Making a Video Game Company to Get My Waifu - Chapter 33 (Patreon)

"WAAAAAAAAAH! ASTERIOS, DON'T DIE!"

"Bianca."

"YOU'RE SO YOUNG! YOU HAD SO MANY YEARS LEFT!"

"Bianca."

"WAAAAAAAH! YOU'RE JUST REBORN! JUST A BABY! MY BABY BOOOOOY!"

"I already have an eccentric mother to deal with. One is enough, and you're pint-sized Bianca, you're not anyone's mom."

"I WAS NICO'S MOM, MY OTHER BABY BOY! WAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Asterios wished he could die. Not really. Not seriously. But the thought was tempting.

Bianca was full on balling her eyes out, like an actor in a telenovela, holding him like he was dying (which okay, yeah, he kinda was, but not anymore), and hugging him with a worrying amount of strength.

His mother, who sat behind him, focusing on the bull-man's healing, was smiling in mirth at the whole situation.

Asterios was exasperated. He was also worried about how Bianca's shadows were wiggling and dancing around her with small hands or tendrils.

He could see a the boiling demigod wrath about to explode, and wanted it aimed away before it started near him.

"You're right, daughter-in-law." Pasiphaë said, must to Asterios' alarm. "My dear Asterios was dying. The one who did that must be punished."

The Bull Monster let out a sigh, glad that at least him and his mother were on the same page.

Asterios had been given potions by his mother. Miraculous elixirs that seemed to be healing and mending, putting him back together in record time, but he wouldn't be able to join the fight just yet.

He had most of his focus on the battle, and the moment the lightning coated cyclone slammed into the Titan of Endurance, rather than feel the thrill and hope of victory, Asterios waited for the other shoe to drop.

And it did, in the form of the Titan losing more of his golden chains. With a conscious force of will, Asterios tightened and strengthened the chains left on his torso and forearms.

"WHO DID THIS!?" Bianca let out a visceral growl through gritted teeth. Sounding more like a monster than Asterios remembered his past incarnations being, when he was still the Minotaur.

Bianca also seemed to have forgotten who they were fighting.

Pasiphaë raised a hand an pointed.

"That meanie Titan over there did it." She said.

Asterios blinked, his jaw dropped at the phrasing. Yet it seemed that simple phrasing which was needed to make Bianca's anger erupt.

The Demigoddess of Hades zeroed in onto the Titan, and all the shadows receded. A dark tide was coming.

"Atlas!" Bianca hissed, and in a flash of darkness she was gone.

A beat passed in silence.

"Really, mother? 'Meanie'?" Asterios deadpanned.

"Shuush, just watch. I feel we're about to witness something glorious." She said. Asterios absorbed that statement with a quiet nod. Then she grabbed and pinched his ear. "Also don't think I forgot your recklessness, that did this to yourself." Pointing at his current injuries.

"Ow. Sorry, mother."

In the background at the battlefield, Bianca's distant shout echoed, as she immobilized the Titan with chains of shadow and slammed hellfire into his face.

"ATLAS! YOU'LL PAY FOR HURTING MY BULL HUSBANDO!"

===x===

"Did you two have anything to do with this?" An amused Zeus turned to the deities of love and madness, pointing out Bianca's behavior.

He, or rather she at the moment, had already liked the daughter of Hades due to her very beneficial advice to the Lord of the Skies. She didn't realize the girl was also... what do the kids call it these days?

Very based. It takes a special kind of 'bravery', curiosity and ingenuity to appreciate intimate monster handling.

"Nope." Said Aphrodite.

"Yep." Said Dionysus.

"Oh, truly?" Zeus smirked in mirth. "How unexpected and entertaining. Hermes send for Hades, tell him he's invited to Olympus today. He shouldn't miss this spectacular show!" And if she got to rib in him his daughter's choice of love, then that was just a benefit.

"Maybe I'll bless that runt to have a fruitful marriage with that bull, in return for her advice to you, 'husband'." Hera said sardonically.

"Aaaha, thank you, wife~! Do so!" Zeus laughed and said casually, not bothering to notice Hera's eye twitching.

===x===

Back at Camp Half-Blood, Nico was suffering under the gaze of several other camper side-eying him.

