Titans Wrath

Percy: Chapter 23

Flames licked at my skin as I stewed in anger. My friend, no, my brother was dead, and I wasn't even there to avenge him. I don't know who did it yet, but I was going to rip them apart when I got my hands on them.

I looked around at the scorched landscape around me. Turns out, my fire is a lot more reactive to my emotions than my water was. Well, either that, or I just wasn't as good at controlling it as I am my water powers.

Flames curled around my fists and up the seams of my pants, though thankfully they didn't burn the clothing away. I sighed and closed my eyes, doing my best to calm down and turn the flames off. It took a lot longer and a lot more effort than I care to admit. 

Once I stopped smoldering, I finally took stock of my surroundings. The body of Koios, or what was left of it, still lay in the dirt a few feet away. The Titans had dragged me pretty far while I was unconscious, and luckily, I started recognizing a few of the details around me. Soft rolling red hills in the distance. Annabeth mentioned that the pit was the body of Tartarus himself, and so I'd guess I was around the collar bone area. I snickered and rose to my feet, muttering to myself out loud.

"Now, if I were an angry Titan lord Hades bent on trying to destroy the world, where would I put my palace in Hell?"

Sadly, I didn't have to think too hard about it before an idea popped into my head. I looked north, towards the collarbones of Tartarus, and turned, starting to move south east, towards the heart of the pit. If Kronos didn't put his palace there, the only other place I can think of would be the ass crack itself, and I really, REALLY didn't want to go there, so I'm going to start with the heart and pray to any gods that can hear me.

As I moved, I realized that this journey would likely take the majority of the day. Being an Immortal, I didn't explicitly NEED sleep, but I do still need to rest every so often. That time frame is also based on the assumption that I don't get attacked by monsters along the way. A stupid assumption, really, as I had barely made it 200 yards before I sensed the first monsters.

I ducked behind a rock and glanced towards them. If I could avoid the fight, I would. I couldn't kill every monster between the palace and i, as much as if love to.

It took only moments before I spotted them. Two hellhounds, playing with appeared to be a human pelvic bone. They used it for tug of war, snarling and snapping at each other and tumbling through the wasteland in a wrestle.

They would almost be cute if it weren't for the fact that they were each the size of a tractor. Their game took them within feet of the boulder I was using for cover, and one of them stopped mid tug to sniff the air, beginning to growl. The other joined in, both of them sniffing the ground around them. I swore internally. Of course, they could still smell me.

I leapt into action before they could pinpoint where I was, uncapping Riptide mid air. An urge filled me, and an image flashed into my brain, one of the training images Hestia had shown me, and I grinned. I slashed at the air in front of me, down at the unsuspecting backs of the beasts, and a jagged blade of fire the length of my swipe shot forward, disintegrating the monsters without even a sound. I capped Riptide once more and began walking again.

I mentally took stock of all the images Hestia had shown me after that, and realized something as I did. The flames Hestia had given me were different than the flames I now used. Her gift, was a controlled burn. The fire burned hot, yes, but it wasn't near as intense and rabid as the flames I was able to produce, then it struck me. Hyperion. He must have lifted his power over the fire. The dust he turned into imbuing me with his power, much the same way the dust Krios turned into imbuing Riptide with power.

Another thought occurred to me then that I had faded Krios. I pushed the thought away. I did not want to think about that possibility right then.

Some of the images were basic things. The flamethrower move I did earlier, using my hands as the conduit for the flames, the supernova from before when I'd simply let the flames pulse out of me. Others were more advanced. I saw images of Riptide cleaving through the air, leaving a burning afterimage that burned things even in it's wake. More projectile waves like the one I had just used, but more rapid, laced into every slice and stab from a distance to bombard the enemy from range.

Even some that I still had yet to fabricate, like the image of a warm blue glow coming from my palms, my hands covering over a sword wound as it slowly knit itself back together. Along with images of a flaming phoenix that I had no clue how it related to my powers. I resigned myself to begin training when I stopped for rest tonight.

The plan was the make it to the palace, camp outside for a night and attack the following morning. I would use the night to train and rest so I showed up rested and ready for a fight. I was going to try and cripple Kronos' forces before they ever made top side.

If I could get in and slow them down, maybe that would by my people time to better shore up their defenses now that we know what we're against. Hades, I might Judy be able to take Kronos down myself before this war even starts.

As a looming war camp came into view hours later, I'd begin my rest and training for the night, using a large mole of a boulder as cover. I did not yet know the sheer error of my thinking. I didn't even have a clue.

I didn't know how bad things were about to go, and I was about to receive a harsh lesson on how cruel the fates could be.

Sorry for the short update, I'm currently doing a bunch of paperwork getting out of training and such to go home, and don't have as much time today as I'd like to really sit and write the longer chapters I've been enjoying so much. Anyways, let me know what you think, love yall.

Long, out.