I've updated this a few hours ago, so don't forget to check the last chapter (chap10)!

I find it funny that some think of Hera as the cliche villainess. Not entirely wrong...though not right either. Nothing is black and white.
Here we go.

Madness leads to certain bondage

There was something...off about Mount Pelion.

Nothing seemed strange or out of place at first glance. Hell, the flowers were blooming and the birds were singing, without a single cloud in the clear blue sky to obstruct the incandescent rays of Helios.

It seemed all too good to be true. Will my plans really work? Am I really gonna be the one lucky demigod in Greece? Am I about to pull off a Perseus?

Thoughts swirled in my mind like an angry hive of bees, riddling my heart with holes filled with anxiety. I knew something was not right, even if all other signs indicate the exact opposite.

Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to take a deep breath. Atlanta sharply looked up at me, her eyes filled with concern. As always, her intuition was top-notch.

"Korecres?", she tentatively asked. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes.", I answered without much thought, my mind occupied with the sense of danger that was creeping up my spine. "Something is very wrong."

Atlanta narrowed her eyes and stepped closer to me.

Several trees rustled in the distance. That was the first sign. There was no wind, no breeze strong enough to move the thick branches.

My hand reached out and grasped the handle of my scythe which protruded from my shadow.

Atlanta's mother bear growled and stood in front of us protectively. That was the second sign. The instinctual sense of being preyed upon. There was no denying the thick tension in the air.

The third sign was a lot more straightforward. It was a flicker of light that I managed to catch in the corner of my left eye.

Even then, I was too slow to react.

The first arrow caught me in the eye. It was unable to harm me due to my blessing, but it was more than enough to momentarily stun me. I stumbled back half a step, shifting my body slightly as I did so.

And in that minuscule window of time, the second and third arrow found their mark. This time, they glanced off my skin and ricocheted off like a ball.

Off, into the direction where they stood. Where my new family stood, frozen in place.

The dreadful sound of metal penetrating flesh echoed in my ears.

"Wha..."

For a second, I couldn't understand what was happening. I couldn't comprehend the sight before my eyes.

Why?

Atlanta looked at me, her eyes opened wide. A thin trail of red leaked from her mouth, down her chin, and onto the ground.

Why?

Her body swayed. An arrow was embedded in her chest.

Why?

She reached out one hand. I reached out mine, as if in a trance.

Why?

Then, she fell with a wet thud.

Why?

Red soaked into emerald green hair. Fair, white skin, torn apart in red. Red. Red. Red.

Why?

Another thud. Her mother. My companion. My new family. Red.

Why?

My fingers twitched, encasing my family within my shadows, segregating them from the flow of time, and secluding them from the grasp of Thanatos.

My right eye saw the one who shot the arrows. The glow was all but too familiar to the glow I saw on Olympus' throne. A demigod of Zeus then, I thought numbly.

Alcides.

Why?

I unsheathed my scythe from my shadow with a tug of the handle, spinning it through the air and batting out three arrows at once.

It matters not.

Somewhere deep down, I already knew this was a trap, a plot designed to doom both I and Alcides. I couldn't care less.

"Come, you blood-crazed moron."

My words were answered by a barbaric roar befitting of a Nemean lion.

The earth shook and a shadow appeared above me. I leaned back and jumped up. The leg of Alcides smashed down with the force of a thousand men, pulverizing the plains and the rocks within.

He was younger than I expected, and a lot less muscular. While he was quite tall for his age, he was no titan. As a matter of fact, he was only a head taller than me.

One would look at him and think of him as a lean, athletic, and handsome boy in his late teens... a pity that his mind was now gone and his expression was replaced by a contorted sneer.

Our eyes met. Gold and crimson burned into crimson and blue. Searing rage-induced frenzy against cold calculating fury.

A kick shot out towards my stomach which I narrowly blocked with my knee, ignoring the jolt of sharp pain I felt as it nearly shattered my bones. Using the momentum to distance myself proved to be a mistake, as the berserker followed up with a great punch to my face.

