Chapter 1
There was a dryad drowning in the pool that Mars was washing her hair in.
It was a pretty one too, skin the colour of spring grass and hair like the moss that Mars was currently soaking with each drag of water she pulled from her hair. Bright, pleading yellow eyes were locked on Mars, who was still scrubbing at her scalp vigorously enough that she smothered a groan at the feeling.
Without making eye contact with the struggling creature, Mars wrung her hair out and looped the wet twist into a loose knot at the back of her neck. Water dripped, cool against her skin and Mars sighed at the relief of it. The anti-Poseidon holding the dryad beneath the water watched her movements with passive all-blue eyes, eyes that trailed her as Mars stepped from the pool, soaking the damp marsh at its edge.
Stepping into her shift, Mars tightened her golden zone around her waist with a click and shimmied into a pair of underwear quickly, the sharp air making her skin prickle. She wasn’t tall for an immortal, but she was as strong as she was lovely, the garment clinging to her thighs before trailing to hem at her calves. The slit up the left side was kept closed by a hairpin that past-Jupiter had given Mars, the yellow sapphire pressed into it was the Old God’s own symbol. She almost missed her past-father, his fierce kin-love for her had been something new and rare and she would always cherish their sparring matches. The scar warping her shoulder was forever proof of her past-father, a final parting gift and she shrugged her shoulders, feeling the way the skin stretched oddly.
The faint squelch of the wet earth behind her had Mars snatching her spear up, turning swiftly to block the first blow from the anti-Poseidon. Leaning into the weight of the spear, Mars let out a low whistle. The half-drowned dryad was stumbling from the pool, green skin bleached nearly white in terror as the anti-Poseidon made another clumsy swing. It missed her by about a foot and she jeered at it tauntingly.
Something like rage sprawled the creature’s ravaged features and it lurched forward and slammed a closed fist towards her. Mars raised her spear in time for the creature to rake its limb across the sharp end of the spear, the runes carved into it flaring bright and the anti-Poseidon began to wail in pain.
The trees shuddered at the pitch, the dryad briefly peeping back through the trees and Mars caught the whistled reply above the keening scream of the anti-Poseidon. Leaning back on her right foot, she dropped her shoulder and swung to the side abruptly. It was a practised move, a graceful push backwards and she didn’t even have to look over her shoulder.
The throwing spear that shot by her sunk into the anti-Poseidon’s forehead with a bright squelch and the false god dissolved into a mess of crabs and writhing eels. Lowering her spear arm, Mars whirled to beam at Diomedes, ever the hunter with his eyes scanning the rest of the clearing for more danger without so much as a look spared at her.
“You’re a fucking idiot,” She grinned at him in that vicious way she showed happiness, teeth gleaming as she loosened her hair from its knot with a triumphant look in her eyes. The sunlight flecked her hair with tawny streaks as she rubbed her hands quickly through it in an attempt to free any knots before retrieving her circlet from the top of her pack and shoving her hair back with the golden band. Mars spun her spear once, a quiet taunt at Diomedes before she reached back to slip it into the holder at her back. The familiar weight of it made her roll her shoulders back, her expression almost fierce if it weren’t for how elated she looked and Diomedes made a soft gagging noise, shoving her shoulder hard.
“Let’s get out of here before an anti-Keres gets here, I’m sick of cleaning my spear of their ichor.”
Diomedes loped ahead into the deep of the forest, taking advantage of Mars being the watcher for the time being as he exercised his corporeal form. Mars was much faster than Diomedes, so it aggravated her to see the younger immortal darting through the forest ahead of her at full speed whilst she lagged behind. It was her turn for watch and she deserved to backseat after she’d allowed the anti-Poseidon to get so close. Mars would digress, it wasn’t her fault, she just liked taunting them and she hadn’t made eye contact so the chances of it actually going after her should have been slimmer.
In the back of her mind, Mars tried to make sense of why the anti-Poseidon had gone for her initially when a. it had prey, the nymph and b. she’d been careful not to make eye contact with it. She definitely hadn’t smelled like fear, so she could rule that out. Pressing the blade of her glados to her non-dominant fingertip, Mars tasted her blood. It sung immortality back to her and she frowned again. This was irking her, the anti-Poseidon’s aggressiveness was almost unheard of but she could always rule it out as a fluke or chance event.
