Apologize Not

Chapter 2:

      "Wake up." I command as I sit across a bed and onto the floor. The sickly green blanket slides down the bed as a soul awaken and sit up. The soul has long since lost its color and is now multiple shades of white. But its appearance still strikes memories.

       "Dad..." She says and slowly turns her head to look at me. Maryse, adoptive daughter of Azora, stares at me with one of her eyes missing. Her face is lined with scars from the barbed whips Elektra used to torture her. White blood oozes down her face and drips onto her torn clothes. A huge hole just underneath her chest exposes organs and bones.

        "Wake everyone else up. I've got something to tell you kids." I say and stand. Maryse frowns, her child-like gestures further hitting me with guilt.

        "Where's...Mom?" I head towards the door.

       "That's what I have to tell you kids about." I answer. I open the door and close it behind me. Maryse left as soon as I closed the door. I head towards the pavilion in the center of Elysium where I meet up with souls I command to my presence.

        Children laugh and run around. Adults talk amongst each other. Everyone's from different eras, races, and religion. And yet, everyone coexists here together. There's not many children here as there are adults. Mostly because all the lost souls end up somewhere else entirely.

         "Amorious." Cereline says and nods as I step onto the pavilion. I ignore her and walk towards the center where nearly everyone Azora cared about the most stands.

         "Azora's a traitor." I say. The four women in my presence begin to show signs of malevolence. Cereline's eyes flash red in warning.

          "How's my cousin a traitor?" She growls. Cereline looks similar to Azora. Unlike Azora, Cereline is the daughter of Apollo and has a softer personality than Azora. The two cousins suffered together until they were separated. They were only reunited once World War lll broke out.

         "She's become everything you feared." I respond simply. Eden scoffs.

         "If she's become everything we feared, it's a good thing. The humans had it coming." Eden has no real link towards Azora besides being the granddaughter of one of the demigods that used to live in the Tribe—a place where everyone in need and demigods went—before the war.

      "Keep in mind that Depression possibly took control. It could not be Azora we speak of." Lilith says. Lilith was Leo's mother before she was unjustly killed by Elektra for trying to defend Azora.

        "Mom... wouldn't...do that." Maryse mutters.

       "Well, she is. And she's replaced you." Maryse's eyes flash red at my harsh words.

         "What do you want us to do? We're dead, remember? Elektra slayed us!" Maryse pushes herself off one of the pavilion's pillars and approaches me." Elektra. Who I might as well add is your wife."

       "We have no reason to help." Cereline growls. The others nod.

       "I'll tell you what happened to your husbands–and Lilith, your son." Maryse stares up at me, her face distorted by her movement.

        "You knew all this time?"

        "I'm the king of the Underworld. They died. I'm going to know." I respond coldly. Maryse glides back to Cereline's side.

         "We won't help." They all say at the same time and disappear.

        I swing my sword, sending black ichor flying in an arch. Swamp nymphs surround me with crows backing them up in the trees. Golems groan their anger as they move closer to me. I curse as I hear multiple howls of approaching wolves. Azora's hunters are approaching.

        "Go back to the Underworld!" A nymph yells as she appears from underneath me and knocks me back onto my ass. She glides up between my legs and grabs me by the groin. I swing my sword, cutting her head off as she evaporates. Blood begins to stain my pants where her surprisingly sharp claws had pierced.

        "Looks like you won't be having kids for a while." Another nymphs says and drags me up by the collar.

        "We reject you, Cold King." Yet another nymphs says as she grabs my wrist before I have the chance to slay the nymph who grabbed me.

          "Would you reject the Earth Mother?" I taunt.

          "Gaia is nothing just like Uranus. Elektra is no Earth Mother for she is a disgrace. Our queen is Sieya." The nymphs chant as the crows fly down from the trees and begin to tear me open. Dark soldiers burst out from the shadows and begin to hack at the nymphs and crows. At the same time, wolves burst through the trees with hunters in human form on them.

         "Send him back to the Underworld!" A familiar voice yells. Onirá Ramirez, Azora's right hand, slays every dark soldier that comes close to her with her own sword. Skeleton soldiers climb up from the ground, backing up the rapidly falling dark soldiers. Onirá's contacts burn away to reveal her fiery eyes.

       The nymphs pull the skeletons back down as Onirá beelines towards me. Onirá's not the type to get angry easily. At least, that was before she met Azora. Before then, Onirá was easy to anger and wreck havoc upon those who ended up on her bad side. When Azora came into the picture, the threatening flames died down a bit to create the general she is now.

       Onirá carries the knowledge worth more than all the military officers in history. While she doesn't think about dictatorship or g******e, she thinks about what's best for everyone–even if it means her life. And that's what makes her so similar to Azora. The two are incredibly hard to anger; they think about others even at the cost of their lives; and both of them are holding me back and sending me back to the Underworld.

     "How many times do I have to kick your ass to make sure you stay in the Underworld?" Onirá growls angrily as she disarms me before I have much of a chance to swing my sword. It's not like I'm trying. The goal isn't to attack the Overworld itself. The goal's to kill Onirá Ramirez.

       "Bind her." I say calmly. In response, four skeleton sprout from the ground and bear hug Onirá. She struggles against them. Flames burst around her body in her attempt to burn them off.

         "This is your idea of a f*****g plan?" Onirá growls. She smiles, clearly thinking she has the upper hand.

         "You can't burn them. Only the shadow of the Underworld can." I explain. Onirá's smile widens, revealing sharp teeth capable of tearing through flesh and bone.

        "I know." She says as the flames become a blue color. The armor on the skeletons become dust and burn away. The flames become purple, burning the skeletons away and setting Onirá free.

         "Azora's hearth." I scowl. Azora's hearth is actually two hearths in one. The hearth was initially made in honor of Hestia, goddess of the hearth, the right ordering of domesticity, the family, the home, and the state. She sacrificed herself to provide the other Olympians enough time to take a final stand by Azora's side. The two circles represent two stages.

         Blue represents Hestia's initial stand and the first circle. This allowed families to remain together and stay safe against the oppression of war. Purple is the center circle in which Hestia was starting to tear apart. In allowing herself to be torn into nothing, she gave Azora the ability to not lose focus in her grief and to eliminate the remaining opponents completely. Azora's hearth burns a lot more than the flames of the sun, the Underworld, and Tartarus combined. Forget about all the different hells you know. Her flames burn brighter and deeper.

        "Shadow of the Underworld. C'mon, Rapunzel. Give me a tear from the sun while you're at it." Onirá taunts. Give her a tear from the sun and I might as well be Woody the Woodpecker. Not that I can anyway.

        "I need your help." I try.

        "For what? Throwing your ass into the pit of Tartarus? Gladly!" Onirá says, raising her foot and kicking me against a tree.

        "Azora has my kid. I need to get her back." Onirá becomes still. She steps back and glares at me.

       "If she has your kid, she has her for a reason. You're not exactly a fatherly figure." Onirá grumbles.

        "And Azora is? You?" I snap back. Onirá c***s her head to a side.

        "We have experience. You avoided your own kids. How many bitches have you f****d in the last three centuries? How many have you left pregnant?" I can never win arguments with her, can I?

        "Don't you want to see your husband again?" Onirá's expression darkens at my question.

         "He's gone. Away from your grasps." Onirá says and grabs my throat. Her own flames curl around me as she sends me back to the Underworld.