Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.
Consul of the Underworld: End of Disc 1
Chapter One: Devil May Cry - Revelations at Cocytus
Beta:
One early autumn day after the Battle of Camp Half-Blood, Alkaid, accompanied by Pyrrha, had decided to pay a visit to Daedalus' and Talos' command center in the Rockies which the two inventors had set up to manage the Labyrinth under Olympian patronage. It was her hope that for the purposes of the Second Titanomachy, the Olympian Loyalists would be able to use the Labyrinth for fast travel. If they could, it would give them a massive advantage over the Titanic forces.
"So can we?" Alkaid asked the two ensouled automatons, Talos having managed to shrink his body down into a more human size, as they and Pyrrha sat in a meeting room inside the command centre carved into Mount Elbert. "Use the Labyrinth to move around more easily, I mean?"
"It shouldn't be a problem." Daedalus nodded.
"However, we cannot be sure that it will always be a smooth journey." Talos pointed out. "The Labyrinth is a living thing in its own right. We can cajole it to do what we want it to and most of the time it'll oblige, but it will on occasion simply choose not to."
"That's still a win overall," Pyrrha insisted. "Being able to travel cross country and even internationally in a fraction of the time? That's enough of an advantage for us to live with a little uncertainty."
"And we will work to ensure that the level of uncertainty is kept to a minimum." Daedalus assured.
"Good." Alkaid said, nodding in satisfaction. "Then we'll let the Campers and other Loyalists know that they can use the Labyrinth. Now, onto other business. Daedalus, Talos, why is it that there are still reports of Titan forces still using the Labyrinth?"
"Like I said, the Labyrinth is not fully under our control." Talos said with a shrug.
"And it is vast and constantly shifting." Daedauls added with a grimace. "It is simply impossible to keep track of the whole Labyrinth. Its edges will always remain outside our control."
"Try harder," Alkaid urged. "At the very least, try and keep track of the enemy's movements."
"We will endeavor to do so." Talos assured her.
"It'll be on the top of our to-do list."
Alkaid just sighed and rubbed her eyes tiredly, her shoulders noticeably sagging as she did.
"Are you alright, Missus Potter?" Talos asked, sounding concerned. "You look tired."
Alkaid was about to brush the former monster's concern aside but Pyrrha spoke up before she could even as she shot her a worried look. "My wife is tired. She's barely been getting any sleep lately."
"Sleep is for the weak." Alkaid joked with a brittle smile which just earned her frowns and prompted her to sigh again before confessing the source of her exhaustion lately. The two automatons, unlike the children under her care and the Campers, were, hopefully, mature enough to sympathize with her and let her vent a little. "Managing Camp's war effort is getting to me. Beyond that, certain strange goings on among the Titan Army are troubling me."
"Strange goings on?" Daedalus asked with a thoughtful expression. "What exactly? I made quite a few contacts whilst I was on the run from the gods. If you tell me what in particular you are so worried about, I might be able to find out something that might help."
"It's a number of things really." Pyrrha said, answering for her. "First there's the fact the Titan Army has been getting strange new recruits that don't seem to fit any known monsters from the Hellenistic realms."
"More worrying than that," Alkaid said, picking up the explanation. "There have been reports that in recent encounters with our forces in recent weeks - which is a surprisingly high number since it seems like the traitor likes to lead from the front - Luke Castellan has been behaving oddly."
"Oddly how?" Talos asked, curiously.
Alkaid shrugged. "No two reports were the same on how. But when said reports are coming from people who knew him from his time at Camp like Percy, it adds to their credibility. We however don't have enough data to make any good conclusions, either in regards to Castellan's behavior or the Titans' unknown new monstrous recruits."
"I'll put some feelers out and see if I can find you some of the data you need." Daedalus assured her. "In the meantime, please try to relax a little. Running yourself ragged does no one any good."
"Yes, Missus Potter. You aren't tireless as automatons like me and Daedalus." Talos said with a chuckle, eliciting one from his fellow automaton as well.
"'Kaidy, it seems you're not the only one with the bad jokes anymore." Pyrrha teased, shooting Alkaid a smirk.
Alkaid just rolled her eyes and was about to berate her wife for teasing her whilst they were on the clock when suddenly in a golden blur, Hermes materialized out of nowhere behind her chair.
"You're overworking yourself Alkaid," the messenger god said. "Which is why the message I'm here to deliver is good news."
"So what message do the gods have for us, Lord Hermes?" Pyrrha asked with a mix of curiosity and trepidation.
"Oh, no, it's not from uh, the gods." Lord Hermes with a clearly false smile. "It's from Judecca."
"Judecca?" Pyrrha asked, blinking in confusion, even as Alkaid paled. "Where's that?"
"I got a message from the Devil!?" Alkaid gasped with some actual worry. She had encountered many things in her short life, but the Biblical side of things was something that she never really encountered. Save for that demon from her first year at Hogwarts, and till this day Alkaid wasn't sure if it was a demon of the Inferno or not, and the lust demon she and Pyrrha had helped Mina kill.
That feels like a lifetime ago. She mused as Hermes continued.
"Apparently, ol' Lucy heard about you and Baba Yaga hanging out and the mission she gave you to head downstairs to his lakeside resort and offered an invite."
Pyrrha paled and gave a nervous gulp, "So since he sent us an invite, we don't really have a choice but to accept, right?"
"Yep." Hermes simply nodded with an awkward smile.
Daedalus coughed politely, wordlessly asking the god for permission to join the conversation.
"Yes, Daedalus?"
"Lord Hermes, pardon me, but how is this 'good news'?"
"Well~ Since this is basically a Quest, Alkaid has an excuse to rest up so she can be in shape to carry it out?"
"Why does that sound like a question rather than a statement?" Alkaid asked, sighing tiredly.
"Because it is?" Hermes said with a shrug. "Hey, it's the best we can do alright? Sorry."
Alkaid just groaned and turned to Daedalus.
