Hi guys, sorry for the late update. My exams are coming next week and my father wants me to study so I can't sit in front of the computer the whole time.
From afar, it looked like another big ass monster, the size of Bob maybe bigger. The ground was shook violently as the monsters charged forward.
"You think he's here to help us?" My eyes never left the monster. Upon closer inspection, it looked more… human? A 20 ft tall human looking monster. He rushed towards the battle and slammed his body against the Drakon. Ignoring Bob, the monster grabbed the drakon by its head and repeatedly smashed it against the ground until it turns into ashes.
"A titan working with demigods, that's new, or perhaps it's been too long since I left Tartarus." The monster turned to face us after he swept the ashes apart. From the waist up, he looked totally human. His skin was cherry red, whether is it because of the atmosphere here or that's his natural colour I don't know. He has countless scars all over his face, probably more on his body. Waist down, he had dragon legs. My guess says he might be some cross breed between a God, maybe a Titan, and a Drakon.
"I'm Damasen, the Giant born to oppose Ares." He introduced himself. I drew up my sword immediately, despite knowing there is no god around to help us.
"No need to draw your weapons demigods, I'm have no intentions to kill you." He replied calmly, especially for someone who is the nemesis to the God of War.
"And how can we trust you?" I held my sword up tightly.
"Because I was banished here by Gaea herself," He answered. "Come, I have a hut a bit farther up in the north. I presume you guys could use the shelter for the night, and I also wish to hear about your story. A titan and demigods…" He muttered softly at the end and started walking.
"Hi Damasen, my name is Bob nice to meet you." Bob walked up beside Damasen said cheerfully, as of his post-Lethe dipping attitude. Damasen laughed out heartily. A genuine laugh that sends chills down my bone.
"Nice to see you develop a sense of humour over the millennia, Iapetus." Damasen patted Bob on the back.
"I'm Bob, why does everyone call me Iapetus? "Bob's tone dropped sharply; even I could notice the despair in his tone.
"I'm just joking with you. I know you're not Iapetus. You just resemble a lot like him." Damasen seemed to have caught onto our little secret and, surprisingly, followed on with it. I have nothing to say to that. He could easily spoke the truth, have Bob abandon us and bring us to Gaea. Maybe he's really telling the truth. The whole I got banished here by Gaea herself, but why? Why send the Giant's god of war into Tartarus? He's like arguably one of the biggest asset, even Ares is an important part of Olympus, no matter how cocky and arrogant he is.
"I will explain everything when we reached my hut." Damasen suddenly spoke up. Really, does every immortal have the ability to read people's mind?
Maybe it's just that you are too simple-minded. My mind played it in Artemis's tone. Great, even in Tartarus my mind misses her scolding. Note to self, never let Artemis knows of that, or it will be the ultimate excuse for her to keep yelling at me.
I could use some of her yelling right now though. It could be some useful advices on escaping Tartarus. My mind chided in. Ah screw you mind, you're supposed to be one concentrating on the task at hand. After treading through the seemingly endless field of marsh, I've finally saw Damasen's hut. It's situated right in the centre of the marsh, I guess. There was a circle of cleared land around it, I guess when you're in Tartarus there isn't much things to do.
"It's not much, but this is the most I can gather here in Tartarus." He humbly introduced his hut. It really wasn't much- a small bed, for his size, at the corner, a fire pit and a pot in the middle that's all, excluding some the weapons hanging on the walls and a big ass Drakon head in the middle.
"Are these… Drakon bones?" Annabeth was examining the walls. I reached out hand, lightly touching the walls of the hut. It felt surprisingly warm, not to mention amazing. To make a hut out of drakon bones, I wonder how many Drakon does it takes…
"Yeah, I have excess of it and decided to make a hut out of it." Damasen replied, his tone ever soft which makes me uneasy. "Want some stew?" He offered nicely.
"No thanks, I'm good." I sat by the corner, leaning my back against the warm Drakon bone and took out the packet of M&Ms I smuggled. Not that I'm scared it's poisonous, but I'm not entirely sure what my stomach agrees with what Damasen puts inside his stew. Annabeth and Zoe each got a bowl, and when Annabeth looked towards my direction, her face immediately scowled. Not wanting to start an argument, which I clearly know I can't win, I raised my hand in defeat and asked for a serving as well and sat with them.
"It's quite nice actually." Annabeth assured me as I eyed at the stew incredulously. It's definitely my first time seeing a Drakon stew, let alone try one so of course I'm sceptical. I gobbled it down eventually, my stomach was grumbling so hard that I would even try eating the bones on the wall.
