Chapter 235
Hiccups POV:
It's been three weeks since Hadasa revealed herself and in that time a lot has happened, starting with her introduction to my wives and I had to say it went pretty well with them wanting to get to know her in the morning since it was late at night. We offered her one of the guestrooms, but she declined claiming she preferred to be outside in the garden and then sunk into the ground after saying goodnight to all of us. The next day the girls took her out for a girl's day out to get to know each other since they knew she'd be living with us on the island for a while if not forever. By the end of the day, they were the best of friends and the girls were happy to officially welcome her to the island and were happy to help her settle in.
Then there's my parents who were hesitant to even let her near me since they remembered what I told them about how she put me under her control despite me telling them that she was under the control of a demon. They lightened up when she used her powers to bring in an early harvest to the farms that brought in a ton of food for the village which would make the coming winter easier for everyone. As for introducing her to the kids, Chara didn't need any introductions since Hadasa had been playing with her for days while Brant was happy to meet her since she made Chara happy and played with her while he was in training with me and my wives were off doing their own thing.
Finally, there's how I've been dealing with her return and I thought I was handling things pretty well by taking things nice and slow instead of just marrying her right from the start. We'd spend hours walking through the forested areas of my island talking and really getting to know each other without the use of any mind-altering potions, unless you count the tea, we have in the gazebo in the tea garden. It was truly nice to just be able to talk to her and truly get a better idea of who she was and with nearly every new thing I discovered about her, the more my love for her grew and I could tell the feeling was mutual.
Of course, I hadn't been spending all my time with my loved ones and Hadasa, I had also been spending time getting back to my roots and began designing and building new things to help me with various projects while also exploring some places that weren't mapped well or under the sea. This led to the creation of a few new automatons that have proven to be really useful in various places and handling various things both on land and in sea. They weren't easy to design though but they each came in useful concerning what they were made for and made my life a little bit easier in various ways.
To begin with, I'd created the 'Ink collecting octopus' which as the name implies, is an automaton that takes the form of an octopus and is used for collecting ink, mainly from squids that they spook. These automatons are made from a mixture of gronkle iron and depths sapphire to allow them to dive deep with the suctions on their tentacles made of latch stone to allow it to grip things, eyes made from peer stones to see and a lifestone in the middle to give them life. Inside the head is a container made from glass and bubble stone to keep water from pouring in by making a bubble with a small hatch at the bottom that can open to let thing in or close to keep things out. At the bottom between the tentacles where the mouth is meant to be are four blades that can rotate in either direction to either suck something in or allow the automaton to move fast in the water. The way it works is they would grab onto the squid and get close to where the ink is sprayed and when it sprays out its ink, the automaton quickly sucks it up through its mouth, using the rotating blades to bring it all into the container in its head. They would then return to my submersible ship and enter the slots I made for them in which the tops of their heads would open and push out the containers holding ink before I took them and gave them new ones. This would leave me with a container of ink to use for future projects and save me a few gold pieces at the Northern market since I no longer had to buy the overpriced ink sold by the vendor and it is because of this I made five since I went through a lot of ink.
Following this is the 'honey birds' named so because they were designed to resemble hummingbirds but instead of collecting nectar from flowers, they collect honey from beehives. Its body was made of gronkle iron mixed with Featherstone and lined with bronze to make it more appealing to the eye with the feathers of the wings being made of Featherstone, the eyes out of peer stone and small wires above the tail feathers made of latch stone. The way it works is the wings would flap so fast they'd be a blur, allowing the automaton to speed through the air in search of beehives and when they find one, they'd begin the harvest. They would do this with the wires above their tail feathers would wrap around the hive so they could get a good grip with their wings being used to steady them. Then they plunge their beak that is made like a syringe needle used for removing venom and then use three rotating blades inside to pull the honey out of the hive and into a small glass container that's in their body that can open up and push out the container. I made ten of these little guys since the tea in the gazebo always tasted better with honey and Chara enjoyed the bread Blanca made with honey mixed into the dough before it was baked.
