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font-size: 12px;">Chimeras. Chimeras? Who could have seen it coming? Not Hades. There were many things wrong in that moment, tragedy and mayhem striking those far below them in Olympus, but he had not foreseen, even a sliver, of tragedy striking them -- the Gods -- that day. Ichor spread across the marble floor of Zeus's palace slowly, reaching his sandals. The ichor of Athena, the favored and beloved child. Dead in an instant.<br/>
<br/>
Hades was no stranger to death. No matter how gruesome and ugly, he had seen it all before, and not once did he flinch. That is until the body of Athena, his niece, fell to the floor. Lifeless. Gods could die, Hades knew that more above everyone else. However, it was one thing knowing it and another witnessing it. The sight was an image he would never forget, permanently ingrained in his mind. Torn limbs, gold ichor, and that all too familiar smell of death, invading his nostrils, clinging to his skin and clothes.<br/>
<br/>
There was not a single moment of silence. Screaming, yelling, running. In a sick sort of way, it was almost comical. He came to make things right with his brother. To tell them of the horrors taking place on Earth, the ones which he could no longer keep quiet and deal with on his own. And now, they had horrors of their own in Olympus to deal with. Gaia was surely playing some cruel joke on them.<br/>
<br/>
Most of it was a blur, but it was not until his eyes caught the familiar and terrified face of Persephone that it all became real. Panic coursed through him, subsiding the shock and taking over his body. Only one consistent thought remained in his head; <i>protect Persephone</i>. <i>Protect Persephone.</i> Nothing else mattered at that moment, nothing but the safety of his Persephone. Not before Melinoe entered his line of vision. And though he reached, he wasn't quick enough.<br/>
<br/>
A bright light clouded his vision.<br/>
<br/>
<div style="text-align: center"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#517693"><i class="fa fa-helmet-battle"></i> <i class="fa fa-helmet-battle faa-pulse"></i> <i class="fa fa-helmet-battle faa-pulse"></i> <i class="fa fa-helmet-battle faa-pulse"></i></span>​</div><br/>
Valencia. Valencia City. The skyscrapers were recognizable, all too familiar in his memory where he ventured the busybody city of Spain years before. Yet, he hadn't the slightest clue of which part of the city he stood in. Though his memory was great, it was not great enough to know the map of the entire huge Spanish city. More importantly, it was infested with danger from every crack, crevice, and corner. The type of danger that no longer posed a threat to only mere mortals, but ... to the Gods that surely had appeared elsewhere in the city. Including Persophone -- no, it was Milan now and Bexley too.<br/>
<br/>
Neither of which locations he knew.<br/>
<br/>
And Hades? He was more mortal than he had ever been before. No, it was not Hades now, it was Ayden, though he'd always prefer Adis. His stature was far from weak, but it couldn't be compared to the body of a God, the King of the Underworld. That was more apparent when it equaled enough humans in this world and below some of the less than human bodies roaming the streets. A single glimpse of them from the corner of his eyes brought Ayden back to.<br/>
<br/>
He knew about them, of course, he knew about them, he managed their souls. Seeing them this close-up was different. It was a woman. <i>Was</i>. What was now standing in front of him was no longer human. Her shirt was blood stained, the blood was dried and also trapped underneath her filthy fingernails, and smothered across her mouth. The sight of her made his stomach churn and swiftly motivated him to move before she caught him in her sick grasp.<br/>
<br/>
As quietly as possible, Ayden edged backward, taking soft steps into an alley behind him. He turned his head, briefly checking the premises, and found it was empty, silent, and slightly dim. The farther he backed into it, the sense of safety slowly reached him. All he had to do was find a vacant and safe space to collect himself and decide his next -- <i>crunch!</i><br/>
<br/>
Glass. Ayden had stepped onto broken glass. Loud, but not dangerous, not as long it was underneath his foot and not out to attack him like that monster woman. The same one who as soon as Ayden looked back to, had made eye contact with him. There was no pause, not a moment to take a breath and move an inch before she came running at him. He was a large target, impossible to miss, and miss she did not. She immediately slammed into him, hands first.<br/>
<br/>
He caught her wrists with ease, though she was stronger than he had initially anticipated and persistent with the one goal of gnawing his face off. Being in such close range of her, Ayden could not only smell the stench of the blood on her but her natural body odors as well. His stomach began churning for another reason then. And that moment of sickness made him stumble, slipping on the shards of glass beneath him and crashing onto the concrete ground, ass first.<br/>
<br/>
There wasn’t a moment of time before she came at him again lunging with chomping teeth. Her face was even closer than before, her breath far more unpleasant. <span class="fixed-color" style="color:#517693">“Fuck,“</span> Ayden grunted, throwing her body off of him with all the strength he could muster. He had been granted just a second or two to decide his next move and used them to grab the largest shard of glass beside him. Just as she had not given him a moment, he didn’t wait to allow her one.<br/>
<br/>
Ayden lodge the shard into the eye of the infected female the second she threw herself back at him. Had he not been adapted to the violence, the squelching noise and blood that leaked down her face would have made him sicker. Blood dripped down her chin and onto his shirt.<br/>
It wasn’t until he pushed the shard farther into her socket with more strength did her body stop moving. For the last time, he threw her off. She was dead.<br/>
<br/>
