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

miracle. Has your mythology skewed everything? You have lived in the underworld for years, at times quite comfortably. Would you call it hell?”
    “Antarktos is the underworld?” I ask. He doesn’t need to answer the question. It’s clearly what he meant. It’s just surprising.
    “Hades is one of my oldest friends. The underworld—the land beneath Antarktos—was his domain long before the Nephilim sought refuge there. He was here, in Tartarus, for a time, and he felt his burden lifted. But when the Nephilim left, he went with them.”
    “You couldn’t stop him?” I ask.
    “I…sent him.”
    “You what ?”
    “I needed someone to watch them, to observe, and to report back on occasion.”
    “A spy?”
    He waggles a finger in the air. “But…be careful when you approach him. I have not heard from him in some time and fear he may have finally been corrupted.”
    “How long is a long time?” I ask.
    He says nothing.
    It feels strange, bullying an answer out of a Titan, but I need to know. “ How … long ?”
    “Nearly one thousand years.”
    Great . “So I find Hades, tell him Cronus says hello, see if he eats me and then say, ‘By the way, do you know where I can find the Jericho Horn?’”
    The giant chews on his lips for a moment and then nods. “Precisely.”
    “That’s got to be one of the worst plans I’ve ever heard,” I say.
    “But…”
    Jerk . The mind-reading giant already knows the punch line. He just wants to hear me say it. Fine . “It’s better than most of mine.”
    “I thought you would like it.” He raises his hand up toward the massively tall black doors built into a cliff side that rises up into the clouds. “It’s time for you to go.”
    “What do I do with the horn once I have it?” I ask. “Am I supposed to kill the Nephilim? Bring them here?”
    “I do not know,” he says. “I wish I did. Your destiny might be known only to others, but it has always been in your hands.” He shoos me away, nudging me with his big hand and then waving me forward. “Go.”
    I move toward the gates, but walk backward so I can see him. There’s a lot I want to ask, and say. I have never been friends with a creature like Cronus. There’s so much I could learn from him. And this place, this paradise…how could anyone want to leave here? How could Hades stay away?
    As this thought absorbs my attention, I trip and spill backwards. I manage to turn the fall into a graceful roll, but it’s still embarrassing. I’m supposed to defeat Nephil, aka Ophion, and an army of Nephilim and hunters, and I can’t even walk backwards. When I look up, Cronus is smiling and shaking his head.
    I grin back at him, wave, turn to the gates and run. The grass is soft beneath my feet. The speed and the warm breeze washing over my face invigorate me. I cover the distance in a flash and find myself standing before a wall of black.
    The gates of Tartarus.
    All you need do, is push.
    I place my hand against the cold black metal. It doesn’t seem possible that anything could open this massive door, human, Nephilim or Gigantes.
    It opens for the worthy, and you were deemed worthy at birth.
    I’m not sure I agree, but I decide to believe the Titan.
    So, I push.
     
     
     
     
    10
     
    The massive door slips open silently, as though oiled by whatever WD-40 equivalent is available in Tartarus. The blackness of the door is replaced by a veil of more blackness. Even open, one cannot see the real world from Tartarus, or vice versa. But, according to Cronus, I can step through.
    I take a look back, hoping for an encouraging nod, but Cronus is gone. I’m tempted to stay for a moment, as I look out at the paradise that revealed itself after my burden was lifted. How could the Nephilim not want to be here? I wonder. Then again, they’re all about hate, killing and pain. Of course, it’s far more baffling that even the Nephilim could find forgiveness here, if they wanted to. It doesn’t seem right, that such a