Chapter 115: The Ticking Clock
Chapter: 115
-{Artemis}-
Artemis had always been curious as to how bearing a weight, however enormous, could be a punishment for the Titan of Endurance.
It was conceptual.
Not quite crushing but not quite manageable either. Just enough to keep you forced under a weight you could just about handle at the edge of your limit.
This was probably something that only a divine being could withstand. She’d been holding it for days now, if her divine mind had managed to keep up with the crawl that had become time.
Her eyes erratically scanned her surroundings for the thousandth time. Desperate to notice anything different.
Gray stone came to form a natural platform at its peak. What was once a mighty building had been destroyed. Broken columns lay scattered across the clearing. Some stood upright, others toppled and half-buried in dirt.
Shattered archways framed sections of the plateau.
At the center, she was still alone, holding up the weight of the sky.
Broken statues dotted the area. A hand here. A torso there. Faces weathered beyond recognition.
Wind freely blew across the area and Artemis stared holes into the backs of the two Titans that stood at a large desk nearby, covered with a large—but slightly outdated—map.
Her eyes closed once again.
Kronos had tricked her.
She shouldn’t have been hunting the Ophiotaurus. Following the trail on her own had been stupid. He’d successfully isolated her from the rest of the world when she was about to shoot her arrow.
It had confused her. Why didn’t he take the chance to kill her in her divine form? There had never been a better chance than that. It wouldn’t even have been hard, especially with his... powers. It hasn’t made sense right up until she had been forced to take Atlas’ burden.
And in an almost mocking manner, they had both made Mount Tamalpais theirs once more. Freely using it as a stronghold. Allowing Ladon to become a guard and technically taking control of the Divine Tree.
With the capture of her mother, what could she even do?
The Titaness was bound in powerful chains. She was unconscious, her gentle features contorted in a slight grimace that looked out of place on her otherwise regal face.
The weight shifted with her, maintaining that perfect terrible pressure, maybe increasing again. She didn’t notice.
He still wore a hood, covering the features of the avatar he had taken. The hood barely covered his armoured form, his arms both covered in thick plated gauntlets.
"Having a hard time?" He asked, his tone amused.
The taller form of Atlas behind him sent her a brief glance, full of apathy, before refocusing on the large map they were looking at.
She had only caught snippets of their conversations, but even what she had heard didn’t bode well.
Atlas was already immensely powerful. His release would cause serious problems.
It wouldn’t be easy, but the Titans were Titans, beings of power greater than Olympians. Depending on how far they got without being noticed, especially with this mysterious group backing them up, this could be really bad.
Why had Zeus allowed such a thing to even exist?!
Forcing the Titan of Endurance to hold up the sky for eternity was the only thing soothing his bruised ego from his defeat to him. He hadn’t expected to lose to Atlas, and had appreciated the ’interference’ of Hades even less.
As if mocking her thoughts, her shoulders burned even more.
Zeus was probably embroiled in some dispute with Poseidon and Hades. Her father had a talent for picking fights with his brothers when actual threats loomed just over the horizon, oh so worried that one of his more competent brothers might take over for good.
Apollo didn’t know yet. Her twin brother was off somewhere, likely charming mortals or writing terrible poetry that posed as much threat as his arrows if anyone actually heard it.
As for saving her? She could only place her trust in a Goddess to solve this.
... But would she be fast enough?
Kronos sighed. "You children."
"You understand your chances of succeeding are little to none, correct?" Artemis couldn’t help but bite out, not enjoying his patronising tone.
Artemis’ fiery emotions flared.
Her annoyance grew when Kronos remained unperturbed.
Artemis didn’t deem him worthy of a response. Not when her own anger was burning so harshly.
"You’re blaming it on Fate?" Artemis replied with exasperation, mixed with baleful mockery. "And here you are, calling me a child. I thought you were the all-powerful Primordial born Titan King? You sound a lot more like a child than me."
"Fate is powerful, you foolish granddaughter of mine. Perhaps, it’s one of the strongest forces out there. It doesn’t always come with an overwhelming display of might." Kronos chided, still calm. "Sometimes it chips away at your foundation, giving a large advantage to your enemy when you least expect it. It forges betrayals, and then takes away your sight. In the end, Fate is a fickle mistress."
