Nico: The blessing of the god of darkness himself
Right after the sun set, Erebus arrived as was planned for us. I was amazed that we had gone undetected by Ouranos or Prometheus this long but at the moment, I was excited to settle one more feud and establish one more alliance between the gods. "Ah, Nico di Angelo come to speak on his father's behalf or that of Gabriel's for me tonight?" Erebus asked. "I have come to apologize on my father's behalf for the insult done to you," I answered.
"Cute, you may continue if you wish to do what your father never did," Erebus commented. "On behalf of my father Hades and on behalf of all the creatures of the Underworld, I apologize for the offense committed against you and your brother Tartarus when the first Great War ended and Hades came to rule," I said. "Shortly after your father took rule, I put a curse on the area that I still had that made it so dark that not even your father dared venture without my permission. The only one to have been allowed into my domain until now has been our friend Gabriel and anyone who travels with him but now, that is no longer so with the feud over," Erebus explained.
"My lord, if it is not impolite to do so, I would like to ask what this has to do with your feud with Hades. Which, as your graciousness has seen fit, has been absolved," I asked. "Shortly after I established my domain in the Underworld, I accidentally activated a part of my magic that made the darkness spread until it engulfed almost all of the Underworld save Elysium and Tartarus. That is precisely why the Underworld is the dark and gloomy domain that you know it to be to this day," Erebus answered.
"And does our friend Nico have at least one more thing to do for our god of darkness here?" Gabriel said to me. Then I remembered that I was supposed to swear an oath that it would never happen again and receive the blessing of Erebus. "Lord Erebus, I swear on the River Styx to do everything in my power to prevent another feud between you and Hades. Having sworn this oath, may I ask for your blessing before we wage war against the forces of evil tonight?" I asked.
"First, before I can give you my blessing I need you to lift up your arms and show me the palms of your hands," Erebus answered. I obeyed, knowing better than to question the word of a god especially one like Erebus. Both of his eyes then glowed a pale green light that sent out currents of lightning right into the palms of my hands. The lightning was so painful when it touched my hands that I had to bite me lip to keep from screaming.
It lasted for a few minutes but all the same, it hurt really bad. When the pain passed, I didn't even notice it for a few moments since it was so tremendous. But when I finally realized that it had passed, I noticed that I had an Alpha on my left hand and an Omega on the other. "Nico di Angelo, you have made an oath to darkness itself.
"Live and remember your oath to the mighty Erebus. Now, you have my blessing to fight the forces of evil on the following night. The full might of Darkness' army is yours to command for you are my champion on Earth, whose power is seconded only by my own," Erebus declared. I turned to Gabriel and showed him the marks on my hands that would act as a reminder of what I had done.
He smiled and nodded, thanking Erebus for being of assistance to the demigods of Camp Half-Blood once again. "I would rather put up with Hades and his occasional complaints of me stealing souls from him than see the Titans return and destroy him for the death of Hades means my death as well," Erebus told us. Then he disappeared in a single display of power rivaled only by the Big Three in its magnitude. My guess was that he was a very happy god of darkness tonight considering he helped end a millennia-old feud between himself and Hades.
"How do you feel after being declared the champion of darkness itself?" Gabriel asked. For a moment, I had to think about that since it was a new sensation to me but then I sort of had the words. "I feel… stronger, faster, and more confident with a sword than I had previously felt," I answered. "Then let's have a practice spar so you can confirm how you feel right now," he said.
Quicker than I had ever done before, I had my sword out and on the attack but he intercepted with one of his swords. He pushed my sword aside with the other and I was soon attacking with the powers of darkness on my side. Gabriel was not surprised by any of my moves because he could move quickly if he wished and he did. Soon, I was purely on defensive but even my defense had improved since the last time I had had to use my sword to survive.
When we crossed blades, I asked him how he was able to move so fast. "Let me put it this way, I have all the powers of a god but I don't have the immortality. That's the only thing that makes me different between the gods, someone with the Curse of Achilles like Percy, and normal mortals," he answered. That made sense considering that he was indeed a son of Kronos and it led me to wonder if Chiron had the same abilities as Gabriel did.
As if reading my mind, Gabriel told me that Chiron was like Gabriel in his own way but was inferior thanks to his status as a centaur. "You need to be purely human to access the abilities that the gods and I have otherwise, you're still powerful but you're not the most powerful warrior to walk the planet," Gabriel explained. He added that Chiron would only hope that his experience with training heroes would sharpen his skills enough to even hold his own against Gabriel like I was. "Chiron is one of the best warriors I have ever seen and trust me, Chiron in action is a sight to behold," he said.
We continued to spar a little more until Gabriel managed to disarm me in a few minutes. Both of us were sweating and panting for breath although I was doing it harder than he was. "I haven't had a good round like that since the time I had to face down one of Hyperion's giant guards. And that was when I attempted to assassinate Hyperion on Hestia's behalf, more than a year ago," he said.
"What was Hyperion like when you first met him?" I asked, eager to know one of the Titans a bit better. "Let's put it this way (although vulgar, this is the only polite way I can describe him) he was probably the most selfish asshole with no balls that I had ever met," Gabriel answered. That impressed me since I had never heard Gabriel curse before and I don't think anybody did besides Drew Beauregard who probably heard him do that in bed (trust me, you don't want to know how I found that out). "Hey Gabriel before you met the gods, did you ever believe in any supernatural deities?" I asked, quite out of the blue but it was a random thought.
"No but my youngest uncle tried to force Christianity down my throat when I was younger. But in order to keep my ability to use logic and avoid having empty faith, I used to sneak in some George Carlin routines," Gabriel answered. "Repeat one routine for me please?" I inquired, interested in what George Carlin would tell him through his routines. "One of my favorites is his revision of the Ten Commandments so I think I will tell you that one," Gabriel said.
