Baekhyun woke up to find Mina already awake scribbling something in her diary. This made the demigod sit up quickly, leaning over his shoulder to see what she had seen in her dream. Mina’s dreams weren’t just regular old fashioned dreams anymore-they had become visions of what they were going to see when they’d reach the lair.

He saw her draw a scene where there were several barracks full of weapons. Then he saw an arrow shooting range. Once that looked pretty similar to the one at camp. Baekhyun imagined they’d have him train there-since those were his expertise. Other than that, there wasn’t much out of the ordinary in her drawing. 

Her eyes were concentrated so much on the notebook in front of her, she hadn’t realized Baekhyun was behind her.

In a quick reflex she grabbed Baekhyun wrist and began twisting it. When she heard Baekhyun’s voice groan in pain she let go.

“Sorry, you scared me,” She jumped.

“It's okay, so...did you dream of him? Was he anywhere in there?” Baekhyun asked with hope laced in his voice.

Mina sighed, shaking her head.

“It's weird, he used to be in every one of my  dreams, but this time...he wasn’t there. I suspect he’s gone out to recruit more demigods? Nymphs, monsters, something like that.”

“What do we have here,” Kai asked.

The tall demigod plucked the red notebook away from Mina’s hands. She was too slow to respond and snatch it back and could only hold her arms out like a baby reading for something too high.

“Give it back to her,” Baekhyun warned.

“Chill, I’m just curious,” He began flipping through the pages, “Say...so you knew about our hideout before. I would mark this as quiet suspicious,”

Mina looked too nervous to respond, so Baekhyun did.

“She’s been having dreams about the lair for a while. Ever since we made the commitment to join the resistance. This is how we knew to come here,”

Kai narrowed his eyes. Clearly the son of Hesphestuas was still suspicious about their motives to be in the resistance, but Baekhyun knew this would cover them up.

Kai handed Mina her journal back, “My nose is definitely much smaller than you have in that drawing. Fix that up will you?”

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After they’d all woken up and eaten some canned soup they’d packed, they threw on their heavy bags and continued their journey underground. I

It had been calm since they’d arrived, but as they thought their trip would go unhinged, they were met with a roadblock.

They couldn’t see it yet, but they heard it first. 

A low bellowing growl from the otherside of the tunnel.

The demigods tensed at the sound.

Kai held a finger to his lips to shush everyone, he held out the lantern further to see what ahead. When he saw the menacing teeth and drool of a large dog, he retracted the lantern.

“Now would be a good time to take out your weapons,” Kai gulped.

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“What do we do?” Mina asked, her knuckles growing white as they clutched onto the dagger.

Baekhyun could sense her nervousness, so he came to stand in front of her, hoping she’d feel a little less anxious knowing he’d protect her at all costs.

Ever since Chanyeol had disappeared, Baekhyun had taken it upon himself to take care of Mina like his own sister. He had a soft spot for her, a huge contrast to their relationship a year ago. It was almost like Chanyeol had left him with the task of protecting her and he couldn’t let go of it. After all, Mina was the last remaining piece of Chanyeol’s life. 

“Only one of the dogs is awake. It can’t see us, but senses something is here. The tunnel is too narrow for us to walk past it. We need to fight it,” Kai said.

“Dogs? What do you mean dogs?” Kyungsoo asked.

“I mean, the three headed dog, Cerbeus,”

“The ones from the underworld?” Adrian asked, “Do you mean...we’ve gotten so deep into the ground that-”

“Yes, precisely yes,” Kai said. 

“Okay, so lets get it over with!” Kyungsoo took out his sword ready to plunge into the dogs.

“Are you insane!” Kai hissed, “If we even so much as hurt one of the dogs, the other will get aggressive.” 

Baekhyun sighed, thinking about how they could get out of this mess. Last he heard about Cerbeus was back in his first year at camp blood. They were the three headed dogs that guarded the underworld. To his knowledge, they were in the underworld...were they? 

“Kyungsoo, get your fists ready,” Baekhyun said cautiously.

“Wait-what do you mean?” He asked.

“You’re going to put that thing in a choke hold against the wall. Let us all pass. Then, when the time is right, I’ll charmspeak them to hold down so you can run too.” Baekhyun said without wasting time. 

“This is quite abrupt, perhaps we should think first-'' Kai countered.

“Alight, give me a sign,” Kyungsoo immediately agreed. 

“Okay one, two-”

“Um hello, are we not going to have a group vote first?” Kai asked, a little flustered than usual.

“I vote yes,” Mina said quickly.

“Same,” Adrian agreed. 

Kai watched in awe as the group of demigods initiated their plan without hesitation. 

