Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.
Consul of the Underworld: Grinding Phase
Chapter Eleven: Castle Crashers
Beta: ShadowofAxios
It had been a couple of frantic weeks, as Alkaid and her family desperately worked to locate Pyrrha's mother, Jane, in a bid to rescue her from the clutches of her titanic kidnappers. At the same time, they were hearing disturbing news from Camp Half-Blood about Thalia Grace's tree having been poisoned and how its slow death was affecting the wards keeping Camp safe. Already monsters that the magical protections should have kept out were increasingly wandering into the Camp's boundaries in search of the demigod meat they coveted.
The Campers were managing to keep them at bay for now with regular patrols of the Camp border, but that wouldn't last. Sooner or later, a monster would slip past. As Camp's resident sorceress, Chiron and the Campers had reached out to the daughter of Hades on multiple occasions for help. However with Jane being held hostage, her hands were tied.
Which was probably exactly the outcome that the titans wanted.
Thankfully, last they'd heard a Quest had been sent out to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Sea of Monsters to heal Grace's tree and with it Camp's wards. Alkaid and Pyrrha itched to help the questers in some way, but again were held back by the threat to Jane's life.
Desperate to free Jane and resolve the situation, the family had been working tirelessly to track her down.
To that end, Alkaid was, as she had so often since the kidnapping, bowed over a map of the world trying to scry her location.
"Hopefully, with these things we retrieved from her house we'll be able to finally get a fix on her location." Alkaid tried to reassure herself and her family, even as she let her magic resonate with the traces of lingering essence that Jane had left behind on the toiletries they'd recovered from the wreck of her house.
"That's what you said about the last batch of stuff from mum's place." Pyrrha said sounding almost despondent as she paced the room nervously. "What's taking so long anyways? I mean it can't be so hard to scry where she is, right? You've found other people more easily before."
"Other people didn't have whatever protections Alabaster has put up."
"So he's better than you?"
"At divination and countering it? Possibly." Alkaid admitted. "The field isn't my forte. Besides, we shouldn't discount the fact that he almost certainly has powerful backers. Perhaps even a titan or traitor god."
Pyrrha turned to Mina, who was sitting in a chair nearby with a worried look. "Come on, Kiddo. You can do something, right?"
Mina shook her head, her hair shifting back and forth. "I don't know how Mama."
The redhead walked over to their daughter, grabbing her hands. "Please? You don't have any godly power that lets you find people? Or anything else that can help us find grammy?"
Mina's large eyes looked ready to burst into tears as she shook her head.
"Maybe if we were in the same city…" Mina said with a sniffle. "I can always find who I'm looking for if we're in the same town, but I don't even know which town grammy is in."
Pyrrha wilted at that, prompting Mina to hug her comfortingly even as she cried. "I'm sorry Mama. I'm sorry."
Alkaid walked over and gave her daughter's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "It's alright Mina, this isn't your fault. You're only a little girl goddess, and divination isn't one of your domains."
"I still want to help." The goddess said as she pulled away from Pyrrha to rub at her teary eyes. "I wanna stab people Mother. I wanna! I wanna!"
"You'll get your chance. When-"
"Wait, 'Kaidy. Are you saying if we get a god who is actually good at divination to help then they could help us find mum?"
"Possibly." Alkaid replied cautiously. "But there are risks to doing that.".
Pyrrha looked at her with desperate hope. "Hey, if it works it works. We can worry about consequences later."
The daughter of Hades winced at that. "Pyrrha, the consequences are no joke."
"So? Like I said, we can worry about them later. Right now, rescuing my mum is the most important thing." Pyrrha demanded. "So who to ask? Do we start from the bottom or go right to Apollo? I mean, Melinoe is dating him right? She can pull a favor?"
Putting her foot down, Alkaid said, "No. This is why I haven't considered this. If we mix the gods into this that'll lead to new problems. Alabaster is working for the titans, so one of them is likely masterminding or overseeing this operation. Bringing a god in would give the titan free reign to do whatever he likes. The Ancient Laws limiting what the other side can do is our biggest saving grace right now. Do you want your mortal mum caught in the middle of a fight between a god and a titan?"
The daughter of Ares balled her hands as her shoulders shook. She glanced at Mina and asked. "Isn't Mina already escalating things?"
"If she joined the rescue itself? Yes, but right now she's not exactly been helpful." Alkaid informed her lover while shooting her daughter an apologetic look.
The tiny goddess let out a whine and crossed her arms. "I wanna save grammy though!"
With a placating smile, Alkaid sadly said. "I'm sorry sweetie, but you can't. At least this time."
"But that's about them helping us in a fight, there shouldn't be a problem just getting their help in finding out where she is, right?"
Alkaid mulled this over. Pyrrha was technically correct.
"I mean, heroes ask the gods for favors all the time and get help half the time. So it shouldn't be an issue."
"It would give the other side a free action, but you're largely correct." Alkaid admitted as she thought the matter through.
"Then let's do this!" Pyrrha demanded eagerly. "How do we get in touch with Apollo?"
"I don't know." Alkaid admitted and pulled out her phone. "But my Father certainly will."
She didn't even get a chance to hit speed dial when a flaming boar's head appeared in their living room. It seemed Ares finally had something to tell them.
The demigods bowed before it while Mina murmured something about bacon.
"I'd advise you not to try little granddaughter." Ares said with a smile that looked odd on a boar's head. "It'll burn your tongue."
Mina put her daggers away with a pout.
"Lord Ares-"
"Get up, maggots. No pleasantries today. Hup-to." The boar head growled and as commanded they stood up. "So bad news. No gods are helping you today. We can't do it."
