A few months after my father's death, I lie in bed in my own apartment. I paid for it by developing alchemical magic in the mystical realm and producing solid gold to sell. When trying to figure out where I'd be sleeping from now on, I came to the surprising realization that I'm eighteen years old, making me of legal age to rent an apartment. Ever since leaving Yancy Academy my life had changed so much that I never gave trivial things like birthdays a second thought.

In my hands I held the little black notebook that Hades had given me so long ago. I'd crossed out most of the lists as they'd all become irrelevant after Domino joined us, but it still had all the names of the gods in it, most being crossed off already. Since Olympus's disbanding, I'd been able to cross off the names of Dionysus, Nike, Iris, Nemesis, Aphrodite, and Tyche. The only names remaining were Zeus, Hermes, and Hades. I'd added Hades's name to the list out of anger, but no matter how much contempt I held for him I'd never be able to bring myself to actually kill the friend I'd once trusted more than anyone.

I closed the book and pocketed it before getting to my feet. I glanced out the window and saw a dark sky as I groggily walked to the kitchen for a glass of water. I'd been having trouble sleeping lately, and the man standing in my kitchen was related to the reason why.

"Hades is a god," said Thanatos in an echoey voice. "Your mission will never be complete until you kill him."

I ignored the hallucination as I filled a cup at the sink.

"He betrayed you. He pretended to be your friend for years, and stabbed you in the back. He's earned his death, more than any of us have."

I picked up a knife and threw it. The blade flew straight through his face and lodged itself in the wall.

"You want to destroy the balance of the world, but can't even finish the job by killing the one who deserves it the most."

It was Hestia's curse. Her little departing gift plagued me with constant hallucinations of the gods I'd killed, telling me all the thoughts I'd suppressed in the back of my mind, making me hear the things I least wanted to hear. When going to bed, they constantly berated me, making it extremely difficult to fall asleep. And when I did finally drift off, I had nightmares that often woke me up in the middle of the night, just like tonight.

I'd given up on finding relief from the curse just recently. I'd spent many hours in the mystical realm attempting to counteract the effects, but I'd failed completely. Magic could not lift my curse or even dilute its effects. I was permanently stuck with it; I've come to accept that fact, as much as I hated it.

I threw together some food and began to eat an early breakfast, as I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep again if I'd tried. Thanatos continued tormenting me while I ate and disappeared after I finished. I began considering what to do with my blissful moment of silence. I decided on seeing Zoë before Aphrodite appeared, telling me the same things she'd said countless times before.

"You've forgotten why you ended things with her the first time," she said. "You're only going to hurt her. She deserves better than a murderer. The longer you continue pretending you can have a "happily ever after" with her, the deeper it'll cut her when it's over."

It was never going to be over, of course. I'd ended things between us on the advice of Hades, who was already responsible for me losing my mother. I got back together with her less than a week after learning of Hades's betrayal because the war was already won, and there was no need to continue letting him keep another woman I cared about out of my life.

"You're only misleading her. You're putting her under the delusion that you two can have a normal life together when this is all over. You know that's not true. It was never going to be true."

I sighed, and sat down. Zoë wasn't expecting me today anyway, so she wouldn't miss me if I didn't show up. Aphrodite smiled and disappeared, having accomplished her task. I opted to workout instead. I could just see her later or tomorrow.

I took off my shirt and dropped to the ground. I did twenty-six pushups before I heard a noise. I got to my feet and put my shirt back on and saw Domino floating a couple inches off the ground.

"You're ready for your second fight with Zeus?" she asked.

For a little bit I'd held contempt against her for hiding my mother's death from me too, but it didn't last. Every decision Domino has made has been the right one, and while Hades hid the truth to avoid taking responsibility for talking me out of saving her, Domino hid it for the sake of the mission and because it was Hades's job to tell me. My mother was already dead when I met Domino, so she could have done nothing to help me save her while Hades could have.

I walked over to my bedroom where there was a loose floorboard. I lifted it and pulled out an ichor-stained top half of a broken spear. I returned to the living room and said, "yeah."

"He won't be hard to find," she said. "He's on Olympus."

I nodded and shadow traveled away.

Domino had said a long time ago that after Olympus had fallen, it didn't matter in which order the rest of the gods died. While I could have just picked off those that remained by myself, I relied on Domino's judgement instead. Every once in a while Domino would pop into my apartment and ask if I was ready to kill "insert god here". I found it simpler this way.

I appeared in a city of ruins, that looked to have been abandoned for a thousand years, but had actually still been in its prime just a few months ago. Trekking through the streets littered with marble, stone, and dust, a conflicting feeling came over me. Olympus had once been a beautiful city, more pristine and elegant than any other in history. Even though the sight symbolized my own victory, I couldn't help but feel guilt and sadness that I'd been the cause of the destruction of something so glorious.