"Mmm." I mumbled in delight at how delicious the stew was. It's probably better than Hestia's. One thing about being in Tartarus that is there is no gods here to read my mind, so I can say whatever I want.
"You really are shameless, are you?" Annabeth chided me when I gobbled down my stew and asked for a second portion.
"It was you who told me to eat something healthier, and Drakon stew beats M&Ms and I'm still hungry." I replied smirking as Damasen gladly refilled my bowl. Judging by that big stew pot, I guess he has more than enough to feed himself anyway.
"I don't see you scolding her when she asked for her second serving." I gestured to Zoe, who probably followed my lead and asked for a second serving as well.
"You can't blame her. Who knows how long she was held captive? If you were held captive you've probably be diving into the stew pot already." Annabeth argued back soundly, as always, and elbowed me in the ribs. After eating my fill (I only had two serving so don't judge), I wanted to go right to sleep but Annabeth and Zoe decided it would be better if we start discussing our plan.
"Bob, why don't you help us keep a lookout outside? I fear that the demigods' scent would attract more monsters than usual." Damasen told Bob. I had my suspicions. If this was her plan, to gain our trust, then divert Bob away and kill us… well at least he fed us first. That, and the fact that he could have killed us if he wanted to back at the marsh.
"You need to tell him the truth about his past." Damasen said sternly. "I assure you, somewhere down your road on your way out. You will meet monsters who know Iapetus. If that happens, what is to say Iapetus won't abandon you amidst the confusion or even betray you?" He explained, and deep down we know he's right. We've already met with that situation before and it wasn't pleasant. Bob was in a state of confusion back then, and we had to spent time convincing him.
"I'll leave you to discuss this among yourself." Damasen left us be, and followed on was a moment of silence.
"How should we tell him?" I broke the silence, looking up to face Zoe and Annabeth. As if on cue, the both of them gave me the same look.
"You can't be serious? Why me?" I cried out.
"Why not you? Among the three of us, you're the closest to him. He jumped into Tartarus only before he heard you screaming for help, not to mention that you were the one who caused him to lose his memories." Annabeth reasoned. I pondered for a moment,
"Why are you always right?" I lamented as I got up and went to find Bob. He wasn't hard to find. There were nothing within a mile from us, and how giant he was.
"Hey Bob, I need to tell you something." I called out to him.
Real genius Perseus, nice of way of starting. Artemis's tone played in my head. God damn it, I need to get my brain cleansed when I get out.
"What is it Percy?" Bob said cheerfully and turned over to face me, or look down at me. From my point, he feels kind of intimating; even the giant broom is making me shiver slightly.
"Uh… For starters, your name isn't exactly Bob… it is Iapetus." I stuttered my way through. "You are the titan lord of the west, and we were battling in the underworld where I pulled you into the river Lethe and wiped your memories. You became like…this- super nice and friendly. I didn't want to trigger back your old memories so I called you bob instead, and since then you treated me, Nico, and Thalia as your friends." I explained it in the simplest term possible. There was no reply, only Bob frowning down at me.
"So, I'm not Bob?" He asked, his tone vulnerable.
"You're not." I answered honestly. "But you could be! I mean if you enjoy being Bob, you can continue being Bob. Iapetus was a bad Titan, a very bad Titan. You can ask Damasen, he knew you as Iapetus in the past." I added quickly. Again, Bob took a moment to digest what I just said.
"I'll talk to Damasen." He answered neutrally and walked off. I stood there, staring into the endless field of marsh. Rescuing Zoe, meeting Bob, and now Damasen. All these actually made me felt confident, confident of getting out of Tartarus alive. Now, with Bob, or maybe I should call him Iapetus now, is leaving us, the chances of us getting out just drop drastically. I did prepare myself mentally that I wouldn't get out of Tartarus when I jumped in, but I didn't thought of how Artemis, my dad, my two moms will be without me. Artemis would probably rage and curse at me, maybe even going to the underworld and force Hades to hand me to her so she could kill me, but deep down I know she would be crying herself to sleep at night. My Dad would just go into some form of internal depression I guess. He's not one to show his negative emotions, but sometimes I could feel the anger inside of him when he argues with Zeus. I walked back into the hut, feeling dejected. Zoe and Annabeth looked at me when I return, hoping of a positive answer but I just wasn't in the mood to deal with this. I curled up in a corner and let my emotion take over me for the night.
Linebreak…
"Hey, wake up." I felt a nudge on my waist., and this time I didn't ask for another 5mins from my mom. "Damasen has something to tell us." Annabeth's voice sounded as she moved away from me. I rolled overly lazily, before pushing myself up and letting out a loud yawn before joining them.
