Opening his eyes Percy expected have been killed and sent to the underworld. Maybe Khione, who he was sure would have tortured his unconscious body, captured him for Gaea. A part of him wished he would be captured so he wouldn't However, he didn't know how to react to waking up covered in flames and a goddess freaking out trying to cover him in snow screaming bloody murder as his flames melted it into water further healing him from his former exhausted state. She was in the middle screaming about the fates and stupid demigods when she froze seeing him rising with his right hand outstretched then lowered it making the flames go back down. "Hmm, either Phlegethon wanted to heal me or the river comes to me when I need it. Could be very useful," he mused to himself not taking notice of the ironically frozen in shock goddess.
"How could you possibly survive the Phlegethon's river fire!" She shrieked making Percy jump. He would have answered if he wasn't in the middle of drawing Riptide and making the Phlegethon rise around him as he recalled Leo telling him that Khione had frozen the hunters and only his flames allowed Hera to be freed. He almost smiled at himself realizing he wasn't as stupid as people claimed he was. Spreading his flames out he let them surround the goddess limiting her powers visibly making her begin to sweat. Her next words, however, stopped him momentarily from trying to kill her. "I swear on the Styx I'm here to help you out of here on my own accord." Khione tried to say calmly but it sounded more like she was panicking. Thunder seemingly shook the 'sky' above. He knew she could have been tricking him with her wordplay but a gut instinct told him to listen, however, he didn't move away Riptide or the Phlegethon but he also didn't proceed in attacking the goddess.
Khione sighed accepting the fact that he wouldn't budge anymore and for good reason. "I swear on the Styx Gaea turned on me. She sent me here years ago to ensure I didn't retaliate... I can't get out because her giants and forces took control of the Doors of Death and would take care of me on site, but with you here... I know of the prophecy to close the doors. So long as you can get me out I'll do anything to work with you!" As Percy listened he paled hearing it had been years since she was thrown here which seemed impossible, unless... He replied shakily, "Years? How long have I been down here?..." Khione's facial expression quickly went from in pain due to being so close to the rivers fire combined with confusion too in pain with understanding. She muttered, "Right...Demigods wouldn't have known... To make this simple for you, time down Tartarus is different than up in the mortal world. Years here could be weeks up there, sometimes weeks here could be days there." She paused at his unbelieving look then said slowly so he would understand completely, "I swear on the Styx what I have said to you is true." Thunder was heard rumbling over them.
Seeing as she was still free from reproduction combined with the fact he was beginning to get slightly tired from his control over he let the Phlegethon fade away and the fire sunk into the glass shard floor. He started, "I have several questions. If I don't like the answers you leave me in peace or you can try your luck against me." She only nodded her head so he asked, " To begin with, why did Gaea turn on you and fear you could do something against her?" She pondered for a moment not wanting to say the wrong answer. Under normal circumstances, it would be beyond strange to see a goddess with the power to take on an Olympian being demanded questions by a mere demigod instead of being the one asking questions herself. Tartarus was everything but normal circumstances.
Thinking she had the best answer to respond his question Khione responded quietly remembering what happened, "After failing to stop the Greeks quest, Gaea thought I failed her on purpose. She was so skeptical of me she turned my father against me and he struck me down when my back was turned. Gaea had more influence over my father than I did. She worried about me doing something because I can retaliate by making part of the seven stronger. Over time only gods and goddess have had control over ice or now, maybe a couple dryads or naiads got the power, but never a demigod. That changed a couple centuries ago when I took a son of Poseidon under my tutelage out of anger against Poseidon." She stopped again lost in thought remembering Poseidon accidentally having had destroyed her last remaining temple out of anger.
