Mumbo's POV:

My legs were tired already, but the need to survive kept me going.

We must have passed through like tens of thousands of monsters, but we just kept running from the rubble that is now Sisyphus' mountain.

"I think I see the end!" Said an out-of-breath Xisuma.

Through the grimy mist and mud was a door made out of black wood and infused with iron, it was easily 20 feet tall or higher.

Tango run-up to it first and frantically knocked on the tall doors.

"Tango! Just bust the door open!" Exy commanded.

"But... manners," Tango mumbled to himself.

"WE ARE ABOUT TO DIE, YOU... DUMMY." Ex bit his lip (I think) and held back a slur.

Tango (Who was the only one that look like he can still hold a fight) looked up, "The door knocks are up there."

Xb ran up and slammed his shoulder against the loaming door, an unhealthy crack was heard from said shoulder.

"That doesn't sound good," Joe said, as Xb dropped onto the ground, clutching his shoulder in pain.

Tango added, "It's also like a trillion pounds and made out of hardwood."

"Didn't Hades say that he will hold this open for us?" Stress asked, holding up Jevin.

Silence, a flash of emotions run across everyone, we were too busy trying to survive to even remember who we are supposedly fighting for.

We were confused, then angry, then betrayal then sad, acceptance was last, and a bit of 'I knew that will happen.

Tango sank into the ground, and sighed "I knew I should have him swear it on the River Styx."

"Didn't he say that we will die if we stay there for more than two days or something?" Jevin muffled half-unconscious.

"Hey, TFC? How long have we been here?" Asked Xisuma.

"In actual hours like a bit less than a day," TFC responded and we breathed a sigh of relief.

"But in terms of Nyx messing up the day and night, we got like twenty or fewer minutes left until the monsters can and won't hesitate to attack us." TFC continued in a strangely calm tone

Then, panic began.

Ex started cursing at himself and the gods while the rest of us begin to argue.

TFC, being the voice of reason, tried to calm us all down, "Wait, we can still make it out of there alive if you all just work together."

"IT'S USELESS. THESE ARE THE DOORS OF DEATH; NOTHING GET THROUGH ASIDE FROM THE DEAD." Tango hysterically cried.

"Calm down Tango, you are not making it better for anybody else," Wels said.

Tango is hitting on the door, leaving actual small amounts of blood where he hit.

"What do we do then?" Ex said.

"I don't... I don't... I real-really don't know." Tango whimpered.

"There has to be a way out." Xisuma looked at Wels.

"But there isn't. Oh, it's the end." B-dubs sighed, half-exhausted.

The growl of monsters grew louder, and we huddled closer, raising our weapon but knew that we were in no shape to fight.

I looked to False, "You got any ideas?"

"Nope. We are cornered from all sides and a sudden attack is too risky." False groaned.

Silhouettes of the monsters are fading onto the shadows, I shivered.

"Grian?" Asked a confused Iskall.

Unlike the rest of us, he wasn't huddled in, his face wasn't fearful instead he seemed completely at ease.

He just looked back at us with an empty smile.

"Hey. Can I tell you all something?" He said, his forehead still bleeding.

We didn't respond and just nodded even though we could already guess what was happening next.

"In most stories, heroes usually have a happy ending and villains get what they deserve." He said, he looked at the foggy dust of the smoke, "But that doesn't seem to be the case for Greek heroes. They die, my friends."

At last, he looked at me and gave me one last cheeky smirk, the last one I'll ever see from him.

"What I'm saying is, go back home without me; after all, I was never meant to have a happy ending." He said, flapping his wing for one last time and disappearing in a glowing specter as he teleported us all to safety.

We were in the Fonias waterfalls again, the sun was setting, and the rushing of water filled my ears.

As the light from the sun died out, reality finally settled into our stomachs.

I dropped onto the ground in despair and screamed into what seemed to be a void in my chest.

"He... no... this isn't..." Wels whispered.

We were silent for a minute then Iskall stabs the ground, "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS. THIS. IS. NOT. FAIR." He bellowed kicking the stones below him.

"What have we done to deserve this; he is a such young man... it should have been me," TFC said, covering his mouth.

Scar started sobbing into Cub's shoulder, who was patting the young satyr.

"He wanted us to go back home without him. Come on, let's... fulfill his last wish."

We walked out of the waterfalls and back onto the roads without a word, the atmosphere was somber.

We were devastated, it didn't feel... correct without him, without his jokes, his silly pranks, and his admiration of the sky and flying.

We were dragging along when a familiar guy pops up, he was easily 10 feet tall, pieces of sandy blond hair like the ones that belonged to Grian were poking out of a helmet with small wings on the side, he wore little and had sandals. His cold blue eyes stared at us.

"You're the demigods that helped us kill Nyx, right?" He asked, his voice sounding like an older version of Grian.

"You're... Hermes." Ex said flatly.

"A'ight, what's with the mood," Hermes said impatiently.

We looked at each other and shared a thought, did he not know that Grian, his son, just died?

"Well, you see, we lost someone very dear to us." Stress said in a rush not wanting to go into more details.

"Meh, don't care. If you have an issue with that, speak to Hades or get lost in grief or whatever." He said blandly, he marked something down on his notepad and asked again, "Did you help us kill Nyx. Yes or no."

"Yeah, so what. We lost so much; it won't feel like a win." Tango said still half-sulking.

"The right win is that you benefited us, the others have a small surprise for you!" Hermes reached out his hand.

We unwillingly took his hand, and before he teleported, he said, "Also wiped those ugly strains of tears off, you'll embarrass me."

We didn't listen, and he just sighed and mumbled sometimes about kids being embarrassed and disappointed.

