XXXXXXXXX
The female voice swept through the entire prison from different directions, making everyone present search for its source without finding anything concrete. Damon, however, barely paid attention to that. The only thing really going through his mind was the fact that he hadn't noticed someone watching them this entire time.
Damon trusted his senses quite a bit, especially when it came to divine presences. He had even been able to feel Uranus watching him from the heavens long before meeting him personally, so he could usually tell when something powerful had focused its attention on him. He was also fairly certain he would have noticed Tartarus's presence within his own domain if the Primordial had decided to approach them.
But this time he hadn't sensed anything, making the abilities of whoever had been concealing their presence rather clear.
The redhead narrowed his eyes and tried extending his senses a little further until the darkness gathered between the walls began to move. The shadows spread across the ground like black liquid before gathering in front of the group and slowly forming the silhouette of a woman.
Once her figure fully took shape, Damon had to admit that he was standing before one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen in his entire existence, and considering how many goddesses he knew, that was saying something.
"You say the same thing every time a new goddess appears in front of you, Damon," Gyūki pointed out intelligently as he began counting on his fingers how many times he remembered hearing Damon say something similar, much to the amusement of several of his siblings.
"I know, but this time really is different," the redhead replied.
The goddess standing before him had pale skin, though it was a different shade from Kaguya's almost unnaturally white complexion. Her black hair flowed down her back with a faint purple glow and tiny points of light that gave it the appearance of a night sky.
Her clothes were entirely purple and followed a distinctly Greek style, decorated with golden details and dark gemstones that stood out against the fabric. The outfit remained open in several places, revealing her long legs and part of her bust without taking away from the majestic appearance she carried. Without a doubt, she had absolutely nothing to envy from any of the goddesses Damon had met.
A loud whistle echoed inside his mind.
"Now that is one hell of a woman..." Shukaku blurted out without the slightest shame. "Damon, you've gotta get that one."
A sharp smack cut the Tanuki off when one of Kokuo's tails came down on his head.
"Behave yourself, little brother," the Five-Tails scolded with an aloof tone.
"What?! I only said what everyone was thinking!"
"Speak for yourself."
Damon decided to ignore the new problem beginning to form inside his head.
The moment Hades saw the woman, he recognized her. "Nyx," the God of the Underworld murmured, speaking quietly enough not to make an announcement out of it, though everyone around him could still hear.
Hades wondered what the Primordial Goddess of the Night was doing in this place. He had ruled the Underworld for practically his entire existence and could count on one hand the number of times he had personally seen Nyx. In fact, if someone had told him he would encounter a Primordial entity that day, he would have expected Tartarus long before her.
Considering that Nyx normally preferred to keep to herself and rarely showed direct interest in the problems of others, the God of the Underworld's reasoning made perfect sense.
Nyx barely acknowledged Hades's presence before focusing entirely on Damon. The Hecatoncheir, Hecate, and Melinoe didn't appear to be the reason she had decided to reveal herself either. Her eyes remained on the redhead, calmly studying him as she tried to get a sense of the god standing before her.
Damon stood his ground. He didn't personally know Nyx, but he also saw no reason to dance around the subject.
"I don't see how what I'm doing could be a bad idea considering I've already done it before," the redhead said while gesturing toward the Hecatoncheir. "What exactly concerns you?"
Nyx hadn't expected him to get straight to the point without even stopping to acknowledge who was standing in front of him. She had also considered the possibility of a defensive response, some unnecessary display of authority, or even a threat considering where he was, but Damon seemed to be asking because he genuinely wanted to hear her answer.
"Freeing him," the Primordial replied. "I know you've done it before, but those were different times. Now, the creatures that end up imprisoned in Tartarus are usually here for a reason. Letting them out without thinking about what they'll do afterward can end up creating another problem."
Nyx had other reasons for objecting, but she saw no need to share them with Damon.
The redhead understood the argument, he just didn't think it applied to the hundred-armed warrior. "If I were randomly freeing monsters, I'd agree with you. But we're talking about a hero who fought alongside us during the Titanomachy. I'm not releasing some creature that came out of nowhere just to destroy everything it sees."
