[Thanatos POV]:
Being the true form of Death was exhausting. He was primal death — Every 'god of death' that exists, exists as an extension of his will. Thankfully, Thanatos had his helpers — Be it the Keres, Azrael, Anubis, etc. they made his job slightly easier to deal with.
Thanatos watched his only daughter disappear, knowing her tasks will be tough, but not impossible for her. She'll survive it, and come out of it stronger than before.
"You think she will succeed?" a hooded winged figure said, appearing beside Thanatos. "This is supposed to be the seed of Chaos we're talking about. He won't make it easy to hold him, you know."
The figure lifted his hood. He was tall, crowning a war helmet with antler-like horns sticking out on either side of it. He wore a cloak of dark grey feathers that hid his full body. Sprouting from his back were two wings, one was a full plumage of midnight violet feathers, healthy and strong; the second was bone-y and dead, decomposing in meat and had hardly any feathers on it.
This was Moros, the primordial god of Doom and tragic deaths; he was one of Thanatos' many aspects and avatars, though Moros was one of the more powerful aspects he created. In a way, every death god that exists is an aspect of Thanatos — they were him, and he was them. Every time one of them reaped a soul, it was him doing the same thing essentially, as is the case with the Dao of Death. They are one in the same — At least, as far as his aspects are concerned. They serve him, even if a handful of them are his siblings.
"She will survive… because she must," Thanatos nodded, as their environments changed.
Suddenly, the two deities of death stood over Blakeand Celeste, as Draco knocked Blakeunconscious, no one in their group capable of seeing either gods even despite them basically walking amongst the mortals. Athan sniffed the air, briefly looking in their direction with squinting eyes, but he couldn't see anyone. And, as Celeste angrily explained what happened and Crowrella showed everyone present the proof, with Athan vouching for Blake's innocence, they began to make plans to hear the whole story, upon their return.
As they prepared to leave, Athan kept looking in the two gods' direction. While he couldn't see them, his instincts were telling him that there was someone powerful there. He just wasn't sure what. When he reached out a hand to check, he felt nothing, going through Moros' form unknowingly, like a ghost of some sort.
"This is one of that vampire's direct spawns, isn't he?" Moros said, eyeing Athan in a mixture of light amusement and obvious scrutiny. "Shouldn't his base power be much more along?
Thanatos said nothing, but that was not anything new. Death has always been silent. Why should he be anything different? For he is death, not incarnate; Death. If there existed a being that was the personification of Death, it'd be Thanatos. And his quiet personality reflected that fact.
"It would seem what we are seeing are one of his realistic blood clones," murmured Thanatos, eyeing Athan in study. "Athan's original body is likely still in the underworld somewhere."
"I get he's a clone, but his power should still be even higher than just a measly Chaotic rank," Moros scrutinized Athan curiously, as they carried Blake's unconscious body and led Celeste to the portal exit.
"He must have sealed most of his true power to help maintain his clone for longer periods," Thanatos observed. "Though I'm sure that he could release a max of Peak Legendary rank without completely destroying his clone. Gods knows, his real body is a much higher ranked body than that of his clones, especially given he's the son of a Progenitor of vampires."
"Hmm… how fleeting a topic." He lost interest with a whisper of dispassion, his gaze sliding toward Blakelike fog creeping over a battlefield. "So… that is our new little brother."
A pause, as if tasting the weight of fate itself.
"Is it true, then? Has Mother truly claimed him as her champion? Curious… She has never done so before. Not even for Orpheus — the mortal she once shared that long night with. Ironically, that same boy would one day find the Great House that now reigns monarch over the Shadow Realm… such quaint symmetry.
"If it is, then, he has a long road ahead of him. After all, Pallas Lycaon is only one of the Lycaon Progenitors — And there are over 90 children of that mutt, each deadly existences with various affinities and menacing power…. For mortals, anyway. Pallas, due to his reincarnation, was amongst the weakest. The others will come after him and the girl, especially when they learn what they have done. Those mutts are highly protective of their own."
The two lords of death watched Blakeeven as they were approaching the exit gateway. Thanatos said nothing, merely watching everything play out before him. A moment of silence passed between the two primordials.
"It is, she did, he does and they will," Thanatos answered all of his companion's questions at once, as he watched Blake's sleeping form with an unreadable expression. "The House of Lycaon is powerful, but so is the Erebean line of the House of Khaos. He is one of us; he won't fall so easily. Besides, father has gifted him many of his own abilities, and, as have I. I'd imagine he will love the gifts I've left him. If he can master his gifts, not even the Olympain gods will be able to touch him."
