Chapter 21 - The Curse Of Corruption

The temperature had been slowly falling for some time now, it wasn't enough to b other Artemis, but it had begun to become noticeable, a sure sign that there were closing in on their target; the home of Erymanth and Amiruss, a couple of Dragons that Ddraig had instructed Artemis to find.

It hadn't taken long before she and Apollo had given up their search and came to rest on a random mountain top only to be found by one of the Dragons she'd been seeking.

As the two of them bounded across increasingly vaster peaks, she came to wonder exactly how she'd gotten herself in this situation. What had led to this exact moment as she closed in on a now visible cave entrance at the back of a rocky snow capped plateau.

The scent of brimstone played heavily on her senses as they got closer, something else that reminder her of the thing that had brought her to this point; Percy Jackson, the Hero of Olympus. A man reborn as a Dragon.

HER Dragon.

The boy had gone through Tartarus in a previous life for a girl that he'd grown up with, fallen in love with, and saved the world with, but even given all that they'd been through…

She'd never seen him act towards her with the level of instinctual savagery that he'd portrayed against Aphrodite in Olympus' throne room.

She was suddenly brought out of her haze as a massive power boomed across the horizon, it was so strong that her vision had been filled with a bright light, the kind of light that couldn't been seen through the mist. A divine light.

"What the fuck is that!?" A weary woman stumbled out of the cave, massively offended by the bright light infiltrating their vision past the horizon. She had streaks of long blue and purple hair that sat amidst a mane of grey, the same colour as Erymanth's skin. This woman had a deep mahogany bordering on deep garnet tones to her skin, she too seemed to be struggling to shift between her forms as the skin seemed to be moving, writhing around as veins of black and purple crept around her body.

"That's the Defiler. He's releasing his power, incredible amounts of it." Erymanth spoke aloud, answering her confused mate who had just taken mental inventory of the Goddess among them.

"It's more than that, he's been storing a certain type of power away somewhere, for a long time judging by the amount of it." Artemis added, never taking her eyes off of the light that was breaching their vision.

"A type of power?" Erymanth asked, looking confused at what the Goddess could have meant by that particular specification.

"Yes." Artemis nodded quickly, her thoughts being confirmed by the second wave of raw power that was reaching them, despite the distance between them, "It's divine." Artemis confirmed. That could only mean one thing, something that Artemis had a hunch about for quite some time.

"He isn't the Dragon Hunter you or I believed him to be. He IS a God." Artemis explained, finally taking her eyes away from the blinding light, the reality of it all setting in. The reasons she'd not been able to forceable see through his facade of humanity, "He is the Dragon God." She finished, finally looking at the confused Dragon ahead of her who had been slowly building with internal rage.

"Ami, this is Lady Artemis, she is the accompaniment to the Defiler's cause. She's been sent here by Ddraig, to find out what her purpose is in our world." Erymanth stepped forwards cautiously. It was clear to Artemis that what had once been confidence in dealing with the corrupted Dragon had now waned into unease. She was no longer sure just how much she was being watched through the eyes of her mate rather than the eyes of a predator.

"To know that you need to know what the corruption is and how it's slowly killing us." Amiruss winced at something, slowly clutching at the sides of her head before whatever had gripped her had passed, clearing her senses once again. Her lilac coloured eyes seemed to clear of the misty milkiness that had been slowly creeping their way into her vision. A moment of clarity amidst the corruption that was eating away at her.

"Amiruss very slowly sat down against the rocky wall at the mouth of her cave, beckoning them both to come closer, to which neither of them did, earning them both a heavy glare before it was replaced with an understanding sigh.

"This corruption, it's a seed in all of us, a dormant seed that sprouted in some of us and died in others. Lavalleri, she had so much raw power that the seed of corruption planted in her soul was obliterated almost immediately. Dragons such as myself and Mirroth weren't so lucky. Mirroth especially as I hear it."Amiruss muttered the last part, glancing at the small dagger sat against Artemis' waist, concealed with the other throwing knives of her arsenal. It wasn't hard to believe that this Ancient Dragon would be able to sense a weapon made from a Dragon's body.

"She met her unfortunate end at Percy's hands, as did the black Dragon, and the Hellfire Dragon. I was present for both." Artemis explained, trying to keep a calm demeanour so as not to upset or provoke the corrupted Dragon.

"Hah, you're right in the middle of all the trouble, ain'tcha?" Amiruss cracked a very broken smile for the first time in a long time.

"I was with Percy, trouble follows that man around like you wouldn't believe." Artemis sucked her teeth, a quick flash of memory about everything she'd known about him.

"I believe that you were with him, almost intimately. Almost." Amiruss was watching the silver Goddess out of the corner of her eyes very intently. She was a peculiar one, that much was certain.

"Lady Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt. The Moon Goddess. What is a virgin Goddess sworn to chastity doing with the scent of the Dragon Hunter marking her as taken?" Amiruss asked coyly, enjoying the blush on Artemis' face. It was surely bright and potent enough to melt the snow around them.

