Chapter 54 - Helios (Part 3)
-In the Basement-
The air was thick—choking, rotten, stagnant. The scent of rusted iron curled into Helios's nostrils, sharp and metallic, mingling with the damp musk of ancient stone. The dim golden light from the small, barred window barely reached the corners of the room, leaving parts of the basement in lurking, shifting shadows.
His footsteps echoed, unnervingly loud in the oppressive silence.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
His father stood before the window, his hulking figure frozen in eerie stillness. The firelight flickered against his broad shoulders, painting a monstrous silhouette. A cold draft whistled through the cracks in the walls, and yet, the Emperor did not move.
Something was wrong.
Helios swallowed. The saliva in his throat felt like needles.
"Father?" he called softly, hesitantly.
For a moment—nothing. Then—
"YESSSSSS, I did."
The reply did not sound human.
It slithered from his father's lips, wet and guttural, like something pulled from the depths of rot and ruin. It was a voice lined with madness, with something far more terrifying than mere cruelty.
Then—his father turned.
*Drip*
*Drip*
*Drip*
A slow, sickening sound filled the space as thick, black-red liquid slid from his father's fingers, staining the cold stone below. His grin was a slashed wound across his face, teeth bared too wide, eyes gleaming with something feral, something not entirely sane.
And in his hands—
A corpse.
Luxana.
The tiny kitten hung lifeless, her fur soaked in sticky, glistening crimson. The stab wounds riddled her fragile body like gaping mouths, the knives still lodged deep in her flesh, their silver hilts catching the dim light in a cruel display.
The blood dribbled onto the floor, splattering like raindrops on the stone.
*Drip*
*Drip*
Helios's breath stopped.
His ribs locked. His fingers clawed at his sides, his mind struggling to comprehend the horror before him.
Then—
"LUXANA!"
His scream ripped from his throat, raw and agonized, shaking the very walls of the basement. He lurched forward, arms outstretched, desperate to grasp her, to wake her up, to undo this nightmare—
But the Emperor only laughed.
A sound that was wrong, that was not meant for this world. It started as a low, guttural chuckle and grew, swelling, twisting into a hideous, screeching cackle that filled the basement like a death knell.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! PATHETIC! FOOLISH BOY!"
His voice crawled into Helios's skin, slithering into his veins, coiling around his bones, squeezing.
"YOU ARE NOTHING LIKE HADES! NOTHING!"
Helios's chest caved inward, his pulse hammering like a war drum.
"I KNEW THE MOMENT YOU WERE BORN—YOU WERE A FAULT. A FAILURE."
His father tilted his head, blood still dripping, dripping from his hands. His grin widened.
"And look at you now," he sneered, voice thick with mockery. "Proving yourself right in front of me."
Something inside Helios snapped.
A sharp, clean break.
His fingers curled around the knife lodged in Luxana's tiny corpse. Warm blood oozed between his fingers as he pulled it free, his grip white-knuckled, shaking.
His father saw it—
And smirked.
"Aww, look at him," the Emperor taunted. "Poor, little Helios. Clutching a knife like he knows what to do with it. Are you going to—"
*STAB*
The blade plunged into his father's torso, sinking deep between his ribs, twisting into the soft flesh.
A sickening SCHLK echoed through the basement.
The Emperor grunted, his body jerking as he stumbled back.
His smirk faltered.
He looked down at the knife buried in his flesh. Then back at Helios.
The amusement in his eyes flickered.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hissed.
His hand lunged—
But Helios was already moving.
His second blade was already in his grip.
And it sang through the air.
The knife drove deep into his father's lower flesh—
Right where no man should ever be wounded.
The Emperor screamed, a noise not of pain, but of pure animal rage. His knees buckled. His body crumbled downward, downward, downward, until he came eye-level with his son.
For the first time, Helios saw fear in his father's eyes.
Helios smiled.
"You can scream louder than that," he whispered.
His grip tightened.
His father gasped, his trembling hands rising—
*STAB*
The blade sank into his forehead.
A wet crunch followed as the bone splintered.
The Emperor shuddered, blood pouring down his face, into his mouth, into his eyes—
*STAB*
The knife ripped into his eye socket, piercing through soft tissue, crushing nerve endings.
The scream that followed was inhuman, a screech that could curdle the blood of the devil himself.
Helios didn't stop.
A rod. A rusted, old, forgotten rod.
He lifted it.
Brought it down.
*CRACK*
The Emperor's jaw fractured beneath the force.
*CRACK*
His ribs caved inward, bone snapping like twigs beneath a crushing boot.
*CRACK*
*CRACK*
*CRACK*
Blood splattered the walls, the ceiling, Helios's face.
