RD 2 Ch 42-43

Chapter 42

I stepped into Persephone’s mind, observing a total mess.

The landscape was in shatters. She was slowly pulling herself back together, but I didn’t have time for slow.

Grabbing the pieces that were razor-sharp, I played a dangerous game of putting her back together. Like a jigsaw puzzle, only made of razor sharp glass that would cut through my soul.

After I made a space big enough to stand, Persephone herself wavered into place. “What are you doing? Oh, you were the new initiate they were all fussing over.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know my name. I’m helping you put yourself back together.”

“Uh-huh. No, this has to be another ploy.” She narrowed her eyes. “The next thing you’ll do is ask for Tartarus’ location.”

The demons had really messed with her. She wasn’t going to give it to me.

“Outside your soul, demons have attacked the clan and been successfully repelled. The second demon general held off the other elders while another powerful demon appears to have incapacitated you and invaded your soul.” I told her the score.

“You were let off island, though.” She watched me carefully.

“I’m back. On the way, I fought demons holding a perimeter around the clan and got a chance to interrogate them. Guess what I found out when someone didn’t come kill the demon I was working on?” I hummed at her with the mother of all glares.

The leader of Tartarus rolled her eyes. “I’m sure it’s a revelation, and somehow, you’ll blame me.” If anything, she seemed tired. “Go on, slander me. Tell me everything I’ve done wrong, and then toss me back into the depths of Tartarus.”

“Did Hades really trap you in there with pomegranate?” I asked.

She held her stomach and started laughing. Persephone kept laughing long enough that I was starting to think she had a psychotic break.

“No, he didn't tempt me to Tartarus with a pomegranate. Instead, it was the promise of power. Tartarus has an instance like the one in the Coliseum that is permanently open. Those of us in Tartarus have grown strong continuing to fight inside that instance.”  Persephone took a deep breath, still steadying herself.

Sometimes getting someone to talk was the first step in getting information out of them. “So, you were lured into being the leader of Tartarus?”

“Of course, I was lured. Do you think anyone would want to be trapped in that place for eternity?” Persephone said.

“But you aren't trapped. Given that you left Tartarus to come to the clan proves that,” I said while trying to see if the reflection in any of the floating shards would tell me more.

They were a jumble of images just as scattered as the woman herself. I was going to have to put her together more to get anything useful out of her.

“Going and coming from that place is incredibly difficult.” She snorted. “Not to mention the maze. The phase of the moon has to be just right, too. I can get out if I really want to, but I have to get back before too long.”

I leaned forward. “Wait, the phase of the moon? This thing is time-gated?” That just might be our saving grace.

“Duh. The barriers put in place around that… thing are intense.” She frowned.

“You mean the Hell Gate Anchor?” I summoned an image of one I recalled from my past life into her soul. This one had already terraformed the land around it into a dark desert-like landscape.

She blinked at the image. “You’ve seen one?”

“A few.” I waffled my head. “It’s what demons use when they eventually invade this world. Those stones are what demons can use to find this world before any others even know we exist.”

She snorted a laugh and fell back onto the patch of grass that had been expanding from where she stood. “You believe in that ridiculous prophecy. Old men and old beasts scared of their own shadows. Demons are parasites that should be eradicated like a dangerous disease. Nothing more, nothing less. Don’t turn the cancer that they are into some conspiracy theory.”

“Well then.” I clicked my tongue. “Know the demons that are around are all very interested in that big black disk you have. It doesn’t matter what you think if the big demons are coming out of hiding to get it, and they put a whole network of spies underneath our clan to find it.”

She cackled. “I knew I couldn’t trust anyone with the secret of Tartarus.”

“Congratulations. Your paranoia was well deserved. Now, demons have come in, mentally invaded you, and know where Tartarus is,” I told her.

“Nope. They couldn’t crack me.” She grinned.

I stared around at the fragments around me. “Pretty sure they did even if you didn’t tell them. Look here.” I pointed at a shard playing some memory from Tartarus. “Your soul isn’t always entirely under your conscious control.”

She stared at the shard, and the images playing flickered away. “Fixed.”

“Look at all the others.” I gestured around her. “By doing what they did to you, they made it impossible to control all of this. Then the demon interrogated you. While you think they got nothing, I guarantee they watched these shards closely and got what they wanted. Outside, the one who had you fled along with the second demon general. Who, by the way, held off Zeus, Herc, and Circe.”

Her frown deepened. “He’s that strong?”