"I hate to impose on your hospitality like this," she told the automaton. "But do you have a spare room where I can catch some sleep? I don't want to keep the Devil waiting but I also don't want to show up to an audience with him looking ragged."
"That's a good call," Hermes complimented and looked ready to say more but before he could, his phone beeped loudly from the pants pocket where he kept it. "Sorry, got to go. Needed elsewhere. Bye~!"
With that, the god of travelers disappeared in a golden blur reminiscent of the one he'd created as he'd arrived in the first place.
"Missus and Missus Potter, you are both most welcome to have a room for the night." Daedalus said, offering them a smile. "Talos, if you would?"
"Of course Daedalus," the younger man said as he stood. "If you'll follow me ladies, I'll show you to your lodgings for the night."
The next day found Pyrrha standing with Talos, Daedalus and a squad of lesser combat automatons - just in case - as they watched Alkaid put the final touches to the preparations for a ritual inside a heavily warded room they'd specially prepared for the occasion to open a portal to the Inferno.
As Alkaid put the finishing touches on the pentagram she's drawing in goat's blood required for the ritual and thus could finally afford to hold a proper conversation, Pyrrha called out to her wife.
"Yo, 'Kaidy, is it just me or is this ritual surprisingly easy? I mean all we need is to paint a pentagram in blood and sacrifice a lamb?" The daughter of war said, gesturing at a lamb, thankfully bespelled to be unconscious, that was being held onto by one of Daedalus and Talos' automatons.
"Yes it is," Alkaid assured her. "That's the point of it actually."
"The Inferno isn't like the Underworld, Missus Branwen, its masters want people to enter it."
"Daedalus is correct," Talos said with a nod. "For the Inferno, it is escaping that is difficult. There are, relatively speaking, far fewer escapees from the Inferno than the Underworld."
"Very true." Akaid agreed. "And unlike escaped spirits of the Underworld, those who escape the Inferno always do so either after becoming a demon or one of their pawns."
"Alright, just going to ask you again, is it safe for us to even head down there?" Pyrrha asked with perfectly understandable worry. Sure, she'd been down to the Underworld dozens of times, but that was the Greek side of things.
Something familiar that she had rationalized and grew accustomed to.
This was literally going to the circles of Hell!
"Py, we are the Diplomats of Olympus and we'll be going at the invitation of Lucifer himself. We essentially have diplomatic immunity and will be under the protection of the Devil himself. He'd get egg on his face if something happened to us. For that alone, he'll keep us safe."
"The second bit isn't comforting at all." Pyrrha pointed out. "I mean, are we supposed to trust the Devil!?"
"Of course not!" Alkaid said with a roll of her eyes. "Lucifer almost certainly wants to use us for some game of his, that's pretty much unavoidable when dealing with the Prince of Lies, but he won't suborn us if that's what you're worried about."
Pyrrha frowned. That was comforting and all, but there were plenty of other unpleasant things that the Devil and his demons could do to them than just that. And the daughter of Ares was sure there were many, many more than just what her imagination could come up with!
"You should really relax, Missus Branwen." Daedalus advised. "Honestly, this is no different from meeting with a god. They always gain something from meeting with you, even if you don't immediately notice it. Dealing with the Morningstar is no different."
"He basically is a god anyway." Talos added. "The only reason he isn't called one is entirely due to a technicality derived from the nomenclature used by his mythos."
"Indeed," Alkaid said distractedly as she gestured for the automation holding the lamb to hand her the sleeping animal.
"It's time?"
"Yes," Alkaid informed her with a questioning frown. "Do you need more time to prep?"
"No, just asking." Pyrrha replied confidently, patting Akoúo̱ meaningfully. "I've packed everything I think we'll need and then some."
Alkaid offered her a smile at that before finally taking the lamb from the automaton and waited for the machine to step back out of the pentagram before she wordlessly dispelled the spells keeping it asleep.
The animal bleated in confusion as it suddenly found itself thrust back into wakefulness but Alkaid, acting with merciful swiftness, silenced the creature with a viper fast slice across its neck with a shadow. This let its blood flow freely onto the painted pentagram and its sacrifice to fuel its magic, even as Alkaid hastily dropped the corpse and retreated.
For a moment nothing happened, that is until Alkaid, now safely outside the pentagram's confines, began to pour a trickle of her magic into the diagram painted in goat's blood. This caused the thing to start to glow with an ominous crimson light. This lasted for another few seconds, the malicious red light steadily growing in intensity all the while, before suddenly the remains of the lamb exploded in a shower of gore as its flesh deformed horrifically to take on the shape of a twelve meter wide ring that stood in the center of the pentagram. Within the circumference of this disgusting ring of flesh, blood and bone was a circular portal with a shimmering surface that looked like a puddle of tar that was a darker black than anything that Pyrrha had ever seen.
"That's the freakiest portal I've ever seen." Pyrrha commented with a shudder.
"Same. But it's also our ticket into the Inferno so we don't have a choice but to use it."
Pyrrha reached out to take one of Alkaid's hands. "Together?"
Alkaid gave Pyrrha's hand a squeeze with her own even as she summoned her Le Grimoire into her free hand. "Together."
The sight of Alkaid summoning her rarely used magical weapon cemented in Pyrrha's mind, not that she had any real doubts, just how dangerous what they were about to do was. But with her wife by her side… Pyrrha felt like they could do anything. Even willingly walk into Hell.
Thus it was with this confidence that Pyrrha walked side by side with Alkaid as they stepped towards the conjured portal to the Inferno.
"Best of luck ladies!"
"We'll see you soon!"
It was to Daedalus and Talos' shouting well wishes and with her summoning her labrys into her free hand that Pyrrha and Alkaid stepped through the portal and into whatever awaited them beyond.
As they exited the portal, Alkaid and Pyrrha immediately found themselves almost blown away by an absurdly powerful gust of wind. Before they were though, Alkaid reacted.
"Oval Protection!" She cast, surrounding both of them in a translucent green bubble of protective magic that shielded them from the infernal winds even as she simultaneously conjured one of her magical platforms under them.
