Chương 105: DA : Chapter 105: Anthem of Anarchy I
The wind pulled at her hair as she sped along, not even batting an eye as her destination came within sight. A dome of pure darkness seemingly dropped at random in the sea but she knew.
She could feel his presence … and the emotions or lack of them. She shivered unconsciously as she pulled up from her dive, her purple wings fluttering in the sea breeze as she watched. Likely sensing her presence, the dome began to crack and give, opening a passage for her and growing by the second.
She moved through, idly thanking Chaos that the Olympians held little to no connection to their current location, otherwise they would have flashed into the area within minutes. As the dome fell and light came through she was treated to a nightmarish sight. A once tropical island turned into a frozen wasteland, broken and desolate. The ancient fort left since the time of the Spanish armada and then reformed through the use of mercenaries was ripped apart beyond use or repair.
Her eyes scanning over noted some corpses, all alight with black fire, as they slowly crumbled into a paradox of ash and blacken, frozen flesh. Every mortal being put down like rabid dogs, their souls fed and consumed by the unholy fires in equal parts to their bodies. Left to the chaos and void in their totality. And at the epicenter of it all was one man.
Tall, lightly tanned with wild raven locks sprinkled with icy blue tips. Flaming black eyes with the glowing blue centers and devoid of emotion. His coat of darkness, caressing him like a twisted miasma of sentient shadows and personified cold. His two blades luckily sheathed even as she could practically taste the blood they'd been immersed in. She gently landed in front of him, even as he didn't react, his gaze seeing all and nothing before him.
"Percy," she said gently but still didn't get a reaction worrying her that much more.
It was a times like this that she truly feared for him. She knew him best, even more so than Rhea or Hestia, and that was because she could feel his emotions at a level no one else possibly could. Sure, when she'd wanted to read if he felt the same type of love for her and she did him she couldn't, not with him being unaware and possibly hiding it but like this, he was a literal clean slate. The problem was, he was a blank slate because he wasn't feeling emotions.
It had happened before, rarely, but at times. When he was pushed to an edge, something that challenge his own morals and ideals to the bitter end, that enraged him beyond reason, that he'd do this.
Percy, her brother, now fiancé, the quirky, silly, and lovable goof that somehow became king would disappear and leave Perseus. The primordial god of Darkness, Shadows, Night, and Cold. A sentient facet of creation and destruction with no true view of good or evil, no bias or prejudice, just an intention that was to be carried through.
From the looks of her surroundings, his intention had be the total extermination of the forces left here by Pontus. If she had to guess, Percy found something in the island that made him label the mortals here as rabid dogs worthy of nothing more than oblivion. She knew her brother held true hatred and, as long as the two main focuses of that emotion lived he would never move past it.
And that hatred spread to other situations and circumstances … situations that when found, would cause this. Percy would flip like a switch, channeling the true embodiment of what it meant to be Cold, to be Darkness. He became ruthless, apathetic, and unforgiving. Then, when everything was said and done he would just stop, completely blank.
Just like he remained, sitting on his throne for hours after having defeated Ares in the boxing ring and allowing Lamia to end several hundred mortal lives, the same as when he sat alone after having watched as his pack and Shadows ripped apart the Hunt, and now, after having committed nothing short of a slaughter.
Even if he was a god now, part of him would always find distaste in the killing of mortals but more than that, being disgusted with the ease that he could kill them and feel next to nothing. So far he was the only former demigod to have ended mortals out of the new council members. Even now, she could tell how shaken Jason is after having caused hundreds of deaths himself, having snapped himself out of his own rage that led to it.
They weren't some soulless creatures steeped in the blood and chaos of the mystic world. Beings that either reveled in the pain and bloodshed or were forced into such an existence and knew nothing else.
These were immortal souls within flesh, each at one point young and innocent, only to become twisted and distorted through the pains of life until they met their end. Killing them didn't have the detachment demigods used to remain impassive as they cut monsters down. These were lives being ended, never to come back and even if re-incarnated they would never be the same.
She knew it weighed on her king's mind more than anything. This war began to end the reign of cruel gods toying with mortals and yet here he was, cutting them down by the dozens, even if those mortals in question were far from innocent and guiltless. But she could feel it in the air, the lingering horror and abuse that bathed this island long before they came to end it. But Percy would still hold the guilt and remember this day, regardless of that fact that he ended monsters in human flesh.
"Percy," she whispered again, stepping in his direct line of sight but he still seemed to be entrenched in his blank zone.
Almost timidly she reached out and cupped his cheek, flinching at the cold of the touch but she held firm. Standing on her toes she moved forward and softly rested her warm lips against his, her body pulling closer to spread warmth to him.
He needed this more than anything. To know that it didn't matter if he wasn't the great and just hero of old, that he is a king just as much as an executioner at times. That in the end, regardless of what he did or became, he wasn't alone. She, Rhea, and Hestia would never leave or betray him because just like him, they had as much potential to become monsters as well.
Fire would burn without discretion, Nature was merciless to all in perfect equality, and Love had been the beginning of some of the worst horrors to ever traverse this world. None of them were innocent in the end, they were perfectly imperfect together, and nothing would change that. Knowing that she kissed him with all she could, conveying love and devotion to him.
Slowly she felt him respond, his lip beginning to push against hers as his arms found her waist. Where once was like a blank spot devoid of emotion became a flickering flame of it. She started to feel it all.
His moment of self-loathing before shutting down, the apocalyptic anger that had been before as he slaughtered with extreme prejudice, the once cool detachment he held as he merely fought the forces, killing simply because they were his opponents rather than for his own personal reasons, and lastly his mix of focused goals and near excitement for battle as they came to the island.
With each one he became whole again, returning as her Percy rather than Perseus. His body became cool again rather than the biting cold she'd first felt. She internally sighed with relief, glad that this episode had passed easily enough but just to make sure she would inform Rhea and Hestia later tonight, knowing that the physical presence and support of his queens would go a long way as well.
So, softly she pulled back, looking at him as he slowly opened his eyes. They stared at each other for a few quiet minutes, content to hold each other before Percy sighed, one of his hands coming off her waist to scratch the back of his neck.
"It happened again," he said with a tired murmur.
"But you're okay now," she returned a she cupped his cheek, still radiating comfort.
He snorted lightly before glancing around, grimacing at some of the partial corpses left behind. Then, without her encouragement he spoke softly, his eyes seeming distant again. "You know, I forget sometimes that humans can be just as bad as monsters and gods." He glanced at her before continuing to look upon the destruction around him.
"It was just pragmatic at first. Kill them quickly otherwise Pontus might regain some forces but when I got deeper into the fortress …" He stopped as he clenched his fist. "Amphitrite wasn't the first here … and I even found some live 'toys'," he all but snarled at the end as she scowled.
"So that's what set you off, having to put down other captives for their own mercy," she said softly as she hugged him closer, partially burying her face in his chest.
She felt him nod. "Again it makes me wonder why bother with the discretion rather than just clean up the entire mess that has become humanity."
"Because you'd never condone the loss of the innocent just to have an easier job wiping out the guilty," she replied while hugging him tighter. "You're still too much of a hero for that."
That got a throaty chuckle out of him as his chest rumbled, an underlying growl coming out as his wolf side became prominent.
"Maybe …" he sighed before wrapping both arms around her as she glanced up at him to see his sad smile. "Let's get out of here," he said just as his wings extended.
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Don't forget to throw some power Stones, to keep the story going.
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