Shaking her head she said, "Everyone knows he cares for his children more than most gods do so I took his son, who was angry at his father not saving his friend during a quest, and wanted to rip away any ties the boy had to Poseidon. Long story short he only had very little control over water where it didn't heal him and that was his extent of his powers. So I tried taking that little control of water and helped him mature it into something different. He was the first known demigod to control ice thanks to me. He inspired mortals into creating the legend of 'Jack Frost'. I can help you get that power as well." She finished out of breath and Percy merely cocked his head to the side making her roll her eyes then said, "I swear on the Styx that was true." For the third time, Percy heard the thunder without her being punished.
Content with that Percy thought out loud, "So you're offering to help me gain control over ice and in exchange I have to take you with me out of here?"
"No, I want you to give me your word you'll make my punishment for 'going against the gods' as minimal as possible. I'm not idiotic enough to think I'll go unpunished," she replied. Slightly narrowing his eyes asked, "Why would you need my word to vouch for you? Surely your father could assist you claiming Gaea had involuntarily gotten influence over you." Not having had expected the response she said, "Right now I know your word carries a lot of weight. A lot more than mine or my fathers so I will take anything I can get to begin with." Accepting her answer he asked his next question, "Tell me more about this ice powers. I don't want them to be like my hurricane and earthshaker abilities where they can cause just as much damage as they can help."
"It would eventually end up like your abilities with water although not as natural to learn, with practice it'll be simple. I've taught many of Poseidon's children how to control these abilities and powers, but the extent of their power was determined by their will mostly. Any other questions?" Thinking about the pros of the new abilities and the cons of having her potentially turn on him he would not have accepted but again that gut instinct hit him telling him to do so. It didn't feel godly by any means, in fact, the only other time he recalled feeling something like it was during the final standoff against Kronos when he understood the meaning of the great prophecy. It was fate nudging him into a certain direction whether for the better or worse he didn't know, but chose to follow it.
Extending his hand Percy put on a tight smile intended to show he wasn't happy with it he said, "I'll try to minimize your punishment when we get out. You have my word." Khione tentatively took his hand about to respond before being cut off by the glare that sent shivers down her spine going wide-eyed at the demigod who was now up in front of her face gripping her hand in a way she was sure would leave a mark. The moment could have been seen like one that only two intimate people would share if it weren't for the glare on Percy's face and veins slightly protruding from his hand. He said, "Don't, however, think you could possibly take me for a fool because the moment you attempt or even think of something against me you will be wishing for an eternity down here. This is too serious of a matter for anything to slow me down. Is that understood?"
Numbly nodding her head she stuttered out, "I- thank y- you need to practice." During the awkward and uncertain quietness that unfolded, she was desperately trying to regain her composure but couldn't seem to find the energy or effort inside of herself to do so. "I'm the goddess here why can't I control myself after only a threat that is impossible... unless it would be possible to someone with so much potential, that is much to fear..." she thought in her head finally noticing Percy's expectant look... Rather dumbly she asked off the top of her head like she was the one with ADHD, "How could you possibly have controlled the fire. It wasn't a son of Poseidon ability that much is certain."
Not yet being able to trust her he only replied with, "It was the Phlegethon's' water." Seeing his distant reply that made more questions than answers, Khione chose to accept it and moved on to a different topic she wanted to talk about since she arrived seeing him kill a titan. "Despite killing Perses I still feel part of his presence where he has been dispatched a couple hours ago. Meaning you have spoils of war directly from killing a titan and my guess is it's a weapon or item powerful enough to hold his natural aura. It's off-putting, to say the least. It's yours by all means." Percy toyed with the idea of saying no, but then two thoughts struck him. First, he wasn't in the position to deny anything that could give him power like he usually was. The second thought was that just about any weak or strong monster could come by and snatch it.