Nyx gave part of her attention to the Hecatoncheir while processing Damon's words before focusing on him again. It was true that the hundred-armed giant's situation wasn't the same as that of many creatures imprisoned in the depths, but that didn't mean she liked seeing the King of Olympus entering Tartarus's domain on his own and changing things, especially considering the current state of affairs.
"You're still inside another Primordial's domain. Your crown gives you no authority over Tartarus."
"Perfect, because I didn't come here thinking it did," Damon replied naturally. "I came because I'm actually a man of my word. Besides, King of Olympus isn't my only title." His lips curved slightly. "I'm also the Champion of Chaos. I imagine that comes with one or two privileges."
Nyx had to give him credit for the clever response. She really didn't have an easy way to refute it. Being the Champion of Chaos undoubtedly placed Damon in a different position from any other god who decided to enter Tartarus on their own.
It also caught her attention that Damon hadn't used Chaos's name as a threat. He didn't seem to be hiding behind a more powerful entity, nor did he expect to intimidate her simply by mentioning his title. He had brought it up as just another argument in the conversation and nothing more.
Nyx kept her purple eyes, filled with tiny star-like points of light, on Damon. To the redhead, things seemed fairly simple and, at the very least, he wasn't trying to present himself as some kind of savior or turn the giant's release into some grand cause. Honestly, Nyx liked that more than she had expected.
"Tartarus may not see it the same way," the Primordial warned. "Especially since you never consulted him about this. I don't think he'll take it well."
Damon let out a somewhat nervous laugh while scratching the back of his head. "Ahhh, don't worry. You Primordials are all great friends, right? Besides, most of you, whenever you want to talk to me, just show up in front of me without wasting any time. I don't see why Tartarus would do anything different. After all, I'm not exactly looking for trouble with someone like him."
Nyx remained completely expressionless. "And what if he decides to look for trouble with you?"
Damon tilted his head slightly. "Then we'll see what happens when the time comes. I don't see why I should worry about a fight that hasn't even started."
The answer stirred a certain amount of curiosity in Nyx. Most powerful beings turned any disagreement into an excuse to show off their strength, but Damon didn't seem to need anything like that. He trusted his own abilities and saw no reason to rush toward a conflict that might never happen.
"An interesting way of thinking for someone with your history," the Primordial commented.
Damon raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure which part of his history she was referring to. "Hahah... I guess thanks? Though my history is exactly why I don't have the kind of pride needed to go looking for pointless problems anymore." He took a moment to think about how to explain it. "I've seen the same cycle repeat more times than I'd like. Someone does something, the other person responds, time passes, and before you know it you have people hating each other over a problem that started before either of them was even born. Eventually, no one remembers how it started; they just remember that they hate the other side. Kinda crazy, don't you think?"
Nyx couldn't help feeling a little strange hearing that. For a moment, she even wondered whether Damon actually knew Tartarus's true history, because he had just described part of the Primordial's feelings rather accurately. Tartarus carried grudges that had survived entire cycles of extinction. Her own husband, Erebus, didn't forget easily either, and Nyx had ended up accepting many of those tensions as a normal part of her life.
"You speak as if everyone could simply let go of their resentment whenever they wanted."
"Not at all. There are things I'm not going to forget either, and people I'll probably never forgive. I'm not saying everyone needs to hug each other and pretend nothing happened. That would be ridiculous." Damon shook his head. "But there should come a point where you can remember what happened without dedicating the rest of your existence to destroying everything around you because of it."
Nyx began to understand his way of thinking better. "Hmm... I suppose what you're saying makes quite a bit of sense."
Damon shrugged. "I mean, I'm the God of Order. I know a little about what I'm talking about. Most people hear that word and think of control, rules, or someone sitting above everyone else telling them how they're supposed to live. I don't want that." He gestured toward the vast reaches of Tartarus. "I want every disagreement to stop ending with half the world destroyed. If I can sit down with someone and solve a problem by talking, I'd rather do it that way."
