AN: New chapter! You lucky dogs. All the support has really been overwhelming, and I didn't expect to get this much support this fast. Favorites, follows, and reviews are all welcome. 100 follows is amazing!
Warning! This chapter contains a lot more cussing than usual, sorry not sorry, I just felt in the mood.
Update: So some people on Wattpad reallyy want me to do a harem, so go and vote for harem or no in my profile, I'll tally up the votes from fanfiction and wattpad.
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Perseus executes his plans
Ascension of the Fallen: Chapter 6
Last time:
"And so, I had this splitting headache," Perseus emphasized his headache by rubbing his forehead, "It hurt so much that I can still feel the aftereffects of it. I was throwing up in the Phlegethon for days. Good thing I'll never have to be down there again, otherwise the Phlegethon would be damn angry. The good thing about that aspect change was that the headache didn't stay for too long and my power actually grew exponentially afterwards."
When it was all said and done, Thalia surprisingly felt sad for the god. Most immortals remained aloof from mortals, even demigods, deeming them dirt beneath their feet and unworthy of their presence.
"Now, let us get into the offer I have for you."
Thalia leaned forward in anticipation, sitting on the edge of her lush seat.
"You know the Olympians hold no love for you, or any other demigod for that matter. Join me in my conquest to overthrow the gods."
The daughter of Zeus looked conflicted for a moment, "I…
Now:
… accept."
Perseus looked at Thalia strangely, with a hint of a question on his face, but Thalia raised her pencil-thin eyebrow indignantly at the god. She tried to maintain eye contact with his gaze, but something… in his eyes made her want to keep looking at him and look away at the same time. How? The daughter of Zeus had absolutely zero clue. Thalia eventually broke eye contact and looked down at her cup of tea.
There was a surprising sound of jubilant cheering, and the daughter of Zeus looked up to see the handsome face of Perseus, god of time, darkness, and mountains, flying at her …
with a fucking cushion of all things, all while smirking. The audacity of this handsome bastard.
Thalia's demigod instincts kicked in, and the daughter of Zeus ducked under the cushion, trying to punch the god in his abdomen. She shouted in excruciating pain when her fist met the god's iron steel wall of an abdomen. The daughter of Zeus had no clue how one's muscles could be so damn hard.
Thalia cursed herself. She knew her fist would be bruised for at least a full week from the impact, if not more. How much did he work out to become a steel wall of muscle?
Perseus ceased fighting immediately and massaged her right fist, his warm, large hand enclosing her small one. The daughter of Zeus flipped her long, sleek black hair over her face to cover her blush, but the god was denser than a fucking brick.
Perseus rubbed smooth circles into Thalia's back, trying to calm her, but the daughter of Zeus was too flustered to respond to the devilishly handsome god of time.
"The gods have repeatedly used you demigods to do their bidding time and time again, especially Zeus. My little brother is so paranoid someone will take his throne that he exiled my brother Hades to the underworld and left the seas to my other brother, Poseidon. In fact, Zeus is probably pissing his bed right now, knowing that I, the fallen, am about to ascend the throne…
(what neither of them knew was that Zeus, lord of the skies, god of the heavens, thunder, lightning, kingship (cough cough), honor and justice (ahem…) was currently frantically changing the bed sheets after pissing them in the middle of the night, hoping that Hera was asleep and wouldn't notice the smell…)
Anyway, Zeus, your father tried to kill your cousins Bianca di Angelo and Nico di Angelo back in 1934."
Thalia wanted to speak, and Perseus would have let her, but she had no words for her father.
Perseus nodded, as if it were an adequate reaction, "He ended up killing their mother with the bolt he sent down. Fortunately, they are alive today since they were placed in the Lotus Casino, which is a place where time goes by slowly inside and faster outside. Your two cousins, they're the two children of Hades I took that day."
The daughter of Zeus' face had a comically astounded look on her face, and Perseus could somehow tell, although Thalia's face was obscured, and grinned at her with the enthusiasm of a child.
"Kronos, my father, is rising."
Thalia snapped to attention, although she still hid her face in Perseus' arms.
The god of darkness continued, "He is even worse than the Olympians, using the hatred and bitterness that the demigods harbor to acquire them for himself. He uses them like cards, or pawns in chess. His knights, bishops, rooks, queen? All for him to use in order to reclaim Olympus and topple it to the ground. I aim to topple it to the ground as well, but not how my father plans to do it."
Thalia was left speechless at this point, basically a mute.
"Anyways, I know you might have concerns about the daughter of Athena and what not," the god stated warmly with an amused smile, "after all, you accepted the offer without thinking about them. I don't blame you; you are a daughter of Zeus. Zeus' offspring were born to be impulsive."