Was it even a <i>her</i> anymore at that point? Doubtful. Her soul was long gone by now. And there would be no King in the Underworld to greet her when she arrived. It may have been brief,  but she instilled a new fear in Ayden. Fear for his life and the growing fear he felt for Milan and Bexley. All of them, every God who landed on Earth.<br/>
<br/>
<i>It is your fault.</i><br/>
<br/>
It was his fault. His pettiness, his pride, his anger, his grudge. He may have hated the Olympians, but this was a prime example that he was not any better than anyone of them. This mess was his own … <i>And once again you got Persephone caught up in the middle of it.</i><br/>
<br/>
Ayden gritted his teeth and clenched his fist. He didn’t have time for this self-reflection. He had wasted enough time doing a bloody dance with the infected human on the floor beside him. She -- <i>it</i> couldn’t have been infected for long. There was no telling what else might be waiting to attack him next. No longer would he be held up.<br/>
<br/>
The moment he pressed his hand against the ground to prop himself up, he winced. He was injured and the blood on his hands was not from the infected, but his own. The adrenaline that had kicked in and the guilt that had followed it numbed his senses to the clean-cut the glass had made on his hand. Perfect, as if things couldn’t get any better. His right hand was injured. The pain was helpful to keep him focused and going, however.<br/>
<br/>
Using his uninjured hand, Ayden pushed himself off of the dirty ground and walked down the back alley.<br/>
<br/>
<div style="text-align: center"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#517693"><i class="fa fa-helmet-battle"></i> <i class="fa fa-helmet-battle faa-pulse"></i> <i class="fa fa-helmet-battle faa-pulse"></i> <i class="fa fa-helmet-battle faa-pulse"></i></span>​</div><br/>
Hours felt like days. Days where the only contact he had was with the soulless beings around him with the only intention of sinking their teeth and nails into his flesh. And when there wasn’t that, there was quiet. An eerie quiet that Ayden felt no comfort in, but only a melancholic familiarity. He was once again talking to the dead to seek some sort of false companionship. Not that they ever talked back, but it was better than talking to himself and spiraling into a thought process that he wasn’t sure he’d escape and hinder his search for his ex-spouse. Wherever he was… Ayden’s jaw tightened.<br/>
<br/>
<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#517693">“Perhaps, you’ve seen them...Goddess of Spring … freckles, curly hair, green eyes … the prettiest ..”</span> Ayden mumbled, fixing the cloth wrapped around his wounded hand. And as expected, nothing was said back from the motionless corpse. However, it was a fresh corpse this time… As if it made any difference at all. The dead don’t talk, at least not to mortals.<br/>
<br/>
Ayden sighed deeply and observed the body a minute longer. The only thing of value on it was the long knife trapped in the grip of their fist. He was cautious, leaning in and prying the weapon from their cold fingers. <span class="fixed-color" style="color:#517693">“I promise you, I’ll make better use of it.”</span> That said, he set their cold hand back to the floor gently.<br/>
<br/>
These hours were beginning to confuse him, agitate him, numbing him. The only break he took was to catch his breath and clean his hand. All it took was a gentle squeeze of that hand and a sharp surge of pain pushed him to keep going, stepping over the legs of the lifeless body slouched against the brick wall of a vacant building. Or at least he assumed it to be.<br/>
<br/>
Where was he going?<br/>
<br/>
There was no obvious answer as usual. His legs only carried on, weaving through the back alleys of the city. The obvious move was to avoid any suspicious noises, but Ayden was sure to survey it if there was even the slightest possibility that it was a human who wouldn’t attack him. Infected or not. He had to find Milan somehow, and he wasn’t going to do it by hiding from every small noise.<br/>
<br/>
<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#517693"><i>What if he’s not here? He could be in another city or the other side of the Earth. They could all be scattered across this world.</i></span><br/>
<br/>
Ayden’s stomach dropped. He could be searching for Milan and Bexley for days, weeks even, perhaps longer than that. He could be the only God in the city. There was no telling where the others were dropped. By the time he found them, they could already be dead or -- “No, no, focus, Ayden,” he commanded himself and stopped himself to catch his breath and clear his mind.<br/>
<br/>
The man hunched over, resting the palms of his hands against his knees, and breathed heavily. When he looked up, he was faced with the dim stars of the night sky. Perhaps, he should rest… He couldn’t do anything for anyone if he was deprived of rest.<br/>
<br/>
The best spot he could find was a small apartment on the second floor. The place had obviously been ransacked, as evidenced by the mess left behind. Yet, Ayden was able to find a single can of chili hidden in the back cabinets of the kitchen. He blessing from Gaia.<br/>
<br/>
He dropped onto the kitchen floor, taking care to open the can with his injured hand. It proved to be quite the challenge as it was his less dominant one, but once it was open, he didn’t hesitate to dig in with a spoon. Before he knew it, he was dozing off with an empty can in hand.<br/>
<br/>
When he wakes, it is to silence and the rising sun. Without hesitance, he hopped onto his feet and continued his travels. Someone truly alive had to be around. He could feel it. </div><div style="
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font-size: 10px;"><abbr class="bbc-abbr" data-trigger="hover focus touchclick" data-xf-init="tooltip" role="button" tabindex="0" title="OLYMPUS → VALENCIA, SPAIN • STREETS">LOCATION</abbr> | <abbr class="bbc-abbr" data-trigger="hover focus touchclick" data-xf-init="tooltip" role="button" tabindex="0" title="DEAD PEOPLE">INTERACTIONS</abbr> | <abbr class="bbc-abbr" data-trigger="hover focus touchclick" data-xf-init="tooltip" role="button" tabindex="0" title="MILAN | BEXLEY">MENTIONS</abbr></div></div><div style=" margin: auto; margin-top: 5px; height: 10px; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; font-size: 8px;">Code by Jenamos</div>