Other than that, I'd mostly spent my time enjoying some flights, training with my son, playing with my daughter, spending time with my wives and possible future wife and of course, training to be chief under my father. Basically, things had pretty much been normal for all of us with us getting on with our lives but the first week had been sweeter since not only had Hadasa returned to me but the Mooncutter tribe left and took Stella with them. To make things even better, Chieftess Luna, gave me her word as chief that Stella would never be allowed on Berk or anywhere near me and my family again. As for the men Stella hired, turns out their leader had a bounty on his head and all his men counted as extra so I got to hand in another bounty, meaning another addition to my vault and the worlds a little safer for everyone.
Now I was on my Hawaiian beach, laying down on a cline with Blanca on my right and Astrid on my left, both on their own clines while Hadasa was in the forest, getting us some coconuts. I was currently just wearing my swimwear with the girls wearing their own swimwear as we enjoyed this beautiful day on the beach but keeping an eye on the children. Brant was in the water, playing with Kal while Wave chomper kept close in case something happened and Kal couldn't help and little Chara was here on the beach, making a sandcastle in front of us. While we humans did this, Toothless was behind my cline with Twilight was playing around in the sand as he watched with the girl's dragons just lying down and soaking up the sun. Basically, we were all just enjoying a fun family day at the beach, meaning a quiet day with no issues, no dangers, no projects and most importantly, no big problems that's threatening the world.
I smiled in content as a shadow fell over me and I opened my eyes to see a smiling Hadasa with four coconuts in her arms and smiled back before I sat up and took one along with Astrid and Blanca doing the same. I released my rotating blades and cut off the top of each coconut and held mine up as I said.
"Here's to a nice, quiet day at the beach." They all giggled before we began drinking but our moment of peace was ruined by a familiar voice saying.
"I'm sorry but your fun day at the beach has come to an end my friend." I choked on my drink and looked towards the voice to see none other than the Roman and Greek god of the sea Poseidon walking towards me without his triton and multiple wounds which worried me since he was a god and seeing this I knew it meant trouble dropped my coconut and ran at him.
"Lord Poseidon, what has happened to you?" He dropped to his knees while holding his ribs, but I caught him before he could hit the ground while everyone rushed over to see what was happening. "We need to get him to the bath; the water will help heal him." They nodded before Astrid helped me carry him and we began carrying him towards the house with everyone else following.
Nightfall
I was back in my regular gear and sitting, cross-legged on the edge while the Greek god of the sea lay in the water of the tub, slowly healing as he floated on the surface. He'd been unconscious for the entire day which worried me since it meant that whatever it was that did this to him was powerful as not just anything can hurt a god. It was then the sound of footsteps caught my attention and I turned to see Hadasa walking in with tray of food in her arms and a small smile on her face as she said.
"Me and the girls thought you might get hungry while sitting here and waiting for Poseidon to wake up." I smiled at her as I stood up and took the tray before sitting back down.
"Thankyou!" I took an apple slice from the bowl of sliced fruits and began eating.
"Something's troubling you and it's not just your worry for Poseidon." I looked down at the tray.
"Am I really that easy to read." She giggled and shook her head.
"No, I just know you well enough to tell how you're feeling." I smiled.
"And here I was thinking I was becoming predictable." She giggled.
"Hiccup, nobody could ever predict you." Before I could reply a voice from the tub said.
"The young lady is quite correct about this Hiccup Haddock." I immediately turned to see Lord Poseidon slowly standing up in the water and I let out a sigh of relief.
"I am glad to see you are alright lord Poseidon." He looked down sadly.
"Only physically am I alright Hiccup Haddock." I could hear the worry in his voice, and this did not sit well with me.
"Lord Poseidon, what happened to put you in this condition?" He looked down sadly.
"My triton and throne that allows me rule over Atlantis" He looked up at me. "has been stolen from me!" My eyes widened since I knew this meant big trouble not just for me but all the world since he who controlled Atlantis and the Triton could command the oceans of the world.
"But who could have the power to challenge you, the god of the sea?"
"My son Zael!" I raised an eyebrow since I'd never heard of him before and I thought I knew all the gods and demigods. "I can see your confusion and I understand it as I erased all traces of his existence from the mortal world."
"But why would you do that to your own son?"
"Because he was planning my downfall when I stopped his plans to conquer the surface world." I raised an eyebrow.
"Alright, I think it would be best if you start at the beginning, so I know what's happening and what I'll be up against." He sighed and began the tale of his estranged son.