From her position, Thalia rolled her eyes sarcastically, although Perseus couldn't see anything.
The ever-so oblivious god continued, "No harm will come to her, even though I hold a grudge against her mother. I'm not some vengeful god that will not stop at anything to harm my enemies; after all, professionals have standards (AN: Does anyone understand this reference? Anyone?), and I am a professional. It would be better if you could convince her to come to our side, yeah? Also, I can't really bless you, the Olympians will sense a strange blessing, causing suspicion. I'll just give you this black and slightly gold necklace; you can call me with three taps on it. No one will think a thing since you always wear black."
Thalia was too incoherent to respond, currently in dreamland from Perseus' hand rubbing her back. Just how skillful was his hand? Damn those fingers…
Perseus finally released Thalia from his grasp, "I believe the daughter of Athena is about to barge into your cabin."
He smirked at Thalia, sending her back to the world of the living before the daughter of Zeus had a chance to reply.
Thalia woke up, coming face to face with the gray, inquisitive eyes of a certain daughter of Athena.
She gulped nervously, and Annabeth instantly narrowed her eyes at Thalia's somewhat strange behavior.
This was not going to be fun.
Line break
The goddess of archery approached the top of Mount Orthys, or Mount Tamalpais, as the mortals called it. Her silver eyes darted around warily as she stalked stealthily along the perimeter of the mountain, senses stretching to attempt to detect any immortals. She had passed the Garden of Hesperides without any problem; Hera's handmaidens, the Hesperides were nowhere to be found and dragon curled up around the tree, unable to detect her presence.
But until Artemis found what she was looking for, she-
There she was!
The girl couldn't have been older than ten, and her thin legs were visibly shaking. Sweat was pouring down the young maiden's face. The moon goddess had no doubt that if she had to hold up the sky any longer, she would surely be flattened by the tremendous weight. Artemis rushed towards her, but the goddess stopped halfway, biting her lip nervously. She sensed something. There was something off about the girl. She was no immortal, and no immortals were even close to the goddess, so Artemis let her guard down just a bit. She was most likely a demigod, not an immortal or anything drastic.
"Hey, hey. Can you hear me?" she spoke softly to the young child. The girl nodded silently, clearly too tired to do anything else, let alone speak.
"I'll get you out of here. Just hang tight, okay? I'll help you." Artemis took a deep breath, preparing to bear the weight of the sky.
The goddess of hunting pushed the young maiden out of the way, taking the literal weight of the sky on her shoulders herself.
The weight of the sky dropped on her shoulders, forcing her to her knees. Her muscles started burning, and her bones creaked like a ninety year old mortal.
In her haste, Artemis hadn't noticed that the girl seemed a bit too heavy for her thin, starved frame, and that Artemis had to exert some more force to push her out of the way.
The goddess looked up, expecting to see a grateful young girl. Instead, the goddess' shining silver eyes widened with horror as the young maiden in front of her shimmered brightly, before she turned into Atlas, titan of endurance and strength. The titan rose to his full mortal height of six foot five, towering over the chained and kneeling goddess.
"You! You, miserable, monster! You bastard!" Artemis shrieked with anger at the smirking Atlas, "HOW?"
"Puny little goddess," Atlas rumbled with a mocking laugh at her state, "the mighty goddess of hunting, archery, the moon, along with several other domains I don't give a shit about, is now kneeling at my feet."
The titan reached his hand out to pat Artemis' head mockingly, but Artemis snarled at the titan, coming dangerously close to biting off Atlas' finger. Atlas jerked back, unafraid of the goddess.
"You resemble more of a rabid dog now than you do a goddess," Atlas jeered at Artemis.
A woman wearing a shiny purple and gold pencil skirt and a purple jacket appeared out of thin next to the giant titan.
"HECATE, how dare you betray Olympus!" Artemis spat at the goddess, her tone filled with blistering venom.
The five-foot four goddess merely smiled mockingly. Hecate gestured to another god as a man decked out in a black hoodie and jeans appeared in front of the goddess.
"P-perseus…"
The sight of him made the sky feel a thousand times heavier to the goddess of the moon. Her shoulders sagged even more, and Artemis felt like burrowing into the ground under his piercing gaze. Her auburn hair seemed increasingly dull by the minute.
After scrutinizing her for a few seconds with his eyes like a scientist examining a subject, Perseus merely chose to ignore the imprisoned goddess and turned to the titan god of endurance, clasping forearms more like acquaintances than brothers.