His hand clenched and burning orange energy flared from his gauntlet, an immense amount of power making her skin shiver.
The world moved and time flowed around them, the old building beginning to repair itself. The building that had looked so old and worn turned into a mighty fortress once more.
Artemis felt a profound shock at the display of... power. If this was his Avatar...
-{Kai}-
A large domineering mountain in front us, one we all started at.
The peak disappeared into mist that hung too still, too thick to be natural and even from the base I could feel the impressive protections layered around the mountain.
Percy squinted up the mountain. "Is this the right place?"
Zoe’s jaw tightened.
"With all the information we hold, this is most likely where she is being held captive," Annabeth replied. "Unfortunately, none of the people we interrogated in the Labyrinth seemed aware of anything useful." Annabeth’s gray eyes moved across the terrain in quick sweep.
Zoe grimaced and the three hunters with her outright scowled.
Zoe shot him a glare.
"I doubt the Olympians would be amused." I commented idly. "It’s a good plan to fall back on though."
Percy joined me, easing the slight amount of tension that had formed.
[Quest]
Description: The goddess Artemis has vanished. Whispers speak of a terrible fate, a weight no mortal should bear, a curse older than Olympus itself.
Seek the Mountain of Despair, where fruit once grew, and Titan’s held the heavens. There, beneath the weight of stars, the Huntress fades."
Bonus Objective: ???
Bonus Reward: ?
The barriers hit me in waves.
Michael shifted beside me, eyes moving across the sky for a brief moment, his eyes having taken on that distant quality.
"It’s to be expected with what it holds." Annabeth replied. "The Apples were a gift from Gaia herself."
Hmm, how to go about this...
We couldn’t leave it open.
I smiled and nodded.
Annabeth seemed to agree. "So if they are with the Khaos Brigade, reinforcements won’t be able to come help them as quickly."
A tree erupted from the rocky soil, roots cracking through stone as they spread deep into the mountain. The trunk thickened. Twenty feet. Then thirty.
A mimic of a tree from the Garden Of Eden.
I whispered the incantation Frieren had taught me. The spell linked my power to the tree’s life force, creating a buffer that would absorb sound and suppress energy signatures.
The spell was perfect for me though.
My Rinnegan activated and my hand closed.
Percy chuckled nervously. "I see you’ve got some new tricks, why’d you stop?"
It was a disk of Arcsteel spiralling into the centre of a small crystal, that crystal being Mithril.
With it already set up, I wrote one more word to direct the already set-up device. I channeled its focus on an explosion whenever someone passed by it.
When finished, I place it in the crevice.
"Just deciding to leave a little trap and warning for anyone trying to follow us." I smiled innocently.
"Then we’ll pray for their loss." Percy snickered.
Annabeth smiled, her worries placated.
"So, what is thy plan?" Zoe broke the silence first. "I presume you have something in mind."
"Should we assume Lady Artemis is being held up there?" She asked.
Part of me wanted to move now. Michael, Mahoraga, Galadriel, and me. We had the firepower to punch through whatever defenses they’d set up and take the mountain by force.
But the incident with Pan still lingered on my mind. That moment of helplessness, as corruption clawed at my soul before I could even react.
I pulled my mask from my coat and settled it over my face. The enchantments activated immediately, smothering my magical presence. I layered my own concealment over it, suppressing what remained until I was little more than a blur.
Percy squinted his eyes and Annabeth looked at me curiously.
"It’s best if I go ahead and scout, I’ll have a better view with my eyes and ability to conceal myself." I said confidently, my voice anonymous and fading within the wind like vapour.
"I’m aware, I won’t go far." I met his eyes through the mask. "I only want to see who we are up against, getting a sense of their numbers and positions before we commit."
The cost of being too powerful was ironically a higher tendency to end up in shitty situations.
I sighed internally. Even though he knew how he wasn’t making sense, he probably didn’t care.
The Rinnegan would allow me to see through her eyes.
Galadriel poked her head up adorably.
"We will, but we will still get a while before we are sensed. That will allow us to get the drop on them and mess up whatever they’re doing." I replied evenly. "We don’t need to fight fairly to retrieve the Goddess and while I wouldn’t mind fighting whoever is involved, we don’t know if they’re our enemies."
