"There it is," Thalia's voice; she'd woken up. She was pointing toward Manhattan, which was quickly zooming into view. "It has started."
"What started?" Drako asked.
Then, he looked where she was pointing. High above the Empire State Building, Olympus was its own island of light, a floating mountain ablaze with torches and braziers, white marble palaces gleaming in the early morning air.
"The winter solstice," Thalia said. "The Council of the Gods."
They circled over midtown Manhattan, making one complete orbit around Mount Olympus.
Drako had never been here, so it was his first time seeing this place. It was amazing.
In the early-morning darkness, torches and fires made the mountainside palaces glow twenty different colours, from bloodred to indigo. Apparently, no one ever slept on Olympus.
The twisting streets were full of demigods and nature spirits and minor godlings bustling about, riding chariots or sedan chairs carried by Cyclopes. Winter didn't seem to exist here. Drako caught the scent of the gardens in full bloom, jasmine and roses and even sweeter things he couldn't name. Music drifted up from many windows, the soft sounds of lyres and reed pipes.
Towering at the peak of the mountain was the greatest of all, the glowing white hall of the gods.
Their pegasi set them down in the outer courtyard, in front of huge silver gates. Before they could even think to knock, the gates opened by themselves.
Blackjack and his friends flew off, leaving Thalia, Annabeth, Percy, Bianca and Drako alone. For a minute they stood there regarding the palace. And then, side by side, they walked into the throne room.
…
Twelve enormous thrones made a U around a central hearth, just like the placement of the cabins at the camp. The ceiling above glittered with constellations.
All of the seats were occupied. Each god and goddess was about fifteen feet tall, probably those were their true forms. They weren't humans, so their human form was just a façade while these giants forms were the true ones.
Drako looked into every god and goddess here. Ones were weaker than the other, but all of them were really powerful beings. And the two strongest were without a doubt the two brothers, Poseidon and Zeus.
"Welcome, heroes," Artemis said.
"Mooo!"
Drako had already noticed Bessie and Grover before.
A sphere of water was hovering in the center of the room, next to the hearth fire. Bessie was swimming happily around, swishing his serpent tail and poking his head out the sides and bottom of the sphere. He seemed to be enjoying the novelty of swimming in a magic bubble. Grover was kneeling at Zeus' throne, as if he'd just been giving a report, but when he saw them, he cried, "You made it!"
He started to run towards Percy, then he remembered he was turning his back on Zeus, and looked for permission.
"Go on," Zeus said. But he wasn��t really paying attention to Grover. The lord of sky was staring intently at Thalia.
Grover trotted over. None of the gods spoke. Every clop of Grover's hooves echoed on the marble floor. Bessie splashed in his bubble of water. The hearth fire crackled.
Drako studied the gods meanwhile.
Zeus was imposing, and very muscular, with shoulder-length black hair and gray/black neatly trimmed beard. Like Thalia, he had electric blue eyes. He wore a dark blue pinstriped suit.
Poseidon was dressed with beach shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, and sandals. He had a weathered, suntanned face with a dark beard and deep green eyes.
Next to Poseidon was a huge lump of a man with a leg in a steel brace, misshapen head, and a wild brown beard, fire flickering through his whiskers. The Lord of Forges, Hephaestus.
Hermes was at his side. He was wearing business suit, checking messages on his caduceus mobile phone. Apollo leaned back in his golden throne with his shades on. He had iPod headphones on.
Dionysus looked bored, twirling a grape vine between his fingers. And Ares, well, he sat on his chrome and leather throne.
On the other side of Zeus was his wife, Hera. She was, without a doubt, the second most beautiful goddess, only second to Aphrodite. She has long black hair; large, soft brown eyes that one could get lost in; and a face of regal and unapproachable beauty like that of a supermodel. She wore a dress that shimmered with colours like peacock feathers.
