25+ Advance chapters on [email protected]/Saintbarbido.
Apologies for the missed updates these past 3 days. I was researching some stuff.
(Loth's P.O.V)
The descent into Tartarus was like falling into a nightmare you had no hope of ever waking up from.
Hades, wearing the Helm of Darkness, had encased us in a sphere of shadows as we descended into the green pit behind his throne.
The Shadow Sphere shielded us from the walls burning with phantom flames and according to him, it would also protect us from the oppressive atmosphere of the abyss.
In addition, the Helm would cloak us completely, rendering us invisible to the countless monsters that roamed below.
The mist seemed to change the deeper we went. The usual swirl of gray color darkened, thick with soot. And for the first time ever, the mist carried a smell.
Annabeth held a handkerchief to her face, while Percy scrunched his nose at the stench of decay and the acrid tang of monster essence.
No one had said a thing for the last 5 minutes, too lost in their own thoughts.
I couldn't help but break the tense silence with a question that had been bothering me. "Lord Hades, why didn't you and your brothers just kill Kronos when you had the chance? Would've saved us all a lot of trouble."
Hades chuckled darkly, his voice echoing within the sphere. "Zeus and Poseidon wanted to. They were ready to end him for good. But I… and Hestia… convinced them otherwise."
Annabeth frowned. "Why? If you knew he'd try to return, why leave him alive?"
Hades' gaze grew distant, his voice tinged with something resembling regret. "The Gods are bound by the Ancient Laws, child. Rules older than even us. One of them states that a child who kills their parent will be cursed. Kronos himself was cursed for killing his father, Ouranos. His punishment was to be split apart, his essence imprisoned, but never truly destroyed. And I… became the eternal guard of his prison."
Percy shuddered. "So you're saying if you'd killed him, you, Zeus and my Dad would have been cursed too?"
Hades nodded. "Precisely. Some prices are too high, even for Immortals."
We continued the descent, and soon the landscape of Tartarus came into view below us, through the transparent walls of the Shadow Sphere.
"Wow...this place looks deader than the Underworld." Percy muttered, voicing what we all thought.
It was a desolate wasteland that stretched out with no conceivable horizon.The ground and the sky looked the same with no edge or separation between the two.
Everything was bleached of color except for the golden ashes of monsters arriving in Tartarus after being slain in the mortal world, and the strange black tree like plants growing through cracks on the ground. Even the sparse river or two resembled oil sludge.
The air was unbreathable, and Hades had to use his divine power to sustain us. Even then, it felt like we were drowning in poison.
"Even Gods avoid coming here." Hades informed us while giving me a serious look."Your plan better work boy."
"It will." I nodded, sounding more confident than I actually felt.
As we floated above the endless sea of monsters on our way to the Titan's prison, I spotted familiar faces—or rather, familiar horrors.
The giant spider I'd killed weeks ago, its eight eyes nervously skittering around at the presence of larger and more ferocious monsters.
Percy even pointed out the Gryphon that had attacked us outside camp and the Minotaur that had almost killed him.
Annabeth's voice was barely a whisper. "I never thought I'd see the place where monsters go after they die."
"Welcome to Tartarus," Hades said dryly. "The recycling center of the cosmos."
As the sphere carried us deeper toward the heart of the abyss, The mist grew even thicker and darker, to the point it was visible to Percy and Annabeth.
And with Aura Sense, I could feel it—that Overwhelming presence, ancient and malevolent, stirring in the depths.
The black soot in the Mist was corruption, I realized.
Caused by something older and more powerful than divine energy. It felt raw, unrefined, like the original essence that had birthed the gods themselves- Primordial Energy, my brief interaction with Nyx told me.
I frowned, sensing the spatial distortions in the air. "What are those cracks in the atmosphere?"
Hades glanced at me, some annoyance in his expression. "You bore me with these endless questions. But I suppose I have nothing else to do than answer."
I shared a grin with the others. Now that I knew the 'gloom and doom attitude' was a front, Hades seemed more approachable than 99% of all the gods I'd come across.
"Unstable rifts." He explained. "Some lead to the Chaos dimension, others to realms even I dare not tread. They're how desperate monsters escape to the mortal world."
Percy grimaced. "Great. So even if we fix the prison, Monsters can still get out."
"One problem at a time, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth muttered.
"Hush. We have arrived." Hades silenced them, pulling our attention to a massive black mountain looming ahead.
It was surrounded by millions of monsters, all gathered like worshippers at an altar.
The mountain itself had a face—a sleeping, grotesque visage carved into its side. Mist flowed into its nostrils and came out corrupted, as if the face was breathing.
