Hypnos began speaking first, "My mother, in her arrogance, intends on awakening Kaos"
"Why ?", Nico asked, though he already knew the answer
"Why what ? Why does she intend on awakening Kaos ? According to her message, the sole message she has deigned to relate to her children since that demigod friend of yours, Perseus, humiliated her, "an answer to millennia of being overlooked and undervalued"...or perhaps you mean why is my mother like this- so petty and prideful ? You should know. You made her this way "
"Made her this way ?", Nico cried indignantly, "How could we have made her this way ?"
Hypnos laughed aloud at that, throwing his head back as he did, his long, braided brown hair cascading down his back like a waterfall of smoke, " Nico, Nico, Nico. How naïve of you. We are forged from the essence of mortal belief. Reality is relative, Nico, and malleable. Subject to... shall we call it, change ? Yes, change. Change created by a change in mortal belief. If Greece believes that war is cruel and bloodthirsty, Ares becomes cruel and cut-throat. If Rome believes that war is noble and manly, that is exactly what Ares becomes. A cycle that turns forever, a wheel forever set in motion. Man creates his own oppressors. Man creates his own salvation. This is how it is, and will always be. No more, no less. Blame not others for your misfortune, for you are both it's creators and it's purveyors"
"I didn't come here for a philosophical debate"
"My apologies, Death-son. I am the god of dreams. Tis only natural that I get... sidetracked"
Nico sighed. Time was running out. For that matter, he didn't even know how much time he had ! What he did know was that there was no time for this, "Why have you called me here ?"
"To help you, Dark-son. To give you hope as is my purpose and final destination. Born of the mortal mind, shaped by it, I have, dreams have, endured. I owe much to you mortals. I seek to repay it."
Nico's eyes widened with shock, though his face remained implacable and unreadable. A god who acknowledged a debt he owed, to humans, no less ? Interesting. Nico began speaking, "So repay it"
Hypnos smiled again, a shark-smile, jagged and intimidating, revealing rows of broken. dagger-like, red-tinted teeth, "Mortals, mortals, mortals, always in a rush. Always in search. Tis your nature, I suppose, to be short and fleeting as the petals of fall flowers, or the sweet scent of spring on the wind, to live a short life of glory, as is ours to be eternal and unchanging, monuments and idols, eternals statues, clothed in devotion and bathed in reverence, immortalized in gold. stone and pen. Very well, I will indulge you"
He reared up and snapped his fingers. The world froze, a snapshot of eternity, pure silence, unbroken, washing over them as it did, and then, with an almighty whoosh, like the beginning of a hurricane, the world began to twist and distort.
The paint on the walls melded with the wood of the bookshelves as the window's glass seemed to stretch and mold and melt, like a vast sheet of chewed taffy, stretching across the room, before finally exploding into a cloud of white smoke that dissipated almost instantly, revealing a vast gaping abyss on all sides. Hypnos smirked and twisted his staff, dissipating into smoke, leaving Nico alone in the vast darkness, which began to fill with color
Bloody streaks of red filled the empty void. Whispers resounded through the dark nothing. The streak twisted together, wrapping together like a braided whip that shifted and spun, before cracking. And suddenly, blood dripped from it's edge. The ruby droplets dripped to the floor, hissing as they touched the void-like "floor" and ran down, forming thin streaks of crimson-bloody crimson- across the black.
The crimson streaks spun again, as Hypnos' voice sounded
"O Hades-spawn, heed my tale"
The crimson streams split into a fine mist of red
"In the beginning, was the endless Void. Nothing. Kaos"
The mist shifted and spun and the droplets collected together to form a vast circle
"From Kaos came the Earth-mother, Mother to us all. Called Terra by some, and Gaea by others"
Some of the outermost droplets split into a fine mist again, forming a ring around the circle
"Lonesome and sad, Gaea birthed the Great Dome. Ouranos himself. Sky father, and for a while... all was well"
A taint began spreading within the red circle, a deep black corruption
"But the light is a fleeting mirage in the desert of pain. Within Gaea's body, forged from her hate and her wrath, was birthed the Pit, Lord of Horrors, Tartarus"
The black corruption formed a vague circle within Gaea and extended tendrils outwards, which merged and mixed with the outer ring, turning it black
"Evil cannot withstand good. Nor can it bear neutrality. Tartarus melded with the Sky Father and the Primordial Hate, Kaos, to form a new entity"
The shape of a black-tinted, red woman rose from the now-pure black ring
"Nyx, Night Queen. Lady of the Darkness. Mother of all Ills. My mother"
The woman raised her hands, and with an almighty whoosh, red tendrils began to emerge from her palms
"She birthed first her antithesis, Hemera, the Lady of the Day"
One stream split of to form a second, smaller circle, a much lighter red than the main circle
"Next was formed Eris, though she had always been there, since the moment Kaos awoke in the endless nothing. She now had a form"
Another stream formed a grinning, mocking, fanged smile
"Next the Arai, then the Keres, then Lyssa, and finally, the greatest of them all, the last of them all... me, or at least a... I believe you mortals would call her "prototype" ? of me. Elpis, Lady of Hope"
The next few streams split off on their own paths, encircling the ring, but at the name "Elpis", one stream began glowing a brilliant red, and settled down near the red circle, pulsating weakly as it did
"Then came the sons, Thanatos, Aither, Charon, Geros... and finally, me"
The next few streams also began encircling the Earth, but the final stream pooled together with Elpis and began to morph and twist, forming the sigil of a dripping branch - Hypnos' sigil
"Her children spread over the globe and from them arose the third-born Primordials, base materials of the universe, and they who would provide kindling to the flame of civilization. Thalassa the Abyss was foremost amongst them, great Lord of the depths"
Part of the red circle deepened, and a glowing red outline of an eye appeared in the darkened region.
"Together, he, Erebus, the Darkness, husband of Nyx, and Phanes the Light, one of the first-born children of Kaos, formed a pact, and sealed away the power of every Primordial, which became known as the Triplo Symfono, the Three-fold Pact, that would bind the Primordials to special gems, or crystals, or any manifestation of their power - topaz, obsidian, diamond, whatever, and was created under the policy of, as Phanes named it, "rebirth". The old must end for the new to begin. The Primordials must be weakened and bound if any other race is to ever rise"
Several glowing red spots appeared, in the ring, circle, and corruption. Suddenly, the vibrant crimson faded to a milder red, and the deep black became more gray
"Nyx, angered by what she perceived as an unnecessary weakness thrust upon her, unleashed her rage. For thirty days and thirty nights, she raged across the Earth, destroying and consuming all in her path"
A black mist spread over the red circle, covering it in a sheen of gray
"Until at last, she was held back and sealed away, with the combined strength of Phanes and Thalassa being used to seal her far, far below the surface, within the heaving bosom of her father, the Pit"
The sheen was swallowed by a brilliant light and the deeper red, until all that remained was a circle of gray which sank into the black corruption
A snap was heard, as the world shifted again, and the colors faded from the air and floor, rapidly being replaced by the now-familiar sight of Hypnos' office
Hypnos was standing before him, a grin that Nico could only describe as "shit-eating" spread across his face. He took one look at the god, another at the floor, crouched down and vomited out everything he had eaten in the past few days, which only took a few seconds, because Nico... really didn't eat as much as he probably should
Hypnos chuckled, "So... any questions ?"
Oh yes, Hypnos. Plenty
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