Read Online The Last Hunter - Ascent (Book 3 of the Antarktos Saga) by Jeremy Robinson - Free Book Online

forgiveness. Or redemption. Everyone makes mistakes, Solomon. Everyone must be forgiven at one time or another. Some lie. Some murder.”
    I slip in, “Some destroy the planet.”
    “ That was not you.” He picks me up off his shoulder and places me on the ground. “I have seen your ability to forgive, little one. I saw what you did for Ninnis. And for Kainda. But your ability to forgive is worthless if you cannot turn it upon yourself. If you do not, the darkness you seek to defeat will eat you from the inside.”
    “Someone has to offer me forgiveness for those things,” I argue. “How am I supposed to ask the billions—” He raises an eyebrow. “Right. That wasn’t me. Still, how can I earn something like forgiveness?”
    Cronus crouches down, but his eyes are still far above me. “Forgiveness cannot be earned. It can only be granted and received. I sense you need to hear the words.” He puts an arm-sized finger under my chin and lifts my head to face him. “Solomon, for your crimes against your fellow men, for the darkness of your heart and for the evil thoughts of your mind, you are forgiven.”
    My lips squeeze tight. It can’t be that simple!
    “It is that simple,” he says. “You need only accept.”
    A strange emotion wells up inside me. I fight it, but cling to it at the same time. The weight lifts. I fall to my knees as pinpricks of pain ripple over my skin. Apparently, in Tartarus you can literally feel the burden being yanked away. And then, it’s gone. I gasp a breath and find the air sweeter. Refreshing.
    Full of thanks and relief, I step forward and wrap my arms around Cronus’s leg. If Em could see me now. Solomon, the great Nephilim slayer, hugging a Titan.
    Cronus rubs my head with the tip of his finger. “Solomon,” he whispers. “Look again.”
    I loosen my grip and step back. After wiping the wetness from my eyes, I look. The hills are no longer barren. Thick green grass, full of flowers, covers the land. The sky has turned blue. The distant lake is shimmering and peaceful, and I have no doubt I could swim its water without fear of melting. But the most startling aspect of the transformed scenery is the tower. It’s no longer made of hard stone. It’s a tree. A massive tree stretching high into the sky. Above the tree is a light source, as bright as the sun, but indistinct.
    “What…”
    “The secrets of Tartarus are too many to tell,” he says before I can ask. “You have been here long enough.”
    “How long?” I ask.
    “Three months,” he says.
    Three months. It sounds like a long time, but it could have been a hundred years and not felt any different to me. I’m about to ask him if three months Tartarus time is the same as three months surface time, but don’t. I think he knows exactly what I meant when I asked. “You mentioned a weapon.”
    “The Jericho Shofar.”
    My face screws up involuntarily. He can’t be serious. “A shofar? A ram’s…horn?”
    “Like you,” he says, “The Jericho Shofar is…unique. Touched by the light. And in the right hands, a powerful weapon. One you will need.”
    “What does it do?” I ask.
    To my surprise, Cronus shrugs.
    I can’t help but laugh. This is ridiculous. “You don’t even know what it does!”
    “It was used by a man named Joshua to—”
    “Destroy the walls of Jericho,” I say. “It’s a story from the Old Testament. Joshua destroyed the city and killed everyone inside.”
    “Every thing inside,” he says. “Jericho, as you know from your time underground, was a Nephilim city. The horn was used to defeat them.”
    “New Jericho,” I say. He’s right.
    “Where can I find the horn?” I ask.
    Again, he shrugs. “I only know who to ask about it.”
    “Who?”
    He grins, this time I sense mischief. “Hades.”
    I throw up my hands. “Hades! C’mon. Not only is he Nephilim, but he’s also the god of the underworld. Of hell!”
    Cronus shakes his head. “That humanity has survived so long is a