Chapter 10
Greetings readers! I hope that all of you enjoyed the previous chapter!
Responding to MegaRayquaza8121's review, binging the previous story and this one must have taken some time but I am glad that you liked this trilogy. Don't worry, Orion's character won't be one-dimensional or bland. Thank you for your support!
In response to Guest30, as an avid reader of romance novels myself, I don't deny that there are some very good love at first sight pairings such as the ones you listed and I did explore that trope in the Calypso Arc. But, this one is different. I wanted to give it more depth and the virtue (or vice) of love at first sight tropes is that they tend to be short and sweet so the necessity for mutual development is traded for some dramatic but undeniably romantic moments. Maybe, I will explore that trope in more detail in a story after I finish this trilogy. Thank you for your support!
Responding to one of the guest reviewers, maybe I will give it a try in some original fictional work. Thanks for the idea and I will let all of you know if I do write such a story! Thank you for your support!
In response to bobbot118, I have a few plans on who replaces Percy. Maybe an OC or maybe an existing character. Thanks! I don't intend to leave behind the cliffhangers :) Thank you for your support!
Responding to All Thing Must Pass, I am glad that you are thrilled about the Percy X Athena pairing! Thank you for your support!
I would like to thank CCAlpha for your continued support!
In response to theCount2330, welcome back :) I am glad that you are liking the way this story is turning out. I am surprised that there are some Percabeth elements in this story because honestly, I am doing everything possible to move away from that.
Most of the Percy X Athena stories that I have read make it almost the same as Percabeth stories. I believe that Percy X Athena stories have major potential if cultivated right and I intend to weave a romantic saga that is independent of all Percabeth influence. Of course, I am not taking a jab at anyone and I don't mean to sound rude either. Thank you for your continued support!
Responding to An Avid Reader, I am stoked that you hold this story in such high regard. As a writer, the greatest satisfaction one can get is when other people like their work and I will definitely finish this story. Thank you for your support!
In response to JoJo Jesus' review, glad to have you back! It's been a long time since you were last here and I am glad that you liked what you read! I hope you enjoy this chapter as well! Thank you for your continued support!
Responding to the other guest reviewer, I am glad that I could answer any questions that you had about this trilogy. Yes, I wanted to show the improvement and development in Percy's, Athena's and Artemis' characters to just re-emphasize the constant character development. Athena seeking Aphrodite was a little thing I just slipped in :) Thank you for your continued support! P.S., Your reviews really are appearing later than when you post them. It's something that happens to all guest reviewers. Your reviews normally show up two days after you post them.
I would like to thank Ryan Fowler for your continued support!
In response to Icefire99's review, I hope that you like the Damasen arc! Thank you for the compliment! It's always fun mixing in character development with action to make the chapters more palatable. Thank you for your continued support!
Responding to Robbieoj's review, I am glad that you liked the previous chapter! I sneaked Aphrodite into the previous chapter because of of two reasons. One – I wanted to show how far she and Athena have come and two – for the Drama :) Thank you for your continued support!
In response to TheMeister7's review, relax, Artemis and Orion won't have some commonly explored cliché arc. This one will have a lot of, let's say, unexpected events and it will be complicated to say the least. That is because I want to portray Orion as a truly grey character. Thank you for your continued support!
Responding to Inhaled Atoms' review, you are right, most of the fanfics, the myths and even the Rick Riordan books shed a dark light on Orion's character. And as tempting as it was to take a purely dark take on his character, I wanted to do something different. My first story was more of light grey- black morality conflict.
The gigantes and Gaia were purely dark characters with no redeemable qualities while Percy and the Olympians were the good guys. But they had their own fair share of flaws which were highlighted for character depth. In this story, I wanted to focus more on a grey-gray morality conflict. That was the inspiration for the Persephone Arc, for the Orion Arc and will be the centrepiece in the Trojan War Arc. And making Percy feel uncomfortable around him while still garnering sympathy for him is all part of the plot. So stay tuned and thank you for your continued support!
I would like to thank HellRaiderS for your continued support!
