had about twenty-seven thousand others bouncing around in my head right that second, and only about three of them were actually safe for polite company.
"It always has been." Anton stepped in and offered out of the blue, and we all turned back to him again as he carried on from there "The best specialists in the Underworld have learned how to spot early symptoms and how to map out the progression of the disease with some success, but no one has discovered why it infects one devil over the other or where it comes from to begin with. Not even Lord Beelzebub has uncovered an answer or a cure."
"I see. Are there any written records or studies on hand?
"We have some stored in Lady Misla's study. Shall I have them brought up to you, my lord?"
Chiron nodded.
"Please and thank you. Daniel?"
I looked up at him.
"Take a walk."
...
"What?"
"Take a walk." He repeated, and there was something a little pointed in his tone that I didn't get until his eyes flickered over to Sai "This observation is going to take some time, and you'll get more out of the day doing something productive. Both of you would."
Ah.
Translation: "Get Sairaorg out of here and find a way to lift his mood, because if it sinks any lower it'll break through rock bottom and start free-falling down to Tartarus, and neither of us wants that."
"Fine, I guess."
Further translation: "On it, and thank you. This was getting downright unbearable."
"I could probably use some air anyway." I was ready to pray my poker face was half as good as I'd been trying to get it to over the last few months as I took a step back and pointed towards the door. "Want to show me around, Sai?"
For a second, I didn't get an answer.
"Sairaorg?"
"Y-yeah." Just like before, I don't even think he heard me the first couple of times. "Just... give me a minute. I'll catch up."
And then he went right back to staring at his mom again with a look in his eye that was doing frankly terrible things for my mental health, so I decided to do the smart thing and call it quits while I was still ahead.
Sort of.
You know what I mean,
"Right. I'll take a hike."
Anton cleared his throat as I went to slip out the door.
"Perhaps I can offer you a tour, Mr. Winchester?"
I took that in for all of five seconds, and then I shrugged and just went with it.
"Sure."
Might as well, right?
...
Sairaorg did eventually catch up.
After an hour.
I didn't blame him for it - How could I?
Instead, I tried to enjoy the tour while it lasted, and in that time, Anton showed me the art gallery, the halls - plural - of paintings and historical artwork that were probably worth more than some of the smaller states put together, the dungeons, the library, the second set of dungeons, the ball-room, the game-room, a whole bunch of room-rooms, and have I mentioned the dungeons?
Yeah, whoever designed this place seemed to have a pretty one-track mind about that last part.
A possibly a scary tracks too, but let's not stick on that for too long.
...Seriously, let's not.
It was only about fifteen minutes before Sai showed back up again that things got interesting - and this time, I mean that word in the spirit that it was said.
I followed Anton as he wrapped up our little tour, and we'd ended up looping back around the place and were just passing by the carpeted entry hall when a flash of light caught my attention.
"Hello, Anto- oh?"
I turned around right in time for the two girls to step out of the teleportation circle - and probably out of a Renaissance fair, but I didn't say that last part out loud.
Probably for the best - it would have made a terrible first impression.
The first girl was nearly as tall as I was, with neat blond hair that reached down past her shoulders, teal eyes and an elaborate blue dress that matched the tone of Sairaorg's manor but still somehow looked like it'd make you regret ever being born if you kept it on for more than a few hours at a time.
The other girl on her right was dressed almost the same, only in red, with hair just as blonde and eyes matched the shade of her dress almost to a T.
Both of the were pretty... striking.
What?
It was just an observation.
"Ah. Introductions are in order." He gestured from me to them and back again before I could get a word in edgewise."Mr. Winchester, allow me to introduce the Lady Kuisha Abaddon."
The one in the blue dress nodded very formally, and something started niggling away at the back of my head.
Like I was about to remember something important, but I couldn't quite tell you what yet.
"And her attendant, Lady Coriana Andrealphus."
She bowed, but it was shallow.
...Her name was familiar too, dang it.
"Ladies," Anton nodded at me. "Daniel Winchester, a close friend and companion of Lord Sairaorg."
I raised my hand.
"Pleasure?"
That was about as formal as I got, really.
Still, it seemed to work.
Maybe a little too well.
Kuisha Abaddon's eyes lit up like Christmas had come early for her, and she took three steps forward before Coriana's hand snapped out to catch her forearm.
She didn't seem to notice it.
"He's here?"
"Who?"
"Lord Sairaorg." She insisted, and I think she'd have leaned in to look me straight in the eye if Coriana hadn't pulled her back and Anton hadn't slid in between us with a sigh I barely heard. "Is he finally-?"
"Lord Sairaorg has returned, Lady Kuisha, but now is not a good time."
The light in her eyes dimmed.
"But that's-!"
"Perhaps another day."
"No, I need-"
"My lady, please."
Anton's voice was the firmest I'd heard it yet, and Kuisha's mouth clamped shut.
A second of tense silence passed, and I spent it trying to figure out what exactly was going on here - or at least tried to, before Kuisha suddenly shook her head and stepped back.
"I'm sorry. That was a disappointing display."
There was a tremor in her voice, like she was struggling to keep her voice steady, but not out of anger.
More... desperation?
Anton shook his head, and I think he seemed sad of all things.
"It's no trouble at all, my lady. If you'd like to wait-?"
"No." She reached over and grabbed Coriana's arm - and that one had been silent and staring at me with those red eyes almost the entire time through - and let her own hand crackle with demonic power. "We'll come back another day."
The spell-circle lit up under their feet, light twisted around them, and they were whisked away without another word.
"..."
"..."
"Anton?"
"Yes, Mr. Winchester?"
"What exactly was all that about?"
The butler sighed.
"An inopportune visit, I'm afraid. The Lady Kuisha and her attendant have been visiting twice a week, every week and without fail for nearly a year and a half now."
I blinked.
"Why?"
"Lady Kuisha seeks a position on Lord Sairaorg's peerage."
...
That's...
...
Wait.
Hang on.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Slowly, it started to dawn on me on me.
Kuisha Abaddon.
Coriana Andrealphhus.
Peerage.
Oh
Oh.
That's right - That itchy feeling vanished, and I suddenly remembered exactly who those two were supposed to be.
