The gods gathered in the halls of Purgatory's palace, its stone guardians still silent and emotionless as ever, uncaring of the recent event. Each god swiftly arrived and seated themselves at their respective throne, but once again the Chief god was nowhere to be seen.

In the far end of the gathering hall lay the Red Hood and Poseidon. Both unconscious and bound in thousands of chains and in a cage that glowed with celestial light. Each god stared at the two with unease, doubt in their minds that the bindings would hold. Hel was the one to start the meeting. Standing up as she said, "Now that the Red Hood has been captured, what are we to do with him?"

Ares crossed her arms and gave a hard scowl, glancing at Poseidon saying, "We know he cannot be killed, at least not permanently in any conventional way, Poseidon proved that."

All the gods nodded. It was surprising to each of them, for not even a god could pull such a feat. Granted gods were very hard to kill, able to survive wounds that would normally be lethal. But still, no god could return from death let alone be immune to demonic corruption. As far as each of the gods knew, there was no way to defeat this foe save for containing them. Hephaestus, after picking his teeth, spoke up, "I suggest he is put under my care. I will study him, and I will find out how to handle him."

Ares turned to the goddess of fate and death, "What do you think Hel? Should we spare the Red Hood if we find a way to… "fix" him?

"I am uncertain," responded Hel, her voice shaky as she spoke, "The wiping of Zipangu was… devastating."

"But the Red Hood didn't do anything to cause that nyeah," jumped in Bacchus as she was licking her own paws.

Hel nodded, "You are right, what happened to Zipangu was its original fate. However, I had spent many years setting a different fate for it. But, ever since this Red Hood appeared, all the wondrous fates I have put in place are being undone and replaced with those of a grim darkness. And even then, Kurgane Koro would have still lived, destined to be the last human to be made an incubus."

Each of the gods gave a brief moment of silence, as if giving respect to the dead. However Bacchus was too drunk to notice, gulping down more of her never ending stream of wine from her divine chalice. With a burp she slurred, "Yoush are suggestings the Red Hood has your powersh as well?"

Hephaestus interjected, "I will figure that out soon enough."

"Speaking of which," spoke Ares, "Hephaestus, how is Neptune back!? Your machine was supposed to have gotten rid of her!"

Hephaestus stammered before angrily snapping back, "Well, it's not my fault that you lot pressured her into such a situation! If one of you took her place, we wouldn't be in this situation!"

Ares stood up, her hand clearly itching to grab her sword and make do with only having one hand, "That means nothing! Neptune was chosen to cause the least amount of damage to the mortal world while dealing with him! Besides, there should be no reason that Neptune should have come back, you erased all trace of her. You promised us that!"

"I know I did!" Shouted Hephaestus as he grabbed his hammer, ready to swing. Instantly all the stone angels drew their weapons and entered battle stances, "But perhaps a piece of her survived, and you having poor Poseidon fight to kill must have just fully brought her back like an agitated rash! Perhaps that's why the seal was undone! Neptune wanting a bit of blood shed for her awakening!"

"Enough!" Hel formed bone walls between the two before they made any more rash decisions. Hel looked at Ares, "Let Hephaestus try again. Though he failed, he rarely does fail us, let alone twice. He is the only one with the means to do it properly without hurting Poseidon."

Reluctantly, Ares sat back down and then slowly so too did Hephaestus. Hel undid the walls, though this time the bones turned to ash instead of just turning into a pile of bones, "Now, moving on, what is the situation with the divine steel from Kurogane mountain?"

Each of the gods turned to look at Hephaestus. He growled with annoyance, "Oh? Me? Am I the only one who does the work around here now? Fine, but you all owe me big time when this is all done!"

Hephaestus cleared his throat before continuing, "I have sent my machines to collect the ore, however, we have come across two problems. The first is they lack the proper tools to extract the ore safely, without it blowing up I mean. The second is that the depths of the mountain seem to be filled with tombs, and almost all of em are heavily guarded by kurogane spirits. It's currently a whole war down there as we speak."

Hephaestus turned to Hel, "But rest assured, it will be only inevitable that we claim it. Though It'll be much faster if you help me with this."

"Very well," nodded Hel Hel, "anything else, Hephaestus?"

Suddenly Bacchus coughed up a storm, choking on her own wine before eventually interrupting, "Waitsh, ishnt Neptuna the last chaos god?"

Dark shadows formed in Hephaestus's eyes as he looked down, "Yes…. Which is why it must come down to Poseidon if Neptune should be destroyed or not. She deserves that much."

