Bab 3: DA : Chapter 3: The Beginning of the End II
His eyes snapped open as he durst out of memory lane, instead gaze focused on the nearing light at the end of the pit. 'Here it comes,' he thought as he passed through the opening to see the massive expanse of Tartarus bellow him. It was just like he remembered.
Burnt grounds that looked like it was littered with glass. Poisonous atmosphere that started to irritate his lungs and more screams of pain and terror than the Fields of Punishment could ever cause. 'Lovely,' he thought as he glanced straight below him and wondered how was it he was going to land exactly.
'I wonder it this will work,' he mused as the ground rapidly approached him. He focused for a moment before he shot his right hand forward, a green glow around it along with a familiar tug along his gut.
After a few seconds the ground below him burst up into a tall spire with a gravelly slide to one side. He smirked as he landed along the smoothed side and slide the whole way to the floor. Once he landed he brushed off some dirt before looking around.
"Now which way was it?" he muttered before noticing that the shadows seemed darker in a certain direction. He smiled at the trail as he started to walk, keeping his senses sharp in case any monster decided that they wanted a piece of him.
As he walked it seemed memory lane wanted to talk to him again, his thoughts falling back to that battle … the battle where things truly changed …
...
Sweat and blood matted his hair. His lungs burned and his arms ached … but he kept attacking. Riptide sang through the wind as it sliced through rock debris on its way to his intended target, Gaea. The battle had been furious up till this point.
One moment they were fighting in Athens, wearing down the Giants until the Olympians finally arrived to fight … more like stroke their own egos with how 'hopeless the demigods would have been without them'. Hell, he pretty much saved Artemis from being turned into a shish-kabob and all he gets for his troubles is a glare and 'don't touch me boy'.
Well damn for being polite in the middle of a fucking battle and offering her a hand to get up after he dealt the finishing blow on Gration.
Whatever, that set the tempo and soon all of the Giants were down again but then, and only after their part was up, did the Olympians tell them how their home was under attack with monsters and Gaea at the head. Only then to get smacked by Zeus back home. He remembered Leo's call over the winds just before it happened.
'Clench up for the mother of all bitch slaps!'
He would have laughed his ass of if they hadn't been in a life and death race against time. That only lead to the Argo II unceremoniously falling apart on landing and tossing them all out into the thick of it.
Thank Nyx they managed to organize and were starting to push the monsters back but that lead to where he was now. Fighting alone against mother earth while his friends tried to push through a sea of monsters. He wasn't daunted though. No, in fact he almost felt elated.
This would be his chance to take Gaea down for good. No reforming, no siring of new threats, no more insanity from her.
He focused on Gaea's smiling form, her literal whirlwind of dirt and rock surrounding her as a shield. He kept swinging, sometimes managing to nick her from time to time but the earth always managed to heal her … just like when he fought his half-brother in the labyrinth.
He glanced around himself and noted that they were actually close to the beach as he steadily retreated while feigning to being overwhelmed. 'That's right, come to me,' he thought.
He dodged a spear of earth, getting narrowly grazed along the hip making him grimace but he kept his focus on Gaea. She smirked at the sight of his blood, licking her lips as if already tasting victory. He growled at her arrogance as he redoubled his hacking and slashing as he took another step back.
"Giving up demigod?" asked Gaea with glee as she eagerly followed him while waving her arm and sending another barrage of dirt at him.
He rolled to the side to avoid it but couldn't get out of way when a pillar of stone suddenly shot up and nailed him in the chest. He sailed back a decent distance, his entire chest screaming in pain as he bit his lip to suppress a scream. 'Definitely a few broken ribs … or all of them,' he thought as he forced one eye open to look at Gaea as she looked down at him with a grin.
"You're finished demigod, I've won," she said in her gravelly voice as her green eyes glowed ominously.
"And why is that?" he asked back as he kept panting.
"Don't you see?" she asked while opening her arms in a grand gesture to the skies around them, "Your precious Olympians abandoned you in fear of me. Your forces are divided and dwindling, and you're on your last legs. Face it … I win."
"Yeah … one problem," he replied while forcing himself up to one knee while gingerly touching his chest.
"And what would that be?" Gaea asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm on home turf," he replied as he glanced at the water lapping at his feet.
Gaea followed his gaze before her eyes widened in realization but before she could travel back and away from the water Percy attacked. With a wave of his hands a torrent of water obeyed his will and grabbed Gaea before dragging her into the surf and he chased after her.
He soon spotted her thrashing as hard as she could but the water was unforgiving as it battered her. In that confusion he attacked, Riptide slicing through the tide before digging into her shoulder as she tried to scream in pain but the water kept her silent. Ichor started to stain the seas but Percy didn't care as he willed an air bubble to form around them.
Then, on a sheer instinct that he couldn't even recall having, her exhaled as the water at his feet froze. Soon the ice spread until they were surrounded in a dome of it, cutting them off from the outside. As Gaea laid panting on one end, Percy glanced around in wonder before he noticed that there seemed to be tendrils of darkness within the ice.
'I've blocked their sight, Fates and Gods alike. Hurry!' he heard Nyx's voice in his head.
He couldn't help but smirk as he nodded before turning an icy glare onto the goddess regaining her footing. Their eyes locked and for the first time Percy could see genuine fear in her eyes, both knowing that neither would get out until one was dead … and Percy was the one with the sword.
