Hell:
"Welcome Cadius! Or perhaps I should say Lord Winchester now!" A man with shoulder-length blonde hair greeted Cadius as he and his dates teleported into the room, "It's been too long, my boy."
Cadius in return held up his hand, "None of that Lord Phenex. Our families have known each other far too long. It will always be Cadius to you and your family."
"Well, then none of that Lord Phenex crap from you either my friend. With your ascension to the head of your house, we are equals now." The man smiled back, "Lilian and Daphne, it is good to see you both as well. I always knew the both of you would grow up into stunning beauties."
"Was there ever any doubt sir? I mean have you seen our mother's? We were destined to be gorgeous." Lilian snorted.
"Very true I suppose." Lord Phenex agreed, "I'd say it's a shame they won't be able to make it to the gala, but maybe that's for the best. We wouldn't want them to distract the guests all night."
Cadius chuckled, "I suppose it is Rixen. Now please don't tell me we are too late to the festivities, I'd hate to share a table with the Buer again."
It was the Phenex's Lord's turn to chuckle, "You're perfectly on time, Cadius. Most of the others are still arriving as we speak. But just in case I have already gotten you and your dates a table. A table that seats two of your sisters."
Cadius's lips thinned slightly. He wanted it to be a relaxing evening, not one spent listening to Michelle and Jezzabell arguing with each other. He momentarily thought about declining the table, but Rixen hadn't finished talking.
"My daughter is also at the table and her friend she invited is also at the table. You may be happy to hear that said friend is your sister Daphne. I'm sure she'd be happy to see her big sister."
'And there goes that option.' Cadius bemoaned in his mind. There was no way in hell Daphne was going to let them sit at another table now.
The feeling of nails digging into his arm let him know his prediction was correct.
Arthur:
It was raining again.
Normally when I got slammed into the ground all I got was a bit of dirt and foliage to the face.
Instead, I now found that Michigan mud had a distinct taste of lead to it. You learn something new every day.
"I'll enjoy cooking and ripping the marrow from your bones boy." A snarl said from above me as I was held in the mud.
Moving my head from its face down position I spit out as much mud as I could while eying the giant werewolf on top of me.
"Sorry bro, but I'll have to pass."
The grip he had on me was iron-tight. I could crush concrete with ease at my current strength level, but it turns out that a buff ass werewolf could still pin me to the ground with little effort.
Who would have guessed?
Hearing his buddies quickly approaching, I decided that I didn't want to stick around in my current position.
Lightning flared from my body violently and the smell of burning fur and a roar of pain reached me as I reared my head back as hard as I could.
I felt bones from his snout give and I pulled on my Aerokinesis to blast him off of me.
Old wolf-boy was blasted into a tree as the air cracked and I quickly brought my rifle back out of my inventory.
Lightning flooded into my nervous system on command and I tried to take stock of my situation. I was completely separated from Percy and Annabeth, a dozen more werewolves were rushing at me so fast that even with lightning enhancement they were almost a blur, and my favorite revolver had been knocked out of my hand at some point.
So not particularly great.
I let loose with a salvo of divine bullets into the wolves bearing down on my right. I caught three of them in the head and their bodies crumbled into grey dust before they could even hit the ground. The other two I caught right in their chests and while it didn't outright kill them, I could hear their howls of pain as they went down.
'Get down.'
My danger sense pinged me and I kicked my feet back to drop to the ground. Just in time too, as a sharp pair of claws went through the space my head had been not a moment later.
Screw this.
I dropped my rifle back into my inventory and extended my hand.
"Chidori!"
ChirpChirpChirp
The sound of thousands of birds screeched through the clearing as I pushed off the ground and thrust my hand forward.
The dense hide and muscles that covered his chest did nothing to stop my lightning blade when it went through the place its heart was resting.
Pulling my hand out of the charred chest cavity I kicked the now limp body and stared down the remaining six.
Instead of cutting out the spell, I kept pumping mana into it. In return, the mass of lightning around my hand flared as its intensity grew and the chirping got even louder.
"Let's do this."
