Parent's Love

"Have you ever thought about becoming a poet?" The creature spawned by shadow of Haemon followed the owner like a tail after a dog. "No" Olympian replied briefly, walking leaning on a bone spear made from Hydra. "Why? You would make an excellent poet with your dark poems!" Said the shadow appearing in front of owner's face. "Because poetry is a way to deal with inner problems. Poems will not help me kill an enemy. They only help not to completely lose my mind, they are an anchor that holds consciousness in an ocean of madness" Without paying much attention, Haemon passed through shadow. "Are you so afraid of becoming a monster?" Shadow's body twisted, growing a pair of horns to complement its claws.

"I already look like a monster, I don't want to become one inside too" Warrior answered while squeezing his clawed palm. "Or maybe someone just doesn't want mom to see her son's true face, someone doesn't want to be completely rejected?" Sitting on a stone and holding the monster's skull in his hands, shadow looked at master with suspicion. "Mom ah ha-ha, do we have such stuff?" Smiling madly, Haemon turned his head towards shadow. His eyes were stained with blood, washing his cheeks red.

"Unfortunately, yes" Shadow answered sadly, dissolving into thin air. The skull crashed to the ground from his hands, rolling right at Haemon's feet. "Hmm, will I ever see you? Mom" Olympian asked himself while looking at the skull at his feet. "Alekos replaced my father, but at the same time, he never thought of me as something separate" Haemon began to go deeper and deeper into his mind, trying to somehow understand himself. Walking through the forest and not paying attention to anything.

"Music has always been just a way to distract from loneliness, the idea of what makes you reject the truth. Alekos wanted me to become like him a creator, not a killer. Well, as a result, he was taken away. Satyr simply cared for me only out of a sense of duty, he didn't want to vilify his conscience by killing a child. I am grateful for even such a small kindness, but a life full of pain is not a life at all. And as soon as he got the opportunity to be as far away from me as possible, he agreed without hesitation. Then I was even glad, hm childish naivete played a cruel joke on me. The poet was thinking only about himself, looking for a way to be as far as possible from such a freak like me. Everyone always wants to see monsters in me, no one cares about what is inside me. Although it really doesn't matter how beautiful your inner world is when there is only darkness outside" By trying to understand himself, Haemon did not notice how shadow behind him was distorted into something terrifying.

"Alekos was actually an egoist like the others. Everyone cares only about themselves. Even world has given me nothing but suffering, every damn second here makes my lungs burn in wild pain. My skin is disfigured with scars, and I can't even touch anything without feeling pain like needles digging into me! And as soon as I became stronger, my father began to be afraid of me, as if I were a bloodthirsty beast. What about my real parents. Did they ever love me? Wondering what's going on with their child?" Olympian stopped and start looking at forest around him. "I really want to see my mother at least once!"

"Is this your true desire master?" Shadow asked as it appeared in the form of a snake. "Yes," Haemon answered shortly, bowing his head towards the black snake. "Then follow me, master!" A black long snake stuck out its poisonous tongue and then crawled into the depths of forest. Haemon followed after his only friend in this world.

Sometime later they reached a narrow cave.

Snake was able to enter without any problems, but Olympian needed to sweat by crushing stones on his way. There deep down at bottom of a cave, a crystal clear lake shone, when Haemon saw water after so many years, he ran to it without any hesitation, he like an animal began to quench his thirst. Cold liquid without the taste of iron or poison again touched warrior's throat after so many years. Shadow in its normal form, watched as his owner like a lion intends to devastate entire lake. "You'd better stop master, or we'll never see Mom!" The faceless shouted merrily while playing with sand on the floor. After remembering why they were here, Haemon slowly crawled away from his little paradise.

As wiping his lips, he looked at lake with happy eyes: "So how can we see her?" Pretending that he was yawning a shadow while twisting his finger, began to raise his hand, and a huge city appeared from the sand. "It's very simple, you need to think about your innermost desire and then make a sacrifice for lake in form of blood. Your blood, a drop will be enough probable" A white spark resembling a star appeared on the shadow's index finger, then with a wave of his hand, he threw this spark directly at the city of sand, destroying it. By taking a deep breath, Olympian cleared own mind and then focused solely on one desire. Convinced of his thoughts, Haemon cut his palm with a claw in a quick move, spattering lake with blood in the process.

"You know, this place used to be a sanctuary before, so many pilgrims from different worlds came here in search of answers to questions that tormented their souls," Shadow said as he approached Haemon. While Olympian himself didn't pay any attention to words, cause his thoughts and eyes were riveted by a pool of blood. Water as if under the fire of heaven, began to boil foam with bubbles filling the source. And then everything suddenly died down. At the end in center appeared an image of a woman with a child in her arms. Mistress of Night was the only way to describe a figure that appeared in a water.

A beautiful woman dressed in full black was holding in her arms a little boy of about five or six years old. "That's her?" Olympian asked in an uncertain, trembling voice, pointing at the woman. "Definitely her!" The madman happily answered with a thumbs up. "And the child in her arms, is he our brother?" Despair gradually began to take over Haemon. "It's not so clear, but at least I can say one, he is not her blood son. You see, Mommy thought that giving us life in the middle of woods would be enough! For her, we are an abomination that crawled out of night" Faceless began to grow in size, becoming more like a demon.

