Chapter 2 ~ Dying from Darkness

The Goddess of the Night set out in the late evening hours, as she did every day, and left her home. For millennia, the Mansion of the Night had hovered over the abyss of Chaos. Hemera, her daughter, had just arrived again and entered the black palace.

Gracious as ever, Nyx strode to her chariot, which was made of stygian iron and was as black as her dress. Galaxies shone in it, but they did not seem as bright as the eyes of the beautiful goddess who wore the dress.

Nyx eyes were no longer black, but shone white like quasars. One look into them and you could feel the power in them and anyone who still had a will to live would go down on their knees if they looked into those two burning stars.

She whistled loudly through her teeth and in front of the chariot the shadows suddenly seemed to thicken. The shadows took shape and formed two horse bodies. But at the sight of these horses, even the bravest wolf would have retreated.

The fur was completely black and the long manes seemed to blow lightly, although no wind blew in the Masion of the Night. Restlessly the majestic animals clattered with their hooves, which, however, did not seem to have a solid shape but dissolved into a heavy mist.

Their muscles tensed and their eyes lit up blood-red. Shade whinnied, and for a moment the horse's silver vampire teeth were completely visible, as well as the rest of his mouth, which was filled with the razor-sharp teeth of a predator.

Shadow remained calm, but the vampire fangs were visible on him as well, glinting dangerously. Nyx climbed into the designated area and took the reins in her left hand. She stretched out the fingers of the right hand and darkness gathered in it. From the darkness appeared a black whip, which was wrapped by bright stars like barbed wire.

Before opening the gates of the stable with a snap of her fingers, she glanced, at the sleeping baby lying on the seat next to her. Perseus was sleeping peacefully, snoring softly to himself.

Nyx looked up and cracked the whip. The nightmarish horses reared up and then sprinted through the wide gates. Perseus seemed oblivious and slept contentedly. Red dust swirled toward the two riders from the adjacent plains of Tartarus, but the chariot shot upward and quickly gained altitude, carried by the horses, that could run in the air as if it was solid ground.

As always, Nyx flew into the world above them to give the mortals the night.

It wasn't required of her to make the long journey every night, but sometimes she just enjoyed the feeling of beeing surrounded by her domain. On her lazy days she just subconsciously willed the world to be covered in the darkness.

But today was a special occasion.

As she looked down on the lights of the city below them, the goddess stretched out her black wings. From them, black smoke seemed to descend upon the world, and indeed, the sky became dark. Night had fallen.

Nyx took a turn and then spread her dark wings even further. Carefully she took her son and cradled him in her arms. Then she did what any woman with a child would do, she jumped from the chariot to fall to the world below.

But as she always did, Nyx flapped her wings like a second pair of arms and broke her fall. She gave one last look to her horses, who had already moved on. They would know which route to take.

Elegantly Nyx soared over New York's Central Park, looking for a particular apartment at its edge. She found the front door with a sign that read 'M. Jackson'.

She didn't linger with the door, but simply waved her hand, whereupon the blue-painted wooden door burst open.

"Markus?" the Goddess of the Night asked into the apartment.

She entered the living room, which under normal circumstances would have been exceedingly cozy. She and Markus had spent evenings together on the couch and had watched movies snuggled up together. Or they had gone a little beyond cuddling.

But when Nyx approached the black leather couch, she saw something that made even the fearless Primodial Goddess of the Night's blood run cold.

Red blood had spread on the white carpet. It flowed from a neck opened with a knife.

Empty, dead sea-green eyes stared into hers that pulsed with power. Markus' black hair was as messy as ever, but today it was also dyed reddish brown from the dried blood. His usually tanned skin was pale and lifeless. A last horrified cry for help was eternally frozen on his lips.

Nyx stood there, frozen in shock. Then she felt him. She had not felt his presence for years, not since she had thrown him out of her house. The darkness seemed to thicken and from the shadows in the corner of the spacious room stepped a man all too familiar to Nyx.

