It's good to know not all relatives are complete bastards
Neither of them seemed willing to kneel before Hades, even with the weight of a mountain pressing down on them. While Hades kept his gaze fixed on them, suddenly all that pressure vanished completely, as if it had only been an illusion. And a genuinely amused smile appeared on Hades' face as he looked at them with recognition.
"Now I understand why they like you two so much," Hades said easily before turning around.
After sighing to calm himself down, Hades brought both hands to the top of his head, massaging his temples, completely dropping his regal aura; leaving behind only an annoyed and exhausted uncle.
"I need a drink. Follow me," he said while turning around and beginning to walk around the bone throne in the center of the chamber.
The four of them exchanged brief looks before following Hades. And the moment they walked around the throne, they realized that behind it, hidden by a wall of carved black wood that perfectly matched the throne's aura, although everything behind the throne felt strangely out of place, there was basically a living room. A desk buried beneath enormous towers of paperwork that, if they collapsed, could probably bury a person alive. A bar cabinet filled with all kinds of alcoholic drinks, several couches, and a table with snacks on top of it; along with a fireplace burning with black flames off to the side.
"I'd offer you a snack or something to drink, but if you did, you'd end up here forever," Hades said while walking toward the cabinet and grabbing a bottle of what looked like alcohol. And that was obvious not only from how it looked, but because the moment he uncorked it, an intoxicating aroma spread out that left the four of them slightly dizzy.
Though Hades, after looking at the liquid inside the bottle, frowned.
"Tsk. That witch stealing my stuff again. I was wondering what they bribed Dionysus with," Hades said in an annoyed tone before taking a long drink and sealing the bottle again.
Which made the young group regain their senses.
"Good. Let's finish this already so I can get back to work. And I'm sure you all want to finish your other quest before my two dear brothers destroy half the world in their stupid fight. Which, trust me, is neither the first nor the last time," Hades said while suddenly raising one hand, now holding a backpack that looked pretty ragged after everything they had gone through so far.
Percy instantly turned around and touched his back, realizing the backpack that had been hanging there was gone. And now it was in Hades' hands without him even noticing when he took it.
But considering they were standing in front of a god, and inside his territory, it probably shouldn't have been that surprising.
Hades calmly opened the zipper and looked inside, silently staring at the two objects resting there; the Master Bolt and the Helm of Darkness. Two of the three most powerful weapons in the entire Greek pantheon; with only Poseidon's trident missing.
Hades raised his gaze toward the four of them before reaching inside, while they all watched closely to see which object he would take. But Hades didn't seem bothered by their stares and simply picked up his helm with ease; then tossed it onto the nearby couch as if it weren't one of the most valuable objects in the world.
And then, just like that, he threw the backpack directly toward Percy without caring about the Master Bolt at all. Percy caught it carefully in midair, terrified that if he dropped it, he'd somehow have to explain a broken Master Bolt to Zeus afterward…
Making both Annabeth and Grover let out relieved sighs after seeing Hades had no interest in the Master Bolt.
"Now it's time for me to fulfill my side of the agreement, since you successfully completed the quest I gave you. So I'll fulfill my part of the deal and alter your friend's curse," Hades said calmly.
"Wait. Alter the curse? I thought you were going to completely break his curse," Harry interrupted while frowning.
"Well… I couldn't properly explain it before. That's why I hoped Alecto and the Furies would bring you here first so I could explain everything before you went searching for my helm, but instead you avoided them and somehow completed the quest along the way," Hades said calmly while looking directly at Harry.
They had already heard from Arthur that Hades had actually sent the Furies to bring them into the Underworld, though hearing it directly from Hades' mouth only made them feel even dumber. Because they had literally been given the easy route to get here, and they assumed the Furies were trying to kill them. Though to be fair, they definitely didn't exactly look friendly.
"You should know the stories about gods' curses. We cannot completely erase each other's curses. We can only alter them, protect someone from them, or find loopholes around them. You have examples like Hercules, Cassandra, Orestes… your Aunt Morgana," Hades explained.
But hearing that last part made both Harry and Percy show shocked expressions.
"What? Aunt Mor is cursed?" Percy widened his eyes in surprise.
Harry frowned too upon hearing this for the first time. They knew Aunt Mor had to stay in Europe "cleaning things up," but they had always assumed it was because she had been punished for breaking the rule about not interfering after being partially freed from her imprisonment.
"Sorry. It's not my place to tell you. If you want to know, you'll have to ask her yourselves," Hades said calmly.
"That's not fair. We completed your quest, which by the way was at a way higher level than you thought. We ran into Ares, who was a complete jerk the whole time, and if it weren't for Grandpa Vincent we don't even know if we would've managed to reach the Underworld, or at least not the way we expected. Plus we were doing all of that while being chased by monsters that thought we had Zeus' Master Bolt. Including Medusa, that giant snake woman, her Chimera, and all her monsters. Your head of security, who literally tried to kill us just a little while ago," Percy instantly complained openly, not caring at all that he was saying this directly to the god of the Underworld. "And now you're saying you can't completely free Cousin Dred from his curse. That's really unfair. Almost as unfair as Zeus saying I stole the Master Bolt," Percy said with obvious annoyance.
