บท 129: Facing my destiny (7)

{Tartarus, Unknown Time}

Odysseus POV

The clash with Tartarus raged on, each moment punctuated by the roar of weapons and the rumble of the very ground beneath me. I felt the pressure of gravity increase, threatening to crush my form into oblivion.

Yet I knew I had to act decisively if I was to have any chance of survival—and of vanquishing my foes. With a desperate thought, I concentrated, drawing on the power that surged through the black mass that had become my body.

As I regained my footing, I summoned forth the black mass, the shadows swirling and gathering around me, forming solid shapes. With a wave of my hand, I created clones—dark, each hundreds of feet tall, each one a shadowy figure armed with a spear forged from the same dark substance.

Yeah, you heard that right. Shadow clones.

"Jump him!" I yelled, and my clone army charged.

Tartarus laughed. It sounded like boulders falling down a mountain. "Foolish mortal! You think your tricks can defeat me?"

He waved his massive hand, and suddenly the air was full of weapons. Swords, spears, axes—you name it, it was flying at us. It was like being in the world's deadliest game of dodgeball.

But I had a plan. As the weapons rained down, I focused on the black goo that was now basically my body. I made it grow, stretching out towards Tartarus like the world's biggest, darkest tidal wave.

"Hey, Tartarus!" I shouted. "Ever played in a tar pit?"

The black mass surged forward, wrapping around Tartarus's legs. His eyes widened in surprise. Ha! Bet he didn't see that coming.

"What is this?" he roared, trying to shake off the goo. But it kept climbing, covering more and more of him.

I grinned, even though my face felt like it was cracking.

Tartarus thrashed around, but the more he moved, the more tangled he got. It was like watching a giant, angry fly caught in a web made of shadows.

For a moment, I thought I had him. The goo was up to his neck now, and Tartarus looked genuinely scared, his reddish aura turning a slight purple. Me, a demigod, scaring the personification of the pit. That had to be some kind of record.

But then things went sideways. Fast.

Tartarus let out a roar that shook the entire pit. The ground cracked beneath my feet, and I stumbled. That's when I noticed something wasn't right with my body.

I looked down at my torso. Little bits of me were flaking off like ash, floating away in the stale air of Tartarus.

"Oh, come on," I muttered. "Now?"

I tried to hold myself together—literally. But it was like trying to keep sand in your fist. The more I tried, the faster I seemed to crumble.

Tartarus saw his chance. With a massive effort, he burst free from my shadow trap. The goo exploded outward, raining down all around us.

"Enough games," Tartarus growled. His voice made the air vibrate. "It's time to end this."

He raised his hands, and suddenly I felt like I weighed a million pounds. The pressure was incredible, like being at the bottom of the ocean, but worse. I fell to my knees, my body cracking and flaking even faster now.

But I wasn't done yet. With every bit of strength I had left, I pushed back. The shadows around me swirled, forming a protective bubble. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep me from being squashed like a bug.

"Is that all you've got?" I said through gritted teeth. Probably not the smartest thing to say to a primordial god, but hey, I was running out of options.

Tartarus's eyes narrowed. He looked annoyed, which I took as a small victory.

I gathered the shadows again, sending them out like dark tentacles. They wrapped around Tartarus, trying to pull him down into the pit. For a second, it seemed to be working. Tartarus stumbled, caught off guard.

I pressed my advantage, pouring every bit of power I had left into the attack. The black goo rose up around Tartarus, threatening to swallow him whole.

"No!" Tartarus bellowed. His voice was so loud, I thought my ears might start bleeding. "I will not be defeated by a mere demigod!"

He clapped his hands together, and a wave of energy blasted outward. My shadow tentacles disintegrated, and I was sent flying backward. I crashed into a mountain, so hard, it tumbled and broke.

Pain exploded through my body, and more of me crumbled away. I looked like a statue that had been left out in the rain for a few centuries. But somehow, I managed to stand up.

Tartarus loomed over me, looking angrier than ever. "It's over, demigod," he growled. "You've lost."

I smiled, even though it made my face crack more. "Not yet," I said.

While I was getting pounded on by Tartarus, I had been gathering as much black mass around us. With a wave of my hand I willed it to gather around us, forming a massive vortex of darkness. It grew bigger and bigger, swallowing everything in its path.

Tartarus actually took a step back. He looked surprised, which made me feel pretty good, considering I was literally falling apart.

The vortex kept growing, engulfing even Tartarus himself. He tried to push back against the darkness, but it was too strong.

Inch by inch, Tartarus began to sink into the black goo. He thrashed around, roaring in panic, but he couldn't escape. The god of the pit was being pulled into a pit of my own making. How's that for irony?