The next thing we saw was the entrance to Olympus, it was uncomfortably white and holy, everything seemed perfect and in the middle was a path to the throne room.

The other Gods in their thrones were in full size and on the ground was Nike yelling at them for something they didn't care for as they just yawned through her speech.

Hermes went ahead and asked them something, Nike turned around and saw, her expression changed from surprise to dread as she realized Grian was gone.

Hermes zoomed back to us, "They have granted you permission to meet them, you are so lucky!"

"But we didn't-" Wels was cut short by Jevin elbowing him.

"We didn't... what," Hermes asked in an eerily way.

"We... didn't even know they even allow us to go in there!" Cleo said, trying to charmspeak, but it didn't work as well as her voice breaks halfway.

"Hm... good enough." Hermes narrows his eyes at Cleo, "I'm going to take care of Nike, she is being troublesome, more so today than others."

We walked up the huge carpet to the throne room, we were like tiny ants.

Nike hastily counted how many of us were there and in a low, panicked voice; she spoke "Is he... no way."

Stress sobbed a little and nodded.

Nike turned back around; her rage grew on the gods. "Hades! How could you!" she bit her tongue to not raise her voice at the Gods.

Hades was out of place among the gods, he didn't have a throne and was just sitting on the ground, cross-legged.

"What did I do?" He said as if he didn't know that he left us there to rot.

Nike clenched her fist harder, ready to strike at Hades; "Oh, YOU LEAVE THESE PEOPLE DOWN IN THERE! They didn't belong in the land of the dead!"

"Look I'm sure there was a misunderstanding." Hermes bugged in, but that seemed to only make her angrier.

"OH. YOU ARE NO BETTER!" she screamed at Hermes, she snapped out of anger and took a deep breath, "One is still down there, and judging by the other's condition... oh he may already be..."

"I am sorry for your lost," Hermes said flatly without care.

Then it was Wels that got angry, "GRIAN WAS YOUR SON! HE WENT THROUGH ALL THAT AND I COULDN'T PROTECT HIM WHEN HE NEEDED IT THE MOST." Wels was near hysterics.

Hermes raised an eyebrow, "I don't remember having a son called Grian."

I felt the anger boiling inside of me, "Grian told me that he tried for five WHOLE years to get in contact with you, he may have had a grudge, but he still respected you as his father!"

"Right whatever let's just get into business," Hermes said.

Tango was silent the whole time, still holding Ashrune in his palms, and while Hermes saw that dagger that belonged to Grian, his eyes grew in shock then back into the cold stone blue.

"He clearly knew Grian, well he knew of him, that jerk," I whispered to Impulse.

Nike had a look of defeat, she was done with the gods and bluntly asked, "Why do you need the Hermits to be here?"

"We just wanted to congratulate them right dear?" Hera said, her dress long and wrapping Zeus's chair.

"Yes, you solved our little problem with Nyx, and we will never worry about her! Well not until other millennia or so." Zeus said, waving his hands as if in a speech.

Hera nodded, "We will give you a small award for your help."

We stared at each other and just nodded.

"Sorry, but no thanks. Just take us back home... well of what remains of that home." I spoke.

Hera stared at us; she didn't speak but her eyes are enough to tell us that she was mad at us for turning her down.

"Very... very... well then, Nike go back to your wreck of a home, just if you want to live here, just tell me ok." Hera sneered, but before she can teleport us back, a pair of feet echoed into the room.

It was a woman, a bit taller than me and had soft amber eyes, her wavy brown hair had streaks of orange and red, she was dressed in a simple red dress.

"Hestia! I didn't expect to see you here! Want to meet the ones that helped us I suppose?" Hera said in a snobby tone.

"Yes. I need to talk with them." She said, her voice is quiet.

"Very well, you have a minute," Hera said leaning forward.

Hestia pulled us to the side, to a long hallow hallway lit with lamps with fire, even though it was big and hallow, I felt a sense of warmth and fuzziness, like I was with...

"Sorry about God's behavior, they are a bit cold at times." She said, sitting on the marble floor and patting the ground, inviting us to sit with them.

We sat down; the ground was surprising, not cold but warm as well.

"So, why are we here," Xisuma asked.

"I may not know how losing a loved one may feel. But it must hurt, just release it all nowhere, bottling up your emotions isn't good for your health." She calmly said.

As if in a trance, I felt my emotions overwhelming me, I sobbed into my knees and whimpered, "Why does it always seem like the world to get him?"

Stress patted my back, "Mumbo, please stop crying-" She hiccupped "-Or you're going to make me cry!" She blubber.

We grieved for a few moments, and when we looked back up, Hestia grinned softy.

"Don't that feel better?" She sighed, and looked at Zed and Beef, "If I am not wrong, you two have not been claimed?"

"Yeah..." Zed groaned.

"Just know that if you do need a parent figure in your life. You can always call me." Hestia stood up.

"I will claim you as the Champions of Hestia. May the warmth and love fill your soul, forever and ever."

"Did... did we just get claimed?" Zed asked Xisuma.

"Not really, you can still be claimed by your godly parents and still be my little Champions." She giggled.

"Oh, wait do you know who their godly parents are?" Wels asked.

"Sadly, no." Hestia shook her head. "My minute is almost up, you should head back, Hera hates people being late."

We walked back into the tall throne room, the hair between the hallway and the throne room is so different and was discomforting.

"Is it me, or is it really cold?" Impulse asked shivering.

"Well, you are still covered in water and blood so, I don't know," Joe said.

"Thank you again for helping us!" Hera said, no actual emotion in that 'thank you.

Then we were back home.

It looked the same as when we last saw it, but it felt empty.

Home sweet home, but at what cost?

TLDR:

The stages of grief.

Authors' Notes:

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