I practically blew all my mana feeding both the Chidori and Lightning enhancement as I blurred forward. It was the fastest I had ever gone, but damn if it wasn't exhilarating.
Everything was slowed to a point I had never encountered before. Even the raindrops coming from the sky seemed to be coming down in slow motion.
These mutts were so fucked.
The first werewolf could barely blink before my hand came across his neck in a slash, separating his body from his head.
And I didn't let up. I moved through the remaining five with all the speed and finesses my mother had hammered into me during our training. More heads came off, hearts were pierced through, and I basically bisected the last one.
My world snapped back into reality as my MP bar flashed empty and the thud of six bodies hitting the muddy wet ground reached my ears.
Looking around to make sure there weren't any more enemies, I took a deep breath and fell to the ground on my ass. I didn't often feel exhausted except on some very rare moments since gamer's body basically kept me at peak performance at all times, but there were times when the mental exhaustion would get to me.
Eying my slowly recharging MP I let out a sigh, "Maybe I could get a quick nap in to recharge it fully."
Percy and Annabeth had gone off together to try and find the women and children who this pack had captured while I played distraction. So they should be fine.
"There you are."
My eyes snapped up towards the new voice that had entered the proverbial arena.
They found a woman on the shorter side of height wearing ripped-up flannel and jeans and with a perm that shouldn't have existed for a good decade at this point.
Honestly, I would have dismissed her as a normal young midwestern woman if it wasn't for the feral snarl and the crimson glowing eyes looking at me in hatred.
That didn't look good.
"Can I help you, Ma'am?" I drawled out, "If you're looking for a store to stop looking like the '90s dumped a load all over you, the Michigan Outlet Mall is about 3 hours south of here."
Those crimson eyes narrowed dangerously.
"How dare you. You come to my home, murder my pack, and…"
My pack? She was probably the Alpha then.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure this is a really big event for you. But honestly, this is just a job, I don't really care about the whole speech thing. Though pot meets kettle much? Aren't you guys literally eating, turning, and kidnapping humans?" I said dryly as I stood back and stretched my limbs.
Her face scrunched in anger, "We do not concern ourselves with the opinion of cattle. We are the hunters, your species is the prey. It is how it has always been. Ever since your kind was huddled by the fire and killing each other with sticks and stones."
This bitch.
I rolled my eyes and shot an Observe at her.
Ah, that explained the cockiness. She was indeed the Alpha of the pack.
"See that's the thing with you monster fucks. You think you can get away with shit without reprisal. Despite the fact, history is literally littered with heroes and hunters exterminating you guys as revenge. Have you all ever thought of what happens should the veil such as the Mist one day should fail? Humanity ain't exactly savages huddled around the fire anymore."
The Dresden Files pretty much had the answer for that.
Extermination of the Supernatural.
Humanity in that universe was treated as the big red button should anyone reveal the supernatural to them. The Nuclear Option. For good reason too.
Billions of humans vs a much smaller amount of Supernatural beings. Humans who had been honing logistical production and research for hundreds of years. Sure they'd have trouble fighting the Supernatural at first. But the research of old legends and Human Hunters coming forward to share what they know with the governments of the world would change the tide.
"I see no difference just because you all have some shinier tools. We are the apex predators of this world, the hunters of hunters." She snarled.
Oh, was that how it was.
"Is that so? Well then allow me to introduce myself. I am Arthur Winchester, Demigod, and Son of Artemis. Goddess of The Hunt and The Moon." I said condescendingly, "I am literally the child of the concept of The Hunt. So you ain't shit bitch."
I expected her to transform and our fight to begin after my announcement.
Instead, all the anger momentarily drained from her.
"The Son of the Huntress…"
There was a lull for a moment.
Then that rage returned full force and she transformed faster than I could almost perceive.
A roar that had my ears ringing rang through the area and her body ripped itself apart.
Most of the wolves I fought at this point we're about 6 feet and either had black or brown fur with yellow eyes.
You know, standard werewolf stuff.
The one in front of me now was probably closing on 9 feet and her fur was almost a pure silver color.