She made a mental note to discuss with Perseus and Minerva when she and Diomedes surfaced. It was odd, even running into an anti-God these days. Most of them had either died out or been killed, by mortals and immortals alike.
They had appeared after the godly divergence when the Old Gods had first had their essences split. The Great Dying had been difficult, especially for New Gods that had ended up within the Immortal Realm and Olympus, like Mars herself. Some of the Old Gods’ leftover essences had darkened and become these anti-Gods, ghastly creations that rivalled the first monsters. Anti-Poseidons were the most common, as their ability to survive in depths immortals could barely reach had made them less easy targets.
Her spear arm slack, Mars pricked her ears again, the calibre of the air remained the same but there was something off about it all. She sniffed, inhaling deeply and tasted the distinct coldness that clung to the air around them. The low whistle she let out was warning and Diomedes, leagues ahead, slowed to a gentle lope, his hands on his broadsword. The shield bumping against his back hitched as he brought it onto his non-dominant arm, slow with precaution as Mars drew closer, her golden eyes slit as they roamed the vacant trees. It was too empty here, too devoid of quiet life and it made both immortals’ skin prickle.
Mars inhaled again, filling her lungs with cold air and she huffed out, the scents mingling in her nose distractingly familiar. It smelled like an Old God, which one she was struggling to decipher but it was distinctly old, with that smell like leather and ancient manuscripts and dead plants-
“DOWN,” Mars wasn’t sure if Diomedes registered her call of warning or the incoming Bident first but he dropped. Mars swore, sweeping her spear in a fierce arc around her to activate the runes carved into the hilt before she knocked the flat of it into the Earth. The chasm that opened beneath her roiled alive with red earth and Diomedes rolled into it, Mars sending a single beacon rune into a nearby tree before she jumped too.
The chasm crashed closed above them, the warm darkness coalescing as they fell and Mars struggled to form the opening rune for the other side of her portal, this darkness thick with the scent of the God of the Underworld and it made both immortals’ nostrils burn. Finishing the rune with a grunt, Mars braced for impact and swore again as they hit soft earth.
Mars rolled, grumbling in pain and dug her spear into the earth to slow her spilling limbs. Diomedes crashed past, his armour clunking against the surface of New Olympus and Mars would have laughed if her heart rate hadn’t been double what it normally should have been.
“Who the fuck was that?” Diomedes groaned out. Mars thumped the ground with a fist, shaking her still damp hair out before she struggled to her feet, using her spear to balance.
“Pluto. The real one.” It had been, she knew it. The way the New God smelled, almost exactly like his predecessor, it had thrown Mars for a heartbeat. But the New God stench of burnt sugar and ozone, it was unmistakable, even with her own blood in her mouth.
“Fuck.” Diomedes hissed as she helped him stand, both checking each other silently before Mars shoved her spear away, bringing up her left gauntlet to send an alert out. The beacon held true, she could see it pulsing brightly in the mortal realm and relief began to douse her racing heart. Safe. She had kept both of them safe. Portalling usually left her feeling rougher than she did now and Mars was ever grateful for the runes blazing on her skin, their current warmth denoting the strength they were lending her.
Runes were a purely New God weapon. Alongside ambrosia was when they were most effective in healing, but weaponised they were much more fun. The runes coating most of the New Gods’ weapons were warding or at least defensive of some nature. As two of the more frequent scouts, Mars and Diomedes both carried Caduceus runes on the backs of their necks to lend them Hermes’ speed and Mars carried a single Chaos rune that she’d had since her rebirth on her unmarred shoulder. Her gauntlets and Diomedes’ helmet were both warded heavily, one of Mars’ even dating back to when Dionysus had been amongst them.
“C’mon, we’ll be lucky to get back to base before dark.” Di touched Mars’ wrist gently, feeling the pulse fluttering beneath the skin there. Her eyes were bright and very gold as she turned to look down at him.
“This is big, Di.There hasn’t been a Big Three sighting in months. And we’re the ones to spot the fucker! Achilles is going to eat his sandal!” Diomedes sighed, turning his eyes heavenward before trudging after a simmering Mars, she was radiating excitement he could not match. His heart rate was still pulsing hard within his chest, the shock and fear from the appearance of Pluto had not yet worn off. He was unsurprised Mars seemed to have recovered fine, but the Goddess practically ran on nervous energy, she would absolutely wipe out later when her blood pressure dropped but for now, her energy was a relief.