"Man, Nico" Began Mark Gilbert, a son of Ares. "Your mom's pretty badass." He ribbed into him.

"Sister." Nico sighed as he facepalmed.

"Lay off him, musclehead." Said Drew Tanaka, daughter of Aphrodite. A teenage girl that Nico wasn't sure if she was a friend of his sister's, or a stalker. "Bianca's baby boy is also a son of Hades, so be careful on mouthing off at him." She said with a smirk, as the campers around watching the battle on the big projector screen laughed.

"I'm never living that down, am I?" Nico muttered to himself. "Thanks a lot, sis."

Although, he considered that maybe he should be more independent, rather than sticking to his sister all the time while she's around.

"There, there." Lisa Tiptin, daughter of Athena around his age said comfortingly as she patted his back. "It's not all that bad."

"Really?"

"No, but I've learned socially you're suppose to believe delusion to keep moving forward, even as your reputation plummets."

Nico's deadpan stare was the first time he seemed to show qualities of being a son of Hades, with how dry it was. A desert held more moisture.

===x===

Atlas only celebrated his momentary loosening for a moment. A closer step for his power to be free and unleashed, and then show these worthless gods, demigods, and treacherous daughter, what the wrath of a titan was like.

He barely had time to be elated with minor triumph, before he was held back by new chains of chthonic powers, burned with Tartarus-like flames, and a knee smashing his face.

Atlas tried to swat away the annoying fly, only for the demigod to vanish in a buff of darkness. Pulled and absorbed away into the shadow of her own clothes, that grew and enveloped her.

Atlas then felt a large piercing pain into his back. He turned his head to see the Hades' spawn stabbing him with a blade too giant for her, yet she didn't seem to have a problem using it. The blade was only an inch into his back, yet the wound felt cold. Cold in a way that was unnatural.

The coldness of Tartarus.

With so many of the chains broken, much of the Titan's true strength was available for him to express, and while couldn't just blast these pest with the full aura of his Titanic Form, he could call on one of his Domains to full force.

He spun, swinging his arm with the full might of his Strength. With the power flowing through his muscles, skin and form, he could allow himself to push that Strength into speed empowered by it.

Shockwaves rippled in his wake, his arm moving faster than sound. The other demigods and gods present barely had time to issue a warning. The demigods even less, only able to react, their eyes widening, dread filling them at what's about to occur. Atlas completed his swing...

"BIANCA!" Shouted Percy dashing forward in a tunnel of water.

"STOP!" Zoe cried out, lunging instinctively at them.

"NO!" Thalia screamed lightning dancing around her, ready to obey her commands.

"ATLAS!" Artemis roared in fury, already accepting a maiden's demise, and readying herself to avenge her.

Hitting nothing.

"Sneaky little—" Atlas began, only to feel the demigod runt that smelled of shadows on his back, and coldness filling her hand touching him.

His eyes widened, the coldness spread from his back to inside of his chest.

"For one on the losers' side for the rulership of the cosmic order, you sure talk too highly, worm." Bianca removed her hand from his back, shadow linked to her fingertips.

She crushed her hand into a fist.

And Atlas felt his heart be squished into bits of gore, by the shadows inside his body.

===x===

Back on Olympus, with the dark yet calm presence of Hades, sitting next to his brother and sister—the question of 'why Zeus would do this?' is immediately discarded and replaced with a 'why not?'. Hades really didn't want to think on why the Sky God was praising his daughter for his current transformation—the gods continued to watch the ongoing quest, with cheering and enthusiasm.

"You were saying?" Hades said without expression, yet Poseidon and Zeus could see the ghost of a smug smile on his face.

"She got a lucky hit." Zeus immediately said.

"Percy is just getting started." Poseidon added.

"Your children have been attacking for a while with all those flashy moves, and all they managed to do was help the titan escape his bondage. Bianca attacks once and he's fatally injured." Hades paused, holding back a smirk. "When your kids act, they waste time, make a lot of noise and need help to finish the deed. When mine does, it's decisive. I guess we shouldn't be surprised given the parents the children take after."

"Oh you did not just imply you did more during the Titanomachy!" Zeus bellowed and the three Greek Divine Rulers argued on who's kid did best.