There was a mutual respect between the two towering immortals, but Perseus seemed a bit less genuine than the titan, as if there was something the titan didn't know.
"Don't fall out of line and I won't force you back under the sky again," Perseus coldly stated to the titan of endurance, who gulped nervously and nodded, his Adam's apple visibly bobbing.
Hecate stepped forward, her heels clacking loudly as Perseus turned towards her. The eldest of Kronos and Rhea then wrapped the goddess of magic in a warm hug, though Hecate seemed to hug Perseus a bit tighter than he was used to. Some unknown, foreign emotion made Artemis grit her teeth so hard that she thought they might break.
Hecate turned her head to smugly look at the chained goddess, "That potion took me more than a full year to make and brew; it was one of my strongest ones yet. An optical illusion strong enough to fool an Olympian goddess, a tangible weight-reduction potion and a cloak potion for an immortal. Even Trivia had to pour in her power for this one."
All four immortals shook their heads as Hecate's mentioning of Trivia caused four new individuals to take their place.
Atlas was the same, except even more militaristic. Trivia took the place of Hecate, and Diana took the place of Artemis. Perseus transformed into a man with stricter features. This man was of around twenty-five years, still having a clean-shaven face. He wore a sleek black suit with polished shoes, looking like a man going to a wedding. Lord Deus turned to Diana with a sad look on his face, taking a step towards the moon goddess before he caught himself and schooled his features into a scowl.
The man turned to Trivia, smiling, "Well, the work has paid off now, hasn't it?"
"Indeed it has, my lord," Trivia practically purred at the eldest of Saturn.
Deus nodded and glanced one last time at Diana before turning around with a dismissive shrug, appearing to have nothing to say. Out of all of his nieces and nephews, Diana's betrayal hurt the most. As Perseus and Artemis, they had went on hunts together, as companions. Their relationship was once close. But that was not the way now. Deus strode back down the mountain with the confidence befitting of the former king of Olympus. Atlas was still grinning from ear to ear at being liberated from his punishment, and the titan flashed out of the vicinity, scot-free.
Trivia stepped forward, her purple and gold stilettos clacking dangerously on the surface of the mountain. She violently yanked the kneeling goddess of the moon by the chin, forcing Diana to look up at her.
Trivia opened her mouth to speak in a dominating tone, but Diana interrupted her.
"He'll never be yours," Diana hissed at the goddess of magic, managing to somehow read her mind. "Stop your foolish advances. They're pointless."
"Neither will he be yours," Trivia narrowed her eyes into venomous slits, "not after you betrayed him, you bitch."
Diana narrowed her enchanting, silver eyes right back at Trivia's magical purple ones.
"Fuck you, you nasty bitch. You're a meddling piece of shit. You're not worthy enough to pour my wine, let alone rule the world," Diana hissed right back, before spitting straight into Trivia's face.
The goddess of magic recoiled in shock, before letting go of Diana's chin and wiping the spit off her face indignantly with a napkin. A few seconds of dead silence passed as the birds of nature ceased chirping.
A resounding SMACK was delivered by Trivia's palm, turning Diana's head a full ninety degrees, echoing across the mountain, and leaving an angry, bright red handprint on Diana's cheek. Trivia turned around with an angry huff and flashed away, leaving the imprisoned moon goddess holding up the sky, sweat dripping down her face.
Line break
"What were you gulping about? What made you so nervous?" Annabeth narrowed her inquisitive gray eyes dangerously, watching Thalia's every move like a cat ready to pounce on her prey.
"Nothing, you're just a little scary," Thalia chuckled nervously. Fortunately, this strategy seemed to work, somewhat appeasing the hubris of the daughter of Athena.
"Well, come on then. Breakfast is almost over," Annabeth shouted jubilantly, exiting Cabin one.
Thalia grumpily climbed out of bed and threw on her clothes. Good thing she didn't notice the necklace. That damn smoking hot god. Thalia shook her head in exasperation, smoothing over her sleek black hair and exiting the cabin and heading to breakfast.
The hunters were present at breakfast, and Thalia heard all sorts of rumors why they were there, from the fact that they were harboring crushes for a couple of boys, namely Theo and Burk (Thalia knew whoever spread that rumor would be missing their genitals by the end of the day) to the rumor that Artemis was captured. Thalia found the latter a bit far-fetched. How could the goddess of hunting, archery and the moon be captured, for gods' sake? Artemis was one of the best fighters on Olympus physically, right up there with Athena and Poseidon. If the moon goddess was captured, who was left to defend the home of the gods?