“Three!” Baekhyun bellowed.

Kyungsoo jumped on to the dogs, wrapping his arms around their three heads and pinning them securely against the wall. The dogs struggled. A lot. To the point that Kyungsoo was begging them to hurt up and move across.

When Adrian, Mina and Baekhyun had all crossed they looked back to find Kai looking at Kyungsoo in awe.

“Don’t just stand there! Move you idiot!” Kyungsoo cried.

Kai quickly teleported to the otherside, a smirk adoring his body because he’d successfully pissed off the son of Ares. 

When they’d all passed the tunnel walkway, Baekhyun ran closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He hadn’t used charmspeak regularly since his last quest, so he imagined he’d be a bit rusty. 

“Let him go!” Baekhyun said forcefully.

The dogs faltered. They lost their energy, but within another second they gained it all back. Baekhyun felt stupid for thinking he even had it in him to use charmspeak on a monster who was guarding the underworld.

“Let go!” Baekhyun said again, his voice echoing along the tunnel.

Still. Nothing.

The other demigods behind him looked at his defeated face which was defeated and prepared to take out their weapons.
 

But Baekhyun didn’t end it there.

He held his chest in and with full force yelled, “LET GO!”

The dogs stilled. A pink aura surrounded them. Baekhyun finally felt calm. It was working. His charmspeak...was finally working.

Kyungsoo retraced from the dogs, running over to his friends, before tapping the top of the tunnel and letting rubble and dirt fall in front of them, blocking the dogs from attacking them.

They all heaved a sigh of relief.

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After the very close encounter to death with Cerbeus, the demigods treaded lightly, holding their swords close and eyes sharp for any other monsters around them. Not once had they imagined they’d come across such a difficult enemy, and yet here they were alive and well having not even fought, but deterred a strong enemy. 

“So what...Hades is after us too? I thought he hated the gods,” Adrian asked.

Afterall, Cerbeus was his pet monster. Why had Hades sent such a curse to them all of a sudden? 

“The gods' collaboration is much more sinister and political than once may think. Sure, Hades hates both his brothers, but he benefits off of them more than anyone else. He’s a big three. Owns the entire underworld-he wouldn’t give that up for anything. In his own way he’s selfish. Perhaps there is a moral reason he would want to defeat the tyranny of the gods, but...he knows how much privilege he receives from them. That privilege would be gone if they were demolished.”

“You’re fairly educated on such topics…”Adrian said with suspicion.

“Ever since I was born I was part of the resistance.”

Both Kyungsoo and Baekhyun looked at each other in confusion.They were under the impression that the resistance only came into existence about three years ago when they friend Jongdae had fallen into its hands. Yet, here was Kai, who was perhaps a year of two younger...saying he’d been born into the organization. It wasn’t adding up.

“I mean, we’ve come this far so I might as well tell you. There is one god that wants the hierarchy to be abolished.”

“Who?” Mina asked.

“Hephaestus, my father.” Kai said.

“The god of fire, metal working, blacksmithing…”Adrian said like an open textbook.

“Correct. He was born with a raging anger to end olympus.”

“But why? Wasn’t he the son of Hera and Zues?” Baekhyun asked.

“Exactly. Having parents like them...it’s no wonder he refused a throne at Olympus and vowed to take it down one day.”

“But why? How did this all start?” Kyungsoo said.

“It began with his birth. After he had been born, Hesphestus was like any god child, gifted in all ways, he was a prodigy of his kind. Handsome, smart, charming. Could make the best metal work, glass work you name it. He was carving out bronze and silver swords for all the greek gods by the time he was five.” Kai said, “But one day, Zeus discovered that his son had a power he hadn’t expected.”

“Fire,” Baekhyun finished his sentence.

Kai nodded, “I’m sure you’ve all heard of the story of Prometheus. How he discovered fire to the mortals and that made Zues go crazy. Now...Zues was cursed with yet again another person who could bestow powers on to mortals again. He was furious. Hera fought with her husband, trying to explain that it wasn’t Hesphestus’ fault that he had those powers. In the middle of the dispute, my father attempted to stop them...but with all his rage and anger...Zues flung him off of mount olympus.From then on he lived underground as a blacksmith...plotting his revenge against the gods.”

Baekhyun realized how much of this story made sense, especially in terms of how Prometheus fit into it. He remembered though the stories were all coming back to him, no longer feeling like a textbook in class-this was reality. Their reality.

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Auhtors note: I"m really really trying to push out these updates as fast possible guys!!!. PLease keep a stay tuned for more upcoming chapters. Stuffs about the get serious. And for those waiting on Chanyeol don't worry he'll be here soon. But be patient :)))))