A/N: Sorry about going AWOL everyone... Things have been odd for me. Not only did my PC go funky, forcing me to send it to be fixed, but I have also been facing this nasty writer's block... Anyhow, I'm back!
Hope you enjoy the chapter!
[Blood Archive Entry]
As the car sped off, a figure watched from the nearby forest. Glowing eyes focused on it.
A high-pitched snarl came from it. Angry and vengeful. It looked back hatefully at the patch of the road where it felt the dimming presence of monsters.
"They failed…" The figure said, its voice uncomfortable to the ears of whoever was to hear it. "The demigods still live."
It drew a deep breath. Massive leathery twisted wings sprouted from the figure.
It took flight and moved towards the location where Darian had fought the monsters before.
Tisiphone, one of the three Erinyes—otherwise known as furies, the fiercest of Hades' servants—walked along the asphalt. Her form could only be described as twisted and repulsive. She appeared like a kind old lady most of the time, if you were to ignore her clawed hands, sharp teeth, and digitigrade legs with taloned feet. The contrast between details had always brought amusing reactions out of Tisiphone's targets. And that was why she always chose such a form.
Among her sisters, Tisiphone was considered the one with the worst personality, and even her own sisters seldom approached her. But whenever lord Hades had a particularly sensitive task, she was always the one he called, and that brought her immense pride.
She scoffed as she thought of her sisters.
Alecto and Megaera shared the vanity of the gods, as they always took the form of beautiful women. Especially Megaera, whom some of the souls of the damned claimed to be even more beautiful than the Olympian goddesses. But then again, Tisiphone always took pleasure in popping the eyeballs and ripping out the tongues of those souls, as she didn't quite enjoy when her sister received praise, and she didn't.
Her taloned feet dragged and scraped against the asphalt, creating small sparks.
She looked around curiously, studying the scorch marks on the ground, the spiderweb-shaped cracks, the all too familiar smell of burnt flesh.
'There are burn marks all over; those could have been made by the vile spawn of the King of the Skies… The cracks could have been from the cyclops my lord sent…' she thought, but she had a nagging feeling that it wasn't quite like that.
She took a whiff of the air.
'There is no smell of ozone. So, no lightning.'
She crouched near the cracks. Running her clawed fingers over them.
'No cyclops made this… The strength behind whatever caused this was quite obscene, perhaps even more so than that smug Heracles.'
She got up, her face tense. She circled the place again and again. At times, she would stop for a split second before walking again.
Tisiphone narrowed her eyes.
An idea came to her.
The monsters' resentment was fading, but still present enough that she could feel it.
'Perhaps this could enlighten me…' she thought.
She closed her eyes and dragged her senses to the dark feeling that surrounded her. Expecting the angst that most monsters gave off when felled in combat. But what she found left her astonished.
"Fear," she gasped out loud.
What could drive monsters to such deep-rooted fear? She had only felt this from creatures that stood in the presence of her glorious lord. But the ambient lacked that distinct feeling the divines gave off, a feeling she herself exuded to a point.
No, no, this was older. Far older.
She tried to dive even further, and the moment she did, she started shivering uncontrollably.
In the depths of the resentment lay the echo of the presence that caused the resentment.
The smell of blood filled her nostrils. The blood of many. Too many. She could almost swear that she could smell hers and her sisters' blood among the many.
Screams of thousands upon thousands. All crying in despair and primal fear. Fear that she herself felt at this very moment.
With her eyes still closed, she perceived in the darkness something that made her forget to breathe.
Two glowing red eyes, glinting with cruel amusement, and a smile filled with razor-sharp teeth.
Suddenly, a deep chilling laughter echoed around her. The sound grew louder each and every second until it became deafening.
Tisiphone clenched her hands tight. Her claws dug into her own flesh, spilling her scalding dark blood.
The pain cleared her mind and brought her back to reality.
She gasped for breath. Her chest heaving. Eyes wide and filled with despair.
Even after she had retreated from the depths of the monsters' resentment, she swore she could still hear the laughter. She swore she felt the chill of death, closer than ever before.
Cold sweat dripped from her back.
Her wings fluttered weakly.
"Something interfered…" She spoke in a weak tone. "Something dangerous."
With each new breath, she felt her own mind easing up, and her thoughts came with more clarity.
"I must warn lord Hades," she spoke in a resolute tone. "He must know of this. We must prepare for a fight against whatever it was."
She looked up, a resolute look on her face. Then a twisted smile bloomed on her face.
"Lord Hades will most definitely reward me for this…" her face flushed into a vile distortion of what could be called a blush. "I can almost see-"
Her words caught in her throat as a wave of intense pain echoed through her body.
She vomited more of her dark blood. As her head looked down, she saw a pure white blade piercing straight through her chest.
She blinked in surprise and turned her face back to see who had attacked her.
A tall and muscular man. He had a stern yet serene expression. His beautiful grey eyes appeared to be almost bored. A square jaw framed his masculine face. Long white hair flowed from his head. He wore a pitch-black tunic with silver embroideries. On his back, two massive, feathered wings flapped gently, yet powerfully. The feathers were even darker than his clothes.
"You…" Tisiphone said weakly. "Why are you-"
She was interrupted once more as the blade that was previously stuck in her chest moved violently and bisected the proud fury.
"Silence," the man's voice was clear and melodious. "I do not wish to hear your foul voice."
Tisiphone's body fell to the ground in a weak thud.
Yet before she could even gasp or moan in pain, the man's sandals crushed her head, killing her instantly.
"These divine pests are getting more audacious…" the man said in a hateful and disgusted tone.
He turned his head and looked straight towards where the car that carried Darian and the rest was supposed to be, even though there was no line of sight or a clear way for that to be possible.
"The boy gives me an uneasy feeling…" he said as he narrowed his eyes. "I hope you know what you are doing, father." He said to no one in particular, yet he knew that his words were heard. "I really do…"
He spread his wings widely, and then he flapped his wings violently. Disappearing in the blink of an eye, leaving only a couple of dark feathers behind.
Somewhere else, in a dark and dreary palace. Where screams echoed non-stop. Where no living should ever step.
Sitting atop an obsidian throne was a man. Black hair and even darker eyes. A glorious and regal armor, made entirely of a mythical metal commonly known as Stygian Iron, draped his mighty frame.
"Tisiphone is dead," he spoke, startling those around him.
"What do you mean, my lord?" A servant asked.
"True death," he mused in a displeased tone. "I'd like to know who dared…"
Everyone in the throne room stiffened.
"Bring Thanatos. I wish to speak to him." He spoke.
Back in the car, Darian still stared through the car window, unaware of the storm brewing.
In that very moment, a sequence of events that would cause the greatest of all wars was set in motion.