===x===

The Olympus team came down upon the titan with all their fury.

Artemis jumped in with a downward haymaker. Atlas roared, he was forced to switch the Domain he expressed fully to Endurance to regenerate his crushed heart. Thus he was much more durable, that even the Goddess of the Hunt's knuckles slightly ached.

The titan dashed and swung his arm at Artemis' torso, uncaring of any injury wanting to take her out with a lariat. If he could grab her, he could injure her regardless of her attacks, and even use her against the demigods or his daughter as a hostage. Her acting as a fighter, rather than a hunter would be her downfall.

A water blast staggered him from the front. The titan pushed through it and blocked an earthquake-making punch from the son of Poseidon. Atlas moved to kick him with enough force to bisect him.

Only for his daughter to shoot dozens of arrows at the back of his knee, hitting them all at once, given the Sea God's demigod the chance to jump back, and forcing Atlas to kneel.

And be just at the right height for Thalia's lightning speed punch.

The force sent electrical arcs and shockwaves through the air. Atlas felt his teeth rattle. Artemis was right back into Atlas's guard in a boxer's stance, slamming haymakers left and right at the titan. The viciousness of the goddess was overwhelming the titan, as somehow her fighting had changed from a huntress to a warrior.

Atlas didn't understand how or why this change happened, only that the nimble goddess was hitting him with strikes that reminded him of that damn sky demigoddess engulfed in lightning, but with the heaviness of a meteor slamming the earth.

Left haymaker. Right haymaker. Again, and again, and again, without pause or rest, or a chance to retaliate.

Her arms should be hurting, her strength should be faltering. Atlas thought through the annoying pain, yet Artemis was relentless. Faster, faster and faster Artemis seemed to move, as if the winds of the Wild themselves were embodied in her fists.

A sound like a crack of thunder came as Artemis punched upwards. A punch with a force that shattered the titan's jaw, a recoil that reverberated back into the goddess's hand as well.

Atlas almost lost his consciousness, yet with his Endurance Domain, and sheer spite he held on with all his might, lest this chance to fight back is lost. Artemis needed a moment to breathe, regain her strength and heal the minor damage to herself.

Atlas slammed his foot into the ground causing a mini-quake, and for the ground to crack and shatter into large jagged rocks and uneven footing. Before he could capitalize on this, Zoe was there slashing at his back, annoying him, but also taking attention away from her goddess.

In that moment, Artemis regained her footing, and was back into the fight. Atlas moved instantly fast with blinding speed, having switched the Domain he was fully expressing, going back to Strength.

His hand grasped Zoe's head. Only for her form to break into pixels of light. He growled and looked away to see Pasiphaë with a wand pointed at him. Before he could react, an arrow from seemingly nowhere hit and bounced off his eyes. The titan cried out in frustration and with the distraction, Artemis was once again descending onto the Titan, in her heart glad and proud of her newest huntress.

Back with Bianca, she was glaring with cold fury at Atlas, as Percy and Thalia joined her side.

"Bianca, you alright?" Percy asked as he jumped back to take a breather.

"Finally joining the fun, huh, Batwoman? Or do you need to emo and brood a bit more for a power up?" Thalia arrived next to them with lightning sparking off her frame, a devilish grin on her face.

"Perseus, Thalia, summon the darkness of your domains." Bianca said calmly, as she dragged her greatsword, heading toward the titan. The giant blade set off sparks against the ground.

"Huh?" Percy asked, once more lost.

"Oh? And what 'darkness'? I didn't take you for someone to go goth? I can bring a storm and it will be very bright." Thalia said back with swagger in her movement as she joined Bianca to head towards their opponent. Percy joined them without needing a word, ready to back them up.

"What lies at the depth of the ocean? What becomes of the day when the storm arrives but a darkening?" Bianca said, eyes forced with nothing but murderous intent shining in them, aiming at Atlas.

"...You better not start going archaic and saying 'thou' and 'thy' on us, Hellgirl." Thalia chuckled. "Come on Aquaboy, bring the ocean and I'll bring the storm. Let's make a hurricane to close Waffle House."

