Leo

I need a time machine. If I could just go back and jump off the Argo II before doing what I just did, I might do it.

"Again" Annabeth said. "What happened?"

I slumped into my chair. My head still throbbed from hitting the deck when Percy tackled me. Around us, my beautiful ship was ruined. Not only had we been hit by Roman attacks, Ferox packed one Hades of an attack. A fire ball to be more exact.

And Coach Hedge didn't help either. The satellite array that gave us the onboard internet and TV was blown to bits. Festus was also coughing up smoke like he had something stuck in his throat.

"I don't really I know. I just saw a quick vision of Xander in some kind of dark room moving his hands and the rest... it's fuzzy" I said

The fact that there was so many people looking at me didn't help me remember either. I couldn't really remember all that stuff under this pressure.

Annabeth looked angry, not at me really, but just in general. Coach Hedge looked like he was about to discipline someone, Percy looked understanding (thank the gods), Piper, Hazel, and Frank all looked sad while Layton seemed interested for some reason.

"Xander must be plotting with Gaea" Layton guessed as he pet Caeruleum who was resting on the table. "Not only did he try to prevent us from getting the page, he divided the Greeks and the Romans"

"How did he know that we were after the spell though?" Hazel asked

"He's a powerful sorcerer. Less powerful ones have spells that can be used to spy on people" Layton answered. "He could be watching us right now if he wanted to"

Normally I'd have said something comedic by now, but I just wasn't in the mood. It was my fault that Greeks and Romans might be going to war now. In fact, I might have just screwed us all over and if Gaea wins, it would be on me.

"Let's just focus on the good stuff" Percy advised. "What about the page"

"We're about to find out" Layton muttered and snapped his fingers, causing The Hidden Archives to appear on the table

He casted his reading spell and flipped through the pages until towards the middle, he found a page that had the top half ripped off. He placed the half from Reyna on top of it and it clicked back together like a lego with a golden glow.

Layton and the dragons, who seemed to be able to read it as well, scanned through the page. Caeruleum seemed intrigued while Layton and Rubrum seemed a bit worried.

"Oh gods. This is definitely in here for a reason" He said

"Will it work though?" Annabeth asked

"It'll work...," Layton confirmed, "assuming someone learns the spell"

Jason reentered the room, stumbling a bit and holding a cloth up to his forehead, around where he had been hit. Piper got up and helped him sit down so that we could all listen on.

"So, what's the spell?" Jason inquired

Layton cleared his throat. "Long ago-"

"Hold on" I said. "Aren't all of these 'long ago'?"

"Leo, shush" Piper scolded

"Anyway, there once lived a fierce samurai-demigod in Ancient Japan. He was feared throughout the entire country for being the world's best bounty hunter. While skilled like any samurai, he was mostly feared for one ability. He could harness something called destruction energy. It's a powerful and dark variation of ki that causes anything that comes into contact with it to be seemingly wiped from existence.

He developed this ability after falling into the abyss of Tartarus along side his wife after they were attacked by a group of assassins. The wife died but before the samurai could also, he was given The Physician's Cure that brought him back to the mortal world.

The result of dying in Tartarus and being resurrected him gave strange abilities, so he traveled to see Japan's best master of ki. After a year or so under his training, he learned that he was able to administer pure energy of destruction.

Once, when Zeus threatened to blow him to pieces, the samurai fired a ki blast of destruction that wiped Zeus's master bolt from existence. They say that enough of this kind of energy could kill a god"

"Soooo all we have to do is learn this god killing spell just so that we can defeat Majin Kai" Percy summed up

"There's a few problems off the bat" Layton frowned. "After years of experimenting, the samurai learned how to teach others to harness energy of destruction. Only an extremely powerful demigod could ever hope to accomplish such a feat. Secondly, if the gods find out someone is trying to learn the spell... it won't go so well"

"Not it!" I quickly eliminated myself

"There's only person here powerful enough to learn this technique anyway" Layton said

"Who?" We all asked

"Percy Jackson," Rubrum said, "I'm afraid you will have to learn to harness this energy, while avoiding the attention of the gods"

"This will be fun to watch, I wonder if he'll make it" Caeruleum added

"Make it?" Percy swallowed and Annabeth held his hand

"Hold on, who's to say Percy is the only one powerful enough?" Piper questioned

"Determining a demigod's strength and who would best another in a fight depends on a lot of different factors. A child of Poseidon might do best on a beach while a child of Hades would preform better in the Underworld. There's also emotional status, stakes, and abilities. A child of Athena could beat a child of Zeus just by pure strategy alone. What I'm saying is, Percy's the best combination of everything - strategic ability, power, and determination" Layton explained

"Why don't you learn the spell then?" Percy asked. "You're the good one with magic and all"

"Unless you got resurrected from Tartarus, you have to be pure-hearted or the spell will destroy you from the inside out" Layton cleared up

Percy sighed. "We've got six days until Majin Kai gets freed, so let's get it over with"

Percy

I stood on the balcony of the Argo II with Layton as he instructed on the first few steps. Apparently it was important that no one bothered us.