Nyx couldn't help agreeing with him. In fact, the way Damon described things came fairly close to how she preferred to live herself. She had never cared for unnecessary conflicts or extreme decisions that ended up disturbing her peace simply because others didn't know when to stop. However, she wasn't naive either. The world was never going to function solely through conversations and agreements.
"And what do you do when talking doesn't work?" she asked.
"Then we do whatever we have to do," Damon replied without making it more complicated than necessary. "I'm not a pacifist, Nyx. I just prefer not to destroy half the world before knowing whether it was actually necessary."
Kurama remained seated on his shoulder, listening to the conversation without getting involved. Even the fox understood that the subject didn't need one of his comments.
Nyx didn't find anything naive about the answer either. If Damon wanted to impose his will through force, he had more than enough reason to believe he could try. The difference was that he preferred looking for another option as long as one existed.
That was something Nyx could understand better than she had expected. She herself had never needed all the Primordials to be friends or companions in order to fulfill their responsibilities. Each of them had their own domains, their own interests, and their own problems. As long as they could coexist without constantly interfering with one another, that was more than enough for her.
Nyx had come to accept Erebus's personality, Tartarus's grudges, and many other tensions as normal parts of her existence. She had never stopped to think about how much of it continued because there truly was no solution and how much continued because no one wanted to be the one to let go of the grudge.
Now she understood a little better why Chaos showed so much interest in Damon.
The redhead had absolutely no idea what conclusions Nyx was drawing about him. Nor was he trying to win her over or impress her. The Primordial Goddess had questioned what he was doing, and Damon had simply explained what he genuinely thought.
Nyx finally addressed the Hecatoncheir. "I won't stop you from finishing what you started and freeing him," the Primordial Goddess declared, making her decision quite clear.
Damon blinked a couple of times upon hearing her. Part of him couldn't help wondering what would have happened if Nyx had decided otherwise. Would he really have ended up fighting the Primordial Goddess of the Night over freeing the Hecatoncheir?
Damon wanted to cry right then and there at how absurd the situation sounded. Somehow, a conversation about freeing the Hecatoncheir had already led him to imagine fighting Nyx. He had to admit that his life had an impressive talent for complicating itself.
One of the giant's central heads responded with obvious annoyance. "Finally. Now free me. I have no interest in staying in this hole. I want to get out and feel something other than chains on my body."
Damon gestured toward him with a sly grin. "See? There's your answer. The guy just wants to get some fresh air," the redhead commented with amusement, causing the Hecatoncheir to roll several of his eyes at his old companion.
Nyx didn't share the redhead's amusement and chose not to say anything. Internally, she still had reservations. Freeing the Hecatoncheir meant giving Damon another ally with absurd strength, but confronting the God of Order just to keep someone chained up when all he wanted was to leave went directly against much of the conversation they had just had.
For now, she had no intention of stopping him.
Damon summoned several Shadow Clones, and together they finished breaking the chains fairly quickly. The Hecatoncheir rose to his full towering height, freely moving all one hundred of his arms after so many years of imprisonment.
Nyx followed everything without interfering. She had kept her attention on the King of Olympus ever since he crossed the gates of Tartarus, thinking she might have to stop him before he caused a larger problem, but her opinion of him had changed quite a bit.
She was no longer interested only in what Damon intended to do with the Hecatoncheir. Instead, she wanted to know more about the man behind all those titles.
Under different circumstances, she would have simply let events play out on their own. If Tartarus ended up sensing the group's presence, Damon would have to answer for entering his domain and freeing one of his prisoners.
But after the conversation they had just shared, Nyx saw no reason to allow an unnecessary conflict to begin right then. Without saying a word, she continued using her shadows to mask the presence of the Greek gods, reducing the divine traces they left within the domain without any of them realizing it.
Living in Tartarus for practically her entire existence had allowed her to learn a thing or two about countering her brother's ability to sense what happened within his domain. After all, even a Primordial Goddess needed some privacy every once in a while.
The Greek god had given her a rather pleasant conversation, so Nyx decided she would help him just this once.....
After this, she would return to her own affairs and never think about the God of the Sky or the conversation they had just shared again.
At least, that was what Nyx told herself.