Ch. 151: Hades, Please… SAVE ME!!”
I sat comfortable on the seat and waited for Apollo to make his way to me. By my side stood Hecate and Aphrodite.
“Do you think the alliance will work?” Hecate asked me.
I looked at her and said. “You doubt my actions.”
Hecate looked at me in a quick glance and said. “It’s not that I doubt your decision, I’m just speculating that going up against these enemies. Poseidon, Apollo they might not be ready for it.”
“Hecate, I hate discouraging people, there’s no one I cannot handle.” I told her off with a glare.
“Apologies Lord Hades, I have angered you.” She said with a light bow.
I sighed, did she really always have to act like a machine all the time? I did not have to wait long till there was a knock on the door and just like that Apollo let himself in.
“Aphrodite why don’t you come and greet my by the door, what gives you the right to be defiant when you will end up as my woman.” As usual he had not lost his steam. He ce into the room fully to see us. His sights settled on me and so did his frown. “You? What is he doing here?”
Hecate’s aura started to leak out like fumes from a burning log. It appeared like purple mists of smoke. “You dare speak to my lord like that? I should cut your tongue!”
Apollo scoffed at her as he ran his hand down his air trying to inflate his ego before me. “You must be the so called assistant to Hades, you really are a work of beauty. I always thought you were a whore.”
“Apollo, you have business here?” Aphrodite cut him off with her sharp words.
He looked at her and smiled deeply. “Yes, I do. I have come to ask you to be my woman one last time. If you agree to it you will get to live alongside me as the perfect couple.”
I noticed someone standing next to him, a female, no— a goddess! She had dark red hair, I vaguely remembered seeing that hair but where? And who was that?
“And if I refuse as I have always done?” Aphrodite asked.
Apollo’s aura started to become stirred in his body as he spoke. “Let’s say a terrible fate will befall you, one I would not rather want you to partake in.”
From the way he spoke, Talos was right. It seemed he wamted to give Aphrodite a chance to avoice whatever they were planning to unleash on Olympus. But she would refuse.
Hecate sighed as if dismissing the rage she had pent up within. Aphrodite spoke again this time with disgust, “Is that why you brought Artemis? To goad me after you turned her against me.”
Artemis? The goddess of the hunt? I always thought she was more of a wilder card that preferred to be free, why was she even involved in all this fashion politics? Something was terribly off here.
Apollo started to advance towards with Artemis following behind like a dwindling shadow. Why did she move like a sould that could drop at any moment.
Apollo settled into the chair before us and said with a proud snort. “And what makes you say that? She hated you of her own accord.”
Aphrodite’s voice changed to something of rage which was an emotion she rarely portrayed. “You monster. Artemis was always close to me, an open spirit and now she’s your puppet. Artemis I don’t know what’s up with you but you have to snap out of it. How is he even controlling you.”
I looked at Artemis standing next to her twin brother. Compared to Apollo who seemed to radiate like the sun, she stood like a darkness of despair. Hecate trembled by my side, I was right something was off. I proceeded to sense the aura in her body and it was destabilizing and dying, no, she was dying.
Apollo laughed and said. “Artemis speak up and tell her how much you hate and despise her.”
As Artemis’ lips parted to speak Aphrodite lashed out. “Stop telling her what to do, she’s not your puppet. People just don’t go hating others for no reason, Artemis you were the freest god I knew in olympus. Whatever is wrong you can tell me, you can leave that piece of shit you have for a brother.”
Apollo smiled as the veins around his head bulged. “Watch your tongue goddess of love, we wouldn’t want to have your face damaged.”
Artemis broke the silence with a weak voice that seemed to come out of a empty husk. “I can’t… Leave him.”
“Why?” Aphrodite cried out with passion, I just sat there at the center of it all. “I never thought you would be afraid of anything. But whatever it is it will be okay because Hades is here, he can help you.”
I noticed her eyes peer up to look at mine, her red eyes lost and broken just like how Talos’ had been once before. I understood that feeling because I had experienced it once myself. The feeling of hopelessness.
Her eyes seemed to search mine for something desperately, was it hope or a plea for help or perhaps both? She stated at me for longer and the world seemed to still, then I felt the words she wanted to say in those eyes.
“Save me!”
I was not sure of how to handle this problem, I had never had to save a god from needing help.
“What is all this nonsense you’re ate talking about? Hades will save her? But she doesn’t need any saving.” Apollo opened his loud mouth to talk again.
I sighed.
I felt Hecate’s and Aphrodite’s eyes on me as I rose to my feet and set my sights on Artemis as I started to approach her slowly.
The air became silent as if resonating with my aura, in slow calculated steps in was soon before Artemis, I could see she was shivering just at the edges of her frame.
Even Apollo’s ego seems to deflate army pressure.
I opened my mouth to speak, “Answer this question. Does the name king of pranks mean anything to you?”
My question got me the response I expected. She raised her head and her eyes flickered open sharply as she looked at me as if I had just read her mind. “T– that’s what I call Hermes.”
I was right, back in the original timeline when Hermes had died. A goddess of dark red hair had said the same words, and her voice seemed to match with it. At first I doubted it was Artemis herself and now I was sure.
Apollo stood up and looked me in the face, “What are you doing to her?”
I landed a clean slap on his face and watched him get sent flying into as shelve of books nearby. The action seemed to surprise everyone but he had this coming for a long time. “Don’t ever look me in the eye you spoilt brat or I’ll break your neck.”
In that moment Artemis broke into tears and cried before me in a heartbreaking way, to see a goddess such as her cry was… Rather unsettling to me.
The words that came from her mouth a plea than a request. “Hades, please… SAVE ME!!” She dropped before me and cried her eyes out.
If I revive a magic castle I will mass release 10 chapters