"Can't or won't?" Pyrrha half growled and half sneered.
The boar's head turned to her.
"Don't get mouthy with me, girl." Though the head looked pleased by her display. "I'll let you off for now since this is a shit situation. As for your question, it's a can't situation for the gods. We, myself included, can't go looking for her. Couldn't even scry where she is. We've tried, but got nowhere. The Hecashit kid must have some serious magical bullshit going on with him to pull that off. Apollo's seething that a brat's outsmarted him somehow."
The daughter of war snarled. "I'm going to rip that shit's head off his shoulders for this!"
"You damn fucking better, girl." The boar's head squealed as it disappeared.
"Don't worry, Pyrrha, you'll get your chance. I assure you of that." Alkaid told her with a comforting one armed hug. "But first, we need to come up with a plan."
"Hello, slaves of the gods." The annoyingly familiar voice of Alabaster C. Torrington called from a rainbow hovering in the air where Ares' boars' head used to be.
"Hello Titan whipping boy." Alkaid cooly returned the greeting. "Come to taunt us? I didn't know your ego was so tiny."
The son of Hecate smirked. "Hardly, just wanted to remind you to stay away from Camp no matter what or Ms. Branwen will pay the price."
"You bastard, you better pray to mommy I never see you face to face. I swear, not even the Furies could do what I'll do to you." Pyrrha snarled, with livid look in her reddish brown eyes that could give even monsters pause.
The son of magic just chuckled. "Yes, I'm sure you will but you'll need to find me first."
"Pyrrha." Alkaid hissed at her warningly, quelling her for the moment. "Alabaster, why the sudden call? Something happened that has you worried?"
He had a good poker face, but she could see the small flinch in his eyes. Something had him rattled.
"He's scared." Mina spoke up, her yellowish green eyes glowering at him.
"The questers do something to spook you, eh, Alabaster?" Alkaid said tauntingly, mirth in her eyes. "Is Castellan throwing a fit?"
"It's not Castellan I'm worried about. Circe is a lot scarier than he could ever be." The man whispered unconsciously, before catching himself.
"Ah, there it is." The brunette smirked. "Did they somehow make sister dear look stupid?"
"Shut up! Just stay away from Camp and the questers, is that clear?" Alabaster demanded.
"And so we come full circle to the real reason for all this." Alkaid clapped her hands, looking pleased. "Is your little rebellion so afraid to have me at Camp? I must be quite the boogeyman."
"Don't flatter yourself! It's your pet goddess that's the real threat."
"Boo!" Mina giggled, a mad gleam in her eyes. "He's a scaredy cat! I wanna stab him lots and lots!"
"We can make it a family event." Alkaid supplied to her silver headed daughter. "Now, say goodbye to the dead child, Mina."
Waving merrily, Mina smiled. "Bye-bye victim!"
Before Alabaster could rebut, Alkaid waved her hand through the image, cancelling the I.M.
"That uppity bitch!" Alabaster fumed as he stormed down the corridor passing by windows looking out at the rough seas of the North Atlantic far below.
He like his compatriots were currently based out of a iron-and-stone castle floating over the Atlantic Ocean. It looked like nothing more than some kind of strange cylinder created out of a dozen floors of varying sizes that stacked straight upwards with a circular base floor that had a diameter of one kilometre. The floors kept shifting though, swapping places in random patterns with the exception of the top and base floors. The bottom floor was a cog shaped floor that functioned primarily as a harbour and the top floor consisted of a single large sandstone keep within which he currently resided.
Didn't she know the situation she was in? How dare she act like she had the upper hand!
"Leave it to a demigod raised by a god to act just like one of them." He spat as he crossed the threshold into a meeting room that looked like it came right out of a madman's mind. It was a garish mix of styles that should have clashed terribly, but somehow managed to still remain somewhat attractive.
Then again, this place did belonged to the goddess of discord herself. So the odd style was to be expected.
"Hey hey, if it isn't the little street magician. Pull up a chair, punk." A voice snickered at him. It belonged to what could only be described as a horse shoved into a suit. It was flanked by three other similarly dressed horses who laughed alongside their compatriot.
These were the Mares of Diomedes, legendary man eating horses. Though they preferred to go by the name Mare-Do-Wells these days, which fit in with their chosen theme of cosplaying as 1920s mafiosi. Complete with their '20s style suits which had been specially tailored suits to match their equine frames. A look which was only slightly compromised by a harness where a saddle would be that he knew housed their weapons.
Their look was surreal and even humorous, but considering how dangerous he knew they were he was not about to mention that to the volatile horses. Not after he saw them tear a poor child of Morpheus apart after he had made the mistake of mentioning their fellow talking horse Incitatus in their presence. Apparently they had a deadly rivalry with the legendary horse of the Roman Emperor Caligula.
"Yes, Alabaster, please take a seat." Eris, the goddess of chaos, discord, and strife and their host said pleasantly. She was a tall, beautiful woman with gleaming eyes and a smile like a serial killer. She was dressed in a black toga, and was lazily smoking a cigarette. She looked down on them with that unnerving smile of hers from her throne as it floated around the room in random directions.
"So? How was your little talk? Was the daughter of Hades happy to see you?" Eris laughed. "No, no, you look angry! Aw, did she put you beneath her heel? She likes doing that. Now if only she wasn't half mortal she'd make a pretty good goddess."
"She does have the attitude for it." Alabaster agreed as he took a seat.
"Enough talk about her." The leader of the Mares, Capo, said dismissively.
