AN: At this point, I've given up on a solid schedule for this story as life is just hectic af, but just know dear readers that I have not given up on this story and won't for the foreseeable future. With that, enjoy the new chapter :)
(UKNOWN, UNKNOWN POV)
The battle has suddenly become much more interesting, as Dionysus summoned his symbol of power, a thyrsus, a staff with a cone on top. It was completely covered in ice, and a strange mist rolled off of it in waves.
The woman flashed a cocky smirk and lunged at the god of wine with a speed too great for a mortal eye to keep up with. "Let's hope your little stick holds up better than your sword!" she exclaimed as she swung her blade at him.
Dionysus growled fiercely and swung his staff up to parry the blow. The two deadly weapons connected, and once again at the point of contact, the staff slowly started turning black. Upon seeing this the agent of Aion laughed mockingly.
"So much for showing me how I'm just a puny mortal grasping at immortality," she chuckled as she started applying more force behind her blade.
All of a sudden the blackness spreading over his staff stopped expanding and slowly disappeared. The icy mist emanating from the staff rolled over the mysterious black sword and it froze over. "You spoke too soon, fool!" Dionysus scoffed, a malicious grin beginning to spread across his icy features.
"What!? Impossible!" the woman shouted, quickly tugging at her blade, trying to pull her blade away from the staff that it was frozen to with all her might. After a few pulls, the ice cracked and the sword came free, but the momentum threw her to the ground.
The wine god smirked as he twirled his staff and with both hands firmly gripping the shaft, he brought it down with enough force to split a car in half. She quickly twisted out of the way, lept to her feet, and thrust her blade at Dionysus's chest as the Thyrsus slammed into the now vacant ground, leaving a small crater in its wake.
The wine god just barely managed to raise his staff upwards to deflect the incoming blow. He leapt backwards to distance himself from his opponent because his staff had a major disadvantage to the woman's sword when it came to close combat. The agent of Aion realized she had lost her advantage as now Dionysus could reach her with his staff but she would have to risk moving closer to him to be able to land a hit.
Deciding to wait for him to initiate instead of playing into his hands, the agent raised her sword up defensively. However, Dionysus was not too keen to lose the advantage he had just gained, so they began to circle each other, waiting for the other to make a move, testing each other's patience.
Eventually, Dionysus snapped, and with a growl, he lunged at his opponent, swiping his Thyrsus upwards, hoping to catch the woman in the jaw. The agent smirked and sidestepped, the staff whistling past her harmlessly. She quickly closed the gap between them and swung her blade into the wine god's shoulder. Her blade cut through the Oceanic Silver armor easily and sunk into Dionysus's icy skin until a thick stream of ichor began to pour out.
Her small victory was short-lived, however, for the icy skin the sword was lodged in closed around the blade and rendered it stuck. As the woman tried to pry her weapon loose, Dionysus took advantage of the opportunity and swung his staff at her side. The agent yelped, and tried to jump out of the way. However, she saw the incoming attack too late, and it connected with the side of her chest. Several ribs could be heard cracking under the blow and the woman was thrown to the ground once more, this time without a weapon.
Dionysus ripped the sword from his shoulder and threw it to the ground, several feet from his opponent's prone form, and ichor began to pour out of the wound once more. He advanced to his opponent, who had just begun to rise shakily. Upon reaching her he brought his Thyrsus up and swung it down in a powerful swing.
It struck the agent of Aion in her left collarbone, and a sickening crack could be heard as it was cleaved in two, the responding shriek of pain so loud I winced. The force of the blow slammed her into the wall behind her, knocking the air out of her.
"Hah! The almighty Hylla has fallen to a puny, weak, disgusting party god!" the icy wine god gloated, revealing the identity of his opponent at long last. He lifted his staff over his head, preparing to end the beaten warrior, and swung with all his strength, the sharp whistling of the fast-moving staff splitting my ears.
Hylla managed an exhausted smirk, right before using her right arm to propel herself out of the path of the incoming staff a second before the staff slammed into the ground where she had been, burying itself deep in the ground. Having thrown herself in reach of her sword, she grabbed it with the hand of her working arm, and quickly rising to her feet, she lunged at the wine god who was too busy trying to pry his weapon loose from the ground. She swung at Dionysus's back, cleaving through his Oceanic Silver armor and thick icy skin as if it were paper.
Both sword and warrior were drenched in ichor as Dionysus bellowed in pain. "You're not the only one with tricks up their sleeve, " Hylla stated. Slowly the darkness of her sword lifted off the blade and enveloped her in a thin aura of darkness that twinkled with little stars. The black aura seemed to boost her physical abilities, and even healed her broken collarbone in seconds.
The blade itself, no longer black but a glowing, angry, dark red emanated a terrifying, killer power.
"Careful, Dionysus, one scratch from this blade in its true form and your immortal essence will leak from your wound until you're nothing but an empty husk, your soul deep in the pit of chaos, along with all the other faded immortals. You see each agent of Aion has a certain specialty, and I am the Bane of Immortals. Whenever my master is dealing with troublesome immortals, he sends me into the field, and I eliminate all who cause my lord grievance. Unfortunately for you Dionysus, your usefulness to Aion has expired, and now so shall you along with it," Hylla finished as she launched herself at the wounded god of wine.
Just before the angry red blade sunk into the god's chest, Hylla suddenly froze in place, suspended in the air.
"Tsk tsk tsk, Dionysus, you're making me doubt your worth, unable to even best this joke of a warrior," a deep, booming voice reverberated throughout the room. A watery shape manifested next to the two warriors who appeared to be frozen in place.