"I suppose it's obvious and doesn't need an answer. Anyway…" Amiruss began but quickly lost her train of thought, or rather, she was thinking about exactly what it was that needed to be explained, "So this corruption. It moves fast, spreading like a bastard, but slow acting. So in essence it'll take a week or two before it fully takes over and I'm nothing more than a pile of insanity, but it'll take months, years even, before it actually kills me. A horrible death." She groaned, looking down at herself.

"It's horribly ironic in the most unfortunate way. I COULD burn out all of the corruption in my body but it would negate all of my life, so in the end, no matter what I do…"

"The corruption will always win." Artemis finished the sentence with a dry throat. It was horrible. By the sounds of it, from the way that Amiruss had phrased it, she was potentially the only Dragon capable of fighting off the corruption, using her power to internalize and decimate the spreading disease yet it would still result in the same ending.

"Whatever the Defiler's plan is, I sure as hell hope it works, that is if he manages to somehow survive not only Ddraig and Lavalleri, but also Leviathan." Erymanth chipped in, crossing her arms sadly at the events before them. She cast her glance back over to where the world had lit up.

"Leviathan?" Artemis queried with a raised brow.

"Yes. He awoke only days ago, responding to the growing power of the Defiler himself. That fight, the reason that he has released all of that divine power, is because of Leviathan." The stone Dragon explained, looking back at Artemis with a grave expression.

"No Dragon could ever hope to defeat Leviathan, it's just too sheerly massive and powerful, not to mention that no Dragon could even get close enough to try and damage it. I fear the worst for our would be saviour." Erymanth tore herself away from staring at the horizon. They could still see his light which meant that he was still alive.

"What makes the Leviathan untouchable? I wouldn't worry about larger than life challenges. Before being cursed by Pandora's Pithos he literally fought the Primordial Goddess of the Earth. Gaea herself, and he came out… Well not unscatched, but obviously alive." Artemis motioned uselessly with her hands, not even knowing what she'd been trying to portray.

"Well how about that. Was this form of Gaea around three hundred miles long?" Amiruss asked with a smirk, feeling like she'd pinned the Goddess down.

"Not quite. Not to be overly argumentative but he's also been through the underworld multiple times, and he's survived a dip in the Styx. He's gone through LITERALLY HELL, beating back everything that Tartarus could throw at him, and still came out fighting. He fought the Titan Lord Kronos to a standstill when he was just a boy. His accolades are as long as my own, he's just achieved his in about three thousand years sooner." Artemis grumbled, feeling somewhat protective over her Dragon, she didn't like what Amiruss had been insinuating.

"Quite the feats, there's no denying, but this challenge I think might be beyond him. You see, whilst Leviathan is most certainly an Ancient Dragon like the rest of us, he is in fact an unfathomably large, flightless, sea Dragon. None of us could ever get close to him because none of us can really swim well enough to try." Amiruss explained with a sad shrug.

"That's why we fear the Defiler is about to fall to Leviathan. They're in their battle as we speak." Amiruss finished, sending a single sad glance towards Artemis to watch her reaction.

The silver Goddess just stood there with her arms folded. "If your biggest fear for his survival and success is that Leviathan is a sea Dragon then it's already dead, you just haven't figured it out yet." Artemis smirked, enjoying the level of power that she had in this conversation.

"What?" Erymanth asked in shock and confusion Artemis' confidence.

"Perseus Jackson… Before he was a God, before he was a Dragon, before he was even the saviour of Olympus… He was and always has been the son of Poseidon. He is a Prince of the Sea, the waters move to his beckoning call with such a level of loyalty that right now Leviathan might as well be facing off against Poseidon himself, Gods know it would be a more merciful death." Artemis explained.

"This changes, well, everything. If he can truly defeat Leviathan then he actually stands a chance." Amiruss stood up with pained grunts. She adopted a serious smile on her face, a buzzing purple energy flowed around her body. It looked like there were pockets of contained heat waves all distorting within small spaces around Artemis' vision. She didn't know what power this Dragon had but it was playing with her senses and instincts and she did NOT appreciate it.

"It's time. If we're going to do this then we need to do it now." Amiruss told the stone Dragon with a confidence that was attempting to convince both of them.

"OK, I trust you. Wait for me on the other side." Erymanth whispered. The stone Dragon closed her eyes and placed her hands on Amiruss' shoulders, awaiting what happened next.

Before Artemis had really understood what had happened, she was reaching for her bow, drawing an arrow back with such a ferocity that it almost scared her. Once the adrenaline had drawn back enough for Artemis to understand what her body had moved of its own accord because of, she was pushed to shock and worry for her own safety.

"I love you." Amiruss whispered to the near lifeless body of her mate. The stone Dragon's arms fell, only being held upright by the fist that had been forced inside her chest, no doubt right around the heart.

Both of their bodies were engulfed by that buzzing purple energy, a blinding light that Artemis forced herself to look away from. When it all cleared there was only Amiruss left standing.

The light was beginning to grow, wild and unstable as more pockets of distortion appeared around them. A small pocket off to Artemis' right had imploded in on itself, causing her to almost lose her balance.