"Aw, but she makes you all upset. I like it." Eris beamed and let out a small deranged giggle.
"Boss, please." Capo clapped her hooves. "We've got business to discuss."
Eris waved her hand in a half hearted apology, and indicated that the mare could continue.
"So my plan is going well, no?" Capo said proudly.
"It's doing alright so far, but plans don't always go your way. Isn't that what makes them fun?" The goddess cocked her head as she floated upside down.
Especially with you around. Alabaster thought and blanched as she winked at him. Shit, of course she'd read my mind.
"You worry too much, Boss." Capo reassured the goddess. "I'll be perfectly able to handle any situations that arise."
"Really? I certainly hope so." Eris asked with a teasing smirk as their surroundings shook violently, even as she teleported away.
Suddenly the doors burst open and a fire breathing horse canted into the room as it screamed anxiously, "We're under attack!"
Alabaster shot an annoyed look at Capo for jinxing them.
"Don't you worry, magic boy." The leader of the Mare-Do-Wells said with confidence. "I have this covered."
"How did you even get this?" Pyrrha asked incredulously as she eyed the blueprints for Eris' Atlantic palace.
"Athena was being in a generous mood." Alkaid informed her lover. "After I tracked Alabaster's I.M. back to Eris' palace, I immediately contacted her and asked for her help. She sent these over a few minutes later."
Pyrrha snorted, "Please, from what you told me, she thinks you're amazing."
"I wouldn't say amazing, more like she respects me for being a fellow academic." The brunette smiled.
"Uh-huh."
"Anyway, we have the first step to extracting Jane." The daughter of Hades pursed her lips. "What we have to truly worry about is what's holed up in the castle. Knowing Eris, she has some crazy monsters locked away for her amusement."
"Well, lucky for you two I'm in a generous mood then." A familiar gruff voice from behind the two women said.
"Dad?" Pyrrha said in surprise, spinning around to see her father, Ares, dressed in his favored thuggish biker guise.
"The one and only." The god of war replied with a smirk.
"Lord Ares." Alkaid dipped her head in respect and gave him a curious look. "Am I to assume you are here to offer assistance?"
"I'm not." He bluntly told them and thumbed outside. "Someone else is though."
Taking his cigarette out of his mouth, he tossed it out a nearby window where it phased through the glass as if it wasn't there. It fell to the ground and where it touched the earth suddenly the ground cracked open, making a noticeable fissure.
Hands emerged from the crevice as figures began to crawl out of it. Slowly but surely, a horde of gaunt grey skinned warriors pulled their way out of the Underworld.
Spartoi, Alkaid noted with some shock. She'd never seen so many of them in the mortal world at any one time.
"See, these guys just happened to be here." Ares said with a smile, before gesturing behind him where a incredibly buff Spartoi with a impressive beard dressed in full Hoplite armor had appeared out of nowhere. "Don't care what you do with them. Go kill crazy."
With that, he disappeared in a flash of red flames.
Pyrrha had a soft smile on her face.
Alkaid didn't know what to make of it, but she assumed that Pyrrha was seeing this as much as a gift Ares could offer her.
"So ladies, what's your plan of attack?" The Spartoi in the room asked as he stepped up to the table where they'd laid out the blueprints. "Oh, the name's Leonidas by the way."
"Leonidas!? As in Leonidas I of Sparta, the guy who fought in the Battle of Thermopylae with his famous three hundred?"
"Indeed." The skeletal jaw clicked into a grisly smile.
"Welcome to our home, Your Majesty." Alkaid greeted with a faint smile. "As for our plan of attack, with you and the three hundred, it seems sneaking in like we originally planned is shelved for now."
The famous king just shot them both a supremely unimpressed look.
Alkaid felt a flash of embarrassment at that. While she was a skilled planner, she wasn't exactly a military genius.
"Amatuers. Going into an enemy stronghold two strong? While your gods given gifts are boons, even numbers and poor planning can kill your lot."
"Perhaps you can help us then?" Pyrrha said defensively.
"Yes, I suppose I will have to take charge now won't I?" The undead king said with a resigned sigh.
After a grueling climb up the nine preceding floors of Eris' castle, Alkaid, Pyrrha, Leonidas and the three hundred, had finally made it to the top floor and stood outside the imposing sandstone keep that made up the majority of the floor.
"That was… far too easy." Alkaid remarked, looking around uneasily. "There should have been at least some resistance to simply Portkeying in like this."
"Easy? Really? Did you forget the hordes of monsters we've just had to fight our way through?" Pyrrha snapped.
"Your lover is correct, daughter of my lord, it was too easy." Leonidas said in support of Alkaid. "I suspect Eris let us in on purpose. As a goddess of discord, she likely wants this fight."
That's all the more unsettling. Alkaid thought pensively.
The sound of beating wings had the small army look up to the sky and caused them to groan in frustration. Even more flocks of the metallic Feather-Shooting Birds were flying in to attack them. After having fought their way through what must have been hundreds of these particularly annoying monsters, they were very tired of facing the metallic avains.
As one the Spartoi raised their shields over their heads to protect them as the birds began shooting their knife like feathers at them like arrows in repeated strafing runs.
"Horses!" Pyrrha warned as a group of the equally annoying Fire Breathing Horses poked their heads out of murder holes in the keep's wall and rained hot flames upon them.
"Incantare: Testudo." Alkaid incanted as a series of overlapping rectangular magical shields formed in front of their formation and protected them from the horses' flames.
The streams of fire simply splashed against the secondary shield wall. Nevertheless the flames started to heat the area up quickly causing Alkaid and Pyrrha to become increasingly uncomfortable, but the Spartans being undead were completely unfazed.
