The situation was much worse than Damon had imagined. Hundreds of meters above the dark expanses of the Underworld, the redhead flew through the sky with Hades several meters behind him. His long, dark red hair flowed freely behind him as his eyes swept over the land below, finding hordes of monsters scattered throughout different areas. There were far more than he had expected, enough to make it clear that Hades hadn't been joking or exaggerating when he came to find him on Olympus.
Down below, the moment the presence of both major gods could be felt, Melinoe raised her head, with Hecate doing the same shortly afterward. "The King of Olympus..." Melinoe murmured, her eyes widening with an amount of surprise rarely seen from the Goddess of Ghosts. She wasn't exactly the type of woman to be impressed by someone's appearance, but she had to admit that Lord Damon was quite pleasant to look at. His long red hair flowing behind him as he crossed the skies of the Underworld certainly helped.
The arrival of the two gods didn't go unnoticed by the creatures filling the plains either. Within seconds, panic seemed to spread among the different beasts; several began retreating toward the depths of the abyss while others moved out of their path as quickly as possible, making it quite clear that none of them had any intention of testing their luck against two major gods.
"Well... that saves us some time," Damon commented, somewhat surprised by their reaction. Few monsters showed enough intelligence to recognize when they were facing something they couldn't defeat, though he didn't think much of it and eventually shrugged. He hadn't come all the way to the Underworld to waste time fighting a group of creatures far beneath his position and power; the number of monsters appearing on the surface was concerning, yes, but that wasn't the only reason he had decided to accompany Hades.
Damon didn't personally know Tartarus. Despite all his years of existence and his relationship with Gaia, he had never actually had a real conversation with the Primordial, nor had he ever found a reason to seek him out. In fact, Damon had only ventured into Tartarus twice; once to find the Cyclopes and the second time to find the Hecatoncheir when he needed his help during the war against the Titans.
The thought reminded Damon of something that hadn't crossed his mind in a very long time. The Hecatoncheir... he had been one of Damon's first allies and also one of the first beings to whom he had promised freedom. Damon had freed him from Tartarus so that he could fight alongside him against the Titans, but after everything that had happened since then, he had never stopped to wonder what became of him.
"What happened to the Hecatoncheir?" Damon asked as they descended.
Hades turned his head toward his brother, and upon hearing the question, seemed to arrive at the same thought. "I think you already know what happened to him."
Damon frowned. Yeah, he probably already knew the answer. "Zeus locked him back inside Tartarus."
Hades nodded. "As you can imagine, the Hecatoncheir was no longer needed after the war. And if you're wondering why none of us did anything to stop it... honestly, I don't think going against Zeus right after he crowned himself king would've been a very good idea. The pantheon was only beginning to enter a new era."
Damon frowned at his brother's words. Hades noticed the bitterness in his expression and continued. "I know it sounds bad, but at the time, imprisoning him again seemed like a small price to pay. You were the only one who truly knew him, and I don't think any other god or Titan would've shown much support for him. Not even us..."
Damon let out a tired sigh, clearly annoyed. He knew Hades was right... but that didn't change the fact that without the Hecatoncheir, his siblings wouldn't even have been able to hold their own against the rest of the Titans while he kept Atlas and Kronos at bay. For all the help the giant had given him, Damon had promised that he would be free. The fact that Zeus had simply sent him back to the very place Damon had freed him from wasn't something he intended to leave alone. "Yeah... I'm definitely going to have to fix that."
"I figured you'd say something like that," Hades replied neutrally.
As they finished speaking, both gods continued their descent until they landed in front of Hecate and Melinoe, who were already waiting for them. Damon's attention immediately fell on the hooded woman, though before he could say anything, both goddesses bowed their heads slightly in respect.
"Lord Damon," they greeted almost at the same time.
"I'm Melinoe, and she is—"
"Hecate," Damon interrupted with a small smile. "Daughter of Perses and Asteria."
The Goddess of Witchcraft kept her expression almost completely blank. "I see you remember me."
"It's difficult to forget someone like you. I'm glad to see you're still doing well. I imagine your mother is doing well too, right?"
Hecate had no intention of going into detail about her mother, so she merely responded with a small nod.
Wow... still not much of a talker, Damon thought to himself with some amusement.
Truthfully, Damon had never interacted with Hecate very much, but he remembered her quite well for one particular reason.
During the Titanomachy, she and her mother Asteria had been among the few figures connected to the Titans who chose not to align themselves with Kronos.
Perses, Hecate's father, had made a different choice and joined Kronos's cause, splitting the small family during the war. Damon never learned all the details of what had happened between them, but he had always remembered Asteria and Hecate for refusing to support Kronos. They hadn't directly fought against the Titans either, remaining neutral throughout much of the conflict, but Damon had never asked more from them than that. As long as they weren't his enemies, he had no problem with them.