Oh, crap.
...
When Sairaorg finally made good on his word and caught up with us, his reaction to Kuisha and Coriana's visit was... telling.
What exactly it was telling, I didn't know, but that seemed like the right word for it anyway.
"Them?"
I blinked, because I'd never heard Sairaorg sound quite like...
Actually, I didn't know what that was supposed to be.
Some combination of frustration, disappointment and something else all blended up in a way that was new on him, but didn't fit at all.
"Something I should know?"
"No." He ducked his head and shoved his hands into his pockets as we marched out into the garden and by the pond, a faraway look in his eyes. "Just more of the same."
"The same?"
"Devils who wanted things from mom or me because we seemed helpless." And that was real anger on his face too- not hateful, but it was as close as I'd ever seen him get, and it didn't fit him either. "Those two showed up the same year we moved here, and they kept coming back after mom... when I ended up alone over and over again just so they can squeeze something out of me. They're all the same."
"Sai... I don't think it's like that."
At least I hoped not.
He raised a brow.
"Why?"
"... Call it a hunch."
His face did something strange.
"Is this a hunch like the Golden Fleece hunch?"
He stressed the words like they meant something to him, and to be fair, they probably meant everything at this point.
Neither of us pointed it out.
"Something like it, yeah."
If I had to level with myself and lay it all out on the table, I'd admit that I honestly couldn't remember much about them.
Sairaorg was memorable - his story was something that had branded itself into my memories, but the rest of the people around him?
Meh.
Still, something about the way that Kuisha Abaddon had sounded kept coming back to me.
That edge of raw need, and not the smarmy, entitled kind either I would have expected from a noble.
I might've been imagining it, but...
"Hearing them out couldn't hurt, could it?"
He grimaced.
"Maybe."
That was about as good as I was getting now and we both knew it, so I let it go.
We rounded the pond and took a left through the hedge mazes before we broke the silence again.
"Did Chiron say anything else?"
Sai shook his head.
"No."
The word was heavier than it should be, but I got it.
Damn did I get it.
Figuring out a cure for the sleeping disease when most people who dealt with it didn't even know what it was or where it came from was never going to be an easy thing, even with Chiron.
It smarted like nothing else in the world, but right now all we had to was have faith that he would work something out, or he'd decide we we ready for plan B.
Either or, and nothing in between.
Until then, though...
Wait.
Something clicked into place for me.
I looked at Sairaorg.
"Let's go."
He blinked.
"What?"
"Remember that little quest my aunt gave me?" I started grinning as the vague ghost of a plan formed in my mind's eye. "Let's talk to Chiron, have Anton teleport us back up to the house, and figure it out from there."
He stared incredulously.
"You want to do this now?"
"Why, have you got something better to do?"
That shut him up, exactly the way it was supposed to.
Chiron was busy with more important work, our classes were off for the day, and sparring with each other wasn't going to be nearly as productive - or maybe even fun - as ticking off Artemis's request on my checklist.
Finding a monster that was scaring all the angry murder-boars out of murder-boar land sounded like a walk in the park after Smaug.
"We might even get that reward she promised for you today if we get it done right."
He perked up and almost matched my grin for the first time since this day hit the road, and I knew I had him.
"I forgot about that!"
"Then let's do this!"
He was onboard, but he still hesitated one last time.
"You're sure?"
I shrugged.
"It's that, or we can sit around waiting for Chiron to wrap up and talk about our feelings or something."
"LET'S DO THIS!"
"YEAH!"
See?
This was a great plan!
After all, between the two of us we were trained, armed, and had more than enough time, energy, and complicated baggage to burn off through the weekend doing something that was actually important.
What's the worst that could happen?
...
The forces of Chaos when Dan forgets he's a protagonist and finally tempts fate:
View: https://imgur.com/okBtZbb
Dan and Sai when it's time to discuss feelings maturely and responsibly:
Sairaorg and I both thought that getting Chiron to let us go on the quest was going to be a drag and a half.
It was out of the blue, after all, and the high-stakes detour we pretty much willingly cartwheeled into at the Lonely Mountain with Smaug hadn't been that long ago at all.
We both had an argument ready and everything - not a good one, honestly, because it basically just boiled down to 'we're emotionally whacked and antsy and still feeling stuff we don't want to feel anymore, so why the heck not?, but needs must and you work with what you've got.
Only it turned out that we didn't actually need it at all.
"You can go."
I blinked, and Sai beat me to the punch by half a second.
"Wait, really?"
"I just said so, didn't I?"
Chiron didn't even look up from the ledger Anton had brought up to him, leafing through the records with the kind of intense patience and focus of a guy who could read through it once, memorize it, and then recite it back to you in pig-latin with a straight face.
"You have the training, the skills, and the relatively good sense to go on a simple quest without too much worry on my part - when you choose to exercise it." His eyes flickered up to us for a long, judgmental second before he went back to flicking through the pages. "Consider it a chance to test yourselves and gain some more experience of the less draconically reckless variety."
We winced.
Ouch - but fair
"In case of emergencies, should whatever situation you end up in spiral out of hand, you have two methods of teleportation to jump out of the path of danger. So long as you remember not to get too confident and never to lower your guard, you can have the day to take a crack at your quest."
Sweet.
"Do you have any idea where to begin?"
Less sweet.
"Yes?"
He glanced up again and raised a brow.
"Okay, not really." I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly at his unimpressed look. "I figured we'd just go back to Mount Pelion and see if we can find any clues, or something else to point us in the right direction."
Not the absolute brainiest thing you've ever heard, I know, but give me a break here - it's the best I could come up with off the top of my head, and it's not like Aunt Artemis had given me a lot to work with here.
... Possibly because I didn't ask, now that I think about it, but back then I was busy just keeping up with the conversation and trying not to say anything that might tick her off.
Still, I was ready to roll with the cards I did have, but now that Chiron was here and looking at me funny...
"Can you give us a tip?"
He sighed and gave us another look that would have come off as paper-flat if his lips didn't curve up at the ends a second later.
Guess we're wearing him down after all.