Michael obviously knew this, but still remained stubborn.
I could tell the situation with Pan wasn’t helping my case.
"Very well," Michael said finally. His voice carried an edge that made it clear this was a concession, not agreement. "But if you are not back within ten minutes, I am coming after you."
Percy gritted his teeth. "Seriously?"
"While that’s nice, don’t underestimate my ability to remain hidden." I replied with a roll of my eyes behind the mask.
"I agree with the girl." Zoe protested. "This may prove more endangering than simply pushing forward in an overwhelming wave."
I suppressed my power until it was barely a whisper and bent the light around my body, blurring my outline against the rocky terrain.
The upper slopes were empty. No patrols on the ancient steps that wound toward the peak. Which soon entered my gaze in the form of a grand gateway before me, flanked by walls of black stone.
The Garden of the Hesperides greeted my sight.
Trees lined the space in careful rows, but one stood apart from the rest. Larger and older with golden light filtered through its branches, heavy with fruit that gleamed like captured sunlight.
Divine power radiated from each one, thick enough to taste on my tongue.
I eyed the Tree with a hint of greed.
’Appraisal.’
The Tree of the Hesperides is a sacred gift from Gaia to Hera upon her marriage to Zeus.
{Divine Properties}
Primordial Roots - Drawing power directly from Gaia’s essence, the tree’s roots anchor it to the fundamental forces of creation. The soil around it is infused with a primordial divine energy, an energy that predates the Olympians.
Apples of Immortality - A golden fruit from the gardens beyond time. Each bite grants permanent enhancement to the consumer’s lifeforce and ability to recover. Legend says that those who consume an entire apple may transcend their mortal limitations entirely.
{Special Attributes}
Eternal Bloom - The tree doesn’t adhere to the flow of time. Its fruit ripens eternally, never rotting, never falling unless plucked by hand.
Why anyone wouldn’t have this protected was beyond me.
That’d be Ladon.
Around the creature, a formation had been carved into the earth.
I spent a few seconds looking at the formation with a hint of caution, only to relax as I found out what it was.
That came with a lot of information.
A woman. Her lower body coiled beneath in massive loops, scales the color of dried blood catching the golden light.
Her features were sharp, predatory, with eyes that were an ominous shade of yellow. She was wearing armor across her chest and shoulders, bronze plates worked with images of monsters.
{Name: Echidna}
{Race: Dracaena (Elder)}
Not weak, but not the real threat here either.
It took me a few minutes of scanning the area and I almost continued without seeing them.
Appraisal showed most of them to be in the Mid-class.
I mapped their positions, then moved along.
Massive walls of black marble climbed toward the sky, gleaming and whole. Towers jutted from the corners, their peaks lost in the unnatural mist. Banners hung from the battlements, fabric so dark it seemed to drink the light.
I circled wide, staying below the sight lines of the walls. I found an angle that let me see into the central courtyard. I finally found a figure. Through an open window giving way to a large grand room that had a massive space in the middle, circled with white stone.
Above her shoulders, she held an orb.
Most of all, it didn’t fit the image of a large bulky man that was in my mind for Atlas.
{Name: Artemis}
{Race: God}
So Atlas was free.
My hands clenched, eyes drifting towards the quest. You better be worth it, me-damn it!
The window was easily accessible, as if someone breaching it hadn’t even been thought about when it was made. Probably due to some magical defences that were no longer present.
I could get her right now... The temptation to move now, to grab her and run, tugged at me.
But I held off.
I didn’t know where Atlas was and I didn’t know where the person who had freed him was either, though I did have an idea of who would be interested in doing that.
I sighed and nodded.
Having a Super-class Angel at my back wasn’t the worst of situations.
{Name: Kai}
{STR: 437
{VIT: 308
{CHA: 50
Yet... It still wasn’t enough.
The gap between us wasn’t small. It was a chasm and while I could confidently fight beings stronger than me that only went up to a certain degree.
But it had limits.
It wasn’t much. But it was more than I’d had before and I couldn’t blame the lack of power increase since the name said it itself.
My thoughts progressed, thinking about it as I silently observed the area.
I dismissed my mask as I rejoined the group.
Michael was waiting exactly where I’d left him.