Hades' voice was grim. "That is old man Tartarus himself. The monsters wait for his mouth to open in a yawn, providing a portal to the mortal world through the Doors of Death. Kronos' prison rests atop his grumpy head."
The sphere floated higher, bypassing the sea of monsters, until we reached the peak of the mountain.
And there, chained to the summit, were four massive black statues. Each one was bound by golden celestial chains, their faces twisted in eternal agony.
Annabeth's eyes widened. "I know them. The Titans… Koios, Krios, Iapetus, and Hyperion. Kronos' brothers and generals."
Hades nodded. "They helped him overthrow Ouranos and seize power from the Primordials-though most were never interested with something as trivial as ruling over weaker beings. Now, these 4 serve as anchors for his prison."
At the center of the statues resting on their backs lay a golden box, pulsating with a faint, ominous light.
Cracks ran along the box's surface, leaking out a red miasma that seemed to writhe and twist like a living thing.
That was our target. If we repaired the cracks, then Kronos would no longer be able to exert his influence on the outside world.
The sphere touched down before the prison, and expanded to cover the statues and the box.
Hades then turned to us. "We must be quick. Even the Helm cannot hide us from Tartarus for long. We don't want to be here when he wakes up."
Before we could get started on mending the box, a voice echoed through the abyss, deep and resonant, filled with malice.
"After millennia, the unfilial son returns to visit his father." the red Miasma buzzed. More of it seeped out faster through the cracks before coalescing into a faint, ghostly figure with horns.
Kronos.
"Ignore him, he's nothing but a shade." Hades snapped. "Focus on repairing the prison."
His words spurred us on, pushing away the fear Kronos' Shade was injecting in us.
Percy held out the Trident, its silver glow illuminating the darkness. Hades raised the Helm of Darkness, its shadows swirling around us. I gripped the Master Bolt, feeling its raw power surge through me.
But there was a problem. While the Bolt resonated with the other divine weapons, that was about it.
"I can't use the Bolt," I muttered. "It's keyed to Zeus' bloodline."
Annabeth's eyes widened. "Then how—"
I didn't answer, having expected this outcome.
Luckily, I had a plan. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the bracelet Luna had given me.
Sidenote, I'm convinced Luna could see the future. Besides helping me control the Curse, the Bracelet was was carved with pieces of Thalia's tree. I'd thought it strange after I'd used Aura Sense on it back in Las Vegas, and felt Thalia's essence within the wooden beads.
Which led me to believe that Luna had foreseen this. Even more than what the Prophecy said. She'd somehow known that I wouldn't be satisfied with simply getting the bolt back. And to help me, she'd given me the Bracelet for when I needed it the most.
Using Aura Sense, I copied Thalia's essence and applied it to my own Aura, weaving the Mist around my body and altering my scent to match hers, up until I felt the change.
The illusion clicked more powerful than I'd expected, lying to reality. And for a moment, I was no longer Loth. I was Thalia. A child of Zeus.
"Remarkable. I was curious as to how you would awaken the bolt without my brother's blood but I never dreamed you would use the mist in such an ingenious way. I was wrong about you, Loth." Hades remarked, staring at me in awe.
A surge of pride brimmed within my chest as the Bolt flared to life in my hands, its energy almost too much to contain.
But I didn't need to contain it but direct it.
Streaks of divine lightning merged with the streams of divine water from the Trident and the shadows of divine darkness from the Helm.
Together, we unleashed a beam of pure divine energy, containing the essence of the three most powerful Gods, slamming it into the golden box.
"Noooo!! Damn you Hades to non-existe-"
Kronos' voice cut off, his shade form dissolving as the cracks on the box began to seal, reabsorbing the red miasma.
But before he vanished completely, his voice echoed in my mind.
("I have seen your dreams, boy! I know you do not belong in this world!")
I clenched my teeth, pouring more energy into the beam. ("Too bad you won't have anyone to tell.")
With a final burst of light, the prison was sealed. The voice fell silent.
Percy let out a shaky breath. "The voice… it's gone."
Annabeth nodded, though she looked uneasy. "That was… anticlimactic."
I didn't even bother to admonish her as a sudden mental exhaustion hit me. "If you don't mind, your majesty, let's get out of here. I never want to come back."
Percy added, "I second that. And I want my mom back."
Hades turned his haunted gaze away from the golden box to regard us with a humorless smirk. "Very well. You have both earned my respect and admiration. But remember, Loth… debts must be paid."
As the sphere carried us back to the surface, I couldn't shake the feeling that this was not over.
Kronos' words stayed with me, a chilling reminder that my secret wasn't as safe as I'd thought.
But for now, we'd won.
And that was enough.