The son of Thor

Dinner with the Lord of Death

A/N

This update is too late. I know. But I had severe problems, some even related to the national law violation by a business party that we were making a deal with. So, with all that ruckus, I wasn't able to write. But well, now I am back. I hope so, at least. The one thing that could improve my mood did come true. Lionel Messi finally won his first international trophy with Argentina. Something that he more than deserved. Also, it has made him the top choice for this year's Balloon d'or.

Many of you might be angry at me for starting another fanfic all of a sudden, but what can I say? I have wanted to write a Pokemon fanfic since forever. And in this past week, I was completely out of ideas for this chapter and for Perseus the Dark Destroyer. So, I posted a new fic. But don't worry, updates to this fic won't be affected. This is the most important of the three fics to me.

Do join my server on discord. There you'll find the latest themes and other content related to the stories I am writing. Also, I try to provide graphic visualization for the stories there. The link is :

https://discord.gg/Zke3568Mds

It is also present on my profile.

With this chapter, we finally cross the 200k words mark. A milestone which I hadn't even imagined that we would reach. And doing so in just twenty chapters feels so surreal. I am so glad that we reached this milestone together. Thanks for all the support.

Also, the picture I posted above is how I imagine Zoë looks like.

Let me just say that for this chapter, writing the interaction between Percy and Hades was extremely hard. I had to show Hades as a cunning, practical god, with just the right amount of elegance. Aloof to the feeling of mortals. Not easy at all.

Now, let us begin today's badassery without any further delays.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Last Time :

Hades continued speaking, "I have every reason to hate Zeus, son of Poseidon. While he makes a ruckus about a bolt that is probably lying under his bed, my missing symbol of power is ignored by everyone. My little brother made every single effort to shun me, to vilify me. I don't even deem him worthy to steal his bolt and attack him."

Percy could see where Hades was going with this, until the Lord of the Dead's words struck home. "Your symbol of power is missing too? But, but how?"

Hades shrugged. "Same time as Zeus' bolt was stolen. I am sure that this is the work of some measly Olympian or Ouranos forbid, even a weak minor god. This is why I need the master bolt as a bargaining chip against Zeus and his merry band of wannabe gods."

"You do not really suspect that my father can do this, do you? I assure you, Lord Poseidon has neither Lord Zeus' bolt, nor your helm, my lord." Percy spoke as sincerely as he could, trying to convince the powerful god that his dad was innocent.

Hades swiftly turned around and snapped his fingers. The next moment, Annabeth and Grover hit the floor, knocked out.

Percy was alarmed by this and immediately grabbed the ball point pen in his pocket, but before he could pull it out, Hades spoke, "No need for the sword, son of Poseidon. I have no interest in killing or torturing you here. I just need to speak about something that these two don't need to hear."

Percy still didn't trust Hades fully, and thus kept a ready posture, but let go of the sword and brought his arm out of his pocket.

Hades slowly turned to Percy and spoke, "I knew you were different when Alecto didn't reform for so long after you killed her. Any other time she was killed, she was respawned within a span of a day, but this time, she took two weeks. Sadly, I haven't had the time to ask her about you, but I want to know it from you."