Chapter 686: The Gates
‘Girls! Are you alright? I felt your hearts drop!’
When Ayaana suddenly heard Bekka’s voice in their head, they temporarily stopped focusing on the large newcomer who had just arrived in the underworld.
‘We’re fine, you don’t need to worry about us. We just didn’t get the place closed off in time and some big bitch got through. It’s no big deal though.’ They dismissed.
‘R-Really? Are you sure you don’t need my help? I can come to you right now if-‘
‘Bekka, we are fine. Please just stay with our husband and get pregnant.’
‘D-Don’t say it like that!’
Ayaana chuckled to herself rather cutely and surprised everyone in the vicinity.
Especially Ms. Titan.
“You dare find humor in the presence of one of the twelve masters of the universe? For your discourtesy I will personally-“
Ayaana moved like a blur to appear in front of her unwelcome adversary.
Her fist sailed into the titan’s exposed stomach with the power and speed of a rocket ship.
She doubled over in clear surprise and ended up at eye level with Ayaana.
The empress wasted no time in jamming her fingers right into the eyes of the titaness; eliciting a rather unsightly scream.
“Aunt Themis!” Hades tried to run to the defense of his newly blinded family member.
A nightmarish black bident appeared within his grasp and he lunged at Ayaana from behind.
He came no closer than five feet to her before his weapon was knocked aside by a force he did not see coming.
The culprit was the same soldier in armor from before who had fired the arrow at him.
Judging by their diminutive frame, they were clearly a young boy who had yet to even come out on the other side of puberty.
But he was incredibly strong regardless.
“I can’t believe the Black Dragon would employ children in his army and lecture us gods on righteousness… How old are you, boy?”
Hades soon felt a sense of danger the likes of which he had only rarely experienced.
A horrifically cold sensation began to leave the body of the young ‘man’ in front of him that was so egregious that even Hades’ hands turned black.
It wasn’t until his adversary spoke that he realized his mistake.
“I. Am. A. GIRL!!!!!!”
A tidal wave of ice and frost left Mira’s flat chested body and whipped up into an impossibly thick snowstorm.
Though that was not nearly as impressive as watching every stretch of land in the underworld freeze over as if it were simple pond water.
Ayaana had mixed feelings about this sight because while they were proud of their daughter’s growth, Nyx did urge them on the use of restraint beforehand.
Valerie: ‘We’ll just let her feel up our husband a bit so she won’t scold us.’
Unsurprisingly, the girls nodded as if that were a fair consensus.
–
Abaddon and Bekka’s descent into the pit took a longer amount of time than they had expected.
They had begun to feel like they were falling for days. There was no light to guide them, and no cover to protect them.
Abaddon could hear Bekka’s heartbeat performing a rather rousing drum solo in her chest.
Her anxiety was so plainly obvious to him that he didn’t even need to use their connection to learn what was amiss with her.
‘Nothing will go wrong, my love. Our son will come home with us today.’ He comforted.
Bekka smiled wryly despite her inability to look at her husband.
‘I feel so anxiety ridden, my love. How well have our enemies prepared? What schemes and machinations have they devised to keep our family apart?’
‘There are no schemes that are sufficient enough to keep us from that which is ours. You must know this, dear.’
‘I do wish I could share that line of thinking, darling, but I am all too aware that we are not yet all powerful. Just because we have yet to fall into a trap of any sort, doesn’t mean that we are incapable of slipping.’
Abaddon started to open his mouth to assuage his beloved of her worries, but he soon lost the moment.
After an extended period of time spent plummeting through the endless black void, Abaddon’s eyes had finally picked up something that he had almost forgotten about.
Light.
A faint red glow could be seen hundreds of miles below their current position.
As they fell, the light continued to grow brighter and brighter until it filled their vision entirely.
The group ended up reaching a certain chamber of sorts.
The floor was comprised of glossy black rock that resembled volcanic stone, and the air stunk slightly of sulfur and old blood.
Misery was so palpable in the atmosphere that an empath like Nubia would have been extremely debilitated in this place.
Seemingly waiting for their arrival were a small army of Greek soldiers wrapped in golden armor and brandishing spears and shields.
In front of the army were three of the largest men Abaddon had ever seen.
Even if he didn’t have knowledge of a plethora of stories surrounding them, he would have still been able to recognize all three by their relatively telling appearances.
The biggest of the three was a man with deep olive skin who boasted an even more muscular physique than his general and friend Absalom.
Atlas.
Beside him was a titan with movie star good looks and hair made from sun fire. His body had a natural golden colored tint to it, and the soil he stood on seemed to wail underneath the heat he produced.
Hyperion.
The last was a man who, oddly enough, resembled Nyx to a degree. He had a black body with stars embedded into his skin, but they were all connected to form constellations.
Crius.
The men were in a sort of meditative sleeping state for a long while, but once they felt Abaddon and his forces arrive, their ancient bones creaked awake.
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
Abaddon, nor his adversaries seemed to be in much of a talking mood.
His three eyes looked past them drifted towards the structure that his enemies were guarding so fervently.
An absolutely enormous pair of double doors was bound tightly with thick metal chains aglow with magic.
Bekka felt her heart clench at the sight of what was to be her child locked up like a common criminal. She was sure that it had to be uncomfortable for him.
Bekka forgot about everything she considered unnecessary and flew towards the gates of Tartarus at breakneck speed.
She didn’t get very far before Atlas jumped into the air to block her path.
He cocked his mighty fist back like a machine gun and threw out a devastating punch.
Abaddon appeared in front of Bekka and caught the blow with only one hand.
Though he stopped the attack easily, Abaddon was quite surprised by the strength carried in the blow itself.
Atlas may very well have been as strong as Hajun.
But what else was to be expected from the titan who held up the mortal world?
Abaddon swiftly chopped the hulking titan in the side of the neck and knocked him away like a fly.
Even though the titan was smashed into the ground in a rather humiliating fashion, he was still able to get back up rather quickly.
This surprised Abaddon again, as he was sure he used enough strength to atleast break his neck.
‘It would seem he is tougher than I thought… How fun.’ Abaddon could certainly see why Atlas was chosen to guard the gates despite not being one of the twelve.
“Open up a path.”
With but a single order from Abaddon, the Euphrates sprung into action.
Kanami as always lead the charge from the back of her beast and let out a harrowing warcry.
She drew her weapon; an impossibly large greatsword that dwarfed even her brother in height.
Ordinarily she would have wielded her weapon like a lance and simply run through her enemy, but after watching Atlas’ short interactions with her brother, she knew her approach would need adjustments.
With a flick of her reigns, she spurred her locust on and circled the hulking Atlas.
She swung her sword with one hand as if it were as light as a feather; taking aim at Atlas’ legs, tendons, and ligaments.
His skin may have been tough, but Kanami’s weapon made from her brother’s scales was able to cut through it easily and draw a concerning amount of blood.
Eventually, Atlas became frustrated when he could not touch Kanami.
He raised both fists and let out a defiant roar and struck the ground at his feet.
An explosion rocked the cavern floor as a powerful shockwave rippled out.
Kanami was displaced from her assault and temporarily went airborne.
Atlas performed a surprisingly impressive show of speed and lunged for Kanami with both arms outstretched.
But since he could not fully reach her, he settled for wrapping his meaty hands around the neck of her locust and squeezing with all of his might.
A sad cracking sound filled the air; and watery tears dotted Kanami’s beautiful face.
“Noo!!”
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