The sound of high heels echoed through the halls, creating an eerie atmosphere. The gates of Tartarus hadn't fully closed in years... Many things had happened, and well...
"Lady Persephone..." A demon bowed quickly, recognizing the woman before him, now in a completely new human form.
"Any news?" she inquired, but the demon could only shake his head. After all, it had been years since
he
had vanished.
"I see... I will be going to Olympus temporarily. I shall return soon," Persephone said before vanishing before the servant's eyes.
"Phew... That crazy woman gives the creeps!" the demon muttered, wiping the sweat from his brow.
The heavy silence of Olympus seed endless...
Each step Persephone took on the cold marble floor echoed like a reminder that she was stepping into enemy territory.
Her eyes scanned the towering columns, and for a fleeting mont, she recalled how familiar this place once was... Now, however, it felt like a distant land.
"So you've returned… Persephone," a male voice echoed through the hall, laden with authority.
Zeus. Always him.
Persephone lifted her gaze, eting the imposing figure of the king of the gods, his expression stern. He descended the steps of the throne slowly, the sound of his leather sandals against the marble matching each calculated step.
"Any news of him?" he asked, though the answer was already clear.
Persephone sighed, keeping her posture firm. "Nothing… yet."
Zeus huffed in disbelief, but before he could say more, a presence approached swiftly. Hers, ever hurried and eager, appeared. He bowed quickly, barely acknowledging the tension in the air.
"My lady, a ssage…" Hers handed her a scroll, sealed with the emblem of the underworld.
Persephone took the scroll without hesitation, her heart racing… Sothing was about to happen, she could feel it.
"With your leave," she said, turning to depart.
Zeus rely watched, eyes narrowed, as she disappeared down the corridors once more... Hers, on the other hand, shrugged. "These etings are always so… tense."
As Persephone walked through the corridors of Olympus with the unopened scroll in hand, her mind wandered. Could he really be gone forever? The thought that he—the only one who could challenge her as an equal—might have... died... was sothing she refused to accept.
Her fingers tightened around the scroll as mories flooded her mind. He had always been stubborn, audacious, constantly tempting fate... but he was strong. Strong enough to survive whatever had co his way. But what if he really had t his end?
"No…" she murmured to herself, her words lost in the echoes of the empty corridors. "It can't be true."
Yet doubt crept into her thoughts. Ever since he had vanished, everything seed off. Even Olympus felt quieter, as if the world itself was waiting for his return… or for confirmation of his death.
At last, she reached an open courtyard, where the sunlight illuminated the golden columns. Persephone stopped, gazing at the horizon with narrowed eyes, the wind toying with her dark hair. She clutched the scroll against her chest, her mind racing.
"Could it really be that he's dead?" The question burned in her thoughts like a fla. Even for soone like him... death was always a possibility, no matter how improbable.
She thought of all the battles he had fought, the enemies he had made... so many that perhaps one had finally succeeded in ending his life.
"But without a body... without proof..." she murmured again, refusing to believe it. There was a difference between disappearing and dying, and she knew that until she had certainty, this doubt would consu her.
Persephone carefully unrolled the parchnt, feeling the weight of the words about to be revealed. Her heart raced, as if each syllable written there could change the course of everything she knew. Her eyes followed the lines, absorbing the ssage Hades had left.
"If you're reading this, it ans ti is running out."
The first sentence made her body freeze. She held her breath and continued to read.
"There is a demonic dragon that is about to be reborn. It may be dangerous. It has always been a threat in the past, but this ti... it may be our only hope. If you find it before I do, protect it. It will be the key to many answers we seek. Don't make the sa mistake my brother did when he hunted and killed the last demonic dragon."
Those words echoed in her mind. A demonic dragon... reborn? It was sothing she had heard of in ancient legends, stories told by the oldest gods, but she never imagined it could be real. Yet the following words sent a chill down her spine.
"If I do not return within a year... consider dead."
The last sentence was a direct blow. Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, the ruler of Tartarus, predicting his own death? The very thought was unimaginable to her. And yet, there was the ssage, as clear as daylight. Persephone took a deep breath, trying to contain the avalanche of emotions threatening to overflow.
She read it again, trying to absorb every detail. The birth of a demonic dragon. The imminent danger. Hades entrusting her with a task that, in itself, seed impossible. But there was sothing more... sothing that disturbed her.
Closing her eyes for a mont, she tried to connect the dots. mories began to surface. Recently, she had crossed paths with a strange creature. A dragon, but unlike any other she had ever encountered. It had an aura so dense, so intense, that simply being near it made her uneasy.
Suddenly, everything made sense.
"Strax..."
The na escaped her lips as a whisper. That dragon she encountered stealing Hellfire... the one that seed to have such a powerful yet enigmatic presence... it was him. He was the demonic dragon ntioned by Hades. The rebirth everyone feared... and now, he was within her reach.
Persephone clenched the parchnt in her hands, the paper crumpling under the pressure of her fingers. Her gaze hardened, but inside her, a storm of emotions raged. Hades had given her the task of protecting the dragon.
But Strax... he wasn't soone easy to control. He wasn't just a creature, but a being with his own desires, strengths, and secrets.
Above all, what troubled her the most was the fact that Hades believed he might be dead. If it were true, if Hades truly did not return... what would that an for her? For Olympus? For the Underworld?
"Screw Hades," she muttered, almost spitting the words, her voice dripping with frustration.
He had left her in the dark for far too long. Always acting alone, always vanishing with his secrets and unexplained disappearances. And now this? A simple ssage, as if she were just another piece on his board, a resource to be used when convenient.
"He disappears, leaves alone for years, and now he drops this bomb on ?" Persephone spoke to herself, her voice rising with a crescendo of irritation. "I held everything together while he was gone. I kept the Underworld stable, kept the monsters under control... and he just vanishes. And now he expects to take care of this dragon like it's just another errand?"
She stepped forward, her heels echoing more forcefully through the hall. Her presence radiated barely-contained fury, sothing she rarely let show. But that letter had been the last straw. The Underworld was as much hers as it was his. Maybe even more, after all these years. And now he expected her to wait patiently for another year before finally declaring him dead?
"No. No more," Persephone spoke firmly. "I will no longer live in his shadow."
She knew she had a decision to make. This wasn't just about Hades or the responsibility of caring for the demonic dragon. It was about her own autonomy. About the power she truly possessed, which she often chose not to use to avoid conflict. But now, there was sothing different in the air. She felt this was her chance to finally take control of her destiny.
"Strax..." The na reverberated in her mind once again.
This dragon wasn't just another danger; he was the key to sothing far greater. If Hades believed Strax was important, then he definitely was. But she wouldn't do this for Hades. She would do it for herself. Persephone had her own plans. She wasn't about to wait a year for the return of soone who might not even be alive. And if he was, he would need much more than a weak excuse to justify all of this.
With a simple gesture, she opened a portal, her eyes blazing with determination. The destination? The place where she would find Strax. She wouldn't hunt him like a shadow sent by Hades. She would find him as Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. No longer a piece in soone else's ga. Now, she played her own ga.
"Whatever it is you want to do, Hades," she whispered into the void, "I'll do it my way."
And with that, she disappeared, heading to... the Mortal World.
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