My jaw dislocated from my face with a loud crack, despite the fact I absorbed the force behind it so it would pass through my body. My only option left was to deflect and parry.

With a snap, I relocated my jaw I trusted my scythe so that the pommel would bury itself into his abdomen. Alcides merely twisted himself, and stepped forward, closing the distance once more and crushing my advantage in reach.

I kicked his kneecap in an attempt to stop his charge, only to be pushed back by sheer force. I went with the momentum once more, this time, hooking the chained blade of my scythe into his ankle from behind, making him tp fall to one knee.

With a twirl, I hammered the tip of my scythe into the small gap between his ribs, banishing the air from his lungs, simultaneously kicking his chin upwards to cause a concussion.

My mistake was that I believed he would be open to another strike. I was wrong, and I paid the price.

He caught my ankle in his fist, dislocating it and severing my tendons with a sharp twist, and tossed me to the ground. My vision blurred as I hit head-first. The taste of iron was strong in my mouth.

Unrelenting in his pursuit of blood, Alcides proceeded to smash me back and forth into the ground repeatedly like a ragdoll. Again and again, my insides lurched and tore, bruised and bled as my body impacted the baren earth.

A spray of blood lurched from my throat and into the air, turning into a fine red mist. Red.

Red.

I didn't know what happened next.

What I did know, was everything seemed to slow down as an azure haze settled over the world. A vision flashed past my eyes.

And before I knew it, I started to move.

One second I was tossed back and forth, completely at the berserker's mercy. The next second, I had twisted my own ankle while still in his grip, in the same way a servant wrings out the water from a dripping rag.

My free foot sprung up and caught his temple in a roundhouse kick, this time, somehow stunning him. He loosened his grip on my other foot, and I latched myself onto his neck with both legs wrapped around his air pipe in a chokehold.

We struggled for a few seconds before he managed to tear me off by brute force. At the last moment, I relaxed my muscles to slip out from his iron grip like an evasive eel, poking his eyeballs with my finger as I did so.

It only served to enrage him even more, but it did buy me another precious second to stomp down on my discarded scythe, flipping it up at an angle so its blade caught the dead center of Alcides' crotch. In other words, his family jewels.

Alcides howled, stumbling forward for a few steps before I swung my scythe like a club to hit him in his adam's apple. This time, it proved enough to knock Alcides down.

I knew this was the first and last chance I would ever get to take down Alcides. With a mental command, I summoned stygian iron chains from my shadows and wrapped them around his neck, arms, and legs.

Those chains were ones blessed by aunt Styx and were forged in the heart of Tartarus, which granted them anti-divinity properties and nigh-indestructible toughness. If this couldn't chain Alcides, nothing will.

Grabbing the ones around his neck myself, I planted both feet onto his back and started strangling him as the other chains started to slowly pull him into my shadow.

Second after agonizing second, I held on for dear life as I strangled him in the same way my father leashed in a mad Cerberus, praying to all the gods out there who weren't colossal assholes to grant me some strength.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally heard the long-awaited sweet soft pop of my shadow dimension swallowing up Alcides whole.

I blinked, then blinked again, and collapsed onto the decimated ground. My vision started to grow hazy as darkness creeped in from the corners.

The last thing I saw was a haggard-looking Dusa emerging from my shadows with panic etched onto her face.

She should've realized by now that as long as I'm on the earth, my regeneration would stop me from bleeding out...

"Call...Hecate. She'll...know what...to do."

Praying to my parents for one last time to take care of my new family and one mad demigod, I fell into a deep slumber.

Meanwhile, Somewhere far away...

"Hmm...satisfactory. While some upgrades might prove to be beneficial, both subjects are at an appropriate level."

"Where shall I store the records, my Lord?"

"My memory would suffice. Order Helios to continue his monitoring duties. Leave Hera as she is. She is useful as of right now."

"Understood. If there is nothing else...?"

"You may take your leave...ah, one last thing. Contact Hermes. He'll know what to do."

"As you command."

A dirty battle well fought. As for the observers...who are they?

As always, don't forget to review! It feeds this story!

X-kalibuuuur, over and out.