‘Okay. That could have gone better.’ Zagreus is currently at the end of his rope, lying face up with several badly bleeding whip marks on his chest. Megaera had predicted his dash and had comboed him with her whip to near death within seconds. She purposely did not use magic once she saw the shields around his dash, easily recognizing that he had Boons from Athena. Her attacks, maneuverability, and battle tactics, and moveset are far stronger and more flexible than those of weak shades. She walks up to him casually, licking her lips and making a show out of the way her hips sway.

Zagreus drops his head to the floor, groans with pain, and closes his eyes. “Meg.. *cough* I’m not in the mood. Just kill me.”

“Hmm?” Megaera brings her bare feet to his crotch and feels his rapidly hardening length. “This little guy here begs to differ.”

Zagreus flushes with indignation as Megaera squats above his legs, reaches inside his robes, and fishes out his cock. Stroking it gently, Megaera says, “Resistance is futile, Zag. You can’t beat me. To be fair though, these beatdowns have their own charm. Pain and bloodshed are as much pleasures of the flesh as is sex. The longer this goes on, the more we will be entwined by them.”

She takes the head of his penis in her mouth, rolls her tongue around it, sucks it softly, and looks at him, as if daring him to say he isn’t attracted to her. Zagreus groans and feels like his own body has betrayed him. He is fully aroused. Even though the increased blood circulation is causing him to bleed again from some of his wounds, his last bit of health refuses to deplete.

He could dash away into a nearby spike-floor trap, which would kill him instantly, but he cannot fight off the horny. Zagreus stays silent and motionless, stewing in his passive-aggressive fantasies as Megaera blows his divine dick.

‘Fucking bitch. I’m only 18 and you are at least 9000 years old! Grrr.. the things I’ll do to you when I’m stronger.’

Of course, he refuses to admit to submitting to the horny. Instead, he makes excuses like,

‘This is my reward for pushing through all this pain.’

‘I guess I’ll take a short break while she gets a drink.’

‘I’m just appreciating the nice view of the dungeon’s ceiling.’

‘Wait.. the ceiling?’

Zagreus remembers the way the cracks in the wall glow when his Father invokes his Authority. His Father can evoke his Authority at any time and see whatever is happening inside his domain!

He shouts anxiously, “Meg, what if Father!?”

Her mouth audibly pops off his cock, leaving a string of precum connecting their erogenous zones. She asks, “What about Lord Hades? He already knows we fucked. You seriously underestimate the power of Authority if you think he has no idea what we did in your room. He would have stopped me if he had any misgivings, but he did not. That means he trusts me to lead you in the correct direction.”

Zagreus widens his eyes and his dick gets slightly bigger against Megaera’s cheek while she wipes the string of precum off on her face.

Megaera looks at Zagreus with a slight disdainful smirk, leans her body against his, and coos into his ear, “Oh.. that gets you off, huh? The thought that your daddy could, at any time, catch us or watch us having hot sex?”

She swipes her claw at her crotch, ripping open the clothes over it, grabs his cock, and prods it against her bare pussy. She says in an extremely sultry tone, “Do you want to show daddy how pathetic you are? Lying on the floor, bloody and broken.. letting me have my way with your body?”

Zagreus growls and musters the little strength he has remaining to spank her on her right buttcheek. That in itself causes some of his wounds to bleed, but it is worth it, or so he thinks at the time of the petty revenge. Megaera barely feels any pain from the spank, but Furies aren’t known for being vindictive for nothing. She whispers, “Wrong move, baby.” before biting into his throat with her fangs and killing him, causing the River Styx to steal away his body.

That’s right. Megaera would rather go for mutual destruction and leave both of them sexually frustrated than allow her prey to disrespect her. ‘Hahh.. at least his blood is tasty.’ She wipes some of his blood leaking out of her mouth with her finger and lowers it to her vagina. Inserting her bloody finger in her cunt, she begins moaning with impunity. Dominating Zagreus is simply too satisfying for her not to jill off.

Zagreus opens his eyes wide as Megaera goes for the kill and loses consciousness for a few seconds upon his death. When he wakes up, he hates Megaera even more. She left him blue-balled! Then again, they say hate and love go hand in hand, and it must not be for nought, because he’s still hard as fuck. He cannot even get out of the pool without the large boner in his reconstructed robes being visible to Hypnos, several dozen shades, and even his Father in eyeshot much farther down the hall. He treads blood with utter embarrassment and waits for his boner to recede.

‘Why did the thought of my dad watching get me so excited? I heard the shades talk about exhibitionism.. Is that my fetish?! Ugh, never mind. Let’s not think about that again. I need a long dose of the good doggy.’

Now that he is presentable, Zagreus exits the pool. He is not wet because the blood of the Styx cannot leave the confines of the River and its tributary pools. He cuts the line of shades and heads over to Hypnos directly.

On his way, he notices that he gets to keep the Darkness, Chthonic Key, and Gem collectibles upon death. All Boons and coins are already vacant from his person. That means he made the right decision to spend coins at Charon’s shop. There would have been no point in saving them. Even if the power-ups ultimately made no difference this run, this factor is important to keep in mind going forward.

Before he can talk to Hypnos though, he overhears Hades shouting vehemently at Nyx from his desk, “Olympus knows of him?! Bestowing on him all their worthless blessings, here, within my realm! Our realm! Explain to me how, exactly, this is possible, Nyx. Either your limitless power has considerably waned, or you are up to something.”

All the colors in the House fade as Nyx states calmly, “Do not question my power, Hades.”

She allows the color to return and continues, “Your son was bound to be discovered the closer he came to the surface. The Olympians are pleased to know they have a distant relative, and bid him welcome to their mountain. That is all. Their influence is very limited.”