"First you need to understand what ki is in order to learn a variation of it" Layton said

"Well, inform me" I requested

"Ki is also known as 'latent energy' or 'fighting power', which can translate to life force. It's inside every living being, with the major focus in the center of the body. If you can draw it out, you can manipulate it outside the body. Because the body has physical limitations, it can be used to overcome barriers and enhance strength, speed, and endurance. The more ki is increased, the harder it is control. Which means destruction energy will be incredibly difficult" Layton said. "Sit down"

I sat down. "What now?"

He sat across from me. "Just do what I say and it might work"

I nodded my head and his wristband spun as he tapped my forehead. Suddenly, all of the colors went gray-scaled and my vision was a bit hazy, but other than that, everything was normal.

"Hold out your palm and concentrate on your center"

After holding out my palm, I didn't really know what to do so I just put my senses into my stomach.

"Destruction energy is the opposite of ki so you'll need to summon it externally instead of internally. Ki is everywhere, so this kind of energy is nowhere, if that makes any sense. You'll need to conjure it on your own but you can't touch the energy you make or you'll be erased too.

Focus on something you hate. Not dislike, or just don't like, true hate. Something that makes you feel angry just thinking about it"

There was one thing that instantly came to my mind. The situation we were in - having to the gods' bidding again. It always seemed like just by living, I owed the Olympians some kind of favor. More specifically, Zeus made it clear that by letting me live, I owed him some kind of eternal favor to serve him and do what he wants me to.

I did hate it. And the fact that I couldn't do anything about it worsened it. I had only just reunited with Annabeth but we were already fighting the gods' battles.

"You may not like what's about to happen, but it's necessary for the process. If you want to summon this energy, you have to feel pure rage"

Layton snapped his fingers and there was a bright flash. Suddenly, I was thrusted into the middle of some kind of war. Then, I realized that it was the war with Kronos.

Around us, Kronos's calvary swirled, slashing and ordering that we surrender with insults. The whole time, me and Annabeth stayed shoulder to shoulder, facing the opposite direction. Then, it was that part that I hated thinking about. The one part of the war I didn't want to remember.

Annabeth fell, clutching her arm. A demigod with a bloody knife stood over her. I quickly sprang into action and slammed Ethan in the face with my sword hilt.

"Annabeth!" I said as I knelt down next to her and held her to my chest

"It's your fault, Percy Jackson" Kronos said. "Maybe if you had been more careful"

I looked down and opposed to reality, there was so much more blood. In fact, Annabeth was already gone. Kronos cackled and then I was back on the beach by the Mediterranean sea.

Around me, all of my friends were surrounded by piles of blood, including Annabeth.

"You were too late" Majin Kai taunted. "You didn't learn the spell in time, and now all you're friends are gone"

"This isn't real!" I said

Despite that, it felt entirely real. It wasn't like a dream state or a vision, it felt like I was really there, actually watching the scene play out.

"The girl loved you, but perhaps you didn't love her enough to protect her from us" Xander said, appearing next to his creation

Majin Kai raised his hand and it was like a nuke went off. My body must have reached a million degrees considering my skin burned off instantly and I saw pure bone before I returned back to the balcony of the Argo II.

I inhaled deeply and leaned forward but Layton put his hands on my shoulders and put me back up.

"Can you keep going?" He asked and I nodded my head hesitatingly while catching my breath and holding back tears

"Keep channeling that rage, what do you see around you?" Layton inquired

I looked around me. "There's these really small purple dots"

Surrounding me were purple specks that shined like miniatured stars, but the aura around them was a pure devilish black.

"Keep thinking about what you just saw, but also remember that it's not real. Let the determination of wanting to stop it fuel you"

I forced myself against my will to envision the seen on the beach again. I shut my eyes and it played again, but in a dreamy state instead of me actually being there. Eventually I had enough and I couldn't stop Xander's voice from repeating in my head, even when I opened my eyes.

Hovering above my palm was one of the small purple dots. When I noticed it, the gray-scale closed and the colors returned to normal, and so did my vision. What remained was what I assumed as success.

Layton quickly gripped my wrist. "Don't close your palm, let's see if we can we use this..."

He reached over and picked up an empty glass cup and placed it in between us.

"Just point your palm and will it to fire"

I pointed my palm but as soon as I tried willing it to release, I felt a sharp pain in my chest and before my eyes, thousands of different scenarios of people close to me dying flashed before my eyes.

Even when my vision was restored, the energy wasn't moving and the pain in my chest was only getting worse and worse by the second. Layton picked up the cup and placed it onto my palm, noticing my facial expression.

Instantly, the cup exploded into purple sparkles, with nothing to show that it had ever been there. Not a single glass shard remained.

"I don't know if we can do this at this rate. You'll need to summon a lot more then that to eliminate Majin Kai" Layton said

"I - I don't want to" I stammered as a single tear fell from my eye. "I c-can't"

It was true. If I had to see those visions every time I tried summoning this energy, I didn't want to do it. Even if I wanted to, I was sure I wouldn't be able to...