Immortals ✓

the end

MELINOE eyes had tears in them for the first time since her birth and that was a rarity for her. She had not cried when the love of her life had been killed, she had not cried a single tear when her father had slapped her with his bolt; she hadn't shed a single tear when Aethera's small body had pierced through her in birth. 

But after centuries of waiting, the end was finally here. 

Her pain, her misery, her sorrow were to end today. She knew it. Everyone around her knew it now. Aethera had been awaken by her grandmother's touch. Nyx was not far away. 

The primordial Gods have their own way of assuring their survival. They live through their children and when Aether had been killed ruthlessly by Hades, Nyx had weeped. Stars had been wiped out in distant galaxies when she had let out her moans of sadness. Her son, her light, was no more. But today, she witnessed her revenge. Aethera was her indomitable warrior and nothing stood between her and her revenge. Nyx craved for a war, she needed blood to be shed. Her son's soul would never attain peace if Hades wouldn't bow down to her blood. 

Art, on the other hand was beyond Melinoe's understanding. As the Gods and Athanatoi awaited Hades or Zeus to respond to their call, Melinoe wondered how had Art fostered the kind of power that was only rumored. 

She knew the answer soon enough when she witnessed Aethera gently touch Art's face, trying to calm him down for what awaited them. 

It didn't matter what Art's blood fostered in it. What Melinoe, Jace and everyone else was witnessing was the arrival of a new generation of Gods. 

In the sparks around them, Melinoe saw traces of Artemis, Zeus, Nyx, Aether and herself. She saw the emerald shine of Artemis, the menacing bolts of energy of Zeus, the darkness of Nyx in Aethera's eyes, the light in her palms and the trance in Art's eyes which she had witnessed herself during the last war. 

Aethera and Art's souls had intertwined. Their powers weren't theirs anymore. There was no greater marriage than what she had witnessed ahead of her, no human ceremony, no blood bond could sanctify a relation the way the meeting of the souls did for the Gods. 

In that moment of awe, Melinoe shed a few more tears; for she had witnessed what her and Aether could have been. 

"Ungrateful child," Hades' voice pierced through Melinoe's thoughts who had been in a trance for less than a minute. 

Aethera was the first to turn, Art following her as they noticed yet another figure emerge from the shadows of the forest. 

In a dark cloak, covering most of his body, it was apparent that the man ahead in the field had borrowed a body from the Underworld. No one would believe that the Lord of Underworld had walked into the field resembling a sixteen year old child. But the empty eyes that were covered behind hair as dark as the thunderous sky above them, were testament to the fact that the voice and the hatred of the eyes had not been borrowed from the previous owner of the flesh. 

"Let my words be etched into the very fabric of your soul, Aethera. As the Lord of the Underworld, I wield power beyond mortal comprehension. Should you persist in defying me, the darkness itself shall rise to claim you," he growled menacingly. The house behind shook from his threats and everyone present had taken a step back, except Art and Aethera. 

His words meant nothing to them in the hypnotic-state their powers had enveloped them in. 

"Every step you take, every breath you draw, will be haunted by the specter of my wrath. And when the time comes, when you stand before the judgment of the Underworld, know that there will be no mercy, no reprieve."

"We don't need your mercy or your power," Aethera's voice was as brooding and threatening as Hades' had been. She didn't falter as her flames increased around her and Art, a threat to the Lord who stood in front of them.