1 hour later
It's been an hour since Poseidon began his tale and to say I did not like what I heard one bit would be a major understatement since it meant big time trouble. Apparently, Poseidon's son Zael was a demigod born from Poseidon and a sorceress who died shortly after giving birth to him and Poseidon took pity on his son and took him from the mortal world to be raised in Atlantis. Zael was a gifted student concerning the various magics he was able to learn but this made him arrogant and as his power grew so did his desire to rule all on this planet. This led to him telling Poseidon about his thoughts of using the magic of the ocean to take over the surface world but Poseidon quickly shot down his plans and dismissed it as a foolish desire that would lead only to destruction of the world. Feeling this was the end of things, he left it alone but he was wrong to let it go and Zael begun forming a plan to overthrow his father but luckily, he was discovered by his father and stopped. When he was caught Poseidon was urged to have him sentenced to Tartarus but out of love for his son, he was simply banished from the city and that mistake would lead to the Poseidon being dethroned. Apparently after years of exile, Zael stumbled upon the place that imprisoned the Telchines, who wanted revenge on Poseidon for imprisoning them, centuries ago. In exchange for their freedom, they'd help him dethrone his father and take control of the triton which would allow him complete control over the sea and all within it.
This was a deal they were all too happy to do this in exchange for their freedom and a chance of revenge against Poseidon for what he did to them. As soon as Zael had freed them from their prison, they immediately got to work and used their powers to enhance Zael's power to new heights and with it came a horrific transformation. With his enhanced power and the strength of the Telchines behind him, Poseidon didn't stand a chance and was easily defeated before being stripped of his weapon. They were going to finish him off by imprisoning and torturing him for all eternity as revenge for their own imprisonment in the deepest and darkest trench in the ocean but before they could, Poseidon used some of his remaining magic to escape and get here to ask for help.
I knew this was not going to be the least bit easy since a demigod alone would be hard to deal with but with the power of the Telchines on his side, this was going to be a lot harder. The reason is the Telchines were incredible magicians and had blacksmithing skills that could be compared to Hephaestus which allowed them to create the sickle wielded by Chronos and Poseidon's triton. Anyway, it was their decision to help Chronos during the Titan War that lead to their imprisonment by Poseidon and Zeus once they were captured. The fact that they made these incredible mystic weapons made my fears way worse since they could make new weapons for Zael who would be forming an army as soon as he was strong enough. To make matters worse, they now had the Triton and being the ones who forged it, they could enhance its powers and use it against us or worse, alter it to answer to Zael who would use it to take command of the seas and then the surface. I knew right then and there this was going to be one of my most difficult challenges I've ever faced, especially if I had to go up against them, underwater. It was then I was brought out of my thoughts by Poseidon swimming up towards me and saying.
"Hiccup Haddock, I know this is asking a lot of you but I ask that you go against them and capture them each alive so they may be placed in Tartarus for their crimes." He looked down sadly. "Including my son." I could understand where he was coming from since if it were Brant who had gone bad, I'd still want him captured alive instead of killed so I nodded.
"I'll try but I need to know where I can find them." He stroked his long beard.
"The best idea I have is their old lair where they originally constructed my triton." I nodded. "It can be found below the sea between Kos and Rhodes in a hidden lair that can only be accessed through a tunnel which shall give you access to their lair by swimming up into a large undersea cave."
"But the ocean between the two islands is huge, how'll I find where they're hiding?" He smiled and pulled out a pendant with a tritons head on it.
"I had Hephaestus make this after Hades brand was stolen by Blood Skull incase my Triton was ever taken." He passed it to me and I was quick to take it in my real hand. "It shall show you the way to my triton by acting as a compass." I smiled and nodded before placing the pendant away into my spiderpack. "When do you intend to set out?"
"As soon as I can let my family know, I'll grab my ship, Toothless and a few of my tidal classes before heading out." He frowned.
"I believe it better for you to confront them without your dragons or any of your beasts." I raised an eyebrow. "The Telchines are masters of magic and may be able to create some sort of item that shall surpass their protection to mind-control and enslave them so that they may be used against you and then for their own purposes." I didn't like the sound of this so I nodded.
"Thank you for the warning lord Poseidon but this means things are going to be a lot more difficult when it comes to dealing with this new enemy." I then smiled. "But then again, it makes things a lot more interesting for me." I gave one last bow to the god of the sea and made my way out.