"Ha! Okay, let's make an actual problem for people." Percy laughed, before he paused as he registered something Thalia said. "Wait, why am I 'Aquaboy' and she gets 'Batwoman'?"

Thalia laughed and just flew high into the air. Percy grumbled and started focusing. The Labyrinth Tower was made near or at the shore, right?

He can just summon the ocean from there.

===x===

People at the Californian shores, such as Red Rock Beach to as faraway as the Stinson Beach, were treated to a threatening sight of seeing the tide receding. This caused people to retreat further in-land in fear of a tsunami. Even reported the situation, issuing a warning.

People at the Steep Ravine Beach however were treated to the oddest of sights, as all the seawater started climbing up the Webb Creek, flooding it to the point of becoming a river.

Many hikers had to abandon their hike and leave for higher ground.

All that seawater moved with ferocity and purpose, heading toward the Son of the Sea God that called up that Domain.

By Asterios' will, the Labyrinth Tower opened sections to allow that water in, drawing it in even. The bull monster anticipated some schadenfreude at what was about to befall Atlas.

===x===

Dozens of silver glowing arrows bounced off Atlas' eyes, reaching the point of scratching them, forcing him to close them.

A lightning fast punch slammed into his abdomen, forcing him to bend down. He swung a sweeping fist downward to take out the demigod that attacked him, only to hit nothing.

Water swirled like a living whirlpool around the titan, from which Percy launched himself slamming a quake punch right into Atlas' nose breaking it. His own hand aching and vibrating from how hard the titan's head was.

"Damn, he really is hard headed—WOAH!" Percy managed to jump back, caught by a water tentacle from the whirlpool, that drew him back into the safety of the seawater.

"ARRRGH! You damn worthless inferior divines." Atlas shouted, opening his bloodshot eyes and glaring with pure hatred at his enemies. "You think any of you will win against Kronos? That you can stop what is to come? I will end you all!"

Atlas blocked a lunging punch from Artemis, only to counter an attack from Percy with a heel kick, that Percy ducked under, and forced to jump away from the titan's range.

"There will be no mercy now. Had you just kneeled and accepted your fate, your true rulers, you could have scrapped some bits of clemency."

Zoe stayed on the outskirts of the battle, supporting the front line fighters, as things were moving too fast for her to respond to up close. She was glad for Annabeth's support arrow, although her fellow hunter seemed to have disappeared in the background. It was excellent stealth but she really wondered, how Annabeth was positioning herself so fast, as the daughter of Athena's arrows were hitting the titan from all directions.

Maybe Dionysus' Madness Blessing made her gain an epiphany for trick shots.

Percy, Thalia and Bianca were moving in tandem, attacking Atlas together. Lightning, water and giant blade hitting, connecting and retreating from the titan before he could land a hit on them.

After another hit and dodge by Bianca, Thalia decended like a lightning bolt with a heel kick to Atlas's head, hitting—

Atlas jumped back. The lightning kick missed him.

The titan's Domain switched again, using Strength to speed up his reaction, to notice the electrical charge where Thalia would appear.

He dashed back in, a savage grin on his face, as he was about to decimate the daughter of Zeus with a punch carrying his full might.

Thalia broke into shards of light.

She had been teleported away by her shadow the instant she hit the ground.

Any hit that landed seemed to only hit an illusion of light. Any one that wasn't fast enough to get away either was pulled away by gravity, or vanished into their own shadow and appeared away, via Bianca's will.

Artemis acted as the huge threat that forced the titan's attention on the goddess, making the demigods able to maneuver even more. Silver glowing arrows would appear from nowhere, disrupting Atlas' focus even more.

"But for this continuous ardent rebellion, you will all suffer. You daughter, I will defile and rip apart your goddess before you!" Atlas shouted, as he had had enough of being overwhelmed and raised both arms in the air.

"WATCH—" Artemis began, but Atlas had already swung his arms down into the ground.

It was as if an explosion ocurred as a shockwave emanated from the impact point, pushing aside everyone.

Percy was pushed back into his water that surrounded the whole floor of the Labyrinth, sans the area around Atlas. Thalia fell back only for Percy to catch her in a way to cushion and slow down the water, as it would do for him. He didn't realize that, that shouldn't have worked.