"Just to answer the question you're no doubt wondering by now. Erymanth was a stone Dragon, her body has returned to the Earth where it belongs for the time being, but me, I'm a very special Dragon. I control the spatial rifts between reality, which can extend towards my mate's soul. Her power and soul now lies within me, tied to my own life force. Come silver Goddess, give me a good fight before the Defiler comes to take my life." Amiruss ordered. Artemis couldn't back away or flee from this challenge, the world was narrowing on her prey in front of her.

Or the predator, she didn't exactly feel like she was the one in control of the situation right now.

Amiruss' eyes took on a hue of total power as the whites had disappeared, being replaced by wisps of pure lilac. Bit by bit the corruption that ran along her left leg was very slowly burning off, being thrown into the wind, leaving behind a dead and lifeless grey skin which contrasted even compared to her grey complexion of her uncorrupted skin.

There was a single moment of silence where time seemed to flow at a standstill before arrows had been let loose, knives had been thrown, and daggers had been unleashed in a wild flurry where the Goddess of the Hunt had begun hunting the corrupted Dragon.

She had to end this fast, blind or incapacitate her opponent so that she could get away. Percy had told her that only an Ancient Dragon could kill an Ancient Dragon and she only had the dagger he'd gifted her, not the silver sword that would actually be capable of hurting this insane Dragon.

Artemis bounded forwards, avoiding the spatial pockets that were appearing and imploding left, right, and centre, throwing more knives, all which were hitting their mark.

Amiruss was making no attempt to avoid Artemis' strikes, was this her plan all along? To simply tank all of Artemis' attacks and slowly bleed out if the Goddess could make enough cuts?

So far out of the multitudes of arrows, knives, and strikes that Artemis had sent her way, only the hardest hits with the dagger from Percy had managed to score and cut the skin.

"You're going to have to try a lot harder than that if you want to take me down. Come on Goddess, I know you've got something else up your sleeve, don't keep me waiting." Amiruss laughed jovially as she threw around a few more pockets.

"Fine, you want an ultimate showdown, I'll give you one. Don't blame me when this all backfires." Artemis growled, dancing around all of the Dragon's attacks with a level of grace that shouldn't be natural to achieve from pure instincts alone.

Artemis got to stable footing and immediately engulfed herself in a divine light. Standing taller than the Dragon in her true godly form, Artemis aimed her bow strong and true, willing to let loose the full force of her divine weapon wasn't something that she'd do in ordinary circumstances but given the situation…

The arrow was let loose at his it's mark with lethal intensity. The sheer destructive force had wiped out the rest of the mountain peak, creating a total plateau where they were.

Once the just had cleared, the devastation was clear. Artemis perhaps shouldn't have unleashed an attack of that magnitude, but Amiruss was going to end up wearing her down if she didn't.

The corrupted one was still alive but barely. She was lying down in the epicentre of a crater made just for her. Her body was bruised, all of the damage from the arrow had been internalized from the fact that it still hadn't broken her skin, but the damage that WAS caused internally was unfathomable.

She was dying, but it was at least on her own terms from entering a fight with a Goddess and not at the clutches of a terrible ultimatum from the corruption.

"Well done Goddess, my god you're going to be an unstoppable force when you're fully awakened." Amiruss coughed, fighting to breath through what was likely a set of obliterated lungs.

Artemis put her arsenal of weaponry away, the damage had already been done, nothing else needed to be added to that. She slowly walked over to the dying Dragon. What had she meant by that?

"Awakened from what?" She asked through narrowed eyes. She thought that she'd be on edge, instincts still protecting her from whatever Amiruss might try but she'd completely missed the hand that shot out, placing a complete seal over her chest above her heart.

"From this. Find one of the Dragon Hunters when you awaken, you'll need them more than you think!" Amiruss laughed before pushing hard against Artemis' chest.

Artemis was locked in place, she couldn't move, she could only watch from behind paralyzed eyes as they both glowed in that flowing purple energy whilst a stream of unimaginable power started shooting through Artemis' body.

It felt blissful to begin with, warming her to her core before that pleasure quickly turned to pain. Agonizing pain as her entire skeleton felt like it was restructuring itself, rebuilding her bit by bit, each of her divine cells being repurposed and reinforced by two Dragon souls and all of their power, all going into one Goddess.

Amiruss' body slowly turned to dust as the corrupted Dragon had defeated her corruption. A smile of content on her face before that too had vanished, leaving only a Goddess in agonizing pain, falling to her knees as her breath came back and her senses were invaded by new feelings, sensations that she'd never felt before.

It was all so much to take in.

So much that she hadn't noticed the divine light from Percy disappear.

A/N: Slightly longer chapter because of the short fight scene. So, at this point I've actually planned out the rest of the story and chapters accordingly, and written the premise for each of them. If I can plan it right then it'll end at 35 chapters, so still a little ways to go. Some of those chapters may need to be split in two or three depending on length as 'chapters' is really just events.

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