In response to Callum Runchman's review, I wasn't complaining about the harsh review. The informality is welcome. And you gave the reaction I was hoping for so let's call it even :) The Divine Secret Service (DSS) will be one of the many complex things that have, are or will be introduced in this trilogy to give it more depth. The DSS members are skilled fighters but their primary job isn't to neutralize any threats.
Their job is to just provide the information to Percy. Percy is the actual enforcer, assassin, hunter and tracker. And the existence of this service is not known to anyone apart from the Elder Olympians, Percy, Athena, Ares and Artemis. The reason why Artemis was told this information will become clear in one of the future arcs. Yes, mentioning Troy wasn't coincidence. Thank you for your continued support!
In response to DKay37's review, oof, kill is a strong word but I get what you mean. It was mean to leave the last chapter at that point. Hmmm, Damasen and his curse huh? We'll have to do something about that. Ahh Bob says hello, you are right, those are some painful memories. We'll look at that too on a later date. Thank you for your continued support!
I will answer Gabe1234's review in the footnote!
All credit for the characters goes exclusively to Rick Riordan.
After covering a distance of more than fifty leagues without taking breaks for the past twelve hours, the Hunt and Percy finally decided to set up camp a few leagues away from the monster congregation and rest for the night.
"Girls, I am afraid that this is goodbye for now. A new issue has been brought to my notice and I have to address it immediately." Percy stated after he finished eating the squares of Ambrosia that were his dinner.
"Percy, do you have to leave? You were with us for just a day." Zoe stated with a sad expression.
Even though she was chronologically older than Percy, biologically, she seemed much younger than him as she looked like a nineteen-year-old girl while Percy looked like he was in his late twenties. He also happened to be more mature than her but she knew that he had gained that maturity for a heavy price.
She didn't know what it was but she knew that the sort of maturity that Percy held was attained only by enduring hardships in a war. The Gigantomachy had forced centuries worth of maturity upon him.
However, despite having taken the brunt of a divine war and being freakishly powerful, he always seemed to be able to keep his feet on the ground. He was so similar to, yet so different from other full immortals.
Like other immortals, he lacked any sense of his own mortality, he had enhanced physical, elemental and metaphysical powers and to a certain extent, even pride due to being a divine general and a protector of mortals and other lesser beings. But, he also differed from other immortals in so many more ways.
Most of the other Olympians were very well-mannered and had amicable dispositions but they always failed to look at the world from the perspective of a mortal. Even the Olympians such as her mistress, Athena, Apollo and Hermes who had a higher degree of interaction with mortals couldn't understand how fragile mortals were, both physically as well as mentally.
Ironically, despite having the most resistance to pain and having no regard for his own mortality, Percy was the only immortal she knew who was acutely aware of really how fragile mortals were. He somehow had knowledge of how much a mortal's pain sensitivity was and he could understand when mortals reached their limit.
Even though she and her sisters were partially immortal, they were much more mortal than they were immortal and Percy's excellent understanding of their complex biology was baffling. He was a man full of paradoxes.
He was just one step short of being a full immortal yet, he had some very prominent mortal traits. He was almost insensitive to pain yet, he could perfectly predict how much pain other people could withstand.
He was stronger than all gods apart from the Big Three but remained humble and had a very down-to-earth personality. He had a very high level of emotional maturity yet, he was infectiously cheerful. And the list went on and on and on. He really was the best of both worlds. But, more than anything else, along with Artemis, he was the most important person in her life.
He had saved her and with the help of her mistress and Athena, had provided a home and a family to her. Not only that, he had taught her to embrace her heritage and instead of making her feel ashamed of the fact that she was a daughter of Atlas, he had trained her to make the most of her powers. Her mental admiration of Percy's character was cut short when he replied to her.
"Zoey, as much as I would love to stay for some more time and knock all of you down a peg or two, I have to deal with this urgent matter. As the General of the Divine Forces, I have a responsibility to deal with issues that may pose a threat to our world." Percy stated with a amused smile.
"Don't call me Zoey." Zoe stated with a huff of annoyance.
