30 Advance chapters on [email protected]/Saintbarbido.
(Loth's P.O.V)
"The shore feels wrong. This whole place is just...wrong." Percy muttered unclipping his sword.
He was right. The sand didn't shift underfoot. The air didn't move. It was as if this place had forgotten how to breathe.
"Different laws of physics. Get used to it." Annabeth told him, her eyes sharp, scanning the landscape.
Percy muttered something about the Underworld being creepier than he expected.
But I wasn't focused on either of them.
Because we weren't alone.
At first, I thought the resonance was just the residual hum of magic in the air reacting with my own. But then I felt it—an undercurrent, subtle but distinct, like standing too close to an electric fence.
And then I saw them.
Two figures, flickering at the edge of my vision, staring my way. Shadows where there shouldn't be any. Undetectable by Aura Sense because they weren't here physically—not even close.
Just echoes, fragments of attention pressed through the fabric of the Underworld.
Their names were carried by the mist into my ears.
Thanatos. The Actual God of Death. A silhouette with cold, indifferent eyes like twin shards of polished steel. Black skeleton Wings folded tight, a faint ripple of power radiating from him like frost creeping across glass.
Hypnos. Reclined against nothing, as if lounging on air itself, his eyes closed to the world but not to me.
And farther back in the shadows, the barest ripple of Hecate's presence, distant and unreadable. Just enough to let me know she was watching. A part of me was naively reassured despite my distrust after what Ares revealed about her.
None of them spoke. They just watched me.
It wasn't like being observed by mortals. Their gazes pressed into me, dissecting, unraveling, measuring things I didn't even understand about myself.
I glanced at Percy and Annabeth. Nothing. No reaction. They couldn't see it.
This was for me alone.
A cold thought crept in: 'Why now?'
Could they be working for Kronos? Were they here to block us from reaching Hades?
Some of the minor gods joined the Titan's side against the Gods in the book. So if their purpose was to stop us from finishing the quest, then it would mean a fight.
With my newly restored powers I could probably hold off their echos while Percy and Annabeth continued on.
The heat in my chest thrummed in preparation, then everything shifted. And all thoughts of resistance fled from my mind.
My eyes went wide as everything became muted. Like the silence of night in a graveyard.
All around us, the perpetual darkness of the Underworld thickened, converging into something denser.
Not darker—just… deeper. Like the absence of light wasn't enough to describe it.
She stepped out from that absence.
A goddess clad in shadows with eyes like star constellations and skin as pale as snow. Unimaginably beautiful. Unimaginably powerful.
Nyx. The goddess of Night. The Mist supplied.
No grand entrance. No theatrics. Nyx was just… there. Not as a echo or a fragment but like she was always here, everywhere, at anytime and the world had only just noticed.
Her presence was different from the other two, Thanatos and Hypnos. They watched. She had no such reservations.
"You carry strange threads." she spoke directly to me, but her voice slid beneath the noise in my head.
I didn't flinch. Maybe I should've, but fear felt pointless. Like being afraid of the concept of gravity.
"What do you want with us?" I asked.
"Us?"
Nyx tilted her head slightly. Not in confusion, more like amusement.
"You. You carry life." she pointed at me like it was an accusation,"yet you walk with death. The magic in you is strange, but unbound to 'her'. The Mist bends, but you don't belong to the world. And in your immortal soul, is shadow that isn't mine, but close enough to echo."
She had seen right through me. My Anodite magic, mist control and the Hellhound's curse in Blitzwolfer.
I swallowed. "Is there a point to this, or do you just like monologues?"
Her smile was faint. Not warm. Not cold. Just… there.
"I don't waste words," she replied. "Unlike the gods you've met, I don't play at petty squabbles. When their games are over—when Olympus has tired of its tantrums—I will find you again."
The weight of that promise settled over me. Not as a threat or warning. Just fact.
"For what?" I asked in a quieter voice full of dread. If it came down to a fight-
'Stupid Loth, there was no way it would be called a fight. You stand no chance.'
Nyx's smile deepened at my inner turmoil, her silence stretching the moment longer than necessary.
"For tea," she said simply and I visibly deflated in relief. Thank god. Nyx, Yehova, Allah, Odin...thank all the gods.
The Primordial Goddess continued, amusement leaking off her, "You're a child of balance, whether you realize it or not. And balance… intrigues me, unlike others. For what is day without night?"
I felt it before I saw it.
A shift. A ripple in the fabric of the Underworld.
The Mist trembled. Not the usual ripple of illusion or trickery, but something emotional. Intense Fury—like the bones of reality grinding against each other.
Then a familiar voice cut through the tension, sharp and angry.
"That's enough."
Hecate's presence descended like a storm, appearing between Nyx and me. Her purple cloak billowed with magic, eyes glowing with an intensity that bowed the Mist.
The pressure was instant. Crushing.
I dropped to one knee, gritting my teeth as an invisible weight pressed down on me.
The Mist wasn't just trembling anymore—it was screaming, every thread of reality vibrating with her magic.
Annabeth and Percy staggered behind me, struggling to stay upright.
Without thinking, I summoned a barrier—a triple reinforced Anodite shield to protect them from the overwhelming weight of the riled up mist.
But I was still exposed and it hurt. So much I shifted partially.
Despite the visible agony she was inflicting on me, Hecate ignored me. Her attention was solely on Nyx, her posture a mix of defiance and authority.
"You shall not mark him!" My 'mother' commanded, her velvet voice layered with something older, echoing with divine power. "He is MINE."
'Bullshit! I'm no one's!' I protested inwardly, unable to so much as grunt.
Nyx tilted her head slightly, as if studying an insect that had suddenly learned to speak.
Then she laughed.
Not loud. Not dramatic. Just a soft, humorless chuckle.
And with a flick of her fingers, it was over.
The weight vanished.
Hecate's form unraveled—bursting apart into strands of shadow and purple light, her power snuffed out like a candle flame. Poof. Gone.
Just like that.
I froze, my mind trying to process what had just happened.
One second, Hecate had been a force of nature, bending reality to her will. The next… nothing.
Nyx stepped forward, her presence now more intimate, more invasive.
She crouched in front of me, her shadow stretching across the ground like it had a life of its own.
I felt something warm trickle from my nose—blood.
Nyx reached out, her touch as light as a whisper, and wiped it away with a single finger.
Her smile was faint, almost gentle, but her eyes held galaxies of indifference.
"She doesn't treat you well," Nyx tutted, inspecting the blood on her fingertip like it was the most fascinating and at the same time disappointing thing she'd ever seen. "Claims you as hers, but what does she offer you? Chains disguised as power. I would never treat you like that, Marcus."
She used my first name. How did she know? Only my Grandma had ever called me by my first name.
I couldn't speak. Not because I was afraid—though maybe I should've been—but because what could I possibly say to that? Thank you? Go away? You're nice for a primordial concept of darkness and night?
Nyx leaned closer, her voice softening, almost cooing.
"When Olympus tires of it's petty squabbles, we will meet again," she said, her gaze burning into mine. "I'll even bake some biscuits to go with the tea, little Child of Balance. For now, go save Kronos' ungrateful brats."
She stood, her form dissolving into the darkness like it had never been there.
The oppressive pressure lifted completely, leaving only the cold emptiness of the Underworld.
I stayed on my knee for a moment longer, my heart racing—not from fear, but from something else.
Annabeth's voice broke the silence.
"Loth… what the Hades just happened?"
I wiped the blood from my face, my fingers trembling slightly.
"I… I think I just got invited to tea."
Of course none of them got the joke.