"I suppose it wouldn't be fair otherwise, given the circumstances." He said, and then wagged his finger warningly when Sai and I both perked up. "Just this once, though. Next time I expect you both to research and look for your own answers - you'll rarely have help you don't earn when and where it matters in this world or any other."
We both nodded eagerly.
"You bet."
"Erymanthian boars range in a series of groups - sounders - between Mount Erymanthus, hence the name, and Mount Mainalo." Chiron began to explain even as he turned the next page over and kept an eye on his reading. "I'd start with Eyrmanthus. The land around and across it is sparsely populated, and there are wards and the like to keep mortals from noticing the magical beings that flit in and out of the area should they stray too close, but do put in the effort to avoid any stragglers you might come across anyway. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
"Mount Eyrmanthus, and leave the poor squishy mortals alone." I flashed him a thumbs-up. "Got it."
That was just basic common sense, really.
Even if unrelated civilians didn't get hurt by the supernatural, revealing it - indirectly or on purpose - could still get messy for everybody involved.
Sure, one or two people finding out wasn't a big deal - who'd ever take them seriously, right? - but if word spread around enough all at once things were going to get hairy, and sooner or later folks higher up the food chain were going to get nettled.
Yeah, no thanks.
It was just all around smarter not to poke that potential hornet's nest unless you absolutely had to.
"Anton can take us," Sai offered, and I could tell he was getting about as excited for this as I was - it was a nice change from all the gloom of before. "I can grab a summoning flyer for when we need him to come pick us up again, or Dan can probably get us back to Athens if we really need to-?"
He glanced at me to make sure, and I just shrugged.
"Probably."
I've never used light travel to go anywhere that far before, but so long as he wasn't asking me to pop us back down to the Underworld and back, then odds were we'd be pretty much fine.
My powers were neat like that, even if there were still some kinks I needed to work out.
Teleporting somewhere I'd never been before was still just a sketch on the drawing board, which is why we needed Anton to help us out, and while I technically could - in theory - magic circles had me beat at the precision game I'd need to pull something like this off right this second.
For now.
Let me get back to you on that one later - I'm working some stuff out.
"Good. I'll remain here to finish reading up on a few more records and this-" He raised his book a little. "-And running a few more tests. We'll meet up back here, and curfew still applies, so I'm expecting you to stay on schedule."
Figures.
"So that's it? We can head out?"
"Be careful," Chiron cautioned one last time, and he sounded dead-serious about it too. "And don't hesitate to retreat should things get out of hand."
The way he said that...
"Do you think they might?"
This time, it was Chiron who shrugged.
"I don't know what you'll encounter out there - I simply hope for the best, and plan for the worst, as I've taught you before. A quest from a goddess - even a relatively simple errand as this one seems to be - can easily spell trouble and spiral into danger if any number of circumstances come to pass. Be careful and stay light on your feet, and hopefully we won't have to find out for sure."
...
Sairaorg and I slowly glanced at each other and back.
"...Right"
Because that's what you want to hear before heading off on a quest.
Chiron let that bit of sugary goodness fester for a long second before he smiled our way again
"Though given your track record so far, I can't say I have much hope to begin with."
Oh, for the love of-!
He laughed at our indignant looks, and the mood lightened again, so I guess that was that at least.
"Good luck."
Anton showed back up again ten minutes later with a sheaf of emergency summoning flyers, Sai and I grabbed our bags and waited for him to whisk us away and back up to the mortal world where we needed to go, and then it was officially time to kick off.
...
It was nearly noon when the second spell-circle spat us out into the middle of the Erymanthian mountain range, and at the first look, it didn't disappoint.
The mid-summer sun was wafting high in the sky above the mountain peaks all surrounding us, its light so bright behind them that they almost glinted white-gold under the shine, and the rest of the place spread out underneath and around them like a tide, all sun-baked rock ridges and groves of cypress and olive and birch trees, shot through with patches made up of all sorts of other greenery - so many plants and weeds and who knows what that I'd need an encyclopedia and the patience to read through it item-by-item just to name them all.
The air was bone dry too, and hot enough that it made everything shimmer like a mirage in the middle of a desert - not that weather like that was any big deal for either of us, but you probably wouldn't want to be out here this time of year without sun cream and a whole lot of moisturizer just in case, even with the occasional breeze that smelled like tree-bark and thyme and a few other things that I coudn't quite place.
"Here we are." Anton adjusted his lapels before taking another look around and turning back to us. "If there's anything else you need, my lord?"
Sairarog shook his head.
"No thanks, Anton. We're all set."
"Then I await your summons, my lord, and I wish you the best of luck in your... endeavour."
Yeah, he did trail off there for a second.
He didn't know much about what we were up to besides the basics - and he sure didn't know anything about me and my family tree - but I think that just coming out and asking would have broken the whole fancy butler code thing he had going for him, so he settled for bowing his head our way a final time before stepping back into the spell circle without another word.
Sai and I took a second to watch him flicker and fade away.
"He seems like a cool guy."
"He is." Sai agreed, before rolling his neck and clapping his hands together. "Okay, let's do this. Where do we start?"
"Honestly? No idea." Then I grinned. "My lord."
Sairaorg scowled and swung for the back of my head on the spot, but I just ducked and laughed.
Man, that was never going to get old.
"Alright, timeout." I raised my hands and bit the inside of my cheek to stop from calling him that again - and I think Sai could tell too, because he gave me an 'I dare you' look, eyes narrowed and fists ready and everything. "I'm serious - It's game face time. Courage?"
"Arf!"
My dog came careening out of the shadows at our feet like he'd smelled a bag of treats, and it didn't surprise me one bit. I could tell that he'd started getting all fidgety a while ago.
What did surprise me was what came next.
See, I'd had this whole idea up in my head - Courage already had the scent of the boar I'd ganked a couple of days ago from the more than slightly chargrilled leftovers Artemis had sent back to Chiron's house, so he might've been able to sniff out where some of its other buddies were and lead us to them.
Or close to them, I guess.
The fact that taking out Porky the first had been a total walk in the park didn't mean I wanted to spend the day going up against his friends and family and distant cousins however many times removed, but I figured that Courage would points us in the right direction and we'd go from there.