He wore a perfectly black business suit with a gray shirt and a black silk tie. His skin was white as marble and his shoulder-length black hair fell over his face. But Nyx knew very well that his eyes would look like endless black holes, which would draw all life and light from their surroundings, forever under their spell.

In his hand, the big man held a black knife made of stygian iron, whose curved, cold blade was stained red by blood.

Erebus, the Primordial God of Darkness, straightened up and brushed his hair from his face with his free hand and directed his hateful gaze at his wife.

"Nyx." His voice was smooth as silk, but cut through the space between them like a blade of steel.

"You dare sire a child with another? After that with this wretched mortal?"

"Why? For what reason must you tear from me everything that brings joy to my life?" hissed Nyx angrily, tears in her eyes, but with venom in her voice.

"We are Primordials. We are meant to rule over these creatures called mortals and over the plane they live in. But now you have mated with one of these lower creatures.

So I should ask you... Why?," Erebus hissed back, his voice carrying anger.

"Because he gave me the love you did not have. Because he was there for me when I felt terrible. And I felt so terrible because of you. And he gave me a son to love."

"This abomination?" Erebus screeched, pointing his white fingers at Perseus.

"Look at you now Nyx. How low have you stooped? Look at this thing. Not even a god, just another mortal. He should never have existed and I'm here to get rid of this abomination for good."

Perseus began to squirm and cry, as if the little infant had felt the loss of his father and the grief of his mother.

Nyx narrowed her eyes and furiously drew her eyebrows together. Anger fueled in her body and was about to explode with the might of a Primordial, trying to tear apart the fabrics of reality.

"Don't you dare call my son abomination."

She slowly knelt down and placed Perseus on the ground. At her command, shadows swirled around him and the little boy sank into the shadows.

Then Nyx slowly raised her head to look Erebus in the eyes, which were still covered by his dark hair.

"You filthy cheating bastard! You took Markus from me and you made Perseus cry. I'm going to kill you for that!" she screamed in outrage.

"Oh please. A few days and you would have forgotten about these inferior animals anyway. They were just playthings for you to pass the time without me. But now I'm here and we can have a little fun together."

"How dare you!" Nyx shouted.

She pulled her whip from her belt and struck at Erebus queerly across the room. He dodged the blow with a roll across the floor in her direction and now stood a meter in front of Nyx.

Again she swung the whip and jumped to the right as Erebus swung his fist at her. Erebus backed away, but the end of the whip had struck his cheek and nose. As if they were nails, the stars in the whip had left a long cut on Erebus' face.

For an ordinary mortal, this hit would have been enough to cut his head into pieces, but Erebus withstood the incredible speed of Nyx's attacks.

Nyx dived down and tried to kick his legs away. Erebus, however, deftly dodged her leg and kicked into her side. Nyx was thrown against the wall of the living room, knocking over the couch in flight.

The wall behind her cracked and dust trickled from the white ceiling.

Before Erebus could get closer, however, she had already jumped up again and brought the whip down on his head from above. Erebus reacted at the last moment and pulled his knife up. The whip wrapped itself around the knife and Erebus tore at the whip.

Nyx held on to it, however, ignoring the pain that spread to her ribs from the kick. It didn't last long anyway, since shadows were drawn to her body and almost instantly closed up the wound.

Erebus realized she wasn't going to let go and took a step forward. The pressure was gone and Nyx lost her balance. Erebus jumped forward put a foot under the back of Markus' body and kicked it in her direction. The cold body slammed into Nyx, who looked up for a moment in surprise at the face of her dead lover.

In that moment of distraction her grip loosened and as Erebus again jerked the arm with the knife to the side and Nyx's whip fell out of her hand.

Nyx snarled and materialized a black dagger of shadows in her right hand, where her whip had been until just a moment ago. With an angry cry, Nyx leaped toward Erebus. With her dagger, she blocked the attack with his knife, knocking it aside and tackling Erebus with her shoulder.

