The guys struggled really hard with those monsters.

“Don’t give me false hope with a hidden agenda,” I caution her as the roar of a beast echoes so loud it vibrates the ground. “I’d lose my temper if this is a game you’re playing.”

I cut my eyes at her, and her smile wobbles.

“We all have something to lose if you lose in this battle. I rather like my life,” she says as her expression turns more serious. “Though the thought of seeing the five of you split up is certainly delightful enough to motivate this plan, the truth is that they’re simply not powerful enough. And you’re too weak when they’re involved. You’ll spend more time saving them than fighting Jahl, and it’s obvious to all of us you’ll lose. They couldn’t even break Lucifer’s hold, and he used to have no hold over them whatsoever. Weak minds lead to quick deaths in a battle with a being that spares no time for hesitation. You’re the only one of us capable of doing battle with it. The rest of us would be consumed and only empower it.”

I cut my eyes back to the horizon, watching as the battle takes a trip into the labyrinth. I suppose this is them doing their part—everyone fighting me so I could level up, and now looking for ways to give me what I want so I go in completely focused. No one is ready to die.

Or they’re playing me like the deviants they are…

“Come. Let’s get better seats,” she chirps.

We’re suddenly on the side of a cliff, as the maze lies beneath us. The men are all fighting those vicious monsters I even struggled with…a few level-ups ago.

I wonder how I’d fare now.

“These four are in trouble,” she tells me, pointing to a set who are pinned down by five of those huge monsters at a dead-end in the maze. “What sort of gift should I give them?” she asks, more to herself than me.

The chakrams appear on my hips, and I smirk as I throw them as hard as I can.

Purple streaks of flame shoot out, but the flames dry up before they hit the maze. The chakrams zip through the worm-like monsters, cutting effortlessly, and take down all five with effortless ease, before zapping back to my hips.

Hera shoots an annoyed look at me. “What sort of balance did that gift offer?” she gripes as those four look up and drop to one knee, lowering their heads as they place their hands over their hearts in gratitude.

I snort derisively.

“I just wanted to see how much stronger I was since the last time I faced those things. They needed help. It was selfishly selfless of me to spare them while sating my own curiosity,” I say, the words coming out as if on autopilot.

When I glance over at her, she smirks and looks away.

“You sound more like yourself when battle is in the air. That’s probably a good thing, since you’re weak and pathetic as a lovesick mascot for the Horsemen.”

Rolling my eyes, I return my attention to the trial as men fight for the right to die at my side. It’s weird, if I’m being honest.

And also really empowering.

My crown appears on my head as I take a seat.

Each quad set is armed with strikingly similar weapons to my boys.

“For these trials, I gave them gifts to replicate some of the power your boys have, and to familiarize themselves with the identity so they could really get into the role,” Hera tells me like she’s brilliant. “Some went with the strategy to hide their faces so as not to allow you too much bias, hoping you’d see them as true replacements if they had no identity that distracted you.”

“Touch my crown, and I’ll test out how strong my new flame is on Hell-spawn. The last flame did a number on the twins,” I tell her.

She quickly stops her hand just inches from my crown and reels back, before a throne appears for her to sit on.

Damn it. Now I want a throne too.

My attention gets grabbed as I watch four men zip through one part of the maze, easily cutting down those big beasts that seem to be a struggle for most everyone.

Their faces are covered, much like most of the men. I don’t know why. I already met them all and heard them sing me praises. I won’t be able to mistake them for my guys just because they cover their faces in battle.

“Oh, these four look really promising,” she says, watching them with me as they fight in pairs, back to back, during one really nasty dead-end ambush.

They don’t need our help, it seems.

They work in pairs until they’ve thinned down the middle, and then the four of them put their backs together before they lunge outward, attacking from the core and working their circle wider and wider.

“That’s beautiful,” she says in awe. “It was really hard to find quads. Most of them are pairs who’ve agreed to work on bonding with other pairs,” she tells me. “Given their technique, I’m assuming this is one of those groupings.”

The one with a scythe does some fancy twirling before slicing through the back of what looks like a magma rock beast. The one with a triton swaps with the sword guy and goes to fend off the sickening amount of beetles that pour out of a walking skeleton’s mouth.

They fight like they’ve always fought together, and my eyes narrow in suspicion when the one with a bladed staff glances up here.

Those eyes…

Then again, several of the quad sets have those cool blue eyes. Maybe I’m imagining things, but they seem too familiar with their timing, battle skills, and movements.

“My guys couldn’t possibly be in this, could they?”

She makes an indignant sound. “Even if they managed to find us, I sealed these trials. They couldn’t possibly break through my seals. If you see familiarities in them, it’s because the Horsemen were studied for years by pairs and quads alike. Not to mention, I may have started planning this the moment I learned you were all alive again,” she says as though she’s expecting a pat on the back. “They’ve been training and watching your boys to learn how best to aid The Apocalypse.”

They slice through one after another, and my heart gets in my throat when they round one passage, not seeing the three-legged, four-armed, five-horned bull monster with a massive, glowing-red sledge hammer awaiting them.

Three more of those monsters move in behind them, as soon as they begin battling the first.

“These are some of the creations I was telling you about. I didn’t stop perfecting them until Cain found himself struggling to take them down. We’ll have to help them out of this. I probably made it too hard to defeat that many at once—”

She stops talking when the guys split up, and the bull monsters get a little confused, losing sight of them in the tricky maze.

“That’s stupid. They’ll be picked off like flies. How sad. They were so promising, too. I suppose some teams just can’t work together in harmony when times get tough,” she says on a disappointed sigh. “Let’s find another set to grant our attention—”

She stops talking again, and I watch as the one with a scythe comes sliding behind the bull beast closest to him, cutting across its back.

The monster roars and stomps a hoofed foot into the ground so hard the gray rock under him splits on impact.

As if timed, the one with a sword comes racing out of a hidden cove, sword drawn, as he flips over the top of it, rapidly stabbing four or five times, before landing on one knee.

He doesn’t even bother looking back as the monster turns, roaring again, and charges him from behind. Suddenly, the beast drops seconds before reaching him, and the swordsman looks up at me as the beast bleeds to death on the rock, lifeless.

“That’s not possible. It should take a whole quad to bring just one of those down. Cain struggled with one. He was limited on which powers he could use during the battle, but still, he struggled,” Hera says as though she’s defending her easily downed monster.

My eyes search, finding the triton wielder, as he bursts through one of the maze walls like he’s the charging bull. The monster gets blindsided, and the triton goes through its middle as its pinned into the next wall that cracks.

“These walls were made with soul stones. They can’t be broken,” Hera bites out. “I spent weeks designing this course with only the best materials.”

The four of them reunite, closing in on two of those monsters now. They strike fast, and the beasts fall like they’re pawns instead of the supposed ferocious creatures Hera swears they are.

I’m personally not all that impressed with her design. It’s simplistic and apparently easy to defeat.

She mutters something under her breath, as I eye her throne. How’d she summon it?

I snap my fingers, but…nothing happens.

It’s only mildly disappointing enough to distract me a moment longer from the four who advance into the final section of the elaborate maze.

A lot of dead monsters lie in their wake, and Hera looks as though she no longer enjoys her game, simply because they’re making it look too easy.

“Isn’t it a good thing that four are more advanced than the others?” I ask, gesturing toward the hordes of men who are still trapped in phase one of the maze.

She says nothing, glaring down at the four masked crusaders, who move through the large arena portion, warily inspecting their surroundings.

Our cliff breaks off, startling me just barely, and it floats through the air until we’re hovering at a closer angle to watch them.