“A very big parasite. Anyway, if the entry is based on the phase of the moon, my only question is what phase? I might be able to let you recover and talk to the other branch leaders outside your soul for the location.” My eyes glanced at some of the shards.

“You’re doing the same thing the demon did, aren’t you?” She accused me.

“Since this is fairly important, yes. I’m going to use all the tools at my disposal.” I leaned over her.

She snorted, sitting up. “You talk a big game. What if you are doing this for some nefarious purpose as well?”

“That’s the hardest part about life. You never know the entire picture. Instead, you do the best with what you do know, and if you need certain information to make an informed decision, you acquire it through any means necessary. Do you understand the position you are in now?” I grabbed her by the throat and made her understand how much stronger my spirit was than hers.

In the current state of her soul, the number of tricks she could pull was so very limited.

She laughed in my face. “Whatever you do to me can’t be worse than being trapped in that hell for thousands of years. I took a chance on getting out this once.”

I shook my head. She was a little loony. But I had one more question to ask her. “You seem pretty knowledgeable. Who poisoned my mother?” I knew that anchor had scrying abilities, it also fit with her using them based on how much she knew what was going on at the Heros Clan despite being trapped in Tartarus.

She was shocked by the sudden shift in topic. Her eyes went wide, and the fragments of her soul were not well controlled enough to hide the face that appeared in them.

“So you do know.” I chuckled. “I wondered if that was why you swept her away. It felt a little overdone like you were trying to hide something. What’s her name?”

“I don’t know.” Persephone’s fragments actually corroborated that one. “Just an obviously fake name. With the disk, I can spy outside Tartarus. It’s the little entertainment I have in that damned place. She paid to have your mother poisoned.”

“Who did the poisoning, and why are you protecting them?” I grabbed her and handled her roughly enough that she couldn’t focus on controlling her thoughts.

The image shifted to none other than my grandfather.

Persephone screamed, and this time she fought me for real, the shards of her soul trying to slash me to pieces.

“What the fuck?” I managed to dodge her clumsy attempt. “Why are you protecting…” I trailed off as I saw more images in the shards.

It painted a very strange, twisted picture.

“You…” I lost my anger.

“Shut up! Get out of my soul.” She thrashed, and more shards tried to chase me down.

This attempt was less clumsy, but I was able to drop around the growing patch of grass she was on and come up on the other side.

“Should I call you Mawmaw, or perhaps you’d prefer Mimi?” I dodged more shards.

“Shut up. You can’t let anyone know that I snuck one of my children outside of Tartarus!” She tried to catch me, but the attempts to hurt me weren’t that real.

I, meanwhile, was laughing so hard I nearly fell into some of the shards. “Wait, wait. I need to get this full story. Doesn’t that make me your grandson with a few greats before it, of course.”

“A reckless, foolish grandson who doesn’t have the slightest clue of what’s good for him!” She tried to cage me in with the shards of her soul. “Do you realize how much effort I’ve put into trying to discretely bring your mother to Tartarus?!”

I was actually decently pinned in at this point and forced to listen to her.

Well, I could probably escape her soul if I had to.

“I lived this life once before, in timeline that she died. I saw her body. You actually let her die.”

Persephone pointed at me. “Do you have a blind spot, child? Why would there be a body? She’s initiated.” She rolled her eyes.

I frowned. “Because of the poison, her stats were taken away. That’s why the system didn’t reclaim it.”

Persephone shook her head. “Not sure enough to know if such a situation would be true. But, in this case, I can guarantee that I already had a fake body ready to swap with her when she got close. She actually has potential, unlike your grandfather, the waste of a human that he is. He went so far as to poison his own fucking daughter for money.” Persephone shrugged. “Oh well, I saw that and made my plans.”

My brows pressed together deeper. “This makes no sense.”

“Only because you have plenty of preconceived notions getting in your way.” Persephone shrugged. “Her father poisoned her, and I saw it and made plans to abduct her.”

“Why leave me?” I asked.

She frowned. “I don’t know. If you’ve really experienced another timeline, then what you say is the truth, but it isn’t the present reality. I can no better guess as to what happened than you can. In fact, you can probably make better guesses than me. To be fair, I didn’t know about you until recently.”

“So you believe I’m Bran and not a demon now?” I asked.

“Well, you might be a demon who’s heavily invested in my family drama. Can’t really hurt to tell you unless you are there to steal the movie rights from me.” She laughed. “Oh. It feels a little good to get off my chest. Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus, the original, had very strict rules for me.”

