Bane La Mortis lives on the streets, every day being a battle for survival. But meets a man in a black cloak, he finds out that he is the son of Hades, King of the Underworld, Lord of the Dead and God of Wealth. But will he be able to prove himself...
Bane pulled his sword out as he fell, a wicked blade of a black metal cooled in the waters of the River Styx. But the bottom looked closer up there than it actually was.
Bane was still falling a couple of minutes later and was just about to use the shadows to take him back up when something flew out of the darkness and snatched him up. He looked up to see that it was a lion with the wings of a bat, a human face and the tail of a scorpion. A Manticore! Bane thought with wonder as the creature flew him to the bottom.
He had a book of Greek Monsters in his room. It said the Manticores were Monsters that dwelt in Tartarus. The sting from its tail would only cause pain but it could also fling the sting to impale its victims.
And this one apparently didn't like Demigods because it threw him against the ground when they got to the bottom. With the wind knocked out of him, Bane sucked in gulps of air but it felt as if he was breathing in crushed up shards of glass. The very air made him feel like he was about to pass out from the heat but everything felt cold to the touch. He felt his hands sting so he looked at them to see what damage the fall did, but his hands were covered in blisters and boils that oozed pus and blood.
A clawed hand grabbed him by the neck, forcing his head into the ground, before pulling him back up. Bane looked through blurry eyes at a face with one eye. He shook his head, trying to clear his vision, but the eye didn't split into two. The Cyclops laughed, foul breath punching Bane in the face like a rock, before holding him up high.
Bane heard cheers and jabs from a crowd but couldn't see much as darkness was already starting to close in. He heard the Cyclops bark an order but the words made no sense to him. A bowl was pushing into his hands, which he fumbled to keep a hold of. Something pushed the bowl to his lips, but the only thing that went down his throat was a burning sensation that made his whole body scream in protest.
Bane tried to cough up whatever poison his captors gave him but nothing came out. Then he realised that his vision and hearing returned.
"You cannot spit the River Phlegethon out," the Cyclops laughed bitterly, "Only let it burn and heal you".
The River Phlegethon was one of the five rivers that ran through the Underworld and into Tartarus. Phlegethon was the fiery river that healed you while you were in Tartarus, but it was painful.
"I...am the son of Hades..." Bane tried weakly, "You...will release...me".
The Cyclops laughed as he smashed Bane into the ground again before he raised him like a trophy again to the crowd of Minotaurs, giant multi-legged creatures, harpies, chimeras and hydras.
"No," the Cyclops told him, "Hades cannot save you and neither can the Olympians. Our master's plan had already begun, and it will tear apart Olympus from the inside out! And you will die at the right moment".
Just when Bane thought he was going to either die or stay in Tartarus forever, he heard a familiar howl. He turned his head to see Cerberus and thirty undead soldiers barrel towards him. Behind them, Hades stood on his black chariot as it was pulled by skeletal horses. Above his head, Thanatos flew on wings of black feathers.
The Cyclops threw Bane down onto the ground before running away. He didn't make it far before he was cut down by the blade of a skeleton. Cerberus leapt to Bane's side and stood over him protectively, growing larger with each minute that passed until he was as big as a house.
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Hades pulled the reins and parked his chariot next to them as Thanatos fought against multiple Harpies with a sword in one hand and a scythe in the other. Cerberus grabbed Bane and swung him up onto his back after Hades had checked his son for a pulse.
"FALL BACK!" the Lord of the Dead ordered as he jabbed his Bident at the chest of a Hydra. Bane started losing consciousness as Thanatos flew behind Cerberus as they retreated back to a safe distance so they could use the shadows to travel back to Hades' Palace.
Bane wasn't sure what came first, the shadows or his eyes closing, but either way, his head dropped as he fell into a deep sleep.
