A/N: Hey all, back with another chapter here. Hoping I can keep the ball rolling, I haven't had a lot of free time like this before so it's nice being able to pump some good chapters out especially since I'm enjoying writing this Trial quite a bit. Now I'm sure no one really cares, but the monster from last chapter is based somewhat on a real monster in mythology. Of course I've taken liberties with it, but let's be real even Rick has to since going word for word on some monsters just doesn't work all the time in a story. Anyways enjoy the chapter, we'll be close to wrapping it up in this one.
Samson soars high in the air, watching the shadowy mass lazily flying across decaying parts of the strange world it inhabits. He's been watching it for who knows how long now and still he hasn't gotten any closer to understanding what the thing is or how it can possibly be defeated. The presence just floats from place to place, occasionally slipping into memory cracks only to come out a minute later before going on with its day.
The otherworld seems to be in a constant state of dusk without any actual star lighting up the sky. Stars are sprinkled completely surrounding everything, further pointing out there's no sense of up or down truly in a place like this. Looking carefully Samson can see the signs of the zodiac and other constellations repeated more than once across the sky.
More time that he spends here the more Samson doesn't understand. Gravity works directionally to the landmass you're on and can change if another is at an angle, yet Samson can fly through the air no issue despite flying past several islands and not once feeling their gravitational pull. The most he can hypothesize is that gravity works, really, as your mind can process it.
If that doesn't make sense then don't think about it as this place has no real sense of anything in anyway a person would know.
"Do you think we should dip into some of these memories? Perhaps we can find out something in one of them."
A good enough idea. At least it's something different from watching a weird monster fly around for hours on end. He picks the closest crackling portal to him and flies straight in, hoping it'll have something worthwhile to learn from
Auntie Mori. Will not. SHUT THE FUCK UP. He opens up with her once and she started talking for hours and hours about everyone and their whole life story. At first it started with her casually talking about his father and some of the adventures he went on with her and Samson when they were young. She even had a few stories about his grandfather, though those were never funny or happy. He sort of got the impression of it, but she was proof positive that his dad and his dad were quite at odds.
"Did he ever have siblings?"
"Hmm?" Mori stops her current tangent, "Oh... I guess Max never really got over it, but his older brother died fighting in the Korean war. I never met him and Max never talked about it more than a handful of times, but he was really shaken up by it. Robert was only around when Max was young, but he really was the one who shaped Max into the man he grew to be. I wish I could've met him, the few times Max talked about him were nothing but praise."
Samuel groans and looks back up at the ceiling as he seems to be doing quite a lot recently.
Gods, if only any of the 'family' he has now would be cool like Robert apparently was. Don't get him wrong, he loves his mom and all of his demigod siblings, but besides Ponos all of his godly or monster siblings really are just a bunch of assholes. Listening to Auntie Mori's stories makes him wish he had more immediate family in his life, or at least when he was young. All of his old friends from back during the wars helped the feeling a lot when he was young, but most have died or gone on with their lives by now.
As shitty as it is, when demigods get old it becomes dangerous to be in groups together. By then they have family, and the more demigods in one place the more their scents will attract greater and stronger monsters. Their families are at risk, and as much as they love their friends being around them becomes dangerous. A liability. Samuel's lucky he can afford to put in proper protections at his home but that's never a guarantee. Hell, even Camp Half Blood isn't completely safe.
What he's saying is that most of the 'good times' a demigod was is when they're young, and that's not something he got to have.
"-eah Thomas some how managed to knockup all of the Hesperides while we were fuckin in the garden. Don't ask me how he managed it, because I'm pretty certain it's impossible."
Oh for the love of-
"For gods sake, Mori, there's a trillion nerves in the human body and you've managed to trigger every one mine! Shut the fuck up for a minute and just be quiet!"
She's quiet for a second. Literally. She paused, then started chatting again completely unperturbed by his outburst.
"Anyways, we got chased out of the garden by the nymphs, but we did get a good photo of us dickin' with Atlas. You should've seen the look on his face, he was so mad! Thinking about it he might've caused an earthquake since after we left there was a devastating one that hit the area. Whoopsies. Anyways Eris is such a freak! In a good way, though! Oh lords have you seen-!"
Samuel kinda fazes out mentally at this point. Getting snappy at his auntie doesn't really seem to work with getting her to fuck off. If anything it seems to make it worse! He goes numb listening to her ramble on about another story, and even though he will never admit it a small part of him does like listening to her tales. He doesn't know how to explain it other than, maybe, it feels kinda nice?
"Lord Hyperion the daemons are acting out! Several have escaped from Tartarus and are wreaking havoc on the lands!"
Beneath the Lord of the East's feet trembles an assortment of monsters and spirits, most of which Samson has never seen before, further proving that this memory is so old even his extensive knowledge of monster types is insufficient. The Titan resides in a massive and immaculately carved throne fifty feet high and made from a kind of shimmering mineral he's never seen before. As though sunlight itself has been embedded into marble. Around the throne is a massive hall like an arena, statues and carvings so beautiful Annabeth would probably have a seizure cover every wall with stories and tales lost to history and war.
The Son of Athena feels sadness at the thought of so much history being lost in the war of Gods and Titans. It makes him feel like hunting down Prometheus to try and see of the Titan would be willing to write down any of the lost tales, but quickly pushes the though away as he looks up at the tower that is Hyperion, the Titan Lord of the East.
His skin is like shimmering pennies, his muscles are huge and power radiates almost literally from them, his armor is like enchanted Imperial Gold only the power radiating from it is something far older an more powerful than any magic achievable even by the likes of Hecate. Like his throne, Hyperion is massive, sitting only just shorter than his throne with his arms crossed and likely a scowl on his face if his mannerisms is anything to go on, though it being hard to tell as his eyes blast light like small stars.