"'Kaidy, where are we?" Pyrrha asked as now that they weren't in danger from the winds, both of them began taking a look around.
They seemed to have found themselves in a desolate wasteland. One full of barren windswept peaks of jagged rocks. The only thing that seemed to stand out in this place was the howling winds that blew across this literal hellscape. Winds that carried the bodies of an untold multitude in their merciless grasp. Multitudes that were busy fornicating in every way imaginable even as they were blown about like ragdolls.
"We're in Libido, the second circle of Hell."
"That you are, daughter of Hades." A sultry male voice said from behind them, causing Alkaid and Pyrrha to both spin around to face its source.
Said source was a demon with three heads; the first was like a bull, the second like a man, and the third like a ram; it has the tail of a serpent; and was seated upon an infernal dragon, holding a lance with a banner displaying a literally indescribable symbol, it failed to properly register in Alkaid's mind, that must have been his sigil.
Judging by how his appearance matches the description in the Lesser Key of Solomon, I assume this is Asmodeus, the demon lord of lust and ruler of the second circle.
The likely demon lord wasn't alone either but was followed by an entourage of hundreds of lesser demons, each one beautiful beyond imagining. They reminded Alkaid of the Sidhe. Like the fairy nobility, many of the demons of lust had inhuman bodies but yet they were still alluring in a way that it took all of Alkaid's formidable will to ignore. A difficulty that judging by Pyrrha's heavy breathing, her wife shared. And this was even with the protections of their wards. Wards which had been substantially upgraded since they'd got them back in Hogwarts and definitely since their trip to the Fae Realms. It thus spoke volumes about just how powerful the supernatural charm of Asmodeus and his demons possessed was.
"Lord Asmodeus?" Alkaid asked cautiously as she dismissed Le Grimoire. She didn't want to risk offending the powerful demon lord by standing before him armed with a weapon.
"Yes, you assume correctly, young sorceress." The demon lord purred pleasantly.
"To what do we owe the privilege of this audience?"
"So formal." The ruler of the second circle said from its ram's head which was accompanied by an enchanting chuckle from its bull's head, even as the man's head continued speaking. "I am here to offer the two of you my thanks for allowing your daughter to kill Sidroth the Sinuous."
Alkaid turned to Pyrrha to wordlessly express her confusion and hope she might understand what he meant, only to find her wife had put away her labrys, likely following her lead when she'd put away Le Grimoire, and was bent over and panting.
"Pyrrha!" Alkaid cried out in concern.
"Do not worry about your wife, young lady." Asmodeus' ram head said in an alluring baritone. "She is merely a little overcome by the charm of my circle. It'll pass." The bull bead continued. "In the meantime, I see that you are confused by the fact that I would thank you for the killing of one of my subordinates?"
"Yes, that did strike me as odd." Alkaid said with a nod, even as she continued worriedly watching Pyrrha out of the corner of her eye.
"You have to understand," the bull's head said in an appealing woman's voice. "When you disposed of Sidroth, who had proven himself incompetent but getting himself caught, it meant his essence could be recycled to create new, hopefully better, demons out of the damned souls in his circle of hell." The ram's head added. "So essentially you did me a favour." The man's head concluded.
Alkaid nodded in understanding. That logic was brutally pragmatic but she'd expect nothing less from a demon lord.
"To understand and accept my reasoning so quickly and easily." The man's head said, shaking itself in disbelief. "Truly, you would make a fine demon of the Inferno." The ram's head added, also shaking itself. "It is a shame that you will almost certainly enter your father's realm upon your death." The bull head said, sounding heartbroken.
"You flatter me, my lord." Alkaid said honestly. That a demon lord would think her worthy of joining the ranks of its kind was high praise. Yes, demons made promises of power and immortality easily but actually suggesting one would make a good demon? That was something they reserved for only the most deserving.
"We need more fresh blood in the ranks. And people who can stir up the kind of hell, pun most certainly intended, that you raise as you galavant topside is always wanted. Creating that kind of chaos takes real talent."
"It's never intended. It just seems to come about."
"It never does with hero types like you." Asmodeus acknowledged, nodding all three of his heads. "Though it is a real shame that most of the souls you send to their afterlife don't truly come to the Inferno. We could always use more souls for our armies."
"Oh, without question, but you know how the system can be." Alkaid drawled and the demon lord agreed.
"'Ka-Kaidy," Pyrrha rasped out suddenly, clutching Alkaid's arm tightly.
"Pyrrha, wha-" Alkaid began as she turned to her wife, only to be silenced as Pyrrha pulled her into a searing kiss.
"Pyrrha!" Alkaid managed as she pulled away but was unable to say any more as her wife tackled her and sealed their lips together once more.
A few of the lesser demons let out appreciative whistles at the show.
"I'm amazed she held out so long. Hm, you girls should run along, your wife there is barely hanging by a thread here in the lust circle." Asmodeus' ram head noted with amusement as Pyrrha began pawing at Alkaid's clothes before leaving it to the bull's head to continue. "She is a lot less powerful than you, so her resistance to its and our influence is similarly far weaker."
Alkaid was honestly grateful for the explanation, it would certainly help to know this going forward. At the very least it meant she would know to strengthen any wards she cast on her wife in the future, above and beyond what she cast on herself. But she wasn't really in the right mind to think about such things at the moment, not when Pyrrha had somehow just managed to divest them of their clothing and was busily ravishing her in front of Asmodeus and his entire court of lust demons.
I-I have to do s-something! Alkaid thought as she desperately tried to think straight through the intense lust that Pyrrha's ministrations and the influence of where they were and the watching demons was engendering in her.
Alkaid had just enough awareness left to hear as Asmodeus' bull head began to chuckle at their expense even as the ram head spoke up. "Oh, they'd fit right in here in Libido." The human head shook itself though. "Sadly, as entertaining as that might be, Lucifer is expecting them. So I have no choice but to send them on their way."
