"...and that was everything Lucifuge had to say."
Erebus finished his explanation without adding anything else. His voice slowly faded through the enormous stone chamber while Tartarus remained seated in front of him, listening with an expression that was difficult to read. Several meters away, Nyx rested comfortably on one of the seats, her cheek supported by one hand as she watched the conversation with little interest.
It wasn't as if Rizevim Lucifer's proposal was particularly surprising. The Alliance of Hell was already part of the Khaos Brigade; its different groups simply acted according to their own interests most of the time. The only difference now was that Rizevim seemed interested in bringing the two branches a little closer together for rather obvious reasons.
"So the brat descended from the original Lucifer wants to work more closely with us," Tartarus said, drumming his fingers against the arm of his seat. "How considerate of him."
"He believes our interests are beginning to align more than usual," Erebus replied calmly. "Especially when it comes to Damon."
A small smile appeared on Tartarus's face. "Why am I not surprised...?"
Nyx slightly raised her gaze at the name. Damon, Rhea's firstborn and the being who had brought the Titanomachy to an end, a war that at times had seemed destined to continue forever.
There was practically no being within the Greek Pantheon who didn't know that name. Even among some of the highest existences in the cosmos, Damon's reputation was well known.
Even Nyx had heard his name countless times throughout the millennia, and that was already saying quite a lot considering how reclusive the Primordial Goddess of Night was. Even so, she had never been interested enough to meet Damon personally, unlike several of her siblings and other Primordials who had crossed paths with him.
At first, Nyx had even assumed Damon would become the new King of Olympus after overthrowing Kronos. Imagine her surprise when she learned that Zeus had somehow ended up sitting on the throne while the redhead had simply disappeared. She didn't know the entire story and, being completely honest, had never bothered asking anyone about it.
What mattered was that Damon was finally King of Olympus now, and Nyx couldn't help feeling the tiniest amount of appreciation toward Rhea's firstborn for finally getting rid of Zeus. Even for someone like her, who practically never involved herself in Olympian affairs, Zeus had been like a small speck of dust constantly irritating her domain. Yes, a very minor annoyance, but still an annoyance for someone whose greatest desire was simply to be left alone.
"Rizevim believes Damon will become a greater problem for all of us if he continues at this rate," Erebus continued. "Not just because of Olympus... his name keeps appearing in more and more places in one way or another."
"Of course. Gaia's lapdog causing trouble again," Tartarus replied seriously, the hatred in his voice quite clear. "The boy always had a bad habit of sticking his hands where they didn't belong. I wonder what Chaos thinks about all of this... I warned you, siblings. Olympus only brings unnecessary problems for the rest of us."
Nyx almost rolled her eyes. There Tartarus went again with the same thing he had been saying for ages. She had long since lost count of how many times she had heard him repeat similar complaints, especially after Uranus handed his Domain over to Rhea's firstborn. And after Gaia, and especially Chaos, claimed Damon as their champion, things had only gotten worse.
At the same time, though, Nyx honestly couldn't completely blame her older brother.
Most stories portrayed Tartarus as an existence of complete impartiality, an image mostly created by younger gods who had never truly known the Primordial of the Abyss. Nyx, however, had spent practically her entire existence within his domain and knew him extremely well. Her brother could remain hidden in the shadows for thousands of years without moving a single muscle, indifferent to almost everything happening outside his depths, but when someone truly managed to offend him, as a being of darkness, Tartarus found it extremely difficult to forget.
Gaia and Uranus were perhaps the best examples of that.
Nyx had never gotten along particularly well with Gaia. She couldn't say she hated her either; they were simply two existences that functioned better the less they had to deal directly with each other. Even so, Nyx could admit that her sister had handled certain things in rather questionable ways.
Especially during the earliest days of the cosmos. Gaia had always existed between two extremes. Above her would eventually stretch what later became the Domain of the Sky, while beneath her rested the Abyss.
But before the Sky even existed, the connection between Gaia and Tartarus had been much deeper than most beings knew. Not in a human sense, but because both of them had emerged almost simultaneously, among the first existences born from Chaos alongside Eros. That alone spoke of the deep connection between them, at least in that primordial sense.
And from that moment onward, the Abyss had desired the Earth more than anything.
Not in the simple way a man desired a woman. Concepts like that barely mattered to beings such as them back then. It was an impulse born directly from their own natures, a need for the Abyss to intertwine with the Earth that existed above it.
That had always been Tartarus's deepest desire: to become one with the Earth. He didn't merely expect Gaia to return some form of affection toward him; he wanted her to allow him to freely extend toward the surface and become an inseparable part of her existence.
But things didn't go the way Tartarus wanted..... In fact, they went terribly wrong.
Gaia not only rejected him but also created the Sky, better known as Uranus. Not long afterward, Uranus became Gaia's consort, ruling the world beside her and forming the union between Earth and Sky that would later produce many of the earliest gods.
