The Bane of Artemis
I do not take ownership
Chapter 3:
Entering the Underworld wasn't difficult. Finding an entrance wasn't difficult. Traveling through the Underworld without detection proved to be otherwise very difficult. Perseus had entered the Underworld through a mapped-out entrance. Tartarus was a very demanding father. Whenever any of his sons were requested, they were obligated to respond. The rest of his brothers with the exceptions of Orion and Damasen, proved to be dimwitted. Unblessed without the intelligence of their mother. So, it was up to Orion, Damasen and himself to map out the entrances to the Underworld so they would never be late to their father's call.
However, the entrances were always on the upper layers of the Underworld. Where Hades reigned and roamed. According to the Olympians his straw of domain was all of the Underworld. But Hades or Pluto wouldn't dare venture into the depths of Tartarus. The very last layers of the Underworld.
Moving that information aside, the ghouls, the furies, and the rest of Hades' monsters held their guard. Making sure that no threats entered the Palace. Perseus blended in with the shadows as he hid behind logs and the darker flowers in Persephone's garden.
The Gigante ignored the twinkling dark palace as he made his way towards the ominous cavern that emitted black mist. The echoes of Tartarus' whispers could be heard as he entered the tunnel that held the drop to his father's realm.
The whispers growing ever so slightly as he neared the dark hole. The darkness within the cavern became more evident as he could barely see in front of him. The whispers of his past transgressions continued and bore into his mind.
You abandoned your brother to such fate. You expect him to welcome you with open arms.
The whispers and dialogue ringing in his ears knowing that his father's mocking was half true.
Orion was always going to be the bane of the twin archers. You turned out to be nothing much more than a burden. I am ashamed to have even sired such incompetence.
The words continued as Perseus closed his eyes. The words piercing through his nonchalant and emotionless face that was hidden by the darkness. The Gigantes as a whole held a fatal flaw. They were very much in tune with pleasing their protogenoi parents. Although Perseus hated his father, the other half of him was hurt. The half that was fatally flawed to want to please his father and mother. The one that was hurting as Tartarus showed his distaste of his youngest son.
Even Damasen accepted his punishment without struggle. So why can't you?
Perseus jumped into the darkness and gravity took a hold of him as he began to free-fall.
The fall to Tartarus was much less than if he were to fall from the overworld. It took only a few hours before he fell into the harsh sandy floor with small particles of shattered glass. The air heavy and barely breathable. Perseus' golden ichor slowly flowing from the small splinters of glass that managed to pierce his tanned skin.
He surveyed his surroundings and sensed his surroundings hoping to find the aura of his punished brother. His vision enveloped by the red nether of his dad's realm. What he sensed made his immortal heart drop. The aura was faint, almost destroyed. But a small faint of will seemed to keep it intact as he rushed through his father's realm. Not caring that his father's creations would follow him and try to capture him.
Surprisingly the aura was not too far. Almost conveniently close enough for Perseus to find it within a few minutes.
As Perseus neared Damasen's hut he realized the Drakon was nowhere to be seen. The emitting smoke from the hut no longer visible. The hut half destroyed as the structure barely stood in place. The drakon's carcasses that once littered his yard and garden, all but dust. His plants turned to ash.
The air felt heavier than usual. Perseus struggled to breathe but he overpowered not caring about his struggle. As he entered the hut, his worst fears had come to fruition. Golden ichor splatters decorated his beloved brother's hut.
The interior had been ransacked. His cotton bed had been crushed. His manmade cabinets were destroyed and caved in. Damasen's cauldrons and beakers to make potions, shattered. On a stake, with defiance as his facial emotion was his brother's head. Damasen's lifeless eyes had rolled to the back of his head as his body was nowhere to be seen.
Perseus staggered onto his knees as immortal tears flooded from his eyes. The harsh reality that had befallen him was too much to grasp. A very harsh death to such a gentle soul. Damasen would only use violence against those that threatened him and his family. To have suffered such a fate was only his father's bidding.
The Gigante continued to cry as the tears and his screams were audible throughout his father's realm. Unbeknownst to Perseus, it was all a trap. Tartarus never planned for his youngest son to find Damasen alive. He killed him in satisfaction and absorbed the rest of his son's body and left his head to break Perseus' will.
Orion entered the hut with the rest of his entourage of cyclopes and empousa. His bow at hand with an arrow already notched in his nylon strings ready to kill. His eyes apathetic at the scene of his youngest brother mourning for a failure of a brother.
"That's enough Perseus. You are acting like a mortal. We as Gigantes and immortals should never cry. Even if one of our own has fallen." Orion scolded Perseus harshly.
Perseus continued to let tears stream down his cheekbones. He arose and looked at his older brother with contempt. "Why don't you care? He was our brother!" Perseus yelled as his aura grew alongside his rage.
"He didn't follow orders. He was a failure. Just like you." Orion replied with venom. He didn't understand how his mother Gaea could favor such incompetence. He was going to make her proud and supplant his youngest brother as her favorite.
"Close your mouth. Do not say such things in my presence or I will kill you." Perseus' tears had evaporated due to the realm's harsh humidity and heat.
His usual mellow green eyes, had darkened, they began to swirl with power as Perseus looked at his brother with utter hatred. Orion's eyes were the same color. The color of green plains. His hair the same color as his younger brother's, the black of the void. His skin a bit paler than his youngest brother. Orion was a bit taller in their smaller form. The only thing that differentiated them both was the paths they decided to take.
Orion gave a wry laugh as he underestimated his youngest brother. The dark mist that seeped from his being felt malignant. The same malignance as his father. Orion's laugh was cut midway as a sense of dread began to befall him.