His father twitched, his body nothing more than a ruined heap of splintered bones and mangled flesh, his chest barely rising.
Helios, breathing hard, stepped over him.
Then, with Luxana's broken body still in his arms, he tilted her tiny, bleeding corpse over the Emperor's open mouth.
The blood dribbled.
*Drip*
*Drip*
Down his throat.
His body convulsed, his lips parting in a silent gag, but Helios only pressed down harder.
The kitten's blood slid past his lips, pooling in the back of his throat.
"You're choking," Helios murmured. "Swallow it. Like a good father."
The Emperor twitched violently, his fingers scraping against the stone.
"Please die happily," Helios whispered, voice eerily calm.
Then—
The final blow.
The knife sank into his father's throat.
A gargled choke.
A spasm.
Then—silence.
Helios sat back, chest rising and falling in slow, controlled breaths.
He clasped his bloodstained hands together.
Shut his eyes.
And whispered, "May God bless your demise. In your next life, please attempt to become a better father."
Then—
Footsteps.
Slow. Careful.
Helios did not flinch.
He knew who it was.
The door creaked open.
Hades stood at the threshold.
Their eyes met. Helios looked at Hades from over his shoulder.
For the first time.
For the last time.
Then, without a word, Hades turned and walked away.
And Helios remained, sitting in a sea of blood, unbroken.
*CLAP*
*CLAP*
*CLAP*
The sound reverberated like a death knell, each impact shattering Helios' sanity further. He whirled, eyes bulging as writhing darkness manifested, pulsing with an unholy hunger that made his stomach churn.
A voice, ancient and dripping with malevolence, slithered from the void. "Well, well... what PUTRID little MAGGOT do we have here? A fresh MURDERER, hands still DRIPPING with the blood of innocence!"
Helios' veins turned to ice, the weight of his crime crushing him like an avalanche of razors. His eyes, once vibrant, now resembled the glassy stare of a corpse. He convulsed violently, mind fracturing with visions of discovery, of flesh being flayed from bone, of SCREAMS that would never end.
"LOOK AT ME, YOU WORTHLESS SACK OF MEAT!" The command tore through Helios' soul like barbed wire.
He raised his gaze, not fearing the abomination before him, but the hellish torment the Empress would inflict. His tormentor. The one who'd peeled away his humanity, layer by agonizing layer.
"Do you comprehend the DEPTHS of your DAMNATION, boy?" The voice grated like a thousand rusted blades.
"No." Helios' reply, a pathetic whimper of defiance.
"AHAHAHAHA!" Laughter erupted, a cacophony that threatened to liquefy his brain. "Oh, you IGNORANT little WORM! Your suffering has only BEGUN!"
Helios recoiled, bile rising in his throat as the entity's presence seemed to corrupt reality itself.
"Listen closely, you festering WOUND on existence. I'm offering you VENGEANCE. The power to FLAY THE SKIN from your enemies, to BATHE IN THEIR ENTRAILS as they BEG FOR DEATH! The price? Your rotting, maggot-infested corpse when you finally EXPIRE IN AGONY. Do we have a DEAL, you miserable SPECK?"
Helios, mind reeling on the precipice of madness, croaked, "You're... some kind of demon? Granting wishes for my putrid flesh?"
"YESSSS," the voice hissed, dripping with unholy ecstasy.
Helios' eyes narrowed, weighing eternal damnation against the sweet nectar of retribution. "Fine. I accept your FUCKING deal. But you BETTER not abandon me, you ELDRITCH PIECE OF SHIT."
"AHAHAHAHA!" The laughter shook reality as a grotesque, obsidian claw emerged from the void, dripping with ichor and promising untold horrors. Helios, hand still slick with gore, grasped it without hesitation.
The pact was sealed in blood and madness. And XERXES... XERXES ERUPTED into existence, a force of pure CARNAGE unleashed upon an unsuspecting world.
12 years later, Helios' Room, Helia Palace-
Helios stood at the window, a book in his right hand, left arm crossed over his chest. The air hung heavy with unspoken tension, a stark contrast to the serene garden beyond.
"Look," Xerxes hissed, materializing as a writhing orb of darkness.
Helios' eyes remained fixed on the pages. "And why?" His voice dripped with calculated indifference.
"It's Roro!" Xerxes' excitement was palpable. "Walking with your brother."
"And so what?" Helios' tone could have frozen hell itself.
"Don't you like Roro?" Xerxes probed, malicious glee evident.
"You're the one obsessed with her, Xerxes." Helios' words cut like a blade.
"Aww... look how miserable she is with him. It should be you by her side, not that pathetic waste of flesh." Xerxes' voice oozed with poisonous suggestion.
