“…You know, I don’t know how to feel going into this.”

It was a broken down room, standard of most houses in Tartarus, useable but not really wanted by those who experienced life outside of the great walls. And in this room, six individuals sat, five looking at the speaker.

“What do you mean Ein?” Roku asked, the dragon-like sibling among the Chimeras asked, and indeed, even his response would have thrown off anyone who knew the six in the room.

The Hydra triplets, and the Chimera triplets, with the Hydra triplets, they were actually related before becoming the Hydra, with the Chimera, they were three who just happened to have compatible DNA to be fused with minimal errors.

These six had a reputation in Tartarus, not only because they were considered ‘parts’ of a true Chained, but because each was eccentric.

Roku with his hedonistic behaviour and roguish attitude, Shi, the rowdy drunkard and leader of the Chimera, and Go, the weakest member of the Chimera who was the most intelligent, a bibliophile who hated people and would rather be alone.

As for the Hydra, their minds were fused so long they were practically the same person with vague differences between them, usually reacting in nearly the same manner to different situations and pulling off pranks and being known as jokesters to the entirety of the Key.

So of course, no one in Tartarus, let alone those who were a part of the Key, would expect to have these six in one room and have it actually be serious without any supervision.

But that just said the seriousness of the situation.

“I mean the tally. We have confirmed victories in four Areas… but confirmed losses in three other Areas.” Indeed, the situation on multiple fronts was perilously balanced at the moment, yes, the Key had more victories over all, but it is a close thing.

“Yeah… the losses…” No one in the room wanted to believe the losses, especially the latest one.

“I can’t believe they lost… those two were…” Shi spoke for a moment, taking a deep breath.

She couldn’t cry, not yet… when everything was over, she’d mourn.

“Hey, it’s… not okay, but the boss won’t let things end so simply.” Zwei pointed out, and the group nodded, knowing the sad truth.

Of the Pantheon specifically, they had lost three members. Of the Key as a whole, five.

Death was difficult to deal with… some seemed to be able to just accept it and move on, while others… others broke down.

The Hydra and the Chimera could not afford to break down just yet though.

“Where are you?” “Come out, come out, wherever you are…” Yeah, the six members of the Pantheon couldn’t actually afford to relax or take a moment more than they were right now… because they were already in a fight.

Musmassu and Mussussu, the exalted serpent and the furious serpent respectfully, were the enemies the six now faced, the two Babylonian Chained being ‘siblings’ like the two sets of triplets were.

Whether or not the two serpents were related by blood or not didn’t truly matter to the Hydra and Chimera siblings, all that truly mattered was that the fight had begun, even if they were taking a ‘break’ at the moment.

“We can’t keep running… Ein, Zwei, Drei, haven’t the three of you figured out that poison yet?” Shi asked, a curse under her breath as she made a gap through the blinds covering the window, seeing a building crumbling in the distance, a clear sign of where Mussussu was at least…

Musmassu had more… finesse, than the other sibling, but that was to be expected when one was referred to as the ‘exalted’ and the other as ‘furious’.

“No, it would be easier if we could get a sample of it before we headed back into the fight, but they are sure to figure out what we’re doing if we keep up the hit and run tactics we’re doing.” Drei replied, the ‘quieter’ Hydra sibling…

Well, quieter in the sense that he rarely initiated any conversation, but get him talking, and well, Drei was still very similar to his siblings.

“I would help you three myself, but the way you three synthesize… not to mention that I don’t have my tools, or the time to use them.” Go tried to apologize for his apparent ‘worthlessness’ in this situation, but none of the other five in the room cared.

All of them had a purpose, and they knew, Odysseus had given everyone their jobs with the knowledge that they had the possibility of victory.

Aaron didn’t believe in fair fights, and would never consider one, always stacking the deck in his favour rather than letting anything just… happen.

Sure, there were already three losses on their side, but those who… passed, all had a possibility of victory at least, more than could be said if some other members of the Pantheon were to get into those same fights.

Sun and Jormungand against Behemoth and Usumgallu was a possible victory for the prior two, if Sun had distracted Behemoth, allowing the stronger Jormungand time to kill Usumgallu, the two would have won.

It was something that would have been obvious, with Behemoth’s Chained ability being his enhanced regeneration, Usumgallu’s was her scales and wings, being extra limbs and bullet-proof armour.

Usumgallu was not nigh-immune to poison like Behemoth was, and Jormungand’s acidic poison would have killed the Great Dragon with it being pumped through her veins.