Shrugging Percy with a seemingly bored voice but an intensity in his eyes it was off-putting for Khione said, "Lead the way then. In front of me." Stiffly nodding her head while being visibly uncomfortable with having a demigod telling her what to do. Walking behind her Percy finally realized that he had yet to fully see her, so far he had only seen another goddess to be wary of so he decided to take in her appearance, not because he was one of those guys, but because he was curious. Her skin was, of course, pale, so pale it was even more so than Nico's skin even after he had been in a jar by the giants. Her dazzling black hair was straight, he thought he caught it a part of it turn slightly curly for second but it soon went back to normal. She was a goddess so she, of course, had a seemingly perfect body of one while surprisingly not wearing a white dress like he was told but was wearing a simple pair of ripped blue jeans, he didn't want to know if they were supposed to be like that or not. He couldn't see what type of top or shirt she was wearing because she had a light blue cloak cover her upper body and went down to her brown boots. Percy was not surprised that she looked beautiful, she was a goddess after all, but was surprised to see that over her cloak on her back there was a quiver of arrows and a decently sized longbow, longer than those used by the Apollo children back at camp.
Taking in her appearance only lasted a couple seconds but it caught Khione's eye because she just huffed and turned around. "Must not like Poseidon's children much," Percy mused to himself. Snapping out of his thoughts he realized that when he woke up he wasn't at all where he had passed out. Suspiciously he asked the goddess, "What happened after I passed out?" Without looking away from where she was walking Khione said, "Somehow during your little fight and displays of powers you attracted most monsters in the vicinity, I trailed after them having nothing better to do and as soon as I saw you I saw my chance to finally free myself. Unfortunately, instead of being afraid of you, the monsters saw you were weak and I was forced to kill several annoying cyclops and Scythian draconian so they wouldn't kill you. Eventually, they got the hint and decided that fighting goddess wasn't smart, from then on I tried to find the nearest water source to help you regain consciousness. When I got to it I would have left if the cursed flames didn't wrap around you and pull you away into the river until you woke up."
Curious now more than suspicious Percy questioned, "How long was I out and how far are we?" She seemed to grimace as if the memory caused her pain, "Let's just say 'hours' answers both of your questions." A ghost of a smirk appeared on his face as he replied, "You were that desperate, huh?" She turned around to face him for the first time with a glare to rival Lupa's making Percy shiver and Khione smile cruelly which was what Percy had expected to see from her based on descriptions from Leo about the events at the Wolf House. Shuffling on the floor nearby alerted Percy to beware. Percy saw something moving in front of the goddess on the floor in the shape of a... "Oh gods" Percy muttered.
With quicker speed than any demigod, other than children of Hermes and Mercury, that Khione had ever seen Percy had Riptide in its sword form already slashing 5 feet in front of her right only raised an eyebrow, "Trying to scare me?" That's when Percy moved to show her the pit scorpion with its tail stuck into the floor thanks to Riptide holding it in place, its body was only the length of Percy's hand but that wasn't what worried her. What worried her so much about those scorpions was the strong poison they possessed which could make even a god have to reform. She had her mouth wide open staring at Riptide holding the small pit scorpion in place making her barely hear Percy's question. "Can your arrows go through its skin? It has surprisingly tough armor plates."
Finally snapping out of her daze Khione responded by creating an ice pike under the scorpion's belly and launching it upwards killing it. "Cool, will I be able to do that?" Percy blurted out making himself blush at letting his ADHD get the better of him. Ignoring his question, it was the first time Khione seemed to notice that he was still a demigod and not just a titan slayer to be wary of. The thought almost put a smile on her face until she remembered the fact that a mere demigod indeed did kill a titan and moved faster than she possibly could have unless taking her domain or divine form to stop a pit scorpion from attacking her. Frowning she continued back to where the titan's spoils were at.
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The entire walk back from the edge of the Phlegethon to where he finished Perses off, took over half an hour. Even though they were walking relatively slow it was way farther than Percy originally realized making him feel slightly guilty that Khione had to drag or carry him so far away while probably still having to fair off against the monsters that were around the area. During the fight, it appeared as though they had been seriously pushing each other around as seen by the crater that expanded over 100 feet outwards in each direction. Percy expected to either find nothing nearby or to find hordes of monsters trying to get at a free titans remains.