"Iapetus left yesterday night. He said he needed some time alone to sort things out and told me to inform you only in the morning." Damasen said sadly. Nobody dared to speak, to rage or complain or anything. We were in the wrong first to begin with. "However, he and I did discuss on how to get you guys out of Tartarus. You will need to require the death mist, from the goddess Akhlys , if you wish to pass through the armies or monsters in front of the Door of Death."
"And you're bringing us to Akhlys right?" Annabeth asked.
"No." Damasen replied. "I'm banished to Tartarus before I killed a Drakon back on Earth. My punishment was that every day the Drakon will regenerate and come after me. I'll only hinder you if I follow." He said sadly.
"Have you tried leaving?" Annabeth suggested. "We could really use your help to get out of Tartarus. You could get out too."
"I've tried leaving the Marshfield before, and the Drakon followed me still. It's impossible, I'm destined to stay here for eternity" He said adamantly. "I'll show you the way, but that's the most I can do for you." He ended the discussion and went to get his gears.
"Travel this path up, and you will find a frail young woman who looks like a starved psychopath. You can't miss her." Damasen pointed out. A starved psychopath? I don't even know how to tell a psychopath based on appearance, but since Annabeth didn't press on it any further I assume she knows how. I wanted to ask again, to see if he would change his mind coming with us. I think having the Giant god of war with us is definitely better than three mere demigod, even if we have a killer Drakon following us.
"Actually, why can't we kill the Drakon early in the morning and rush out of Tartarus?" The idea popped in my mind.
"It's not that simple, there are too many factors to consider. There's more than a day's travel from here to the Door of Death for starters." He was still adamant on his decision.
"People always said it's impossible to escape from Tartarus, but we are also trying. We can't give up because of what people say, or what seemed impossible." Annabeth said, but we didn't push the matter further as we took our leave. The mood was dull. It was dull already before, but now it was even worse. We lost Bob, probably our greatest chance of getting out, and we were just rejected by the Giant god of war who prefers to stay in his hut and fight the Drakon every day. Now, we have to seek the help of a psychopathic goddess.
True enough, it wasn't hard to find our psychopathic goddess. She's is really like Damasen described- A frail looking, starved woman. From afar, I could notice her grey hair, and those tattered dress that's stained with…blood?
"That woman has some serious issues." I pointed out.
"Let's keep that between us ok?" Annabeth said as we slowly approached the laying goddess.
"No need to hide, I know why you're there." The goddess spoke without even turning to face us.
"So you're going to give it to us?" I popped in without thinking, and the hysterical laugher that followed answered it.
"Give you? The death mist isn't for helping stranded demigods to get past some monsters! It's the very breath of Tartarus, of death and despair itself. "
"But aren't you a goddess? Like part of the Gods themselves? Shouldn't you be helping them too?" Yet again, another hysterical laugh answered it.
"I'm not just any goddess young demigods. I'm one of the primordial goddess. Gaea is my sister, Chaos is our father. So tell me, why should I help you?" She raised her voice and turned to face us, and I was thankful I didn't have anything in the morning. She has these red clawed cheeks, and that drippy nose that is dripping blood onto her dress, which clearly she hasn't change I guess since she was born. Those sunken eyes, she looks like she hasn't sleep for ages. Problems of a misery goddess I guess.
"You should because… you would want to suffer more don't you?" Annabeth said which makes me look at her with those what's-your-problem kind of look. "You said the Death mist is the very breath of Tartarus, of death and despair, so you should grant it to us so we could feel the despair. Why let us die here so easily when you could help us get us back to Earth and fight a losing cause?" Annabeth persuaded on.
"I know what you're doing. You want to goad me into granting you the Death mist. I already said, I'm a primordial goddess! Don't treat me like your damn lower class immortals." She suddenly raised her voice, and for a moment I wandered if she could even stand up and come after us. "However, I do like your idea of letting you go back and fight a losing cause that is if you can even make it out of here." She let out a hysterical laugh. "I'll grant you the Death mist." She said, and for a moment there was a pitch silence.
"You have to come closer for me to cast the Death mist on you." She said.
"You think it's the right move to make?" I asked, surprising even for me to think I'm the one who asked that. "I mean. She looks frail and harmless but she is a primordial after all." I added.
"We don't have a choice. It's that or fighting our way through a whole army of monsters and giants." Annabeth said and moved forward.
"Well I'll rather take my chance with fighting." I muttered softly but nonetheless followed behind Annabeth and Zoe. Akhlys then proceeded to get up, and blew some grey mist at us. It felt misty. I could see my hands turning into mist. It's working, I guess. Then, the mist started to turn green and I started to feel choky.