Harry also looked pretty annoyed; he was even frowning. But Percy seemed to be saying everything he himself was thinking, so there wasn't much need to add anything.
After being compared to his brother, Hades' expression shifted into one of complete annoyance. He raised his hand before snapping his fingers, creating a sound that seemed to echo throughout the entire castle.
Then, in front of Hades, a small black orb formed and shot at high speed toward both Percy and Harry.
Making Percy shut his mouth while watching the orb fly directly into his chest and pass through it.
"Wh… what was that?" Percy asked while touching his chest in confusion. Harry also had a completely confused look on his face.
"An extra. You're right. I can't deny a good part of the blame. If I had paid more attention, that idiot's plans to steal the helm never would've succeeded. Which helped lead to the theft of the Master Bolt and you being framed for it. And you really worked hard on this quest. You did well," Hades said calmly while giving them a small smile.
Something that left Harry and Percy somewhat surprised, because it felt genuinely friendly; as if he truly appreciated them.
"Now you'd better get moving. You don't have much time left if you want to stop a war. I would take you myself, but I'm not particularly eager to see either of my brothers' faces. So I'll let Alecto escort you out of the Underworld," Hades said softly while taking a small bell from his desk and lightly shaking it, making a faint chime ring out.
Harry looked like he wanted to ask something, but Hades spoke first.
"It's a single use safeguard. Though I'm pretty sure he'll use it before you do," he said while glancing toward Percy. Percy made a confused face while looking behind himself trying to figure out who Hades was talking about. Then he frowned even more, making even the god of the dead roll his eyes before continuing. "Don't worry. I'll handle your friend's curse. Like I said, I can't erase it, but I'll make it less horrible. Also, regarding the other thing worrying you, I heard Hecate has two pets. One of them is a hellhound that apparently ran away from home. But a few days ago it came back injured and poisoned, so the goddess left in a terrible mood to hunt down the Mother of Monsters after healing her pet. Though I'm pretty sure she won't let it out again for quite some time," Hades added with a reassuring smile.
Hearing this, Harry widened his eyes and let out a small sigh of relief. Meanwhile Percy broke into a huge smile after remembering that hellhound who gave its life fighting alongside them against the Chimera.
"Uncle Hades, you actually are pretty cool after all," Percy said confidently toward Hades, causing Hades' smile to instantly die.
"Now get out of my sight already. If I have another quest, I'll look for you," Hades said dismissively, waving his hand as if shooing them away. "Oh, I almost forgot," Hades added after remembering something and glancing toward his fireplace, where black flames were burning.
Then he casually grabbed the fire itself and pulled out a tiny flame no bigger than a fingernail before placing it inside a small jar that appeared in his hand, then tossed it toward Harry.
"Your grandmother asked me to give this to you. She said this way you'll be able to stay closer," Hades said lightly.
Harry caught the jar and didn't understand Hades' words. But Hades didn't seem interested in explaining further as he walked back toward his desk and sat down to continue working.
"I won't escort you out. I've already wasted too much time," Hades said while filling out documents and signing permits.
Really showing just how busy the king of the Underworld actually was.
When the four of them were finally leaving, Hades raised his gaze once again, fixing it on Harry for a moment before lifting one hand and catching something invisible in the air.
Without Harry noticing, something dark came directly out of Harry's forehead and into Hades' hand, transforming into a disgusting and horrifying mass with a twisted face trying to escape from the god's grasp. But Hades' cold gaze made that thing freeze in place while terror twisted its face even further.
"You've watched enough, trash," Hades said in a completely cold tone; entirely different from the one he had used with the kids earlier. Far more violent and colder than when he first saw them. If he spoke to the small group using this same tone right now, their souls probably would've literally left their bodies, because his words carried the power of death itself.
"You dare spy on me? It doesn't matter how many pieces you tore your soul into, every single one of them will know only eternal damnation. Thanatos becomes absurdly furious with existences like you. Now go keep your other fragment company," Hades said while a massive dark door opened beside him out of thin air, from which the roars and cries of thousands of suffering souls escaped, enduring punishments even the gods refused to name.
Then he threw what he held in his hand inside as if tossing away trash before the door shut once again.
Afterward, he grabbed a handkerchief from beside him and calmly wiped his hand clean before going right back to filling out documents as if nothing had happened.
…
Meanwhile, deep within a vault hidden inside an even larger mansion, a small black diary resting atop a display case suddenly trembled while a groan full of pain escaped from it, startling a house elf that had been cleaning the most dangerous and dark objects hidden inside.
"Dobby, useless elf, come here this instant!" an annoyed roar echoed out, making the house elf tremble slightly before running at full speed toward the voice.
But not before turning around one last time to look at the diary.