At that the demon lord snapped his fingers and conjured a portal above the fornicating couple that proceeded to act like a vacuum cleaner and suck the both of them in.
As they were thrown out the other side of Asmodeus' portal, the two naked women found themselves landing from a small fall onto a frigid lake. If not for both their extensive training even this short fall - it couldn't have been more than a few feet - would have likely at least badly injured them, but thankfully they both instinctively reacted in time and managed to roll with the momentum of the fall and avoided any harm.
As she got back to her feet, Pyrrha it felt like she just took an ice bath and shuddered in realization that she was naked. Though that might have just been because of the cold. Yeah, it was because of the cold. It was! It had totally nothing to do with her loss of control! Nothing at all!
"Oval Protection." Alkaid cast with surprising calm considering what had happened and surrounded them in a climate controlled bubble barrier.
"I guess we can cross off doing it in Hell?" Pyrrha asked, trying to ease the embarrassment she was feeling.
"Most definitely," Alkaid said with a wry smile. "Pyrrha, don't feel too bad. Libido has that effect on people. And we had to contend with that and the influence of Asmodeus and his court. Stronger people would've succumbed."
"You didn't," Pyrrha said as she began pulling fresh clothes and winter gear from the sealed space in Akoúo̱, grateful that even overcome by lust she hadn't removed her bracers. Though she suspected that had more to do to them not being in the way of lovemaking than anything.
"I did." Alkaid reminded her. "You weren't the only one rutting at the end there, my darling wife."
Pyrrha just nodded as she handed some underwear and a fresh dress to her wife.
"Pyrrha," Alkaid said, accepting the offered clothes and putting a hand on her shoulders. "It's not your fault. You hear me?"
Pyrrha just nodded silently again.
Alkaid sighed and pulled her into a kiss. A chaste one this time. One that was loving and just a tad tinged with lust. Pyrrha was a blockhead at times, she was willing to admit as much, but she was no idiot. She knew what Alkaid was trying to tell her: I still love you and want you.
"We'll talk more when you're ready, my love." Alkaid reassured her when she pulled away. "Hopefully in bed after some fantastic sex."
Pyrrha smiled weakly at that as she and her wife both began putting on some clothes. "Okay, but not now."
"No, not now. And not for a while I think. After what happened in Libido… I don't think I trust my body, my lust." Alkaid said with a shudder. "I can imagine you feel the same?"
"Yeah, that… that works for me." Pyrrha nodded in agreement. The loss of control she'd just had… It had shaken her deeply. And she was the one who always wore her heart on her sleeve. For someone like Alkaid who was always so self-controlled… What happened must have been tons worse. "Take all the time you need, 'Kaidy."
"Thank you, Py." Alkaid, now fully dressed and sporting a fashionable winter coat, said as she pulled her into a hug.
"Okay, enough talk about what happened." Pyrrha said after returning the hug. "Where are we? And where do we need to go from here?"
"We're in Cocytus. The ninth circle of the Inferno. The whole place is one infinite frozen lake." Alkaid explained, gesturing around them. "We'll find the Morningstar at its centre."
Pyrrha nodded. "How do we get there? Is there a specific direction we need to go?"
"From my understanding? No." Alkaid said with a shake of her head. "We just need to head in any direction and we'll find him when he wants us to find him."
"Convenient." Pyrrha said with a roll of her eyes.
"Very." Alkaid agreed as she conjured a magical platform under them and they began floating off in a random direction whilst still surrounded by the barrier created by her Oval Protection. "Let's see what the Devil has in store for us shall we?"
"Let's," Pyrrha said with a shrug. "It's not like we have a choice."
"Cheer up, Py." Alkaid told her with a comforting squeeze of her shoulder. "Remember we're his guests, whatever he has planned for us can't be too bad."
"Let's not tempt Murphy, 'Kaidy."
They had been flying over the frozen expanse of the Lake of Cocytus for about an hour and marveling at the innumerable shades either fully frozen beneath its surface and thus stuck in an eternal icy prison or buried up to their necks on their surface, forced to endure the torment of limited freedom. Alkaid honestly didn't know which was worse or what other esoteric elements to this torture she was missing, for she was sure there were some, and she was curious to find out what it was that the Inferno did to the traitors that found their way into its fell domain. Sadly, she was on a mission and couldn't indulge.
It was also why she didn't just snap off a random chunk of Cocytus and be done with it. With an invitation to meet from the Lord of Temptation himself, that would have to be her priority. She could collect the shard required for Baba's spell later or ask for it as a boon when she had her audience with the Prince of Lies.
"Think we'd find Benedict Arnold down here?" Pyrrha asked as they cruised by yet more shades they didn't recognise. "Think we'd recognise him if we did?"
"Probably on both counts." Alkaid replied with a shrug. "He was Christian and from a time where that mattered more than being a Westerner so there's a better than average chance he'd be here. As for recognising him, I'm told portraits from that time are pretty accurate and I know I saw one of him at some point. By the way, that's what the tenth famous traitor you asked me about?"
"Yeah, I guess." Pyrrha said with a sigh. "Sorry about that but damn if this isn't boring, you know? There's nothing down here except ice and frozen spirits of the de- 'Kaidy, stop!"
Alkaid obliged immediately and brought the magical platform they were riding on to an abrupt stop.
"What is it, Py?"
"Tell me that isn't Silena from Cabin Ten?" Pyrrha asked warily, pointing towards a spirit buried up to her neck in the frozen waters of Cocytus.
A spirit that did indeed look awfully like the counselor from Aphrodite Cabin back in Camp Half-Blood.
What is she doing down here!? Alkaid thought even as she floated the magical platform over to the familiar spirit.
"Silena? Silena Beauregard?" Pyrrha asked as they got within earshot of the trapped spirit.
"Yes, it's me." The daughter of Aphrodite freely admitted as she looked up from her frozen prison at Alkaid and her wife as they sat atop their hovering magical platform. "Hello Alkaid, Pyrrha."