Huh, maybe now was a wrong time to remember that Artemis had hunted down and killed the original Werewolf. Their weakness to silver was because my mom uses silver arrows.
Hitting her with another Observe I didn't like how much HP and MP she had gained. And if those rose dramatically, then her stats probably did as well.
"Maybe it's time to use some of those stat points I've been sa-'' Was what I tried to say before the Alpha practically teleported in front of me through sheer speed alone.
Her fist impacted my face so hard I felt my nose snap instantly and various other facial bones break from the force.
I impacted the ground at earth-shattering speed and I felt my body make a trench as I careened backward.
Slowing to a stop a good hundred feet away I could barely wipe the mud and blood out of my eyes before a silver blur was on top of me again.
Shit.
Hell:
"He could be in danger!" Michelle protested.
"I'm sure he's fine, sister." Cadius dismissed and took another bite of his steak, "He's probably just relaxing at the house enjoying not being in school."
The half Angel's eyes narrowed, "It's been over a year Cadius. I went back to check the house during our school break, it looked like no one had been there in a long time."
A snort made its way from the other side of the table, "Ah if the little shit has gotten himself killed who cares. Maybe if he even had a speck of power or talent he'd be fine."
Michelle turned her glare towards her sister, "I don't want to hear it from you, Jez. You've never worked for any kind of power in your life. Everything special about you comes from dad and your mom just passing on good genes."
A frown appeared on the red head's face, "I'll have you know that I train plenty thank you very much."
"If by train you mean the trains that get ran on you why you're high as shit at parties, then yeah I guess you do." The blonde shot back.
Cadius smirked into his wine as he took a sip from it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lilian nearly do a spit take from hers while Daphne tried to hide her giggles.
By the two of them, he eyed Lord Phenex's daughter who was blushing up a storm, and Daphne's little sister was glaring at daggers at Jezzabell.
Greta. It had been a while since he had seen her, but it didn't take a genius to figure out the death glare. She was quite attached to his little brother after all.
Daphne told him she practically went catatonic when her brother disappeared last year and then went on a spree of freezing people who pissed her off in school.
It seems he did have that in common with the boy. They both had a Lucifuge female obsessed with them.
He blamed his dad for that.
"W-w-why you!" Jezebel fumed, "How do you even know this kind of shit! I thought you Angels didn't gossip!"
"Oh, dearest sister of mine. One doesn't need to gossip to recognize when they're near a dump."
Oh, she wasn't.
"Don't you even dare..."
"Am I wrong? Because I think the term of cum dump would aptly apply Jez." Michelle innocently explained.
Cadius's chest rumbled with contained chuckles. Perhaps it was a good choice to sit at this table. A good catfight was always entertaining after all.
Say what you want about his Angelic sister, but sometimes those Devil genes she got from their father showed through.
A pinch from one of his dates brought him out of his musings.
"Please be an adult and stop them before they start throwing magic around." Daphne asked, "As amusing as this is, I'd hate for this to reflect poorly on you."
He supposed she was right.
"Sister's, you can squabble and fight later when you both return to school. But back to the topic, he is fine Michelle."
"And you know this how?" She pressed.
"The letter that Miss. Raum delivered to me and my father's will addressed such. Besides the fact I am set to meet Arthur later this year, it was revealed to me that our dear brother is actually quite divine in blood. Even more so than you." He explained, already knowing that the last part would draw attention.
And indeed all eyes were on Cadius now.
Only it wasn't the voice he expected.
"What do you mean by that?" The voice of Greta asked.
He spared a glance at the girl before returning to his sister's gaze.
"It seems even after death our father's list of conquests grows. Arthur is a Demigod sister."
The silence returned. He was even given surprise glances from his two dates. Which was to be expected. He hadn't bothered to inform them beforehand.
"You gotta be fucking kidding me." Jezzabell was the first to speak, "A Demigod!? How the hell is a kid who can't even perform basic magic be half-god?"
Cadius tuned out the table as his sisters descended into another argument, instead he let his eyes roam around the hall the gala was being hosted in. The Phenex family had spared no expense for the hundreds of guests that were now in attendance. The lavish decorations and almost unlimited gourmet food and drinks being served would be the talk of the year.