Only that didn't happen.
Instead, the breeze shifted just as Courage materialised and took a sniff at the air, and he went still.
Dead still.
"Buddy?"
No response - If he was crouched any lower to the ground, I swear you'd have had trouble telling him apart from the shadows he'd just leapt out of.
I think he even stopped breathing.
"Courage?" I leaned down to run a hand through his fur, but nada - no response "Something up?"
Instead of a straight answer, he very slowly padded forward, staring off and sniffling at a point far, far to our left - out past and over one of the more distant mountain ridges.
Then he growled.
Not a regular 'I'm hungry and cranky' or 'I want to go for a run' sort of thing - no, this was a straight-up growl, sharp and deep and drawn out like he meant business.
It was also tinged with just the right amount of gut-sinking fear, the kind that made the hair at the back of your neck rise and had your fight-or-flight instincts revving up the engine and raring to go, and we all knew what it meant.
Danger.
Sai and I stiffened a little and slowly exchanged another careful look.
It could be another boar or something along those lines, or it could be something worse, and considering our luck with things like this...
"Bet you twenty I know where we're headed next."
He snorted
"Sucker's bet."
"So just your speed, then?"
"Dan, I will punch you."
"When has that ever stopped me?"
"Arf!"
Courage's impatient barking cut off whatever it was that Sai was planning on firing back, and we both grimaced.
"I know, buddy. Let's go figure out what kind of mess this is going to shape up to be."
Though really, we didn't have to guess.
If even my happy-go-lucky goofball of a dog was acting up like this, you can bet your bottom dollar it wasn't going to be anything good.
We waited for him to melt back into my shadow, and then we both kicked off into the air and headed for whatever it was that was waiting over the ridge.
Not at full throttle, though - we took the scenic route over the trees and mountain paths, and I could feel Sai subtly flaring up his Touki even as I summoned up my spear and let it settle into my grip mid-flight.
Might be a blue-moon's chance that I didn't need it, but wasting a split-second to call it up when that bit of optimism went to crap was a big no-no that Chiron had drilled into my head thoroughly - and a little literally.
The day of the ballistic hooves had been downright traumatising for everyone involved, and that's all I'm going to say about it - some things just had to be whacked upside the head with a shovel and buried in the backyard.
Good riddance.
Then we passed the ridge, and my eyes widened - the valley stretched out far underneath us, shaped like a shallow cereal-bowl with sloping sides and an unevenly flat grass field at its center.
There were wildflowers blanketing bits of it like little smidges of colour, and a small stream running across it, but none of those were as as big a deal as the wave of bones either scattered around all over the place or piled up into small hills rising out of the dirt like the something out of an edgy horror movie - only it wasn't a movie.
"Dear Dad."
Most of them had to have been from the Erythmanian boars and wild animals around the place - I could see the tusks and overgrown sun-bleached fragments everywhere - but a few of the others were...
I grimaced harder.
Alright, fine - they were pretty blatantly human.
Not a lot of them - barely any, actually - but there were still scraps of clothing and everything, and some of them were... fresher in the grossest way possible, and just lying there like somebody's forgotten leftovers.
And with that cherry thought, I was officially skipping out on lunch today.
Great.
"This is...messy," Sai muttered under his breath as we descended into the valley, gingerly avoiding any of the remains. "What do you think-?"
"-Did this?" I finished for him, before shrugging and eyeing one of the more... mangled bones. It was broken into three pieces, and some of the marks on it were... ugly. "But I'm guessing it had teeth."
And it clearly wasn't afraid to use them.
Yikes.
He rolled his eyes at me.
"Thank you. You've narrowed it down to nearly everything everywhere ever. Real help- Dan."
It happened instantly.
Sairaorg didn't even have to say it - he might be the senjutsu wiz between the two of us, but you don't train with Chiron for all the time we had without picking up a few tricks, and I sensed it the exact second that he did.
The air shifted and grew colder. The atmosphere changed. At my feet, Courage's shadow jerked like someone had hooked him up to a car battery and given him the starter shock of his life - if he'd been out here with the two us when it happened, he'd have probably jumped six feet up into the air in a straight line without even crouching at the knees.
Not that I would have blamed him if he had - something that hadn't been there just a second ago appeared.
A presence that felt like... actually, I didn't know what that was supposed to be.
Instead of a straight answer, I got the impression of sheer power, razor-sharp edges, and something else that had my gut tying itself into constrictor knots just before it started coming - no bounding - closer.
Remember those teeth I talked about before?
Whatever they were attached to was coming out to play, and fast.
"Incoming!"
On second thought, forget fast - the creature headed our way was blitzing through the mountainside beyond the valley, and I'd barely lit up the end of my spear and felt Sai's Touki surge aggressively before I heard it.
A growl that sounded like a chainsaw crossed with a rocket engine and wired up to eleven beat it to the punch by another split-second before a streak of gold appeared over the ridge, and-
...
"Well."
Oh.
"What have we here?"
Oh.
The trippy thing was that, for a supernatural killing machine, the enormous golden lion glaring down at us with lazy murder in its molten yellow eyes looked kind of amazing, in that deadly 'I'm going to tear your throat out and eat your insides in alphabetical order for funsies' kind of way.
Apex predator didn't do it justice - And I'm not talking about the deep, rumbling voice, though the fact that the thing speaking wasn't even worth a blink should say a lot about where my life was at these days.
It was nearly twice as large as any other big cat I'd ever seen- and trust me, we had National Geographic on cable back home for years - and its fur shone and rippled like real liquid gold with every little twitch. It was broad and muscled under it too, with a wild mane that spread out over its head and across its shoulders like the most overstated crown in existence, and jaws that looked strong enough to crush diamonds to dust like peanuts.
When it -or he, now that I think about it - moved, he did it slowly, a careful little prowl back and forth on the stretch of rock he was looming over us from, claws scrapping and scoring rents against stone so easily you'd think the stuff was made of wet clay.
Somehow, even though I could effortlessly do a thousand times the damage in my sleep and with one hand tied behind my back at this point, the display was at least a little intimidating.