"These guys are a lot better organized than the ones before." Pyrrha noted with a frown even as she tried to shoot spells through the murder holes to take out the horses hiding behind the keep's walls.
"They're keeping us pinned." Leonidas observed. "We need to break up their ranks."
"I've got this." Alkaid said as she summoned her Grimoire into her left hand to help her focus. Raising her right palm, she conjured a series of magic circles in front of it even as another set appeared behind her. At the same time, magical energy visibly began to crackle wildly around Alkaid's frame, even as the same power coursed strongly through her own body and lit her eyes up like glowing beacons.
As her spell neared its completion, another three larger magical circles appeared in front of her and all of them started to compact. Once they finished their compression, a two foot wide green beam shot forth.
"Starbuster!"
The large green beam drove into the walls of the keep blasting a massive gaping hole in the building and reducing a multitude of monsters into golden dust.
"Go! We'll hold the rest of the monsters here." Leonidas orders the two demigods.
The two half-bloods nodded at the undead king and burst into a run. They had just broke pass the front line of the Spartan Spartoi when suddenly Eris made her appearance.
"Not so fast, ladies." The goddess said cheekily as she waved her right hand at the two young women and sent them both flying with a burst of telekinetic power.
Alkaid quickly summoned a pair of magical platforms and caught both Pyrrha and herself. She turned to confront the goddess, but was beaten to the punch.
"You wretch!" Leonidas exclaimed as he stepped forward with fury. His yellow eyes seemed almost ablaze. "Why have you sided against Olympus? Have you so little honor that you would fight against your own?!"
Eris looked at him in confusion, "Siding? Who said I was with the Titans? I'm just having some fun. A sprinkle of chaos here, a dab of discord there. What's so wrong with that? Doesn't that sound fun?"
"Is that so? Well, then have a taste of the chaos you like so much then!" Leonidas shouted as he charged forward, his three hundred following right behind her.
"Boring." Eris said with a sigh as she waved her hand at the charging Spartans and sent a bolt of energy at Leonidas.
Before it could hit though, a squad broke out of the charging ranks of the three hundred and jumped in front of their king and took the blow for him. They were disintegrated by the blast but they had done their duty and absorbed the power of the attack, allowing their king to continue his charge.
"επικαλούνται: σκορπιός βέλος [Invoke: Scorpion Arrow]" Alkaid cast sending an arrow of sliver magic at Eris.
The goddess barely acknowledged the spell though and swatted it aside and instead continued to focus her attention on the Spartans.
"Oh? That's entertaining. Let me applaud you." Eris grinned as she clapped her hands. A shockwave followed the action, sending the remainder of the three hundred sprawling.
"Leonidas!" Pyrrha shouted out worriedly.
"Come on! Don't you want a standing ovation?" Eris giggled with glee as the Spartans attempted to rise to their feet, but couldn't. It was as if some oppressive weight held them down.
"επικαλούνται: σημάνει διακόπτη [Invoke: Spell Breaker]" Alkaid cast, trying to break whatever spell the goddess was using to keep her allies pinned. Unfortunately the goddess' magic was simply too powerful for her spell. As a result, the spell back-lashed against her, sending her screaming in agony as the magical energy she'd invested into the spell flooded uncontrollably back into her system and set fire to her nerves.
"Good try, little girl." The goddess of discord said with an amused look as she waved her hand at Alkaid, sending a bolt of energy in her direction.
"'Kaidy!" Pyrrha screamed as she threw herself into the still pain wracked sorceress's side and tackling her out of the way of the attack.
Even as she fell, her nerves frying, the daughter of Hades flicked one of her cards towards the goddess of discord.
In midair, the card transformed into a brace of her Bloody Daggers that screeched as they raced through the air towards the goddess.
Laughing merrily, Eris swatted each blade away with her hands. The daggers impaling several Spartans, and even a number of the Fire-Breathing Horses and Feather-Shooting Birds that had returned to spectate on the goddess' schooling of the heroes.
"Whoo! Nailed them all. Hahaha!"
Struggling, Leonidas pushed himself to his feet. His entire body shook as he sent a grizzled smile to the goddess. "Let's see if I can as well!"
How the hell did he manage to do that? Alkaid noted with shock as she saw the Spartoi do the impossible and defy the goddess' power.
He cocked his arm back and with a roar threw his spear. The goddess moved to swat it out of the air but somehow failed. Instead the celestial bronze spear pierced right through her palm, carved a bloody cut down her arm and wedged itself into the goddess' shoulder.
It took Eris a moment to register that she had been struck. Her face froze in complete surprise for a second as she looked at her grievously injured arm in shock, before the pain must have hit her like a brick and she screamed.
"You wretched mortal!" She shrieked as she pulled the spear out of her, spilling more of her divine blood. Her body began to glow with a golden light. "I'll incinerate your very soul for this insult! I'll show you just what it means to anger a goddess of chaos!"
"Using your full divine power against mortals?" Leonidas asked with a smirk as he collapsed onto his back in exhaustion and causing the goddess to freeze. "Did you forget that was against the Ancient Laws?"
As the realization dawned upon her, Eris released a murderous scream of frustration.
"You tricked me! Dam-" The goddess screamed in frustration before she was cut out by a scream of agony. One so utterly terrifying that it sent the handful of monsters still in the area running.
"What's happening?" Pyrrha asked, looking at the goddess thrash in pain.
"The Ancient Laws are punishing her for her transgression." Alkaid said, she glanced at Leonidas as he was helped to his feet by his recovering Spartans.