"No, this can't be happening,!" he yelled. "I'M THE ABYSS, THE END!"

But it was happening. Tartarus sank deeper and deeper, the goo now up to his chest. His arms flailed around wildly, trying to grab onto something, anything. But there was nothing but darkness.

I felt a surge of triumph. I was actually doing it. I was defeating Tartarus in his own realm.

But then I heard it. A sound like thunder, but sharper. I turned and saw Kronos floating above the battlefield, Zeus's Master Bolt, crackling. The same unsettling grin I had seen from Luke and from him, tens of times before.

Our eyes met, and I saw the cold calculation in his golden gaze, but then I noticed it he wasn't looking at my eyes he was looking lower, he was looking at my torso..

I looked down and saw a huge hole where my heart should have been. The black goo that was my body started to fall apart, unable to hold together without my will keeping it in place.

"What?" I gasped. My hand reached up, shaking as it went through my body, golden and black blood falling onto my hand. I could feel the air rushing through the hole in my chest. That couldn't be good.

The pain hit me all at once, burning through my body like liquid fire. I staggered backward, the world spinning around me. I could hear my shadow clones screaming as they dissolved into nothing.

"Hu—" was all I managed to say before the darkness closed in. I felt myself crumbling, turning into ash that scattered in the wind of Tartarus.

The huge shadow dome I'd created started to fade away, all the energy I'd summoned disappearing along with me. As the world shifted around me, I realized with a sinking feeling that I had failed.

As everything went dark, my last thought was one of regret. I couldn't finish what I'd started. I'd let everyone down. Kronos would be free, and the world would burn.

I'm sorry, I thought, though I wasn't sure who I was apologizing to, was it Thalia, my fathers, my mothers, the mortals, I didn't know. Then, everything went black.

Melinoe POV

I stood knee-deep in the black goo, watching in horror as the shadow dome shattered. The darkness faded back into the red ground of Tartarus, falling around me like broken glass. "Odysseus!" I yelled, my voice cracking.

"No! No, no, no!" I screamed. I could see the last bits of his power fading away into nothing. The ground shook under my feet as Tartarus pressed down on us again.

I had to do something, but what? What could I possibly do against a primordial god? I grabbed my whistle, ready to call the a ghost train again I would brun through my essence if necessary. It was a long shot, but it was all I had.

But before I could do anything, I felt someone behind me. I spun around and saw Luke charging at me, his eyes blazing with an intense light, the ghosts used from my body still scratching at his.

"You're dead!" he whispered. His voice no longer scared, rather it was monotone, controlled.

I raised my khopesh, but I was too slow. Luke moved faster than I thought possible. Before I could blink, his sword was through my chest.

I gasped, feeling the cold metal pierce my body. The pain spread through me like wildfire. I stumbled backward, my vision going blurry.

"I'll kill you," I choked out, spurting golden blood onto his face. "When I reform, I'll torture you for a thousand years."

"Whatever you say," Luke replied. His voice was cold, empty.

Luke yanked his sword out, and I fell. The black goo beneath me shifted, like it wanted to swallow me whole. Darkness crept in from all sides, pulling at me.

"Odysseus," I called out one last time, in a whisper, even though I knew he couldn't hear me. I felt myself fading, my vision going dark at the edges. My knees gave out, and I collapsed. Still I held onto the khopesh, the blade Odysseus had give me.

With my last breath, I thought of Odysseus, our first meeting and everything that came after. As the darkness pulled me under, I could only smile at the thought.

Moros POV

"Well, that's how it was always supposed to go," I said to myself, miles away from the battle. "Still, brother, you did better than I thought you would."

I knew from the start that Odysseus was doomed. But I had hoped, just a little, that he might be able to change things. To beat fate at its own game.

"Now the world's doom will follow," I sighed. "Maybe I should visit mother, like Odysseus said."

I looked out over Tartarus. Even from here, I could feel the echoes of the fight. My brother had come so close. For a moment, I almost thought he might do it.

But fate as always had other plans. And now, everything would change because of what happened here. The world above would soon feel the effects of this battle.

I turned away from the battlefield, feeling heavy. There was work to do, things to prepare. The Titans were coming back, and with them, doom would be active once more.

As I walked away, I couldn't help but wonder: if Odysseus, with all his power and determination, couldn't change fate, what hope did anyone else have?

But then again, maybe that was the point. Maybe it was time for someone else to step up, to be the hero. And maybe, just maybe, they would succeed where even my extraordinary brother had failed.

Only time would tell. And time, as we all knew too well, was now in Kronos' hands.

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A/N: Well this is it, the end of the story, Odysseus dies and the world plunges into war which Kronos will mostly win. Hope you enjoyed this story.

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