Nyx still remembered Tartarus's internal fury perfectly. Back then, she had even thought a cosmic war might break out between the Primordials, but fortunately Tartarus managed to keep himself under control. He never attacked Uranus, and he hadn't even directly confronted Gaia over her decision, although anyone who truly knew the Abyss could tell that he was far from accepting what had happened.
Nyx actually felt a little sorry for him... just a bit.....
Gaia hadn't exactly helped matters either. She had always been proud, even more so during those first days of the cosmos. She had made no attempt to hide her choice from the other Primordials, forcing Tartarus to stand there and watch as the existence he had wanted to connect with since practically the moment of his birth publicly chose Uranus instead.
Perhaps that was why, when Uranus decided to imprison several of his own children within the depths of the Abyss simply because he couldn't stand looking at them, causing his relationship with Gaia to begin falling apart, Tartarus needed very little motivation to involve himself.
When Gaia finally turned against Uranus and Kronos raised his scythe against his father, the Primordial of the Abyss did what was necessary to give the Titan every possible opportunity to win. For Tartarus, it was the perfect chance to finally watch Uranus fall, something he had desired long before Kronos himself had even existed.
Nyx had always found that part of the story rather ironic. Gaia had chosen Uranus over Tartarus, but when she finally rebelled against the Sky, even without knowing everything happening behind the scenes, she ended up depending on the very Abyss she had rejected in order to bring about his downfall.
But even after all of that, the Abyss's desire for the Earth never disappeared completely. Even so, it never developed into a true relationship between the two of them.
The connection between their natures was far too negative and destructive for that, but it had still been more than enough for several creatures to emerge from their contact. Over the millennia, mortals would eventually describe those beings simply as the children of Gaia and Tartarus. Most of them were monsters precisely because of the enormous amount of negativity produced whenever Earth and the Abyss came into contact.
In the end, that ancient desire only continued turning into resentment, something that had been responsible for several problems throughout the long history of the Greek world. It was undoubtedly a complicated relationship, so much so that even modern human stories still struggled to understand what had truly happened between those first Primordials.
"You seem to have something on your mind."
Erebus's voice pulled Nyx from her thoughts. The Primordial Goddess of Night slightly turned toward her husband, noticing the questioning look in his eyes.
"Not particularly. Just a few thoughts of little importance."
Tartarus narrowed his eyes at her response. Nyx rarely became that lost in her own thoughts; most of the time she simply maintained that blank expression that made it seem as though absolutely nothing around her interested her enough to matter.
Under Tartarus's suspicious gaze, Nyx simply put on her best empty expression. She didn't need to explain her thoughts to anyone, especially when she knew perfectly well that some of them would probably only irritate her brother even more.
Faced with the slightly awkward silence, Erebus decided to continue before the conversation drifted completely off course. "Rizevim wants information about Damon and support whenever our objectives align."
"So he expects me to agree simply because Damon has become inconvenient for him?" Tartarus asked. Yes, he hated Damon and practically everything associated with him, but not enough to simply ally himself with anyone else because they happened to share an enemy, especially when that someone came from the Biblical Faction.
"I'm sure Rizevim is smarter than that." A small smile appeared on Erebus's lips. "That's precisely why he sent Euclid first."
Tartarus let out a small laugh. "Hmmm... at least they know their place."
Nyx rested her cheek against her hand once again. She cared very little about any of this. The Khaos Brigade had never meant much to her. If she remained connected to the organization at all, it was mainly because of Tartarus and Erebus. As long as nobody came into her domain to bother her or threatened her children, she could happily go another thousand years without hearing a single word about the problems of Devils, Greeks, or any other faction.
Ophis didn't exactly help improve Nyx's opinion of the organization either.
Nyx had never fully understood that dragon. Ophis possessed an absurd amount of power and was old enough that she should have been capable of understanding practically anything she wanted, yet she continued viewing the world in such a limited way that Nyx sometimes found it difficult to take her seriously.
Almost all of Ophis's interest seemed to revolve around two things: the Dimensional Gap and Great Red. Even Chaos, who spent most of its existence creating worlds here and there while paying little attention to what happened inside many of them, had more personality than the dragon, and that was despite interacting with living beings far less often.
With all of that said, Nyx had no desire to make Ophis her enemy and have the dragon chasing her around either. One only had to look at Ophis's absurd determination to defeat Great Red to understand just how troublesome she could become once she fixed her attention on someone. And personality aside, her power remained extremely frightening, even for an existence like Nyx.
"Let him come," Tartarus said suddenly.
Erebus raised an eyebrow. "Rizevim?"
"If he wants to speak with me, then he can come himself. I'll listen to what he has to say."
Erebus nodded calmly.
Tartarus remained silent for several seconds before adding, a barely visible smile appearing on his face, "After all, if Damon now has the Shinto on his side as well, a little help certainly wouldn't hurt."
Nyx slowly closed her eyes. She truly hoped all of this could be resolved without forcing her to leave her cave too often.... But if things ever reached that point, there was no question about where she would stand.
Beside Tartarus and her husband.
>>>>>>>>
Another chapter today lol ?
P@treon:Brotato
discord./ejBn3cncc