Mousai's POV
With a hurried pace I feel Zagreus giving out on me, "Come on please!" I shout at him as I'd might as well be carrying him at this point.
I look behind us, noticing the Eternal flower thrashing along the ground as teeth are bared from within the centre of its petals. The roots swaying and lashing at the souls in an attempt to interact and devour them but only growing more frustrated at the failed signs of desperation.
"Too...far" Zagreus reaches out back towards the buried other two, a plan that Persephone definitely thought out prior.
"I know, I'm sorry. But we can't go back right now." I literally throw him across my back so that I can focus on running rather than both of his feet. I'd be damned if I let a flower consume him.
After all this time I simply never truly looked ahead of me, not realising just how close we've come to Persephone's palace. 'She mentioned some parts of the Elysium fields came before her...but I can't imagine why the castle would look so run down?' I think to myself, quickly analysing the overgrown moss and cracked walls.
With the brush of my skin, I narrowly avoid one of the tendrils, surprising myself with a small yelp as I squeeze the air out of myself trying to duck so suddenly. And with this came such a soul piercing scream that no true organism could produce. A screech that carried itself through my bones and forcing me to toss Zagreus ahead of me as my body lays paralysed along the floor.
"Mousai..." He tries reaching out for me from within the palace but the distance can't be made up.
I look away from him, forcing my torso to face to the flower even despite my legs refusing to cooperate. Closing my eyes to prepare for the worst but I almost immediately reopen them to the sound of laughter. A deep pitched tone that alarms me to the core as it emanates from the flower itself.
'It knows what it's doing, it's far more sentient that I thought it would be.' I think to myself as it pauses just in front of me.
As it flexes its teeth and drools from above me I can't help but laugh along with it, what we're laughing about? I couldn't tell you, but with each breathy release from my lungs I feel bile building from within my stomach.
If a flower could smile, this would be it. The luminescent glow to its petals that flux with excitement, the golden tone releasing from its petals. But with each passing second I feel something entangling itself around my wrist, pinning thorns into my flesh for a proper grip just before the Eternal flower slams itself into the stone pathing where I once was.
Searing pains left along my dry skin as it's torn up from such an abrupt tug that forces me into the palace.
'You should run' I hear Persephone's voice through the vine directly speaking into my head.
I flip my whole body to my feet, wiping the sweat off my head as I look back to see the Eternal flower staring in. Its approach being halted but that doesn't stop it from trying to extend its roots inward.
"COME ON!" I yell to Zagreus, throwing him on my back once again as I'm fairly certain he's passed out at this point.
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'Follow the scarlet path.' She advises me, alerting my eyes to immediately focus on the ground. Through all the dirt, brick and moss I barely make out the crimson carpet, one that had long lost its bright hue she believes it to be.
Ramming my shoulder into a large double sided door and staring up at a large spiral staircase. "What the actual fuck is this." I can't help but cuss at the inconvenience this brings to me.
'Style' She tries to joke knowing damn well what I'm talking about.
"Moooosssaiiii" I feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as the Eternal flower calls to me.
"IT CAN SPEAK!?" I scream while practically leaping up the staircase.
'Interesting' Persephone chimes in.
"Interesting my fucking ass, what do you mean interesting!?" I continue yelling as the tendrils swarm the path below me just as I reach one of the upper floors.
'You should be here.' She comments, 'With haste, come on.'
"Shut up!" I finish, charging through one more unnecessarily big double set of doors.
And within the dark space all I can see is the throne, lit up by a false sun as it presents Persephone herself. Her hair entangled in old roots, her clothes torn up and her skin looking void of life.
"Wh-"
"I don't spend a lot of time in my main body..." She struggles to stand up, but even so weakly makes her way towards us just as the vines burst through the door after us.
Clicking her fingers and forcing the Flower to stop. "But that doesn't make me any less powerful."
I gently place Zagreus down, awing at Persephone as she runs her hands along the roots. "Even so...I couldn't control it before" She looks back, grinning at me with malicious intent. "Is it because you can't imagine a world where a plant disobeys me? Or do you just not know the limit of what I can truly do?" She holds my shoulders, almost digging her nails into me as she shakes me for answers.
"Wha-t do y-ou me-an" I say in-between shakes.
"Shhh don't speak." She places her finger on my lips. "Wait no, do speak." She removes her finger, flicking the centre of my head and making her way back to the throne.
"Are you actually okay?" I ask genuinely.
"As good as I can be, but I don't usually have people here so I'm struggling whether to kill you for the silence or remove your vocal cords." She tilts her head with a bright smile.
"Persephone?" I step backwards a little bit.
"All I did was feed 8 gods to the Eternal flower, honestly it wasn't even me, the flower did it herself but nope...all Persephone's fault." She mutters to herself, "It was only 8...would of been more." She laughs a little bit as I step back closer to the roots.
"DO NOT TOUCH IT!" She snaps suddenly.
I don't listen to her, getting even further from her as possible but she traps my wrists with a vine, forcing me back towards her. "Look, good things never last." She looks sadly at the purple hue decaying roots of the Eternal flower.
"How?" I ask.
"Who else besides the woman who makes her business within other people's business. But it seems even your mind couldn't deny the natural law of decay...so there's limits." She quickly comments, trying to fix herself up in the giant mirror placed behind her throne.
Amidst this, the sounds of footsteps slowly climb the stairs behind us. Echoing along the waves of dead silence within the palace. "Ignore her, don't give her the satisfaction of a gaze." Persephone advises, grabbing me and forcing me to look at the pointless tacky mirror.
As the steps reach the door I hear a sharp but calming voice talk from behind us, "And here I thought my presence alone was decaying your palace? What a pleasure to know it was simply your own deteriorated state, isn't that right Persephone?"
"Why have you been lurking around here Hel? I may not be fully conscious when my body's here but the plants whispered of an orc that just couldn't get her man hands out of my personal space. I take it that was you?" Persephone quickly chimes.
I look behind me seeing her step over Zagreus' body before leaning down and poking him a few times in the head, "Could you not?" I ask her.
"Oh, Mousai. Did not notice you, but then again...who does anymore?" She laughs, walking closer to me with pure negative intent. "What are you going to do, use your Grace and force me to eat my own shit?" She signals to my left eye where the golden hue is missing.
I laugh along with her, "I'd command you to take that stick out of your own ass but it seems to of made itself home in all honesty."
Her cold blue eyes latch onto me, as grasp of death that follows souls to the Underworld. This is the goddess of decay, Hel.