“They are dead,” I pointed out.

“They may be, but the shackles they put around me are not.” She shook her head. “I am very much a prisoner. If Zeus or Hercules knew how to, they’d tie me back down today rather than let me run around right now. That I got a child out broke a lot of the rules. That I came out to get Elle now that my other plan failed broke more.”

My own thoughts trailed off.

If she was breaking these rules and getting on the radar of the Demon Lord, had she then been forced to break some of them for another reason in the first timeline? I wanted to latch onto that and say I wasn’t just left behind or forgotten.

However, there might not be an easy answer.

“Okay. Well, it doesn’t change the facts, Mimi,” I chided her.

Her eyes nearly rolled out of her head. “Which facts would those be?”

“That demons now know where Tartarus is and how to get to it,” I said.

“The labyrinth shifts. It opens on this end on the full moon only and on the other end on the night of the new moon only. Each day, the labyrinth changes. Why was I picked for Tartarus? Because I’m fast enough to scout the maze. But even then when I try, I’m often stuck in the maze for three or four months before I get lucky enough to find the exit.” She pouted.

“Why go back?” I would get out of there and never come back.

“They tied me to the stupid thing.” Persephone huffed.

Ah. I recalled several of the gates had guardians who stayed at the anchor and were somehow connected to it. “You get weaker the longer you are away?”

“Yes.” She narrowed her eyes on me.

“I know quite a lot about those stones. When you wake up and can talk to the other leaders, come find me. I think I can untether you from that anchor. Actually, I’m probably the best option apart from the Demon Lord himself in figuring those out.” I chuckled.

“You’re done questioning me?” she asked.

I nodded at the shards continuing to gather underneath her. “Gave your soul the jump start it needed.”

During the whole conversation, the platform she’d been standing on was collecting more and more fragments, growing larger. She’d be awake in a few days.

“I’ll talk to you in the real world later, Grandma.” Laughing as the shards closed in on me, I exited her soul, still laughing.

Chapter 43

“What’s so funny?” Circe asked.

I blinked the sun out of my eyes and sat up. “She’s funnier than she lets on,” I said. “Alright, I didn’t get the location of Tartarus. However, she will wake up in forty-eight hours or so. She did tell me that the entrance requires the full moon. At least from this side. How long do we have?” I looked to Simone who already had her phone out to check.

“Three weeks,” Simone reported.

“Wonderful.” I levered myself off the ground.

Nyx was beside me in an instant, helping me up while her snakes swarmed me, checking every nook and cranny. And there were many nooks and crannies since I’d lost a good chunk of my clothes. They had resized with me when I transformed but barely survived the conflict.

“So. We have three weeks, assuming that Persephone will tell us when she wakes up.” Circe clicked her tongue. “At least we can clean the clan up and rally them. Tartarus cannot fall. It was always designed to ensure that the clan survived even the greatest of disasters.”

“Well, its foundation is the greatest disaster humanity will ever face. So, that kind of failed.” Simone put her phone away. “Now. Unless you are going to do anything with Bran, I’m taking him back and taking care of him.”

“There are things we can do to help.” I looked out over the clan’s islands.

Simone sighed. “Fine. However, we’re both sticking with you.”

“It might be best that you leave the repair of the clan to the branches,” Circe offered.

“Alright. Then, as a member of Odyssey, what are my orders? I’m good for any physical labor. I’m actually a pretty decent mason, but my real skill lies in inscriptions.” Flashing her a big smile, I folded my arms behind my back and stood at ease.

There were more times than I cared to count when I just fell into the rank and file when it came to situations like this. After all, as someone who eschewed management, I wasn’t more than a skilled hand sometimes.

Circe sighed. “I can’t turn down the help. Please help by clearing the rubble from the two residential islands. By the time that’s done, I should have more orders for you.”

I gave her a sloppy salute. “On it. Come on, you two.” I grabbed Nyx’s arm, and Simone was quick to slide onto the other.

Circe shook her head and scooped up Persephone before flying away on the wind.

“What’s wrong with her?” Nyx asked, her snakes turning towards me like they were waiting for me to answer.

“She can’t understand Bran,” Simone said from my other side.

“I just think it’s important to help. Some of these people lost everything, including their loved ones. There’s really no other motive. Humanity’s recovery is built upon the helping hands of others.” I felt strongly about that fact.

Years and years of hardship that started even before the Rapture were best cured by rolling up sleeves and helping. People were worn down.

I had seen it when Vein City was surprised. The Nesters had started handing out food about a month into the Rapture without any strings attached.