A dark-haired goddess in green robes sat next to Hera on a throne woven of apple-tree branches. Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest. Next to her sat a beautiful gray-eyed woman in an elegant white dress. She could only be Annabeth mother, Athena. Then there was Aphrodite, who smile at Drako knowingly and gave him a seductive look. Artemis sat between Athena and Aphrodite.
All the Olympians in one place. So much power in this room it was a miracle the whole palace didn't blow apart.
Grover gave everyone of them big hugs. Then he grasped Percy's arms. "Percy, Bessie and I made it! But you have to convince them! They can't do it!"
"Do what?" Percy asked.
"Heroes," Artemis called.
The goddess slid down from her throne and turned to human size, a young auburn-haired girl, perfectly at ease in the midst of the giant Olympians. She walked towards them, her silver robes shimmering. There was no emotion in her face. She seemed to walk in a column of moonlight.
"The Council has been informed of your deeds," Artemis told them. "They know that Mount Othrys is rising in the West. They know of Atlas' attempt for freedom, and the gathering armies of Kronos. We have voted to act."
There was some mumbling and shuffling among the gods, as if they weren't all happy with this plan, but nobody protested.
"At my Lord Zeus' command," Artemis said, "my brother Apollo and I shall hunt the most powerful monsters, seeking to strike them down before they can join the Titans' cause. Lady Athena shall personally check on the other Titans to make sure they do not escape their various prisons. Lord Poseidon has been given permission to unleash his full fury on the cruise ship Princess Andromeda and send it to the bottom of the sea. And as for you, my heroes…"
She turned to face the other immortals. "These half-bloods and Hunters have done Olympus a great service. Would any here deny that?"
She looked around at the assembled gods, meeting their faces individually.
"I gotta say"—Apollo broke the silence—" these kids did okay." He cleared his throat and began to recite: "Heroes win laurels—"
"Um, yes, first class," Hermes interrupted, like he was anxious to avoid Apollo's poetry.
"All in favour of not disintegrating them?"
A few tentative hands went up—Demeter, Aphrodite.
"Wait just a minute," Ares growled. He pointed at Thalia and Percy. "These two are dangerous. It'd be much safer, while we've got them here—"
"Ares," Poseidon interrupted," they are worthy heroes. We will not blast my son to bits."
"Nor my daughter," Zeus grumbled. "She has done well."
Thalia blushed. She studied the floor. It seems she hardly got a compliment from her father.
The goddess Athena cleared her throat and sat forward. "I am proud of my daughter as well. But there is a security risk here with the other two.
"Mother!" Annabeth said. "How can you—"
Athena cut her off with a calm but firm look. "It is unfortunate that my father, Zeus, and my uncle, Poseidon, chose to break their oath no to have more children. Only Hades kept his word, a fact that I find ironic. As we know from the Great Prophecy, children of the three elder gods… such as Thalia and Percy… are dangerous. As thickhead as he is, Ares has a point.
"Right!" Ares said. "Hey, wait a minute. Who you callin'—"
He started to get up, but a grape win grew around his waist like a seat belt and pulled him back down.
"Oh, please. Ares," Dionysus sighed. "Save the fighting for later."
Ares cursed and ripped away the vine. "You're one to talk, you old drunk. You seriously want to protect these brats?"
Dionysus gazed down at them wearily. "I have no love for them. Athena, do you truly think it safest to destroy them?"
"I do not pass judgment," Athena said. "I only point out the risk. What we do, the Council must decide."
"I will not have them punished, not when one of the two is my own Hunter," Artemis said. "I will have them rewarded. If we destroy the heroes who do us a great favour, then we are no better than the Titans. If this is Olympian justice, I will have none of it."
"Calm down, sis," Apollo said. "Jeez, you need to lighten up."
"Don't call me sis! I will reward them."
The gods were discussing like the group of the mission doesn't exist or doesn't have their own word. But there was someone whose status was at par with the gods.