His eyes settled on one table in particular though. One that hosted a lavishly dressed businessman and his guests that were all laughing at something he had said.
An eerie grin slipped onto the WinchesterLord's face. Said businessman had come to him not even a day after his father's supposed death and tried to gain the rights to open up some mines on the fringes of the Winchesterand Beal lands. The deal had been so one-sided it had been practically a slap in the face to both his families.
He'd been meaning to return the favor for some time. Perhaps he'd have to pay the man a visit after the party and renegotiate...
Arthur:
Our fight had turned into a whirlwind of blades, claws, and lightning.
Pretty early on in the fight, I had been forced to ditch my rifle. Even with Lightning Enhancement I just wasn't fast enough to reload and rack it every time I ran out of bullets.
So my old trusty Archangel blade came out to play.
This had been the exact scenario I'd had in mind when I told Uriel of my request for a new blade. I wouldn't always be able to use guns in every situation and while I was nowhere near as skilled in swordplay as I was with guns, it was still necessary to use.
Deflecting another strike of her claws with the greatsword, I brought up a light shield to block a kick that had been aiming for my kneecap. The shield shattered from the strength of the blow, but it gave me time to dodge out of the way of it.
Using another airburst I pushed Alpha away from me to buy some breathing room.
She flew back a good hundred feet before she righted herself mid-air and hit the ground in a roll.
Knowing she'd be back on me in no time I immediately brought up my stat screen and began allocating.
I'd already broken my self-imposed challenge early and dropped some points into wisdom to get my MP back up faster. But as the fight dragged on I knew that wasn't going to be good enough.
I guess this qualifies as an emergency.
Rapidly throwing most of my saved stat points into their respective categories I winced as my saved points went from the triple digits to almost nonexistence.
Arthur Winchester, Lvl: 54
Title:
[HP] -9000/9000
[MP] -7500/7500
[STR] - 130 (15%) = 150
[VIT] - 90 [PER] - 100 (40%) = 140
[DEX] - 129
[INT] - 150
[WIS] - 126
[LUK] - 34
Points - 26
Money - ∞ (Lotus Card)$
Hmm, now that I think about it I'd yet to get a title. Weird.
"I'LL RIP YOU FUCKING LIMB FROM LIMB CHILD!"
Oh right, crazy powerful werewolf trying to kill me.
The silver blur once again charged at me again at full speed, but instead of a blindingly fast blur, it was now a trackable one with features I could make out.
We clashed in a shower of sparks as she attempted to block a swing from my blade with her claws and while it did stop the sword from cutting her across the chest, she was rewarded with the tips of her claws being sheared off.
"What?" She growled in confusion.
A pleased smile came to my face. All the points I dumped into strength were well worth it.
We continued on in our deadly dance. Whereas before I could barely keep up and had been on the defensive, our roles had reversed. Abyss Watcher hadn't been much of a danger when she could easily deflect and dodge it
Now it was almost all she could do to weave herself around the legendary blade. It would only be a matter of time before she messed up.
And mess up she did.
Another dodge had her back up over an uneven patch of her, causing her to stumble and my blade scored a strike. The results weren't what I was expecting.
I'd never actually hit something with Abyss Watcher without it being a one-hit kill. As such, I'd never actually seen its Soul Tear enchantment in action until now.
It was as if the energy within her was suddenly sucked out. Those crimson glowing eyes seemed to sink in on themselves and that beautiful silver fur that covered her entire body seemed duller than before.
"W-what did you do to me?" She panted out, her whole frame seeming to shutter from sheer fatigue.
Interesting. It reminded me of the effects of the weapon that Luke/Kronos had hit Percy with when they dueled at the beginning of the 5th book. Which made sense, that weapon was also able to damage the soul.
Maybe I really would have to challenge my brother for this back in a couple of years.
I capitalized on her newfound weakness and charged a Chidori as I rushed forward.
ChirpChirpChirp
The sounds of screeching lightning once again filled the area before giving away to a howl of pain, my hand passing through bone and flesh like butter.
