DA : Chapter 96: Betrayals and Pleas IV

( Percy POV )

"Don't jump the gun here. I may be king but I don't rule alone and in the end the council must come to the decision together. Pray that Demeter hasn't personally pissed off any of the members … save trying to stuff Nico full of grains a few years back," he added as an afterthought.

"Thank you!" Persephone cried as she suddenly lunged forward to hug his knees.

...

He gave a bit of a grunt as he patted her back awkwardly while the goddess continued to thank him for even giving her request any thought. He mentally called for his Shadows as he pride her off his legs and helped her stand. Within moments three shadows materialized to form Lupa, Medusa, and Lamia, all three looking at Persephone questioningly.

"Medusa, please escort Persephone out," he instructed softly as he handed the goddess to one of his guardians.

Medusa nodded while gingerly leading the softly crying goddess away while Lamia and Lupa stood to his sides. Once they were out of sight he sighed as he leaned back, a throne of black ice instantly formed as he sat down.

He rubbed his temple, idly noting how both his remaining guardians got comfortable. Lupa sat at his feet before crossing her arms over his knees and resting her head on them while Lamia sat at the right armrest and leaned onto his shoulder.

"So … what was that about?" Lupa asked as her silvery-yellow eyes looked up at him.

He gave a mirthless chuckle before filling them in on the quick exchange, their faces looking thoughtful once he finished.

"Hmm … I could see the council sparing her and a few others," Lamia commented. "But you wouldn't let them off scot free would you?"

"No," he replied as one of his hands found Lupa's head and started to scratch behind her materialized wolf ears getting a content sigh from her. "But then again, the type of punishments would have to depend on the god/goddess' willingness to accept their fault and try to make something of it."

"So no killing them on the battlefields but capture and trials instead?" Lupa asked.

"Save three," Lamia added with a smirk to which Percy nodded.

"I wonder what the council will think on this?" he mused as he thought about several gods and their actions during the last decade since his disappearance.

Many of the Olympians had become rather distant and cold with their children though the only gods that had relatively high interaction was Artemis with her Hunt, Hermes on some deliveries, and Dionysus but he was just a miserable bastard at one of the camps.

"But even if you want to spare some, that doesn't mean they all deserve a trial or anything of the sort," Lamia suddenly added in as she looked at Percy.

"This is a war and the goal is the removal of the Olympians and other ancient threats that used this chance to escape their punishments. People die in war just because of the side they picked, nothing more and if you want, no one says you can't take out a personal vendetta during war either."

"You're just saying that because you want to rip Hera apart rather than let her have any chance of escaping you," Lupa retorted with a smirk.

"That bitch has more than just me to answer to," Lamia replied with a scowl. "I don't care if seeing her perfect son have his brains blown out already punished her enough. She cursed me to eat my own children and keep doing it for millennia. I intend to make her suffer for every child she damned since my creation."

Feeling Lamia's energy rising with her agitation just thinking about the goddess got Percy to act, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her closer before giving her a strong kiss.

She squeaked in surprise but quickly returned it, her earlier anger and tension melting away as she relaxing in his embrace. After a few seconds he broke the kiss and looked at her silly smile before glancing to Lupa and seeing her pouting at him with her wolf ears lying flat on her head.

"Come here," he teased to which she eagerly reacted, jumping up and sitting on his lap, straddling him as she kissed him while his free arm wrapped around her waist.

The kiss was hungrier than the one he had with Lamia but then again watching him give his affection to Lamia had probably worked Lupa up more. After a good minute he pulled back but Lupa remained comfortably seated on him with Lamia to his side.

"Oh, I can't wait until you consummate with Andy and then we can have our turns," Lamia purred as she eyed him like a piece of meat.

"Don't forget about Rhea and Hestia," Lupa added excitedly.

"Yes well, I'm still getting to that and Andy hasn't fully gotten her punishment so part of it is continued abstinence for her," he answered to them with amusement. "But the war is our concern right now so until then …"

Both his dark goddesses groaned at that while he shamelessly grinned. Still, his thoughts drifted back to Persephone and he couldn't help but wonder if there were others that felt like her.

He understood that what happened to Ares was brutal, even if he had no prior knowledge of what exactly was going to happen to him, and he didn't really take any enjoyment out of it.

The rush of battle? Sure, he could enjoy that and putting to test all he'd trained for. Beating down a pompous bastard and leaving them with broken bones, some taunts, and a crushed ego? He was your man.

Cause suffering for the sake of suffering. Not really. Well … more like not usually save for two special cases but then again he knew his hatred of the moon goddess and the traitor he once called father was something of its own and independent of his feelings of the rest of the Olympians.

Even Apollo's actions only merited a severe ass-kicking and possible castration, then again there were others that wanted a nice piece of the sun deity and even at the lightest punishment he severely doubted Jason would allow Apollo to keep his domains or immortality.

"Tomorrow's meeting is going to suck," he groaned while rubbing his temple.

"Don't forget about the discussion of new gods to ascend," a feminine voice said off to their side.