"Looks like you're picking up Arty's traits." Percy stated with a small smirk.
"Don't call me Arty." Artemis stated with a huff of annoyance very similar to Zoe's and everyone bar Zoe and Artemis burst out laughing.
"Percy, what's the issue that you're talking about?" Phoebe questioned once she stopped laughing.
"I am tracking down an immortal." Percy stated.
"Ooh! Can we join you?" Phoebe excitedly questioned.
"Absolutely not. The aforementioned immortal is someone who is as strong as Ares. And, his rumoured location is on the edge of our sphere of influence, hundreds of leagues east of Troy. Even for a god this mission is dangerous. Besides, I am not hunting anyone. I just want to meet this immortal and understand his motives." Percy strongly rebuffed.
The hunters sighed in disappointment but knew that when it came to things like this, Percy was as stubborn as a mountain. And they wouldn't get help from their mistress either.
Percy and Artemis would preemptively avoid taking any action that had even a small chance of them being in high danger. It was something that was annoying and heartwarming at the same time. They had put them through a hellish training regime to counter any threat but always did their level best to protect them.
Even this time, it seemed as though Percy had brought something with him that would help protect them as a dozen Celestial Bronze arrows with teal blue pearls instead of arrowheads suddenly materialised in the hunters' hands.
"After recently unlocking the ability to create items that could house my powers, I made a dozen pearls that house bits of seismokinetic energy. Upon impact, these arrows will unleash a shockwave that is small in magnitude but highly localized. These shockwaves are concentrated enough to cause significant damage to even immortals. Use this as a last resort if Artemis is occupied elsewhere. Apart from that, you can also pray to me and I will be there as soon as possible. And don't hesitate to call me girls. Wherever I am, I will answer your call." Percy stated with concern in his eyes.
"You are a weird man Percy. You ask me to not baby them and then you yourself go out of your way to protect and pamper them." Artemis stated with a soft chuckle.
"I have known all of you for only a few years. But, all of you are very, very important to me and are my family. And I take protecting my family very seriously." Percy declared with a serious expression. And everyone smiled at him. No one could be dedicated to their family as Percy was.
Percy stood up a moment later, a four feet bronze long Celestial Bronze pole materialised in his hands. Percy split the pole into two equal halves, held them in front of him and took a mighty leap. The hunters seemed confused for a second but were quickly left speechless by what they saw after that.
When Percy was around thirty feet above them, the rods suddenly expanded and changed into what seemed like a helm and out of nowhere, Percy's flying warship shimmered into sight. The twin enchanted torches situated at the back of the warship erupted into existence with a controlled blue flame and in the blink of an eye, the warship soared into the sky, leaving a sonic boom in it's wake.
"Show off." Artemis muttered while rubbing her ears and the hunters could only nod numbly.
While the boom wouldn't harm them, it was annoying. But all of them couldn't help but feel amazed. This really was the pinnacle of technological innovation.
Percy had been cruising at supersonic speeds a league above the ground and after flying non-stop for about two hours, he had covered more than five hundred leagues. He had initially not planned to use his warship but, in the morning, he had received some troubling news.
The unit that had been assigned to find out about Damasen had confirmed that the gigas really was roaming the lands east of Troy. But, that wasn't the troubling news. The troubling news was that their field agents had spotted a drakon only a few leagues away from the gigas' location and from their description, he had concluded that it was a Maeonian drakon.
Like all other monsters, there were different types of drakons. The most common were Aethiopian drakons. Compared to the other ones, these were the smallest as they were around fifty feet in length and they only possessed the ability to spit venom. While they were very durable, they were the easiest drakons to kill. Even a group of skilled demigods with the proper weapons could kill one of those beasts.
Then came the Thebian drakons. They were fifteen feet longer than their Aethiopian cousins and possessed the ability to spew torrents of flame and were much rarer. In fact, even during the Gigantomachy, he had fought only a handful of them. They were also far more durable and at the very least, a weak immortal or a very powerful and skilled demigod was needed to hunt them.