Leaving those memories behind, Damon shifted his attention toward the young goddess standing beside Hecate. "Well, I have to say, Hades... you and Persephone definitely did a good job bringing such a beautiful daughter into the world."
"Hmm," was all Hades replied, maintaining the same apathetic expression as always.
Melinoe lowered her head again, showing the proper respect toward the King of the Gods and her father's older brother. If there was one thing she knew about Hades, it was that he held Lord Damon in considerable respect, so she saw no reason to treat him any differently. "Thank you very much, Lord Damon," the goddess replied in her usual stoic tone.
Damon nodded in a somewhat friendlier manner while maintaining the same seriousness as the red-haired goddess with different-colored eyes. Without wasting any more time, he began walking directly toward the entrance to Tartarus.
Hecate and Melinoe glanced at each other before the latter decided to speak. "Uhh... Lord Damon, you're not actually planning to go in there, are you?"
"Oh, I am. I have more than one reason to," Damon replied without stopping.
Hades began following him, paying little attention to his daughter's concern. Hecate and Melinoe exchanged another look and, unwilling to stay behind or make themselves useless, ended up following the two gods into the depths of Tartarus as well.
The moment they passed through the gates, even the Greek Underworld paled in comparison to the natural atmosphere of the abyss. The environment itself felt suffocating, and the strange lack of air made the place feel almost empty around Damon, as though there were nothing between him and the vast expanses stretching out before the group. In the distance, they could hear the roars of creatures none of them had any interest in seeking out for the time being.
Melinoe walked a few steps behind her father, keeping a close watch on their surroundings while Hecate did the same beside her. Neither of them had expected to end up venturing into Tartarus. Even Hecate, who understood the nature of the place quite well thanks to her thousands of years of life and knowledge of the dark arts, would never have considered entering the Primordial's domain on her own.
"Do you know where he was imprisoned?" Damon asked without stopping.
"Zeus never gave me an exact location," Hades replied. "But considering he's a giant with a hundred arms and fifty heads, I doubt we'll have to look for very long."
Damon nodded, agreeing with his brother, while Melinoe raised an eyebrow at how casually the two of them spoke about walking through Tartarus in search of a creature most gods would rather never encounter.
The redhead continued for several more meters before coming to a stop, causing Hades to stop behind him as well. "And now what?"
Damon didn't answer. His eyes remained fixed on the distance as he tried to recognize terrain he hadn't seen in thousands of years. He focused on the different sounds traveling through the abyss and extended his senses across the surrounding area until he managed to distinguish one in particular: a deep sound that traveled across the vast reaches of Tartarus, followed shortly afterward by the thunderous noise of something enormous moving in the distance.
Damon tilted his head. "I think we just found him."
Without waiting for an answer, the god vanished in a burst of speed toward the sound, followed shortly afterward by Hades and the two goddesses. The enormous rock formations and uneven terrain blurred past them as they moved, though even they were forced to stop more than once to make their way around massive cracks cutting through the ground. Some were so deep that they couldn't even see where they ended.
The path eventually opened into a massive depression surrounded by walls of stone. Inside, they could make out a gigantic figure resting against the rocks, his body easily dwarfing any ordinary giant. Dozens of arms extended from both sides of his body; some rested against the ground while many others remained restrained by thick chains running throughout much of the area.
Melinoe stopped when she saw him and swallowed hard. She had heard stories about the Hecatoncheir since she was young, but none of them had done justice to just how terrifying the creature could be when standing before one in person. Hecate, on the other hand, remained far more composed. Her thousands of years of life had allowed her to encounter all kinds of beings and horrors, so her attention quickly settled on the chains restraining the giant instead.
"Damn..." Damon murmured as he looked at the condition of his old comrade.
Hah. Reminds me of when Kushina had me locked up, Kurama snorted inside his mind.
Damon could almost feel more than one of the Bijuu sympathizing with the giant. After all, if there were beings who understood perfectly what it meant to spend years chained or imprisoned against their will, it was them.
One of the giant's arms moved as he sensed new presences entering the area. Several more followed until dozens of chains began crashing against one another, filling the massive depression with the sound of metal.
Slowly, several of his fifty heads began to rise as Damon took a few steps forward without showing any fear. "It's been a long time."
Several of the giant's heads turned toward him at once. His eyes studied the redhead in confusion, searching for something familiar in the figure standing before him. The hair, the clothing, even his presence had changed enough that recognizing him wasn't easy.
Even so, some things were difficult to forget. One of the heads narrowed its eyes.
"...Damon?"
Damon looked at the chains restraining the hundred arms of his old comrade before turning his attention back to him. "That's right."
A small smile appeared on his face. "I came to fulfill a promise."