The New Demigods

Chapter 12: The Underworld

My vision went black when we entered the portal and my ears filled with a quiet, familiar hum.

When my vision returned we were standing in the courtyard of a very old looking castle, the architecture was Greek, but all the material was a dark grey in contrast to the shimmering white of Mount Olympus's buildings. A fog covered the land making it difficult to see beyond the castle's courtyard and the sky was dark absent of stars.

"Welcome to the Underworld!" Hades announced, as he stood at least a foot taller than he was at Mount Olympus. His black toga seemed unchanged, but he now carried a long staff and wore a crown resembling bones encrusted with various jewels.

Hades was not the only sponsor to upgrade, River had also grown a couple of feet taller and her frame was no longer as thin and frail as it looked on Mount Olympus. Muther and Theus looked the same as they did before, as did the rest of us.

"Does that mean we are dead?" Piper asked, panicked by the thought.

"No," Theus reassured her. "We have brought you here in order to train you beyond the eyes of Olympus."

"But Hera and the other Gods want us to be trained," I said, confused why we couldn't just stay in Olympus.

"Yes, but not to your full extent," Muther began. "They have been watching us closely since we arrived at Olympus since they do not trust us, or you by association. They provided us with a poor training ground and in our agreement forced us to give up our true powers while on Olympus. Hades was the only exception to this since he is the brother of Zeus and has been able to travel to Olympus with invitation by any of the Gods before this agreement. I know you all have had a number of questions about what is going on since you arrived at Olympus and we were unable to answer truthfully with Athena's owl watching us. Now that we are in Hades domain, we will try to answer as many questions as we can."

My head spun with all of the questions I had over the past four weeks and I didn't know where to begin. Scarlett broke the silence with the first question which unleashed a number of others from the rest of us.

"What is our quest?"

"Ultimately, to save the Greek Gods, Titans, Monsters and yourselves."

"Why can't you save yourself?"

"Unfortunately, a deal was made with the mortals that we need you to break."

"Aren't we mortals?"

"Not exactly..."

"What are we?"

"Demigods."

"What does that mean?"

"That you have been blessed by us."

"We know Hades is a god, but I have never heard of Greek Gods named Muther, Theus and River. You've not mentioned yourselves in our trainings either like you have the other Gods."

"That's because we are not Gods." Muther sighed, "we are titans. Forced to give up our real names while on Olympus, as names can hold a certain power among us."

"Then what are your real names?" Piper asked, as we were all taken aback by this news.

"I am Gaia," Muther revealed. "Or as the Mortals call me, Mother Earth." I nodded in agreeance as it made sense to me. I did not expect her to be the grandmother of Zeus himself, but I knew she was more powerful than she displayed in Olympus.

"I am Prometheus," Theus announced. "The titan credited with stealing fire for the Mortals and being punished by Zeus for it."

"I am Styx," River revealed. "The titan of hatred and the river that runs through the underworld with my namesake." This shocked me, I could never picture River/Styx to be the Titan of hatred, she had been so kind and gentle to us over the course of our training.