his ear:
"Why do you fight, little worm? Do you think you will escape? No one escapes the wrath of Zeus... not when they have dared love his own."
Laughter erupted from the other heads, a fourty eight twisted and nightmarish faces grinning down at him. Their laughter was thunderous, a mockery echoing through the oceanic void. But one voice that was lower, less cruel to the mortal warrior, cut through the noise and silenced the rest with its question.
"Why did you protect her?" it asked, not with mockery, but genuine curiosity. "She is a god. A being you swore to slay. Why did you shield her, God Hunter?"
Kassus lifted his head weakly. Blood dripped from his lip. His voice cracked when he spoke, hollow and hoarse from pain.
"Because... I never wanted any of this."
The heads tilted at the same time, confused and intrigued.
"I did not choose to become what I am. The sword... the sword chose me. Whispered to me. Guided my hand. I was young, naive, stupid if you wish to call it that way." He added, adjusting his position in the Hecatoncheires' hands to feel less strangled before continuing. "A whisper offered me a chance to make the gods pay for what they did to my family, to me. And I followed its path. Commanded me to close my heart, to embrace vengeance."
"And yet," The softer voice from the beast mused. "you disobeyed it. For her."
Kassus gave a broken laugh. "Yeah... and look where it got me."
There was a moment of silence as the waves swallowed them deeper into the sea, the stars above vanishing behind the thick veil of ocean mist. Even the other heads fell quiet. Then, the one voice— quieter than before, whispered again:
"Perhaps... the blade fears her."
Kassus' blood ran cold.
"What?" He asked, his voice barely above the wind.
But the heads began to laugh again, louder now, drowning the moment in cruel delight. Their howling cackles echoed across the waters, and the hands dragged him tighter. Kassus screamed in fury, thrashing with everything he had, even as bones strained and bruises deepened. He screamed not just from pain, but from confusion. From the truth he could not understand. And far behind him, in the city of Rhodes left in ruin, the Aegis Blade— buried beneath a collapsed building— hummed faintly with divine energy, as if watching... and waiting.
Kassus was still too tired and exhausted to keep fighting. He tried to twist himself against the hands once more, only to fail miserably and only cause the grip of the beast to tighten, making him let out a cry of pain. He was defeated, he was weak. He was a mortal. With one last glance at the sky, Kassus reflected about his choices, but his mind was also filled with the memories of the week he shared with Aphrodite; the good, the bad and the worse. How she always cleaned the shack, how they picked fruit together. How she loved to ask how things worked in the mortal world. How he started to feel a flutter in his chest at the sight of her being another soul wandering across this world instead of a goddess. He closed his eyes, and embraced...
Darkness.
Kassus floated in it. Not water. Not air. Just void. His body hung heavy, limp. Somewhere distant, he could still feel the ache of bruises and cuts, but they were muffled— drowned beneath layers of exhaustion. No sound. No time. Just nothing.
Until—
a scream.
A flash of red and gold.
A shield crashing against a bronze spear.
A child's laughter.
A woman crying.
Two graves with the same name on them.
All blurred. Disjointed. Faces without names. Names without voices. His memories clawed at him from all sides, fragments of a life that had long since bled away beneath rage and war. He thrashed, trying to breathe.
Then—
Her.
Golden hair in moonlight. Soft ember eyes filled with concern. A voice that wrapped around him like a balm.
Aphrodite.
But it was not her divine form. It was her mortal disguise. The woman who had smiled shyly behind the tailor's curtain. The woman who had danced with him under starlight. The one who saw him, not just as a weapon, but as a man. She walked barefoot across the black water toward him, light blooming in her steps. He initially thought it was just another dream of his, but it felt real this time. Almost as if she was reaching out to him through his dreams.
"Kassus..." She whispered, her voice echoing around him like a lullaby and a prayer. "You are more than what they made you. More than what the blade demands."
He reached for her, but she shimmered like mist.
"I know you're afraid. I know you're hurt." She continued softly. "But you must fight. You must rise. You're not done yet."
The darkness around them began to shake. A storm beneath the dream.
"Come back to me." she said, voice loving, yet firm.
Her image fractured, splintering like glass.
"Come back to me."