บท 83: DA : Chapter 83: Guns on the Dance Floor IV
At first Athena wasn't sure what it was but then she gasped at the sight, one of her hands shooting to her mouth as a foul stench assaulted their noses.
It. Was. Ares.
...
At human size and looking like he'd nearly been pulled apart. His body was covered in ichor and an unknown black substance, completely nude and battered nearly beyond recognition.
From sight alone Athena could tell that one leg was beyond useless and his hips looked broken as well while part of his right arm was simply gone.
Then, with a weak and broken moan, Ares somehow dragged himself to his hands and knees, letting several see that he'd been violently castrated as well. Athena could hear many throwing up from the stench and sight but the gods remained in shock, unable to look away or do anything.
Then Ares raised his head and Hera started to cry right then and there, seeing as how Ares' face had been torn up and his eyes gouged out. However Ares' head shot towards the sound of his crying mother and did the most shocking thing. He whimpered like a baby, his blood making it look like he was crying gold.
"M-mommy …" he choked as he started to crawl towards her. "… It hurts."
None could move as they watched the god of war, broken beyond even madness itself, as he crawled like a toddler towards his mother. Hera just kept crying as she looked at her son but then she got off her throne and shrunk to her human size.
"I'm here!" she cried as she ran at him with open arms.
Click.
Athena almost missed the sound but she glanced only in time to see Umbra with a black gun in his hand, already aimed. She looked back at Ares, the god having sat up on his knees with his arms open, begging to be picked up and carried away to somewhere safe as Hera flung her arms at him…
BANG!
Ares lurched forward, a hole being blown through his skull with a shower of ichor and flesh. Hera stopped, her arms still open as Ares fell into them. Silence reigned, no one even daring to breathe, as they watched Ares turn to dust, but not the regular golden dust.
Instead a wind picked up as he turned to an ashen white dust in his mother's arms. Hera looked down at her hands as the dust filtered through, unable to comprehend what just happened as were all the other gods.
Crack!
That sound could have been a bomb as it echoed throughout the throne room as all eyes save Hera's turned to Ares' throne. They watched as cracks spider webbed all along the throne. Then, it just collapsed on itself in a pile of white dust as the wind died down and then nothing.
And it was that nothing that thoroughly terrified Athena.
Normally a god's or titan's death left a 'trail' that let the gods feel them moving down to Tartarus. They could feel the consciousness going dormant as the essence sunk into the bowels of the earth but that didn't happen.
There was no essence to speak of anymore, no consciousness moving or slowly fading into the background. There was merely absence. A flame snuffed out without a chance of ever being relit.
Ares had faded.
Athena's entire body was trembling, in shock and fear or rage and hatred she didn't know. She could feel tears streaming down her cheeks just like all the other Olympians. Then, the unholy silence broken as Hera gave a wail of agony, the heartbreak striking the very core of all who witnessed such brutality as she desperately cupped at the dust that was once her son.
Athena could make out the crying of Ares' children from both camps while others couldn't even move, their eyes nailed to the hysterical queen.
"First blood goes to us," Umbra said, drawing the gaze of the Olympians as many started to glow with their power to the point the present demigods fell to their knees and gasped for air … not that they were really noticed by the enraged gods.
Umbra suddenly drew a spear from thin air as Artemis stood and notched another arrow but before she could react, he threw his spear. It moved almost too fast for Athena to see, Artemis not faring any better.
Sadly her body didn't respond in time as the spear hit home. It pierced straight through her hip and pined her to her throne as she screamed, ichor flowing down her leg as she dropped her bow.
"Milady!" screamed her hunters, their own adrenaline helping to deal with the massive divine pressure around them.
"You bastard!" Apollo roared as he lunged at Umbra, sword in hand.
Umbra was ready though, ducking under the swing with a golden gladius appearing in hand. In one swift move Apollo was masterfully disarmed and then the gladius was buried up to the hilt through Apollo's right thigh.
He could only scream as Umbra kicked him away, the force sending the towering god careening. Athena and several others had been about to move and converge on Umbra but then he pulled another blade out and they all froze.
In one motion Umbra impaled the sword right into the fire of the hearth, extinguishing the flame as cracks spread from it and the whole throne room shook.
Athena could also hear screaming coming from the IM's displaying the camps and she glanced to see that they were all suffering earthquakes and running out to see something. However, her eyes were drawn back to the blade left impaled as Umbra stood next to it, all eyes reading the words etched into the gleaming bronze sword.
Anaklusmos. Riptide. The legendary blade of Percy Jackson, greatest hero of the millennia and possibly there ever has been. Cold dread filled their hearts, even the campers having remained looking through the IM's as the earth settled staring at the iconic sword in shock.
"Take heed Olympians," Umbra said in a booming voice all around them as the shade grew taller, soon towering over even the elder Olympians as the atmosphere grew colder by the second. "Your sins have come for you and nothing will stand in our way.
Soon each and every one of your heads will roll," Umbra said as he looked at each shell-shocked god. "And to all demigods, know this. We are not your enemies, however, should you side with this filth," he said with a dismissive wave at the council. "And if you attack us, there will be no mercy."
Suddenly all the light started to fail as shadows spread along the roof and Umbra became one with the darkness. Then, like a switch, he was gone with the shadows.
"We are at war!" his voice roared all around them, several minor gods whimpering and other desperately holding onto each other.
Athena didn't know what happened. Her knees simply gave out as she fell to them, her spear leaning against her as her arms fell limp, her heart still racing within her chest. She looked around weakly, suddenly feeling exhausted.
Artemis was being helped by her hunters and Amazons to remove the spear still driven through her hip. Annabeth gingerly pulled the gladius from Apollo's thigh, and Zeus had moved to holding Hera from behind as the goddess cried her heart out, Aphrodite not too far behind, having taken comfort for once in the arms of her husband.
Then Athena did a double take as she looked at the freshly removed spear and then the gladius with Hera's Roman symbol etched near the hilt. It only took her a moment to recognize them as Thalia's spear and Jason's gladius, further proof that their heroes, if even alive, would not be there to help again.
'… What have we gotten ourselves into?'
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Don't forget to throw some power Stones, to keep the story going.
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