All three turned their heads to see one Zoe Nightshade, dressed in her usual chiton but in black and hair loosely falling over her shoulders, a black tablet in her hands. Percy bit back another groan as he looked at his secretary, wondering if that near sadistic smirk she briefly flashed had been his imagination.

Having visited Thalia's Sky Palace some time ago, he'd met up with the hero turned spirit and somehow the conversation had turned into how each god was looking for someone or thing to monitor their offices in their place.

Sure he had Lupa, Lamia, and Medusa but those three tended to be out in the field with him. Considering all his domains were in very little need of maintenance, he instead mostly oversaw domains having close relation to his or carefully watching the world through the eyes of his packs.

After all, the Night and Darkness came long before Sleep, Dreams, and Nightmares meaning he could readily see into such things and affect them to a greater extent that most divine beings save Hypnos and Morpheus themselves. That plus his duties as king and the prayers he'd started to receive needed some attention.

It honestly surprised him how many simple wishes of being safe and comfortable during the night, even said to other non-existent deities still came to him. After all, a comforting presence to a child hoping the monster under their bed or in their closet didn't hurt them went a long way in helping them get over their fears.

Still, with the war and his continued training he sometime couldn't go through all the prayers and other responsibilities so he hired Zoe. She loved it since being dead effectively left her with too much time and too little to do, not to mention it let her nag and yell at him about being a forgetful boy was right up there with her favorite pastimes.

Breaking out of his thoughts he looked at his long-time friend and chuckled as he stood ounce Lupa got off his lap. Once standing Zoe stepped closer and handed him the tablet to see a long list of small prayers and such given during the night, some of them marked as priority for consideration.

"Yeah, we are discussing god candidates as well," he murmured as he scrolled through the prayers, answering some and looking past others if he thought they were frivolous or unnecessary.

There were some that were rather sickening so he noted those prayers and who they came from. Tyche would enjoy screwing with those particular mortals and if they still succeeded in their … less than scrupulous intentions, Hades and Nico would get ahold of them soon enough.

"Can't the candidates be left for after the war though?" Lupa asked as she glanced over Percy's shoulder to look at the listed prayers.

"Not with some domains like War," he replied without looking at her. "Sure, even with the gods assigned to them, most domains continue to exist but without a god the influence could run wild. Take War for example.

Without a god to monitor that domain and who it affects, our war with the Olympians might manifest with the mortals at random between any countries that have even the slightest issues between them.

A god of War can not only create war but also end them and isolate or spread them. Just look at the previous world wars to see what happens when a war god doesn't do their job or even helps increase war."

Lupa and Lamia shivered at the thought, especially with how strong humanities weapons were now. Last thing they wanted was to spend the next several centuries cleaning up a radioactive wasteland and basically restarting civilization. They stopped the titans and then Gaea for a reason so it would be pretty shitty for the humans to end up meeting that same end by their own devices instead.

"So … who are the candidates?" Lamia asked after some silence, all three women watching him continue to sort through all the recent prayers.

"We have a few but no names are being mentioned out of the closed-session meetings for now," he replied in a slightly teasing tone, knowing that now at least Lamia would be literally itching with curiosity.

"It's Frank isn't it?" Lupa chirped up excitedly, like she'd just solved a big puzzle but he shook his head making her pout. Internally he smirked, loving how free and expressive Lupa had become since joining them even if in the field she reverted to that stoic she-wolf he'd met so long ago.

"No. He's one of the most favored but we know he wants peace more than anything," Percy said with a small sigh.

"He may be able to handle the duties of such a domain but it would give him full godhood, something several of us avoided for a reason. I know some day he and Hazel will want to move on and taking away their partial immortality will be simple to fix."

"But if they become full immortals and then swear their immortality to the council, it could be removed just as easily and they could die peacefully then," Lamia reasoned.

"True, but once a being as obtained true immortality, their original soul changes into that of divine essence and that change cannot be reverted. It will mean that their afterlife will belong to the Realm of the Faded under Lady Chaos' watch rather than the Underworld.

Considering that any children they have are legacies and therefore mortals, they could possibly pass after entire generations of their own descendants have moved on.

Why become immortal and go to an afterlife with other divine beings, many of which we have probably never heard of instead of going to the Underworld and joining the family they created."

"Since when did you become so knowledgeable about gods and their afterlife," Zoe lightly teased as a different tablet appeared in her hands but this one was connected to local and international news and such since she also kept him up to date with the world abroad.

"Nyx was an excellent teacher," Percy answered before willing the tablet to disappear in a burst of shadow. He sighed as he rolled his shoulders while glancing up to the endless night and stars above him. "It's late so I guess I'm turning in."

With that said he gave a quick goodbye kiss to Lupa and Lamia before glancing at Zoe with a cheesy grin.

"I'm good," she said with a laugh while waving him off.

He chuckled with a nod before disappearing in a burst of darkness, on his way to his comfy bed and waiting queens…

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Don't forget to throw some power Stones, to keep the story going.

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