1 hour later
I was on my ship that was on the water as I looked back at my island with a sad frown since saying goodbye to my family, including Toothless was not an easy thing. Chara literally hugged my legs and begged me not to go but Blanca was able to pull her off as I told them that if I didn't go than a lot of people would be killed, including those of us in the archipelago. This calmed her down a bit but I could still see the sadness in her eyes when I was leaving and Brant was no different but he was doing his best to act tough. Before I left I walked up to him and kneeled down as I told him to look after the family since while I'm away, he'd be the man of the house and responsible for protecting the women. I could see the desire to prove himself in his eyes and the desire to protect everyone in his eyes and I could feel a great deal of pride within my boy seeing how to determined he was to protect his family but after he lost his real family aside from Chara, I could understand. I took a breath and made my way into my ship so I could activate the ships portal ability to reach my destination faster since the every second the triton was in their possession, the more danger the world is in. Sadly, I wouldn't be able to get there directly since I could only open a portal to places on my crystal map which only has places I've been to and that area is not one of them. Fortunately, I've been to a place only a few hours away from the location meaning I would have to get as close as I could and then travel the rest of the way from there. With this in mind, I opened up the portal and with that done, I began making my way through it to the oceans of Greece and continued on my way.
Unknown sea cave
Nobodies POV:
Four dog faced creatures with fins instead of paws and long fins on their backs wearing red hooded robes, looked into a pool of water that showed not their reflections but the sight of Hiccups ship sailing through the portal. They were brought out of their examination by the sound of someone with a rough voice growling.
"What are you four doing?" They all turned to see a large figure whose body was covered by a large black cloak with the only visible part of his body that was visible being his right hand that was covered in swamp green fish scales, gripping the black hand of a triton with a golden head showing that it obviously belonged to Poseidon. "You're meant to be altering the magic of this cursed triton so it shall answer to me alone instead of my father." One figure with a long Japanese style moustache on his muzzle turned to face him.
"We felt a disturbance and wished to know what it was." The figure walked past the dog like figures and looked down into the pool of water and growled.
"I should have known my father would seek help from that mortal champion of the gods." His grip tightened in anger as one of the cloaked figures with a short muzzle asked.
"So, he may be an obstacle that would stand in the way of our revenge?"
"He is a hindrance who has no doubt been sent here by the gods to ruin our plans for both revenge and conquest." He looked at the four beings. "Do you have anything that might be able to deal with him." The figures smiled at each other before one figure with a long muzzle answered.
"We have just the thing to deal with him." He made his way over to a rock wall. "We were working on these to protect our lair but we were imprisoned before we could unleash them." He pressed a fin against the wall, triggering a hidden switch that opened up the entire wall to reveal multiple human sized slots but what was within them made the large figure smile.
"These should do nicely in dealing with that mortal fool, when he comes into the waters near the lair and even if they are unable to finish him off, they will at least be able to buy us some more time to alter the triton."
"Then they shall be released upon the champion and do away with him." He then began chanting and the other dog faced beings were quick to join him in the chanting before the slots began glowing ocean blue while the large hooded figure chuckled.
"That mortal has no idea who he's up against and by mornings light, he shall be no more." He then let out a cold heartless laugh that echoed through the cave.
Morning
Hiccups POV:
Morning came too early for me since I was barely able to get any sleep at all since I wanted to be awake for when we arrived in the area where the Telchines could be found. I spent most of the night trying to tire myself out by training a bit on the deck but it didn't do me any good and what's worse, if anything it woke me up even more. When I was taking breaks from my training, I'd lean on the railing of the deck just looking at the passing waves and up at the moon to try and calm my nerves. This only succeeded in making me miss my family even more since when I looked at the moon I saw the smiling face of Blanca while the stars twinkled like the eyes of my sweet little Chara. When I looked into the water I saw Astrid's smiling face looking up at me with Brant standing beside her and when dawn came, I saw Hadasa giving me a gentle smile in the morning suns light. It was driving me crazy but I knew I needed to focus on the coming threat or those I cherished would be in danger and be killed or worse, enslaved and forced to do who knows what.