Well, they had been trying to improve their image, but that’s a fairly harmless motive.

“It’s not like we are wallflowers.” Nyx flexed her arm, which wasn’t really that impressive, but she could probably bench a car in reality.

“Of course not. You’ll both do great. I’m interested in seeing how effective Nyx is at this. That tail gives some options Simone and I don’t have.” I chuckled.

***

“Why is this so hard?” Nyx was laid out on the ground in one curvy line. “I can’t make it back.” She reached weakly for the stairs of Circe’s palace.

“Labor is hard work. Doesn’t matter if you have stats or not. There’s something particularly exhausting about lifting heavy objects over and over.” I rubbed my shoulder.

“Just a little farther, and we’ll get you to soak in the bath,” Simone offered Nyx and healed her.

But her exhaustion was not physical, for the most part.

Most of their exhaustion was mental from seeing the destruction and getting their hands dirty in solving it. Staying busy was best, but after slowing down, that mental load tended to hit like a brick over the head.

“Come on.” I gathered up some of her tail and then hoisted her torso over my shoulder.

There was just too much as some of her tail was dragging, but those scales were tough enough to slither. They could manage being dragged.

“Ah. He’s carrying me.” Her snakes kissed my cheek.

“Are you a princess now?” I teased.

“Could be. If I get carried everywhere.” She bonelessly lounged on me. Her skin was surprisingly soft.

Maybe it was the snake half biasing me, but I didn’t expect it to feel so soft.

There were my new servants waiting for us at the entrance. They were clean, but their nails were rough and chipped like they’d been doing manual labor all day.

Good for them.

“The palace is sheltering a lot of new people. Circe had us move Nyx’s things into your room.” They dipped their heads to me.

Nyx squawked in surprise. “You moved me in with him?”

“Just temporarily while we work to shelter everyone displaced by the battle.” One servant looked hesitantly at the others, quietly asking if they’d done something wrong.

“That’s fine. We all have to make sacrifices in these situations.”

“Sacrifices?” Nyx murmured.

“Don’t worry. We’ll make you nice and comfortable, won't we, Bran?” Simone nudged me.

“Right. Right.” I nodded my head dutifully, not sure what I’d missed. In fairness, I was tired too from the labor. My mind was a little numb. “To the baths. I desperately need to be cleaned off.”

My payload started to wiggle and squirm. “Put me down. I can do the rest myself.”

I shrugged and strode to the side of the baths quickly, stripping down and taking a towel from a servant as they swept away the tatters I called my clothes.

The bath welcomed me with a pleasant warmth that seeped slowly into my muscles. I made a mental note that I needed to get myself something like this in Gloria’s new fortress. Who was I kidding? The mafia princess would have all the pampering things she wanted. Though, perhaps not something quite so communal.

I pulled out the rockie-talkie and gave it a squeeze, missing my mafia princess.

“Hello,” Gloria answered.

“Missed you,” I said simply.

“Then get your ass back here.” She laughed. “I’m in the bath.”

“Me, too. However, I think mine is more communal. Simone and Nyx are joining me here in a moment,” I said.

“No funny business in the bath.”

“Too tired for that,” I admitted. “The clan was attacked by demons today. It seems Tartarus has something they shouldn’t have, and the demon lord is putting forth some serious efforts to retrieve it. We have time, but I’m probably going to be at least another month.”

There was a long pause on the other end. “I know this was going to take some time. But I want you back.”

“I want to be back. Half tempted to drag you out here.”

She sighed. “We both know that I can’t. The logistics for trying to rush this fortress are insane. Even with my people and the Mul Branovas, I’m working every second that your father isn’t training me.”

“You can tell him that I went to the bottom of the Ionian Sea and now have a forge with an SS fire elemental in it that I’ll use for the next part,” I said.

“He’ll be happy to learn that. Learning that you have a Titan bloodline has made him almost have a skip to his step. I think it has something to do with him being ejected from his clan.” Gloria made a very particular kind of grunt.

I smirked. “Love you.”

“You’re going to have to remind me of that when you get back.” She let out another of those particular grunts. “Lots. Take me out on dates. Woo me again.”

“Promise. If I end up doing Vincent’s vault, you will be coming with, too. I don’t want to be separated from you this long again.” I was growing oddly attached to people this go around. Perhaps it was the secrets I’d shared with her or that she’d become such an important part of my plans—and thus, my life.

“Holding you to that.” There was a slight shudder in her voice and a sigh at the end.