I came to the edge and highest point of Olympus. I stepped over a threshold onto a large cracked floor that was mostly devoid of rubble. The explosion must have thrown all of the pieces of Zeus's palace away from where it once stood.

Right about where the central throne would have been, sat a dirty man wearing ragged clothing. He sat cross legged and stared into his lap, his long disheveled hair shrouding his face. Even though I didn't make any effort to muffle my approach, he didn't look up.

I sat down five feet across from him. I felt a strange sadness come over me, as I stared at the fallen king. I couldn't explain where the emotion came from, but it was prominent.

"If you're here to play more games with me, Assassin," said Zeus, "save your breath. Kill me and get it over with."

"I just want to talk first," I said.

"What is there to say?" He looked up and stared at me with the face of a broken man. "What do you want me to say?"

"I just want to know what's on your mind. I won, and Olympus is dead."

A long silence ensued, until he finally said, "Prometheus."

"What?"

"He created the first humans and gave them fire. They evolved and became intelligent, consummating like rabbits until there wasn't an inch of land that didn't have a human on it. They invented rules of morality and now I'm being punished for ignoring them. All of this — you, me, these ruins — it started way back then with him."

"You're where you are because of your own actions."

"My actions would never have been deemed 'evil' were it not for his creations. I was born before that, in a simpler and purer time where I never would have had to worry about what was right and wrong."

"The world evolved. You should have too. Two thousand years have passed and the main part of you is still living back in Ancient Greece, with the original Mount Olympus."

"Why should I be expected to bow to the wills of lesser beings? I was a king!"

"You were a tyrant. You watched hundreds of kingdoms rise and fall throughout history. Did you seriously think yours would be any different?"

"No. I always knew the stronger would come to take power, but I expected a god. That's why I ruled with an iron fist, so no god more fit to rule than I would ever be born."

"Yet you forget that you were the creation of a weaker being: your father. I'm the creation of a god, and became stronger than my father, same as you. If I'd never been born, it could have just as easily been your daughter or other future demigod children of yours."

"You forget that my brothers and I made a pact to not have any more demigod children."

"It was because of a prophecy that never came true."

"Broken by the subject of said prophecy, creating an even worse fate for Olympus."

"How is it worse? Olympus would have been destroyed and the gods overthrown, and your father would have ruled in your stead."

"The world would have survived had the titans replaced us. You created a world inhabited solely by beings who don't know the difference between destroying the world and breathing."

"But what's a world without you for it to bow down to?"

"You really think me so self-centered that I'd rather see the world destroyed than watch anyone else rule over it?"

"I do."

"Then you don't know me as well as you thought. I should've expected as much out of someone as naive as you."

"So you're just insulting me now?"

"I'm bored of this conversation, Assassin. I was ready to accept my death when I challenged you. Get on with it."

"I thought you of all people would have some departing words."

"How courteous of you to wait."

I gave him a few seconds, then said, "If you insist," and pierced his heart with the top half of the spear he'd broken in our first encounter. I left the broken spear behind and shadow-traveled home.

Hermes was the last god to kill, now.

A/N: More answers to questions asked between the publishing of the last chapter and this chapter:

Q: (A few guest reviews from who I assume is the same person)

A: I don't understand most of what you're trying to say, but I'll answer what I did interpret. You mentioned gods returning, which won't happen. They're dead permanently. The demigods don't know of the monstrous things the gods did because I fabricated them for the sake of this story. The gods hide them well, and any bad deed done by the gods in the actual myths is acceptable by the canon demigods so it's acceptable by the version of demigods in this story. Percy has not thought of what will happen once the gods are gone. He knows how powerful the Entity is and trusts he knows what he's doing.

Q: What did (insert god here) do?

A: There were a couple of these about Hecate, Charon, and Thanatos. Like I said above, I fabricated most of the gods' evilness for the sake of the story. I purposefully left their thousands of heinous actions vague while trying to convey in the very first chapter that they were terrible. Every single god has done thousands of immoral things that would be treated with the death penalty in most mortal governments. I wrote this story with an alternate version of the gods from the canon, and that's why Percy is right to kill them. The answer to the question is simply: a lot.

Q: What is going to happen to all the mortals?

A: Nothing at all. They'll go about their lives as normal, no longer at risk of being randomly plucked up and murdered by a god.

Q: Which gods are left?

A: Answered in this chapter.

Q: Is it possible for Percy to get Krinos back?

A: No, but you'll be seeing more of it and there will be explanations to its mysteries.