It was then the sound of something hitting wood along with a hissing sound caught my attention and I turned to see some sort of bronze and ocean blue automaton on the other side of the deck. I took a good look at it and saw that it was some sort of automaton with a fish face. This automaton was hunched over and looked to be about six feet tall with skinny arms that end in hands with four fingers and feet with two toes like a Speed Stinger. It also has five long fins on its back that had sapphire blue linings which also extended onto its back like a rib cage and it was glowing electricity coursing through them. It also has eyes and markings around their eyes and mouths that were glowing with the same strange blue energy and in its left hand was a dagger that had a bronze handle and a blade made from the same sapphire blue material. (AN: Picture will be on pinterest page soon.)
It was then the eyes of the automaton landed on me and it let out an unearthly growl before charging at me with its knife at the ready but my ninja training allowed me to react quickly and release my prosthetics dagger and use it to block the automatons dagger that was aimed at my face. I then quickly had my blade scarf stab right into the chest of the automaton pushing it right back before I slammed my prosthetics dagger right into its head and pushed it off. When it was off its body didn't move but it did leak out the sapphire blue substance that I now saw wasn't any sort of metal or crystal but some sort of goo that leaked out onto the deck as it slowly lost its shine. Sadly, my joy was short-lived when the sound of a metallic growl came from the railing and I looked to see three more of those things coming at me and I sighed as I pulled out my long scimitar and said.
"I guess I'm getting close to the Telchines lair." I then got into my battle stance. "Time for a fight." I then smiled at my scimitar. "At least I can get a little more practice with this thing." With that said I activated my rhino helmet and charged at the automatons.
Nobodies POV:
The automatons ran at Hiccup with one running ahead of the others and lunge at Hiccup with its dagger at the ready but Hiccup ducked beneath the blade whole holding out his scimitar towards the waist and keeping up his speed. The blade cut right through the automaton, slicing it in two but Hiccup ignored the pieces falling to the ground while leaking the goo and focused on the other automatons. He slammed his prosthetic shoulder into one of them, knocking them back and into another one of them with both slamming into the railing of the ship. Before they could react, Hiccup thrust his scimitar forward impaling the both of them in the stomachs and then lifted the dying automatons before throwing them to the side. Their bodies slid off the blade and flew right into a three more of the automatons, pushing them all back but Hiccup ignored them while channeling the suns light through his scimitar and swung it towards the group, launching the projectile. The automatons had just recovered and had gotten back up when the projectile made of pure sunlight flew right through them before they fell apart.
It was then one of them caught Hiccup by surprise and leapt onto his back before pulling him into a headlock with the automaton trying to get its dagger into the skin of Hiccups neck but it was proving difficult with Hiccups helmet covering his head and neck. Hiccup growled and slammed his prosthetic arm up and into the head of the automaton while releasing the knife, impaling the automaton right through the head. The automaton dropped off him as Hiccup grabbed its knife and threw it at another automaton, impaling its head before he looked around to see how many more of these automatons he'd have to deal with. He groaned seeing there were still more of them coming over the railing and then felt like slapping himself for not realizing that he had a way to deal with them as they crawled up the side of his ship.
Hiccup quickly willed his ships defenses to activate and began firing from the sides and shooting the automatons off the sides of his ship and cutting them off by stopping them from coming up the side while destroying them in the process. Hiccup smiled knowing this would at least buy him some time to deal with the remaining automatons that were still on the deck and were now charging right at him. Five more of the automatons charged at him again but Hiccup activated his ox flame boots speed mode and charged at them with his scimitar at the ready. After three seconds Hiccup was on the other end of the automatons and one second later, the automatons fell to the ground with each of them being sliced in two. Hiccup then turned around while releasing three of his scimitars throwing knives and threw them at six of the remaining automatons and smirked as their lunar mirage ability activated resulting in the automatons being stabbed by multiple knives, ending them. They were the last of the automatons with the remaining ones being destroyed while trying to climb up the hull of his ship, only to get shot to pieces and Hiccup sighed in relief and said.
"I am definitely getting close to the Telchines." Hiccup pulled out the pendant Poseidon gave him and saw it had begun glowing with the triton in the middle beginning to spin until it began pointing North. "Time to continue the trip." The ship then took off in the direction the triton was pointing.
AN: And that brings an end to this chapter and yes I know it's short but I've been busy this week with it ending with Father's day which is something my sister cannot join us for due to her husband getting Corona. Anyway, I'm a little disappointed with the lack of reviews I've been getting so I'd appreciate more than three for this chapter or at least more for the next one. Until then, review kindly and have a nice day.
