Chapter 11: Hades, Persephone and a Plot.
(The story from here on will start having AU elements if that wasn't not clear. We are not following the Percy Jackson story to the letter.)
The Fields of Asphodel had black grass that had been trampled by eons of dead feet. A warm, moist wind blew like the breath of a swamp. Black trees grew in clumps here and there.
The cavern ceiling was so high like a sky, except for the stalactites, which glowed faint gray and looked wickedly pointed. Many had fallen and dotted around the fields where several had impaled themselves in the black grass. The dead didn't have to worry about hazards like being speared by stalactites, and neither did he.
Eventually, as Solomon kept walking, they saw a large sign.
(Welcome, Newly Deceased!)
Two lines of the dead led security ghouls were marched down a rocky path toward the Fields of Punishment, which glowed and smoked in the distance. A vast, cracked wasteland with rivers of lava and minefields and miles of barbed wire separating the different torture areas.
Even from far away, Constantine could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, and forced to run naked through cactus patches. He could see a hill, with Sisyphus struggling to move his boulder to the top.
Worse tortures like the Bronze Bull, hanging while being fed on by birds, being submerged in a pit of molten gold. Much worse too so he looked away from the dead who were being punished for their wrongs.
The line coming from the right side of the judgment pavilion was much better. This one led down toward a small valley surrounded by walls leading to a gated community. Beyond the security gate were neighborhoods of beautiful houses from every period in history, Roman villas medieval castles, and Victorian mansions. Silver and gold flowers bloomed on the lawns. The grass rippled in rainbow colors.
'Gay, hehehehe.'
Vritra turned and looked at him like he was 4.
'Grow up.'
'Shut up.'
Elysium, Heaven where all the good people went to at the end. At least those in the Greek Jurisdiction, Hotel Valhalla in Boston served the same for the Norse Pantheon.
Probably worked the same way for the Japanese, Hindu, Chinese, and other Pantheons. In the middle of that valley was a glittering blue lake, with three small islands like a vacation resort in the Bahamas. The Isles of the Blest, for people who had chosen to be reborn three times, and three times achieved Elysium.
Few people were in Elysium, much smaller when compared to the Fields of Asphodel or even the Fields of Punishment. So few people lived good lives that showed humans were innately flawed.
Solomon kept going leaving the judgment pavilion and moving deeper into the Asphodel Fields. It got darker and the colors faded from their clothes. The crowds of chattering spirits began to thin slightly.
After a few miles of riding, they began to hear screeching in the distance. Looming on the horizon was a palace of glittering black obsidian. Above the parapets swirled three dark creatures: the Furies.
Two of them were beautiful with them looking more like the Furies from God of War Ascension. Only two of the three because Megaera was as ugly as a monster.
Alecto, a tall black-haired woman landed in front of him with a prideful air.
"Lord Hades, Lady Persephone, and your Mother await. Come."
"Thank you."
Alecto didn't respond as she led him the rest of the way while flying. Now, Solomon ran after her in the air. After miles of riding, Alecto eventually led him to Hades' palace. A massive structure that was as edgy as the Underworld.
The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two-story-tall bronze gates stood wide open. Up close, Constantine saw that the engravings on the gates were scenes of death.
Some were from modern times, the atomic bomb exploding over Japan city, a trench filled with gas mask-wearing soldiers of WW1, a line of African famine victims waiting with empty bowls, but all of them looked as if they'd been etched into the bronze thousands of years ago.
Alecto landed on the ground at the gate so, Constantine jumped off Solomon. He grabbed the horse's reins before walking next to Alecto. When they stepped past the gate, they passed Persephone's garden.
Multicolored mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird luminous plants grew without sunlight. Precious jewels made up for the lack of flowers, piles of rubies as big as a fist, clumps of raw diamonds.
In the center of the garden was an orchard of pomegranate trees, their orange blooms neon bright in the dark. Constantine was tempted to taste one, but eating one in the Underworld would make it so he could not leave ever.
As they walked past the garden, they walked up the steps of the palace, between black columns, through a black marble portico, and into the house of Hades. The entry hall had a polished bronze floor, which seemed to boil in the reflected torchlight. There was no ceiling, just the cavern roof, far above.
Every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in military gear. Some wore Greek armor, some British redcoat uniforms, and some camouflage with tattered American flags on the shoulders. They carried spears or muskets or M-16s. None of them bothered them as Alecto was with him.
Their hollow eye sockets followed them as they walked down the hall, toward the big set of doors at the opposite end. A frigid wind blew down the corridor, as the doors swung open to the throne room of Hades and Persephone.
Alecto walked with him inside watched by the dead guards of Hades' palace.
"Show the proper respect, the three of you."
Constantine nodded.
"I will, thank you Lady Alecto."
"Do not call me Lady. Alecto is fine."
"If that is what you wish."
When they walked inside, the room looked just like the throne of a god, just edgy with black and skulls everywhere. Hades was the fourth god Constantine met, the others being Artemis, Ares, and his mother Hecate.
Other than Artemis, he respected him and the other three. Hades was at least ten feet tall, for one thing, and dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. His skin was albino white, his hair shoulder-length and jet black. He wasn't bulked up like Ares, but he radiated power. He lounged on his throne of fused human bones, looking lithe, graceful, and dangerous as an assassin.