"What are you doing here, Silena?" Alkaid asked with her full authority as a daughter of Hades and her command over the dead. She didn't know how it was possible but the Silena before her was undeniably a spirit of the dead and so should be unable to resist her power.
"I'm here because I was Luke's spy in Camp."
"What!?" Pyrrha roared furiously as she leapt down from the platform and kicked the shade's head angrily, earning a cry of pain from Silena.
"Pyrrha, stop." Alkaid told her wife, who turned to look at her incredulously. "This might not be the actual Silena's spirit. This could be an elaborate trick of the Devil."
Pyrrha nodded and stopped, stepping away from Silena's head, but was still visibly angry.
That's as good as I'm going to get. Alakid concluded. She could sympathise though. She very much wanted to vent on Silena too if she was Luke's spy like she'd claimed. The spy's actions threatened their war effort and through it everything that Alkaid loved, so of course she'd want to brutalise whoever it was. But she also recognised that just running into Silena's spirit here was too convenient. Besides…
"Silena, was your treachery discovered and you were killed for it whilst Pyrrha and I were down here in the Inferno? I didn't hear of or sense your death."
"I can answer that," a bestial but yet still utterly charming voice boomed from the distance. A voice whose owner Alkaid strongly suspected was the very being who had invited her and Pyrrha down here: Lucifer himself. "The Inferno is outside the flow of time in the mortal plane, thus time passes differently here than in the mortal world. All sinners worthy of the fate are here forever, even before their death, even before their very birth."
"Then-"
"That shade is indeed who she says she is and is truly guilty of what she claims, Missus Branwen." Lucifer said in a voice that just oozed charm. "But there is nothing more that you can learn from that shade. So please hurry over. I am eager to meet you."
Frowning, Alkaid knew she could not defy the Lord of the Inferno. As such the couple was forced to continue their trek with Pyrrha reluctantly climbing back onboard the magical platform. But before they left, Alkaid decided she was going to give Silena a parting 'gift'. This took the form of having the surrounding shadows burst to life and start attacking Silena's shade in every way imaginable. Potential trick of the Devil or not, if what the shade admitted to was true… Then the girl had put the lives of everything she held dear in danger by her actions!
I am going to ruin that blasted girl once we return to the mortal realm. How dare she! How fucking dare she put all of us in danger! How dare she betray us!
Alkaid tried her best to calm her flaring Fatal Flaw, her desire to avenge herself against someone who had wronged her. But all she managed was to temper it with a promise to herself to delay the extraction of her much deserved vengeance.
She will pay! She will pay most dearly indeed!
After their long trip, the last stretch to the center of Cocytus, Judecca, happened in a relative blink of an eye. Less than ten minutes after they'd left Silena's spirit behind, Alkaid and Pyrrha found themselves before the face of Lucifer himself. The Devil wasn't alone though and was having tea with a lesser demon, complete with a wrought iron table, a tower of pastries and a full tea service. The lesser demon looked like a floating sphere composed of a massive gathering of innumerable humanoid bodies, one of which was delicately holding onto a tiny teacup and taking dainty sips of the beverage contained within.
As disconcerting as that demon was, made all the more so by the way it was drinking its tea, Lucifer was worse. Alkaid had to admit, she had read texts about his forms, but seeing this arguably most bestial of them with her own eyes? It was something else altogether. The three faces with matching mouths, each constantly chewing on an already brutalized man whose feet protruded out from the gaping maws, was slightly disturbing. In the Prince of Lies' central mouth, Judas looked like he had been through a blender probably because the Devil hadn't limited his brutalization of the infamous traitor of Jesus to using his mouth but had also included ripping into his body with his claws. In the side mouths, Brutus and Cassius, the leading assassins of Julius Caesar, were dangling out as they too were used like bubble gum. Under the large chins of the First of the Fallen, pairs of wings flapped constantly, making the chilling winds of Cocytus all the worse and cutting enough to tear down to the bone of the poor shades unlucky enough to be nearby. That this was juxtaposed by the humanoid arms and face sprouting from the chin munching on Judas that like his companion was sipping on his tea, just made the Morningstar appear all the more horrific.
"Ah! Missus and Missus Potter, you've finally arrived. It's a pleasure to see you at last." The Devil said in a welcoming and amiable voice. "Please join Legion and I. The tea is wonderful."
This prompted the heads of the various bodies that made up the lesser demon's spheroid body to nod. A display that had Pyrrha shuddering even as Alkaid lowered her magical platform to the frozen surface of Cocytus and they both stepped off, leaving them with only the frankly dubious protection of her Oval Protection barrier.
It's better than nothing. Alkaid thought as she and her wife made their way to the two empty chairs at the Devil's tea table that were clearly laid out for them. All the while she hoped the Lord of Temptation did not take offense to her spell and wrote it off as merely a measure to cope with the Ninth Circle's frigid temperatures.
"Oh, don't worry so much, Missus Alkaid." The Devil said reassuringly in the incongruously charming voice he possessed despite his current monstrous appearance. "I completely understand. Cocytus' cold would be unbearable without that barrier of yours. I apologize for that and for my current form. I would much prefer to entertain you in a more welcoming environment and a more pleasant guise. It is most unfortunate that you needed to visit Cocytus for the mission that old Baba Yaga sent you on."
"We thank you for your understanding and hospitality." Alkaid said, offering the Devil a curtsy that Pyrrha accompanied with a respectful bow.
"Think nothing of it, my dear." The Devil said with a smile in his voice, one that fortunately was not reflected on any of the faces of his bestial appearance. "Now, please have a seat. There is no reason we can't have some tea whilst we chat."
At this clear order, the chairs waiting for them at the table slid out invitingly. Taking the hint for what it was, Alkaid gave a hesitant Pyrrha a nod and led the way as they both took the seats offered to them before politely taking a sip of the provided tea. Though not before Alkaid had cast every diagnostic spell she knew on it and was satisfied that it was safe to consume.
"You are a cautious one, aren't you, Missus Potter?"