"I think that all of you have to calm down," Drako said with a smirk. "Do you really think that you can do as you want while I'm here?"
Drako wasn't afraid of the gods, not a bit. And there was a reason for that.
Of all the gods here, only Zeus and Poseidon were problematic for him. The rest… most of them didn't have the dmg to harm Drako.
And there was a reason for that: the system.
Drako's abilities were broken, literally. He had two abilities that make him one of the strongest powerhouses on DxD right now.
The first one: Aigis.
The divine scales protect his skin of every attack that is weaker than his defence. In other words, if they didn't have the power to surpass Drako defence numeric value, then they couldn't harm him in any way.
The second one: Branch Destruction and Touki.
This two were like only one skill, since they did the same; they boost Drako stats a lot. What was more fearsome of Drako was his Noble Phantasm, but at the same level was these skills combined.
Aigis plus the two stats booster turns Drako into an almost impenetrable defence for most of the beings in the world.
There was another thing that makes Drako incredibly strong. Before, Drako was worried because he could only use his Noble Phantasm in his human form. But now, he has a Noble Phantasm that he could also use in his most powerful and real form, the Dragon.
With a numerical value of 9120 in Endurance once he uses all of his boosters, Drako could only harmed by six gods here. They were: Zeus, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Ares, Apollo and Artemis.
Hephaestus, Hermes, Demeter, Hera, Dionysus and Athena didn't have enough stats to harm Drako. Maybe if they use some special weapon, they could do something to him, but it doesn't seem that they have it with them right now.
Even if the other six gods could actually harm Drako, more than 80% of their damage is going to be neglected. Ares attacks are barely going to cause 1% of what they should do. The most troublesome are Zeus with his Lightning Bolt and Poseidon with his Trident. Those two god tier weapons, maybe even at the top 5 or top 10 weapons in the world, were going to do high damage to Drako.
But still, Drako had the huge amount of 570000 of HP points, with a HP regen of 8550 per second. Alone, Drako could have a good fight with those six gods without the use of his Noble Phantasms.
Yes, without the use of the Noble Phantasms.
If Drako uses his sword, Laevatein, the gods can do little against him. That is because the sword is a god slayer. The higher the divinity of Drako's target, more damage the sword is going to deal. And who has a higher divinity than the Olympians?
In other words, these guys in front of him were huge experience points for Drako. Maybe killing them he can evolve one or two times.
"What are you trying to say?" Zeus asked calmly, although Drako could see his eyebrow twitching.
"Do you have comprehension problems?" Drako replied with a rhetoric question. "I'm saying that I'm not going to let you kill them."
"And who are you to decide for us?" Are growled.
"The one who can kill you before you can feel it."
The whole place turned silence.
"I killed Ladon alone, the Evil Dragon. Now I'm much stronger than before, and my weapon"—Drako summoned Laevatein on its small form—" is your nemesis."
The gods took a step back when they felt that aura. Anti-divine, Anti-life… that sword reminded the oldest ones of Kronos sword, but this one was much deadlier.
"Drako, please, calm yourself," Artemis intercede. "We are not your enemies."
"Not for now, I hope." Drako nodded. "But that can be changed based in your decisions. You surely don't want to be my enemy. Not right now."
"Indeed," Poseidon nodded. "We don't want to be your enemies, as well as I don't want to see my son dead. There is no more discussion. Who wants to kill my son, you can go and fight the new Great Dragon King."
"I haven't seen such an intimidating aura from a Great Dragon King since the last time Tiamat created a havoc in my territory," Zeus said. "For once, I agree with Poseidon."
Ares scowled. His hatred towards Percy was so big that he wanted to kill him personally. However, now he also wanted to kill Drako as bad as he wants to kill the half-blood.
But he couldn't kill either of the two. Or he was going to be the one dead.
"If killing those potential dangers is going to come with an even greater danger, it's obvious to say that it's not worth," Athena said. "Nor when Kronos is coming back to life."
