Chapter 65

**Samael**
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Once I'm positive Medusa's destroyed, I lower my wings and turn toward the children I'm protecting. They stare at me in silence, some of their expressions filled with awe and others terrified.

"Is everyone okay?" I ask, getting down on one knee so I can look them all in the eye and see if Medusa's song still had any of them under its spell.

The littlest one in the group breaks the silence as she flings herself onto me. She couldn't have been older than two before she died, but from her eyes, I could tell she was much older now.

"Thank you." She whispers, her voice sounding closer to someone in their eighties, as she clings to me.

"Of course. You are my people." I reply, "I'll always protect you."

"You'll make a great king someday, Prince Samael." The baby replies, "I'm only sad that I won't be able to see it."

When she pulls away, it's only then that I notice the bright light surrounding her little body. She's ready to move on.

"I've lived life to the fullest now." She remarks, a smile of pure bliss on her face, "I've known every emotion possible, I've witnessed evil, and I've witnessed good. There's nothing left her for me anymore."

"Blessed be," I whisper to her, letting the power given to me by the Underworld aid her passing.

The other children with her are new souls, their eyes and voices similar to the age of their bodies as they chatter amongst themselves about the girl's passing. I worry about leaving them alone without an older soul to watch over them, but I'm left with no choice when the sounds of a water attack sound off from nearby in the direction of the Cocytus river.

"Scream if you need me." I holler at the children before I take off sprinting, propelling myself into the air as I hurry toward the sound of the attack, knowing that this might very well be my only chance at defeating the Kraken.

**BECKETT**
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I take the sea channel into the Underworld, passing quickly through the Kingdoms, hoping my presence will help Samael thoroughly cleanse his Kingdom. As soon as I pass from the Sea Kingdom into the Underworld, I have to scramble out of the water. The Cocytus river that leads into the Sea Kingdom is filled with black sludge, making it impossible for me to see through it. As I exit the water, I send a few tidal waves crashing against the rocks of the Underworld until they fall into the river, cutting off the channel between the two kingdoms. We can't afford for the Etir to spread. Having it wreak havoc in one Kingdom was more than enough.

One of the first things I notice as I walk alongside the riverbank is the mass amount of destruction. What once was a thriving riverboat community was a dump filled with snapped pieces of wood and tarnished metal. The community looked like a hurricane had run through it, ripping apart every boat that once floated along the river, but hurricanes don't exist in the Underworld, and they don't leave inkblots. There was no doubt about it. A Kraken had been unleashed in the Underworld. I let out a heavy sigh of relief, thanking Jehovah that it was in the Underworld and not in the Sea Kingdom; the last time a Kraken had made it into the ocean, the humans thought it would be smart to create a game called Sea of Thieves, surprisingly they'd gotten most of the Kraken's characteristics correct and the game was a hit.

The further up the riverbed, I wondered the murkier the river became, indicating that the Kraken was nearby. Every once in a while, I'd stop by the wreckage and swirl the remnants of the boats around, trying to gauge where the Kraken struck first, hoping that I could get an indicator of how large the beast was and its strength. The best way to destroy a Kraken is to decapitate it, but seeing as I had no weapons and my combat skills were mostly water, I felt like my best bet would be to drown it. Drowning a sea creature sounds absurd, but it's actually quite easy to do, and no, it's not something I do in my spare time. It isn't technically drowning because they don't breathe the same way land creatures do, but Krakens can still choke underwater. With enough pressure build-up, I can block its gills, blocking its ability to prove. However, I'll only be able to do that if the Kraken is small enough to fit in the bottom of the river. If it's already grown large enough to cover the river width-wise, I can always try the fish out of water technique by removing all the water from the river. However, that approach would harm more than the Kraken; it could kill all the marine life in the underworld rivers.

Hopefully, I'll run into Samael before I find the Kraken; he could at least give me some insight on the best approach to take. I don't want to come tearing through his Kingdom, destroying what's left of it, without permission from one of the ruling family members. It's bad manners to destroy someone else's Kingdom, after all. The sound of nearby screaming and cracking wood tears me from my thoughts on what would be considered proper etiquette in this situation. I dive into the river and beckon the waves to spring me forward, ignoring the taste of Etir mixed in the water as I inhale it into my lungs, calling forth the water before my gills can fully form.