That would have left Jormungand and Sun to team up against Behemoth, a winnable battle… but instead, Jormungand rushed Behemoth alone, a fight that the snake should know he would lose given his previous experience against Behemoth.

Emotions was the cause of that loss, not ability.

Go, the ‘weakest’ of the six Pantheon Chained fighting in Area five, had been the one to analyse and discover this fact, going through the report of the loss in Area twelve during another hit-and-run break from the two serpents attacking them.

It was another sign of his usefulness, something he himself couldn’t see.

Aaron called it ‘Imposter-Syndrome’ which was something everyone had gone through at some point in life apparently.

To hear him describe it… ‘It’s either a feeling of not wanting to try, because it will never match up to what others expect of you, or a feeling that no matter what you do, it will never be good enough’.

Go was an excellent tactician, and fighter, even if he was physically the weakest out of the group, with the least noticeable Chained ability…

“Bro, listen.” Roku reached out, placing a hand on a phone Go pulled out of his pocket, his goat-eyes scanning the text on the screen snapping up to meet Roku’s reptilian ones.

“Stop thinking about helping there. That’s not your job.” Roku said, having enough of Go’s complaints, the goat eyes on the middle sibling shifting slightly, first looking entirely away from Roku, and then slightly back.

“Go, seriously. I’m a horny idiot, and Sis is a muscle-bound drunk. The Hydra, they’re busy figuring out how to stop Musmassu from killing us all. None of us are really thinking about the fight… so why aren’t you?” Roku asked, and Go blinked, slowly, his frown vanishing as his face adopted a calm neutrality.

“Roku, I will fuck you up if you try ordering me around again, regardless of how roundabout you try and do so. Also, get your hand off my phone before I remove it from your wrist.” Go said in his calmest voice ever, leaving Roku to shiver and the other four in the room to feel smirks coming on.

Ah yes… Shi was a lazy drunk… Roku was a boisterous gigolo. As for Go, he was just a guy who was usually so pissed off he kept himself from attacking others only through reading his books.

“Well, okay, okay… think… so what we know about Musmassu is that he is smaller, Cybernetic based, and he is the poisonous one between the two. Quite frankly, he isn’t someone we of the Chimera should be fighting, poison works on us, it doesn’t really work on the Hydra triplets.” This was an already established thing between the two groups of triplets, so Go was just speaking aloud to set his mind straight.

“We can take him out… or at least neutralize him.” Zwei explained, reaching out a hand to touch Ein’s, sharing more information between the Hydra, their ability to ‘link’ their minds with touch was quite helpful, something they were only able to do because of being fused into one being for so long.

“Yeah, you three aren’t exactly heavy hitters like Shi or Roku, but while you can’t kill Musmassu with poison, he can’t do the same to you three… means you will have to try and kill him with physical means.” Go then moved his thumb, entering a map application on his phone before placing it on the table.

The ‘application’ was just something cobbled together with assistance from Dryad and Aaron, one being a software genius and the other being someone who has physically been all over Tartarus and possessed a nigh-eidetic memory.

“Trying to remember reports… okay, Hydra, you three will need to leave first, get the attention of Musmassu, lure him to any of these four locations, they’ll give you advantages.” Go pointed towards a few points on the map, the Hydra triplets being confused for a moment before they realized what those locations were.

“Yeah… that can work. We’ll take Musmassu out.” Ein said with a smirk, reaching out for Drei’s hand to pass on more information about the poison they were creating.

“That leaves Musmussu, arguably the… bigger, problem.” Go realized the pun soon after he said it, ignoring the snickering going on throughout the room, he focused on what they knew about the ferocious serpent.

“If Musmassu is cobra based, small and poisonous, Musmussu is boa constrictor based, larger, Biological Chained, with no poison… he is no Jormungand, but the fact that he has limbs freaks me out honestly.” It was definitely freaky, but Musmussu looked like the typical depiction of a ‘naga’ in a certain popular online game from almost a century back.

Serpentine tail used for movement, reaching up until a point where a humanoid torso appeared with bulky arms and a monstrous skull and covered in green, slightly slimy scales, Musmussu was definitely something no one wanted to see in a dark night.

The two serpents had started their attack very early on in the day, shortly after Cerberus and Cyclops reported killing Uridimmu the Hydra and Chimera found themselves facing the two serpents…

In the dark before morning, the massive form of Musmussu silently slithered up to their location, terrifying the group of six into a retreating battle, during which they faced their first of many ambush from Musmassu, who was the assassin to Musmussu’s heavy hitter.

“Given his size and strength…” Go seemed to think for a moment, before looking once more on the map, the Hydra siblings now ignoring Go, already knowing their part and not really needing to hear more.