"No offense, Lord Lucifer, but I think when dealing with the Prince of Lies, it is prudent to be a little cautious of foul play, no?"
"Of course." The Devil replied with amusement that once more existed only in his voice. "So how do you like the tea? It's Gorreana Broken Leaf Black Tea, one of the most expensive teas in the world."
"It's good." Pyrrha said as Alkaid nudged her wife with a foot under the table so as to remind her that she couldn't just play mute. "Though I thought Da-Hong Pao Tea was the most expensive tea? I remember 'Kaidy mentioning it once."
"Yes, but I'm not much for the Oriental teas." The Devil replied with a shrug of his three sets of monstrous shoulders. "What about the pastries? Please give them a try. I had them sourced from some of the finest bakeries across the world."
"I'm afraid I do not have much of an appetite, Lord Lucifer." Alkaid said apologetically.
"Understandable," The ruler of the Inferno said with a nod of his three massive heads. "I imagine you are filled with wrath after your encounter with that traitor's spirit earlier and have no mood for pleasantries?"
"My apologies, Lord Lucifer, but you presume correctly."
"A shame," the Devil, sounding genuinely disappointed. "But like I said, understandable. I suppose then we should get down to business?"
"If you would be so kind." Alkaid said with a nod.
"If that is the case… Here, you go Missus Potter." The Lord of Temptation said as he used some telekinesis to break off the tip of a stalagmite of ice growing out from the frozen surface of Cocytus nearby and had it float over to Alkaid. "I believe this is what Baba Yaga sent you here to retrieve? She tasked you to master the Prison Depths of Lake Cocytus spell didn't she? As payment for a favor and a test of your magical mastery?"
"Yes, Lord Lucifer." Alkaid admitted as she carefully surrounded the offered shard of the frozen lake of Cocytus in a small barrier before sealing it away in the private shadow realm/pocket dimension she maintained and accessed via her Incantare: Umbra Spatium (Invoke: Shadow Space) spell.
"Baba does that, you know. Task promising young sorcerers and sorceresses on missions to learn powerful spells to prove their worth to her. That she's given you such a task is a sign of how much she likes you and your potential."
"I had surmised as much," Alkaid said with a nod, before she looked upon the vast form of the Devil with clear suspicion twinkling in her emerald eyes. "What I cannot understand however is your motive, Lord Lucifer, in assisting me in the endeavor. May I ask the purpose behind your summons?"
"Now, now, no need to worry. I mean no harm to you and your family." He said, offering her a smile full of the gleaming, sharp. stained teeth of his three bestial mouths. "Why, you've already delighted me with your actions so far! Think of this trip to my domain as a reward. In more ways than one."
The Devil's humanoid face winked at her lasciviously at this and Alkaid tried not to blush at the reminder of what happened in Libido, yet her pale cheeks betrayed her as they radiated a glowing pink. But ignoring her reaction, the Prince of Lies continued. "An easy fetch quest, as you'd call it, to gain what you need without the needless trails of some silly Olympian Quest."
The Prince of Hell continued in a faint whisper but which Alkaid caught, probably as the Devil intended, anyway. "After all, the annoyance and misery that your actions have and will cause to those upstart pagans is more than enough payment for a mere shard of my prison."
Ah, that explained things a lot more. What other means would the Devil assail the pantheons than with small little attacks like this? It's not like he could risk open war. Not when the forces of Paradiso would pounce on him if he ever attempted such. That was not to say that petty attacks were not effective. It was how her Father got back at his brothers all the time without risking open conflict. And it seemed that in this regard, the Devil was no different.
"And arranging that meeting with Silena's shade?" She asked with a slight tone of barely contained rage.
"Another part of my reward to you." The Lord of Temptation said in a smarmy voice. "It helped you learn the identity of the traitor feeding information to the Titans within the ranks of your Campers at Camp Half-Blood, did it not?"
"It certainly did," Alkaid hissed sarcastically. Her fingers ached to kill the wench of love. The more she thought about it, the more tortuous the fates she wished to bestow upon Silena became. "And you gain nothing from it?"
"Nothing beyond a chance to appreciate the chaos the revelation will cause."
Pyrrha made a disturbed voice from next to her and Alkaid turned to see what had upset her wife, only to find the redhead staring at the up till now silent lesser demon who was suddenly shedding bodies from its mass. Bodies which upon hitting the frigid surface of the frozen lake started staggering around like zombies.
"PArdON Me. neEdED tO stretCh my lEgs."
Giving Pyrrha's arm a comforting squeeze, Alkaid returned her attention to the Devil.
"So that really was Silena's shade?" Alkaid asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "It wasn't a trick? She's a daughter of Aphrodite. By that alone, she should have ended up in Father's Underworld."
"Would I tell you if it was?" The Prince of the Inferno said with a chuckle. "But you know it was the genuine article, daughter of Hades. Part of all deserving souls end up here in the Inferno. The core of their essence might go to other afterlives, but part of them always comes to me. Sadly, only those who fully come to me belong to me and are useful to me in my war with Heaven. As a daughter of Hades, especially one that grew up in his domain, you should know this."
"I merely wanted a final confirmation." Alkaid smoothly retorted.
"And you have it, isn't that grand?" He chortled.
"Do you wish for anything else, Lord Lucifer?"
"Oh, many things. Yet, nothing that you need to worry about, my dear." He said in a grandfatherly tone, before he switched abruptly to a firm, commanding one as he addressed the lesser demon. "Legion. Create a portal to allow our dearest guests to return to the mortal realm."
Next to her, Pyrrha let out a sigh of relief. Alkaid herself kept her own relief to herself, cautious of the other shoe dropping.
A wise precaution as they were greeted with the unsettling sight of the various zombies that Legion had previously shed from its body suddenly beginning to climb and hold onto each other until they formed a large rectangular frame, within which a shimmering tar black portal opened.
"Lord Lucifer, can that portal deposit us outside Camp Half-Blood?" Alkaid asked, determined to settle the matter of Silena as soon as possible.