As they both crashed into the walls, they gave way under the power of the two divine entities and collapsed. The entire apartment shook. Both of them called upon their powers over the darkness and shadows to blast the debris of their bodies in an explosion of black mist. Slowly Erebus began to grow until his body reached through the holes in the ceiling.

Instantly Nyx grew in size as well and both of them started blasting each other with tendrils of shadows and shards of darkness that were used like deadly throwing knifes.

Nyx felt her power beginning to fluctuate. Tiny bursts of godly energy burned holes in the building like lasers while each opponent was only able to inflict slight, insignificant injuries on each other. They were always healed instantly since both of them were in their domain and trying to harm a Primordial in their own domain… well let's just say there is a reason why it took 5 of the strongest Titans, a soul destroying scythe provided by a Primordial and a very cowardly surprise attack from the bushes to take down Uranus.

Nyx knew that it would result in absolute chaos for the mortal plane if both of them continued fighting. She didn't exactly care for the rest of them, but had learned to appreciate them a little bit more.

Suddenly both of them released a beam of energy at the same time. They collided and caused an explosion, that blasted apart the last standing walls. The ceiling shook and came down on them.

She used the moment to drag Erebus with her into a shadow as the ceiling fell over them and Erebus focused not on his attacker but on the surroundings.

When he realized that the environment had changed, it was already too late. The sky was covered with blood-red clouds and the ground no longer consisted of the fluffy white carpet but of black glass shards.

They were on the edge of a huge cliff that led into the void. Literally. Below them was the abyss of Chaos.

Nyx's whip had come loose from Erebus's knife and landed right next to her. She took it in her left hand, still holding the dagger in her right.

Erebus stood with his back to the cliff. Perfect. Quick as a flash, she aimed the dagger with deadly precision at Erebus' pale face. The god of darkness let a shadow shoot out like an arm to catch the flying dagger.

But that was all Nyx needed. Again she swung her whip but this time downward at his feet. The blow against his foot knocked him off balance and before you could see it Nyx was standing in front of him.

"Nobody touches my Perseus!" the Goddess of the Night spat in Erebus' surprised face as she placed her foot against his chest with a mischievous smile on her lips and kicked hard.

As if in slow motion, Erebus was hurled over the edge, screaming into the abyss where he was swallowed up by the blackness that not even the Primordial God of Darkness could control. He still tried to use the shadows to propel him upwards, to let him shadow travel away. He couldn't even abandon this physical body he was trapped in, no, he was doomed.

The abyss swepped his powers away and Erebus let out a silent scream as his body and every conscious thought he could have were ripped apart and crushed by the presense of Chaos.

Nyx managed a smile. Markus had been wrong. Sometimes a little revenge wasn't so bad. Oh gods! Markus ...

He was dead. Her newest lover had been killed by her old lover. It was her fault. If he had never met her, he could have just gone on living. She let out a desperate sob that echoed off the black rocks and sank to her knees.

The father of her child was dead... Perseus!

Now was not the time to wallow in self-pity.

She had to make sure that her son was alright and dissolved into shadows.


When Nyx stepped out of the shadows and found herself in the living room of the Mansion of the Night, she saw her son Thanatos holding his brother Perseus in his arms. Lyssa stood by and giggled as Perseus reached for her long brown hair.

The two looked up and immediately rushed to her side as she dropped heavily onto the couch.

"Mother! What happened?" Lyssa asked worriedly.

Nyx left out a sigh. "Erebus."

Both of Nyx's children drew in their breath sharply. They knew exactly how cruel their father could be.

"He killed Markus. And when he wanted to kill Perseus as well. We fought. I kicked him into the abyss."

Thanatos simply nodded and carefully placed Perseus in his mother's arms.

"I will personally take care of his burial and make sure he reaches Elysium." With these words, he disappeared. Lyssa also hugged her mother briefly and then flashed out.

Exhausted, Nyx lay down on the sofa and hugged Perseus to her chest. She kissed his head and whispered softly "I will always protect you Perseus. I won't let anyone hurt you. I love you, my little destroyer."