Something wet and smelling of metal was coughed out of the beast and splattered all over my face and hair.
Blood. Definitely must've destroyed at least a lung and multiple arteries.
"Get off!" The Alpha screeched and wildly tried to pry me and my arm from the inside of her chest. Two clawed hands grabbed my shoulders and I suppressed a scream of pain as she tried to crush my bones through sheer strength.
Had my jacket not been made of Nemean Lion I'm sure she would have been able to tear them off without a second thought.
I fought against it with my newfound increased strength and ignored the pain. Using the last of my MP for the second time today I charged my final Chidori.
"Just die already bitch." I bit out and brought my piercing lighting blade upwards through her chest cavity.
I was rewarded by a final screech of pain and her flesh giving away as my technique split her in two.
With a thud, the body hit the ground and I was left all alone.
Taking a deep breath I relished in my victory. For this had been the first kind of boss or miniboss I had ever taken out by myself.
I was finally moving up in the world.
!
Leveled up 5x times!
Normal Quest Completed!
Oh, Percy and Annabeth must've already handled the others. A quick look in my inventory showed me the second part of The Colt had been given to me.
Now I just needed Uriel to take those women and children to the underworld like he said he would and we would be golden.
"Uriel Watcher and Archangel of Heaven, I beseech you to get your ass down here."
"You know, most speak my name with reverence and fear." A dry voice said beside me.
Without even sparing a glance I snorted, "Most aren't currently covered in mud and werewolf guts."
"Touche."
We sat in silence for a few moments more, just having the sounds of rolling thunder and sizzling flesh fill the void as we did.
"You know I may have a job for you to do in Hell should you be inclined?" Uriel broke the silence.
"Oh? And what's going on down there that could warrant your attention?"
Uriel pulled out a dossier and tossed it, "Someone's been on an assassination spree of those of the high class down there."
I cracked open the file and nodded, "Quite the numbers for the high class. 15 dead in the last month alone."
"At a glance. The high class of Hell is actually quite diverse in its make-up. Lord's and Lady's as heads of their respective Devil and Fallen families used to make up the only members of this class in the old days. Nowadays they share it with the Overlords."
My head peaked up from the papers, "Overlords?"
"Powerful Devils who came to power without the backing of the great families. Business owners, crime syndicate leaders, and celebrities."
I held back a snort, "Seems like Devils learned about capitalism."
Uriel shared my amusement, "You'd be surprised, Arthur. The population of Hell is quite large from both its normal inhabitants and the souls of humans that get sent to live there. That leads to lots of room for innovation. I dare say some of their cities are larger and more advanced than some of yours."
"How large are we talking?" I asked.
"Well the last census was about a century ago and it had just passed the 10 billion mark, so who knows where it is today. But that's neither here nor there."
10 billion a century ago.
Perhaps I'd have to revise the odds of humanity winning. Though Celestial Bronze Nuclear Warheads might even those odds…
"Now tell me what you can piece together from that dossier and what I've just told you."
I paused for a moment to think about it.
"Most of the ones dead are from this Overlord caste. Only one noble has been killed so far." I answered before I blinked at the name of said noble.
Huh, so he did die.
Uriel nodded, "Indeed, do you recognize said noble?"
"Yeah, it's that blue-haired asshole that killed Richard and all those people at their airport." I said and read further ahead, "It says he was killed at a banquet hall by Cadius…"
That bastard! He's the one who took all my god damn XP! Where did he get off on stealing other people's quest rewards?
"So Cadius is the one killing these guys?" I asked, "What's the mystery if you already know who's doing it?"
The Archangel shrugged, "Well that's just the thing, Arthur. While I suspect it's him, I have no evidence."
I raised an eyebrow, "Him publicly killing a noble who's also a Hell Knight isn't enough evidence?"
"Most agreed it was justified. Cadius in the eyes of the law and public was simply avenging the death of your father. On its own, the incident wouldn't normally stand out, but given it happened about the same as the other deaths… Well, our suspect would need to be both powerful, skilled, and power-hungry to both succeed and want to target powerful beings such as this in the first place." Uriel explained.