"P-poison." Annabeth muttered out as we started covering our mouths. Akhlys began to blow even more at us. I felt myself weakening under the poison. Slowly, my legs began to give way as I collapsed on my knee with one hand supporting my body. I could barely keep consciousness under her poison mist, maybe she really is primordial goddess after all.
Control the mist. Revert it back to its source. A deep voice rang through my head. Without giving it much a thought, I did as the voice said. With what remains of my strength, I tried to control the green mist. It actually works! I could feel the mist being held in its position by me. I divert the mist back to Akhlys, back into her mouth. She started to stagger back as she gripped onto her throat in hopes to stop the mist from entering back into her.
Kill her! The voice screamed assertively
"Choke on your own poison, primordial goddess!" I spat on the last two words and I forced the mist down into her lungs.
"Stop. P-please." She collapsed on her knees, one hand on her throat and the other clutching her chest. Her eyes were starting to tear up in pain, but somehow it only spurs me even more.
"Let her go Perseus." Annabeth said chokingly. "She's no use to us dead." She gripped onto my hand staggering, and only then I saw what I was doing. I immediately release the poison. Akhlys let out a large heave as the poison left her.
"I-I g-give you your Death mist. I-I s-swear on the s-styx." She stuttered in fear, with a thunder behind to seal the oath. She staggered up shakily, while I went to help Zoe and Annabeth up.
"I didn't know you could control the mist." Annabeth looked at me as she got up shakily.
"I didn't know too. Suddenly a voice in my head told me to control the mist, to force it back into her." I answered. Annabeth said nothing, but her looks revealed her fear. Was it really that scary back then? I pushed that thought behind. Now wasn't the time to dwell on this.
"You will grant us the real Death mist now?" I asked the trembling primordial goddess.
"Y-yes." She approached us meekly and blew the same grey mist at us.
"I-it's d-done." She stopped blowing and stepped back quickly before collapsing onto the floor.
"I feel ghostly. And light." I tried to touch myself, but my hand just slip through my misty body. "Is this how the ghosts come about?" I asked as I float around Annabeth and Zoe.
"I hope some strong wind comes and blow you away." Annabeth hissed at me, but I know she's just joking.
"Hey you think it's possible that we could like combine our mist together and form those super monsters like those in shows?" I asked cheekily as I twirled around Annabeth, but unfortunately, or luckily, our mist still wouldn't mix together.
"Idiot." Zoe spat at me angrily.
"Now that we have our mist," Annabeth changed the subject. "We should head off." She suggested, and we turned our heads to look at the misery goddess. I merely took a step forward, and the goddess was already crawling backwards.
"Let me." Annabeth stepped forward and approached the goddess, leaving me with a glaring Zoe and in just mere seconds,
"Ok I know you probably hate me right now-"
"Hate is an understatement." She interrupted.
"Yeah ok, but can you put aside your hatred until we get out Tartarus, after the war is over? You'll probably go back to the hunt too. You can do whatever you want to me then ok?" I said exasperatedly. As if Tartarus wasn't bad enough, I have to have her glaring at me every single possible moment.
"Fine." She said with venom, but I'm sure her hatred would only grow with each passing moment we spent together. There was a moment of silence, now even more awkward for me because I had to sneak a peek at Zoe to see what she is doing now that she stopped glaring at me.
"Okay," Annabeth returned, thank gods. "We are supposed to head east. She says we will know when we reach our destination."
"Nyx." Zoe said assuredly. I wanted to ask why Nyx? Why can't it be the Door of Death but at that point I was too scared to ask her. Annabeth nodded too and we started heading east. This time I was sure we are heading the right way. Why? Because there was a prominent pitch black line in front which I think must be related to Nyx, or maybe it's just the end of Tartarus I don't know. Tartarus isn't a place that follows normal human/demigod logic. The more we travelled, the more I feel eerie about this place. It wasn't just me, Annabeth and Zoe felt the same feeling too and we started to pick up the pace, to the extent that we were running away from something until finally,
"I've been waiting for you, demigods." Another female voice covered the empty field of Tartarus, but darker than that of Akhlys. Seriously, why does all the evil gods/titan/giant does have to do some opening speech with those evil tones?
"Up there." Annabeth pointed upwards with her ghostly finger. I looked up, and saw probably the biggest, probably most beautiful evil goddess in my life. Right in front of me was a 40ft Nyx riding on her chariot driven by two undead horses.
A little dry for those hardcore Pertemis fans, but this is part of the story I have to go through. I honestly also find it dry and wanted to stop sometimes haha. Anyway, the next chapter I promise I'll end the house of hades part of the story at the very least. Till then, review and bye.