Percy's POV
A large seismic surge forces us to jump in reaction, thumping us into the air as something beats along the edges of the fissure within the ground. I don't even have to communicate with Athena as we match each other with an increased paced towards the village. Jackson's pressed back against me begins to weigh as he tightens his grip of my fur for reassurance. Passing the cracked monument of Oracion within the tomb, we exit it only to barely escape the crumbling behind us. The smell of ash and burned flesh drills itself deep into my nostrils, the place we rebuilt...becoming undone like the tug of a single thread.
Athena tackles the large wooden gate, toppling down its already chipped and burned state as purple flames rise in response to the new fuel. "Per-" a sudden weight slips off my back, Jackson's immediate airborne state leaving me in a motion of panic and confusion as I look to the root of the floor. A pure black tendril wrapped around his leg, pulsing like a heartbeat as it swings him around.
Athena growls, nonchalantly running through the flames in order to reach the part that connects to him. "ATHENA!" He screams as a crack audibly sounds through the air like a whip, the skin around his leg beginning to darken as the tendril only gets bigger. She attempts to chew into it, immediately stepping back as a her skin peels off by just being near it.
Another disturbing crack reaches us, but this time not emitting from Jackson. "Your ears...cover them" A voice whispers through a fogged area of the sky. Prompting us to do our best in covering our oversensitive ears...giving us just barely enough time to prepare for the booming wail of a banshee. My vision begins to blur as I struggle to even stay conscious against the sheer force pushing me into the ground, rising and bursting the stone around me.
The pressure comes to a halt, immediately screeching out a new demand, "CATCH HIM!" She yells. Gritting my teeth I bounce off the terrain despite the aching pain throughout my body, grabbing Jackson's collar and avoiding the overturned rubble as I land once again.
He quickly fights to get out of my grasp as he runs to the fissure in the ground, the oversized figure that once appeared, no longer out and instead swimming in a current of...ink? Smaller ones emerge as they begin to wrap around the human's limbs and lifeless bodies, disintegrating them with a single touch. "Wai-" I panic, trying to run to them to save them but Cliodhna holds her hand out in front of me.
She keeps her head straight as if trying to hide her face from me, "I believe there's something else you're meant to be doing, do not waste these moments on those that don't concern the fate of others."
Jackson hops towards me, using me to support his weight with his injured leg now. "Why are you here!?"
"Ever since you left Gabriela in our care...I've been searching for something to heal her, but the only thing that comes to mind was Persephone's infinite knowledge with the plants of the underworld."
Athena tries to chime in, "Oh-"
But Cliodhna interrupts her, "That is until I realised the flower does not grow in any of the three worlds. But instead...something in between." She sighs.
"What do you mean?" I ask with a hurried pace.
"Akul. No matter the cost, I will find him and he will heal my daughter. But first-" Her green highlighted nails extend as she tears open the fog, extending her hand and in a swarm, out comes her family of banshees. Flowing through the air and across the fissure, lining up in preparation for something.
I try to speak, "I-" but Gabriela emerges from the fog, tugging on my tail towards the pack house, pointing to it more erratically with each passing second.
"We can't do more than slow down Theta's attempts to extend onto the overworld...stopping that monster, that's your job. Be on your way Percy." Cliodhna directs us as Athena ignores everything else, darting towards the pack house and nearly leaving me behind.
"Let's go Percy" Jackson jumps onto me, near enough attempting to swerve me like a horse as we make our way after Athena. I was distracted...but not by the thing I should of been. It was Gabriela, and she smelled...different?
-
The immediate change in air is what I noticed first, not the pack house being split down the middle, not the mountains of corpses left by the members. What scared me here, was familiarity. "The air...it feels like-"
"The Underworld" Athena completes.
"But why?" Jackson questions as we slow our pace through the pack house, looking for any signs of life other than the drained bodies of we ones we called family.
"A-Athena?" A whimper from the room to the left of us sounds out, prompting us to put our guard up. "Wait!" A pure orange wolf leaps out from the room, nearly bashing me and Jackson into the open ground to the Underworld.
I've never seen his wolf before, but I can recognise his scent. "Ryan?" I ask as he quickly shifts back into his human state to speak.
His eyes red as if irritated from his tears after all this time, "Melanie..." He whimpers out. "And Yue!" He quickly scampers back to us as he grabs my fur in desperation, "I-I got so scared, she left me alone...but the others." He looks from the drained corpses to the dead dry outside leading towards the Underworld.
"Yue?" I state in a calm demeanour, unsure if I even understood that right.
"When Fenrir contin-ued to tak-e you." Athena continues to speak in her wolf form, "You did the...same." She looks un-phased by it all.
Jackson questions to himself, "In order for a god to come back...they need to take from around them. Making up for the power that they have lost. But why Yue"?
