Nico felt pretty alone as he leaned against the onyx wall of one of the Underworld caverns, once again silently berating himself for letting his guard down. The world was a dark, cruel place. Even at thirteen, the young heir of Hades had internalized that pretty quickly. He shook his head to clear away the dark thoughts that always seemed to crowd around him when he shadow-travelled and looked curiously out the cavern entrance.
When he had left the camp, he had headed straight for his father's domain. For some reason, the towering, raven-black minarets of his father's palace, almost blending in with the ashy blackness of the Underworld "sky" always brought him comfort. However, luck wasn't on his side today. Whilst on his way to the Ebony Palace, he had run into a rogue pack of wild drakons, which were rarely seen outside Tartarus
"Clearly not that rarely", he thought bitterly, as he nursed the rather large slash wound on his stomach and waited for an end to the roaring and gnashing that was happening outside.
That was when, all of a sudden, the noise ceased. Brisk footsteps sounded against the rocky plains of the Underworld, which made them sound like horse hooves. Those weren't his father's footsteps. Anyways, his father never left the palace without an entourage. But if it wasn't his father...then who was it ?
Nico jumped to his feet, drawing his black blade as he did so. The Stygian Iron seemed to suck all light out of the surrounding area, replacing it with darkness.
He waited for an earth-shattering kaboom, or the slash of a sword, but it never came. That was when he noticed, the rock...the rock that blocked the cave entrance, appeared to be turning to dust.
Every so often, large chunks of it broke away from the boulder and dissolved into stone dust on the floor.
After a few minutes, that felt like hours, the upper half of the rock had eroded away to nothing, revealing a tall, pale figure, covered in monster dust and dressed in black standing behind it, touching it with one finger.
Nico shuddered as he realized that that man had killed five drakons by himself, and somehow still had enough energy to decay the rock using….using whatever he had used.
The man slid what looked like a long, silver pole off his back, before two Stygian Iron blades smoothly slid out from either end. He raised it high ovcer his head, before bringing it down hard, slicing the remaining rock in half.
The dust cleared as the man stepped into the small, cramped cave, and as the cold, dim light of the Underworld flooded the room, Nico got a clearer look at him.
It was a tall, masculine figure, dressed in a black trenchcoat that was slightly oversized, with a tight, black vest underneath, showing off his developed musculature. He had a coffee complexion. His hair was long and raven-black, hanging down to the nape of his neck.
His face, however, was the strangest part. Because the newcomer looked exactly like Nico, like Hades.
His eyes, a misty black, narrowed as he regarded the boy standing before him, holding out a blade in what he hoped was a threatening pose, as he trembled like a leaf in a breeze.
"What. Are. You. Doing ?", the man hissed through gritted teeth, in a voice that was only slightly lower than Nico's.
"Defending myself"
"From whom ?"
"You"
The man gave a booming laugh at that, "Brat, if I wanted you dead, you'd be dust already"
Nico realized the truth in that statement and quickly dropped the sword, blushing a little as he did so.
The man picked up the sword as Nico flinched, "Good make. Who made it ?"
"Why should I tell you ?"
The man rolled his eyes, muttering something that sounded vaguely like, "Teenagers" under his breath as he did so.
"Because you know, as well as I do, that there is literally nothing I could do with that information"
Nico, once again blushing, said, "The smiths at Hades' palace"
The man frowned slightly, muttering, "Dad never gave me a sword", in an indignant tone
Nico jerked back at that, his eyes going wide, and cried out, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, "DAD" ?"
The man looked slightly startled at Nico's loud cry, but Nico had bigger things to worry about, like the secret brother he had apparently had for years.
The man chuckled slightly, "Sorry, I appear to have been terribly rude". He held out his hand, "I am Serenity Spring, son of Hades"
Chapter Management