With a moment to breath, Atlas continued threatening and boasting.

"You Thalia, and you Percy, you both will suffer under the weight of the Great Prophecy, same as you Bianca—GRAAGH!"

Atlas's tongue was cut off by the shadows in his mouth.

"'No more mercy', you say? Very well, then. Let me show you what that reality is like." Bianca's hand was extended toward the titan, exuding her will on all the shadows within his body.

The shadow inside his torso, inside his organs, between his muscles, inside his bones and even behind his eyelids and eyes.

Forced to switch back to the Endurance Domain, Atlas struggled to free himself of the demigoddess's power. He focused all his powers, to become indestructible, invincible, so he could pushed himself through the golden chains, even for one moment to express both Domains fully.

If he could do that, he could do his earth shatter move again and again till he began to damage the Labyrinth tower, and bury his enemies in the structure. Even if the bull monster can control the tower, Atlas should be able to just make the one floor above fall upon them, he can escape. He can win—

"Mother-in-law, some support please." Bianca called out loud.

"Of course, dear. What do shadows need, but a little light." Said Pasiphaë with a smile.

As if the queen of Crete had been waiting all this time, and massive amount of mist and magic gathered into one form, and ignited.

Everyone covered their eyes, as a flash of light exploded behind Bianca.

To call it a flashbang would be false. It started as a flash of light, but then the light extended and deepened to the point where the whole labyrinth floor was white with only the shadows of those present remaining.

The stronger the light, the more shadows enlarged, extended and grew.

The more the shadows grew, the more Bianca's power grew.

Then she inverted that concept. Because her power grew, her control over shadows deepened.

All shadows bowed to the daughter of Hades.

Atlas' eyes widened as she screamed.

The shadows within his body snapped out, bursting from within his body, and burrowing into the earth around him. Chaining, binding and sealing him in place, making him unable to move, react or dodge.

The light emission, allowing everyone to see the area as it is again , but the shadow chains remained.

"Thalia. Percy. Sky and ocean." Bianca said, and with no other words, the two acted.

The ceiling of the Labyrinth floor was covered in black clouds, lightning flashing between the clouds, but the world seemed to darken by the clouds' presence.

The water that was swirling around started spinning and rising up, further darkening the area, as if suddenly the whole place was about to fall into the depth of the ocean.

"You say that our fall is inevitable, that your master will rise?" Bianca stepped forward, darkness clinging and emanating from her. "That you will be gods to rule over us? Terrorize us once more? That it is our fate? ...How laughable."

A pulse of divine power erupted from Bianca di Angelo. Anyone who looked at her, thought they saw her blood shining beneath her skin, yet a blink and the vision vanished.

"Wh...o... dar...e... you...?" Atlas choked through his restrains.

"I am the Queen of Darkness." Bianca held her Stygian Iron Dragon Slayer with both hands above her. A stance that forgoes defense, to focus everything on this one attack. "The harbinger of fate. The one true fate that all beings share. Death."

The darkness within the seawater and the clouds above seemed to move in tandem with Bianca's will, even if it should be under Percy and Thalia's control. Yet they felt her intent and went along with her, pushing their control over those domains to respond and submit to Bianca's design.

The seawater and clouds swirled toward Bianca's blade, a sword of darkness that was growing with the symbolized ocean's depth and sky's obscuring of daylight.

It was a manifestation of a hurricane in blade form. A smite of three gods, the symbol to the wrath of the Three Eldest Gods of Olympus made real.

For the first time in thousands of years, doubt gripped Atlas' heart, and fear slipped in.

"And here and now I will become the avatar to my father's will and deliver you to the Lord of the Underworld as one of his subjects." The colossal blade of darkness, swirling with violent water and thunder ringing with dancing lightning cried against the world for the reckoning to come. "Rejoice Atlas, your fate is at hand."

Asterios' eyes widened from how the power felt.

The sword descended.

The Bull of Crete called upon the Labyrinth and it answered his will. Space stretch and lengthened.

Percy, Thalia, Zoe and Annabeth were moved away to a few floors up.

Atlas saw a vision. He was standing on a barren flat land. He looked up at the black above him and saw the ocean fall. Followed by the heavens. Followed by the night behind them.