However, neither Khione nor Percy expected to find the center of the crater to have gold dust spread out covering it with a sole humanistic figure picking up a silver glistening sword. "What is that mortal doing so far away from the Delta of despairs," hissed out Khione while grabbing Percy's arm and dragging him back to the edge of the crater. He wanted to ask questions like why was she talking about a mortal? And what delta of despairs? But they were all cut off when he saw the 'mortal' finally as it stood up. Whatever it was it was definitely not a mortal. In fact, its features were so contorted they were reminiscent of an orc he had seen on t.v. a long time ago. Not to mention its excuse of an arm that looked as thin as a blade and the bent backward left leg it had. It even had a slightly green and red skin tone, but Percy didn't want to know where those came from. Gods the sight and slight stench filling the air alone almost made him puke. Khione, however, looked more pissed than she looked disgusted as if this was the normal down here. Percy shivered at the thought of those horrendous creatures were the norm.
Percy could tell that even with its strange limbs and it being hunched over it was still a solid 6 feet in height when upright with veins popping out of its body all over the places with them being most prominent on the biceps, thighs, and neck. In the moment it rose to its hunched over position from being crouched over Percy saw it only wore a lions cloth showing its skin was indeed a sickly shade of green. Mentally groaning Percy could only think, "Gods not another loin cloth wearing monster."
Khione being oblivious to Percy's disgust let some her natural godly aura flare outwards making the creature fall to his knees immediately. She was surprised to see Percy now with a wall of flames from the Phlegethon deep under the sharded floor directed at herself with a glare to go with it. Again, she was forced to remember that he was still a demigod and simple aura had a huge effect and her own up close could make mortals or demigods into frozen statues. "Sorry I forgot," Khione said not sounding sorry at all. Returning her attention back to the monster, she made ice come for her body seep out and slowly stretch towards the creature covering its body entirely. With a calm demeanor her voice came out strained saying, "Destroy it already, this isn't easy to hold!"
As Percy ran to slice the monsters head off he felt an unnatural amount of repulsion hit him as if what he was doing was wrong. However, the training with the Romans and having had been one of the main leaders during the battle of Manhattan had shown him how to push away those feelings when it came to survival. Just as he was about to slash Riptide into it but Khione stopped him saying, "You idiot! Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold don't work on it! Just punch it. You have the strength to do so." Not trusting her word he carried on with his cut only to see it cut through ice easily enough but pash completely through it. Annoyed now, Percy brought back his fist and covered it in the River Phlegethon smashing the ice sculpture.
Breathing heavily Khione basically stomped towards Percy creating ice under her and leaving a trail of snow behind her. "You may consider highly of yourself, but down here you listen to me! You don't know anything!" Surprised by her outburst he just stared at her until his mouth opened before he could stop himself, "What was that thing." Cursing himself Percy looked away. Sighing again Khione felt a migraine forming already. "That is what is left of that mortal. It was sent by the gods for being one of the vilest of mortals, well that or for being dangerous or disrespectful to them." She added the last part full of anger then continued as if the little moment hadn't happened, "It was in the process of becoming a mania. Mania are spirits personifying insanity, madness, and crazed frenzy."
Understanding now why godly metals didn't work on it he nodded his head until realization hit him making him puke. "I.. just killed... a mortal." A distressed Percy said in between barfs. Khione felt no sympathy for the demigod. "If it makes you feel better those mortals sent here are said to have been too cruel for the Fields of Punishment. Hades, or Pluto whatever, agreed himself. Take for example Elizabeth Bathory or Joseph Stalin it took a mortal of that type of vileness to be sent here."