"What are you waiting for? Move!" He shouted to the pair of half-bloods.
Nodding, the couple rushed into the wrecked fortress to save Jane.
Alkaid and Pyrrha ran through the halls of the fortress, unerringly following the path to the dungeons where the sorceress' magic indicated Jane was being held.
They were just about to turn down the hall that would lead them to the stairs that led to the lower floors of the keeps when the sound of hooves clanking on marble halted their steps.
"More horses?" Pyrrha hissed. "How many of them are there?"
"Focus Pyrrha." Alkaid shot back as a door swung open and an unusual group marched out. At its head was Alabaster and accompanying the son of Hecate were a group of horses… in suits?
What is this? Animal Farm? Alkaid pondered as she primed her magic.
"Move, you little shit." Pyrrha snarled, looking ready to rip the son of Hecate's head off with her bare hands.
"I don't feel like it." Alabaster smirked. Alkaid could not wait to wipe it off his face.
And by that she meant remove his head from his shoulders.
"Handle Hades' girl, magic boy." The horse with a particularly fancy fedora said, nudging the son of Hecate aside. "We, the Mare-Do-Wells, will deal with Ares' spawn."
With a hand gesture, mist coalesced around Alabaster and formed into a pack of Hellhounds. The salivating dogs of the underworld snarled at Alkaid.
"Come on, do you have the heart to kill your family's dogs?" He taunted the sorceress.
At the same time, the leader of the horses surged forward in a blur and slammed the hooves of its forelegs right into Pyrrha's chest so hard that the blow sent her flying through a brick wall and out into a courtyard. With the whole herd of mafioso horses following after her.
"Pyrrha!" Alkaid called out worriedly.
"Do you think you really have the time to worry about her?" Alabaster asks with a smirk as he snapped his fingers and sent his Mistform Hellhounds charging at her.
Gritting her teeth, a cold glare formed on Alkaid's face as she raised her hand in a gun like gesture at the Mistform constructs. Jerking her hand in imitation of feeling the recoil of an actual gun, she launched bolts of darkness in rapid succession at her enemies.
They pierced through the charging hounds with deadly accuracy, reducing their heads into clouds of bloody mist before they quickly faded alongside the rest of their dead bodies back into the Mist that they had been created from.
"Please, I've been training with hellhounds since I was a child." Alkaid scoffed. "I could kill them in my sleep."
The boy simply sneered at her. "Typical. A god teaching their child to be just as much a monster as they are."
"Oh? Does your Mother fit that category? She helped me learn some of my magic after all." Alkaid happily threw back in his face.
"Of course. Mother never lies about what she is and what she does. Something that few other gods can claim."
"Oh gods, lose the soapbox already."
"How about I do one better." The son of Hecate said with a smirk. "Incantare: Templum Incendere. [Enchant: Temple of Fire]"
Alkaid immediately felt her Grimoire heat up, but she reacted swiftly.
"επικαλούνται: σημάνει διακόπτη [Invoke: Spell Breaker]." The magic of her spell easily overpowered his fire spell, canceling the rising heat that had been affecting her spellbook.
Just as swiftly, she returned the favor with a spell of her own.
"Incantare: Crucifixionis [Enchant: Crucifixion]."
Mist immediately coalesced around the son of magic and shaped itself into a wooden cross. A set of nails with chains attached to them shot out of the cross and pierced the boy's hands and feet. The chains wrapped around his body and dragged him up onto the cross where the chains proceeded to wrap themselves firmly to the wooden frame of the torture device. In short, the spell had effectively crucified Alabaster.
"AAHHH!" The proud son of Hecate writhed in the agony and howled as blood flowed from his pierced limbs.
"Oh look, target practice." The brunette smiled as a magic circle appeared in front of her, motes of magical light collecting into a single brilliantly glowing mass at the center. "Divine Buster."
At her incantation, a massive beam of magical energy shot forth from the glowing mass of magic and collided with the tortured boy. The impact ripped him from his pinned position and carried him into the far wall, blasting him through it and sent him spilling out into the air over the stormy North Atlantic.
"That better have killed him...just in case." Alkaid said as she performed a quick prayer. "Dearest Uncle, please have a shark eat him. Thank you."
Looking off to where Pyrrha went, she hurried towards that direction.
"Just be okay."
"Ugh!" Pyrrha hissed in discomfort as she pushed herself back to her feet from among the pile of rubble that had been the chunk of stone wall she'd just been kicked through.
"Thank the gods that 'Kaidy's wards held. That horse has one hell of a kick." The daughter of Ares noted as she rubbed at where she'd been kicked tenderly.
The sound of hooves had her look back towards the hole in the wall to see the gangster wannabes casually walking over.
They were so damn casual in fact that they were stupid enough to walk right into her range. Smirking and thinking about how their stupidity would be to her advantage, Pyrrha swung her labrys at them.
The lead horse bucked and slammed its forelegs down on the daughter of Ares but Pyrrha easily rolled out of the way. However, this just put her right in front of another of the horses which proceeded to lash out with a kick of its own that sent the redhead flying once more, though not before receiving a nasty wound of its own courtesy of her labrys.
She was just recovering from yet another painful flight through the air when a third horse pinned her to the ground with one of her forelegs and bent down to bite down on the shoulder of the arm holding her weapon.
"Get off me you creep!" Pyrrha screamed as she punched it in its nose so hard that it stumbled back drunkenly.
"Huh? We can't bite through her armor wards?" The horse with the fanciest hat noted almost lazily. "Guess we'll have kill her then eat her."