…

…

…

Poseidon awoke to a barren room with metal walls and floors, she herself bound to an elegant chair of steel by chains of holy energy. Her head throbbed like a heartbeat as she noticed a metal band around her forhead; glowing with runes and humming with power. Aslo, she sensed her body was dehydrated and there was not a particle of water in the air.

Suddenly, she watched as a metal door formed into existence before her. Then, entering through the door, came out Hephaestus. He looked more tired than normal with his slow walking and heavy breathing.

Questions darted from her mind. Last thing she remembered were unknown memories flowing into her mind, memories of bloodshed and genocide. She remembered watching words come out of her mouth and her body moving against her wishes. But most of all she remembered the name, 'Neptune'. Poseidon asked, "Hephaestus Why am I here? Do you know who Neptune is?"

Hephaestus shook his head, and replied, "Poseidon, I am sorry, but… Neptune is not anything new."

"What do you mean?"

Hephaestus pulled out what appeared to be a small coin, before throwing it to the ground. Poseidon watched as that small coin formed into a simple metallic chair that Hephaestus proceeded to sit upon. Hephaestus hunched over and twiddled with his beard for a moment before explaining, "You two are two different gods, two different ideas of water, two souls, sharing the same body. The chief god made you that way, and in the brief moments you worked together, you were arguably the most powerful god, second only to the chief god. Physically I mean."

Poseidon spoke slowly, "Did I forget Neptune?"

He nodded, "It isn't that simple. You… you told me to get rid of her."

"I- why?" She stammered.

"You would create life, maintain peace in the ocean, and guide sailors to safety. Meanwhile Neptune… She would undo everything you worked for. She would slaughter in mass, ending the lives of numerous people and sinking ships merely for pleasure. You and her together were unpredictable, just like the ocean."

Hephaestus rose from his chair and started to waltz around the room, fidgeting with a strange puzzle of metallic loops in his hands that he pulled from one of his pockets, "It all came to a breaking point during the war against the chaos gods. You were a loose cannon, joining one side and other back and forth. To prevent any more death, you had me try and get rid of her."

"What did you do?"

"The theory was that if we erased all trace of her, Neptune would be gone," Hephaestus completed the puzzle, revealing it was made of multiple odd pieces of shaped metal now separated, "we wiped her from your mind and soul so to speak," with a wriggling of his fingers the puzzle pieces dissolved, "Afterwards we erased all record we could find on Neptune, as to prevent any chance her return.'

"But she's back."

He nodded again, "Yes… somehow, something caused her to reform in your mind. I had hoped that your monsterization would have completely erased her if anything of her did survive. But perhaps a small piece of her both escaped my efforts and the mamono lord's. But not this time," Hephaestus looked at Poseidon dead in the eyes with the most serious look she had ever seen from the god, "I made the machine you are sitting on now all those eons ago to destroy her, though now I have done some tweaking to make sure it worked this time."

"Well then do it! Please, I do not want any more blood on my hands." Cried Poseidon. She could not let any more life be killed! It was why she sided with the mamono lord! It was why she did all that she had done to this point!

Hephaestus gave a defeated sigh as his expression was replaced with a reluctant sorrow, "There's a problem with that. Anything a god, or a group of gods, creates can only exist while they exist. For their primal essence is bound to the god that made them."

Poseidon shook her head, "What are you getting at?"

"Poseidon…. Neptune is, for all intents and purposes, the last chaos god. She helped create the chaos mamono, but not you. If she is destroyed now…."

Hephaestus stopped, having no need to complete the rest of the sentence to her. She merely looked down. She knew well what was being told to her. The smithing god placed his large hairy hand on her shoulder, "I can tell you need time to think. But be assured that if Neptune forces control, you will not kill anyone. The device you are sitting on suppresses her presence and I have made this cell to specifically contain her power, and in a way yours."

"Why," Poseidon tried to cry, but no tears came out, "Why did the chief god make me like this?"

Hephaestus did not look at her, instead silently heading to the exit and opening. Still not looking at her he said, "That, I do not know. I will return in a day."

The door closed and disappeared; no matter what Poseidon did, there would be blood on her hands. She began to cry dry tears and sob in a hush. Never had she felt so alone and unsure of herself.

(A/N) Funny how the one week I don't have college to weigh me down, I proceed to write and finish 4 chapters. Not only that, but we are at last also finished with the side stories. Now it'll be back to Gael and Petre. Oh, and sometime in the future, whether it be the end of the next bit with Gael and Petre or now, I am going to put a story on hold and read this fanfic and try and fix as much as I can, whether it be spelling errors or plot holes, ect. Just trying to make the story better.