PROLOGUE
The armies stood face to face on the battlefield under the glaring heat of the cruel sun. There was a heavy silence punctuated by the cries of the vultures and ravens that soared above them. The anticipation of death and victory hung over them as they waited to lock swords. Their shields were at the ready their swords drawn and baying for the blood of their enemies. The sun shone on their hard muscular bodies drawing glistening beads of sweat from each warrior. Suddenly, the silence was broken by the deafening sound of a horn.
"Charge!!!"
The warriors gave a thunderous battle cry that shook the very foundation of the ground on which they stood. Just as they sprang into action he materialized. Their mortal eyes could not see him, but his oppressive presence hung threateningly over their heads as the two encampments locked horns. He wore a dark cloak and held his scythe ready to harvest the souls that would perish in the battle. There was no escape from him in the world of the living and there was no mercy nor kindness to be found in his heart. Like a relentless bounty hunter, he never failed to catch his quarry. He was Thanatos... the Reaper.
Blood pooled on the battle ground, flowing away from its source like a river and tainting the earth on which it flowed. Screams of agony and pain overwhelmed the airwaves as the battle raged. Heads were freed from the bodies to which they had been attached and blood spurted from the decapitated necks like waters gushing from a geyser. The reaper watched coldly as the dead carpeted the ground. The vultures and ravens descended into the bloodbath below and tore at the flesh of the fallen soldiers. Their cries went up with the screams of the injured soldiers creating an unholy auditory assault.
Thanatos led the Persian and Greek souls en masse through the Doors of Death. The Moirai had decreed this to be the last Greek battle with the invading Persian forces and that added to the sense of duty that drove him. He was swift to capture the souls of the dead and take them into the underworld. Judgement waited for them on the other side of the Doors of Death. There was no escape from retribution in the afterlife. Thanatos ensured it. As the battle begun to die down and the Greek victory became more and more apparent, the god of death disappeared into the underworld. Behind him a dead man walked once again among the living. His hazel eyes shone with a fire, and he limped away from the heat of battle into the unknown.
