TAMING APOLLO | completed

38. gods under seige

38. gods under siege

3 R D   P E R S O N

THE AIR on Mount Olympus was dense and for the average human being, it would have been impossible to breathe. Luckily, no mere humans resided on Olympus.

The glimmering golden streets had lost their usual shine, while no chariots carrying gods paraded them victoriously. It was icy-cold, vacant and dreary. Blood showered the castles and stunning architecture of the blessed city.

It rained the hardest on the Pantheon, the tower on the highest point. The blood rain there was accompanied by dangerous strikes of lightning, hitting directly where Zeus mightily sat on his throne.

Before him, in cages of deicidium were the remaining gods, those who refused to leave nor forsake the cause.

"Brother. Brother, I beg you. This is insanity, how can you expect –"

"Silence, Demeter." Zeus held up his giant palm to his sister, a dangerous look in his electric blue eyes, lips pursed into a straight line.

Demeter had become a shell of her former self, the vines that had grown all around her cage had withered, and there were burn marks along her brown skin. She parted her dry lips again, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"If you will not listen to me, brother, listen to reason, listen to Hera. Your wife, you– "

"I said, silence." Zeus furrowed his brows turning, turning his gaze to a shivering Hera besides him. His wife paled. "Hera? What is this reason your sister speaks of? Have you been conspiring against me?" He raised a brow. She shook her head vigorously, turning her gaze away from him in silence.

The remaining colour on Demeter's face drained off, leaving her white as snow. Her eyes widened and softened at her sister's betrayal.

Ignoring the exchange of glances between Demeter and Hera, Zeus got up from his chair. "This is madness. Working alongside the titans will only result in blood, in war. Stop this at once." A raspy voice sounded from inside one of the cages. Zeus only glares at Hephaestus in passing, completely ignoring him.

Zeus stormed past where Athena was passed out in her cage and treaded to the two cage at the very end, where inside, fiery hair and even redder eyes glared back at him.

"Tell me where he is. Where has Poseidon hidden?"

Ares glared back at his father, and spit in his face. "Out of my sight." He growled, mustering all of his strength to fit his arms through the bars and shove Zeus back. "You make me sick."

Zeus stammered, his face hardening. "Why, you ungrateful little –" he grabbed his son through the bars, pulled him up with strength, and before he could do anything, mist appeared behind him, pulling him back.

Ares landed back at the bottom of the cage. He turned to the cage besides him, where Dionysus watched in horror.

Zeus gritted his teeth at the figure appearing behind him. "Atlas." He groaned, turning to the large figure behind him.

This figure was over ten feet tall, with black, soulless eyes containing no whites at all. He grinned as Zeus turned to face him, bearing his deadly sharp-as-knives teeth. He was wearing a long cloak. Pushing the hoodie back, he revealed a full head of black hair, slicked back.

"A number of days have passed and you have only managed to capture five of the gods necessary for the task at hand. The blood moon draws nearer. Kronus steadily grows more and more restless by the day. If you do not complete this task and capture the gods, it will be your head on his plate. Understood?"

Before Zeus could protest, the figure disappeared just as quickly as it came, leaving the seething god of lightning alone besides his throne.

"This is why you never make deals with the devil, father." Shocked, Zeus turned. Behind him, the head of his trickster son, Hermes, floated about like a cloud.

Zeus' eyes darkened. "How dare you show your face here, you foolish boy!" Demeter screeched from her cage, flesh burning as she wrapped her hands around the bars.

Hermes ignored him. "What? Little ole me? I've come to strike a deal with my dear dad here."

"A deal? You... you..!" Zeus was fuming, steam practically coming out of his ears.

The face on the disembodied head of Hermes feigned a hurt expression. "You don't seem happy to see me, daddy."

Zeus reached for the talking head and grabbed it, but it disappeared in his hands, only to reappear again with a smug look. "You didn't think I'd actually come there, did you?"

Demeter behind him exhaled in relief, realising that maybe the boy wasn't so foolish after all.

"What do you want?" Zeus grumbled through ground teeth.

"I didn't appear to you because I would like to play a game of catch with my papa," he drawled with the roll of his eyes. "I appeared because I have an offer for you that you cannot refuse. I can help you out of your deal with the titans." He said.

Zeus hesitated for a moment, not wanting to reveal that he actually hated working with the titans. He had been planning to betray them the moment he knew how, but so far there was no such luck. He didn't know how. They were too powerful for him to take them on his own.

"And what, pray, do you know about the titans, boy?" He growled, glaring at the Hermes head.

The Hermes head grinned that sinister grin of his.

"Everything. After all, I'm the one who set them free."

A round of gasps and murmurs erupted through the room as the caged gods glanced at one another in shock.

Even Zeus was slightly taken back.

"You..?"

"Yes, me. And, look, I know I haven't been the most loyal subject and soldier but I'm here to make amends... and to prove my loyalty; I have come to deliver to you the location of not one but two of your required gods... of Artemis and Apollo..."

Zeus' eyes widened just as Ares and Dionysus exchanged glares.

"You bastard!" Hephaestus roared, beating against the metal, ignoring his screeching flesh. "Do you realise what you're doing! Brother! Do not!"

The head only smirked, completely disregarding the protests from the other gods.

"Have you heard of a little place called Thrace?"