The Contest between Gods

and his army of gods when suddenly, another idea popped into his head. A smirk appeared on his face as he thought of something else to try to prove Lord Poseidon wrong. His smile faded when he remembered one important detail. Lord Hades knew of the prophecy that Apollo had foreseen during his birthday party a few days ago. It was one of the reasons why he had ordered his guards to kill him on his birthday after he had heard the prophecy.

”Hes going to try to destroy my army. Of course, I have to stop him before he succeeds. But how? Oh, yes…that reminds me…. ”

Apollo POV

Apollo awoke abruptly from his sleep. He yawned and stretched lazily, trying to rub off the sleepiness that he felt after being rudely awoken from his slumber. When he stretched, he saw Hermes standing next to his bed.

”Morning sunshine, ” Hermes whispered to him, trying to mask the joy in his voice. Apollos eyes widened and his heart raced faster upon hearing that Hermes referred to him as sunshine.

”M-morning, Hermes, ” he stuttered nervously.

For the past week, Apollo had stayed at the Underworlds headquarters. For the past two weeks, he had been helping Lord Poseidon train his armies. Since Lord Poseidon didn want to involve Apollo in the actual battle, he sent him to supervise the training sessions of the troops to show them that the son of Hades had some experience fighting alongside soldiers of his own realm. Apollo had spent the whole time observing the troops and watching Lord Poseidon and Lord Hades work together. Although Lord Poseidon and Lord Hades seemed to dislike each other at first, it was only for a short while, until Lord Poseidon managed to convince Lord Hades to join his forces instead of fighting against his army. Now, Lord Poseidon would never admit this openly, but he found that he couldn help thinking that Lord Hades was really attractive. Not only did Lord Hades beauty attract him, but he also seemed kind and caring to the point of being almost likable. Unfortunately, that fact didn change anything between them and he doubted that Lord Hades kindness had changed Lord Poseidons view of the demigod.

”How did it go last night? ” Hermes asked him, eagerness written all over his face.

”What? The battle? ”

Apollo nodded and said, ”Yes, that battle! ”

Apollo had been assigned to protect Lord Hades family. He had been instructed not to harm or otherwise hurt his children, which included his brother Apollo. After seeing that Apollo was incapable of protecting his own brothers, Lord Hades had agreed to allow Apollo to assist in protecting his family. Lord Hades trusted Apollos abilities more than his own siblings and he had no reason to doubt his word when he promised he would always protect his family. Apollo knew that Lord Hades would rather die than let anyone take his family from him, even though he wasn aware of Lord Hades real identity; therefore, Apollo wanted nothing more than to be able to help Lord Hades family in order to please him. As a result of this, Apollo volunteered every night to stand guard outside the gates of his and Lord Hades familys estate.

The night before the battle, Apollo was walking around Lord Hades estate, searching for any signs that the enemy would appear. He had gone through the whole estate, making sure that it looked as pristine and empty as he usually did whenever he went there. The walls of the entire estate were built out of marble and were extremely strong. Most likely, Lord Hades could build three walls with the amount of stone he could produce alone; therefore, Apollo thought that if someone attacked him tonight, Lord Hades was unlikely to be harmed. However, there was no telling how many enemies Lord Hades would have under his command, so Apollo decided to prepare himself for battle beforehand. Just before Apollo started patrolling the walls once again, he heard someone approaching Lord Hades gate. There were two shadows moving in front of it, which meant that they didn belong to Lord Hades soldiers. They moved so fast that Apollo wouldn have noticed them if he hadn seen them. Then the sound of footsteps echoed throughout the grounds and finally the two shadowed people disappeared, leaving no trace behind.

”Is someone coming? ” Apollo muttered.

When he made the same question to Lord Hades, Lord Hades replied:

”No. Nobody is coming. They shouldve already gotten lost somewhere around here. ”

Apollo gave Lord Hades a nod and returned to his spot on the wall, ready to continue his search for any signs of intruders. But after five minutes, nobody has come to their aid, meaning that the intruders must have already given up. As soon as the idea came into his mind, he quickly took out a golden spear and placed it into the hole beside his feet.

After Apollo had created a small tunnel that allowed him access to the citys street in case somebody needed assistance, he began to explore the streets. After he had explored every house that contained any sign of people, he found a group of women sitting in the center of the road. There were seven or eight women in total and all of them seemed to be wearing the same clothes. They were sitting quietly, eating bread or vegetables from a basket placed near them. Apollo approached and smiled politely when he saw them.

