Annie Chain and the Olympians: The Anomaly of the Sky

Chapter 6: Fight To The Death Or At Least Until Victory

"What?" Hades asked, his dark eyes showing nerves.

"You heard me. He's my ally. Tartarus was very angry about the defeat of his sons and of his wife, blah, blah, blah. He was very willing to help me out if it meant overthrowing the pesky children of Kronos and their obnoxious family." The Anomaly smirked.

"Hades, seal that split." Zeus ordered.

The Anomaly chuckled. "That's probably not the best idea."

"And why is that?" The king of the gods demanded, flicking his wrist at his older brother, as if to say, "just do it."

"Tartarus opened it. How hard do you think it would be to close something a primordial opened?" The Anomaly shrugged. "I personally wouldn't waste my strength. But you do you. Closing it is probably the only way to stop the flow of monsters."

Zeus paused in consideration, glancing at Hades. I knew there was something wrong with the oldest son of Kronos. What it was, I didn't know. But I got the feeling that closing the hole in the ground was going to cause problems. The Anomaly was probably right about it taking a lot to close the crack if a primordial made it. I didn't think Hades had the strength to spare in his condition. Zeus seemed to think the same.

"We don't have a choice, Zeus." Demeter mumbled, her green eyes trained on the demigods.

As she spoke, I was literally slicing my sword through two monsters and ducking under a third. I was one of the lucky demigods too, who wasn't close to any of the big ones.

"Close it, Hades." Zeus decided.

Again, Hades lifted his hand in the direction of the crack, holding it up this time. His fingertips faintly glowed black, a similar color appearing around the edges of the slice in the ground. The edges of the crack began to inch closer to each other and the ground rumbled again as it closed.

The Anomaly had a bored expression on his face, until he saw the crack beginning to close up. He jerked to attention, then scowled.

Hades' hand trembled a little, the effort of closing the crack clearly weighing on his already weakened state. Regardless, the ground continued to close up.

The Anomaly growled and snapped his fingers. A bolt of the silver lightning appeared again in his hand. He sent it to the god of the underworld, and I watched as it hit its mark.

Hades cried out. He stumbled back, his pale skin blistered and burnt, tinted red. The crack in the ground stopped closing once Hades' concentration broke.

"Hades!" Persephone called, worry evident in her voice.

My father moved in quickly, avoiding the Anomaly's attacks as the other gods fought him, and moved to his older brother's side. Poseidon carefully placed his hands on Hades' shoulder and around his waist. He helped the older god away from the Anomaly.

Persephone stood carefully away from the attacks, waiting for Hades and Poseidon. Once the two brothers arrived near her, she moved forward, reaching out toward Hades.

"Are you alright?" She asked, placing a delicate hand on her husband's forehead.

"Been better." Hades ground out, frowning in the direction of the Anomaly, who was currently very distracted with fighting Zeus while avoiding attacks from the other Olympians.

"What was that, Hades? Zeus' lightning normally doesn't do that to you." Poseidon murmured, helping his brother to a sitting position.

"Don't know...It..felt different." Hades rasped. "Not like lightning."

"It was silver." Persephone noted. "That's not normally the color of lightning."

"So the Anomaly's got special lightning that affects us more than Zeus' master bolt? Wonderful." My father groaned.