Though to be fair, that might have something to do with the fact that the Zeus-damned Nemean Lion was staring right at me.
Yeah, I knew what it was.
And clearly, that went both ways.
"A demigod." Credit where credit was due - that being with me - I didn't so much as flinch when he spoke up again, voice rolling with interest. "You're not the prey I was expecting. And a devil?"
His eyes narrowed as they flickered to Sairaorg.
"And not just any devil either." The lion's nostrils flared as he sniffed at the air, before cracking open his jaws and baring his teeth in a way that was frankly horrible for the average person's poker face - and blood pressure too, probably. "Vapula."
Misla Bael's family name.
The way he lingered on it...
Sai started a little and shifted to stare at me out the corner of his eye, and I did my best to subtly shake my head - not successfuly, because I was so stiff and keyed up for any sudden movements I might as well have been made of solid concrete, but he got the message anyway.
No clue. All you, dude.
Well, not exactly nothing.
I had something, in that I was, like, ninety percent sure I knew who this lion was.
Nemean Lions were a whole species in this world - not super numerous, and all fiercely strong, but there was only one that stood out as a monster above all the rest.
He was also the only one that might have been or became connected to Sai - eventually, once upon a time, whatever.
Kuisha and Coriana had taken me a hot second to place, but this guy?
Nah, I recognised him.
Before I could think of what to do with that, though, Sai beat me to it.
"I'm part Vapula, but it's not my name." He smiled politely at the mythical creature that was actively radiating the kind of vibe and energy you'd expect from a serial killer picking out his next victim. "I'm Sairaorg Bael. I guess you've met one of my relatives?"
"..."
"..."
Well, that's one way to start things off.
The lion shifted, slowly tilting his head to the side. I don't think that's the response he was expecting either.
"You could say that." He finally drawled, eyes blinking languidly. "I once came across a devil who shared a scent with you and went by that name."
"Oh?"
"Yes, some three thousand years ago now. He talked far too much and boasted about his bloodline even more, and then he tried to use his magic to tame me like a common pet. Something about how a beast such as I should be honored to serve under a noble like him." The lion's chuckle was about as comforting as the sound of nails scratching against a chalkboard. "I laughed about it for days after I tore his head off and left his mangled corpse for the crows. And just between us?"
His fangs gleamed as he bared them again.
"I never understood what all the fuss was about - his blood tasted like sludge."
"...Ah."
Sai's smile twitched like he'd stubbed his pinkie against a doorframe and was desperately trying not to let it show, or break out swearing. If you could translate the look in his eyes into words, it'd probably be something along the lines of: 'What the actual hell was wrong with my ancestors?'
The answer to that question with devils is usually just yes in all capitals, but considering what my Olympian folks got up to back in their day, I had zero room to talk.
"And what about you?"
Except apparently, it was my turn to stand on the spot, because he rounded on me in the next breath.
"I'm with him." I pointed a thumb towards Sairaorg and did my best to mimic his smile. "Daniel Winchester, demigod. But you already knew that."
"I did." The lion agreed.
"Cool. And just so we're clear here, you're the Nemean Lion." I cleared my throat. "And I mean The Nemean Lion, from the myths - Heracles, Golden Pelt and everything."
The second the last word left my lips, a part of me face-palmed under the realization that bringing up the story of how he was beaten and had what was left of him turned into the world's most practical fashion accessory might not go over well, but he just laughed again.
"It's good to be recognised, at least. The name's Regulus."
And that's confirmation.
Called it.
"And yes, those were my good old glory days." He went back to prowling slowly, slowly circling the rim of the valley, though you'd have to be an idiot to be fooled by the easy-going attitude - he was just as stupidly dangerous at 'rest' as he was when he was raring and ready to go. "Before the thunderer's muscle-headed by-blow and that meddling Abrahamic God-"
Sairaorg winced sharply.
"-eventually put an end to them."
"...Right."
Didn't know what to say to that, actually.
"You're looking pretty well off despite them."
"I am now." He chuckled again. "I wasn't always, though there's nothing to be done about that. Spending a few millennia as a tool being passed from mortal to mortal like an elaborate game of hot potato was more than long enough to gain a little perspective."
"The Sacred Gear." I heard Sairaorg mutter in realisation, and I nodded lightly. "Regulus Nemea."
The name was a bit of a giveaway.
We hadn't looked into them much because there were only so many hours in the day and all that, but Chiron had given us the cliff notes version on the Thirteen Longinus-class cheat codes that God - the one with the biggest Capital 'G' of them all, for some reason - had sprinkled in with the rest when he'd started handing the things out like candy and having ordinary people pulling on them like cosmic-tier raffle cards.
"That's the one."
Regulus hummed, sounding pleased - like a cat who'd been batting away at a ball of yarn and only just realised it could talk back if you poked it the right way.
"But that's-"
"Impossible? I was just surprised when I manifested like this. I thought for sure that the old bastard or some of his stuck-up pigeons up in the clouds would have stepped in by now to try and wrangle me back into my glorified cage, but I suppose there's no point looking a gift horse in the mouth." He yawned lazily without breaking his stride. "I'd rather eat the thing myself, but that's just me."
"You mean boars, right?" I glanced at the towering piles of bone and back to him again. "Not seeing any horses around these parts."
I didn't say anything about the human remains yet.
"Oh, those? They were just fast food. Freedom agrees with me, and I love a good hunt. Makes passing the time while I wait a lot less boring, too."
I blinked.
"Wait? For what?"
Regulus paused, and something in the air shifted in a way that had Sai's Touki presence flaring a shade higher and Serpent's Downfall warming up in my grip.
"Unfinished business."
The amusement in his voice vanished, and the red flags there started whipping back and forth again like someone had planted them out in the middle of a hurricane.
"What kind of unfinished business?" Sai asked, and I think he clocked onto the same thing I did.
Regulus had said that he'd been waiting for other prey, hadn't he?
Those eyes narrowed some more, and his head rose a little higher, his presence sharper.
"My own."
Because that answered all our questions handily, didn't it?
"Well, I hate to break it to you, but your business is making a mess of this place." I glanced at the bones again. "Some people aren't happy with that."
