Chapter 37 Part 1
Sal could finally catch his breath. He looked out before him and saw a field strewn with the dead corpses of what had been Metheons. The devastation and death was overwhelming. The only good thing about the Metheons was that were were none left wounded. All of them had been killed. The Undertown residents would have no moral dilemmas about what to do with those soldiers who were not quite dead.
The casualties in Undertown were few. Sal wasn't sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, he was glad that no one else had died. On the other, he knew that he had changed history in no small way. Whether or not that meant he was stuck in a parallel dimension he wasn't sure.
Sal caught Prilock's eye. Sal gave him a sheepish thumbs up. Priolock gave one back, but it was void of the joy that one might have expected. Prilock still looked to be in some state of shock. Sal was too. Combat has a way, in any century, of making those who witness it have "thousand-yard-stares." Sal and Prilock were no exceptions. It probably didn't help that mere moments before, they were not sure Hercules and Aries were not intending on destroying them.
That was one of the more unsettling things. After Hercules had finished with the carnage Aries had tasked him with, the two of them had just disappeared. There had been a strong wind as the last Metheon fell to the Earth--like the wind before a storm. When that wind had dissipated, Hercules and Aries were nowhere to be found.
The Undertown residents were still uneasy. Maybe Aries and Hercules had set a trap. They'd make the residents of Undertown think they were gone, but then as soon as they came out from behind their protective barriers, all hell would break loose and it would be they instead of the Metheons that Hercules slaughtered this time.
It soon became obvious, though, that neither Aries nor Hercules was coming back. It was troubling that they had vanished. When might they re-appear? Was there a way to placate Aries? Should he be worshipped? There were stories of those, long before, who had worshipped beings such as Aries. Sal had, of course, never heard these stories, but the residents of Undertown were vaguely aware of them, which compared to Sal, made them experts.
Sal slowly rose from his position. He intended to make his way over to Prilock. As he was midway to him, however, Sal felt his feet lift from the ground and the uncanny sensation of tumbling through the air. Sal tried to get his bearings. he could see his feet not touching any Earth in disjointed moments of comprehension. It was as if Sal were watching a movie yet he could only watch every fiftieth frame. Nothing made any sense.