The sound of the ocean and the sky were falling upon Atlas, weighed by the darkness of the night and the abyss of the ocean.

Maybe it was some last minute strength. Maybe it was his cosmic disposition as a titan meant he had to be able to act more against mere demigods. Maybe it was luck or a twist of fate to not let the girl who called herself their harbinger without permission, definitively slay him.

The truth? The truth that Atlas wouldn't dare voice or allow it to leave his heart of hearts was... It was fear.

Surrender to sheer survival instinct at not wanting to die, uncaring that the opponent should have been far beneath him in divinity.

"I'M GOING TO RIP YOUR INTESTINES OUT OF YOUR NOSE AND STUFF THEM BACK UP YOUR ASS! I WILL RIP YOUR HEART YOU AND STUFF IT BACK INTO YOUR BODY THROUGH YOUR DICK HOLE, ATLAAAAAAS!" Bianca howled.

UNCLE HELP!

Atlas simply prayed to Kronos, the only thing left he had faith in, the only left he could do. He wasn't sure if his uncle did help him or not, but with his last spurt of panicked strength, Atlas snapped the shadows binding his arm to bring them up.

The Sword of Calamity connected. Bianca holding the blade roared in determination and rage.

Atlas felt the pain of when he first carried the sky. As if the weigh of the heavens descended on him, but this time pointed, intentionally and wrathfully upon him.

Not as a consequence of being between the heavens and the earth, but as if that heaven spitefully wanted to crush him.

He screamed in agony beyond any he could remember. He screamed as he pushed to survive. He screamed and the sword finished it's swing, slamming into the earth.

The sound of chains shattering rang out.

Along with the sound of flesh and bones being ripped apart.

Another explosion like the one Atlas did erupted, but this time the force seemed focused solely on him, blasting him across the Labyrinth bottom floor.

In an instant Atlas was buried so deep into the earth, a new crater was formed.

Bianca was pulled back to Asterios' side, by another manipulation of space.

The sheer divine destruction continued even without Bianca there, as a sheer presence of force and weight were crushing that particular piece of ground.

The quaking of Bianca's catastrophic strike shook the base of the Labyrinth Tower, making that shaking be felt for many floors above, and even outside of the tower.

The ceiling had a large carving from how tall the divine blade's aura had gotten, and further gouging from the rebound of that energy splashing upward.

The quaking continue for a few seconds, nearly a minute.

The darkness, water and lightning filling the crater Atlas was in began to vanish. Within the massive crater, a figure could be seen.

Atlas was facedown on the ground, unmoving.

"Did... we just succeed in killing him?" Artemis asked.

Asterios instantly had two questions in his mind.

One, who the fuck is 'we'? Asterios wondered. And two, lady, have you never heard of Murphy's Law?!

Artemis turned her head with a frown to Asterios' exasperated glare. Oops, guess she heard him. Yet he didn't care. His point stood.

As if to prove him right, Atlas began to stir. The goddesses, demigods, and monster snapped their eyes toward him.

The titan with a shaking form began to get up.

The golden chains on his arms were shattered, only those on his torso were felt. He could now access and express all his Domains to their fullest extent. Only his Titanic Form was locked away from him.

Yet it was as he stood up, that the group realized Atlas wasn't shaking from rage, even as he tried to mask it.

There were no chains on his arms, because both arms were gone. There were nothing but bleeding stumps.

He was growling like a cornered animal. No words were left that he could utter. That he could think to do so. A beast at his most dangerous.

And in response, Asterios stood up.

Just as everyone else was exhausted from effort expended so far, the self-declared King of Monsters was fully healed.

===

AN:

Zeus: Brother, I think your daughter has anger issues.

Hades: Nonsense. She's just expressing her displeasure in a normal, healthy way.

Poseidon: ...Brother, do you have anger issues?

Hades: Of course not. I express my displeasure in a normal healthy way.

*The Mummy Oracle in Big House Attic at Camp*

Oracle of Delphi: That is some bullshit!

Also:

Literally Artemis to Atlas in this chapter:

Also! Also, countdown to Annabeth W: 1

Annabeth is grinning.