"Is that right?"
Regulus perked up some more, and the amusement in his voice came flying right back, but the edge didn't drop this time.
"Sure. You're eating a lot of the prime barbecue candidates and scaring off all the rest, and they're making a fuss all over the place." I shrugged and grinned when he tilted his head and stared at me funny. "Unsustainable hunting practice, dude. My aunt Artemis is miffed about it - it's kind of her thing."
"Your aunt- ah." He actually laughed, loud and booming, "The goddess of the hunt sent you two my way?"
"..."
"..."
"...Well, not your way specifically."
At least I hope not, because otherwise I was going to be freaking peeved.
A little warning would have been nice.
"But we are here to-" I almost hesitated again, but my gut told me that backing down here would be the wrong move "Stop you from screwing things up here even worse."
"Oh, are you?"
Forget amused - Regulus suddenly sounded delighted.
In other news, the way he was baring his teeth at us now was seriously making me reconsider my recent life choices.
"If we have to." Sai added, and you had to hand it to him, because it somehow came off as both a compromise and a promise, verging on a threat.
"And do you think you have what it takes to do... anything to me?" Regulus snorted like it was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard, and even though I could see where he was coming from, a part of me... prickled. It was a new feeling.
"Better yet, does Artemis? I think I'm offended."
"Offended?"
"At least when the berserker who managed to put me down came my way, I could tell I was actually being taken seriously, but this is what a goddess sends to deal with me? A shrimp of a devil-" He huffed at Sairaorg before flickering back to me. "And a demigod barely worth the name?"
I... reared back, just a little.
But not out of fear.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what I said. Of all the demigods I've met before, you are... unimpressive."
...
I opened my mouth, before closing it again - then my teeth gritted hard enough to make my jaw cry uncle. Besides me, Sai's frown broke down into a scowl, and his fists clenched.
"...Unimpressive?"
"You're not even half-grown and clearly greener than grass in the middle of spring," Regulus grunted flatly. "What, did they pluck the first couple of baby-faced brats off the street and saddle you with a mock-quest? Promise your riches and rewards? Or awards for participation when you bungle it up and run home to nurse your boo-boos?"
My eye twitched. Sairaorg coughed a sound that was pure indignant outrage.
"Honestly, you're not even worth eating. There's low-hanging fruit, and then there's whatever fresh new joke you two are supposed to be."
...He was baiting us.
Obviously.
I wasn't a toddler, and Sairaorg wasn't an idiot - anyone in the same boat could see the truth from a mile away.
Why is he baiting us?
... And was it working, just a bit?
Why was it working?
"Was there really no one else?
Oh, that's why.
"They didn't need anyone else." For the first time yet, Sairaorg was the one to blurt it out before I could have, and I nodded my agreement. "We're stronger than we look."
And see - that right there?
That's exactly what Regulus was waiting for.
The air changed again - this time for keeps - as his teeth flared and his presence rumbled.
"Now that there sounds interesting!"
Ah, crapbaskets.
He growled, and it reverberated like the aftermath of a thunderstrike. His paws pressed against the stone as he crouched down, and that little movement sent a very literal tremor through the valley that had the stream rippling and the bones rattling into the dirt.
Even his pelt and mane brightened, shifting up to a purer shade of gold and wafting with reflected light.
"You want to deal with me? To finish your little quest? Well, good news!" His front paws struck against the ground like a bull gearing up for a charge, even as Sai's Touki shroud lit up and my own golden aura kicked off with a blinding flashbang. "The wait here is a pain. I'm bored and itching for a workout, so if you survive a few rounds, we can talk. Convince me of your strength! Show me-!"
Serpent's Downfall cut him off as I lobbed right for his head. It streaked up across the space between us, erupting into a lance of pure crimson-gold fire that seared the air... before promptly bouncing off of him with a metallic ping as he tilted his head half an inch and let it go whistling off to the side.
We all just... stared after it for a second. The bloodlust in the air took an awkward, awkward pause.
Then Regulus turned back to me.
"Really?" He asked flatly, and I shrugged a little sheepishly.
Hell, I think Sairaorg even bit back a nervous laugh.
I knew he was basically invulnerable. I didn't forget - but it was worth a shot anyway.
Besides...
"Talking isn't a free action."
He took that in with a blink.
"You know what? Fair enough."
Then he exploded off the valley's rim in one meteoric leap, shattering the ledge behind him like glass as he became a blur of gold light and fangs, tearing through the air with a deafening crack and aimed right for my throat.
I didn't even try to dodge.
Reach of Sunlight.
I overpowered the teleportation spell to hell and back, and Sairaorg and I disappeared and reappeared nearly half a mile above the valley in a single beat.
"Son of an ugly-!"
I didn't finish it - probably because my heart was clogging up my throat on its way to vacate the premises, and screaming bloody murder all the way.
On the bright side, no jump-scare in any horror movie will ever hit as hard as it could have ever again.
Now to figure out how to live long enough to enjoy that...
"Plan?" Sairaorg hovered in close, looking just as frazzled and trying to control his breathing. His brow was beaded with sweat, and it was only halfway due to the natural energy he was trying to suck in like a sponge. "Because - Wait, what's he doing?"
He sounded panicked, and my eyes flickered down with him.
Regulus stared back up, eyes gleaming.
Then he opened his mouth and roared.
It was... freaking awful, in a cataclysmic kind of way.
The sound hit the air and expanded, almost, becoming a wave of power and savage force that hurtled up to bat at us like a freight train with a grudge to cash in. Beneath it, the valley trembled again and the trees growing on either side of it went flying off like toothpicks, torn clean out of the ground.
That was the strength we were talking about here - but it wasn't the part that hurt.
It was the sound - it hit before the shockwave did, and it was like some higher power had grabbed onto our inner ears and scrambled them like eggs.
The nausea that bubbled up in my gut was instant and overwhelming, and the crushing vertigo a complete monster.
For a long minute, the world went blurry.
My ears rang, and I fought the urge to dry heave like my life depended on it.
I didn't even notice that we were falling until I registered the feeling of the wind rushing past my face and snapped back into icy focus, complete with a burst of rushing adrenaline and everything.