The next was the Maeonian drakon. A hundred and fifty feet long, capable of spitting venom as well as spewing fire and annoyingly durable, this abomination was the strongest monster that he had ever fought. And he had fought it fifteen years ago.
Even though the Maeonian drakon that he had fought had never been a serious challenge for him, it had remarkably managed to survive a barrage of two dozen javelins and had even survived multiple stabs and slashes from his deadly swords.
However, it had failed to harm in any significant way and had met it's end when he had driven his swords through it's eyes and had then proceeded to crush it's skull with a shockwave that had leveled an entire forest clearing. He had gotten away from tussle with only a few small and insignificant bruises so, even this wasn't the reason why he was alarmed.
The Maeonian drakon was an extremely powerful monster that took millennia to reform once slayed. It had previously been killed by his father during the Siege of Othrys a millennium ago. And he had killed it only fifteen years ago. For it to be back in the mortal world in such a short period of time meant that some very powerful immortal had resurrected it. And the fact that it had been spotted near the position of a gigas made him even more anxious.
He had even sent a message to Athena and had asked her to draw up plans for a potential conflict. He didn't want to overreact but such matters were too dangerous to be ignored. He had initially suspected that the Earth Mother might have been behind it but the possibility of that looked very slim.
Aunt Demeter had been monitoring the Earth Mother's blueprint on the mortal world frequently and from what she had told him, the Earth Mother was still in a deep slumber. It would be millennia before she could gain enough energy to actively interfere in the mortal world.
However, just before the Earth Mother had fallen into her slumber, she had expended a very large amount of energy on something. While he didn't know what it had been used for, he suspected that it had been used to resurrect as many monsters as possible.
Unfortunately, that could only explain the Maeonian drakon's appearance fifteen years ago. Not this one. That meant that someone apart from the Earth Mother had done this. He had a few suspicions but he was woefully short of any evidence to decisively pinpoint the mastermind behind this. And that was something which he intended to fix.
If he found the gigas with the drakon and some other monsters, he would launch a barrage of missiles at them, slay the drakon, subdue the gigas and take him to Olympus and if he found the drakon first, he would kill it and then proceed to to converse with the gigas in a less violent way.
However, if he found the gigas without the drakon nearby, he would give him a fair chance to explain his motives and if he found that the bane of Ares had nothing to do with the appearance of this drakon, he would give him a sentence similar to the one given to Orion. Albeit, in a less violent way and with more leniency.
This new development required all his attention if this mission required him to go to the land beyond the gods, using mist travel to cover large distances was taxing. It would not have a very significant effect on his energy reserves but he wanted to conserve all his energy for any unpleasant surprises. Besides, some extra firepower would not harm. That was the reason why he was using his warship.
A few minutes later, Percy arrived at the last known location of the gigas. In the morning, as soon as his team had informed him of this development, he had asked them to get out of the area as quickly as possible. This was above their paygrade.
Percy descended from the high altitude and when he was just a thousand or so feet above the ground, he vanished in a blue mist and rematerialized on the ground. He was fully armoured and also wore a special bracelet through which he could launch missiles from the warship.
He then created the five variants of his tracking mists and started following the white mist once all the other mists dissipated.
As he was following the white mist, the ground below him shook with an earth-shattering roar that could only belong to the Maeonian drakon. He immediately picked up pace and sprinted towards the source of the roar. When he reached the place where the roar seemed to have emanated from, the sight in front of him shocked him.
A twenty feet tall gigas was standing a few feet in front of him and from the waist up, he was humanoid, with cherry-red skin, a beard and hair the color of rusted iron and bushy eyebrows. Like the rest of his kin, he had dreadlocks but unusually, they were decorated with tufts of grass, leaves, and dried flowers.
From the waist down, his scaled, draconian legs were red and he had claws on his feet. However, unlike the rest of his brethren, he did not wear bronze armour, rather, he wore a short robe stitched together from sheep hides and green-spotted leather. However, that was not the reason why Percy was shocked.