"Yeah, Capo." The horse whose nose she'd busted replied nasally. "But could we like get a snack first? My nose really hurts."
"Baby." The Capo replied, "But fine. We might need some healing later anyways. Yo, you stupid birds get your feathered asses down here now!"
At the shouted command, a large flock of the Feather-Shooting Birds that had been such pests up till now flew down into the courtyard where Pyrrha was facing off against these strange man eating equine mobsters.
"Not these pigeons again!" Pyrrha groaned.
However, in contrast to her expectations, the birds did not attack her. Instead, they just circled around the horses. Something that allowed the horses to easily reach out, grab individual birds right out of the air and start eating them. All the horses did this, but it was those she'd just wounded that caught her attention most. As they chewed down on the avian snacks, their wounds healed right before her eyes.
"Um, okay, that was just...whoa." Pyrrha said, taking a few cautious steps back. Cannibal horses that heal from eating other monsters? That was a new one for her.
"What's wrong girlie?" The Capo taunted. "You think you can't beat me and my sisters? Why not run to your magical cannon for help, wimp."
"Oh, I can beat you chumps. It just won't be easy." Pyrrha admitted as she took a few steps forward to start the slaughter. The mares weren't idle though and formed a line before her.
The line bit down on their bits and suddenly from the harnesses on their backs emerged a set of robotic arms that held a set of tommy guns.
"You've gotta be shitting me." Pyrrha said, feeling a cold sweat roll down her neck. Her eyes caught the trigger fingers of the robotic arms move and with a curse, she immediately ran for cover.
A hail of gunfire followed her, colliding with the wards that Alkaid had armored her with, as she dove behind the protection of a stone planter.
"Damn, the wards aren't going to hold out against that kind of fire." Pyrrha noted with a frown even as the sheer weight of gunfire tore the stone planter apart. "Neither is this flower pot."
Rushing out from behind the planter, the daughter of Ares leveled her wand at the horses and launched a barrage of Bombardas at the monsters.
Unfortunately, her spells were being intercepted by the Feather-Shooting Birds by sacrificing their lives to absorb them with their own bodies. Even when her spells connected, the Mares simply devoured some of the surviving birds to negate any damage they caused. Watching the wounds closing up as if her exploding charms meant nothing frustrated her to no end.
Are those birds sticking around just to be eaten? Pyrrha noted as she dived behind a statue of Eris. They gotta be since they aren't even attacking me. Shit, that's messed up, even for monsters.
An idea came to mind as she glanced at Akoúo̱. Smirking, she pulled out several potion vials that gave off a glittering glow and threw them right at the horses.
"Do you think grenades will help you?" The Capo replied dismissively. "Huh, you can't even throw straight."
"Those ain't grenades, you idiot horse." Pyrrha shot back as she pointed her wand at the potion vials which had landed halfway between herself and the monster's firing line. "Bombarda!"
Her charm shattered the potion vials and as they did so unleashed great flashes of light. Just like a flash bang.
The horses shouted obscenities as they were blinded by the light and the birds' flight became irregular. Pyrrha however was smart enough to shield her eyes against the light, allowing her to take the opportunity and charge at the blinded monsters.
They barely got to whinny as the daughter of Ares closed.
With one mighty swing of her labrys she decapitated the first horse she reached. The sound of its body collapsing into golden dust must have tipped its nearest comrade off as it lashed out with a kick. It was still blind though and its aim was completely off, and it was easy for Pyrrha to spin out of the way.
Swinging her axe once more, she cleaved the horse's offending limb off completely. It reared back in agony and Pyrrha rolled under it, using her labrys to disembowel it in the process. The monster's guts fell all over her in the moments before it turned to dust.
The stink was overpowering but the daughter of war ignored it to press her attack. The smell however seemed to have tipped off the next horse in her sights or it might have just been lashing out in a panic. Either way, it kicked out with its hind legs. Unfortunately for the monster, it still had not recovered from the flash bang potions and like its peer earlier missed. With a bloodthirsty grin, Pyrrha leapt into the air and brought her labrys down with all her might. It found its mark and buried itself deeply in the skull of the horse she was facing, killing it.
In the time that the daughter of Ares took to eliminate the first three monstrous horses, the remaining three horses had finally recovered. However, the redhead wasn't going to let them pin her with their gunfire again so easily.
Tossing another vail of Alkaid's alchemical potions between them, Pyrrha dove away. Unlike the flash bang potions, this vail shattered upon contact with the ground and unleashed a powerful explosion. The horses whinnied and staggered back in pain. They tried to go for something to eat, to recover, but she wouldn't let them.
"Stay down!" Pyrrha shouted and swung her heavy headed axe at the nearest horse. The blade bit into its flesh, leaving a massive wound that stretched from its neck all the way down to its stomach. It gurgled as it fell in a heap, and slowly started to turn into gold dust.
The redhead whirled around, trying to catch the other one but was caught unaware as the Capo rammed its head into her side.
Pyrrha let out a gasp of pain as she rolled along the ground. As she struggled back to her feet, she witnessed the Capo devouring the lingering remains of her dead sister as a means to recover while the other remaining horse was attempting to do the same with a few birds.
"Not on my watch!" Pyrrha roared as she charged.
Throwing her labrys at the still recovering horse, the weapon crashed into the mare's side. It let out an agonized whiny, but Pyrrha had no sympathy for it and wretched her weapon from its body with a sharp pull.
"Fucking glutton shit!" She snapped and brought the weapon down, lopping off its head. Panting, she turned around and stared at the Capo, who looked as fit as a fiddle. "Just you and me now, Glue."