"So?" Percy asked immediately. "Are we going to die a gruesome death?"
"I cannot allow that to happen." Zoe declared.
I watched the scene with amusement.
"Echidna?!"
The words were said with a hint of anticipation.
Zoe’s expression darkened. "What of Lady Artemis?"
Zoe’s jaw tightened. "The sky."
Percy looked between us. "So the big bad Titan is free and frolicking here?"
Zoe’s hands clenched at her sides. "Then we must act swiftly. Lady Artemis must be under a lot of weight if she hath been forced to hold such a burden."
"Dost thou have a plan?" Zoe asked impatiently.
Percy and Annabeth offered suggestions while Zoe interjected with knowledge of the mountain’s layout from her time as a Hesperide. The three hunters remained silent but attentive.
By the time we finished, everyone understood their role, even if many of them were a little discontent with the plan I had come up with.
How was I going to free Artemis?
"It’s for the best, realistically there’s a chance we get attacked by a powerful being. The likes of which neither Michael or myself will be holding back against."
"Then improvise." I smiled slightly. "Then retreat and we will gather a few miles away from here."
Michael and I separated from the group, moving to a rocky outcropping that offered some privacy.
I thought over the admittedly good plan. It would save us from combat, but a part of me also didn’t want to shy away. This was part of attacking the Khaos Brigade after all.
Our little group walked away and the moment we were alone, Michael’s demeanor shifted.
I sighed. "I know."
"Whatever happened to him reeked of demonic power and I should have been more careful." I frowned with a hint of annoyance, not at Michael but myself for still being so far down on the scale.
"It’s not only that and it’s hardly fair to compare such a thing." Michael’s voice dropped lower. "But It’s not something I haven’t seen before."
Then I slapped my forehead.
"Then what is it?" I asked. "I know it’s some sort of curse on Pan... since it didn’t feel right. I have a feeling whatever woke up wasn’t a God."
I hadn’t missed the sloth part in my appraisal, that along with the cursed status was something to be considered.
"It has something to do with sins, right?" I voiced my thoughts. "When he had briefly attacked I had felt my body slacken. And he had tried to do something with my soul..."
"Yes, you’re correct, it’s heavily tied to the infamous Seven Sins." Michael said. "There was more to the sins than just being outlawed for those under you. They were the domain of Demons. The true kind, not the devils that many younger beings seem to believe."
Domains like Gods?
And most of all, didn’t that mean they could use that to influence beings who partook in that?
"This is probably something we should talk about after," I said slowly.
I wanted to ask more. The questions burned in my mind. What were the other sins? How many hosts existed? What happened to the original demons? And why was Michael assuming I knew anything about "the marked ones"?!
"Later," I said firmly.
I shrugged. "At worst we have to fight. I’m only doing this in an attempt to avoid unnecessary violence and save ourselves some time."
"Yeah, more like the whole of Heaven." I said with an equally amused smile. It was sweet that he thought I wasn’t including him in my statement.
The ascent was faster this time. We knew the route, knew where the wards were weakest.
We reached the garden’s edge in time to see Percy and the others slip through the lower entrance. From our elevated position, I watched Echidna rise from her throne, yellow eyes narrowing at the disturbance below.
"Intruders," she hissed, loud enough to carry.
I watched on without a hint of care.
While chaos erupted in the garden below, Michael and I rose higher, entering the fortress.
Michael went through first, his sword already in hand. I followed with Galadriel coiled around my neck and Mahoraga’s presence hovering at the edge of my awareness.
We moved through the halls quickly, following the path I’d memorized.
Artemis was exactly where I’d seen her.
Her hair hung lank around a face drained of nearly all color.
Right up until another figure caught my attention.
A woman with golden hair splayed across the stone beneath her, features gentle even in whatever troubled sleep held her. She wore simple robes of pale blue, now dirty and torn.
Instantly I could tell she wasn’t human.
’Appraisal.’
{Title: Titaness of Motherhood, The Hidden One, Mother of Apollo and Artemis}
{Power Level: 57,600}
And Artemis’s mother.
Well, that certainly made things harder.
My shard pulsed as I stared at the ethereal woman.
Chaos was always expected.
"Who..." Her voice came out hoarse, strained from days of holding the burden. "Who are you?"