“Alright, I see a method for winning.” Go explained, looking at the map and pointing at a certain point, almost a main road in appearance, buildings flanking a straight path, slightly close to where they had seen a building collapse when looking through the blinds moments ago.

“Roku, Shi, the two of you, head here and keep Musmussu busy, I need to make a stop somewhere.” Go checked the map once more, confirming the hardware store was indeed near the optimal fight location.

“You got it bro.” Roku responded, Shi nodding with a predatory smirk.

“Alright, Hydra, you three mind doing the honours?” Go asked, the three seemingly meditating while holding hands stopping their synthesizing to stand, nodding before they walked out the front door.

No more running, time to fight…

Or so the plan was… but…

“Ah… why do you three run so? Aren’t you simply delaying the inevitable?” Musmassu whispered, his voice still clearly audible to the enhanced senses of a Chained, all three of the Hydra triplets shivering at the voice before performing some creative acrobatics to dodge Musmassu cratering the ground behind them.

The ‘Exalted Serpent’ wasn’t really that strong, stronger than each individual member of the Hydra yes, but probably only as physically strong as Roku was.

Musmassu had armour though, and that was the problem, the armour that made it impossible for the Hydra as they were to hurt him, whereas Musmassu could launch attacks with impunity, unafraid of any counter attacks.

It was also why Musmassu seemed to just toss himself around violently, with how he impacted the ground, it would normally have hurt the Exalted Serpent as well, but instead he just continued chasing after the Hydra siblings.

Things weren’t much better with the Chimera either, it was just a different type of trouble.

“Hey, hey, hey, you’re really going to keep running HUH?” The roaring voice of Musmussu followed behind Shi as she ran, one hand trailing behind her and firing at the Furious Serpent with a pistol she had taken from one of the enemy mercenaries.

The fighting all over Tartarus was still going on, little by little, looting the corpses of their enemies was something those of Tartarus didn’t care for, for the prisoners, there was no moral dissonance to their actions.

The bullets impacted on Musmussu’s scales, his natural armour much weaker than his brother, yet with his mass, it was still a negligible wound, puncturing and shattering the scales at the point of impact, digging in slightly, and doing not much beyond that.

“You little mosquito, stop running!” Shi responded as eloquently as she could in the moment, running and trailing her hand with raised middle finger behind her.

Having to save her stamina, Shi couldn’t exactly curse at him, this was the next best thing.

“Stop picking on my sister asshole!” Roku roared, leaping from a building and landing on Musmussu’s shoulder, punching the Ferocious Serpent in the face with a flaming fist before leaping off, dodging a swat from the giant Biological Chained.

“Thanks for the save bro, but I think you need more protection than me.” Shi reminded her little brother while catching him from his jump, in a princess carry no less, getting an awkward frown from the dragon sibling.

Roku didn’t open his mouth though, getting out of his sister’s arms and running alongside her.

If Roku complained, Shi would have been the one to hit him, not Musmussu, and Roku felt that being hit by Shi was the worse option.

“Hey, how close are you to being done Go?” Shi asked, holding her earpiece to confirm the response from her brother.

“I got the materials, but it’s going to take another ten minutes to set it up. Run away, and I’ll tell you when to turn around and come back.” Go responded to her request, and Shi nodded, knowing she could do what Go was asking of her.

Roku didn’t know what was being said but just followed when Shi suddenly turned, the roars of Musmussu, along with the destruction caused by the Ferocious Serpent, trailed after them.

“By the way, is there a reason those two don’t just capture the Generator?” Roku asked Go, after a moment of running, taking a breath while Musmussu crashed through another building, too large to run through the alleyway the siblings took.

“It’s not feasible. The Hydra is more dangerous when they aren’t being seen, and while we have no such thing, Shi and I are quite good at ambushes. Better to hunt us down and face no sudden attacks later, than to leave us be and remain cautious in the face of an attack later.” Roku ignored the dig at his inability to be stealthy and let out a grunt of agreement, realizing what Go meant…

The Hydra and Chimera were the only defence for the Generator in this Area, other Chained were around, but they were busy with fighting the mercenaries hired by Management, if the Generator was captured they would do nothing to take it back or prevent it.

On the other hand, this also meant that, should Musmussu and Musmassu take over the Generator, they would definitely be attacked by Hydra and Chimera, who didn’t need to involve themselves with the rest of the war.

“So that’s why they’re chasing us… you think the Hydra knows?” Roku asked, looking to Shi even as they both ran through a building they knew had a backdoor exit, it wouldn’t really help them in escaping the Ferocious Serpent, who could tell where they went by scent, but it did give them a bit of time in the obstacle that the building became.