Hades shows no sign of being intimidated by her as he spits back, “Blood and darkness! Do not speak to me about their influence! I've seen their influence firsthand. You've made a foolish mistake.”

Nyx finishes the conversation by soothingly replying, “You would speak to me of foolish mistakes? You cannot change the course that has been set. Try all you like.” She then poofs away.

Hades says, “Nyx! Gah..” before returning to his work sulking with rage.

Knowing better than to strike up a conversation with his Father at a time like this, Zagreus decides to avoid exchanging quips with him and even skip petting Cerberus, whose normal resting spot is directly next to his Father’s desk, as well.

He walks up to Hypnos who says, “So you got your neck ripped off by Megaera, huh? Don’t expect any mercy from her, even if she is an old flame. She’s a Fury.. Why you’ve never met them, but the other two sisters of hers are batshit crazy!”

Zagreus laughs along and jokes, “I can’t even imagine, considering the amount of crazy I have to deal with on a daily basis.”

He is currently entirely safe to badmouth Megaera since it has only been a few minutes since his death. Normally, he wouldn’t dare to while she is present in the House. Although recently, he must admit his inhibitions towards flipping out at anyone who pisses him off are rapidly lowering with his ever increasing familiarity with death. ‘Yuck, no way I’m going to grow up to end up like my Father - losing my temper at the drop of a hat. It’s how strong she is that’s getting to me..’

Before he can wallow in fatalism at how strong he’ll have to be to beat Megaera, Zagreus heads over to Achilles. The legendary hero is good at reading him and will probably know what to say to pick him up.

He does not find Achilles at his usual spot though, so he dashes over to the training room. There he finds Achilles leaning on his spear while occasionally directing Nuwa on how to use a bow properly. Nuwa’s low strength does not give her enough power to draw it all the way, so she is struggling. When she releases the arrow, however, it is very accurate. She only has to work on her strength, which will come with age.

Achilles trains Nuwa on the bow specifically because her hair-snakies provide enhanced depth perception and hand-eye coordination. Her field of view can be maintained at a full 360 degrees at all times and due to how hyper her snakes get, she has had to accommodate to the disorientation of a constantly shifting, compound field of view ever since she was young. For this reason, the combat position that suits her most is either as a sniper or long-range support. She’s only a demi-god by heritage, so it will take her much more work to get stronger when compared to a godling like Zagreus.

Zagreus chats with Achilles quietly so as not to break Nuwa’s concentration as she takes aim at Skelly’s chest. “Hey, Achilles.”

Looking over and raising his brows, Achilles nods proudly at him and states, “So you finally set out on your own. Fret not lad. Many heroes started out at the bottom, in a similar position as yourself. Persevere and you will be destined for success.”

Zagreus sighs. He knows all of this, yet hearing it in the graceful, fatherly tone of Achilles really makes it stick so much more than hearing it in his own head. “Thanks, Achilles. I appreciate your patience in all the training you gave me as well as your support on my journey.”

It wouldn’t be appropriate for Zagreus to bow, due to status, so he gives Achilles a short hug before dashing back to his room to check the Mirror of Night.

He taps the Mirror and it shows him some updated abilities that he is able to rank up. He reads through several of them which are good before finding one that he definitely needs.

‘Greater Reflex - Each rank lets you chain +1 Dash before briefly recovering.’

He currently has to wait a full second between dashes. That’s the soonest he can reestablish a connection to his Father’s Authority. If he could dash back to back, his mobility will shoot up. He stands a much better chance of avoiding Megaera’s whip with all that time he can coast along invulnerable to damage during his chained dashes. He quickly purchases it, depleting all of his Darkness again, and is upset to see that Rank 1 of the ability is the maximum. He can only chain two dashes in a row before he has to take a short break. Still, this will help.

He double dashes by Dusa, who seems to be absent-mindedly staring at Nuwa training from afar. He backtracks to chat, upon which he notices that Dusa seems to have been dusting the same spot in his room for the past 3 minutes that he was looking at the Mirror.

In fact, Zagreus had forgotten that Medusa became Maid Dusa after she gave birth to Nuwa, since Medusa was not nearly as endearing or memorable as Dusa. At the same time, Dusa had always treated Nuwa with the same respect as that of a Princess and not like a mother would treat their daughter. He still does not know the inside story, but he has a feeling that it is unsavory. Nuwa has always been raised believing Nyx is her mommy and if that will prevent her from learning of a more miserable truth, that’s fine with him. He understands that this is hypocritical of him, but at least in his half-sister’s case, her real mom has been nearby all along.

Zagreus says softly to Dusa, “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

Dusa replies automatically, “Yeah..” then turns and floats almost to the ceiling in fright, “P-p-p-prince! D-d-don’t sneak up on me like th-that! Oh gosh, look at all this dust. How did it get like this so quickly?” She swiftly returns to sweeping away remnants of sulfur resulting from Zagreus’ newfound addiction to chain-dashing wherever he needs to go.

He internally apologizes to the compulsive cleaner, ‘Sorry Dusa, I can’t even imagine running around everywhere when I have unlimited dashes to speed things up. You’ll likely be cleaning up my messes for the foreseeable future.’

When he heads back to the training room, he sees Megaera flying up towards the House’s balcony from several kilometers away. Before she returns, he quickly grabs Stygius and gets going. He is under no impression that she will kiss him goodbye and pass him a packed lunch. Indeed, he wouldn’t put it past her to chop his dick off and fuck herself with it, knowing it will regenerate when he’s here. Meeting that crazy bitch once per run is more than enough!

(A/N: The argument between Hades and Nyx is directly quoted from the game. I loved those lines. It’s a great caricature of their ‘not quite a married couple’, but ‘still close enough to tell when their partner is breaking their trust’ dynamic.)