The shape finally settled into the form of an imposing man with striking silver eyes, which roved over Hylla hungrily. Pontus reached up and stroked Hylla's chin tenderly. "Finally, one of the fabled agents of Aion finally within my grasp. Normally I cannot do anything to you since you're considered mortals, forever tiptoeing the line between mortal and immortal, but when you unleashed the power of your blade you were no longer considered a mortal, for no mortal can simply fade an Olympian with just one blow. I will be sure to take my time with you, making your death as painful as possible," the Primordial gloated.
Hylla growled fiercely. "Lay a hand on me and you'll regret it. My lord's wrath will rain down upon you until you find yourself as helpless as the Olympians!" she threatened, to which Pontus simply busted out laughing.
"Do you seriously think Aion can do anything to stop what's about to happen?" he questioned as he continued to chuckle. "No, he might be a force to be reckoned with when in his own domain, but anywhere else and he couldn't even hold a candle to me, that's why he needs his agents to do all his work for him, and I doubt he'll risk sending another agent to come save you seeing how you're in my clutches now," the Primordial finished speaking. He reached up to wrap his hand around Hylla's neck and slowly began to apply pressure, and Hylla started to choke. She struggled with all her might to break free from the force that kept her suspended in the air, but it was to no avail.
After seeing Pontus attack Hylla without provocation, an inexcusable act, even if he seemed to think her sword's true form changed the situation, which it did not, I realized I could no longer sit back and do nothing. I rose from my crouched position and shouted, "Pontus! Enough!" He froze, dropping his hand from Hylla's throat as he tried to find the source of the new voice. "Aion might be helpless in this situation, but my mistress is not, and if you leave this very instant, then she will be willing to overlook this disgusting transgression of the Ancient Laws. However, if you do not, you risk making a very powerful enemy." My voice caught everyone in the room by surprise, as I revealed myself from my hiding place.
Pontus's eyes shot up in surprise. "And who might your mistress be? And for that matter, just who are you?" he asked as he slowly readied himself to launch an attack.
I felt a smirk slipping onto my face. "Odysseus, Champion of Fate, and my mistress and patron is Ananke, Primordial of Fate.
(CAMP HALF-BLOOD, PERCY POV)
Sitting on a dried-up log, waiting for Artemis to come back from her meeting with the rest of the Olympians, was exactly the opposite of what I wanted to be doing. I'd much rather spend my time finding the one who took the life and soul of my long-time friend and girlfriend.
I was dimly aware of Madeline leaning her head onto my shoulder, struggling with all her willpower not to start bawling her eyes out. I stared into the ground, unmoving, eyes glazed over. The only things going through my head were my memories of the great fighter and even greater friend Clarisse, and what I was going to do to the person who had ended her life.
We sat there like that for I don't even know how long, with the rest of the hunters leaning on trees and sitting on fallen logs with somber expressions, not a single word being said between any one of the people in the clearing.
Eventually, a bright flash of silver told us that Artemis had arrived, however, I felt neither myself nor Madeline even so much as glance at the bright disturbance.
"How are they holding up?" I heard Artemis whisper to one of her hunters.
"Neither of them has moved from that position since you left," Phoebe whispered back, eliciting a sad sigh from the goddess.
The sound of soft footsteps warned me of the slowly approaching goddess, and the familiar smell of pinecones and the forest invaded my nose as she kneeled down in front of me.
"Percy, I want you and Madeline to go to the Poseidon cabin and get some rest and I wi-"
"I DON'T WANT TO REST! I WANT TO FIND THE BASTARD THAT DID THIS AND STRANGLE HIM WITH HIS OWN INTESTINES!" I roared, all the emotions that had been roiling within me for the past two hours finally exploding out.
My outburst startled Artemis and disturbed the silent Madeline, who up until now had been leaning her head on my shoulder, not even hearing Artemis' words.
"Percy, you are in no condition to go after the attacker, and in your state would only hinder me and the hunt as we look for him. Go get some rest, you and Madeline both, and I promise you I will personally bring the bastard to you so that you may do what you want to him, ok?" she said calmly, laying her hand reassuringly on my shoulder as she gave me a tight and sympathetic smile.
I felt all the rage draining from me, along with all the color in the world, as I realized she was right, I was in no condition to even fight a training dummy. I nodded slowly, grabbing the still unresponsive Madeline's hand and leading us to our cabin. I felt two huntresses walking behind us, making sure we made it to our destination safely.
(CAMP HALF-BLOOD, ARTEMIS POV)
I watched the two children of Poseidon walk away, feeling nothing but sympathy for what they were going through.
After they were well out of earshot, I turned to my remaining hunters. "So we've finally received information on our original mission. Dionysus has been captured and possibly turned by Pontus, so we will meet up with Athena and Ares and track him down. We have been ordered to destroy him using any means necessary if he has indeed turned. Once we are finished with the whole Dionysus crisis, we must turn our attention to this new Primordial situation, which includes finding out which Primordial is behind the attacker and dealing with the attacker accordingly," I explained, briefing my huntresses.
They all nodded grimly and began to prepare for the first mission.
AN: AND THERE YOU GO! NEXT CHAPTER DOWN! NOT MUCH HAS HAPPENED TBH, BUT AT LEAST NOW WE KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON WITH ALL THOSE "UNKNOWN POV" PEOPLE, AND WE KNOW A LITTLE MORE ABOUT THE MYSTERIOUS AION WHO HAS DECIDED TO GET INVOLVED IN THIS WHOLE IMMORTAL WAR DEBACLE. HAVE A GREAT DAY FOLKS, AND I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE CHAPTER :)