"It seems you inherited something of use from our father. That dark mist almost gave me a scare." Orion gave a sarcastic remark as he laughed uneasily.
"You will all pay." Perseus said under his breath barely audible.
With extreme speed Perseus kicked Orion through the hut knocking down various cyclopes and empousas. Orion looked at his brother surprised as he got up with a bit of golden ichor flowing from his mouth. Internally that had caused Orion some damage.
"It is about time we decide who the real failures are." Perseus' eyes returned to their mellow green. However, they had hardened. His emotions locked behind his shattered and broken soul.
Orion prepared his bow as he sent his arrow in the blink of an eye towards his youngest brother. Perseus stood in place as the arrow hit his chest. The arrow immediately dissipated into nothing as the dark mist absorbed it.
Perseus removed the crossbow from his back as he mounted a bolt into it. Dipped in the River of Styx and forged to make it into Stygian iron. He shot his crossbow as Orion barely dodged the bolt. The stray bolt killing three cyclops with one shot. The stygian iron bolt passed through their bodies as if their rough skin was made of paper.
With one swift motion, his fist clutched as the surrounding ground from his father's realm obeyed him. The rough sand with stray glass participles enveloped Orion's remaining entourage. As Perseus closed his fist the sand crushed and suffocated his father's minions. When the sand settled the gold dust of monsters remained, intermixed with Tartarus' own dark sand.
Orion looked at his brother with genuine fear plastered on his face whilst Perseus remained expressionless as he focused onto him. Perseus walked slowly to the brother who was on his ass almost regretfully.
"Is this the end for me?" Orion asked as he gave a wry smile.
"Perseus I was only following orders from our father. Tartarus isn't someone to play with. He will wipe you from existence–" Perseus cut Orion's sentence midway as he placed his boot over his older brother's neck.
"You're a blind sheep. Damasen was a Shepard. He was the one who made me realize that we have our own choices to make." Perseus responded as he reminisced on their great times of farming in their ancient home.
"I always believed he was the strongest out of the rest of us." Perseus laughed with joy.
"I was correct. Everyone one of us would never accept such fate he suffered." Orion looked at his younger brother with confusion. Not understanding what reminiscing gained in this situation. Damasen was already dead.
"If you're going to destroy my body temporarily. Do it. I have no time for your stupid reminiscing." Orion managed as Perseus' foot crushed his neck.
The pressure on his neck grew as Perseus' began to mount more pressure on Orion's neck. Orion struggled before the pressure on his neck was relieved. He struggled to breathe as he began to cough and wheeze struggling to breathe the air from Tartarus.
"You're too weak. Can't even finish the job?" Orion asked as he struggled to get onto his feet.
Perseus ignored the insult as he looked through his surroundings. "You're only alive because I need a way out of this forsaken place. How do I get out?"
"You entered our father's realm without having a plan of escape?" Orion scoffed. As he brushed the sand from his duster jacket.
Perseus remained silent as he looked towards Damasen's hut. The last time he would see it in his time, well he hoped. His emotions were still very raw of his brother's loss. However, Orion was correct in one regard. Crying did no good. The only way he could make Damasen's death be of significance was to make sure those from Olympus fell from glory.
"No. But I know entering Tartarus' palace is not a wise choice. His doors to enter the overworld to meet mother was my only option. But seeing as he wants me dead, I don't think it's wise to test my luck. So, what's your escape from here? I know you were not planning to stay in this realm forever" Perseus explained as he looked at Orion.
Of course, he knew Orion was a liability in his escape. He could betray him to his father and lead him to be captured. Perseus did not have an exit and that was the only reason Orion's body wasn't reforming in his father's palace.
"You moved on from Damasen's death that quickly. Perhaps I misunderstood you. Maybe you're capable of being emotionless like the rest of our ki–" Orion's sentence was once again cut short as Perseus slit his throat. Golden ichor flowing from the slash at the median of his neck.
Perseus' continued to be emotionless. But deep inside he felt justification that he had defended Damasen's honor. He would never forget his death. That would haunt him for eternity. As Orion struggled to heal his neck wound, Perseus sheathed his stygian iron blades into is compartment at the base of his lower back.
"Now. You are going to tell me how to exactly escape this hell. Or I will make sure you don't ever get to see the surface ever again." Perseus grabbed Orion by his jacket's collar as Orion continued to cough ichor.
"Doors of Death." Orion managed to choke out.
"What about them? Thanatos is smart enough to make them disappear." Perseus shook Orion as his brother barely maintained consciousness.
"We've managed to chain them down. Their just east of Damasen's hut." Orion coughed out as the golden liquid continue to spurt on Perseus' face and clothes.
"Perfect." Perseus dropped Orion like he was worth nothing. Orion's head hitting the harsh sand bluntly.
"When I reform, I will kill you Perseus. I will hunt you down. I will turn the earth upside down to look for you." Orion managed to continue to talk as the gash healed a bit but not enough to stop his loss of immortal liquid.
"Stop, you are still overdramatic. Even worse than Ephialtes and Otis. But I await your challenge for the best hunter that has roamed in the overworld. That is after I have destroyed my nemesis." Perseus smiled as he walked away from his older brother.
Orion continued to bleed out through his neck wound. He would reform much quicker and find his forsaken brother in the overworld. He would make sure he would bring Perseus in chains to his father. He alongside Tartarus would commence the endless torture they had planned for their very much hated family relative.
Author's Note: I've been in a writing mood for the day. So, I had to update something on my profile. My newest story got the pick. Lately I have been watching various Anime so I might upload a story on one of those anime's I have watched. Anyways thanks for reading. Stay safe :).