What shocked him was the dead Maeonian drakon near the gigas' legs and he could see that the trunk of a large tree had been shoved down it's neck. Before Percy could say or do anything to the gigas, a deep ravine opened up underneath the gigas and reflexively, Percy shot a beam of sea green energy at the gigas to prevent him from falling in it.
His actions had the desired effect as they propelled the gigas tens of feet backwards and that was when he felt the air around him saturate with the most monstrous aura he had ever faced.
The ravine seemed to have a gravity of it's own and it was so powerful that it started to pull even him towards it. He could sense an aura so primordially evil and filled with so much dark malice that it suffocated him.
It was a presence that he had come into contact with only once in his entire life, during one of his visits to the Underworld. But, it was one that he could never forget. It was the presence of the Lord of the Pit and the Protogenos of Evil – Tartarus.
Not wasting any time, Percy unleashed the pulsating immortal essence within him to push back against the primeval pull on a metaphysical level. This seemed to dampen the strength of Tartarus' evil presence and Percy instantly buried his swords into the ground and made use of his geokinetic abilities to anchor them to the ground.
Channeling all his powers, Percy brought his swords closer to each other and to the absolute disbelief of anyone watching it, he pushed the very earth together in an attempt to physically close the ravine.
To his dismay, the ravine, pushed back against him, both on a physical as well as a metaphysical level. But unwilling to give up, Percy roared and crashed two large landmasses against each other. The collision caused a devastating earthquake that wrecked everything in the radius of a few leagues.
However, it accomplished what Percy intended and he felt the evil aura completely fade away. Percy bent down and stood on one of his knees, slightly panting and trying to regain his breath. He had only fought against a small part of Tartarus' essence but it had cost him a considerable amount of both his physical stamina as well as his metaphysical energy reserves.
"Impossible." Damasen stated with a shocked face and that caught Percy's attention.
"I assume that you are Damasen, the bane of Ares." Percy stoically stated after turning in the gigas' direction and getting up.
"Yes. General Perseus, my name is Damasen." Damasen confirmed.
He knew that the famous Hero of Olympus was a very powerful man. But he didn't know that the man was strong enough to single-handedly close an entrance to Tartarus.
Before Percy replied, he sized up the gigas in front of him. The gigas in front of him looked very similar to the rest of his brethren. But unlike the rest of his kin, the gigas in front of him radiated a sense of peace and quiet grief. And try as he might, Percy couldn't find even a minute amount of malice in his aura. So, he decided to give the gigas a chance to talk and explain himself.
"Damasen, who killed the Maeonian drakon? And why did the protogenos of the Pit try to drag you to his domain?" Percy questioned in an authoritative, no-nonsense voice.
"I believe you know why I am roaming the mortal world." Damasen asked and got his response when Percy stiffly nodded back at him. He took that as his cue and continued.
"I was the one who hunted down and killed the Maeonian drakon. A few decades ago, when I refused to listen to my mother and disobeyed her, I earned not only her scorn but even that of my father's. He wanted to eternally punish me for my impudence but on my mother's behest, he only exiled me. After being exiled to the mortal world, I settled down in the mortal world as a shepherd and befriended a few mortals." Damasen paused to bring his grief under control before continuing.
"My father has always wanted to harm me in some way or the other. He routinely unleashed powerful monsters to try and harm me but had consistently failed in that endeavour. This time, he resurrected and sent the Maeonian drakon. However, I was not it's target. It's goal was to devour my mortal friends and destroy the village of those who provided a home to me. And it succeeded in doing that. Enraged, I tracked down and killed the drakon by forcing a tree trunk down it's throat. It seems that this was the last straw for my father and for the first time, he tried to take matters into his own hands." Damasen stated with a distant look in his eyes.
"My condolences Damasen. Your friends did not deserve to die. I will talk to Lord Hades and ask him to instruct the judges to judge them favourably." Percy stated with sympathy in his eyes.
While he had experienced a different type of loss, he was no stranger to that emotion. He knew how gut-wrenching it was to lose someone and the gigas in front of him was actually grieving. It would be cruel and heartless of him to coldly brush aside something like that.
