Through the Burning Fires of Hell // A Nico Di Angelo Fanfiction (On Hold)

Chapter 10

A/N: Just wanted to say hi :) and ask, how are you guys today?

Let me know in the comments and I hope you enjoy this chapter ;)

Nico

Even though the blade in his hand was made of stygian iron, capable of shredding through monsters like paper, Nico couldn't help but feel like he was holding a toothpick as ara after ara landed on the ground before them.

They looked like the Furies, Nico thought, his gaze skimming over their bat-like, leathery wings, a single curved claw jutting out from the tip, their brass talons, and glowing red eyes.

Despite certain death facing him, Nico couldn't help the sigh that escaped his mouth. Of course they had red eyes.

Raven seemed to be thinking the same, because she grinned and cocked her head at a predatory angle, pinning the arai with a blazing gold glare. "You still have red eyes? I thought I told you to change them to something different. Purple would work, no? Or neon green."

"Insolent fool," a voice hissed, malicious and ancient. "Sister in blood you may be, but do not doubt that we will enjoy devouring you."

Nico started, trying to find where the voice was coming from. But none of the arai had spoken, their faces frozen like statues, eyes like marble, mouths unmoving. It was like a puppet show, he couldn't help but think, his grip tightening on the hilt of his sword. Puppets, all of them, controlled by some dark force unseen.

Nyx, maybe, he thought, a chill running down his spine at the thought of Raven's mother.

"Oh, I don't doubt it," Raven smirked, flipping her daggers in her hands. "What would the fun be in destroying you then?"

"We are the arai," the voice seethed, distorted yet clear at the same time. "We cannot be killed."

"All monsters can be killed," Nico replied, angling his sword as he braced himself for the onslaught. "I doubt you'll be much different."

Screeching laughter sounded through the trees, causing him to almost drop his sword in shock. Even Raven flinched, though her magic didn't flare. "A son of Hades!" the voice cackled in vicious amusement. "Oh, how Mother would delight in discovering yet another demigod pet our dear sister has found!"

There was a ripple of darkness and the sound of fluttering wings, and Nico had a terrible foreboding that one of the arai had just flown off to the House of Night.

Raven snarled in fury, confirming his fears, and her fangs glinted silver as she said, "Nico, we have to move."

"Alright," he replied, shifting his stance. Unconsciously, he reached for the pit of darkness in him, then realized it would do no good in Tartarus and making himself pass out in the middle of a forest filled with cursed hags would help no one. Blade it is then, he thought grimly as the grinning bat-ladies advanced.

They didn't make it a step further. Dozens of monsters literally disintegrated before his eyes, bursting into black smoke and red mist - blood, Nico realized with no small amount of terror. Gone, just like that. A black wind scented with death followed, obliterating the demons. Nico blinked again, feeling hope flutter in his chest. Sure, there were hundreds, but he had Raven by his side. Nearly an immortal herself, and if she'd managed to kill her way from one end of Tartarus to the other before, the arai, no matter how deadly, would surely be no trouble.

Then Raven stumbled, coughing, and spat out blood, which splattered on the pale ground in front of them, shining amber. Not human blood, not but ichor either. "Let me do most of it," she said, her voice steel even as blood stained her clothes, clotting as her own healing patched it up. "These are arai, spirits of curses. If you kill one, they give you a curse."