Still not particularly feeling good about having had killed a mortal, mania or not, he tried changing the subject by glaring at her and saying, "Next time you are going to let your aura flare out like that warn me. I counteracted it, but I could feel myself freezing solid rapidly." Responding in a flippant tone she said, "Well wish granted, I'm not going to be able to do that for quite a while. Godly powers like flaring a more potent aura, flashing away, or taking a divine form are very limited. Now go ahead and take your Spoils of War coming from a titan."
Content that Khione didn't push his uneasiness about killing a mortal he nodded and crouched down next to where the mania had been looking over. He could see that for some reason a pair of clothes that definitely didn't belong to Perses were laid out as well as the gauntlet and armor covering Perses' right arm during their fight. He looked at Khione unimpressed. "Really," he said, "Clothes and flashy armor. That's what we came here for?" Looking at Percy like he was an idiot Khione just pointed to where Percy had destroyed the mania muttering about idiots. Surprisingly Percy saw a sword in a leather scabbard with a single strap indicating it was to put on someones back.
As if he was in a daze, Percy slowly walked to the sword and picked it up. The sword appeared to be a hand and a half sword with the pommel, a swirl of dark grey and black color, curving to meet the sword's grip. The actual grip was the same shade of black on Nico's Stygian Iron sword went all the way to the cross guard which was at least twice the length of Riptide's. Unsheathing the sword it revealed the blade be significantly longer than Riptide, Riptide being under 3 feet and Perse's unnamed sword being around 3 and a half feet. Just by holding it for seconds Percy could see the type of power that could put into a single swing. It felt like the complete opposite of his sword, whereas Riptide allowed him to use more of his agility for quicker attacks, this one would use more power and would require a different type of practice and training.
Looking at the blade itself, it was a double-edged blade, like Riptide, and at first, glance looked like ordinary mortal steel, but upon closer inspection, Percy had a suspicion that it was a mix of metals like silver and Stygian Iron. Almost instinctively, he put the scabbard over his shoulder and held the sword out with one hand and took an experimental thrust like he would with Riptide but it felt completely wrong. Now he tried putting both hands on the sword and did what felt right, so did an over had slash onto the air followed quickly by a diagonal slash. It felt and looked sloppy but that was only because he wasn't used to it. Grinning he looked up from his sword to Khione who looked at him blankly. "What," was his dumb response to her look.
She instantly began feeling the migraine that came with dealing with a certain slow demigod. Cocking her head to the side ever so slightly she said, "As impressive as your physique is for a demigod or even immortal, don't you want to put on clothes now that you have them? Even if clothes are strange Spoils of War they are yours after all." Looking down for the first time in a long time he saw that his shirt which was previously only in tatters was now completely destroyed apart from a select few purple strands covering his chest while his pants remained with only minimal cuts and his shoes looked like socks that had been used up months after their time. He looked back at the pile of clothes and saw the kilt on top of a sleeveless leather fabric next to a pair of simple black combat boots. Looking back up Khione he blushed despite himself before asking, "Aren't you gonna turn around?" A smirk appeared on his face before saying, "I mean unless you were planning on starring at me its good."
He was pleased to see that her pale face turned a light shade of red that would have been invisible to anyone with a darker skin tone. Calling out his bluff she simply said, "Yes." Eyes widening Percy just stared at her until a smug smile crossed her face and he muttered a faint fine then turned around. Percy decided that he would keep his pants over the awful yellow and black kilt then made water out of the air and solidified it so he wouldn't have to get cut while sitting down. He sat down and put on his new combat boots content that they fit him perfectly.
He took off the leather scabbard on his back when it began to feel uncomfortable and took the chance to put on what he thought would be a shirt. It turned out to be more of a black leather vest with buttons on both the left and right side of the chest. More specifically it was a jerkin used in more medieval times. The right flap went all the way to his left side, as did the right flap but it had silver buttons where both flaps would end. The collar of the jerkin was naturally stood upwards. He put the strap to the scabbard over his right shoulder and under his left arm making it easy to reach with his right he had no sleeve he decided to try on the badly protected arm armor Perses had. He was surprised to see it shift getting rid of the shoulder-pad part of the armor which extended to cover the bicep poorly. Instead, he was left with a black vambrace going from his forearm to his knuckles, instead of metals it was made out of the same scales as before and each of where the plates of scales were, were outlined in Celestial Bronze. Strangely enough, Percy could feel the vambrace vibrate and glow with power.