"ThAt's wHeRe I'vE TaRgeTeD iT." The lesser demon reassured her.
A reply that had Alkaid shooting its master a glare. "So that's what you want?"
"'Kaidy, what do you mean?"
The Lord of the Inferno just smirked.
"Lord Lucifer wants us to confront Silena. Demons thrive off chaos and he knows just how much of it calling Silena out will cause."
"That is true," the Devil said, still smirking. "But that was what you wanted anyway, correct? I am just being helpful."
"We won't be doing it for your satisfaction." Alkaid hissed with barely contained anger.
"Does it matter?" The Lord of Lies said with a chuckle of dark, triumphant amusement. "In the end I get what I want, don't I?"
"Like you always do," Alkaid said heatedly as she stormed towards the portal, Pyrrha hurrying to catch up to her. "The Devil's due indeed."
"That's a saying for a reason, you know!" Lucifer shouted after them as they stepped through the portal, chuckling all the while.
The portal opened up at the foot of Half-Blood Hill just beyond Camp's wards. As Alkaid and Pyrrha stepped out of it, they immediately started climbing the hill, radiating frustration and anger. Frustration at being played by the Devil and anger at that and more importantly at the traitor they were about to confront.
"Tempus," Alkaid cast as they topped the hill and noticed that Camp was surprisingly empty.
"And the timing couldn't be better." Pyrrha sarcastically remarked as she eyed the time displayed by Alkaid's spell.
With it being dinner, everyone would be in one place for the show, so to say.
"The Lord of Lies lives up to his reputation." Alkaid said in an angry growl at yet another sign of the Devil's machinations. "Let's head to the Dining Pavilion and get this over with."
Pyrrha nodded and the two of them stalked towards the Dining Pavilion. A few nature spirits hanging around Camp cleaning up after the Campers or doing the odd chore or other whilst dinner was underway spotted them but wisely gave them a wide berth. The writhing shadows that surrounded Alkaid as they walked might have something to do with that.
It might also have been why as they stepped into the Dining Pavilion everyone turned to silently look at them warily. Well, almost everyone. Mr. D smirked like he was about to be gifted some quality entertainment and their murderous daughter, Mina, just pulled out a pair of machetes and looked at her expectantly.
It was not, however, Alkaid who made the first move against the traitor. That honor went to Pyrrha, who stomped over to the Aphrodite Table and roughly pulled Silena out of her seat.
"Traitor!" Pyrrha shouted into the daughter of love's face as she tossed the Cabin Ten counselor to the ground. "Why? Why did you betray us, Silena!"
"Pyrrha! What the heck are you talking about!?" Clarisse, Silena's best friend and Pyrrha's younger sister, said as she leapt to her feet and jumped in between the two of them.
"She's the traitor." Pyrrha spat, summoning her weapon in its spear form and pointing it at Silena who was struggling to her feet. "She sold us out to the Titans!"
This declaration was met with shock from everyone there. One that was broken by Mr. D, as sporting a malicious smile, he damned Silena. "Truth."
The Dining Pavilion exploded into chaos at this as Campers began shouting at each other in a fierce argument. Most of the Campers were calling for Silena's head but Clarisse, Silena's siblings and Hephaestus Cabin were trying to argue for mercy.
"Order! Order!" Chiron shouted futilely, before he reared up on his hind legs and slammed his forefeet into the ground hard enough to create a boom that finally silenced the crowd. "Even if the accusation is true-"
"Are you doubting me, Chiron?" Mr. D asked, his eyes aflame with purple fire.
"No, of course not, Mr. D." The Trainer of Heroes said hastily. "But there might be mitigating circumstances. We need to organize a trail and-"
"Why bother?" Mr. D said flippantly as he teleported from the staff table to join his twin sons at their table whilst simultaneously teleporting in Camp's entire armory. "I'd much rather the brats fight this out."
"Mr. D!" Chiron shouted in alarm.
"Oh? Why the fuss? If these gaggle of idiots want to side with a traitor and defend her meager honor? Well, more blood for the soil. My vines are thirsty." Mr. D said, putting his arms over Castor and Pollux's shoulders and physically restraining them from getting involved even as he hypocritically poured oil on the fire.
Seemingly realizing he was not going to get any help from his quarter, Chiron turned away from Mr. D to look at Alkaid.
"Save it, Chiron. I'm with the majority here. Silena deserves to die." Alkaid declared furiously, shadows wafting off her body.
"Over my dead body!" Clarisse shouted as she summoned her spear and leveled it Alkaid.
"Clarisse, put that down! Don't you dare point it at my wife!" Pyrrha shouted, shifting her own spear into the labrys shape she was more comfortable with and stepping in front Alkaid, even as Campers on both sides began arming themselves and faced off, most noticeably Alkaid's two siblings and Gracie rushing to flank her. Mina predictably joined is as well, as she teleported in front of Clarisse with murder in her eyes and brandished her machetes warningly.
"Not if she's just gonna kill Silena without even a trail. She's my best friend. I won't allow it! I wo-"
"Clarisse, everyone, stand down!" Silena shouted, using her Charmspeak, causing everyone to stagger as she strode forward to stand in front of Pyrrha, Alkaid, Gracie and the di Angelos all of whom were unaffected by her power courtesy of the wards the eldest mortal daughter of Hades had armed them with.
Mina twitched in anticipation of lashing out at her but a shake of Alkaid's head had her aborting the attempt with a pout. As much as she'd enjoy letting the goddess of serial killers that was her daughter have her way with the traitor, she wanted to hear what the traitor had to say. It was a slim hope, but perhaps she would explain to everyone why she had chosen to betray them all and put everyone they loved at risk.
"Alkaid, thank you." Silena said, surprising everyone. "Thank you for unearthing the truth and giving me the courage to do what I should've done the moment I realized what being Luke's spy meant. That I learned of all the pain, heartbreak and death that my actions brought to my fellow Campers. Thank you."