It was a standoff, Horse to Woman.
"I won't fall for your little parlor tricks again, bitch." The Capo snorted, her nostrils flared. "I swear I'm gonna rip out your intestines and lynch you with 'em."
The demigod simply answered by raising Miló and releasing a gout of flames at the monster. The flames weren't enough to kill the Mare but it did distract it, and cause it to scream and rear in pain, which was exactly what Pyrrha wanted.
Running up to the badly burned monster, she swung wide, lopping off one of its front hooves even as the other slammed into her shoulder.
The force of the blow laid Pyrrha out flat, her shoulder blade feeling broken even with her wards. Biting back a cry, she rolled out of the way before she was stomped by its still functioning front hoof.
As the daughter of Ares pulled back, the Capo used the breather to go for some more of the birds, eating them messily as Pyrrha pulled out a bottle of Nectar to chug herself. Feeling the blistering pain in her shoulder ebb away, the redhead made to charge once more at the Mare.
The monster was having none of that and leveling her tommy guns at the redhead, she opened up on full auto. Undaunted, the daughter of war charged headlong into the stream of bullets even as they quickly began to eat away at her wards.
Ten feet! Just another ten feet! Pyrrha shouted to herself in the depths of her mind as her wards began to fail and the odd bullet slipped through the holes that were opening up in the protective magics that surrounded her to leave her with grazing wounds.
Five feet! A little more!
The wards were all but gone now, with only the tattered remains over her vital areas keeping her safe and even those were on her last legs. But the daughter of war refused to back down even as bullets shot through her body, tapping into the superhuman strength endowed to her by her father she soldiered on, determinedly closing the remaining distance.
Her fortitude got her within strike range once more. Panicking, the Capo lashed out with her forelimbs but Pyrrha spun around the poorly aimed strikes and she continued to close. With a blood curdling warcry, she finally came into range and swung her weapon with all the righteous fury of a daughter fighting to rescue her mother. In a single stroke, she decapitated the Capo and sent its head flying with its eyes frozen in a look of shock.
Despite her injuries, Pyrrha couldn't help but complain. I had to seriously go Rambo on a fucking horse? Man why can't I fight regular monsters anymore.
Exhausted from the tough fight she all but collapsed against a pillar of a nearby pavilion and pulled out her bottle of Nectar once more. As she polished off the last of the drink of the gods, the redhead's insides felt like they were boiling as it worked its healing magic.
The screech of the Feather-Shooting Birds had her spin in the direction from where she'd been separated from Alkaid only to see a large flock of the pesky pigeons flee in a panic from a barrage of magical bullets.
Guess they weren't just here as snacks after all. The daughter of war noted.
"Pyrrha!" The daughter of Hades called out, running up to her through the rapidly clearing swarm of monstrous birds. Seeing her wounds, the brunette gasped and was by her side in a second, immediately casting some minor healing spells on her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," The daughter of Ares grunted as she pushed herself to her feet. "Let's just find Mom."
The couple hurried through the floating castle's dungeons now devoid of any monsters beyond a few hastily dispatched stragglers. As they made their way down the row of cells, it didn't take long for the two girls to pick up voices.
It was the squawking of birds.
"You lot find me annoying, don't you?" A familiar voice said in response to the avian ruckus.
"Mum. That's mum." Pyrrha whispered in relief,
Unaware of Pyrrha's response, Jane's statement was met by a startled squawk.
"Oh, come on. I don't need to understand bird to guess what you lot have been chattering about. So, you stupid cheap KFC rejects better shut your beaks before I get out of here and do it for you!"
The frantic sound of beating wings and shrieks of panic followed Jane's saucy reply.
"Yeah, that's mom alright." Pyrrha whispered to Alkaid.
Coming around the corner to see a flock of Feather-Shooting Birds, Alkaid sighed in annoyance.
"Divine Shooter." The sorceress cast and unleashed a barrage of magical bullets that proceeded to reduce the whole flock into piles of golden dust. "Bloody birds. They've been pestering us the whole way up this stupid castle."
"Hi girls." Jean smiled beautifully at them. She looked a little scuffed up but generally unharmed, much to the girls' relief.
Alkaid readied a spell to unlock the cell door, but Pyrrha just sliced the hinges off the door and ripped it open in a rush. Rushing into the cell, she hugged her mother and sagged with relief.
"Gods mom, I'm happy you're alright. I had a freaking heart attack when they told us they had you." Pyrrha said, squeezing the older redhead tighter.
"Come on, sweetie, I'm a lot tougher than I look."
Alkaid looked amused by that. "Speaking of, why were those birds so nervous around you?"
Jane gained a sly look on her face. "That? Well, those birdbrains were the first wave they sent after me when they attacked my house. They weren't really expecting much resistance so it sorta exploded in their faces. Never underestimate a good security system, magic, and a whole lot of guns. Let's just say they ended up with a lot of yolk and bullets to their faces."
The woman sighed. "Then those stupid fire breathing horses came in and got me. Still, they were pretty embarrassed and scared of me the whole time I was sitting here."
Pyrrha laughed at that and hugged her mom again. "Damn, never change."
"You know this explains a lot about how you managed to gain Ares' favor." Alkaid noted as she ran a series of diagnostic spells over Jane to check for anything untoward. "A mortal capable of taking on even relatively weak monsters like the Birds and winning would definitely have managed to catch his interest."
"Please, Ares could barely handle me himself." Jane smirked with her hands on her hips.
Omake: Dungeon Scolding
Alabaster C. Torrington, son of Hecate and soldier of in the titanic army, stalked down the dreary halls of the dungeons in Eris' floating castle muttering curses at having been reduced to taking orders from a bunch of wannabe gangster horses.
