Mountain of the Immortals

Every step upward unlocked more feelings in me.

On the one hand, the steps were now larger than any stairs had the right to be, so we were getting progressively tired. But this was the way of my father. Making everyone who would come to visit him exhausted before they even reached him, only so he could appear more important. As if the fact that he was the god of gods wasn't enough.

On the other hand, I knew that this was going to be the last stop before we reached my father at the top of the mountain. The end of my journey had never been closer and I was anxious to see it through, no matter who was waiting for me and how hard the climb became.

When we reached the level of my eldest brother's palace, however, my heart dropped.

* * *

Name: Cerberus

Type: Magic Creature - Beast (Raid Boss)

Level: 60

Disposition: Aggressive

HP: 221,100/221,100

Physical Attack: 1,160

Magic Attack: 201

Speed: 279

Attack Range: Melee

XP: 2,735,033

Description: A gigantic three-headed hound that belonged to Hades. Since Hades's disappearance, Cerberus stands guard over his master's palace, chasing away anyone that comes by and patiently waiting for its master’s return.

* * *

Whenever I’d thought about my brother's elephant-sized dog in the days since I left, dark images of my father torturing him came to mind, and so I tried not to think of it any further. I hoped that he had managed to escape or at least found a swift death, if that was what Cronus wanted. To see him here lifted my spirits initially, but I quickly understood why my father had decided not to hurt him.

He must have thought that I might one day return to exact my revenge, and as much as it gutted me to have to kill my old teacher, at least that was something the old man had wished for. Isoples welcomed his death. Cerberus, on the other hand, was confused. Hades loved him dearly and never went anywhere without him.

During all of his quests, training, and XP parties, Cerberus was always with him. They fought together, ate together, and slept together. And now the poor animal hadn’t seen him in months. As aggressive as he looked, charging at me with all his might, I could see the changes in him.

"Zeus, why are you just standing there?" Ares asked.

The dog’s muscles were wasting away to the extent that I could see his ribcage, and his eyes were filled with dried tears, something that Hades always made sure to clean off. It was obvious that he was suffering from the separation—he hadn’t been eating well and had become so aggressive. Even the disposition in his Dark Energy signature had changed from “Passive” to “Aggressive”.

I heard the telltale sound of Artemis's bowstring tense and snapped my head in her direction.

"Nobody attacks my brother's dog," I said firmly. "Nobody! No matter what—"

My sentence was cut short as Cerberus's jaws wrapped around my legs and torso. The pain was intense, but nothing I hadn’t felt before from him during our games. What I did notice as he was dragging me toward his doghouse, however, was that his bite was significantly weaker than it used to be.

Either that, or he purposefully wasn't putting all of his strength into it. The second explanation actually made a lot more sense, especially since I had seen how vicious Cerberus could become if he wanted to kill someone. Attacking with just one of his heads wasn’t like him at all. Usually he held his prey with one head and tried to tear it into pieces with another.

"Zeus you're bleeding badly!" Aphrodite shouted at me.

"It's fine," I said in the guild chat, and then repeated myself out loud in a calming voice. "It's fine, boy."

I patted his snout, trying my best not to move too much as the pain started becoming worse.

"Hades isn’t here, but I am," I continued, and the other two heads started smelling me with vigor. "You remember me, boy? It's me, Zeus. Uncle Zeus."

Cerberus's eyes opened wide and his jaw loosened its grip on me. Another shock of pain ran through me as his teeth left my wounds. Cerberus let out a whine and I saw his large tail start to wag behind him.

"That's right, boy," I said, and patted him again. "I missed you so much, buddy."

The poor dog started whining uncontrollably after placing me on the ground. He then proceeded to look at me with those six large eyes of his, knowing he’d done something he shouldn't have.

"It's fine, boy," I said, smiling at him. "Don't worry about it."