"Thank you, General Perseus. For telling me that you will help them gain a peaceful afterlife and for saving me. If it weren't for you, I would be in my father's domain right now." Damasen sincerely thanked.
"Trust me, you got lucky. This was only a part of your father's essence and upon that, he was operating outside his domain. That was the only reason I could overpower his essence and close the entrance to the pit." Percy stated. Fighting an awake primordial with a proper physical form was something even he couldn't do alone.
"If I am not crossing a line, may I know why you are here? After all, the General of the Divine Forces doesn't venture out this far without some reason." Damasen asked.
"I came here to track, and if required, capture you." Percy bluntly stated and to Damasen's credit, he didn't seem appalled or surprised.
"There is no need for any violence general. I will surrender voluntarily. I am grateful that I was at least given four decades of freedom. And I thank you for giving me a peaceful way out of this instead of just attacking me." Damasen truthfully stated.
"Damasen, I have not observed any malicious intent in your aura and I don't like judging people on what they may do. But, my position as the General of the Divine Forces requires me to prevent any threats, current as well as possible, from harming the divine world." Percy tersely stated.
"I understand general. And I bear no ill-intent towards you. You are just doing your duty. My only request is that you give me some semblance of freedom when I am Olympus' prisoner." Damasen requested with a resigned smile.
"I think you didn't hear me properly. I said I would capture you only if required. I believe in justice Damasen and I firmly believe that we should judge people on the basis of their actions and character, not on the basis of their appearance, biology or heritage. And based on what I have seen and what I have heard, you don't seem like a threat to me. And I don't think you will become a threat even in the future. You had four decades to cause some problem but you didn't. There are enough facts to convince me that I don't need to capture you. So, I am going to give you the benefit of doubt here and will not capture you." Percy stated and he almost laughed when he saw the dumbfounded expression on Damasen's face.
"Don't get too excited Damasen. I am willing to offer you freedom but there are some conditions. I will have to keep an eye on you. Of course, it will be non-intrusive but it's just a safety measure to ensure that nothing happens. Secondly, I may routinely check up on you and may also require your assistance. Not in the form of combat but in the form of information. I can only grant you the freedom you currently possess if you agree to these conditions." Percy stated in a firm tone that left no room for negotiations.
"I will gladly accept all your conditions general. This is surreal. Not only have you saved me, you have also offered me the thing that I desire the most – freedom. You have gained an ally today general. If need be, I will help you in any way you require." Damasen promised with gratitude seeping into his voice.
"Don't thank me Damasen. I am only doing the right thing. Just don't make me regret this decision. I will take my leave." Percy stated with a small smile and prepared to leave but he was interrupted by Damasen.
"General, may I interest you in a bowl of boar stew. You have done me a great favour. It will be very rude of me to not even offer some food and shelter in return. And, you do look a tad bit winded from your encounter with my father." Damasen offered with a gracious smile.
Percy tensed for a moment and wanted to decline but, the gigas in front of him was right. It was already well past midnight and it had been a very tiring day. Some rest would help. Besides, observing the gigas for some more time would provide him with more insight on the gigas' character. And, if things went south, he could always let loose a shockwave or two.
"Alright, lead the way Damasen. And I hope this bear stew you are talking about tastes good. Or else, I would have come all the way from Olympus for nothing." Percy stated with an accepting smile and Damasen couldn't help but chuckle. Quietly, he led the righteous general towards his makeshift hut.
Percy and Athena were sharing a drink as they sat in front of each other around an elegant oak table located in the garden of Percy's palace. It had been a few days since his encounter with Damasen and he had taken a few detours on his return journey.
He had checked up on a dozen of the secret service's intel gathering teams and had personally given them new equipment and supplies for their next missions.
He could have sent those things to them through Iris' secure transportation channels but, he knew the importance of maintaining troop morale. The individuals who served in the secret service were not heartless automatons. They needed to be constantly motivated and their morale had to stay high.
After all, being a general did not mean that he was just a deified, absentee, authoritative figure. He had to do some groundwork or else the people who served under him would never respect him for his personality. The people who served under him needed to freely interact, mingle and learn from him. They needed to know the man behind the armour just as much as they needed to know the man in the armour.