Samson thanks all the gods he can name that persons in memories can't see him, and his interference with physical objects seems more like it makes a clone for him to manipulate while leaving the original copy completely undisturbed. It turns out Abigail's hypothesis was correct, this is a memory only, the only affect they have is being able to take copies of objects from them and take them with back into the distorted world. Which means he totally could yoink something very valuable and powerful from a memory and use it to try and fight the entity.
"Grrr-" Hyperion growls, his voice so powerful the very ground quakes like the marching of Typhon, "Wretched Cacodemons! They lay waste to my lands and dare to attack me at every hour of the day! Fools, weaklings, wretches! My Sunlight is much too powerful for creatures born from shadows! Ready my chariot! I shall smite these heathens personally! I will wipe their essence so thoroughly they'll never be able to reform again!"
The mighty Titan stands from his throne and marches down the humongous hall he crafted to house it. Disappearing around a corner at the end of the wall, his footsteps still shakes the floor even after leaving the room. Samson sighs and comes out from behind the pillar he was totally not cowering behind. The gaggle of monsters and spirits stayed behind, discussing something silently between themselves.
Samson steps closer and listens in on their conversation, hoping to divine something useful from them.
"He's becoming weaker, can you sense it?"
"QUIET! Not so loud! Our Lord of Sunlight is still mighty regardless. We've hear whispers of a rebellion, creatures born from the Crooked One himself are amassing a mighty army under a young deity wielding thunder and lightning."
"Truly? Must be the work of the Cyclopes, only they could craft lightning that powerful."
"I've heard they've gone to their side, along with the Hekatonkheires. I truly believe this rebellion might be the one to topple the Titans!"
"Then we must do our part. Cast the Lord of Sunlight into darkness. The more demons we release into the world the weaker he becomes. They spread their negativity and suck away all the power of the sunlight."
"But you heard what he said! He's going to kill all of them for good! How can they possibly be useful if they're dead?!"
"Have faith! The greatest of the Cacodemons was cast into a void long ago by the Crooked One as he was disgusted by its appearance. It will stay safe in the other world, and should we require we must simply release it from its cage."
Suddenly the very ground quakes, a loud boom like a bomb going off in your ear pointblank rips through the halls of Hyperion's castle and a blast of wind rocks the stone walls so hard several topple over. The monsters and spirits cower as the very roof nearly a hundred feet high in the air is violently blasted off by a flash of bright light. Samson cowers as an overbearing presence like the fiercest storm crashes down on his shoulders. A familiar presence so horrible and familiar that the last time he felt something similar was when... his mother... killed him to save him from Zeus. Oh no...
The wind knocks him down and throws him about the room until he manages to grab a pillar and hold on for dear life as a tempest like a hurricane violently spins in the sky over the missing roof.
All of the other inhabitants are sucked up into the squall with their screams inaudible over the raging winds. Samson watches in awe and horror as a young figure appears in the center point of the swirling winds. His eyes flash in tandem with the lightning raging around him, and in his hand is the most famous weapon in history. It charges to life with wicked, crackling electricity, promising complete destruction to whomever its wrath is unleashed upon.
The Young Zeus pulls his Master Bolt back and hurtles its fierce lightning down directly at Hyperion's throne. The explosion is so fierce, so violent and explosive even the memory of the energy threatens to pull Samson apart into tiny particles that even a god might not reform from. He cries out in shock as the blast launches him backwards, and as his back collides with the farthest wall suddenly the intensity and sound and fear is all gone.
Samson looks around, heart still racing, and finds that he's out of the memory and back in the distorted world. For several seconds he looks around, still paranoid Zeus will pop around the corner somewhere with another lightning bolt, but his analytical mind works quickly and the intense anxiety is pushed away and his beating heart is calmed to a still once again.
He picks a nice small island and flies own to it, practically crashing into the grass and just lying there silently for a good hour it seems before flipping over onto his back and running his hands across his face.
"Holy shit," He says, exhausted, "Just the memory of his weapon was strong enough to literally blow us into another dimension... He was going to use that on me if mother hadn't killed me. I-I-I... I owe her a lot. That was the most terrible experience I've ever had, and it was not even a thousandth close to the real thing!"
He lies there silently for several minutes longer. Abigail speaks up, though her voice almost quavering from the intense emotions coursing through her mind. Seeing the horrible image of her father in the flesh again almost sent her into a panic. She's grateful she learned stoicism from Artemis, otherwise she might've broken down right then and there.
"You heard what those creatures were talking about, right? A Cacodemon being locked in another world, and how Sunlight was the key to defeating it?"
"..." It takes Samson a while to muster the strength to respond, "...Yeah...Yeah! Shadow's weakness is light, which means we can fight it! I know a powerful spell to summon Sunlight, which means we've held the key to victory all along!"
"You sound a lot like Athena there. She would totally say something like that; You've held the key to victory all along."
A small smile creeps its way onto Samson's face. A thorough sense of resolve and confidence surges through his very being as he pushes himself to stand on his feet. He looks out across the warped, decaying masses of land floating across the cursed world and clenches his fists, readying his mind for a fight the likes of which he's never faced before.
With just a thought, his wings push off the ground and launch him into the air. His eyes gleam with the intensity of a predator on the hunt. Samson flies through the air and scours every crack and crevice he can comes across until he finds the now named Cacodemon and kills it! His mother believes in him, and he'll show her why Samson Akira isn't a person you try and kill without facing the consequences of it!