"Silena, what are you-"
Silena didn't let Pyrrha finish her question before she drew a xiphos she'd been hiding behind her back and put it to her own neck.
"I'm sorry." Silena said before in one swift motion she sliced her own neck open.
"Silena!" Clarisse roared as now free of the daughter of love's compulsion she ran to her dying best friend's side where she caught the other girl's collapsing body and gently lowered it to the ground.
Silena could only make a bloody gurgling sound thanks to her slit throat but she did manage to take one of Clarisse's hands into her own and give it a comforting squeeze.
"Hurry, take her to the infirmary. I'll nee-" Chiron began as he too rushed to Silena's side, but cut himself off mid-sentence.
"She's dead." Alkaid declared with finality. "I sensed her spirit entering the Underworld."
Both her siblings nodding in agreement sealed the deal. Nico had a mixed look of anger and sadness while Bianca carried a bitter expression on her face.
"Alkaid," Mr. D said into the tense silence that followed. "You caused this, so you can handle the girl's funeral."
"Understood, Mr. D." Alkaid nodded in agreement, firm in her duty to help with the funeral rites, even for a traitor.
The funeral was a quiet and lonely affair. Not even Chiron had attended, he was too busy trying to soothe the inflamed tensions that the revelation of Silena's identity as the traitor had engendered within the Camp. Something that his attendance of said traitor's funeral might just stoke even more. This left it to Alkaid to perform the traditional rites and prayers with her siblings helping out where they could. Few people attended the event besides Alkaid and her family, only Clarisse and a handful of Aphrodite's children. And even fewer shed tears for the departed traitor.
Alkaid's eyes shone from the flickering flames of Silena's pyre, watching until the final embers snuffed out. Clarisse and Silena's siblings turned to leave, but not before the daughter of war threw Alkaid a heated, hateful glare.
"I hope you're fucking satisfied." She snarled out, beady eyes bloodshot and puffy.
"It needed to be done." The eldest of Hades' demigods affirmed.
"Look, Clarisse-" Pyrrha said, trying to reach for her sister, but the younger girl brushed her off with a sneer and a hitch to her breath before she turned and stomped off. Her palpable rage was clear from her body language as she did so.
"Big Sister." Bianca asked quietly, gaining Alkaid's attention, the obsidian eyes she'd inherited from their Father shining as she spoke. "Silena will get a fair judgment considering what she's done, right?"
"The Judges of the Dead are always fair, Bianca. You know this."
"So she won't be punished too badly?" Bianca asked hopefully.
"She'll get what she deserves." Mina said with a shrug. "No more, no less."
"She made her choice, Bianca. Now she's gotta face the consequences." Gracie added.
Alkaid nodded, unwilling to say more. She already knew the gruesome fate that Silena's spirit would be consigned to and for the sake of her family's innocence, she was not about to share it or even say more on the matter.
"But for now, why don't we go have some family time." Pyrrha suggested. "I think we all could use some right now? 'Kaidy?"
"Agreed." Alkaid said, offering her wife a smile for the wonderful suggestion. "Let's do that."
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
And welcome back to the end of Disc 1! We're continuing with the gaming theme for the book titles and for those old enough to understand the title? More power to you. And dang did we start this one off with a bang or what? Alkaid got a call from Lucy himself and another deviation from canon? What am I talking about? Well, we gunned for the Andromeda early instead of at the start of Book 5 of PJO. That changes up a few things. It got boom boomed! Still confused? Nameless, explain it!
Nameless: For those of you who might be confused about where this chapter fits in regards to The Last Olympian (we know we were when we started writing this chapter), this is basically set a few weeks (a month or two max) after The Battle of the Labyrinth. So the autumn of that summer and still before the events of The Last Olympian. And yes, this does mean that the Campers sank Princess Andromeda earlier than in canon.
And of course the bigger meat of the chapter. Lucifer himself sent Alkaid an invite to hang by his lakeside resort. Of course they got caught up in Libido, but lust demons? What can you do? Seems Alkaid was able to hold off a bit more than Pyrrha, but dang was it close.
Nameless: We really hope that we did the Devil justice. We tried to make him engineer a scenario where he has set things up so that whatever happens, he'll win. And all because he understands all the players involved well enough that they'll do the things he wants/needs them to do even though they hate having to do so and/or they are aware they are being manipulated. If you'd be so kind, do let us know if we did okay on this front.
And Silena. It's always Silena who we sort of focus on around these times in the fic. Be she dead, crazy or punished, it's always interesting in a way what we do with her. Whelp, sucks for her, she's gonna get roughshod down below, that's for sure. We might pick up on her, but we might leave it up in the air.
Nameless: Can we all press F to express our sympathy for Silena? The poor girl has to pay for her crimes, yes, but this version of her doesn't even get a chance to redeem herself. And that's frankly just sad, especially since we know from canon that given the chance, she totally would.
On a final note… Some readers, Mash-Potatoes1 comes to mind, have argued that we made Demigods and the Hellenistic Gods too weak and Alkaid too powerful. This, in our opinion, is inaccurate. The fact is that we based the demigods and gods on demonstrated abilities in canon and myth, it's not our fault that pop culture magic (which is what we based Alkaid's magic on) is OP (Meteor Swarm from D&D anyone?). Besides, as established with Alkaid's fights with gods (both Hellenistic and not), they are still vastly superior to her. Just see how Circe was completely dominating their fight and she and Pyrrha only won because of how cowardly she was. Or how Mina was seconds from killing Alkaid and Pyrrha when they fought? Also there is the fact that we established that gods hold back when fighting with mortals like Alkaid, mainly due to the Ancient Laws but other considerations factor in as well, if they didn't they'd win every fight by just turning to their godly forms and turning their opponents to ash. Essentially the gods seem nerfed because they are, by their own choice and the Ancient Laws. As said, we have based their strength on their demonstrated abilities in canon and myth. The demigods though... Well, they sadly aren't actually that impressive in canon, so of course they'd been completely overshadowed by a magician using OP pop culture magic.
E4E: You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!