"How?" she asked in a shaky tone as she glanced at the ice, her breath becoming visible in the cold. "I've never heard of Poseidon controlling ice."
"I tend to mix things up," he replied before his eyes narrowed as he approached her. "Gaea …"
She looked at him uneasily as he stalked forward like a wolf that just caught its prey and was moving in the for the kill.
"By the ancient laws set by Chaos, I, Perseus Theseus Jackson, hereby challenge you to a duel for right of Protogenoi status and all domains held in your title."
A thunder strike signaled the pact. The death match was on … or more like one sided massacre. Gaea's eyes widened in horror as she paled, her entire frame shaking as she took a step back.
"H-how?" she asked in a whisper. "I … I hid those texts … the only way any could have known … no … someone betrayed me!" she screamed in a rage.
"She was never on your side," Percy murmured darkly before he raised Riptide, "Now say goodbye."
He didn't give her a chance to answer as he surged forward. She backpedaled in alarm but wasn't quick enough to dodge as he stabbed her straight through the gut. She screamed as ichor poured out of the wound but Percy wasn't anywhere near done … not by a long shot.
He pulled out Riptide before smashing the flat of the blade against the side of her head, making her fall back with a pained whimper. He looked down at her without a shred of sympathy before raising Riptide.
He swung down as Gaea feebly tried to guard but all that did was allow for Riptide to cleave through her arm, severing it as she screamed even louder than before.
She was crying by this point and yet Percy could only look on with a cold glint in his eyes. He reached down before tugging her head up by her hair to make her look at him as he pressed the tip of Riptide against her left breast, right over her heart.
"This is for every life that you've ruined," Percy practically growled as he glared at her. "I should make you suffer for centuries to even make up for a fraction of what you've done … but it looks like you got a little lucky in the end."
Gaea looked at him with almost blank eyes, a sign of her resignation. She knew in a straight up fight she wasn't any better than an average demigod … after all … no one had ever had enough power to force her to fight directly and her siblings were beyond her courage to challenge. Now she was fully isolated and about to die.
"They'll betray you … in the end," she coughed out with a mix of ichor.
Percy gave her a pained smile. One devoid of any joy or warmth.
"I know," he whispered as he drove Riptide through her heart, ending her miserable existence.
She coughed once before sighing as her body went limp, eyes going dull just before she started to turn to dust. But this wasn't any regular gold dust. It was an ashen white, like the pale remains of a once great fire. As the dust blew away in an apparently imaginary wind a green glow encompassed Percy along with a surge of power unlike anything he'd ever felt before.
He could suddenly feel the shift of the earth, the tremble of the land as creatures and machines of all types traveled the surface. For a moment he was the earth and almost felt like he could do anything.
He could level all civilization with a thought, raise mountains with a flick of the wrist, and cause earthquakes the likes of which no beings alive could comprehend. Then, it all vanished … but not completely. He could still feel the earth near him and the hum of vibrations. He also felt stronger than he had before the fight even while exhausted.
'So this is the power of a primordial,' he thought before another mind invaded his.
'Not yet. You're still mortal or more like a demi-primordial for now. If you want full access to it you need to complete the Law of Succession … but you haven't made that choice yet," came Nyx's voice.
'There's still too much to think about for now,' he replied while shaking his head.
The power felt great but still, if he could take the chance for a life of peace, then so be it. Nyx had given him a tool for power … but he'd never been one for it anyways.
If he had to make a choice, then now wasn't the time to do it. So, with a sigh, he willed the ice to release him. In a few moment he was back in the water and propelled himself to shore.
As he walked on the beach he could see remains of the monster army routing with demigods on their tails.
"Just a little more and we're home free," he whispered as he readied his sword and charged, for now forgetting about the primordial he just made fade.
...
He was shaken out of his memories as he stumbled on a small rock outcropping. Catching himself he glanced around only to notice he was at a familiar cliff overlooking an endless expanse of darkness.
'Ok, that was a lot quicker than I thought it would be,' he mused as he looked around. There were no other monsters or darkness gods this time. Just him standing at a gloomy cliff. He was about to call out but stopped with a musical giggle of sorts reached his ears.
In front of him, suspended right over the chasm of darkness, was Nyx. She had a hand over her mouth as she tried and failed to suppress. He gave her an annoyed look which seemed to make her laugh more but she soon got it under control.
"Having a good time?" he asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"Sorry, it's just that your face was funny when you almost fell," she replied with a renewed giggle.
"Glad to see I'm so entertaining," he muttered before he fixed her with a serious look.
She caught onto it and straightened her features as she looked at him.
"Have you made a decision," she asked in a calm voice that vibrated with power as her dark eyes fixed him to the spot.
"I have …" he replied as his fists clenched. "… They're monsters … and someone needs to put a stop to them."
"And are you sure you can do it?" she asked as she walked on thin air towards him. "You'll have to fight and possibly kill those you once called ally. The old bonds you once cherished will have to be severed."
"They've already severed them," he answered as his eyes glowed, the irises literally burning in mixes of orange and hazel. "And those that are still precious to me … I'll save them. They deserve better and I will do anything for them."
Nyx looked at him silently for some time, as if peering into his soul to search for any doubts or hesitation. Finding none, she nodded before speaking again.
"Very well Perseus … but to do that then you must do something for me."
"What would you have me do, milady?" he asked, noting how she almost smiled at his word choice.
"I want you … to become our successor …"
...
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