Nico, The Immortal Prince

Nico di Angelo, The Prince of Darkness

Nico warily moved his dark brown eyes around his personal office in the Underworld. As he confirmed that no soul, or skeleton, furies or zombies anywhere near him, he let out a satisfying yawn and stretched his arms up above his head before he promptly let his head fall and hit his desk with a soft thud. He groans as the papers on his desk jerked at his forced and somewhat lazy and sluggish movements causing the thin abominations to scatter and flutter to the black stoned floor.

Nico shifted his head and rested his right cheek on the desk to look outside the wide, dragon full on sharp teeth maw-shaped window of his office to the rest of the unsavory scene of the Underworld. Lost items, jewels and gold floats in all directions in the vast space that is Underworld. Nico traced the most unusual and curious items with his eyes while his ears naturally blocked out the screams of terror and pain from all part of the Underworld, notably the Fields of Punishments and dreadfully the pit of Tartarus. Nico never went near there ever again after last time. He could not even claim that he was sane so he certainly did not want to test if he could lose anymore.

He could see in the distance, the River of Lethe, where memories are wiped. He could see the River Styx as its length stretched through land of the Dead in a flowy manner. He remembered that he told his cousin Percy to bathe in it to obtain the curse of Achilles in their effort to win the war against the Giants. He recalled his beloved sister Bianca. She had been reborn and safely living in the mortal world. Nico knew who she had reborn to and felt happy for her living her new life with her much living family, this time complete with both parents and loving siblings. She does not remember who she was, that she was once a demigod, a child of the Big Three. But Nico was content with it, for as long as she's happy.

Nico sighed as he sat up and laid his back on his dragon hide leather chair and tried to bury himself in it as much as he could, feeling weary despite his inability to feel tired after his ascension. He did not need to sleep, but it unfortunately or fortunately did not banish his trademark dark eye bags that made his face look sunken and creepy, especially since he hardly smiles. Thanatos claimed that he should not force himself to smile as it will only make him look scarier with the freaky smile while Alecto argued that Nico's 'real' smile is like that of an angel following his namesake.

Nico did not believe either of them. His facial muscle hurt whenever he tried to smile, which just proved that he was not built for smiling. He was the Son of Hades, only the Dead respect him...and only out of fear. There were a few exceptions of course, like his cousins and one son of Apollo who strangely, in Nico's opinion, concerned with him. Nico however did not welcome his mothering. He had been alone for a long time and he was sure that it will stay that way in the future too. His cousins and friends were not granted immortality like him except Thalia who became Lady Artemis's Lieutenant, so they will die and reborn...leaving him (and Thalia) the only one unchanging in the coming years. At least, that's what he thought would happen.

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Nico stared at his pale long bony hands on his lap as he recalled how he ended in this position. It happened on his birthday, where he officially turns 85 years old...15 physically. After the war with Mother Earth, Gaea, his father felt that he more than deserves respect and reward for his loyalty to the Olympians and should be regarded as Hero of Olympus as much as Perseus Jackson, Son of Poseidon did. Since the Titan War, Hades had been accepted by the other Gods and had his own throne in Olympus. Hades and his son's contribution in the Giant War was thought to be credited for their ability to summon an Undead Army at will as their reinforcements. Everyone recognized that without their power, they would have suffered greater loss than the one they already had.