"Enough." Helios snapped the book shut, his gaze finally drawn to the window.
Princess Roxana Von Olar Mera Eana Kior - "Roro" - walked arm-in-arm with Hades. Her face was a mask of indifference, while Hades wore the nauseating expression of a lovesick fool.
Disgust coiled in Helios' gut as he shelved the book, searching for another to distract from the sickening scene.
"She's cursed with truly abysmal luck," Xerxes mused.
"Can't argue with that," Helios muttered, feigning disinterest.
"HAAAH~ This tedium is unbearable..." Xerxes whined.
Before Helios could retort, reality warped. He found himself crouched behind a bush in the garden, mere feet from the approaching couple.
Hades and Roxana froze, shock evident on their faces.
"Were you spying on us?" Hades' voice quavered with barely concealed panic.
Helios' gaze flickered over Hades' shoulder. Xerxes, a mass of writhing shadows, formed a cruel, mocking smile.
"Oh please, don't flatter yourself. If I wanted to waste my time, I'd watch paint dry—at least that's more interesting than whatever you're doing," Helios retorted, a bead of sweat betraying his cool facade.
Roxana's eyes flashed, a predator sensing weakness. "Don't trouble yourself—I'd hate for you to strain your last remaining wit trying to sound clever. Besides, even paint drying has more purpose than your drivel."
Helios, never one to back down, fired back. "Oh, how adorable—you string words together like a jester juggling rotten fruit. Pity they land with the same sad splat." As he brushed past, he flicked Roxana's forehead playfully, eliciting a stifled giggle from the usually stoic princess.
Hades, clearly uncomfortable with the exchange, attempted to smooth things over as they continued their stroll. "Helios is like that, don't mind him."
Roxana's silence spoke volumes, her face an impenetrable mask of indifference.
Hades, worry etching lines across his face, couldn't help but ask, "Roxana, why is it just me you're so unfriendly with?"
As Roxana met his gaze, her eyes were cold enough to freeze hellfire.
Maybe if you had a personality worth vibing with, I'd actually consider it, Roxana thought, turning her head away with the dramatic flair of someone who definitely didn't practice that move in the mirror sixteen times. But no, you're like those personality-less fuckers who think "spontaneous romance" means picking a different Shakespeare sonnet each day from their alphabetized collection. You're seriously about as exciting as watching paint dry in an empty room - actually, that's unfair to paint, which at least has the decency to change colors and probably has better chemistry than you.
Your sock drawer probably has a dewey decimal system, and I bet you have your sneezes scheduled in your calendar as "Potential Minor Disruptions (PMDs)." Your idea of living dangerously is eating yogurt one day past its "best by" date while writing a strongly worded letter to the manufacturer about their questionable dating system.
You think romance is following some ancient rulebook. "Step 1: Compliment her hair (see appendix B for weather-appropriate compliments). Step 2: Offer your arm (maintain precise 47-degree angle). Step 3: Recite appropriate seasonal poem (avoid summer sonnets during winter months to prevent temporal confusion)." Watching you try to flirt is like watching a dictionary try to do parkour - technically all the elements are there, but dear gods, at what cost?
The most rebellious thing you've ever done is accidentally alphabetize your spice rack in reverse order and live with the chaos for a whole three minutes before fixing it. Even your sighs are choreographed - I've seen you practicing them in the garden: "Wistful Sigh #7: For Use When Gazing at Distant Mountains." You probably have a spreadsheet tracking your "spontaneous" hair tousles and a six-step flowchart for achieving the perfect "casual lean."
Your idea of a wild night is staying up until 9:47 PM instead of your usual 9:45 PM, and then writing a detailed report about how this deviation affected your morning routine. You're like a piece of toast that's been explained to death in a philosophy lecture - technically still bread, but somehow both burnt and boring at the same time. Roxana thought as she turned away dramatically, her mind a tempest of scathing observations about Hades' utter lack of personality and his painfully predictable attempts at romance.
-Night; Roxana's Room, Helia Palace-
The moonlight cast an ethereal glow through Roxana's chamber, illuminating her curled form on the bed. Her head rested on her knees, eyes fixed on the door, lost in thought. The silence was thick, oppressive.
*Knock Knock*
Roxana's eyes jolted wide, upon hearing an unsual knock from outside, she got onto ther feet and spun around to see who's at the balcony.
The unexpected sound shattered the stillness. Roxana's eyes flew open, her body tensing as she spun towards the balcony. There, silhouetted against the night sky, stood Helios.
*WAVE*
He waved, a disarming smile on his face. Roxana, clad in a flowing white nightgown, moved towards the balcony with measured steps. As she unlocked the door, Helios slipped inside, immediately making himself at home in a nearby chair.
To be Continued...