“Definitely, if Zwei or Drei didn’t figure it out first, Ein would eventually get it. Drei is especially quick when it comes to thinking.” Shi reminded, and Roku blinked before nodding.

Drei wasn’t on Go’s level, especially in multi-tasking which no one could really beat him in, but Drei was pretty smart.

“I’m pretty smart, so I think they’re attacking us because we’re more dangerous when given prep time.” Drei said as much, his siblings hitting the back of his head with a slap each at his arrogance in regards to his intelligence.

“No one asked you. What we need to do is get to the spot.” Ein reminded Drei, taking a moment for the three to dodge out of the way of a splash of poisonous acid from Musmassu.

“Yeah… though… why are so many poisons doubling as acids? It makes no sense.” Zwei complained, and her brothers both opened their mouths to respond before stopping and actually thinking on what she just said…

“Okay, you have a point.” Zwei’s brothers admitted at the same time, once more dodging an attack from Musmassu before they took one of Zwei’s arms each, tossing her up onto a roof nearby.

“Splitting up is only going to hurt your chances.” Musmassu said with a raised brow, still attacking the siblings which were in reach.

Similar to the reason why the twin serpents were attacking the defenders instead of taking over the Generator, the Hydra was dangerous so long as more than one of them was there.

One on one, the members of the Hydra were not actually that threatening, unable to use their feelings-based telepathy without touching one another, and unable to co-synthesize poisons without being in contact either, a member of the Hydra triplets was at their weakest when alone.

So obviously Musmassu would chose to attack the two more dangerous ones rather than hunt down the singular weaker one, because attacking Zwei would just leave him open to the offence of Ein and Drei.

“I got the equipment.” Hearing Zwei say this over their communication device, Ein and Drei both smirked…

The ‘fight’ as it were, was coming to an end very soon.

It was the same for the Chimera, Go calling Shi and Roku and letting them know that his trap was finally set.

It would be but a moment in the day-long war of Tartarus, but if the two sets of triplets were asked, both groups would say it was an amazing moment.

With the Chimera, Shi and Roku ran from Musmussu, who was still roaring in anger and indignity at chasing these two for so long to no avail, while the Go stood nearby on a roof, hidden so that Musmussu would not see him.

Shi seemed to trip, falling, and Musmussu had a huge, toothy grin at the fact that he would finally be able to kill one of the Chimera triplets… unseeing of the smirk on Roku and Shi’s faces.

For the Hydra, Ein and Drei both jumped back, putting their backs to the wall of a building, Musmassu closing in with his palms coated in his poison.

For each of the twin serpents, they believed that they would be fine, that this was their moment of victory… it wasn’t.

If anything, this was the moment of their demise.

“Any last words?” Musmassu asked Ein and Drei, a moment away from grabbing their skulls and either crushing or melting them away into nothingness.

“Yes, we do.” Drei said, and Musmassu widened his eyes as he heard the sound of something being tipped over from above, looking upwards as a huge amount of liquid dropped onto him.

“What the… what is this?” Musmassu complained, noticing the strange, salty smell of whatever was dumped on him.

“Water, salt, and petrol.” Zwei smirked from above, and Musmassu just blinked uncertain as to why he was dosed with such a mixture…

The Exalted Serpent received his answer as Zwei dropped two things, both caught by her brothers and allowing him to clearly see the two stun-guns aimed at him.

“…You’re shitting me.” Musmassu realized what was about to happen, and cursed, and a moment later he was being electrocuted, immediately setting on fire due to the petrol in the mixture.

No doubt, as a Cybernetic Chained, Musmassu was never going to be taken down by a standard electric shock, it required a huge amount of energy to electrocute a Cybernetic Chained, Baal was the only Chained with enough power to do so, but this was an attempt to close in on that gap.

It was just barely enough to truly damage Musmassu, the Exalted Serpent screaming in pain even as Zwei dropped two more things for her brothers, Ein and Drei dropping their stun guns for the more lethal trench guns.

With the audible ‘click-clack’ of the shells being loaded, the brothers of the Hydra both shot Musmassu in the chest at the same time, sending the enemy flying back where he landed on his back, rolling in a doomed attempt to put out the fire set upon his person.

It was all put to an end with Zwei leaping from her perch on the building, landing with one foot on Musmassu’s nose, either knocking out or killing the Cybernetic Chained.

“…why do we not carry guns everywhere?” Ein asked, looking at his trench gun much in the same manner a man dying of thirst looks at a glass of water.