Percy was still admiring the vambrace when he heard Khione mutter to herself, "Perses used his symbol of power, The Gauntlet of Destruction, on him and still didn't kill him... what is this monster capable of?..." On instinct and seemingly dazed Percy raised his fist and punched the ground and felt his earth shaker powers being used as everything around him shook violently. It felt like hours had passed in which he was in that position. Abruptly Percy stood up only for the everything to stop shaking and he realized that his punch alone was what shook the entire cavern that was Tartarus. He saw Khione slowly rise from the floor with shaky legs and feet that had been frozen to the ground she looked at him with barely concealed fear and stuttered out, "H-how... How d-did you do that for so long?" He shot her an annoyed glance as if to say "What?"
"The whole cavern shook for almost an hour and your eyes were glazed over." She continued with her normal bored and calm demeanor back, however, her brown eyes showed the reluctance to admit the fear she felt. "An hour?!" he asked incredulously. She only nodded her head. Suddenly with his 'vision' of water molecules in the air working now that he was back in control, he felt a figure at the edge of the crater with a bow in hand. Too late did Percy realize that the figure had already shot at both himself and Khione. He barely had time to pull out Riptide and deflect the arrow using his sword. "The arrow must be made out of something strong for the point to have not been shattered or cut in half," he mused.
He was quickly broken out his musings by a scream coming from Khione as an arrow went through her leg. The impact of the arrow didn't seem bad, but when he saw the wound he saw a purple cooler mixed with the ichor coming from the wound. "I hate poison," Percy said through gritted teeth. He looked towards the figure only to see they were covered in a full on brown worn out cloak with a hood covering the assaulters face. The only thing visible was the left arm holding a longbow, a quiver over their back, and an arsenal of throwing knives strapped to the persons left side of their chest and thigh. A gust suddenly hit Percy making him stumble back and he heard a voice while he was hit say in such a quiet whisper it felt like he was imagining the wind speak to say, "Thank you for the power beacon." He was again hit by a gust of wind but he remained in place this time and heard the voice much clearer say, "It made my job a lot easier than it would have been to find and capture you and the traitor." Percy had no clue what was going on but it was clear this person was sent by Gaea.
This time Percy felt a push on the air and rolled aside to the left hearing the voice say, "I don't normally allow people to witness me but the price for you is so high I just have to know what is so special about you." Getting frustrated by the figure taking so much and not yet finding out who the person was, Percy asked, "Who even are you!" The figure seemed to ponder the question for a minute to find an appropriate answer as if he didn't have a proper name, before raising his massive longbow and saying through random gusts of wind making Percy have to roll away every couple of seconds, " I suppose if you are to recognize me you could call me a titan mercenary by the name Lelantos. The Titian of air, unseen movement, and hunting skills. Your capture to Gaea has such a high price it's irresistible."
A/N: Sorry to those who have waited to read this story I just have had trouble finding a way to put some ideas into words and haven't felt up for trying to do so for a couple days. Anyways I would like to know how you guys feel about Percy's arc and time in Tartarus so far, like has it been too long? I've just been trying to portray Tartarus as difficult as I thought it would be to traverse.
On a side note if you wanted to see what Percy's new jerkin (Basically shirt), Vambrace, and sword would look like or where I got the inspiration from, google "Talon jerkin", for his vambrace I got inspiration from "Leather armor full arm" in which I took away the top armored shoulder pad part, and for his his new sword just look up "William by peterku" and its almost completely the same minus one part. That's it for this chapter hope you enjoyed!