Upon hearing these last words, he jumped vertically with happiness and started licking at my wounds. I instantly felt the healing qualities of his saliva kick in, and within seconds I was on my feet again and hugging him. I caressed his tired, weak body until I heard him growl again and he moved in front of me, as if wanting to protect me from the others.

"Oh, no. Those are friends of mine, buddy," I said, patting his chest.

"Uhm... What are we supposed to do?" Ares asked, his voice a tiny bit shaky.

"Don't move," I said. "They’re all friends."

I moved closer to each of the others and hugged them. Cerberus made sure that they all behaved themselves by growling at Aphrodite when she raised her arms to hug me back.

"Now come closer and let him smell you," I said, taking up a position next to Cerberus.

The first to approach was Artemis, who slowly raised the back of her hand to let Cerberus sniff her with his middle head. I wasn't sure if it was something in Artemis's appearance or her many years in the wild, but Cerberus instantly accepted her, wagging his tail and even pushing her affectionately with the side of his head.

"Looks like he really likes you," I said.

"I really like him too," she said, and patted his enormous head. "You're such a good boy but you need to eat more, my friend."

As if the dog understood what Artemis was talking about, all three of his heads sighed in sync.

"We’ll bring you all the meat you can eat once we're done here," Artemis continued. "I don't have much right now, but please do me a favor and eat this at least."

She went on to produce a large slab of meat from her inventory and threw it in the air. Cerberus focused and two of his three heads caught it and fought over it. I was happy to see him eating, though I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened to an immortal dog of his caliber if he’d continued to starve.

"These are the rest of my friends, buddy," I said, once he’d swallowed the last piece of his meat, and nodded at my guildmates to approach.

Each head focused on one of the remaining gods. Of the three of them, Ares was the only one who got a growl, but I knew exactly what it was by the fact that Cerberus was still waving his tail. He had done the same thing to me many times until I got used to being around him.

Cerberus was an expert in sniffing out the fear of others, and it was a kind of game to him trying to squeeze even more out of his targets. It looked like Ares was the only one who was genuinely afraid of the oversized three-headed pup.

"Play nice now!" I commanded, and Cerberus stopped immediately.

Instead, he gave Ares a good lick from his boots all the way up to his hair. I could hardly keep myself from laughing, even with everything that was happening around us. Aphrodite on the other hand didn't hold back one bit, and burst into laughter at her brother's frustrated expression.

"He’s such a majestic creature," Hephaestus said, running his hands gently down one of his necks.

"Can we take him home with us?" Aphrodite asked, much to my surprise. "What? I like dogs as much as anyone!"

"No, you're right," Artemis agreed. "Imagine how happy he would be running through the fields of Olympus."

"What do you think, boy?" I asked, looking at his central head. "Would you like to come with us?"

His reaction wasn’t immediate, as he seemed to think over what I had just asked him. He looked around and whined softly before sitting on his belly and placing all of his heads between his feet.

"Alright. We won't do anything you don't want to do, boy," I said, and patted each of his snouts. "Will you wait for us here?"

He barked, making us all jump a little, before running back to his wooden house—which actually looked more like a standard human residence. Once he was back inside, he lay on the ground and hung each of his heads out of the three windows to watch us.

"I think we can continue now," I said, turning toward the steps.

"We're not going to just leave him here, are we?" Aphrodite asked.

"We can't take him against his will. You saw his good side this time, but there’s no way we can force him to do anything he doesn't want to. And if he wants to stay here and wait for his master, then there's nothing we can do about it except make this place better once we're done with Cronus."

"But your brother is—" Aphrodite started, but I interrupted her a bit more abruptly than I should have.

"You think I don't know that?" I snapped at her. "We're walking through the ghost palaces of my siblings right now. There’s nothing I can do to bring them back. I can't even make Hades's dog understand that his master isn't going to return. But this is what life has brought us. The best thing we can do is keep moving."

"Onward and upward," Artemis said, trying to ease the atmosphere.

"Let's just go," I said, and we resumed our climb.