Return of the Disgraced Archangel

A Different Kind of Hell

     The iris-message shimmered in the sunlight. The rain had stopped a few minutes after War left on his horse. Like a crude joke, sunlight shining after they lost their only hope at getting through this war.

     Because that's what this was now, a war. A war between the gods and the Giants. Not that the gods were fighting–they left that to the demigods. And their only hope, Lucifer, was now MIA.

     "Give me a minute. I have to be careful. If I do this wrong, I'll end up in China again." Nico said. He studied the image in the IM and closed his eyes. The message disolved as Nico appeared on the deck of the Argo II, emerging from the shadow of the main mast.

     He put his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. "So... you, uh, gods, you guys need to get to the House of Hades?" Nico asked, confirming.

     Hazel nodded. "Well, that's in Epirus."

     "And where is that?" Leo asked. "Like, on a map?"

     Nico walked over to the Son of Hephaestus and looked down at the map he was looking at. He pointed to a spot, saying, "Here."

     "Well, Festus, you heard the emo. Set sail for Epirus."

LINE BREAK

      Percy's wings cut through the air as he dived down. The sides of the hole were a blur as he kept his eyes trained on the darkness below him. His rage was symbolized by the fire that coated his wings, the glow illuminating the rock walls.

     Percy's blond hair waved in the wind. He was still in his true form, never bothering to contain himself. Wasn't really the topic on his mind.

     No, that title belonged to Zoë's death. Okay, death was probably not the right word. She would return eventually, after finishing reforming in Hell. His marriage gift to her all those millennia ago.

     He was glad he had the idea to give her that, because if he hadn't, well, there wouldn't be much of his Father's creation left after he had his rageful fit.

     The hole he was falling down opened up into a huge cavern. He slammed into the ground, creating a crater in the black obsidian ground. The glass shattered in a spiderweb of cracks, lines stretching out across the landscape. Percy stood up and looked around. Not much to see, considering he was at the bottom of a crater that he had made.

     Once he climbed out, he was able to get a better lay of the land. The ground, like mentioned before, was made of obsidian. The rocky terrain stretched out for as far as he could see, which was very far. There was no sign of any life, flora nor fauna.

     Percy looked down at himself. His skin was perfect, no signs of his crash into the floor. Not a single scratch. He took a step forward, stepping onto the broken glass. No pain, no cut.

     He grinned. He didn't know why he was surprised. Maybe after watching his wife die, he was a little on edge about his own invulnerability, but who knows? Either way, he was fine. Nothing should be able to hurt him down here.

     And so, with an almost arrogant stature, he took off. He marched through the plains of glass. He reached the edge of a cliff and flew down.

     That was when he met his first monster. A drakon. It slithered along the ground, almost stealthily, but Percy already had eyes on it. The drakon eyed the fallen archangel carefully, noticing the wings on his back.

     Percy didn't have the patience to wait for this creature to decide if it wanted to attack or not. He raised his hand and concentrated. The drakon burst into flames from the inside. In a panic, the drakon flapped its wings. It flew through the air, it's open mouth glowing. The flames reached the outside layer of skin and started to burn the drakon's flesh. It fell to the ground as fire ravaged its body. It stilled as the fire died down, leaving a charred drakon corpse behind.

     A slow clap filled the empty air. It was like thunder was echoing in an empty soda can. Percy turned to find a large individual facing him. Well, facing was a weird word to use since the being had no face. No, it had a swirling whirlpool of darkness on the front of its head. The rest of its body was the color purple, a light purple, like a mix of purple and pink. Its muscles were huge, like this being spent all of its time at the gym. It wore a nice suit. (Percy didn't bother changing his attire, which was currently nothing.)

     "Haven't lost your touch I see." The being spoke. Its voice was deep, filling the cavern.

     "You've seem to have lost yours." Percy remarked, crossing his arms. "I mean, one drakon. Here I was expecting more. Prison of the gods my ass."

     Tartarus shrugged. "Haven't really cared about their prisoners. They're still here, but don't care. I have more matters to attend to."

     Percy raised an eyebrow. "Like guests?"

     "Uninvited visitors, yes." Tartarus said with an accusing tone. "There was rules for visitation, Lucifer."

     "I am fully aware but don't care." He said, quoting The Pit's words.

     Tartarus chuckled. "Still full of fire I see."

     The fire on Percy's wings crackled in the silence that followed, like a campfire.

     "What do you want?" Percy asked.

     "What do you mean?"

     "You want something, because you're here. You never use a physical form because you hate how it limits your power."

     "What do I want?" Tartarus asked himself. It seemed like he was mocking Percy. "I want you to come back with me, to my castle. We need to go over some paperwork."

     Percy stared at Tartarus. "What?"

     "Paperwork. I recently came into some new territory, and I need you to sign for it."

     "And why should I?"

     "Because you came into my domain uninvited?" Tartarus said. "That doesn't give you a whole lot of right to demand much of me. I believe I'm being pretty generous for even giving you a place to stay and food to eat."

     "Who said I wanted that?"

     "It's tradition."

     "Never been one for it, I'm afraid."

     "Well, either way, you will end up at my castle, intentionally or not."

     Tartarus dissolved into dust. Percy watched as the dust blew away in an imaginary gust of wind.

LINE BREAK

      Percy's first order of business was to find Famine. She was somewhere down here, captured until she will be used at Gaia's wake, and then causing famine's everywhere, killing a bunch of people. And that would be bad for future Lux business.

     So yeah, finding Famine, pretty important. After that, the Doors of Death. Those were allowing monsters a way back to the mortal world that was quicker than the normal way.

     He knew that Tartarus was telling the truth when he said that he would end up at the castle. But he wasn't too eager to do that, so he would put that off for as long as he could.

     And with that, he resumed his journey.

A/N. I know, a little bit of a brief chapter, but this is just to serve as more of a transition chapter, a fluctuation point. So, bear with me.

Like I said before, I don't know how long this particular arc is going to be. I think it might be pretty short, but who knows. I have a general idea of what's going to happen, but I'm still coming up with ideas as I write.

Also, would y'all like to see the 7's perspective during this part. Because literally nothing is changing on that end. It's all the same as what happens in the book. So yeah, might just show Percy in Tartarus and that's it, but who knows.

Thoughts?