I reach the site of destruction in a matter of minutes. The Kraken is huge, its body larger than the widest point of the river, and its head sits comfortably above the water, showing no trouble breathing. I quietly pull myself from the water, using the moment the Kraken crushes a trawler with its tentacles to mask the sounds of the water splashing from my body. Lost souls are jumping from the large fishing boat as the Kraken rips it apart piece-by-piece, and the people of Cocytus are swimming frantically, trying to get to safety. I can't stand by and let them die; they're still people even if they are already dead. I call to the water, beckoning it to the bank of the river, having the waves pull the souls from the water and out of the reach of the Kraken.

The Kraken stops midway through its destruction of a cargo ship and stares straight at me, it's voice echoing in my mind, sounding similar to that of an octopus.

"What are you doing here, prince of the Sea?" It asks, its tentacle trying to sneak up the shore toward me.

I push back with the water causing the Kraken to trip when his tentacle shoots under him, "I think a better question is what is a sea demon doing outside the confines of Tartarus."

"I don't answer to you, sea brat. My master is above even the Kings of Heaven."

Master? Hasn't slavery been abolished? Or was this some sub-dom kink?

"YOU ARE A CREATURE OF THE SEA! YOU WILL OBEY MY COMMAND!" I bellow, inflicting my full aura in the command, letting my dominant nature flow through.

The Kraken doesn't even flinch at my command. Is this because he was born from the Etir and not in the sea or was this something else entirely? He is bigger and stronger than any Kraken I've seen or read about.

"Did you really think that would work against me?" The Kraken laughed, throwing aside the remaining ships in its path, before scurrying onto the land, its tentacles morphing into crab-like legs.

What the hell was I witnessing?

"Do you like my newest addition?" The Kraken asks, stopping mere feet away from me, showing off its new legs, "My master blessed me with them."

Blessed? Who the hell uses blessed anymore. The only beings that use the word blessed are humans... and angels. Was the control of the dark Etir an Angel? Could it be Lilith? She was powerful enough to control the dark matter. But why would Lilith summon demons to the Underworld when they would work together to release Lucifer unless she missed her old beau. No, that didn't make sense... or did it?

Either way, the Kraken was going down. Its new upgrade would also be its undoing. Before the Kraken could take another step on the sandy bank, I created quicksand all around me. Pushing water waves onto the land, trapping leftover water from the waves into the soil, and liquifying it. When the Kraken steps forward, it begins to sink into the sand; as it's sinking quickly, I feel for my mate bond and call upon Aphelion's divine gifts, which are now linked to mine, thanks to Katrina. As I call on the divine power of the sky kingdom, I trap the air surrounding the Kraken, cutting off its oxygen. Then I use my divine gift and trap all the moisture, making the surrounding area drier than the Sahara desert. The Kraken doesn't stand a chance; I watch as it slowly loses oxygen, his eyes bulge, the whites turn red, his body begins to wobble, and then he drops to the floor. But still, I don't release my hold; I need to ensure he's dead. When his body starts to shift back into the tar-like substance of Etir, I release my hold on the air and the water, letting the river banks sand turn to normal, releasing the water trapped inside.

As I'm clearing the river banks of the remnants of the once-great ships, I notice Samael flying above me, his body descending quickly toward the wreckage. I step off to the side by creating a shield of water in case he attacks first before checking out the situation.

Samael lands with a thud, his blue fire blazing as his eyes lock into mine.

"What are you doing here?" He finally asks, breaking contact as he looks around for signs of danger.

"Oh, you know, the usual, kicking Kraken's ass and saving the Underworld," I reply sarcastically, pulling the last of the wreckage from the water.

"You defeated the Kraken?" He asks, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Yep." I reply, pointing toward the oozing sludge, "His remains are there if you want to take care of it."

Samuel makes quick work of pouring Freyja's golden elixir on the Etir, and I watch, mesmerized by how quickly it disappears.

"But really, what are you doing here?" Samael asks after what remained of the Kraken was destroyed.

"Katrina told me how the Etir spread, and you were using the clean river water mixed with Freyja's elixir to cleanse the land. I figured I could lend you some Sea Kingdom magic to move the process along. Also, Miles wants us all to have dinner together, and then he has something important to tell us."

"Alright," Samael nods, agreeing to my help, "Let's get this mess cleaned up so we can head home before dinner. We have a lot to discuss, I've gathered some information on what happened down here, and I'm interested to hear Miles's news. Plus, I miss my mates."

Yup, feel ya there, bud. The longer I stay away from my darling mate, the more I need her. I'd only been gone an hour, and it felt like I hadn't seen her in a few months. Distance really does make the heart grow fonder, and mates shouldn't have to deal with distance.