”Hi, ” he said.

All of them looked up and smiled at him.

”Oh…hi. What brings you here? ” The woman who seemed to speak for all of the ladies replied.

”Well…my name is Apollo and Im a servant of the lord. He told us to watch over you while he went away. ”

”Thank you for your offer Apollo. You
e a nice person. ”

Apollo blushed and chuckled shyly. The woman then turned to her friends.

”So, are we supposed to be worried or should we start chatting happily? ” She smirked.

Her friends laughed and then turned to look back at Apollo.

”If you don mind… ” The woman said, indicating that she would like to talk to him. ”What is your name? Im Lady Eurydice. ”

”Um, my name is Apollo and Im a servant of Lord Hades. We
e supposed to be guarding you. ”

Lady Eurydice laughed.

”Of course, we understand that, but Lord Hades can take care of himself quite well. We trust Lord Poseidon and Lord Hades won attack us. Right? ” She questioned the men.

They shook their heads and laughed again. Then they turned back to Apollo and began talking again.

”Why were you following Lord Poseidon around? I thought you were here to guard us. ”

”I was actually sent by Zeus to observe Lord Poseidon, the warlord of Olympus. My job is to make sure that nobody attacks you. If there is trouble, Ill come immediately to see whats happening. Is there anything else I can do for you guys? ”

”Nope. Thats all. Thanks for listening to us. ”

Apollo bowed to the women and walked away as he left them sitting there to talk among themselves. Once he had left the womens sight, he stopped and watched as they continued to eat their food and gossip.

Lord Hades will surely come back very soon, so I better get busy, Apollo thought anxiously. He began to wander through the houses of Lords and Ladies in search for any sign of danger. However, none of the people seemed to mind his presence. They all greeted him with smiles, although most of them smiled politely. Apollo had no idea how Lord Hades lived in such a place. He certainly couldn imagine living inside a palace like this where it seemed to rain every single day and everything smelled terrible. Lord Hades had said that he didn have a lot of servants, yet he lived in such a luxurious home.

As Apollo searched for anything suspicious, he suddenly heard an explosion coming from the direction of the castle that belonged to Lord Hades. Immediately, he rushed toward Lord Hades castle, hoping to find Lord Hades still in the throne room. Upon reaching the door, he knocked on the door loudly so that Lord Hades could hear his knocking. A few seconds later, Lord Hades opened the door and glared at Apollo angrily.

”What are you doing here? ” he spat.

”Sorry! I just wanted to check if you were okay. Are you alright? Did you fall down and hurt yourself during our journey here? I can bring you bandages if youd like me to heal- ”

Before Apollo could finish his sentence, Lord Hades grabbed the end of his shirt and pulled him into the room forcefully, slamming the door shut. It sounded as if something metallic hit the ground outside.

”You needn worry about my injury. ” Hades interrupted, turning around and facing toward the window. ”But if you must know, I fell asleep last night while waiting for you. Now, go away and leave me alone! I don wish to see you right now. ”

Apollo stood there in silence, not knowing what to say to appease Lord Hades. He slowly backed away, but Lord Hades didn move. Instead, he just stared out the window at the night sky.

”Please forgive me Hades. I shouldn have barged into your room without your permission, ” Apollo apologized. ”I promise I will stay here as long as you require me to. ”

After another minute of staring, Lord Hades turned around, causing Apollo to jump because he had forgotten he was standing there in the first place.

”Apollyon, ” Lord Hades said coldly. ”It seems as if you forgot your place in the world. Why are you bothering me? Don forget, we
e supposed to hate each other. So why do you still care about me? ”

There was a dangerous tone in Hades voice and Apollo was afraid of what would happen if he didn answer Lord Hades. Lord Hades was right. They were supposed to be enemies, yet Apollo felt as if Lord Hades words were the biggest compliment Apollo had received ever since he had entered Lord Hades life. Because of that, Apollo took a deep breath and replied.

”Im sorry, Lord Hades. I was too caught up with Lord Hades request for protection. I promise I will never bother you again. ”

Lord Hades snorted and raised an eyebrow.

”Thats a shame…because I was getting tired of your presence. ”

”Then Im sure that its time for you to return to the underworld so that you may rest. ”

He didn