Not that Thalia cared, anyway. Perseus had shown her the cruelty of the gods and their ways. Kronos wasn't a good alternative either. Zeus would have turned her into a fucking tree, for gods' sake! It was hard to be grateful for the gods when one compared them to Perseus. A noble god. Thalia snorted quietly to herself in amusement, gods were supposed to be 'noble'.
Thalia walked past the hunters' table when Zoe pulled her aside, away from prying ears.
Thalia was instantly on guard; after all, your archnemesis never tried to talk to you without pulling something, right?
The lieutenant of Artemis narrowed her eyes at the camp necklace Thalia wore, instantly recognizing something.
Before Thalia could insult the lieutenant of Artemis with a snide remark, Zoe whispered in her ear, "Meet me in the woods tonight during Capture the Flag. I have something to discuss with you."
Line break
Deus stepped into the clearing of the forest, his immaculate suit bringing out his handsome features quite nicely. A nice afternoon it was. His gold and black Rolex (AN: C'mon, gotta give me a pass for this one) shined under the sun. The god of darkness came to a stop as he sensed an immortal presence.
Deus looked at another man standing in front of him. A good-looking fellow, Deus had to admit, standing just a bit shorter than him at six-foot two. Scars marred his features, complimenting him at the same time.
"Lord Deus," Mars stated with an air of reverence, kneeling in awe.
"Lord Mars," Deus simply inclined his head respectfully, "You may rise. I did not expect you to be here."
Few impressed the god of war, and even fewer would have him flabbergasted. Mars was a well-disciplined, powerful warrior and tactician. That being said, the six-foot two god could not help but be astounded at meeting his idol. Since he was a boy, the god of war had dreamed of meeting Lord Deus. No matter what his father said about him, Mars had thirsted for knowledge about the Fallen Olympian, even sneaking in Minerva's library at night to the forbidden section to read about him. Many on Olympus talked about him as if he were their hero behind Zeus' back of course. Considered by many to be the greatest god to ever grace Olympus, his feats of strength and honor echoed across the eons.
It was said that Deus had once refused Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, considered by many to be the epitome of beauty. In other words, he was a man of focus, commitment, and sheer fucking will. (AN: Anyone know where that reference's from?)
He was the one who led the gods in the titan and giant wars. Deus was the one who forced Atlas, titan of endurance and strength under the sky, the one who forced Iapetus the Piercer to kneel, who forced Krios to flee before him, who outwitted Prometheus. He who fought Saturn single handedly and lasted over a minute against the Mad Titan. (AN: You should ALL know this reference unless you just don't watch movies)
His feats of honor were known across the mythological world. Deus was the one who rescued Aeneas, helping the Trojan bloodline to live onwards, indirectly founding Rome. He was the one to save Zoe Nightshade from the vile Hercules, the one to kill the giant Orion for messing with Artemis.
But the Fallen was betrayed, never to see the light of day again. And here he was, standing right before him.
Mars finally snapped out of his stupor and rose from the ground, holding out a notebook and a pen"…Um… can I… can I get your autograph?"
The eldest of Saturn and Ops smiled warmly at the war god, taking the pen and giving his signature.
Mars immediately pocketed it, "Why are you here?"
Deus looked at Mars with a scrutinizing gaze, wondering if the god was of strong will. Mars stood tall and strong, silently demanding an answer from the elder god.
"Perhaps putting you on the council was not Jupiter's worst act," Deus conceded out of the blue, "you seem rather honorable compared to your Greek counterpart."
Mars nodded, trying to ignore that Deus, of all gods, had praised him, "Are you siding with the titans in this upcoming war?"
Had it been Perseus answering the question, his back would have gone ramrod; however, this was Deus, a skilled politician.
"No. The titans are foolish and will wipe out the face of the Earth, bringing a clean slate. Nor am I siding with the Olympians. You understand why," Deus growled in a low voice.
Deus' shivering tone made Mars gulp, his Adam's apple bobbing silently.
"I would offer you to join me, but I know you are intensely loyal to the state of Rome. I'm afraid you would stab me in the back," the god of darkness stated, his dark black eyes boring intensely into Mars' red ones.
"Regardless, the offer still stands. I care not if you report this to Jupiter. Rome has always been good to you, but the gods have not. Jupiter is more honorable than his Greek counterpart, but that isn't saying much."
Deus stepped forward and patted Mars' shoulder, before flashing off, leaving a conflicted war god in the clearing.
AN: I hope you liked this chapter! I made a roman version of Perseus, Lord Deus. What do you all think of Lord Deus? What do you think of Hecate and Artemis? Also, do you all think this counts as a cliff hanger?
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