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"You released my storm when you opened that bag; blocked your one way home, now you'll never get back," Poseidon mocked, unable to help himself as he chuckled as the mortal before him walked away with his head down.
Odysseus, king of Ithaca, was finally within his grasp. Poseidon would finally be able to take his vengeance on the man who blinded his son 10 years ago. The mortal king had nowhere to go as the storm raged around the small rocky island they were on. Once Odysseus had dealt with all, he had to do was call off the storm, and his 10 years of anger would finally be over. The sea god readjusted himself against the rock he was sitting against and silently chuckled to himself.
Odysseus then turned his head to look back at the god, and there was a look in his eyes the god had never seen in him before. Perhaps the look of Ares' blessing, Poseidon guessed. He must've stepped in for his sister, as she had been out of commission for a reason still unknown to the god. But what could Ares' blessing do to a god like him? He couldn't die, especially to a mortal.
"You're going to call off that storm," he threatened.
"Or what? You can't kill me," Poseidon smirked, chuckling again, fully confident Odysseus was trying to trick him into gaining the upper hand somehow.
The mortal king turned fully around and walked towards him, picking up his trident along the way. A flash of lightning illuminated his face, revealing a look of pure evil in his eyes and not any sort of blessing from Ares as he thought.
"Exactly," Odysseus said as he finally stood in front of his tormenter, his voice almost hoarse.
Poseidon's expression immediately changed as he raised the trident, finally realizing what Odysseus was planning, trying to gain as much distance as he could.
"Wait!" he yelled, panicking, "Wait-" his pleas were quickly replaced with a scream as Odysseus plunged the weapon into his chest.
He inhaled sharply and could see his own ichor quickly appear and drip off the trident as Odysseus ripped the sharp points out of him, pushing the god into the rock he was leaning against with his foot as leverage.
"How does it feel to be helpless?" the king drilled.
More pain is followed by another scream as Odysseus plunges the trident into his chest again, feeling the ichor pool around the wounds and soak his clothes.
"How does it feel to know pain?" He drilled again, emphasizing the question with the removal of the trident, leaving deep wounds as chunks of flesh were taken as the barbed tines were ripped from his body.
The god of the seas was in agony, slightly curling up in a feeble attempt to protect himself from the onslaught. He could feel the warmth of his ichor pooling in his chest and he could start to see it start to accumulate beneath him from his wounds and from dripping off the weapon. It had no doubt splattered against the rock at this point, but before he could do anything else, the trident entered his body again, this time in his shoulder, only stopping when it hit bone.
"I watched my friends die in horror," Odysseus reminded him as he screamed out in pain once again.
All of his screaming and suffering was music to the mortal king's ears; he was sure of it. Another lightning strike showed a wicked smile on his face before changing to a grimace of anger.
"Crying as they were all slain!"
The trident was removed again, bringing more ichor with it and flesh. Poseidon weakly tried to raise his arm and stop the onslaught, wincing and groaning as his shoulder screamed at him.
"I heard their final moments," Odysseus reminded him.
Another stab, this time straight to the abdomen. Poseidon croaked out a scream, his voice starting to become hoarse from all the screaming.
"Calling their captain in vain!"
Poseidon took in another sharp inhale. He was in great pain, and that worried him. He had been in enough fights to know that the pain always got worse once everything wore off.
"Look what you turned me into!”
"Look at what we've become!”
"Enough..." Poseidon commanded weakly and looked up at him, hating how low a mere mortal had brought him to this low.
Poseidon’s throat was really starting to burn from all the screaming. All the wounds were also burning because of all the seawater being picked up by the storm around them, each stab bringing three wounds. Once again, he tried to create more space, but there wasn’t much extra space to make since Poseidon was trapped between a rock and Odysseus, who was using his own trident against him.
"All of the pain that I've been through,"
"Stop..." Poseidon had started begging; the earthshaker and lord of the oceans was begging a mortal man, and he hated every second of it.
"Haven't I suffered enough?" Odysseus asked rhetorically.
"Stop!" he begged louder, hoping that maybe he just didn’t hear the first time and would cease the torture.
"You didn't stop when I begged you!” the mortal snapped back with a stab directly to his throat.
The god of tides choked on his own ichor, only being able to let out a wet sputtering sound as he coughed up ichor. He was definitely in for it now; any blow to the neck could be devastating, immortal or not.
“Told me to close my heart..." the king spat.
"You..." he gasped once the trident was removed.
Poseidon coughed again, bringing up more ichor. He grabbed his neck, which was pouring gold at this point. Now he was on a timer, and he didn’t know how long he had left before he fainted from a loss of ichor.
"You said the world was dark,” Odysseus reminded him, pure disgust shown on his face during another flash of lightning as he stabbed Poseidon directly in the face.
"Monster!" Poseidon called out, a hand reaching to cup his face around the trident while the other was still applying pressure to the gushing wounds in his neck.
Poseidon could feel himself starting to get woozy now, the timer on his consciousness ticking ever lower the longer the torture went on.
"Didn't you say that ruthlessness is mercy upon our-" he gloated while ripping the trident out of the god of tide’s face.
That was it. He had already thought about giving in to Odysseus’ demands after he stabbed his throat, but using his own words against him crossed a line Poseidon couldn’t let him cross. And somewhere deep in his mind, Poseidon was noting the irony and hypocrisy, although it was buried too deep for him to notice at the time.
"Alright!" Poseidon croaked out with tears in his eyes. He was desperate, and it showed, and he swore he could see the mortal king debating one more stab for good measure.
"Please..." he rasped, barely holding on to consciousness.
And Odysseus complied, dropping the trident with a clang. And with it, the island they were on shook slightly, the trident having caused a minor earthquake on contact with the ground.
“With everything you’ve done…” Poseidon asked, his voice hoarse, raspy, and barely above a whisper now, “How will you sleep at night?”
“Next to my wife,” Odysseus responded coldly as he turned around and walked away.
The last thing Poseidon could remember before blacking out was silently sobbing while bleeding out in a pool of his own ichor.
~~~
Poseidon woke up in Apollo’s infirmary with a vague memory of why he was there before being jolted awake the rest of the way by the thunderous voice of his younger brother.
“Poseidon! By Olympus, what happened to you?” he asked.
“Why are you here… w-what happened?” he croaked, barely able to speak due to his throat.
“I was just here visiting Athena, and I see my brother looking like this!” Zeus recounted.
“Ody…” Poseidon started before being shushed by Apollo.
“His trachea and vocal cords need as much rest as possible, Father. These wounds are deep,” Apollo reprimanded, “ but Hermes claimed he saw Uncle Poseidon unconscious in a pool of his own ichor after he saw Athena’s champion wielding his trident against him. And for once, I actually believe him.”
“Odysseus?” Zeus asked incredulously, “From what I’ve heard from Athena, that would be completely out of character… is that true, Poseidon?”
Poseidon nodded before grabbing his throat in pain, which caused him to wince due to instinctively using his arm with the injured shoulder.
“This really is bad. I’ll leave you to rest, dear brother, you need it,” Zeus noted as he walked away.
The thunderbringer smiled mischievously once he was turned away from Poseidon. He couldn’t wait to see how his beloved Athena would react to hearing the news about what her champion did to Poseidon.