"Just some passbys," I said simply.
"I know not your faces." Her arms trembled violently but she refused to let the orb drop. "You are no Demigods I recognize. And no Demigod would be able to hide from my direct attention."
"Angels..?" She questioned, before focusing on me. "No, that’s matters not. Abandon the folly of attempting to rescue me and save my mother. I doubt you’ll be able to escape his gaze for long."
The Goddess somehow gathered the energy to glare.
"Yeah, that’s why I didn’t send Zoe up here even after she demanded it." I idly mused.
"Zoe lives?"
A ghost of a smile touched Artemis’s lips before another wave of strain erased it. "That sounds... like her."
"How did you find a companion in my Lieutenant?" She asked weakly, seemingly trying to forget the weight of the... well, world, on her shoulders.
The rings of my purple eye contracted as I focused.
Michael sent me a glance.
It wasn’t the actual sky.
It was definitely a conceptualized part of something vast, but dropping it wouldn’t make the heavens fall. The weight was real. The burden was real. But the catastrophic consequences were a lie.
No, it was more of a poetic justice thing. And perhaps just Lord of the Skies, Zeus, being a child, wanting the Titan of Endurance to hold his divine balls in the form of this orb.
Atlas had been sealed. Bound to this burden as punishment.
"I understand now," I murmured.
"How to free you," I turned to Michael. "Protect me. This is going to take some work."
"A minute." I said.
That’d take me a lot longer, but since this had a mechanism to give away the seal, I could transfer it...
That was the best plan I had and there was a very real chance I wasn’t quick enough.
What would have taken maybe a day or two to truly cement into my mind had been done in the span of a few seconds.
A tree erupted from the black marble, roots cracking through stone as they spread in a perfect circle around the platform. The trunk thickened rapidly, branches reaching toward the ceiling and weaving together into a dome.
This was a mimic of Telperion, one of the Two Trees of Valinor. Its silver-white bark gleamed with inner light as the branches finished forming a barrier around the room. Spiritual energy humming through the wood.
Inside the barrier, I knelt beside the edge of the sealing matrix and began to work. My Rinnegan mapped the flows of power. My hands traced the patterns carved into the platform.
Which meant there were flaws I could exploit.
A pressure descended on the area.
Michael’s concealment had been seen through.
"We have company," he said quietly.
It was a good thing I was done.
This was going to be close.
He stood in the rebuilt throne room of Mount Othrys, watching a map that showed the positions of his scattered kin.
But that wasn’t what had drawn his attention.
Where Leto lay chained.
How curious.
They weren’t going anywhere. He’d felt the presence of concealment a few seconds ago and decided to remove the powerful cloak of concealment from his little intruders.
His eyes narrowed beneath his hood.
A tree had sprouted in his fortress.
He went to casually pierce the barrier only for something to gaze at him, giving him actual pause.
A brief slither of shock entered him, but it settled equally as quickly as it came.
It wasn’t.
Still, something ancient and something that was using the tree in his castle as some sort of avatar.
His mistake showed itself instantly.
He quickly stopped.
Kronos smiled beneath his hood.
He began walking toward the central chamber at his own leisure.
He was a Titan with the blood of Primordials running in his veins, a weakened one, but powerful all the same.
Three figures greeted him.
He was confident.
Mentally, he called his right-hand Titan.
His eyes scanned the room.
He dismissed that for now.
"Don’t mind us." The masked one said. "We are just here to retrieve a few things and some people. Nothing you need to worry about."
"Yeah, well, technically they don’t belong to you either." The masked one said with a smile evident in his tone.
The masked one looked to the one wielding a sword and outright snickered, while the graceful man wielding the sword remained still and unphazed.
Something was wrong.
The masked one scratched his head.
Kronos said nothing.
His hand piercing flesh and burst out of the other side of the masked one’s chest.
Then, suddenly the flesh and blood was gone in a burst of smoke. The flesh turned into wood, revealing a large block of wood that was infused with an energy he hadn’t seen before.
The figure beside the masked one collapsed into a block of wood. So did the Goddess. So did Leto.
Bafflement lasted only a fraction of a second before burning anger replaced it. Power flared around him, orange light crackling against the stone walls.
It didn’t take a genius to realise what happened in the next instant.
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