His question is lost to the void as Ryan shifts back, all our ears reacting to the same thing as we immediately prance towards the portal of the Underworld. A howl serving as more than a signal, something that awakened something within our very bones that we absolutely needed to respond to.
-
Chris' POV
I awake to the deep howls of Cerberus, something overwhelming enough for him to have to call for us. I observe my surroundings, noticing the deep care of the sheets and resources that were placed around me. Taking no extra time in making my way down I jump through the balcony window, catching my landing with a rough roll as I tumble with an audible clank to the stone. Looking around for the origin of the sound I notice an sudden weight to my arms that weren't previously there.
"That was more than a simple dream, wasn't it?" I ask myself, lifting my hands to see a deep metallic coat fused with my skin and fur. The engraved markings that were once on the sword, now made a part of me that brings a unique glow that traces my claws in a green light. Another howl bellows its way through the Underworld, a call that seems to scream at something deep within me. Pulling my body towards the large rumbling from further down the mountain. A few weak groans sound out as I pass a reconstructing wall, the figures of Adam and Alex.
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I attempt to speak to them, "Ar-" not even being able to reach for their hand as a large mass is hurled towards me. I dig my feet into the ground, unable to handle the impact myself as the sheer size of him is comparable to my own.
Eventually stopping just before the pathing of the spirits, I drop the figure a bit ahead of me as my eyes begin to scan every corner of his body.
Anubis' words gradually reach my mind, 'The head of a Griffin...his body is patched, made up of what seems to be a bear's fur and rotted human flesh. Claws of a lion, the wings of a Manticore...tail of a scorpion' he analyses.
"DON'T LOOK AT HIM!" Cerberus barks out from the shore just as the figure turns his head, shutting my eyes in reaction.
His breathing intensifies as he pokes his head to my throat, "And here I was hoping to get a free win against you. Chris-to-pher" He chimes out before an unfamiliar amount of strength strikes my stomach, pushing me into the air.
A quake booms throughout the air just as a soft and warm pressure seemingly catches me through the air, "Master!" Cerberus shouts into my ears.
His hard scaled body famililar to me as I quickly regain myself, "Can I open my eyes!?" I shout back.
"For now" He comments, allowing me to open them which shows one of his heads turned all the way to face me, practically blocking all of my vision other than him.
"Why can't I look at him!?" I ask.
"He has the eyes of the Gorgon, one that would petrify any normal soul." He confirms.
"So how come you can?"
"I do not stare into the eyes of individuals, but instead their soul. And that colour of him...is not one that I would forget." He recalls.
"It's pretty unorthodox, I expected as much from none other than The Warden himself!" His voice proudly states from below, "Oh how gracious those heads would look, on this body." He laughs.
"Christopher!?" Athena yells from below, instantly chilling my blood as the figure below goes silent.
"CERBERUS JUMP!" I command the beast, stomping his way to the gate in order to block the gaze. 'DON'T LOOK AT HIM' I ping through their minds as they all slap a hand across their faces...all but one.
Cerberus lands just in front of him, I jump with haste to stand in front of them but Jackson begins to question something, "Guys...I can't let go."
Athena yells back in panic "Let go of what, Jackson!?"
"I can't let go of Ryan..." He grunts as he tries to get loose of something.
A deep sigh welcomes itself into our space, "Looks like one of you just had to be the hero, huh?" The same voice laughs out. "Jackson...it sure has been quite the while huh? Or should I call you Veritas?" He growls in annoyance.
"Where is he Cerberus!?" I shout for information.
"-MOVE!" He bellows out without warning, his size working against him in this scenario as he stumbles to properly block the pathing to someone so much smaller than him.
Another rib shattering punch is delivered to my side, knocking me away from the rest of them. "WAI-" I risk opening my eyes to see him as he smacks Athena away.
"I'm so. so. so. Sick of seeing that fucking face Jackson." He grabs him by the throat as heat begins to rise within the room for some reason. He stomps on Percy's neck with his talon shaped feet, digging into his throat with his scorpion tail as some sort of liquid visible moves through it and into him. Allowing him to freely whisper to Jackson, "I could peel those eye lids off and there's not a single thing you could do about it." He licks Jackson's lips with a sadistic gaze. More and more the room heats up until a black and blue glow show the origins, Cerberus' breath...ready to melt all of them.
"CERBERUS WAIT!" I call his attention, also gaining the beast's attention as I knowingly shut my eyes beforehand.
"You had your eyes open, didn't you?" His wings gust the air around him as he leaps towards me with Jackson still in his grasp. I swing forward, trying to aim for him but I horribly miss from my own perspective. He sticks his nails into me, pulling my head back through the bone in my spine. "What was that?" He questions with seriousness, unable to even laugh.
"Do you know how long I had to stare at your stupid fucking face Jackson?" I continue to hear Jackson's throat crushing as he grips frantically for air, all while endless sparks of uncomfortable electricity is spiking through my body as his nails drill deeper. "Do-" He suddenly drops us both from a shove behind.