After finishing those side missions, he had returned to Olympus roughly thirty minutes ago and had shared the highlights of his mission in detail with Athena.
"Percy, you are playing a dangerous game here. For the sake of ensuring that this bane of Ares doesn't fall under the scrutiny of the Council, you are planning to conceal the fact that for the first time in tens of millennia, the lord of the Pit manifested a part of himself. We might be hiding a potential threat from our family and I am not talking about the bane of Ares when I say that." Athena stated with her eyebrows furrowed in worry.
"Have some faith in me Athena. If this was a serious matter, I would have most certainly shared this development with the Council. However, this was not even a physical manifestation of his essence. He has neither the patience nor the will to gather enough energy to take a physical form." Percy assured as he drank his seventh glass of Nectar in that night.
"You seem a bit too confident Percy. What if he wants revenge? He has plenty of reasons to wage a war against us." Athena countered.
She knew that Percy had an overabundance of virtue and that he always placed more weightage to ideals than orders. More often than not, his decisions turned out to be right but it was her responsibility to cross verify some of his plans just to be on the safer side.
"I am not denying the fact that he hates us Athena. But, the Lord of the Pit is very different from the Earth Mother. First of all, he is not as thin-skinned as the Earth Mother. But more importantly, he does not think that we are worth his attention. Athena, along with Day and Night, he is one of the few protogenoi who aren't slumbering. Yet, he has never bothered us directly. The only reason he has left us alone is because he has no inclination to take a physical form, come all the way to the mortal world, build an army and personally mount an offensive. For him, that is not worth the effort." Percy calmly explained.
"May I know the reasoning behind this deduction?" Athena asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Aunt Selene and Grandmother Rhea had given me some information about different primordial gods during the Gigantomachy. No primordial, other than maybe Lord Chaos, ventures out of their own domain. They may temporarily visit the domains of their consorts but even that is a rarity, given what happened to Ouranos." Percy paused to refill his and Athena's glasses before continuing.
"Unlike other immortals, Protogenoi don't have domains that they can control. Rather, they are their domains. Thus, they happen to be unimaginably powerful because they are the sentient personifications of an entire entity. However, separate a protogenos from their domain and they will become significantly weaker. Adding to that, they can only visit other domains if they take a physical form. If enough gods or Titans band together, they can destroy a protegenos' ability to take a physical form forever when they are cut off from their domain. If it happened to Ouranos, even other protegenoi, including the Lord of the Pit are susceptible to this." Percy expounded.
"So, theoretically, if the entire Olympian Council, including you, bands together, it is possible to destroy his physical form when he roams the earth?" Athena questioned.
"It took five of the then strongest Titans to kill Ouranos. But it took only the five of them because they tricked him. In an actual fight, it would have taken all of the original twelve Titans to kill Ouranos. At least, that's what grandmother tells me. Inferring from that, all of us fighting together will most probably be more than enough. I know for certain that even he is aware of this limitation and that is the main reason why he will not venture out of his own domain. But rest assured, I am not discounting the possibility that he may cause some annoyances or a few problems. But it won't be something we can't handle." Percy stated with his signature lop-sided smile.
"My, you seem awfully confident. I hope that this confidence isn't misguided." Athena light-heartedly stated.
"It isn't Athena. I know that together, both of us can tackle any problem. No matter how big or how small the it may be, I have full faith that we can deal with it." Percy stated with a brilliant smile.
"You've gotten better at shifting the focus of the conversation." Athena replied with a beautiful smile.
"Alas! Even you suspect my intent." Percy dramatically stated and Athena couldn't help but laugh at his antics. As her melodious laughter reached his ears, Percy couldn't help but stare longingly at her.
There was something about her radiant beauty that drove him crazy. He could not believe that it had taken him more than seventeen years to finally realise that he loved the woman in front of him. But it was very clear that Athena had grown to become the most important person in his life.