“Boss Odysseus wanted us to remain low-profile until today, and then we forgot to get some before we started the defence gig.” Drei explained, a few ‘ah’s’ of enlightenment sounding out from his siblings.

Aaron and Typhon would probably feel extreme fear if they realized that the Hydra would start using guns, and making their pranks much more lethal- aka traps.

But neither of the two ‘bosses’ would know.

With Musmussu, the Ferocious Serpent launched a fist at the downed form of Shi, seeing weakness and aiming to end the life of at least one of the Chimera siblings.

Musmussu couldn’t react in time when Shi lifted her feet, Roku jumping and landing with the bottoms of his feet meeting the bottom of Shi’s, the lioness of the Chimera kicking upwards, sending her brother flying straight towards Musmussu’s skull, rolling out of the way of the fist in the same motion.

Roku’s fists were on fire, standard for him really, as he punched Musmussu.

Roku’s outstretched fist hit right in one of Musmussu’s eyeballs, popping the eye and burning the eyelid shut in near the same moment, drawing a roar of pain from the Ferocious Serpent and a gag of disgust from Roku himself.

“You shit sucking, fucking son of a whore-” this was some of the more tame of the curses Musmussu started to scream, reeling backwards and holding his skull in pain… falling back into a large amount of very strong wire.

It had taken Go quite a while to set up a trap like that, mostly because he had to let the wires remain on the floor and slack until Musmussu moved past them, then pull them up and secure them so that Musmussu’s weight didn’t immediately break them.

Unsaid, but most certainly thought by Go, was that he’d be going into construction work when he got out of Tartarus.

Go, standing on a roof next to Musmussu’s falling form, smirked at the sight, knowing that at least some of the wire cut into the Ferocious Serpent’s form, regardless of scales, those wires dug in.

It was also the perfect time for Go’s plan to be put into action, his siblings looking up to him and seeing him nod, Roku and Shi both moved into action, while Go did his part.

Reaching down and pulling on a wire, left slack and at his feet, Go ran back, feeling the wire pull taught due to being stretched across the gap between those two buildings, and then tying the string as best as he could to a nearby tree.

Another issue with this plan was how long it took for Go to calculate the correct length of wire, and making sure there was actually enough wire.

Now Go was not there anymore, he didn’t see it happen, but when the string violently shook and dug into the tree a bit, Go smirked, knowing his plan, just like Musmussu, had been executed.

It was a simple, but efficient idea, Go mused, walking closer to the site while considering the plan…

Go had simply decided that, if garrotte wire could kill a person, a larger, stronger wire could kill a larger being.

Seeing the decapitated body of Musmussu, Go knew he had been right. It seemed so… anti-climactic from his end though.

Shi and Roku both ran up to Go, letting him know with bright smiles that they had seen the Ferocious Serpent move forward, to escape the net of sharp wire behind him, only to move into the wire angled to reach his neck.

Musmussu tried to move back, and then slip under the wire, but it wasn’t possible because Shi and Roku had both ended up behind him during his confusion at being blocked off from retreating, and both had attacked the Ferocious Serpent from behind.

The result was like having a melon being placed on a blade, and then hammered down until the blade cut through.

It was horribly inefficient, but it worked, and Go was just happy with the end result…

They needed the victory after-

“Report… we lost another Area.” And just like that, the happiness of victory left them all.

Right…

This was still a war. Just because one battle was won…

Aaron sighed as he sat in the backseat of the flying car, cradling his head in his hands even as he wished so badly to lash out.

Doing so would result in nothing. It would be cathartic in the moment, but in the long run, it was pointless.

“…Aaron.” Aaron looked up to the rearview mirror, seeing his best friend looking back at him, the piercing stare of Typhon digging into him.

“When this is all over. I’m done.” Aaron made to speak… and instead held his tongue.

Aaron didn’t blame Typhon for his words or wants… Aaron wanted the same.

Echidna, seated as she was next to Aaron, could see the byplay, and while she didn’t have the full picture, she did know this.

Aaron wasn’t just looking at the current battles… he was looking to the days where they would be free of Tartarus.

Typhon’s battles, as far as all three of them knew, would be over today. Typhon expressed an urge to never be involved in such battles for freedom and survival ever again.

But Aaron… Echidna looked to Odysseus, ‘He-Who-Saw-Victory’ and could only wonder…

Typhon would try his best to stay out of conflict from this day forward. When would Aaron’s battles end though?

The only one who knew was Aaron… and who knew how far his vision reached.

One PM. There were eleven hours left to escape.