"Sai-!"
Too late - it took him a split-second too long to catch himself on his wings, and I could see the gold blur out of the corner of my, rushing right for him.
"Damn it!"
I didn't think - one leg snapped out and kicked him away, and he went careening off to the side, and my other hand rose right as Regulus changed tack and bore down on me like I owed him money.
"You should be more worried about yourself, brat!"
"Shut it!"
The world went gold and around the edges as I fired off a beam of raging sunlight his way, the kind that could cleave through half a forest and just about vaporise most anything I aimed it at with extreme prejudice.
Against Regulus, it barely slowed his stride.
The explosive light hit him at an angle and split nearly every which way like a tide breaking against the shoreline. The heat didn't bother him, and the force might as well have been a joke - but the sharp glow of it did make him blink in such a way that had his paw-swing missing in a wide arc.
The second one didn't, and I hissed sharply as pain lanced across my chest - the very tips of his claws had raked through my shirt, and it felt like a whole line of bleeding cuts had opened up and promptly got dipped into a bowl of lemon juice.
The sting made me furious. Regulus's pleased snort just made it worse.
Also-
"I liked that damn shirt!"
I blasted him again, for all the good it did.
"Bah!" He shook his mane wildly before pouncing again, and I scrambled back in a low flight as he took after me. "Really? That's the best-?"
That was when Sairaorg came flying in with his own roar and - I kid you not - shoulder-checked the Nemean Lion mid-leap with an impact that felt like it could rattle a city block.
Not that it knocked him out of commission or anything - he just snarled, rolled in mid-air after breaking off the extra momentum and landed on the pads of his feet, easy as breathing.
Still, it was the thought that counted.
"Unbreakable doesn't mean immovable." Sairoarg cocked his fists and raised them high. "You might not get hurt easily, but you can still be knocked around like everybody else!"
Hah.
"What he said."
Actually, now that I think about it...
Regulus growled.
"Let's test that, shall-?"
Serpent's Downfall came whistling back into my raised hand in a flash, and then I pivoted on the spot and hurled it right back at his head, aiming for one of his eyes.
He snarled and batted away with a swing that smacked us with another wave of pure air pressure before I could recall it again.
"Would you stop doing that!?"
"No! You stop trying to eat us! Use your words, you overgrown house cat!"
Then I swung both my hands at him and clapped them together in his direction.
Bang.
Light and sound burst out like a wave, layered over one another in a cascading wave that blinded him again and actually lifted him off his feet by way of sheer force.
Apollon's domain of sound and light overlayed could get wild, and I grinned outright at the way Regulus had the ground blown out from under him even as I backed up for another go.
"Sai, ears!"
We'd sparred enough with this trick that he knew what was coming and instantly leaped away, hands over his ears as I opened my mouth and prepared to commit a crime against nature.
If Regulus thought he was the only one who could mess around with sound, then he had another thing coming.
Or he would have, at least, if things had panned out my way - only they didn't.
Story of my life, I know, but this was a big deal.
Long story short?
I took a deep breath, and let my power surge. An ingot of pressure formed around my vocal cords, which sounds painful, but it's not - only alien to anyone who couldn't pull off the things I had in the bag.
Regulus wasted no time charging me, sensing the shift and seeing the attack coming from a mile away, but I blinked and disappeared right before he could tear off my face, and then we started playing the world's most high-stakes game of whack-a-mole with with him leaping for my throat after every other blinking teleport as I let the power well up, with guest appearances from Sairaorg by way of his earth-shaking fists.
Fifteen seconds, give or take a few - that's all it took.
Right as I prepared to let rip and tear him a new one - or so I hoped - a wave of magic abruptly washed over the valley.
And it wasn't mine.
Regulus paused.
Sairaorg froze in mid-air, brows furrowed in confusion.
Even I stopped, and then I let out a curse that would have had me eating every bar of soap in the house if we were back home as the power I'd been building up petered out with nowhere to go like air from a deflating balloon.
The silver lining was that Regulus didn't take the chance to go at me again.
"Finally."
Instead, he was suddenly a hundred and ten percent laser-focused on the spell circle shimmering into existence across the valley, and it didn't take Sai and I more than one look at the figure starting to step out of them to put the pieces together.
"Your prey, I'm guessing?"
He didn't answer, and I took the chance to back away slowly and I was nearly shoulder to shoulder with Sairaorg.
Something about the eerie, truly predatory and absolute silence he was locked into now came off as more dangerous than anything else he'd pulled so far.
Eventually, the silence broke when the last of the newcomers dismissed the circle.
At first glance, they reminded me of some of the parents back in Maple - the ones who really put their backs into their Halloween costumes and ended up looking goofy as sin.
That, or members of a cult.
Black robes made of heavy fabric stitched with runes, hoods, and even a choreographed walk - the whole shebang.
"What is this?" Sai whispered to me, and I shook my head and quickly recalled my spear.
"We're about to find out."
There were nine of them all in all, two rows of four marching up behind one leader - the most stereotypical RPG-looking wizard I've ever seen, complete with the beard and a look in his eyes I met for one second and already didn't like.
He glared from Sai to me and back again, before his eyes fell on Regulus and lit up with glee that came off as borderline deranged.
"Finally!"
"You."
Regulus's voice was... low.
Conversational too, in a way that had me readying another teleportation sequence on reflex.
"I know you."
The guy I was already starting to suspect belonged in a padded room with all the straitjackets puffed up on the spot like a peacock.
"I am Magnus Francis Bastian, of the Wizards of Oz." He declared proudly, like the name was supposed to mean anything at all. "And I have come-"
"Your scent... you were there." Regulus interrupted, still sounding very, very calm in a way that had phantom warning signals dancing up and down my nerves. From the way he shifted next to me, Sairaorg felt the threat of it too. "With those others."
He tilted his head, towards some of the scattered bones we'd kicked up in our fight - if you could call it that.
The human bones.
"The ones who killed the brat." His eyes narrowed "My brat."
...
My eyes slowly widened.
Unfinished business.
"Oh-
"-crap." Sairaorg finished for me, looking just as stunned.