There was no other way to describe what he felt for her. She had seen him during his greatest highs when he had triumphed over Thoon and had been handsomely rewarded for his actions. But, she had also seen him during his deepest lows, when he had painfully relived his biggest regret.
To her, he was neither the General of the Divine Forces nor the invulnerable Hero of Olympus, but her closest companion and most trustworthy confidant. For the past seventeen years, he had enjoyed occupying that position. But now, he wanted something more. He needed her in his life and wanted to be a part of her life in a different way. In front of him, similar thoughts were running through Athena's mind.
Athena could see the love in Percy's swirling sea green eyes and that filled her with a sense of exhilaration because she realised that a very similar thought process was running in both of their minds. And just like Aphrodite had told her, she had an instinct that this was the perfect moment that they had talked about.
Percy wanted to confess to her that he loved her but his usual eloquence seemed to fail him. He didn't know what to say as he lost himself in her stormy grey eyes that were shining with hope and love. Deciding that actions spoke louder than words, Percy leaned in to kiss Athena.
Instinctively and without any hesitation, Athena placed her slender, elegant hands on either side of his chiseled face and moved forward to meet him mid-way. But, when their faces were just a few centimetres apart, a voice brought them out of their impending bliss – "I hope I am not interrupting something."
Hey guys! Before I say anything else, let the bullets rain :) I know that most of you would have expected a different conclusion to that but, I have a penchant for drama and simply stitching a relationship between Athena and Percy just for the sake of it is not something I want to do.
Romance and drama go hand-in-hand and for a romantic saga to be really satisfying, we need to have dizzying heights as well as gut-wrenching lows. And I also want the inception of Percy's and Athena's relationship to be something special, I want to add more depth to that.
Besides it also serves another purpose of keeping all of you on your toes, if I can use that phrase. I want to create something akin to a will they?/won't they? - pairing. But rather than keeping the readers guessing whether they will get together or not, it's more like when will they get together.
I know all of this sounds a bit complicated but like I said in the previous chapter, if I repeat my arcs and follow exactly the same style of presenting for every arc, it will make the whole trilogy a giant snooze fest.
The main reason I started writing this trilogy was so that I could stich a myriad of tropes, genres, arcs, ideals and concepts into one work. And, I don't even know if I will have any ideas or unexplored genres left for new stories by the end of this trilogy because I have invested everything into this trilogy. So, bear with me. I am doing my best to bring to all of you something that should engage you on all mental and emotional levels.
We also finish the first arc of this story with this chapter and we will move on to the second arc in the next chapter. You may have expected a conclusion to Orion's arc but, I have different plans for him.
I hope you liked the Damasen and Tartarus bit in this chapter. This may seem like a filler chapter but trust me, it sets the stage for a very important future arc.
I wanted to show that Percy learns from his mistakes and that was the reason I portrayed him being more lenient with Damasen. Besides, he doesn't sense anything malicious in Damasen's aura and I have given the reasons for his leniency in detail.
Don't worry, Percy is not as strong as a primordial god. Like every other opening to Tartarus, this was just a part of Tartarus' essence; it wasn't even a physical manifestation of Tartarus. So, Percy is not and will never be as strong as some primordial. That will make any threat insignificant. He's really OP in this story but that's because some of opponents he will face will be beefed up a little. But, he's not Chaos.
Finally, coming to Gabe1234's review, I am the one who should be thanking you because it was your idea which gave me inspiration for an arc involving Tartarus. You may find it a bit different from what you had suggested but I wanted to give you a shout-out for your amazing idea. It actually ended up solving a serious dilemma that I had for one of the most important arcs in this story.
Yup, the Percy X Athena pairing has started to really take off and it's going to really develop from here. Percy's interactions with Athena's daughter were a small glimpse of what is to come, if you know what I mean :) This isn't the last of the secret service, you'll be seeing it again in the near future. Yes, I wanted to put into perspective how much the characters in this trilogy differ from their versions in the original universe and this felt like the best way to portray that! Thank you for your compliments and thank you for your continued support!
Read and review, I hope that all of you enjoyed this chapter! Have a wonderful day!