"Which my brother happens to be?" I asked.
"Ah yes, your amnesia. Your condition slipped my mind." Uriel apologized, "But yes. Your brother is well known for his power despite being young and even more so for how ambitious he is. There's a reason Miss. Raum was scared of delivering your letter to him personally."
I sighed, "Sounds great, but remind me why you even care about murders and politics in hell Uriel?"
"It's twofold really." He admitted, "For one Heaven and Hell are at peace, for now, the leaders of both are in agreement to avoid war. By keeping Hell's political spectrum stable in the current status quo these peaceful relations should continue unharmed."
I could barely suppress the chuckle that came out of me at that, "Holy shit you really are a CIA black ops angel. Any elections you have to rig after we're done here? Maybe we could go install our own puppet afterward."
"Hilarious Arthur." Uriel rolled his eyes in faux annoyance, "It's also as a favor to my sister."
"Which one?" I snorted.
"Lucifer." Uriel said without skipping a beat, "As you might assume, she's quite invested about what goes on in her domain."
It was still weird to me that not only were Lucifer and Satan different beings in this universe but also that Lucifer was a chick. I suppose it doesn't matter too much though. As once I give this sword back to my brother there won't be a reason I'd ever have to meet her. If she wanted her blade back, she could take it up with Cadius.
"What, is Miss Queen of the Fallen too busy to do her own detective work in her own backyard?" I asked sarcastically.
Uriel nodded, "Yes actually, which is why she asked me to do her this favor."
"You're kidding me right?"
"Not at all Arthur. While she does care about what happens down in the Underworld, she has many hobbies that also take up her time. She owns and runs many bars and restaurants down there and here on Earth as well. In fact, asked me for this favor during one of our weekly lunches at one of her places." Uriel explained as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
I took a moment to digest that set of information and I came to the conclusion that I didn't know which was weirder. The fact that the Devil was lazy enough that she'd rather just run her chain of restaurants and instead have others investigate what was happening in her own domain. Or the fact my Angel sensei had weekly lunches with her.
I decided to just shove those thoughts away for later because this wasn't my problem at all.
Besides the fact I had really no intention of going to Hell anytime soon, I was currently way too busy to consider taking a quest that would possibly take weeks if not months. I had a whole checklist of stuff to do before the events of the Titans Curse kicked off in the Winter.
Such as actually doing a bit of a road trip with Percy and Annabeth without any world-ending quests or hunting monsters. Both of them had never seen the world, much less even the country they lived in, and I wanted to change that. We had almost 2 months until I had to take Percy back to New York for the school year.
I figured we could do a coast-to-coast tour in that timeframe. Filled with plenty of museums, sporting events, and amusement parks for all three of us respectively.
After that, there was some more training I wanted to get done, the quest I needed to do to alter the fates of Bianca and Nico, and of course my search for my new weapon.
"I'll have to pass for now my friend." I finally answered, "I'm going to be busy these next 6 or so months."
The Watcher shrugged, "I figured as much. I've heard whispers of your Great Grandfather growing stronger. Should this turn into a war between Olympus and The Titans, you will have your hands full. I wish you luck in your endeavors in your battle against the forces of evil. For both your sake and for the good of this world."
I smiled. You know there was a lot of media where Angels were shown as stuck-up assholes that were sometimes worse than Demons. But so far the two I've met, Uriel and my sister, have been pretty awesome.
"Forces of evil? Sorta corny don't you think?" I chuckled.
"As far as I am aware, Kronos was classified as destructive and evil even by the humans who worshiped him. So an apt description I believe." Uriel tutted before pulling what looked like a white and gold tablet from his coat pocket and tossing it to me, "And just as promised, this contains all the information on a list of weapons I compiled for you. It contains their description and possible locations. Now, I believe I have some women and children to relocate."
With a wink, he was gone and I was left all alone again with just the mud and dead bodies.
Looking down at the device in my hand I realized it legitimately was an electronic tablet. Years before it should even remotely exist in the mortal world.
"First the Athena Cabin and now Heaven. What other cool tech do these people have?"
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