I can't move...it's not a matter of simply recovering this time, he's genuinely done something to me. I recall through my dark vision...that may have not been his nails digging into me, "Your tail." I ask.
"Works well, doesn't it?" He mumbles before stomping towards whatever stopped him, "You...your eyes are shut but even then, you knew your way to me."
"You stink like shit, wasn't exactly har-" She tries to continue but a sudden whimper of her wolf outshines her voice.
"Olethros..." Jackson laughs, prompting the beast to once again change his target. "That is your new name, isn't it? The one you carved so deeply into the theatre of truth...how desperate you try to mimic, Oracion. It's fucking sad." He spits, landing it not too far off me.
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" He roars, presumably still holding Athena as she's used to hammer onto Jackson.
"CERBERUS!" I scream out to him for help.
'Can I do nothing but listen to the crushing stone around their colliding bodies?' I ask myself.
Olethros holds something up to stop the beast from rampaging, "Unless you want your precious Master's skull in pieces, I'd advise not interfering. Pet." Just in that moment...I feel it click into place.
That weakness from before, from all that time ago. "I won't lose something like that again...this anger that I feel within me, let me use it." I claw the ground, bringing myself to stand up as the things drugs inserted into me wear off thanks to Anubis.
He stops to focus onto me, "You can't even look at me, how are you going to fight me?" his laugh turns into a cackle the more he releases it. Only stopping once he realises the position of my hands. "You wouldn't fucking dare." His voice turns to one full of seriousness.
"A trade for a fucking trade" I stick my metallic claws through my eye lids and reach to the back of my eye socket, pulling and snapping each and every strand connecting my eyes to the parts within my skull.
"Chris..." Percy cries out.
"You're fucking insane" He drops the two, instead deciding to deal with me first as he stomps forward.
"It's okay Percy." I blindly reassure him.
I drop the eyes, hearing them roll just behind me as my senses heighten even further...if I've been taught anything...it's that in this world, anything can be exchanged. This damp rotten smell that surges towards me...I can smell it. "Lucky fucking move, idiotic almost." He mocks just after a gale of wind passes by my head, presumably his fist.
Another damp scent fills my nose as the shift in air causes the hairs on my body to twitch, shifting to the left again. "YOU-" He swings, again and again. His deepening inhale and exhale revealing his face's location as I react to one more swing of his body, tensing my fist into an uppercut that silences his egoistical call outs. "HU-"
A new sudden breeze comes into my nose, scaring me as I step back in reaction. But it's lavender...one that I'm very familiar with. "GRAB HIM CHRIS" Athena screams at me, the sounds of his strained becoming louder as he struggles to get out of her hair? "THE RIVER!" Jackson screams alongside her as I grab the source of the sounds, wrapping my arm around his head and waiting for the stale sulphur scent of the river to hit me.
'THE RIGHT CHRISTOPHER, LEAN HIM IN!' Anubis beckons from within me as I do just that, tilting my head down to allow my ears to react to the thrashing waters.
The shift in the air, releasing that unique smell I've sensed from the beginning...Percy's, "FUCKING DIE!" he yells out, finally able to move as he puts on more weight onto his back.
"IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THIS, I CAN'T BE PETRIFIED BY MY OWN REFLECTION, NOT AFTER WHAT SHE DID TO ME!" He yells out with a demented tone of laughter just as Athena's lavender scent approaches at a frightening pace.
There's only so much I can reject the healing as vision is gradually restored to me, but my eyes recover first...not my eyelids. "ATHENA PLEASE!" I cry for her, begging for help.
"I WAS LOOKING FOR YOUR HEAD!" She sits on top of him with her eyes open...just as his griffin head begins to turn to her without a care in the world but she manages to close her eyes in time from pure reaction. "Rot" She spits out as water gathers around his head from the river, crushing his bones from inside out until a sudden sharp ring sounds out through the air and plops his head into the cruising waters.
"You may open them" Cerberus confirms as we stare at his head, dragged to the bottom of the Underworld by ghastly arms desperate for the meat on his flesh. My racing heart quickly gets up, rubbing my hands across my face and rapidly forcing myself to blink but I still can't.
"Calm down...please." Athena holds my hands, kneeling in front of me and placing her hand in my lap. "Just focus on them, they'll come back." She reassures me.
Jackson's bloodied state brings our attention back to Olethros' disintegrating body, "Here" he grabs the shard from within the stoned husk when a piece of black flashes past me...my eye lids are back.
"See!?" She cheers, jumping into my arms and pressing herself against my body.
"I apologise for not being of use" Cerberus whimpers although basically shaking the air from his size.
I sigh with relief, "It's alright, maybe next time." hoping to whatever god is left that there won't ever be a next time.