"You've increased his already abnormally high aptitude for shadow magic… And added some of your own darkness to his," Moros said in awe, his eyes glowing crimson red briefly in surprise. "Careful, you might end up spoiling him."
"I've never had younger siblings before… not ones who could be called normal, anyway." His voice drifted, as if sifting through the dust of ages. "You—my aspects—don't quite count and Aether is an insecure whelp with daddy issues. And don;t get me started on all the others."
A faint, humorless smile tugged at the corner of his lips before fading. "These two gifts I've placed within him… they shall remain dormant, sealed until he's ready. He's aware of the others—those, I've permitted. But these… these will awaken only when the weight of their meaning no longer breaks him."
"You've granted him more?!" Moros chidded. "You really are a dotting older brother. Who would have guessed?"
"Ha, ha. Very funny," Thanatos was not laughing and his dry tone suggested he was unimpressed. "Besides, he's only going to get more gifts from our relatives as time goes on; might as well give him the most useful ones. I'm genuinely surprised Father hasn't given him his yet… ," Thanatos said in wonder, before shaking his head in realization. "Then again, Mother's gift was her patronage, and then some, so maybe I'm not… You can only guess what Father's gifts will be."
"I won't worry too much about this, brother," Moros began, eyes taking on that mischievous glint. "Don't let Akhlys, your sister-wife, find out what you're doing to him, she'll mistake him for your son. And you know how she behaved when she found about Achlys; I reckon the only reason that girl and her mother isn't dead right now is because she shares namesake, and even that had taken you years of convincing not to make the poor girl's life miserable."
Thanatos paused in thought, then shivered. He wasn't wrong. "Let's not even speak that into existence. Besides, I'm more worried about the stirring of Chaos. Any word of our father? If anyone is stronger than our uncle, it'd be him."
"None," Moros said with a frown. "At least, nothing new, anyways. The other aspects are gathering, though, as you requested. Our siblings are, too."
"Good," Thanatos stated. "We will return to our father's domain soon, to be there upon his awakening. The House of Erebus will stand strong… Now, if I can only find that lost twin of mine…".
[Achlys Keresa]:
True to her word, Achlys eventually met with Morpheus in the Dream Realm, told him what his uncle, her father, told her to, and then she left, choosing to wake up… In a place she hadn't been to before.
The room she woke up in would best be described as a bunker room. It was subterranean in nature, with earthly walls, a simplistic set up of a bed and a dresser beside it. There were no windows or drawings on the walls and the concrete flooring was cold to the touch. A bathroom was found to the right along with a toilet, a tub and a sink with a mirror above it. The smell of dirt and earthly scents were thick in the air, like newly sprayed perfume put on just before work, only this smell was coming from all around her.
"What the—? What is this place?" After taking in her environment, Achlys quickly got to her feet and, from beneath the covers. A little too quickly. "Aah!"
Stumbling back onto the bed, Achlys looked down at her shirtless form. Below her black sports bra was a stomach area wrapped all the way around in lenin. Bits of blood could be seen spread through the gauze wrap, but it mostly looked dried, except for whatever part of the injury Achlys had managed to rupture open.
Taking in her injury, Achlys reached into her spatial bracelet and pulled out two soul cores from it. Unlike normal cultivators, children of the underworld can use soul cores in ways normal cultivators could never hope to dream of, such as helping in healing, renewing stamina and sustaining fullness in placement of meals, and much, much more. Being a child of Thanatos had its perks.
"Two should be enough for me," Achlys thought aloud, swallowing the two soul cores whole. She felt them turn into invigorating mist before they made it to her stomach. Almost instantly, whatever wounds she had sustained from her fight with her amushers, however minor, stitched themselves back together. Her stamina began climbing back to their original levels and her pain subsided greatly.
"That did it," Achlys thought, getting up and dressing into her clothes that smelled cleaned and washed somehow. "Weird."
Making it out of her room, Achlys snuck around for a bit. She found herself in an evidently subterranean hallway with 4 more similar rooms as her own — All were empty. There was a stairway leading downward at one end of the hallway, and an elevator leading upward towards the other flowers, likely higher up, mabe even below.
Achlys took the elevator upwards.
Inside, it could comfortably fit 6 people at once. The button said there were 50 floors total, and that she was on Floor #32. She choose the top floor, Floor #1. The doors closed and music she didn't bother recalling played as she traveled upward at a steady, smooth, but fast speed.
DING!