How could he, the strongest child of Hecate in his whole generation and thus their leader, be reduced to being an errand boy for a bunch of crazy equines? Certainly the man eating Mares of Diomedes were dangerous monsters, but he couldn't help but chafe at taking orders from a mere animal.
As he neared his destination however, he reined his anger in. It wouldn't do to show their "guest" any sign of disunity within their ranks. Or at least, he was professional enough to not do so.
Coming to a stop in front of the cell holding Jane Branwen, former paramour of Ares and mother of the pesky demigod Pyrrha Branwen, Alabaster put on his most professional mask and gestured for the flock of Feather-Shooting Birds that served as her guards to fly off for a moment and give him some privacy.
"I hear you've been upsetting your guards, Miss Branwen." The magician said without any hint of his annoyance that he was being sent down to handle such a trivial matter.
The redhead woman cocked her head to the side.
"So? It's not my fault they can't even get a meal right. I mean, if they try they could make something edible."
Alabaster felt a scowl come to his face, "...You're a prisoner though."
"So? Does that mean you can't make a decent sandwich? Do me a favor and write this down." Jane sighed with the patience only a mother could have.
The son of Hecate was about to put her in her place when the foolish woman had the gall to just start placing her order.
"First off, wheat bread please, not white. Turkey slices, make sure there is some pink to them. Tomato-"
"Incantare: Mitis Dolor [Enchant: Mild Pain]." Alabaster incanted without a hint of sympathy as he inflicted the pain of a bad migraine.
The woman let out a grunt, an annoyed look on her face.
"You listen here, lady, I'm not some waiter! I am-"
Despite her rebuke, the woman had the audacity to interrupt him, again!
"How rude of you to cut someone off as they speak to you. With a spell no less! And kidnapping at your age? Don't you know you're never going to get in a good college with a criminal record? What would your father think, young man?"
He tried, he really did, but he couldn't hide the flummoxed look on his face at that. He was going to tell her off, but she somehow kept talking.
"One more thing. I expect to be out of here by the end of the week and I'll make you pay me back for your dreadful hospitality. Even those Mares know how to treat a lady better than you, young man. You aren't going to find a girl like this unless you end up paying her. So please reflect on your personality. As a parent, it's depressing to see a child behaving so badly."
My head hurts just listening to her! Alabaster screamed in his mind as he did the only smart thing.
Turn around and walk away.
"Oh? Fine, be that way."
"Incantare: Dolor Magnam [Enchant: Great Pain]." Alabaster cast vindictively as he continued to walk away even as the annoying woman got her just deserts and screamed bloody murder as she endured the pain of being impaled alive.
It was music to his ears.
Done and done!
Thanks to the team of Nameless and Axios as always!
Nameless: So we had an annoying guest review full of expletives on the last chapter and which also questioned whether we had proper families, insinuating that our families were terrible. All this because the reviewer completely failed to read the section on Alkaid being confronted about her gaming addiction correctly.
First, the reviewer missed that Alkaid had suddenly become a recluse for a whole week, which any concerned family member should be worried about especially when you consider its to the extent as implied in the last chapter. Alkaid was outright neglecting her family i.e. she wasn't just taking time off to go finish the game, she was dismissing attempts at all family interaction in the week in order to do so.
Second, said reviewer also questioned how spending one week on a hobby can break up a family while completely missing that Pyrrha threatening that was essentially making an empty threat. One designed to scare Alkaid and get her to see how seriously she was taking things. You know, the kind of threats that get bandied about in the heat of a fight a lot more than we'd like?
Next, this offensive reviewer said that we had Mina just kill the addiction with her powers and wanted us to instead have Alkaid compromise with the rest of her family on this issue. However, the reviewer completely missed that that's exactly what happened! We subverted the trope and we still get criticized for it?
Lastly, the reviewer also said we don't listen to criticism. Considering how this particular review and many others we dismiss tend not to accurately portray what is in the story how do they honestly expect us to take them seriously?
Okay, enough about that trash of a review. E4E take it away.
E4E: Yes, so the rescue was a success! Between all the monsters, fighting a goddess (or outwitting her) and just dealing with a little punk magician. They did it.
Nameless: I'm a little disappointed we ended up using so few monsters in this chapter. Then again the only groups/units involved in this mission were the Mare-Do-Wells/Mares of Diomedes and their Fire Breathing Horses plus Eris with her personal guard of Feather-Shooting Birds. We could have slapped some more monsters in there, but we wanted to give the impression that each group of the diverse forces that make up the titanic army is actually quite homogenous.
It was a fun scene to build up on, just infiltrating and attacking a god's place of residence. And yes, Alabaster is a total shit. We all hate him, the shit.
Nameless: We ended up cutting a lot of the scaling of the castle itself, because well… It was boring. We could have spiced things up with traps and whatever but with a limited number of monsters to work with, see our reasons for that above, it would've gotten repetitive. In light of that, showing Al, Py and the three hundred fight their way up the floors would have just been pointless bloat. Plus Eris wants an epic fight at the top of her castle, so she made things easy.
This ain't no D&D session. Even if I'm a GM and could have set it up, it's not fun to read about.
Nameless: It could have… Who knows? In the end, the bloat issue was what decided it. If we covered it, things might have ended up being two, maybe three chapters. We don't want to get bogged down on this dungeon crawl, not when we have other exciting stuff we want to write next. So we went with a timeskip to cover most of it. Hope you guys don't mind too much.
Well, you know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!