The Broken and the Hunted (Percy Jackson Fanfic)

chapter 16

                    The First Crack
Third person P.O.V.
XXX years after Percy's death

Erebus contemplated the new plaything his sister had claimed, the demigod Perseus Jackson, he was supposedly a pure soul and he didn't like that idea every being had a little darkness in them. Erebus had visited the captive a few times but he didn't enjoy physical torture, rather mental. Erebus dived into Perseus's mind and showed to him, his darkest fears for hours on end with no escape and each time making a little bit of his darkness magic take hold in his soul, until one day.

Perseus had begged for him to stop he would do anything for him to stop. Erebus barley hid his grin, after these countless days he got what he wanted. "Fine but you must let another soul take your place, and you must torture them instead. If you do this I will never visit you again, what do you say?"

There was silence. Erebus frowned slightly had it not been enough yet. "Ok." Was the reply so faint that it was barely heard.

The corruption was complete. The darkness had taken hold of his soul, Erebus was grinning like a mad man as he led the broken hero out of his little cell into another room where he had another person shackled to a wall with a large selection of knifes and whips and many other torture tools on tables and treys around the room. Erebus reached into Perseus's soul and added a little more darkness. " Do it and your free from me, do it and you will feel so much better." He whispered in the demigods ear.

His hand shook as he reached out to grab a knife. Erebus peaked into his mind and heard two voices arguing 'no don't do it you will forever hate yourself if you do this' the first voice said. 'do it you will feel so much better if you do,the power, the thrill, you k own you have always wanted this.' a darker voice said. Erebus didn't expect this the darkness me put in the demigods soul had formed its own voice and persona. Suddenly he grabbed the knife and lunged towards the captive but stopped like he had hit a wall the voices in his head were screaming at eachother and the boy.

The knife slowly sunk into the stomach of the captive pulling out a muffled scream through the gag. A crazy grin formed on Perseus's face as he pulled it out and stabbed it in again. He kept stabbing in a crazed manner until the gag fell out of the captives mouth and she yelled for him to stop. At the sound of that familiar voice every muscle in his body froze. Erebus stared in fascination as Perseus slowly reached up and pulled off the bag on the captives head revealing that person he had spent a long time looking for. There hung Sally Jackson, the mother of the young demigod before him. "Percy..." The last word out of her mouth before she dropped her head.

Erebus looked inside the demigods mind to hear both voices screaming at the boy, ' you killed her, you killed her, you monster you killed her's over and over. Erebus smiled sadistically as he watched the broken hero fall to his knees still staring at his dead mother. Still inside Perseus's mind Erebus heard a loud snap like glass breaking. Suddenly all the darkness magic was being pulled out of Erebus.

He stumbled back at the sudden attach. He followed it to find out it was being absorbed by Perseus, more spasificly the new crack in Perseus's mind. Pure darkness started forming around the kneeling demigod. Slowly a yell came from him. The pure sorrow and rage filling it would make Erebus happy but as the cry grew louder so did the power in him. Erebus sent a blast of darkness at him trying to blast him three the wall only to have the entire blast absorbed by Perseus. His head snapped back to look at the primordal. Erebus widened his eyes in shock this was no longer a broken demigod before him the rage and anger couldn't come from a mere mortal. It sent several blasts of darkness back at Erebus only to pass through his causing no harm. Seeing this it jumped at him with blinding speed slamming into his stomach. Blasted through the wall Erebus flew through the air surprised at the raw strength that the new creature had. Drawn by the explosion monsters stared showing up trying to find the source. Seeing a single figure covered in shadow standing amongst the rubble they roared and charged at it. In a mere instant every monster within a 200 foot radius of it was shredded apart by pure darkness before being absorbed back into the creature. Erebus felt his power grow more with every monster it killed. "You fight like a demon, Akuma seems like a fitting name then. Now just how to capture you and-" Erebus was cut off as the newly named Akuma plunged his hand threw Erebus's chest.

"You can't hahahaha" Akuma said in a raspy voice. "You made me but I'm not complete, are you my missing piece?"

Erebus's eyes went wide as he looked down to see Akuma rip out a orb of pure darkness that was darker than the nothingness of space. Almost all the power just drained out of him. Erebus fell to his knees as Akuma was looking at the orb in his hand. About the size of an apple, he just tossed it up into the air and opened his mouth further than should be possible and swallowed the orb of power in one gulp. The power exploded through his body ripping his flesh apart and putting it back together. Erebus watched helplessly as darkness seeped out from Akauma's skin forming what Erebus knew would be a nearly impenetrable barrier. The shadows licked off his shoulders like black flames.

Akuma leaned his head back and let out a deafening yell. He looked down at the now nearly powerless Erebus before slowly turning and walking away. Erebus thanking chaos quickly traveled back to his domain to regain his power. When a hand landed on his shoulder he was frozen in fear as the demonic red eyes of Akuma stared back at him. " You didn't think  you would get away from me that easily did you."