After what felt like a long time, the elevator doors opened and Achlys found herself inside a command chamber of sorts. There were all sorts of computers and screens and a large complex data table in the center, displaying holographic data and maps of various biomes and worlds. Consistently lining the walls were the flagged symbol of House Luminaris, its lunar might as evident as its beauty. There were a few people manning the computers, making serious calls and giving orders around, but Achlys tried not to pay that too much attention. Achlys was perplexed. What was she doing here?
"Oh, you're finally awake!" came a startling voice, gathering the attention of most of the people nearby as Achlys turned to face who spoke.
Before her, was a white-blond hair man in full body armor — She'd seen earlier, before she went unconscious. 'His name is General Silva, if I remember correctly,' Achlys remembered the few times she'd gotten caught with Celeste doing something rebellious or mischievous when they were little. Shaking her head, she acknowledged the general. "Hello, there, General. I take it our situation is far from simple?"
"Your assumption rings true, Lady Achlys," said General SIlva in a grave tone. He explains all that went on in her and Celeste's absence, "Sean Luminaris betrayed us, and he's got over 2/5ths of the family to join him. The other 2/5th are still off-world. With access to the portal room down, they have to travel through space to reach us, which, given the speed of their crafts, will take at least a year or two, if all goes well. We're stuck with 1/5ths of the ones who managed to stay loyal to the House, but we are vastly understaffed and outnumbered. By the time aid arrives from offworld, there's no guarantee we will survive the coming battles, but, then again, no war guarantees anyone victory. That said, Sean cannot be allowed victory, not after what he did to my men, and most certainly not after choosing to usurp the princess.
"He's taken over what remains of the estate and many of the House Luminaris guards have named him their leader. Those bloody traitors! I've sent word to retrieve the princess but she is recovering from an accident."
"Accident," Achlys furrowed a brow.
"Someone shoved her into a red gate," the general said, to Achlys' horror. "She's alive, just resting now."
"Someone?" Achlys squinted her gaze. "Or Sean?"
"...," Silva didn't reply.
"Hmm… very well," nodded Achlys, with a sense of finality."Well, when she fully recovers, I'll talk to her. House Keresa and House Luminaris have been sister houses since the beginning. Both houses are Shadow Realm houses, and both houses stand by one another in these trying times. In the meantime, however… I've got somewhere to go."
"Where could be more important than here?" Silva was perplexed.
"A quest given to one by their literal divine parent," Achlys answered, heading to the exit, much to the general's shock. "Don't worry, I'll be back to help, but, first, there's something I've got to do. After all, I am not a member of House Luminaris, so I do not take orders from you, do I?"
Seeing Achlys made up her mind, Silva stepped aside, letting Achlys leave, hoping for her safe return. For all Silva knew, any help to get through this was welcome. And, with the princess under and the current head still in his cocoon of moonlight, unconscious, Silva already had a lot on his plate.
Still, though, Achlys remained steadfast. Her father naming her his champion was definitely a big deal. You don't just get named the Champion of Death itself, then get issued an unavoidable, time sensitive quest by Death and not be a little jittery in completing it.
Nonetheless, Achlys exited the bunker, taking note of its location as she observed how it was built into a mountain cliff face, overlooking the rest of Moreno Valley.
"Its been a minute since I let them out…," muttered Achlys, as she looked over the scape of Moreno Valley. "Maybe I could. I mean, I'll use darkness to prevent anyone from seeing me, so it's not like I'll be spotted. And even if I didn't the Veil keeps normal mortals from truly seeing the affairs of the gods. Still, agents of Chaos are everywhere, even here — and, unlike mortals, they can see through the Veil. It's best I be as discreet as possible."
Then, to any stranger who may have been watching's horror, Achlys extended her hands, closed her eyes and fell forward off the face of the cliff.
Despite the air rushing to her face like a speeding bullet, Achlys was calm. Even as she fell from the peak of the mountainous cliff face at breakneck speeds, Achlys' face showed no concern for her own life. It was as if she wasn't afraid of death from a cliffside jump. And, as the land below was coming at her, rushing at her quicker than one second then it was before, Achlys showed no fear.she dove nose first towards the ground, like a comet upon the earth.
And, right when one would be certain they'd be ground paste, something remarkable occurred.
From her back, as if by magic, Achlys sprouted a pair of beautiful violet-black feathered wings. They were at least 1 ⅔rds the size of Achlys' height and beautiful with an aura of deathly darkness and well-groomed feathers. They caught the wind like sales to a sea storm, and, with extended wings, she soared, rising with each flap of the wind, taking her higher and higher into the afternoon sky, her form obscured by the darkness itself even despite it being daytime.