I made myself comfortable when I found a rock near me and watched as Gabriel repeated a routine for me. "From stand-up legend George Carlin: I'm not making this shit up, why did they pick ten? Why ten, why not nine or eleven? I'll tell you why: because ten sounds official, ten sounds important.
"They knew if it was eleven, people wouldn't take it seriously. What are you kidding me, the Eleven Commandments? Get the fuck out of here but ten sounds important, it's the basis for the decimal. It's a decade, it's a cycle, it's a psychologically satisfying number so the decision to have Ten Commandments was really a marketing decision.
"And it's clearly a bullshit list, it's an artificially inflated document designed to scare and control primitive people. I'm gonna show you how you can reduce the number of Commandments and come up with a list that's a little more logical. I'll be using the Roman Catholic version since that was the one I was taught as a little boy and I'm gonna start with the first three: 'I am the Lord, thy god. Thou shalt have no other gods before me', 'Thou shalt not take thy lord's name in vain', and 'Thou shall keep holy the Sabbath day'. Right off the bat, the first three, pure bullshit!
"Sabbath day, lord's name, spooky language; spooky language! Designed to scare and control primitive people and in no way does superstitious nonsense like this apply to the lives of rational human beings in the twenty-first century. You throw it those three and suddenly, you're down to seven and the next one: 'Honor thy mother and father'.
"Obedience, respect for authority and it's just another name for controlling people. Truth is respect should not be automatic, it should be earned and it should be based on the parents' performance. Some parents deserve respect, most of them don't, period. You throw that out and suddenly, you're down to six.
"Now in the interest of logic, something religion is very uncomfortable with, we're gonna jump up and down the list and I have two commandments that belong together: 'Thou shalt not steal' and 'Thou shalt not bear false witness'. Stealing and lying, well actually these two both prohibit the same thing: dishonesty, stealing and lying, so you don't need two of them. Instead, you combine them and change the whole thing to 'Thou shalt not be dishonest' and suddenly, you're down to five. And while we're combining commandments, I have two more that belong together: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery' and 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife'.
"Once again, these two both prohibit the same behavior in this case, martial infidelity. The only difference is that coveting takes place in the mind and I don't think you should outlaw fantasizing about another man's wife otherwise, what's a guy gonna think about when he's waxing his carrot?" At that point, I had enough laughs for one night and asked him if we could change the subject to something else for at least a little bit. "What could there be that you would wanna talk about besides that?" he asked.
"Let me put it this way: girls," I answered. He smiled and said that he would like that since it definitely was something worth talking about. "Okay, so I'm seventy-years old naturally but I have the same experience in dating as Percy: I've only had one relationship. Believe me, it didn't last long since she soon moved out of Las Vegas in time to see her brother off to the draft and I was taken to the Lotus Casino by one of the Furies," I told him.
"I'm surprised you haven't had experiences with relationships and girls. Anyway, I have had four in my life excluding all the times where a prostitute would come in and give me freebies when I was in a fit of madness and my night with Drew Beauregard," Gabriel explained. "Tell me about those relationships, I already know your relationship with Nadine so you don't need to explain that one," I asked him. "The first two were high school relationships, the girls were named Aubrey and Venus and (knowing most of the relationships that go on at Camp Half-Blood) you can imagine what they were like," he answered.
"What about the one besides Nadine and the two you've already mentioned?" I asked after nodding to say I did know what Aubrey and Venus were probably like. He told me that I wouldn't believe him if he told me. Being a cheesy teenager with nothing better to say, I told him to try me but after what he said, I think he succeeded in surprising me. "I shared some of my life with Eos, goddess of the dawn, while I was in her service," he told me.
"Wow, if Thalia and Percy heard you say that they wouldn't believe it. Very few can ever say they went out with the dawn goddess and none have lived to tell of it until now," I said. "Not necessarily true, how else do you think we know of her relationships? By consulting the souls of the dead for the sole purpose of knowing about it?" Gabriel asked.
I had to admit he was right about that and really wished that Thalia and Percy were not out checking the perimeter at this moment. "How long did you two date?" I asked. "From the time we started until I was out of her service so about four and a half months at the very least. Whenever I think about it, sometimes I think I still love her and I wonder if she has the same thought about me," he answered.
"So is that why you stay up at least until sunrise then sleep most of the day at least once a week?" I asked. He had told me and the others that he always stayed up to watch the dawn and the sunrise as his form of worship to Eos. "Yes and that's why when her brother arrives, I try to stay up a little longer but find that I can't," Gabriel said to me. I then asked how he would describe his love for Nadine.
"It was a just a young man's foolish attempt to escape his destiny before it came at him. In truth, I cannot forgive myself for having given her children that not only died but also killed her in the process of their birth," he said. That made sense but I remember what Annabeth had told me about how he had acted around her when he saw her again in the Underworld. "I just missed her badly but either way, I will be reunited with her at the end of my life," he replied when I mentioned it.
"May I admit that I am that same way about my sister? Only without the romantic feelings that you shared with Nadine?" I asked. "It's okay to feel that way about your sister if she's dead like my ex-wife. May I ask why you asked that of me?" Gabriel replied. "Let's just say I had trouble figuring out whether or not I was supposed to feel weird about that," I told him.
"Don't feel weird about it because if you miss your sister then you miss her. What could possibly so weird about missing a dead relative, right?" Gabriel responded. "I guess there's nothing weird about missing the people you love most when they're gone. Especially if they were all you had in an alien world like this still sometimes is to me," I told him. He agreed and we resumed our watch over the ruins of Mount Orthys.