“Hi, Gloria.” Nyx spoke louder than she needed to as she got into the bath.

“She sounds young,” Gloria said, a little bitchy.

“She is young.” Simone slid in on the other side of the rock and took it from me to hold it. “Bran made us do manual labor for most of the day. You should come.”

Gloria chuckled. “Actually, I’m pretty happy that I’m not there. Manual labor doesn’t suit me. I’m more of a supervisor type.”

“Aww. Don’t be like that. Bran took off his shirt and lifted hunks of stone for like five hours. I’m exhausted from helping, but it was well worth it.” Simone purred.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. The shirt had been in rags and was getting in my way.

“It was quite the show. Really motivated a lot of the ladies working,” Nyx added.

Gloria grunted on the other end.

“Again?” I teased.

“A girl’s gotta get her release somehow. When her man is off gallivanting shirtless in front of others, he can’t judge her taking care of herself.” She huffed.

I laughed and leaned back in the bath. Laughter really was the best medicine. Seeing all the death and destruction today even made me feel a touch of numbness. Even if I’d seen it before, it never stopped affecting me. “Enjoy yourself.” My eyes rose as Circe walked into the bath with a towel, her hair a touch darker from the soot.

“Welcome, Bran.” Circe nodded.

More than a few passing bathers avoided my bath and cast double-takes at me even before Circe joined me. But more gave me looks of respect with her acknowledgment.

I felt the attitude shift towards me in the clan today.

Not just here but also during our work people recognized me and gave me a wide berth.

“Is that your other lover?” Circe asked.

“Another?!” Gloria sighed. “Who’s this?”

“Circe,” she said.

“Like the myth? You seduced Odysseus?” Gloria asked.

Circe laughed. “Yes and no. Yes, I have some very old stories with my name. No, I never seduced Odysseus. He was my father. My mother did the seducing, but as time went on, a lot of her actions were attributed to me because I stood out as a more powerful player.”

“You should set the record straight.” Gloria huffed.

“Anyway.” Circe clearly didn’t love that topic. “I was wondering if there would be accommodations for me if I went to Vein City in the near future. It wouldn’t just be me. I’d be bringing a small team of elites.”

Gloria was quiet for a moment like she was checking on something. “Yeah, I can put you up somewhere for the interim. There’ll be plenty of room at the fortress when we get it made. You are coming to Vein City?”

“The Elders think that Bran can handle himself for the most part but want to make sure we are keeping an eye open around him so that he’s not surprised by those with far more resources.” Circe closed her eyes and relaxed in the water as if she were talking about the weather.

I did an internal fist pump. After this was over, I was going back to Vein City without them trying to keep me on the island.

“Plus, we’d like to hunt instances in the Americas. After today, the Heros Clan is going to be like a bear waking from hibernation and filling its stomach,” Circe said.

“Oh.” Gloria didn’t quite know what to say. “We are hosting Thorin, too. Hopefully, that’s not an issue.”

“It won’t be,” Circe promised. “Good. I’ll make plans to travel back with Bran. We need him for a little longer. I hope you understand.”

“I both understand and hate it.” Gloria didn’t beat around the bush. “When you get here, I’d love to put a face to a name. Alright, Bran, no more ladies before you get back.”

“I promise.”

“Says the honey pot to the flies.” Gloria sighed. “Come back soon.”

I blew her a kiss. “Love you. Miss you. I’ll be back soon.”

“Me, too.” The rockie-talkie clicked off.

There was probably some ground to retake with her when I got back. We had just started to get back on solid footing, and she accepted the engagement for real before I left.

Yet, it seemed she wasn’t one to deal with long-distance well.

Putting the rock away, I turned to Circe. “So, then, what are the plans for the future?”

“We’ll wait for Persephone to recover, but she won’t get out of this without telling us where Tartarus is. The clan will move discreetly with an elite force. Yes, you can come.” She sighed. “I don’t like bringing you, but you’ve shown yourself to be incredibly resourceful, and we’ll need someone capable with inscriptions to assist in dealing with the Hell Gate Anchor—as you called it.

“Until we can enter the labyrinth, the goal is to simply rebuild stronger than ever. We lost four hundred clan members today. More than anything, these people need something to work towards. And we need those who survived to grow. Part of establishing a secondary base in the Americas is to fuel that motivation with more instances.”

I nodded along to that. It was a good decision with the current situation.

But everything was dependent on us successfully defending Tartarus.

I had a few weeks to get as much strength as I could.