"But they forgot that night has two sides to a coin. Nyx forgot that night is not inherently beautiful, oh no, night is a time of darkness and monsters. Night is a father of fear" Many tentacles and eyes appeared on shadow body. "What if they're right?" While dropping to knees, Haemon covered his face with hands. "Do you think a mother has a right to take what is ours by born?! And give to one who was born from damn flower girl Persephone! According to you son of a king is more worthy of mother's love than us?!" Shadow snarled and slammed his fist against the wall, in a result causing an earthquake. "It's a child of Hades!" Haemon's voice changed from despairing to demonic. Olympian's body began to emit steam, his muscles bulging along with black veins. An aura of despair spread throughout the underworld, his bloodlust clinging to Nyx like a wild beast.

During this time, queen was busy putting Zagreus to sleep, when suddenly a demon appeared in front of her, his full body was covered in wounds, and evil eyes full of pain and fury looked at her. And then with a wild howl, monster attacked her. Without even taking more than two steps vision vanished. Leaving only Nyx wide-eyed from realization that her son get to the truth. Quickly laying prince on the bed, Nyx headed toward there where a demon was from. She instantly understood whose energy belonged demon.

"Milady, where are you?" Dusa asked in surprise. Without answering, Nyx quickened her pace, dissolving into thin air with every step. "It's just a mistake, yes, I just made a mistake, he can't be there!" With panic in voice at night, mother kept mumbling to herself, hoping to be wrong about the aura.

Anger completely overshadowed the mind of Olympian, absorbing all emotions entirely. For the first time in years of his life, Haemon allowed the inner beast to come out and gave reins to the hands of instincts. His eyes will forever leave a trail of incessant tears of blood. A gift that will give one of the many names in future: "Lord of Treachery"

Cracks appeared on the skin around eyes, giving the impression that the very body of barbarian began to take on its essence. Fangs of Olympian increased in size, becoming sharper, and the same applied to claws. His hair, like living snakes, rose up and down.

Having got out outside and in addition to destroying cave, Haemon staged a massacre by destroying everything around. A spear and whip a two faithful reapers of mad father will drown underworld in blood of sinners. Hunger wild hunger not satisfied demanded more and more.

Then a predatory roar shook forest, as a result drawing everyone's attention. Baring his fangs, Haemon headed towards danger. Looking at world from above, as if it was king. A huge lion sits on the mountain of corpses. Haemon and beast only needed met eyes to understand each other without words: "There is no place in a world for two supreme predators!"

Lion jumped high and fell on the warrior like a mountain, in a same turn warrior threw a spear at the head of beast. But it didn't even scratch beast's skin, bouncing off it like a ball against a wall. Grasping warrior's hand with its sharp fangs, lion tore it off in an instant. Haemon hit monster several times with all his might, but it didn't even move, then rebounding to distance, Olympian tried to strike with a whip. Lion pounced again without any fear, while grabbing whip in his mouth, he quickly pulled warrior towards him, depriving out of balance on his feet. Raising its paw up, beast struck at the chest of Olympian, as result allowing lungs to touch a air of the underworld. Lion's mouth opened to bite off barbarian's head, but he closed it with a powerful kick of his foot.

Crouching down, Haemon slipped under the lion's carcass, then grabbed it tightly with both hands at ribs. Haemon pounded with all his might, intending to turn all of its insides into a mess. Lion, feeling threatened, began to tear back of warrior with claws, trying to get rid of the madman. The muscles in Olympian's arms swelled like never before, becoming a stone. Haemon had no intention of letting go. The great fight of endurance has begun, who will give up first? The one who has felt only pain all his life and is already used to it? Or the one who never knew the feeling of pain was not injured at least once?

Nyx watched all of this with shock on face, she covered mouth with hand so as not to cry out in pain, tears flowed from her eyes. "My boy why are you here? I didn't want this for you! How and who sent you into this nightmare, what made you reject all the good inside. Turned you into a monster like the other inhabitants of this place!" With pain in her eyes, mother extended her hand to son, but immediately pulled back. "Sorry I can't! I honestly can't! Your fate is sealed!" With tears, Nyx plunged into darkness.

Nemean Lion is one of the most terrifying offspring of giant Typhon. From birth, he did 't know what fear and pain were, no one could ever hurt him. And here he is, an insignificant mad Olympian who somehow manages to instill in him the fear of defeat. The ribs slowly dug into the lion's internal organs, causing it to vomit its own blood. Pain is incredible but for the first time in many years of his life, he felt it, such a bright and long-awaited pain. Roaring for the last time, the lion died in agony from torn entrails.

Haemon's claws were finally able to dig into the beast's flesh, allowing it to enjoy the giant's meat. By putting both hands on his master's shoulders, shadow tilted own head to his ear and whispered, "The circumstances of our birth are not important. You are not respected because of your weakness! This is the main law of nature, strong survive, weak perish! Fittest survive, strong survive, weak perish. Never forget this! Never!"