Vritra didn't pull back, he didn't retreat from Indra, he would not retreat from Hades. Though his instincts told me he was not guaranteed to win in a fight with Hades. Solomon snorted and looked down and Constantine felt it too.
The Lord of the Dead resembled his Demigod sons Adolph Hitler and Napoleon. Hades had the same intense eyes, and the same kind of mesmerizing, evil charisma. Though he was not alone as next to him sat his beautiful wife, Persephone.
Meaning he was in a more accepting mood and even Hecate was standing next to her mistress Persephone. She smiled when she saw her son, just as she had envisioned before his birth.
Constantine lowered his head and bowed alongside Solomon.
"Lord Hades, Lady Persephone, dearest Mother, I am here for an audience."
Hades turned to Hecate who nodded.
"Welcome to my realm, Constantine. I have wanted to meet you for a while. I will ask a question to open your horizons before we speak. Have you ever wondered who has been protecting you and keeping your actions hidden?"
Constantine looked up confused.
"I had assumed it was my mother or my Anti-Divination Spells."
Hades shook his head.
"You two have done your part and it has helped, but no. Your Mother got with your Father because of the chances of who you would be. A prophesy that she saw long ago.
It spoke of The Black King, The King In Black, The Ashborne. There was a chance you would be a mighty Demigod, or something more. Of the many futures she saw, only one turned out how I liked.
Yours, Black King. Your Mother long ago foresaw what you would become and gave birth to you. I have been protecting you from the eyes of my brothers and other gods."
Constantine bowed his head lower as he had been overconfident. He thought his reincarnation was secret, but it seems the goddess who reincarnated him didn't offer him any protection against Divination.
Of course, he expected that so he had always used Anti Diviniation magic which he learned was working.
"I thank you for this, Lord Hades. I swear on my honor to repay this debt. What is it you desire of me?"
Hades closed his eyes.
"Tople my brother Zeus from his Throne in the future. Olympus is better off without him, deal with Poseidon if you wish to. In the future, your Mother saw, the longer they live, the more they wrong me.
More than they already have. I know your request, you seek Stygian Iron, and you shall have it. Asylum from Olympus as well, you are welcome here. Consider the Underworld your home."
Constantine nodded.
"Thank you, Lord Hades, I do have a question for you, Mother. How long did you know about me and Vritra? About who I was?"
She smiled as she walked toward him. She kneeled and picked him up from the ground.
"Since before your birth. Centuries before you were born, I saw a prophecy of a King in Black who would overthrow Zeus and make Olympus a better place. Riding on a steed heralding the end of Zeus' reign.
A mighty dragon at his side, you Vritra. You thought you hid yourself from me all those years ago, but I let you think that. You didn't even notice me placing protections on the both of you to keep other gods from seeing you."
Vritra sighed as if he was not as clever as he thought.
"Thank you, I guess."
Hecate smiled as she held Constantine's face.
"I don't care who you were before or what you will become. You are my son and I love you with all my heart, now that you are not a mortal, there is nothing to keep you away from me. I can teach you all you need about magic.
To make sure you are as powerful as you can be."
Constantine stood up and wrapped his arms around his Mother. She smiled and returned his hug happy to have her son back. Hades looked over at his wife Persephone with a smile as he thought of his son and daughter with her.
His daughter Melione and his son Zagreus, but it also made them sad. As in love as they were they both regretfully strayed from each other. It was rare and hurt both of them, but even the Lord of the Underworld and the goddess of Spring could not stay faithful forever.
After remaining silent this whole time, Persephone spoke up. She smiled at her lady-in-waiting Hecate before standing up. She walked over to the hugging Mother and Son before looking at Solomon.
"So, this is the horse said to herald the twilight of Zeus and his reign? I can see it, as for you 'King In Black' I don't see it. You are stronger than any Demigod, able to match Minor gods, but how will you defeat Zeus? Even with your advantages."
Hecate smiled as she turned to her mistress.
"You will see. Zeus is arrogant, not stupid. But my son is only ten years old, 11 in a few days. Kronus overthrew his Father, Ouranous, and Zeus overthrew him, it is only expected he would be overthrown as well."
Constantine turned to Persephone with a smile.
"You can count on me, I haven't disappointed just yet."
Persephone shrugged as she walked back to her throne.
"Very well, King In Black. I expect to see what you can accomplish. Until then, consider me not impressed."
Constantine nodded as he stood up. Hades looked toward Alecto who was waiting in the throne room.
"Alecto, grant him a residence in Elysium. Order Stygian Iron to be brought to him and set aside one of the forges."
Hecate spoke up.
"Lord Hades, he can stay in my mansion. I have much to discuss with him, I will set up a forge room for him."
Hades accepted this.
"Very well. Prophesies are fical things and the more you try to stop them the more they become true. Do nothing and nurture it and great things happen."
Hecate waved her hand in the magic of the mist she teleported Constantine, Solomon, and Vritra to her mansion. Here, she would rekindle their Mother-Son relationship to prevent all the deaths of her children during the Second Titan War.
Maybe even saving some of her relatives from Tarturus who did no wrong other than not fighting on either side like Calypso. Regardless, the end of Zeus was a must before she and her children could be safe.
(Hecate did join Kronus and was forced to join Olympus once again to prevent the death of her Demigod children. She also lost the most children in Kronus' army. Repeat after me, Zeus is a bitch.)
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