Magnus, on the other hand, looked like he'd smelled something nasty. His face had twisted in annoyance when Regulus cut him off, and now it settled into something close to frustrated disgust.
"Your previous host." He stressed the word with an irritated wave of his hand. "Was given offer after offer to join something magnificent - a cause greater than himself. A chance to rise above his mediocre lifestyle. He refused."
"So you took matters into your own hands." Regulus hummed along, prodding him almost lazily. "Had your lackeys pounce on him when he wasn't expecting it. Used your magic to keep him paralysed and in enough pain that he couldn't call on me before you literally tore him apart trying to pull my Sacred Gear from his soul."
"I required the power of a Longinus." Magnus sniffed. "Such a prize demands to be used, and not left to be wasted by the inferior."
...
Huh, would you look at that?
He really was a wizard - not a shovel in sight and he was somehow still digging himself a grave faster than should be humanly possible.
Regulus shifted, just an inch or so.
"Ah. I see. I suppose it was your meddling that made that damned thing fritz and allowed me to manifest after his death."
Magnus perked up, which was all the proof I needed to confirm that he was absolutely the gold-standard for suicidal morons everwhere, because he looked proud and utterly oblivious to the blaring neon warning flares going off right in his face.
"Indeed!"
For the love of dad, even his buddies seemed to have figured out that their future life expectancy was actively hightailing it like water out of a wide-open faucet, because they started slowly backing away, inch by little inch.
Though to be fair, one of them did try to speak up.
"Lord Magnus-"
"Silence!" The demented old man hissed, before turning back to Regulus. "Your freedom came from the fruits of my efforts, beast. A debt is owed."
"That right?"
"Yes."
"Funny. You weren't there to collect on it when I awoke."
He flushed angrily.
"I had... other affairs to handle."
"Sure you did," Sai muttered, and Regulus glanced at him.
"You be quiet."
He raised his hands up in surrender.
"Done."
I shook my head as well.
"Not our circus."
Magnus also followed Regulus's gaze to us - I think he only just remembered that we were here, because he sneered all over again.
"And these... infants." He sniffed in derision. "My failed apprentices, too - all meaningless rabble, just like your previous host!"
Another twitch from Regulus.
"All of them are irrelevant now." He spread his arms out wide. "Join me, and we will both have power great and terrible. Join me, and-!"
There was no warning.
Or, well, there was plenty of it if you weren't an idiot, but the speed in which everything went right to the slaughterhouse was almost funny, in hindsight.
That, or traumatising.
One second, Regulus was listening along without a care in the world.
The next, the air was cracking open again, he was a blur racing across the valley, and Magnus was choking mid-word and whipping out a viridian green fractal array to act as a shield which such speed that, despite the fact that he was a nutter with enough loose screws to open a Home Depot's, he was still dangerous.
It didn't help him any.
Regulus's claws flashed and tore through it, Magnus's outstretched arm, and the poor fool standing right behind him who didn't have the good sense to dodge.
"Aaaarrggghh!"
"JESUS CHRIST!"
"OW!"
"SORRY!"
I couldn't help it - Sai would get over it.
Right before our eyes, Magnus's buddies started dying, because Regulus continued his charge and almost casually tore three of them in half like piňatas before the others seemed to remember how to freaking move.
In the five seconds it took before they did and started gathering up their magic to fight, the scene in front of us turned into something out of a axe-murderer's slapstick routine.
I'm not kidding - blood and gore were flying everywhere, and flesh and limbs were being rent like papier maché as the two of us stayed rooted to the spot and just stared.
"You were right about one thing."
Regulus finally rumbled as the three survivors scattered all around him, a savage gleam to his lustre as he let them bolt away and started padding back over to the terrified, bleeding Magnus.
The man was pale with incredulous horror - or maybe the absurd blood loss, heck if I know - crawling back and cradling his gushing stump with wild, frazzled eyes that looked about two blinks away from popping out of his skull.
Regulus just laughed at the sight, before deliberately stomping down on the man's detached arm on his way over and crushing it to pulp.
Someone gagged.
It might have been me.
"Wait-"
"A debt is owed."
"NO-!"
Three things happened in quick succession.
Magnus threw himself back, propelled with a wave of magic as he desperately tried to save himself.
Regulus pounced, almost faster than I could track, and I belatedly realized that he was absolutely going easy on us when he tried to 'kill' us.
And then my senses howled as a wave of fire lanced down from the sky between them and Regulus was flung - no.
That wasn't it.
Regulus somehow kicked off the air and threw himself back as a lance of bright purple flames crackled in between them and saved Magnus by the skin of his very literal teeth.
The Nemean Lion - the famously invulnerable Nemean Lion - had just dodged.
That was my first thought.
On a scale of one to ten, with one being easy and ten being pear-shaped, that's a solid seven.
Then I realized that I'd somehow ended up twenty feet away, Sai right beside me and breathing the wrong way, and bumped that up to an even ten.
Those flames... they screamed at me in a way that not even Smaug's had, and they felt...
They felt divine - And I would know.
"WHO DARES?"
I didn't have time to think about that too much, because Regulus snarled with real hateful fury for the first time since we'd met, and we all followed him as his gaze snapped right back up to the valley's ledge.
A woman stood there.
Middle-aged, unassuming, dressed in fur-lined violet robes, jewels, and long, overstated witch's hat. Her grey eyes were sharper than knives, and ice cold despite the crackle of flames I could see wafting over her fingers.
They panned from the mangled bodies behind us, to Regulus to Sai, before they lingered on me in a way that had me tensing up, and finally came to a rest on Magnus.
Slowly, a smile pulled, and the air grew that much colder.
"My, oh my. Dear Magnus... what a mess you've made."
The dead man walking went bone-white, and this time it had nothing to do with the blood loss.
"Augusta."
And that's when things got really bad.
...
Sai and Dan watching Regulus forget all about them and have his revenge:
View: https://imgur.com/vQSLgqm
Fate when Sai and Dan think the crazy has hit its peak:
View: https://imgur.com/Qc6q5pk
As always, leave your comments and ideas and if you don't like it, please be courteous.
View: https://imgur.com/SLI2ahh
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