Drako nodded, seeing that the only two gods that wanted to end Thalia and Percy's lives where now retreating. It was a pity, since he thought that the gods were going to be more temperamental. He was a little disappointed in that regard.
But… to think that now Drako could go against Olympus alone… he has grown a lot since the idiot that came to this world alone more than two years ago.
Still, Drako couldn't go against the Greek pantheon alone. There were more gods, stronger than the ones here there. And he knew it. The strongest god of this pantheon, Hades, wasn't here.
Hades is a god that could scared Zeus, how strong is he?
One of the ten strongest beings in the world…
How many experience points is he going to give?
"Well," Zeus grumbled. Maybe he was little bit annoyed right now. "But the beast must be destroyed. We have agreement on that?"
Now there were a lot of nodding heads?
They where obviously talking about Bessie.
"Bessie? You want to destroy Bessie?" Percy shouted.
"Moooooo!" Bessie protested.
Poseidon frowned. "You have named the Ophiotaurus Bessie?"
"Dad," Percy said, "he's just a sea creature. A really nice sea creature. You can't destroy him."
Poseidon shifted uncomfortably. "Percy, the monster's power is considerable. If the titans were to steal it, or—"
"You can't," Percy insisted. Percy looked at Zeus. "Controlling the prophecies never works. Isn't that true? Besides, Bess—the Ophiotaurus is innocent. Killing something like that is wrong. It's just as wrong as… as Kronos eating his children, just because of something they might do. It's wrong!"
Zeus seemed to consider this. His eyes drifted to his daughter Thalia. "And what of the risk? Kronos know full well, if one of you were to sacrifice the beast's entrails, you would have the power to destroy us. Do you think we can let that possibility remain?"
"You have to trust them," Annabeth spoke up. "Sir, you have to trust them."
Zeus scowled. "Trust a hero?"
"Annabeth is right," Artemis said. "Which is why I must first make a reward. My faithful companion, Zoe Nightshade, is no longer a Hunter. I must have new lieutenant. And I intend to choose two."
"I shall have two new lieutenants," she announced. "If they will accept it."
"Thalia, Bianca," Artemis said. "Will you lead the Hunt?"
Silence filled the room. Thalia looked calm, while Bianca was shocked.
"I will," Thalia said firmly.
"I-I will," Bianca said awkwardly.
"Now," Artemis said. "I can't withstand one of my Hunters to don't be recognised by her godly parent. Bianca deserves who is her dad."
"Hmm," Zeus mumbled. "About that… okay. All of the gods allowed have their attention here at the moment, even my eldest brother and her wife. So… who is the father of this child"
It wasn't a question, Drako could feel it. It was an order from the king of gods.
One moment of silence, and something started to gloat on Bianca's head.
Gasp!
The gods looked surprised. Zeus even had a terrible dark face right now.
Up from Bianca's head was a helm giving off a dark aura.
"The Helm of Darkness," Poseidon muttered.
"Hades…" Zeus growled.
Bianca was surprised… no, all of them where surprised. Even Drako was.
"So not even Hades kept his promise," Athena muttered.
"No," Thalia said. "This girl born before the prophecy."
Zeus seemed to recall something. "What is your surname, girl?"
"D-Di A-Angelo, sir."
"So, you are the kid back then, huh," Zeus muttered. "What I mistake I made…"
He looked at the sky, and then looked back towards Bianca. "I can assume that your little brother is also alive, right?"
Bianca nodded.
All of the gods face turned grim.
If there was one demigod that could turn down Olympus, that would be a son of Hades.
"Nico is still too young," Artemis said. "He is only 10 or 11, there are still five or six years before he reached sixteen."
"Six years for Kronos to deceive him," Athena said. "Much can change in six years, my dear sister."
"We should be better keeping an eye on Perseus," Artemis replied. "There is only two years until he reaches sixteen."
"I know that, I was only pointing potential risks,"
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